Cricketers are not safe now. But who IS ?

The latest attack on Sri Lankan team in Lahore comes close on the heels of the terror attack on Mumbai. Theories are flying thick and fast on whether this attack was originally intended for the Indian team which was supposed to be touring Pakistan at that very moment, on whether this will permanently affect cricket matches in the subcontinent, on whether the 2011 world cup matches can be staged as planned, and so on.
I am surprised by one thing. Twelve terrorists armed to the teeth plant themselves on a busy square in broad daylight, waiting in ambush for the bus. And nobody notices them??? How did they reach there? Did they simply grow out of the ground or what? (Note that Pakistan had promised 'complete and total security' to Sri Lankan team.)
Whats more - firing continues for about 30 minutes, leading to the death of Pak police ostensibly providing security for the bus. AND NOT A SINGLE TERRORIST IS EITHER CAPTURED OR KILLED. All this, when the TV channels are showing the terrorists freely running around as if they are wandering in a park. So picture this - the security personnel are INSIDE the vehicle and are armed, I hope (so the vehicle actually provides them cover) and the terrorists are OUTSIDE in the open. And yet they manage to do what they intended to do and actually disappear from the scene.
I don't intend to say that the security personnel who died were ineffective. If they died doing their duty, it cant be for nothing. But how is it that in broad daylight, NOT A SINGLE terrorist got captured or killed? Even as I type this post, NDTV is airing CCTV coverage showing terrorists calmly walking through the streets and some happily driving away on mobikes. I find this completely mysterious. And then - even if you don't want to believe that Pakistan governance is not hand-in-glove with the terrorist elements, such events make you doubt your self.
The press is going berserk and proclaiming that 'now even cricketers are not safe'. But then in the kind of times that we live in, who IS safe?

The 54th Film-Unfair Awards

What else can you call these awards when a movie like A Wednesday does not even get nominated for Best Film, leave alone getting the award. Anupam Kher's stellar performance goes unnoticed. At least Naseer got nominated for Best Actor - thank god somebody in the jury panel remembered him!)
And to crown it all - Jodha Akbar gets Best Film. That's not all - Ashutosh Gowarikar with his Jodha Akbar (which should have been awarded Best filmy-remedy for beating insomnia) beats Neeraj Pandey's A Wednesday and gets Best Director.....
Just check out the movies which got nominated for Best Film - Dostana, Ghajini, Jodha Akbar, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na and Rock On. What is the criteria for getting nominated? Even if you consider for a moment that success at box office is the main criteria because movies are after all held up or thrown to the dustbin by movie-goers. Even then, it makes no sense at all.

The Big Fight on NDTV - or is it?

I just saw 'The Big Fight' on NDTV about "Should India Really Be Celebrating Slumdog Oscars?". The panelists were Sudhir Mishra, Nafisa Ali, Simon Denyer (Reuters India), Arindam Chaudhary and Jug Suraiya. Now, I failed to understand exactly what was Arindam doing there? OK, he has has produced a handful of movies - which does NOT in any way mean that he understands movies. He went to prove that in the show clearly - thankyou Mr. Chaudhary. Thankyou for finally telling us how little you know about India and its people and what movies mean to Indians.
Now these people were at each others' throats debating whether Indians should be celebrating the Oscar success of SM or not? Just consider these facts about Jai Ho -

1. A sikh born in pre-partition Punjab writes a song.
2. A practicing sufi muslim based in Chennai composes the music.
3. Another sikh born in Amritsar sings the song.
4. A muslim born in a little village in Kerala engineers and mixes the sound.
5. It features a boy born in UK to Gujarati parents (who were born in Kenya!) and a Christian girl educated in Mumbai (and scores of other budding dancers.
6. And finally the song is picturized in one of our country's best-known landmarks.
This song goes on the win an Academy Award. Now, show me a better example of what Indians can do when we come together and then dare ask the question - should Indians be celebrating Slumdog Oscars?

And finally, some examples of Arindam Chaudhary's 'wisdom'.....

1. "I think it is a very negative feel-good film." Now, what does he exactly mean by that? How can anything that is feel-good be negative or positive?
2. "How many blind beggars have you really seen on the roads?" This clearly shows that one of the following must be true. And your options are.....

A. He never travels anywhere in India by road.
B. He never really bothers to look out of the window of the car when traveling.
C. He does not actually know what a blind beggar looks like.
D. All of the above.

This is not a question from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, because it is too simple. But please post your answers nevertheless. It will at least stop TV channels from calling him henceforth.

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is all about chasing your dreams - using whatever vehicle you can find coming your way. Wait, its not a motivational film, not the Chicken Soup variety. Its about the world of opportunities, both missed and grabbed. In the movie this vehicle changes from being a die-hard Amitabh fan to being a beggar, from traveling on top of trains to finding your way through the underbelly of Mumbai's slums. And eventually being on a reality TV show. But these are all tangible ones - the real vehicle is the burning desire that's inside.
The movie is disturbing on many fronts. It would be difficult to turn your face away as you are driving past the slums next time. It would be difficult to listen to 'Darshan do Ghanshyam' the next time without feeling the bile rising inside.
The ending is fantasy-like, the stuff that dreams are made of. But you believe that it can happen - more importantly, it can happen to anyone, including yourself. That's the magic of reality TV, isn't it? It makes a character from the screen step out and sit next to you, put an arm around your shoulder and say to you, "You are not yourself anymore. You are now me."
The film spends a lot of time in the Mumbai slums. In a Shantaram-esque way, it neither glorifies them nor pities them. Just shows them the way they are.
The casting is brilliant, to say the least. Anil Kapoor is really the only celebrity, as the script demands. Yes, there are other well-known characters like Irfan and Saurabh Shukla - but those who stand out are Dev Patel and Freida Pinto. Dev is like the boy next door, ambivalent in his choices, believer in his destiny, one who finds himself at crossroads more often than once in the story. So many times he gets pulled in one direction by a larger force, but as he grows up, he starts making his own choices at the cost of upsetting the same larger forces. Freida is not exactly beautiful in the conventional sense of beauty (the script doesn't demand it in any case) but she is beautiful in a different manner. She speaks through her eyes (her character doesn't have too many lines) most of the times and evokes a pain that may of us - I daresay all of us - keep wishing that it never surfaces. She is achingly beautiful. The little Jamal and Salim are equally brilliant, spontaneous as only children of that age can be. One cant say the same for the teenagers portraying the middle stage of the characters.
The film has deservingly won four Golden Globe awards, but I must say that Jai Ho is certainly not AR Rahman's best output so far. It shows how a not-so-great-music can ride piggyback on a great movie. In fact, the background music near the end (just before Jai Ho) is the piece de resistance - truly superlative.
You might hate reality TV and Kaun Banega Crorepati. But the movie is not these. Don't miss it.