Tamasha is Fight (Club) to follow inner self

Still from Tamasha 

Looking at the trailer of this movie I was sure about the beginning of the story - a corporate guy (I prefer to call it an IT guy as I can relate to it) who is bored of his daily routine life of 8 hrs working, parties with colleagues, corporate etiquettes, formal 'how are you?' type questions. To take a break from these things he goes on a vacation (it was not explicitly stated in trailer that whether this vacation was permanent or temporary?). He lands up in the Corsica, an island to the south of France's mainland. This island is another new find by Director(Imtiyaaz Ali) who had earlier shot in several European countries. Frankly speaking this office routine things were too much generalised in this Imtiyaaz Ali's movie. India is different man, here we have more than just individual life. We have institutions of marriage, community, society, religion, politics, cricket, movies etc which will always pressurise the guy or gal to follow routine circus. Anyways, let's jump towards real crux of the movie.

Similarities with some top Hollywood movies of 1990s -

Still from Fight Club (1999)

Movie is ahead of the typical Bollywood movies but it is still far behind the Hollywood movies from which it looks to be inspired. 2 movies which I can directly mention here are Fight Club (1999) and American Beauty (1999). Common thing about these movies is that both of these were released in 1990s American times when corporate routine was making life of upper middle class strata of society quite more than bored. American Beauty portrays frustration coming in the life of many characters right from the age group of teenage to mid-life crisis adults. Then, each of the character seeks freedom from this daily American lifestyle. But, Tamasha has more similarity with Fight Club (1999). Fight Club is about an insomniac office worker, looking for a way to change his life, moves into a dilapidated house, forms an underground fight club, pours out all his frustration on the structured society. 

Stills from Fight Club (1999)

Just take a look at the scene when hero shows his insane nature to his boss. How Ved behaves with his boss is very similar to how the hero of fight club does when confronted by his boss over hero's recently changed irresponsible behaviour. This one for me counts as one highpoint as hero discovers himself, finds courage to follow his heart, and is free to do whatever he thinks is right irrespective of the societal pressure. Cheers!

Similarity with Imtiyaaz's earlier movies -

Still from Tamasha 

Another similarity is with earlier movies of Imtiyaaz Ali himself, mostly Jab we met. Deepika's happy go lucky character (like Jab we met's Geet) helps Ved find his inner self.

Some Indian relationship tadka -

So, what are the differences in this Bollywood drama when compared to Hollywood movies from which it looks inspired? As observed in Fight Club, hero finds truth or his inner self by himself but when you come to the reality of Indian movies they will put a character of girlfriend anyhow. They brainstorm really hard on how to put it in or how can they find any other way of adding some songs.

Also, you get to see flavour of 3-idiots in it. Remember the scene where Madhvan convinces his father that his passion lies in wildlife Photography and not in Engineering. Our hero in Tamasha uses some innovative ways to convince his father that for him what Sharma ji thinks hardly matters?

Finding inner self -

Still from Tamasha 

The story is not that unusual but lived by many in our generation of choosing career for merely monetary benefits over career of interest. The person sacrifices his interest where he could give his best and not just be a mediocre person for the rest of life. Point is not to live same year every year until we die. Point taken, but the main fallacy with movie is Imtiyaaz assumes somewhat idealistic situations for this inner self to be discovered like Ved belongs to Upper middle class family, has a high profile job in which offers him all desired luxurious life. It would have been better had Imtiyaaz Ali followed story of that Rickshaw guy too till the end. This would have been helpful to drive a point home that being from lower class doesn't mean you can't follow your talent. Another point Imtiyaaz ignores completely is institution of family. Tell me when was the last time you saw parents not pressurising their child for a marriage after a well settled career. We don't see this pressure being built up on either of Ved or Tara though they have continued with their jobs for 4+ years. Lucky Ved & Tara, I must say.

Ranbir has done some refreshing acting in this one. Also, there's a colourful Corsica, Deepika as well as treat of North Indian folk singing. Don't miss Tamasha if you have enjoyed Imtiyaaz's earlier movies like Jab we met and Rockstar. 

Transition of Kejriwal into a seasoned pragmatic politician

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal speaking in monsoon session 2015 of Delhi assembly. Photo is inset is of Kejriwal from 2011-12

I have been watching Arvind Kejriwal's politics since the inception of his pet project Aam Aadmi Party. I have seen him struggling, I have seen him fighting, I have seen him taking battle to the opponents homeground, I have felt his emotional breakdown after people didn't choose his crystal clear non-corruptible politics, I have seen him rise again professionally and finally I have seen him compromising to the certain extent with the political reality of India and its people.

Now, he has secured a mandate and heading a majority government in Delhi. But, people often ignore the experiences this guy had gone through his journey from April-May 2014 until the formation of provincial government in Delhi. He probably seen the heart less nation who is not ready to stand with him firmly on anti corruption issue. So, here came a point when the man had to change his ways. He realised the necessity of some compromises needed to be done in politics. In the process some of the guys like Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav who were not willing to diverge even slightly from core issues were sidelined. Meanwhile Delhi govt's advertisement budget is being utilised to promote Kejriwal not just across Delhi but across the major Indian cities via Newspapers ad.

As per the statistics released, till June, 2015 end Kejriwal govt had spent Rs 526 crore which is larger amount than erstwhile Sheila Dixit lead Congress government. Also, one more compulsion in politics is that you fix your party office bearers or volunteers on some govt commissions or authorities. There are around 81 such cases where some posts with healthy emoluments were given to close people, one can cite an example of Delhi Jal Board authority. If you apply strictest rules of integrity and non corrupt behaviour then this behaviour too looks wrong.

Having said all this, one can't deny the fact that slowly but steadily he's fulfilling his promises. From electricity bills, water, expenditure on health, education, marshals for women security to Wifi facility the things are happening smoothly. After fulfilling these promises, Kejriwal has set the stage for one more confrontation with Centre over the Full Statehood to Delhi. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and CPI(M) have come close to anti corruption crusader in the meantime. It is very likely that issue will be raised by CPI(M) and JDU's Sharad Yadav in Rajyasabha in upcoming monsoon session. The thing which JDU and CPI(M) getting in return is the technological, strategic knowledge share by Kejriwal and team which will tell it's future in Bihar elections to be help in September this year.

While Kejriwal is taking on centre and making it a Centre-State issue by creating a perception of attack on cooperative federalism Congress is not able to project opposition to union govt. Yes, Rahul Gandhi had shown some signs of revival but that is no match to expertise of an IITian. If things continue like this it is very likely that we will see a Neo front of AAP, JDU, CPM lead by Mr Kerjriwal going into 2019 battle which is very likely to open the gates of 7 RCR to this man.

Mr Dear Leader, don't try to intrude our private cyber space

Recently one popular leader has launched an Android app to connect to people and I have observed that it asks you permissions to read Wifi connection information, Device ID and call information. If you accept it then you are legally allowing that Leader to use your private information.

Screenshot of mobile screen
before beginning of installation

Everytime you install some android app usually it asks you to accept certain conditions like you are allowing them to use your camera, your GPS location, your call log etc. Once you accept these conditions you are legally allowing someone to use your private data which can be sometimes sensitive. This data can be used to snoop on you. They can even read your Whatsapp conversations if you accept such conditions before installing an app. So, remember to be sure of things before proceeding with app and be double sure in case it comes from a government related person who does have alleged record of ordering snooping on a woman in Bangalore, if you know what I mean ;-)

One more thing, I would like to add at the end. It is an offence, if some govt related person is snooping on you or trying to intrude your private space. It is in violation of the fundamental right to privacy as Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which contains a guarantee of personal liberty and it is obvious that personal liberty also involves the right to privacy.

Let's also look at the latest judgement of Supreme Court of India in which it upheld Right to Privacy. In Ram Jethmalani vs Union of India, 2011 delivered by Justices P. Sathasivam and H.L. Gokhale, it read-

“Right to privacy is an integral part of right to life. This is a cherished constitutional value, and it is important that human beings be allowed domains of freedom that are free of public scrutiny unless they act in an unlawful manner…."

So, keep your eyes, ears open to snoopers at the top of the power ladder.

A piece of solace

How do you solve the problem your friend is facing ranging from some philosophical dilemma, relationship issues to depression kind ones. You try to grasp the data, check the authenticity of it and process it. How do you check the authenticity of data?
-You simply look into their eyes for genuineness and some extra data signal bits that you could extract. This is how you perform the steps if more than one person is involved.

But, how do you do it if it is only you and your subconscious and super subconscious left with this problem. Let's try to find a try and error method for it.

Once in a while you have to step up to a mirror, look in your own eyes and try to answer few of the questions that have traumatised your subconscious.

I guess it is one of the way of achieving salvation or may be just a false feeling of salvation atleast.

When it was the time

When it was the right time you didn't do anything,
Now crying over almost everything

Darkness is a shallow bliss, but one thing is sure that it won't betray you ever at least

Up above the dark sky, is a space of infinity which no one ever wants to explore, unless they are scientists of hardcore

Keep the sorrow of twilight to yourself for there are no takers for it, Everyone is pretending to be human rather when they are just pieces on a Chessboard

Using casteist politics as per convenience

With the latest instance of IIT Madras a view has formed that those who speak against caste system can't belong to BJP and RSS. Though it is true to some extent but we can't paint everyone in BJP as casteist.

Let's look at composition among other political parties too. For example if we take a look at spectre of all political parties except BSP and Janta Parivar almost all parties have individuals who don't like reservation system including newly formed anti corruption AAP party. It is, I must say I sad thing in Indian political system that no party can claim to be non casteist. Each and every party at some or other time has used caste as per their convenience and accusing others of using caste politics. Let's look at some of the examples -

Indian National Congress - I will cite a recent example of Maratha reservation and Jat reservation given in Maharashtra and North India respectively in the hope to gather votes

BJP - In run upto last 2 phase of General elections 2014, Narendra Modi distorted Priyanka Gandhi's "Neech Rajniti" (Low level politics) statement to play the victim and portray himself as one of the backwards. Here, he said to electorates, they don't like me and call me a "Nichi Jatwala"(Lower caste guy).
A second example is a more recent one where Bihar BJP leaders participated in Kushwaha caste conference. They are trying to appropriate legacy of King Ashok of 3rd century BC as one from Kushwaha community.

AAP - Apart from saying that "I am a Baniya too" and "why are you attacking Agarwal community"(This one was an similar instance to what happened earlier in case of Narendra Modi and Priyanka Gandhi only difference being here Kejriwal played Modi a victim and BJP did a Priyanka by using controversial word like Gotra in their advertisement in newspapers), there is not any big example to cite in their case. It would be interesting to see how they keep themselves away from this phenomenon.

I think, I need not give any example of BSP, SP, AIADMK, Shivsena, RJD etc.

Phtoo credits - DNA 

So, why this happens? It's not that simple to simply blame politicians. Most of them are forced into this because of us. As VN Gadgil, a veteran Congress politician once said, "In India, people don't cast their vote, they vote their castes". This effect is still there though there has been an improvement and if people find a good leader to vote to or a good local Leader, they vote for him irrespective of his community or surname, if you know what I mean.

Keeping your heroes alive via Twitter

Screenshot of @DrunkVinodMehta's Bio

When I started using Twitter for the first time in 2009, mostly what I saw there was some accounts which will share Movie quotes. Then came an era of political campaign over twitter. But amidst all this one interesting thing I noticed is that, there were accounts of Mahatma Gandhi, Nathuram Godse, Winston Churchill, BhagatSingh as well. These accounts are probably run by the people who admire them and often quote what their heroes said or written at one time in past.

These are the very early heroes but then I saw some accounts of living generational legends like the one of Vinod Mehta which goes by name @DrunkVinodMehta. Within a very shorter time this account got very popular among non BJP group. That account or as we call it handle claims to tweet in the same spirit as Vinod Mehta. In March we received a bad news about Mehta saab's demise but this account still is continuing in the same spirit, with same vigour putting forward views as if they were of Vinod Mehta's once. It makes us feel that Mehta is still alive and writing, speaking. A wonderful feeling it is.

Same can be said of some of other accounts of famous celebrities who are No more but these handles keep their spirit alive in this social media generation.