Silent Guns

Now that the elections dates have been announced this whole tamasha of young ‘turks’ gracing the 14th Lok Sabha will finally rest. Even if Naveen Jindal, Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora and Rahul Gandhi were to lose their seats, which keeping their track record in mind shouldn’t be the case, they will never be called young guns anymore. Track record, did I say that? Oh sorry it must be their youthful exuberance that might just get their seats back for they really didn’t do anything. Did they? 

It’s no secret that these blokes got where they got thanks to the famous surnames. Agreed that they are educated, can hold a conversation, will make many a reporters (male and female variety) swoon but besides their papa’s names what else have they got to show? In the last five years they were the ones who were poised to take the country to new heights, free us from the evil perils of ageless politicians…well okay they were just supposed to raise a few points every now and then. Oh come on they were just supposed to inspire the youth of this nation to get a little more proactive. Have they succeeded? The proof of the pudding lies in the eating and now as accounts of the last five years are being closed they really don’t have anything to talk about. A recent article in the Economic Times sums up their performance in Lok Sabha and doesn’t give them high marks. 

Do we have a problem with them gracing the page three parties more than center page or front page? Do we feel like they haven’t done anything worthwhile besides being mute spectators? Is it that they couldn’t do anything or they weren’t allowed to do anything? If one looks back at what happened in the last twelve months, leave alone the other four years of the government’s tenure, none of these so called young guns fired. Take the Mangalore pub attack; none of them said anything, no reactions. They are fine with the idea of pubbing themselves as it’s a ‘normal’ thing to do and by god they are normal aren’t they but when it comes to making a statement they just refuse to speak up. Let’s take the overnight sacking of the Jet employees. Nothing. The only time one of them said something was in the aftermath of the 26/11 Bombay attacks. There too Mr. Rahul Gandhi quoted the obvious to death. Well I don’t blame him. Considering that that his sister was watching the proceedings from the gallery and he had to retort to rhetoric of the attack being aimed at every Indian and not just the unlucky few who were in the direct line of fire. 

Do we really place too much emphasis on the youth? A Barack Obama is just forty-eight and so he can get a fresh perspective. If that be the stupid assumption then Gandhi (38), Jindal (38), Scindia (37), Deora (33) and Pilot (32) should be the solution to all our problems. Wait they are just the Congress...hmm…and mummy Sonia doesn’t let them talk unless they are talking about Rajiv Gandhi or the party. Ok what’s the way out? Obama used the internet and the gen-next and after that’s tools to galvanize an entire people. These guys use PDA’s and mobiles to text where to meet in the evening or fwd messages that mock Raj Thackeray. The Economic Times got all these MP’s to be the guest editors for a day; see for your self what these guys think of the nation. These guys do believe in their ideas and they have their facts right….but some times getting the facts and numbers correct seems enough.

Trying the young isn’t enough….the young didn’t try enough. 

Time

Kim Ki Duk’s films have a tendency to teeter between the bizarre and the beautiful but nothing prepares you for Time, his 13th feature. The first few minutes of the film are enough to rattle anyone.

The basic plot of the film revolves around a chirpy young woman who just can’t get over the fact that perhaps her boyfriend is bored with her. She keeps noticing that he constantly checks out other women, is cordial towards everyone but her and isn’t even aroused by her anymore. The man tries to convince her that she is nuts but it just doesn’t work. To save her relationship, the woman puts herself through extensive plastic surgery.

The woman just vanishes one fine day and all efforts on the man’s part to locate her fail. The woman returns but we don’t see her for she is always hiding and playing mind games with her boyfriend. Just when he’s about to get over her the woman decided to show up in her new avatar and lo and behold the man falls for her. The woman couldn’t be happier but the only thing that bothers her is the fact that the man still craves her former self. She decides to test him; she sends him a letter as the first one begging to allow her to return. The man, elated and confused, conveys to the second woman that the first one’s back and her wants to be with her; he has no clue that it’s the same woman. This action of his enrages the woman to no end for she can’t believe that her boyfriend would still desire her old self. She accuses him of using her, etc. and finally ends up meeting him with a mask covering her new face and strangely the mask is the face older woman. The man who is now on the edge decides to take off but not before telling her that a change in physical appearance eventually changes you as a person.

The film now takes a fantastic but nonetheless a weird turn when the man decides to prove his love to the woman by transforming himself. The doctor who performs both the operations assures the woman to wait for the boyfriend to return in a new form. Now living a reversed role, the woman goes through the same pangs as she looks at every man with expectant eyes. Time passes and the boyfriend does come back but only to play the same mind games; the woman by now has had enough and asks him to show up. The climax of the film has the woman running after someone who, she is convinced, is her boyfriend but fate intervenes and the man ends up dying in an accident. The film ends with on a note that states the universal fact that one has to be at peace with the inner self rather than be happy with the outer shell.

The first scene has shots of a surgeon’s knife cutting up a woman and the gut churning images of extreme makeover in progress will give anyone a queasy feeling. But Time is a love story albeit an unusual one and plays out like a perfect tragic love story confronting many questions about love. It’s also an interesting film from the aspect of dialogue, for it strangely has a lot of dialogue as opposed to his previous films. Time is a film that will invite extreme reactions. Many, especially Koreans, believe that with the passage of time Kim Ki Duk’s turning out to be some sort of misogynist and perhaps Time adds to the speculation but is it really so? Or could it just be an example of a director relentlessly doing his number and perhaps falling out, at times, with the capricious film fest mob?

Image Courtesy: www.koreansociety.org

He's Back!

What a man, what a man, what a man
What a mighty good man

-Salt N Pepa (Whatta Man)

Is genius what genius says?

Proving that he can get away with almost anything like in the National Anthem Controversy involving the President of India, Narayana Murthy has said something that I think will ruffle some feathers, if not the entire nation.

Today’s edition of The Economic Times carries an article called Pink and Prejudice. The article announces that gays and lesbians are coming out of the corporate closet. The writer questions if India Inc. is ready for this ‘Diversity Challenge’ (whatever the hell that means!)

It’s Narayana Murthy’s quote that bought a smile to face this morning. The Chairman man of Infosys has said, “It is an individual preference and acceptable so long as nobody imposes their views on others or does not infringe on the personal space of others.” No wonder some people might be rejoicing in the global campus of Infosys! Or would they?

This dude takes the entire bakery for being one to go by individual preference! After all Narayana Murthy managed to successfully impose ‘his’ views on the President of India for God sakes! So God save you if Mr. Chief Mentor don't like your sexual preference!

In any case I found the state very innocuous. I mean what kind of statement is this? Maybe he didn’t want to express ‘his’ views this time around so he ended up mouthing the usual ‘I-have-to-say-something-for-I’m-India-Inc.’s-poster-boy’!