IT Guys, Please Excuse!

Off-late I have been hearing about a lot of lay-offs and lots of IT professionals losing their jobs. In fact, the other day I received an email-forward which had a screen-shot of some girl’s profile in a matrimonial website. Her preference had this strange condition – IT guys, please excuse.

So, the downturn and recession has hit the matrimonial market too. Girls are no longer feeling secure enough about her guy having an IT job. These were the same people chasing IT guys because of their pay-packet and onsite offers to US and UK. An economic recession and IT guys have become the new untouchables. Money has become so big a matter, that no other virtue is considered. In fact, the IT guys in cities like Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad are asked by prospective in-laws if they were on bench.

This new and strange phenomenon reminded me of an old song from the movie Vidhata, directed by Subhash Ghai. The song was vulgar for those times, and a big hush-hush. When I watched this movie on video, 20 years back, I had to fast-forward the song. The song was a tale of 7 friends who discussed the cons of marrying guys of varied professions.

saat saheliya khadi khadi
fariyaad sunaye ghadi ghadi

The first profession that they talk about is that of a doctor. This is one of the most popular professions and usually never spoken about condescendingly.

ek saheli ka
miya tha doctor
……….
raat bhar muaa sone na de
injection lagaye ghadi ghadi

The crude lyrics point to the perception of how doctors love to poke an injection for just about anything, of course here the injection is suggestive for something else.

Next comes the rugged profession of driving. City driving has become quite a nuisance and honking is one of the ways of finding our way out through the dense traffic.

ek sahlei ka
miya tha driver
……….
raat bhar muaa sone na de
pho pho bajaye ghadi ghadi

The lyrics here again point to the excessive pushing at the horns, thereby producing a loud noise which can keep your partner on bed and co-passengers on road, totally awake.

Tailoring was always a popular summer-time course, but as a profession … well in times of recession, any job is good enough.

ek saheli ka
miya tha darzi
……….
raat bhar muaa sone na de
sooyi chubhaaye ghadi ghadi

We have another reference to the poking phenomenon here, just as the injection. And again, this is the cause for getting rejected as well.

I am sure we have all suffered because of a dancing neighbour who would put on the music at odd hours and start their practise.

ek saheli ka
miya tha dancer
……….
raat bhar muaa sone na de
ta ta thaiyya karawe ghadi ghadi

This is akin to dancing to somebody’s tune or dancing at the snap of a finger. But seriously speaking, dancing on bed can be injurious as we are prone to twisting a muscle or spraining ourself.

Something else thats injurious to health is drinking. But drinking is a socially relevant necessary evil, else you can’t have a decent party.

ek saheli ka
miya sharabi
……….
raat bhar maka sone na de
bottle dikhaya ghadi ghadi

Showing a bottle time and again, don’t know what crude sense to make out of it. But a drunk partner should be totally avoided, they may just pass-out while you are still interested in the act.

Delivering mails, how lucrative is that? But, at one point of time being a postman used to be a sought after job.

ek saheli ka miya
miya tha daakiya
……….
raat bhar maka sowan na de
thappo lagaye ghadi ghadi ghadi

Stamping someone all over, that must be some fun. But yet, that’s not what some girls look forward to.

I didn’t know hailing from Kolhapur could be such a bad thing.

ek saheli ka
miya kolhapuri
………
raat bhar malaa sone na de
chappal dikhaye ghadi ghadi

Yeah, being a Kolhapuri should not be correlated to excessive use of slippers. And still, we have someone complaining about being shown the slipper, probably a case of domestic abuse and/or wife beating.

The lives of IT guys can be marred by involvement in activities of more than one of the professions mentioned above. What if the IT guy happened to be a Kolhapuri, he should be avoided. What if the IT guy drives to work everyday and ends up with carpal tunnel syndrome because of inordinate honking, he should definitely be avoided. What if the IT guy gets drunk in a project party and returns home totally deflated, do not consider such a person. So, where does that leave the IT guys?

If the above song were to be written now, they would surely have included the IT related professionals as well. Its quite a grim situation, the IT guy is in danger of losing his job on account of slowdown and he could be rejected by prospective brides on account of his profession. We probably have to wait for the next IT boom, because this is as bad as IT gets.

This post was first published on PFC

 

ajab sanju ki gajab kahani

Today is Sanjay Dutt’s 50th birthday. Wish him a very happy birthday.

The day I learnt that Sanjay Dutt is stepping into politics I was a little confused; I was wondering if it is his cup of tea or will he be just tasting it to add yet another experience in his already mired life. From what I have seen and heard about him, he is supposed to be a very emotional person who does things for friends, who takes decisions on the spur, and who can be frivolous at times. But, on the other hand he seems to be the ideal political candidate or guinea pig.

If we observe Sanju’s life and career graph and put it in a book or a movie, it will be an instant best-seller. The tough times that he has gone through and the happy days that he has seen have almost always been like a zebra-crossing, starting with his debut movie Rocky to joining Samajwadi Party.

With a successful father and a great dad-mom duo at home he was a much pampered child and he did get his dream debut in the movie industry with ‘Rocky’ which released in 1981. But he started off on wrong note, the movie bombed. His next movie Vidhata fared much better, more so because it had Dilip Kumar being directed by Subhash Ghai. After the success of ‘Vidhata’ he did a whole lot of forgettable movies like Mera Faisla, Jaan Ki Baazi, Jeeva etc.

Sanju shot to fame for his depiction of a guy who goes to Dubai to earn quick bucks and ends up becoming a drug peddler in ‘Naam’. I really loved this movie and this is one of the finest performances that he has given. It may have come naturally to him since he had been through a similar struggle in his personal life. His drug addiction and rehab stories are legendary and then his mother was fighting cancer and finally succumbed to it. All this may have added to his performance. He went on to act in a few more movies which fared in the box-office like Kabzaa, Mohabbat Ke Dushman, Imaandar, Kanoon Apna Apna etc.

Just when he was peaking in his career with hit movies like Sadak, Yodha, Krodh and Thaanedar; and just when he was in the league of Anil Kapoor, Sunny Deol and Jackie Shorff, he got arrested under TADA for illegal possession of arms and ammunitions[AK-56 was recovered from his house] and he was also charged in connection with the Bombay bomb-blasts of 1993. Soon after his arrest, Khalnayak released. The movie was about a boy Ballu who had lost his path and ends up on the wrong side of the law. The movie was surrounded with controversy, firstly because of the movie title and secondly because of the content and of course the infamous song choli ke peeche. The movie portrayed an ideal father who wants his son to come up on his own and live with honesty, whereas the son wants instant success and luxuries of life which lead him to wrong company. People equated this portrayal to his real life scenario, thereby creating a wrong perception of Sanju.

Sanju spent 1.5 yrs in Arthur Road jail. He did confess to the fact that he possessed the arms and his companionship with the other co-accused but he denied any knowledge of the bigger conspiracy. He was finally granted bail, and so started his tryst with jail visits on and off. After getting released from jail, he made a great comeback with movies like Daag, Dushman, Vaastav, Mission Kashmir. He also tried his hands in the comedy genre with movies like Haseena Maan Jayegi, Khoobsurat, Jodi No.1 etc.

Finally, he had his best-time ever in movie industry with success of movies like Kaante, Munnabhai MBBS, Parineeta, Dus, Zinda, Lage Raho Munnabhai. It took him a lot of time to change the image from Baba to Munnabhai, from a guy who had been through rehab to a guy who rediscovered Gandhi; from being careless and ruthless to being sensitive and caring; from being a vagabond to finally settling down.

Sanju’s personal life is also zig-zagged with lots of happy and sad moments. He lost his mother and first wife, Richa Sharma to cancer. His daughter Trishala, from his first marriage, lives far away in US and he does not get to meet her often. While he was in jail, his fiance Rhea Pillai stood by him and she even led quite a few movements asking fellow actors to come in support of him. Once Sanju was out of jail, he married Rhea but that marriage did not last long. They finally called it quits and she is happily married to Leander Paes, the tennis star. Now, Sanju has involved himself in another controversy – marrying Manyata Dilnawaz Sheikh. Manyata’s previous marriage has not yet been declared null and void and she has hopped onto another one, thereby attracting media attention.

He has also estranged his sister Priya Dutt in the process. Firstly he did not inform her about his marriage with Manyata and she got to know of it through a media scoop. And now he has declared that he will stand for election on a Samajwadi party ticket because of his newfound love for Amar Singh whom he calls his elder brother.

People get involved in controversy, but in Sanju’s case he has invited controversy, befriended it and thrived on it. But what is admirable about him is the fighting spirit, never-say-die, never give-up or give-in. He has been through the toughest of situations and come out unscathed; be it his drug abuse and rehab, loss of mom and first wife, jailed under TADA … he has seen it all.

Here is a short summary of events which has finally culminated into him joining politics:

1. a bollywood superstar
2. son of an illustrious and well respected actor-cum-politician[Sunil
Dutt was staunch congressman and a great example of man with Gandhian
principles and of course a brilliant actor]
3. a drug addict who has been through rehab
4. twin tragedies like losing his mother and wife to cancer
5. languished in jail under TADA on charges of abetting terrorism
6. second innings of film career as Munnabhai, thereby making a new
place for himself in people’s heart
7. marrying somebody else’s wife in a controversial manner
8. estranged relationship with sisters and daughter
9. finally taking a plunge into politics

The first 8 points don’t necessarily lead to the 9th point, but he probably is destiny’s child.

This post was first published on PFC

 

Subhash Ghai – A Leopard Changes Its Spots

Subhash Ghai, the showman of the industry, is now not-to-be-seen anywhere. The man who gave a string hits like Vidhata, Hero, Meri Jung, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Khalnayak, Pardes, Taal; and then suddenly he lost the magic touch. When you read the names of these movies, I am sure you noticed that all these were the typical masala Hindi movies which had the recurrent themes of separation, injustice, revenge and love. And most of these movies had brilliant soundtrack, good songs and nice ear for music. I am not going to write about these movies, that’s already done in a post which is a small capsule of all his potboiler movies which he made before the beginning of the new millenium. That post can be found here, and my intention was to write about his later movies.

Yaadein – 2001 : At the turn of the century, Subhash Ghai gave us this crap of a movie. This was the first time he was working with Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor, he wanted to capitalize on their popularity. The YRF banner, KJo and other makers started making movies for the NRI audience when they realised that foreign revenues coming in $$ makes a huge difference to the BO report. So, Ghai wanted to follow the trend and he set his movie in London. Since he was targetting the NRI, he based his story on a NRI disjointed family trying to retain Indian values.

The movie turned into an ‘ad fest’ with long shots of Coke in Jackie Shroff‘s hands, his daughters riding Hero cycle, Ladybird I guess; Paas-Paas flavoured gutka or whatever the hell that was. We were subjected to such paid-torture; do we buy tickets or rent dvd’s to see ads, but here we were bombarded with ads. The story-telling was no good at all, even emotional scenes had ads peeking from all sides, Jackie openly declaring that Coke is his second love. Ghai lost the plot in the screenplay stage, and the final product was embarassing. Even the music of the movie was not very good, save for a couple of songs like Jab Dil Miley and the title song. The showman failed miserably, and he still has not been able to make a comeback. His downfall started from here onwards.

Kisna – 2005 : After the disaster of Yaadein, it took Ghai 4 long years before he could come out with his next directorial venture. In between, he wrote a simple story of love blosomming between a young actress and an old judge, the movie was Jogger’s Park. He produced Jogger’s Park in 2003 and Aitraaz in 2004.

With the success of Lagaan came the new trend of having a foreign face in the movie, a white actress. Lot of movies were announced with such starcast, like Out Of Control, Mangal Pandey, Salaam-E-Ishq etc. This probably prompted Ghai to write a periodical, or a movie set in 1800′s. He signed Vivek Oberoi who was the most sought after guy, back then. The story was about Kisna, a poet, and his crusade for saving the life of a British woman who is being chased by nationalists; and how he escorts her to safety and fights everyone who tries to stop them. Ghai did not adhere to his normal formula, he ventured into unknown territories and was lost.

The movie had good music, both from Ismail Darbar and AR Rahman. The performances were a shame, no one did justice to their role. Isha Sharvani, in her debut, danced well; but that’s all she did, that’s all she was asked to do. Nothing good from the foreign actress Antonia Bernath, and Vivek Oberoi did not look the part. He was so out of place. This movie was Amrish Puri‘s last release, in fact he expired two weeks before the movie released.

Black & White – 2008 : After the debacle of Kisna, Ghai went into hibernation once again. He continued producing small budget movies which did well, like Iqbal and 36 Chinatown. After the success of Iqbal, he backed Nagesh Kukunoor‘s next project Bombay to Bangkok which flopped.

Anyways, terrorism was turning out to be the talk of the country. Lots of film-makers were writing stories about terrorists and terror plots. Ghai, not to be left behind, also started writing his own story, much inspired by the Afzal Guru episode. He called the movie B&W, because he hoped to show both sides of the coin. Having married a muslim himself, I thought Ghai would be able to bring out the dichotomy in a sensitive manner. He made a brave attempt in trying to explain the psyche of a terrorist, but he failed in nailing the issue. I felt cheated when he declared that the protagonist came from across the border. He should have had the guts to show a home-bred terrorist. The movie climax was much like Dil Se, a terrorist taking refuge in a house and is on a mission.Â

The musical score by Sukhwinder Singh was impressive. Anil Kapoor gave a very restrained performance as professor Mathur and Habeeb Tanvir as the poet was marvellous. But again, Ghai’s lack of experience in dealing with serious issues of grave consequence was exposed. An attempt in vain.

Yuvraaj – 2008 : Aamir’s TZP became a hit, Apna Asmaan received critical appreciation, Iqbal also did well. As goes the trend of the industry, follow the trend, Ghai did so. He decided to make such a movie, and he went for the easiest inspiration in the form of Rain Man. Rain Man was a story straight out of the saying where there is a will, there are relatives; and Subhash Ghai added one more relative to that list. He made it a story of 3 brothers, one of them being autistic; Anil Kapoor played the part which Dustin Hoffman had played, Salman Khan was doing what Tom Cruise had done; and Zayed Khan, I still don’t know what the hell was he doing in the movie.

The only kind of relief was the musical score. AR Rahman gave some very hummable numbers like Tu Muskura and Tu Hi To Meri Dost Hai; and the background score was really good. But the casting of the movie was horrible. Salman Khan, as usual, just slept through the role; Zayed Khan mouthed the lines without any expression/emotion/feeling and Katrina Kaif was just about tolerable. Anil Kapoor tried his best, to compensate for the non-acting of his fellow artists.

I feel really bad for Ghai who has fallen into bad times. He has been trying different things, but has not succeeded at any of them. Unlike 1990′s, where he hit a jackpot with his formula movies, he is trying to re-invent himself now. He seems to have lost the touch of making his masala movies, inserting action-emotion-tragedy-melodrama-comedy-revenge-family, he is a pale shadow of his golden past. Zindagi har kadam ek nayi jung hai …