Champ

10 saal….lagta nahi….waqt ki gard taley dabey un yadoon ke liye shayaad bhag daur bhari zindagi main ab koi waqt na ho… par na janey kyon aaj ke ek din koi lumha zaroor tehar jata hoga…

kya guzartey waqt ka, lumha koi thehar jata hoga
Koi bhatkta-awara pal, yaad meri dilate hooga

kabhi nigah uski bhi door talak ja ke laut aati hoogi
Meri tarasti aankon ka akhir usey bhi to guma hooga

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings

aaj phir tenhai se pucha ki hum tenha kyun hai
wo jo meri mohabbat thi voo kisi aur ke kismat kyun hai

kai baar khuda se u hin ek sarsari si dua maangi thi
khuda janey duaon ki katar main mera purza pichad jata kyun hai

Kisi hamdard ki salah

samay rehte kyo nahi thaam li mohabbat
wo jo itni azeez thi kabhi thi tumhari kismat

ab kyo dhoondtey ho guzare sanyey
jo rang lagte hai wo sirf shayar-e-khayal hai

bhool jao un aankhon ko, jo bhool chuki tumko
phir shayad naye manzar nazar aye tumko

dua karo khuda se, magar dil se, phursat se
allah ke darbar me ‘gar hai to woh mohabbat hai…

kya karron e dost
kismat ka badalna to uski fitrat thi
anjam-y-mohabat to sirf kurbat thi,

Kisi ne jeety raheny aur tadapney ki ‘dua’ di thi kabhi,
ho gayi dua kubul uski, u.n kar ab mar bhi nahi pata main abhi

Kya naam doon isko

Mohabbat ka anjam mohabbat hai,
taqdeer badal bhi jaye to kya hai,
yeh jahaan nahi to kahi aur sahi,
Mohabbat ki kabhi shikast nahi.
Tum me ‘gar woh kashish hai
to zindagi ke safar me koyee kaafir to milega.

Manti hoon ki khwabon par koi zor nahi
kambakht aab-e-deedah kar jatey hai…
par zara socho, jab thoda inke kareeb aatey ho,
kitne pardo ke peechey yeh chip jaatey hai
aakhir yeh sirf khwaab hai…
haqeeqat hai ki tum tanha ho.

Bujha do yaddon ki aag ko, iski garami me sirf jalogey
Kinhi aur aankhon me jhanko, baad-e-sabaa bikharney do.

Sardiya aaj bhi sunheri hai, kayee dil aur tanha hai
Reshmi baalon me muskuratey khoobsoorat chehre
ek pyar ki nazar ke liye tarastey…
Har taraf mohabbat hai

Us mohabbat ke naam jo aaj bhi tumaharey dil me salamat hai
aisi mohabbat ki saugat kisi aur dil ko dekar dekho

Phir shayad jaanoge tumhari baano ki mohabbat-e-dua kya thi.

Somebody recently said to me that “thinking it certain way makes his/her life easy.”

This line has just stuck with me. Perhaps being selfish is human nature, everyone is selfish up to certain extent. We shut our eyes to reality because it makes us feel better. But this is bizarre way of thinking!

My interpretation of this statement was “I think in certain way because it doesn’t make me feel guilty. I think in certain way because it stops me from seeing that there could be another interpretation of events. I demolish other person’s credentials because it makes me look good. I paint other person dark because it makes me shine.”

Yes, it does suit everyone right now.

But how long can you live like this? Will you never face your demons and continue to live a lie? How can you base your entire life on denying the truth? I am not the best guy around, neither have I claimed that. Somehow, whenever I went out of the way to help someone, it always backfired. And the best part is every one of them lapped-up the help I extended and blamed me for whatever went wrong.

Does it happen with you guys as well? If it does, what do you reckon is the best way to deal with situations?

I think lot of things in life are governed by perceptions. Image matters. Despite being the most calculative person if you manage to project that you are a simpleton, the burden of guilt never comes on you. This is was my first lesson in life. Come to think of it, it doesn’t really matter what people think, but you feel cheated because you were also enamoured by that image.

Secondly, the person you went out of the way to help can screw you, anytime. Again, it depends how you look at it. From a certain point of view, it doesn’t really affect me much. But at times it hurts. Interestingly they lapped-up what was being offered, but then make someone else villain, because “it makes my life easy”!!

Tonight I went see the Australia v. Japan World Cup tie at the Federation Square —
big screen, bigger crowd, lots of beer and my favourite sport. Quit a heady mix!

But what a fabulous game it was!

Now that I am in Australia, I was rooting for this lovely country and the Socceroos obliged with three goals in last 14 minutes. Interestingly, there was a huge bunch of Japanese in blue Samurai uniforms, singing and chanting for most part of the games. The 1-0 lead,which lasted deep into the second half, kept them on their feets for most part of the game.

What I really love about Australia is that you can support any country/side you want to without anything nasty being said to you. The bigger Australian supporters were very sporting, reacting only to the game. There were a few jokers, 2 to be more precise, who yelled f#*@ a few times, but fortunately, both Japs and Aussies ignored these twisted buffoons and party went on.

However, the moment John Aloisi netted the third goal, the Aussie supporters starting singing “sionara, sionara… goodbye, goodbye”. Again, just a harmless Aussie banter.

What followed was a typically Aussie character — play hard, party harder. The entire crowd gathered in the middle of the Flinders-Sawnston crossing and danced till the early morning. And why not — Australia, the football nation has arrived.

While dancing with this totally mad crowd I was thinking which country I am going to support in the next game. On the one side it will be my all-time favorite Brazil and on the other side my new found love Australia.

Heck, who cares, party tonight, we will see when the game comes (Australian influence, is it?).

Songs, which probably started as a ting of cultural flavour to Indian cinema, have become the driving force of Bollywood economics.

To make it simpler for non-Bollywood readers:

In west you have two sharply divided industries music and film.

In India there is a huge overlap. Both industries have co-existed and flourished riding on each others popularity. That is why India could never had a totally independent music industry. But it does not mean that India doesn’t have a strong music industry. It does. But it is just that it took a different rout to success.

So instead of making an audio album, and pumping of heaps of money in tis video and promotion, producers clubbed songs with films and tapped both markets at one go.

Probably culture of music videos’ started way before in India than anywhere else. The only difference was that instead of featuring the singer or a model in the video, Indian avtaar’s had top Bollywood stars dancing in them.

There are scores of movies in Indian cinema, which purely rode on its music to success.

And the idea of clubing two forms made huge business sense for the Bollywood producers. If the music of a film is good, producer’s can recover the entire cost of the film production just by selling music rights to audio companies.

Plus, songs smoothly integrates in the marketing plan of Bollywood films.

Producers normally launch the music a few months before the release of the movie. If the music is successful, there is a ready made hype for their film. Tapping the mood of the market, music videos will follow on the TV screens and once the hype reaches its pinnacle, film hits the theatre.

Many Indian producers/directors have mastered this craft. And their swelling bank balances prove that it is a hit formula.

Like many senior artists in the Indian film industry, I also despise the name Bollywood. I think the name, straight lift from Hollywood, trivialises the industry.

To the west, Bollywood only means a colourful cluttered screen with 100 dancers scampering for space. If I ask anyone here what do you like about Indian films, they can’t go beyond couple of words and the most common ones are: colour, dance, music, vibrant ambience etc.

HEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLOOOO

There are storylines, acting, cinematography, editing, sound, narration as well…look at them. Apart from a few of my professors, I couldn’t find anyone who would go beyond colour-dance cliché.

And the problem is, if you try to make them see something different like Black, most of them would say no to it, saying they want to see a regular Bollywood flick. It’s a double edged sword. So if a film offers a run-of-the-mill song-and-dance drama, the film fails to break colour-dance shackles. And if it tries something different, it is no more Bollywood!

I tried to find a parallel of Bollywood songs in Hollywood/western films. And I think it is “love making scene”. I think both forms have the similar frequency in respective industries.

If you want to understand Indian film industry, you have to understand the Indian culture as well. Songs and dance are part of Indian life. Everyone sings in India—good or bad. Every occasion has special songs for it.

Every traditional occupation had their songs. So every time a shepard, farmer, or a bullock-cart driver enters celluloid screen, most common occupation, apart from his job, would be singing.

Moreover, every occasion in India has its own song. So we have songs for harvesting, sowing, birth, marriage, morning, evening, night, sleeping, waking-up. You name it, we have it.

Plus, when there are festivals, what else can someone think of apart from singing and dancing. And above all we have Love. The eternal theme of cinema across the world. And love expresses itself most effectively through songs.

So what else do you expect from such country’s film industry…it has to be musical.

In the next entries I’ll talk about why colours are important to Bollywood and why it makes huge business sense to have songs in Cinema.

After coming to Australia I realised how lucky Indian media industry has been to have a language/culture insulation against the powerful US media conglomerates.

The pressure of US media giants on the media companies of other English speaking countries is unbearable. And the direct consequence is slow suffocation of native talent. Most of the media professional in Oz land either relocate themselves in US of A or keep fighting a loosing battle.

Having said that, I really believe that the there is a huge responsibility which lies in the way this country has handled its film and TV industry. One of the biggest attractions with any media product is ‘proximity’. If you offer me something which happens in and round my life…something with which I can identify with AND it is has EXCELLENT QUALITY, there is little reason I would go for something which is made in US and dumped at ¼th price in “second-grade” market for US products.

But unfortunately, Australian media companies have adopted an easy way out. Either they re-hash the popular US TV format or simply buy a TV series at dirt-cheap price and beam it for the local market.

The condition of Australian TV/cinema is somewhat similar to regional cinema in India. While southern non-Hindi speaking states have flourishing film industry, states which speak various dialects of Hindi could never face the might of Bollywood.

But Australia, as other Indian states, should take a leaf out of southern Indian states who have managed to build a flourishing TV/cinema industry. Though these states, like Bollywood, had the language advantage, people here generally understand Hindi. But it is not only language which retained it’s audience, it was quality of their product as well. And there mantra was simple — keep it local. Find a good story, tell it effectively and keep the native flavour alive.

Perhaps what English speaking countries like Australia need is right idea. There is no need to invest on huge sets and expensive production. All you need is a sellable product, which is made for local market. Once it is successful here, it is bound to find global audience. Bend it like Beckham and Munna Bhai MBBS are classic examples of this theory.

Probably, it is an oversimplification of the entire issue.

But what want to I urge is Australian cinema’s stress should be on idea, rather than stars or production values.

PS: For those who don’t know about Munna Bhai MBBS: It was a super-hit Bollywood movie which has been re-made in various Indian languages and recently Fox bought the rights to the script of Munnabhai MBBS.

This question has been floating in our class for quite sometime now. I tried exploring definitions for this genre, and there are loads of them:

“Presenting facts objectively without editorializing or inserting fictional matter, as in a book or film.”

“A work, such as a film or television program, presenting political, social, or historical subject matter in a factual and informative manner and often consisting of actual news films or interviews accompanied by narration,” defines dictionary.com.

There are a few more on the web, but most of them more or less rephrase “realistic presentation of event, people situation etc.”

These words raise a simple question—what is realistic presentation. Can’t drama be a real presentation of actual events? Why can’t Gandhi be called a documentary? It is a realistic presentation of actual events and the film keeps oscillating between plain narrations and depicting actual event.

To understand realism we can go back to the 19th century definition of realism “A nineteenth-century European literary movement that sought to portray familiar characters, situations, and settings in a realistic manner. This was done primarily by using an objective narrative point of view and through the build-up of accurate detail. The standard for success of any realistic work depends on how faithfully it transfers common experience into fictional forms. The realistic method may be altered or extended, as in stream of consciousness writing, to record highly subjective experience. Seminal authors in the tradition of Realism include Honore de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, and Henry James. (reference)

Riding on this definition, every narration which goes nearest to reality will adhere to realism. And if a narration can come into the preview of realism, and if it based on real character and events it can easily fit the regular documentary definition.

I think we need realy need to broaden the definition of documentary. Moreover, when lines are blurring between TV/radio/film, there are little chances that documentary will retain its clear distinction or I’m just trying to be devil’s advocate .

References:
Various websites, periodicals and newspapers