Rocket Singh: Salesman Of The Year

 
This is yet another movie review. As you've probably noted by now - I've had some time on my hands to watch these movies. Because of a whole lot of changes in my personal life (and professional for that matter), haven't really had the chance to pen down thoughts. Until now - sort of

Rocket Singh... is about a rookie salesman Harpreet Singh played by Ranbir Kapoor who fresh after graduation joins a company that assembles and sells computers. Things seem good at first but trouble's ahead because Harpreet has been raised an idealist of sorts with a solid grounding in values by his grandfather. His value system is soon challenged the day he's sent out to visit a potential client to close a sales deal and the manager over there demands a bribe to ensure that Harpreet and his company are awarded the contract - as opposed to someone else. Harpreet, seriously offended by the bribery demand, walks out thinking he's done the right thing. He can't wait to tell his superiors about the sleazeball client manager.

However, instead of the pat on the back that he thought would be forthcoming for his honesty, his superiors are livid with him and berate him for having offended and walked out on a major client. Harpreet soon realizes that what he encountered at the client location was actually standard practice. What's more - he soon becomes the butt of ridicule in his company for being a naive loser with no idea how the world works. And this is only the beginning of his disillusionment. He also learns that another standard practice adopted by his company is to mark up the prices of their computers exorbitantly - far higher than the sum of the parts - and to never offer the promised offer sales support.

When things finally reach breaking point for him (by now his fellow sales staff toss paper rockets his way all day), he decides to turn on his company and clandestinely start his own computer sales company from inside his employers facilities. As he starts getting clients for his own secret company he also slowly starts recruiting disgruntled employees of the parent company to secretly work for him as equal partners. He also wants to do things differently by offering his clients lower prices and fantastic after sales service - all things that his original employers don't practice. Also, he will offer no bribes to get contracts. In short, he wants to maintain the highest standards and ethics for his nascent company. His company's name - Rocket Sales.

Little by little, Rocket Sales starts to steal away clients from Harpreet's original employers. It turns out that there is a market for an honest, upfront company that delivers what it promises at a reasonable price. Of course, this situation where Harpreet operates a company secretly within the premises of another cannot last. That of course forms the remainder of the movie. A lot of what happens next is predictable. But its done well.

Rocket Singh is about an idealist and his attempt at trying to do things his way. But it's also a simple story about ideals and ethics and whether those have any relevance in the real world. The movie has a very low-key, indie movie-like feel to it and that works really well for the subject matter at hand. Though it's a feel good story of sorts, melodrama is at a minimum. The story moves forward pretty evenly and all the actors do a pretty good job. Ranbir, especially, does a very convincing job as Harpreet Singh.

I really liked this movie as well. It's a good story thats well told, well acted and well directed (dir: Shimit Amin).

Definitely a must see.

Ishqiya: No Sh*t - Love actually kills!

Produced by Vishal Bharadwaj, and directed by Abhishek Chaubey this movie is about 2 incorrigible thieves - played by legend Naseeruddin Shah and the more-often-than-not fantastic Arshad Warsi - on the run from a local don. In the course of their flight they end up taking shelter temporarily in the house of a pretty but not-so-fragile widow played by Vidya Balan - who was married to an outlaw herself until a cooking gas cylinder blast under mysterious circumstances killed her husband and barely left her alive. And while she may be beautiful, little else about her is as it appears on the surface. All this makes for an interesting triangle of relationships. The triangle develops slowly and keeps us guessing about how it's all going to look eventually. It helps that the three leads do a great job with their characters. Like the relationships between the leads, the story arc also takes its time to move forward. But I thought the journey was worth savoring. For the most part that is.

Unfortunately, just as the inter-relationships brew starts to get real interesting two-thirds of the way through the movie, the story sort of falls apart a little. It's almost like the director suddenly realized that he's got to end the movie pretty soon, and hurriedly arranges events to bring the earlier juicy proceedings to an abrupt and somewhat improbable finish.

I liked the movie a lot though. The story was for the most part very well written. Some of the dialogues were difficult to understand because of the regional dialects used - but that also adds to the charm of the movie about life in the hinterlands. The actors were all extremely good, and the best thing I can say about the movie is that I disliked the ending because it brought an end to what was turning out to be a delightful, depraved love triangle.

More power to depravity.
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Mumbai Meri Jaan - When love and Hate collide

A "Crash"-like amalgamation of separate story threads involving different people living in the city of Mumbai, Mumbai Meri Jaan shows how different people from various walks of life are affected by bomb blasts on Mumbai commuter trains and their aftermath. Its main purpose is to highlight the fact that the veneer of cosmopolitan life that Mumbai prides itself on is really only held together by fragile threads that strain and break often when such terrorist attacks happen.

I really liked how the different characters that we follow in the course of the movie are forced to question their beliefs and assumptions about the city of Mumbai, and society in general in the aftermath of the bomb blasts. One disturbing aspect the film focuses on is how easy it is to raise the level of distrust between Hindus and Muslims - the two main religious groups in India. Via the character played by Kay Kay Menon, Mumbai Meri Jaan offers a very realistic, no-holds barred window into the sometimes paranoid mind of an average Hindu and his almost complete lack of trust in the patriotic intentions of his average Muslim brethren and the belief that Muslims are behind all terrorist attacks in India.

Other threads focus on themes which include the callousness and the lack of sensitivity of the mainstream media in its constant pursuit of the sensational, the internal struggles of an idealistic rookie beat cop trying to find his place within a corrupt law and order establishment, a poor family man trying to avenge his daily losses in the class war society inflicts on him daily and a techie slowly losing his faith in the ability of Indian society to keep him and his family safe and sound and considering greening pastures abroad. In the end though, all the characters mostly find consolation and redemption of sorts even though their personal journeys are somewhat painful and littered with more questions than answers.

Mumbai Meri Jaan is well directed. Weaving the parallel story threads into a coherent narrative is an extremely difficult job. Nishikant Kamat, not only does that wonderfully, he also does the details really well. There is a certain authenticity in depicting Mumbai and its people in ways that most other Hindi movies, to say nothing of movies by outsiders like Danny Boyle, have not been able to do right. And the acting is close to top notch by most everybody - with both veterans Paresh Rawal, who plays an experienced, worldly-wise cop partnering the conflicted rookie, and of course Kay Kay Menon essaying their roles brilliantly.

This is the kind of social commentary that is both relateable and entertaining. It is also thought provoking because it doesn't beat the audiences on their heads with simplistic, preachy messages like the Munnabhai series or 3 Idiots but instead places the onus on the characters to find their way out of tricky moral dilemmas. And because these characters are everyday people, perhaps it's a message for us folks to also find our own ways out of tough conundrums?

A definite must watch, especially for people of and from Mumbai.

(image from Yahoo India)

3 Idiots is 3 too many

The most recent movie directed by Raju Hirani, whose portfolio consists of the phenomenally successful Munnabhai series. 3 Idiots is essentially about 3 college students and their experiences vis-a-vis the Indian education system (more specifically an engineering college) telling us - the unsuspecting public - that the odds favor the rote learning robots produced by the aforementioned system as opposed to free thinkers attempting to and sometimes tragically failing to find their true calling in life. The movie stars Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi - all 3 alumni of the popular Viva-La-Revolution themed "Rang De Basanti" - here playing both young college students in their late teens/ early 20's shown in flashback, and slightly older men set in current times which is a few years after their college years. Boman Irani - a staple of Hirani movies playing the rigid, negative person who eventually turns over a new leaf at the end of the movie - is around once again doing more of the same in a slightly different getup. Here, he plays the inflexible and insensitive principal of the engineering college in which our 3 Idiots aspire to get educated or earn a degree or both.

The movie begins with the characters played by Madhavan's Farhan and Sharman Joshi's Raju trying to find Aamir Khan's Rancho as they seem to have lost touch with him ever since they graduated from their engineering college together many years ago. It is during this search that the movie flashes back to their college life and their struggles with the rigid establishment. And as they seem to get closer and closer to locating Rancho, the flash backs continue to tell us, nay, beat us on the head about how so very depressing the whole education system is and how it kills eager students from the inside.

I shouldn't be so harsh though - 3 Idiots isn't all that bad. The problem is that while the message is somewhat decent - that the Indian education system favors rote learning and that Indian parents force their children into Engineering or Medicine related disciplines - both of which are true - it is so far from new that any Indian who needs to watch this movie to learn about the state of affairs is the real idiot. Also, 3 Idiots has an overly simplistic take on the whole issue as well. This simplistic take is delivered via various unsubtle scenes (which unfortunately are far from few) whose sole purpose are to serve as setups for Rancho, the anti-establishment whizkid, to first demonstrate how very clever he is in comparison to his inept lecturers and fellow bookish students, and then next to carp on about how the whole system is so rotten that it produces f*ks like them and not studs like him.

The characters too were all completely one-dimensional to really be able to relate to in any realistic fashion with the all-knowing Rancho easily being the most difficult to relate to. Only Sharman Joshi, who plays the self-doubting Raju who eventually finds the confidence to tackle the naysayers, and Omi Vaidya (Chatur Ramalingam in the movie) who plays the punching bag rote-learning bookworm really tried to break out of the narrow confines written for their roles. And the direction, while very competent, was sadly very much like the education system it beats down with glee - formulaic and by the book.

Occasionally though, there was some surprisingly dark humor - the hospital scenes for instance were good tragi-comic. Moments such as those briefly elevated the movie while bringing back memories of the classic "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron" - but thats all they were - moments and very brief at that.

Overall, for a movie with pretensions of being social commentary of sorts, the message was far from convincing. If the director really wanted to take on the education system - he should have focused on primary or secondary education when the rote learning behavior actually takes shape. But then if he did, he wouldn't be able to get a bunch of popular actors in their mid 40's to impossibly play one-dimensional college kids and thereby lose out on the ability to hype the movie and rake in the big bucks all the while harboring pretensions of bringing in radical societal change.

(image from naachgaana.com)

If you're passionate about cinema...

... Then Passion For Cinema or PFC is the place for you (see new feed on right as well). I've been a regular reader at PFC. Being a follower of independent Hindi cinema for the last many years and of movies and cinema from over the world in general, I've enjoyed the insights readers of and contributors to PFC have provided. The list of contributors include famous folks like Anupam Kher, Anurag Kashyap, KK, Khalid Mohammed, and several others. This is not just your regular movie review site, it's basically a site for cinema musings about people who are - as the name suggests - passionate about cinema. And if ever you considered yourself to be so passionate about Indian cinema, this site is going to introduce you to a whole new world.

As an example of the myriad cinema related stuff, Here's a loosely translated (from Hindi) interview of Anurag Kashyap (writer-filmmaker of recent movies like Dev D and Gulaal) in which he explains some of his early days as a filmmaker and the accompanying frustrations he faced. He also discusses how his initial setbacks at trying to make movies the way he wanted to, were compounded perhaps by his naive idealism borne out of a sense of sticking to the pure form of storytelling via movies. And he also talks about his growing realization that the same idealism also opened other doors for him and has played a part in creating an aura around him.

PFC also shows how much thought processes of and within Indian cinema have evolved and continue to do so. Suffice to say that meaningful cinema is here to stay and will continue to grow.


Also:
Some changes to the site with colors and backgrounds. Still learning and playing around with CSS. I guess I'm not done yet with the fooling around (i.e. experimentation) - so there will probably be more changes.

"I Liked/Like" - P II

Kay Kay Menon

Kay Kay has been around for a while. First saw him in some gangster movie - where Kay Kay plays a police office who goes undercover and infiltrates a notorious gang, but in the course of time ends up conflicted about the situation (Chhal). That story is pretty much almost staple fare across the world for action-drama movie script purposes. So no biggie there.

But he's always been an integral part of the alternative/ multiplex Hindi movie genre. He played an impressionable Marxist in Sudhir Mishra's superlative Hazaroon Khwaishein Aisi, a business tycoon who ultimately goes up and down with the dirty game that business tycoons seem to be playing all the time in Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate, an investigative officer trying to put together the pieces of the bomb blasts in Mumbai in March 1993 and the plot behind it in Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday, a senior manager at a Mumbai call-center not averse to cheating on his wife on the side in Life In A Metro, among other parts. Did I say he was very impressive in essaying those varied roles? Well - he was.

He's been acting in commercial potboilers off late as well. So far they've been a mixed bag. In Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar - a remake of/tribute to Mario Puzo's The Godfather (of sorts) in an Indian political setting, he played the character most similar to Fredo Corleone. He was also easily the best thing in that movie, for me at least, despite the fact that Senior and Junior Bachchan were the central characters. Can't wait to catch him in Kashyap's latest release Gulaal.

To sum it up, easily one of the best around in the acting business. Fair to say that the parallel cinema/multiplex movement would have been/be far less effective/entertaining had he not been around.

I Like/Liked.

(Note: In no particular order)

Oye Lucky Lucky Oye

Abhay Deol plays Lucky - a charming, aspirational thief who at different times nonchalantly, and/or brazenly, steals his way up the ladder of high life. His audacious exploits of daylight thievery seem to suggest to us and him that he has people figured out for the most part. Until, one day, his one weakness, that desire for some kind of recognition by society in general and high society in particular, lands him in his most sticky situation yet. Still, if this is the same Lucky you've been following through the movie, you can be sure there's nothing he doesn't back himself to not get out of.

The supporting cast is wonderful, lead by Paresh Rawal and Manu Rishi. Abhay is fast becoming the poster-boy of "multiplex", or small-budget, Hindi cinema - a movement that deserves fully to not be labelled "Bollywood". He's never going to top popularity charts like the Khans and Bachchans with their movies that either outright lift themes, situations, even whole movies from Hollywood (thereby fittingly being labeled Bollywood) or repititively, regressively and non-sensically depict a hackneyed-moralled Indian culture that perhaps only exists in their movies and in the warped minds of non-resident indians. Whatever. So What. (So ends my usual pet rant about "Bollywood" movies and actors in general - for this post only though.) Quality cinema watchers can trust movies Abhay Deol is in though.

Oye Lucky Lucky Oye is also Dibakar Banerjee's second (?) directorial venture after the fantastic Khosla ka Ghosla. Very Delhi both. Very wonderful both.

Most recently, he played the turn of the new century Devdas in Anurag Kashyap's (Black Friday) Dev D. I still haven't caught Dev D, but I plan to very soon. Something tells me, it's going to be a blast.

Mithya

Which brings us to another poster boy of "multiplex" Hindi cinema, Ranvir Shorey. Mithya is the story of a regular guy played by Shorey, who unfortunately by a quirk of fate, finds out that he's a mafia don doppelganger. Sure enough, one day, he finds himself, and not by choice, in the situation of being forced to take the don's place, unknown to most including those closest to the don - something he, in spite of looking like the don, is totally unsuited to the job. Along the way he finds true love of sorts. His life doesn't get any easier though.

Sure, we've seen similar themes in the Amitabh classic "Don", and there are shades of situations from John Woo's "Face/Off" as well, among others. But Ranvir is as earnest as independent actors can be. Neha Dhupia as the love interest is also surprisingly decent - she needs more movies like these. Mithya is reasonably well-made.

Ranvir also did a super job in Khosla ka Ghosla, and Pyar Ke Side Effects (which I finally watched recently) as well.


Vinay Pathak

The third posterboy of "multiplex" Hindi cinema. In Khosla ka Ghosla, Mithya, Manorama - Six Feet Under, the Chinatown tribute, with Abhay Deol, in Bheja Fry, and recently in Rajat Kapur's Dasvidaniya, Kapur incidentally another earnest filmmaker and actor, among others. Pathak was also in the thriller, Johnny Gaddar. He's another actor whose movie choices are pretty much spot on.


Welcome to Sajjanpur

A satirical take on life in small town India, that covers a wide gamut of socio-political issues including poverty, illiteracy, conservatism vs modernism, widow-remarriage, dirty politics, among several others.

Khan Kan't or Kan He?

Well, it's happened. Salman (Nanga) Khan has been granted bail in a poaching case for which he had been earlier sentenced to 5 years in jail. Not that I am greatly surprised or something.

I did read about the Bishnoi tribe in Rajasthan, their vegetarianism, and their reverence of all nature (plant and animal life included - not just the usual lip service we pay to humanity and human rights). There are several sources available on the net about that. Here's this one for instance, relating a chilling incident in which hundreds of Bishnois, starting with Amrita Devi, laid down their lives protecting the trees in their vicinity. The Bishnoi lands are now off limits to hunters and the Black Buck, an animal held in great regard by the Bishnois, are protected species.
Salman Khan went to jail for killing a few of the same Black Buck (picture of one shown alongside). He killed a few deer in about 2 or 3 separate incidents spread over a week. There are several varying accounts of his hunting trips. But there is no denying that he did commit those acts.

Now that he's out on bail, he, his supporters and the legions of fans propping him will of course rejoice. But what about the Bishnois? How are they going to feel? Salman Khan and his entrouge came, shot and brutally killed their precious animals. He brutally violated their principles and their beliefs. If I was a Bishnoi, damn right I'd be pissed off as hell.

I don't know Salman, but its obvious from his actions in this case - this man considers himself far above the law that ordinary citizens have to obey. Of course, in many ways he is. As soon as news came of his arrest, there were tons of newspaper articles professing how much Salman loves animals, and how he's being persecuted because of his celeb status. Now how many of us have the power to do that? Of course, he's free now.

And that considerable power not withstanding, why must we pick on poor Salman? Salman the animal lover owns several dogs (its amazing how constantly people harp on how owning dogs and cats makes someone animal lovers - and then they promptly go about and have a large piece of steak for dinner!) keeps pets in his farmhouse, including keeping protected animals (illegally). Even if he did poach, so what? Thousands of animals are poached in India every year, and only a few are ever caught and prosecuted.

But so what if there are thousands of poachers out there still scot-free? I know this one was caught. And since people in India love to emulate their celebrity role models, I'd like to see this notorious role model for how to consistently get away with defying the law, idling in jail. Nail him. Make an example of this chump. Yup, I lean towards the side of the Bishnois. History has showed that they've put down their lives protecting their environment and truly consider all of nature sacred. That if anything is an ideal worth holding sacred and worth protecting.

And now that he's free, I would consider it equal payback if the Bishnois hunted down Salman Khan in the streets of Mumbai, shot him down with an arrow or a bullet, knelt beside his struggling self and slit his throat in cold blood (just like he killed one of the Black Bucks) and walked away free. Since Salman is above the law so must his killer be. Thats fair.

B for Bictory. B for Bendetta. B for Bishnoi.

I'll leave you with a picture of Nanga Khan celebrating after his release. I poached this picture off Mid-Day's site . He would be so proud of me.


P.S. Is that Helen (the great, voluptuous, yesteryear vamp - now Salman's step-mom) up in the balcony with him? Hmm... a couple of decades ago, the crowds would have waited for her to do what her step-son's been busy doing here. Now... Ah well! Such is life!

Holy Shit! Suniel Shetty quits!!

Commercial Indian Hindi cinema (i.e. Bollywood) actor Suniel Shetty says "I quit"!

I say, "YAY!! GOOD RIDDANCE!"
Also, "Thank you - for deciding to spare us from further misery". Hope that his action inspires several of his ilk (i.e. piece of crap non-actors) to follow him on the way out and stay out. You people could use your spare time from all those hours (not) acting in movies to spend time with your families. And allow your children the chance to not be embarassed anymore among their friends by your lack of acting chops. Contriving hard to get yourselves sentenced to jail like Salman Khan is also highly encouraged. However, further loss of life ( human or protected deer or otherwise) and property (others' property that is) is not acceptable.

On second thoughts, who cares?! There's got to be something better to do besides dissing on poor Mr. Shetty while further sinking into depravity. Not that Mr. Shetty ever did anything more than want you to walk out of a movie he non- acted in, or throw something at your T.V.

Now, if only I can find that something to do...

What did you say? Work on my-Ph.D.-dissertation-and-on-getting-out-of-school-and-getting-a -job-so-that-my-wife-and-I-could-start-living-together?! What's that?

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2)

This is a continuation of my earlier piece on Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi.

It's good to know that this movie has a legion of followers. In case you haven't seen the movie, then take both Venky's and Sibin's advice (and of course, mine too) - do try and see this one.

Venky has put up some really good pictures/posters of the movie on his webpage. And Sibin has a wonderfully informative dedication to the movie on his blog, a piece that's a perfect read once you've seen the movie, that will make you reminisce (and provide insight) on the pivotal and subtle scenes in the movie, as well as, the socio-political context which provides the setting for the movie.

And really if you still want an additional incentive to see this movie, then do I have to tell you that Chitrangda Singh is truly HOT?! Check her out in what could well be one of her very few appearances on the silver screen.

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi

(Picture courtesy: Eros Entertainment)

"Hazaaron khwaishein aisi
ki har khwaish pe dum nikle
Bahut nikle mere armaan
lekin phir bhi kam nikle"

- Mirza Ghalib

In an earlier post about Amitabh Bachchan, who is perhaps an institution in Indian cinema, I had complained about his penchant to star in remakes of popular Hollywood movies, despite his apparent distaste for the label Bollywood widely used to refer to commercial Hindi cinema.

While it's true that "Bollywood" largely churns out remakes, and it is also true that essentially producers, directors and scriptwriters generally spend time browsing DVD's of old classics and new hits from around the world (mostly Hollywood) to be "inspired" from, there is also this trend in Indian Cinema to increasingly move away from the norm and come up with unique products. The last few years, I have seen a fairly good amount of "experimental" and non-formulaic cinema from India that leads me to believe that there's a lot of great talent out there. In particular, "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi" directed by Sudhir Mishra ("Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin") and starring: Kay Kay Menon, Chitrangda Singh and Shiney Ahuja, made a significant impact on me because of its sheer quality and execution.

The movie setting is the time period from the late 60's and through the early and mid-70's, which was a time of great turbulence in India, not just politically but also socially and culturally. Three individuals, played by the three leads, emerge from their college lives with differing ambitions and hopes and aspirations. The story traces their paths, sometimes intertwining through the mileu of their troubled times and their youth. It's a story that matches up idealism against opportunism, a story of all-consuming passion and unrequited love, a story of cynicism, and of broadsides against politics and political idealogies, with no prisoners taken. It is also unnervingly tragi-comic in some of the most heartrending situations. And in the end, the movie shows us that life at its core is just uncertainty and that anything can happen for no rhyme or reason.

The movie is highly multi-layered. At its core is the simple story of the three characters and what's basically a love-triangle that exists between them. At another level, it is about three different friends and the value systems they represent: a man who's rich, spoilt and perhaps fashionably idealistic and anti-establishment; a woman who's blindly in love with the the idealist perhaps attracted to the sheer magnetism of his pseudo-idealism; and
the third, a man in love with the woman, and also who's conflicted between idealism and reality, and decides to live life as a pragmatist and opportunist, ultimately cynical of mass movements and pseudo-idealism. At yet another level, is the commentary through these characters on the socio-political situation; in particular, the sarcasm through which the actions of Indira Gandhi before and during the Emergency is potrayed.

It's also very tough to pin down any moral lessons or a message that the movie is trying to promote. And I guess each person would probably extract something different out of the movie. But this engrossing, complex tale of the three main protagonists is, to me, by far the best Hindi movie I have seen in recent times. Perhaps ever.

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi is by no means the only quality Indian cinema I have seen off late. There have been several other movies that have come out recently from India that I have found to be very entertaining and fulfilling. (No, I am not talking about the moodily shot but ultimately pretentious and melodramatic "Black"!) If it weren't for them, and good Independent English language movies, I'd be lost in my search for good cinema. Fortunately, good cinema does co-exist along with the crap regularly churned out by Bollywood, and even more so by the biggest crap-producer of them all - Hollywood.

For "Bollywood" (sorry Mr. Bachchan - very few of your recent movies belong to Indian Cinema category!), the lesson to remember before blindly aping Hollywood crapart is: Garbage In, Garbage Out!

Fading Star

Let’s start with the Actor of the last Century (according to a BBC worldwide poll in 1999), Amitabh Bachchan. That he is an icon is an understatement. God! I know there were several people like me who worshipped him once. And several more who still do. But here’s the reason why I think that he’s a fallen idol. First up, some of his old movies when I saw them again, really sucked. It’s taken me years to accept that these movies sucked. Ok, some of the others now actually seem better than they were before. And his acting in those good movies is still superlative. Ok then, that reason for calling him a fallen idol isn’t justified, and my problem is not with his past. It’s with his current.

Bachchan says all the time that he hates the label “Bollywood” used to denote commercial Hindi cinema and anything that’s connected to it. According to him, this implies that commercial Hindi cinema is inferior or is in some way subordinate to Hollywood. He takes offense to that implication. He believes that commercial Hindi cinema is more prolific than Hollywood and has an identity of its own. And several other senior Indian cinema artistes feel that way too.

But then, let’s look at some of the more recent movies of Mr. Bachchan; like Kaante, Sarkar, Family, Ek Ajnabee, etc. In most cases, these movies have been either directly lifted (copied) or are largely adapted from Hollywood movies. If he continues to agree to act in cinema that’s largely “inspired” from foreign cinema, especially Hollywood, then how the hell does he think that commercial Indian cinema is going to ever shake off that “ollywood” tag? Beats me!

And if he isn’t starring in remakes or copies, he’s acting in crap pseudo cinema of the Chopra’s and Johar’s (Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Mohobattein, etc.) Occasionally he gets to prove his acting chops in less commercial movies with original themes such as Virrudh, etc. But then these are so few and far between. If he’s doing so many “inspired” roles, what are the lesser actors and actresses to do? When’re you going to start to practice as you preach?

Let’s put it this way Mr. Bachchan. You sure must be getting a lot of scripts and must be sitting on a good pile of money to be able to effect a change. I agree that people are writing scripts for you that they’ve never ever done for an aging stalwart in Indian commercial cinema, and that’s a big change from the past. But you’ve got to put your foot down when it comes to remakes. An occasional “Aks” or “Viruddh” do not wash away the plethora of remakes and copies that you have starred in. The glory days of Don, Sholay, Deewar, Trishul, Agneepath, etc. may not necessarily be over.