Is this freedom ?

"Tonight, at the stroke of midnight when the whole world would be sleeping india would awake". These were the words of india's first prime minister, pandit nehru, after india gained independence. Ten days back, the same country has celebrated its 59th anniversary with manmohan singh talking about "aam aadmi" and the ever increasing GDP growth. Enough of this hokum, i feel india is still under a deep slumber much to the chagrin of kumbhakarna.

I fail to understand how our PM could talk about GDP growth when, an americanism to use, 72 % of our population gets less than 1 $ per day. Just because some people of the organised sector flush with cash does not mean our country is self sufficient. Once china or philippines get their workforce compatible with global standards all of the parvenus would be nice stories for desi version of "lost". Our politicians hark about their agenda and about the references of pogroms in history text books. They do not make any attempt to let these books be read by every child. All they do is shouting vociferously. In a way, we the people are to be blamed. Whenever anything happens we play the blame game and blame the politicians. Our country needs atleast thousands of the likes of arvind kejriwal, jaya prakash narayan etc., All we do is debate or write a critique(like this writer is doing right now).

The current generation is way too prone to knee jerk reactions and coupled with radical movies like rang de basanti this is the "rang de basanti" generation. Bullshit. Not getting to know facts and just protesting against reservation is more of an attempt to hog the spotlight than getting to the root of the problem. We ask two cardinal questions but never wait to listen the answers. Why ? How ?

Venality has become part of our bureaucracy. Jugaad has become part our mindsets. We have accepted bribery as part of the machinery and who has given the fillip to this depravity. Its US. How many of us care to ask for the bill if the shopkeeper reduces 200 on the mobile phone price. Thanks to kbc and big b's insistent plea to ask for bill, i have started asking for the bill. Let me assure you, its not a nice thing to ask for. Those eyes of the shopkeepers abuse you nothing less than SON OF A BITCH.

I see no difference when we were under east india company and now under the UPA government. The freedom has only made us more lazy. Earlier we were slaves to the east india company, nowadays, we are slaves to technology. Am not a luddite but the scenario is as such only. Atleast, we used to work as slaves. After independence, we became even more laggard in out work. Some of the current generation use technology to abuse. Freedom of expression exists only in the preamble. If you are a movie star, be with the draconian policy of the government. Dare you waver and your movie will be banned. Recently, the government has imposed a blanket ban on all blogs because it seems they were "anti-government". So if an article is remotely seditious, the person is done for. Michael moore is a very lucky guy. Even though his documentary fahrenheit 9/11 was hugely seditious, america has still let him release the film.

Hypocrisy is something which is synonymous with we indians. Our beauty queens talk about mother teresa and after winning the crown shake the coffin of the same lady with their on screen antics. Our politicians are brand ambassadors for this emotion . Ulfa, naxals, militants of kashmir, bodo are all still "fighting" for freedom. With one major blast every week, life has no guarantee in india. No wonder then that the recent survey showed that india is the 125th most happiest country. Thanks to a dude known as saddam hussain we are ahead of iraq. A recent display of hypocrisy was shown by our PM himself. While waxing eloquent about the GDP and FDI, he also made clear that the prices of LPG n kerosene will be increased.

Every 28 minutes one women in our country gets abused, every one hour a woman gets killed. And we speak of 33% reservation for women in parliament. AT this rate, leave aside representing parliament our sex ratio would be so skewed that a women will have to marry atleast two men. If a girl elopes with a guy against her family's wishes the girl is killed in the name of "honou killing". Its time we break these shibboleths. Our premium institutions are setup using the tax payer's money but the "cream" goes away to contribute to the federal reserves. This is INDIA for me. And it will be like this for atleast years to come. Am loathing at myself and this country.. Are u ???

Kabhi alvida na dekhna

The following write-up is a kind of screed. So please read on if you have the patience which is very much required

here. Here is a small joke which i heard from some unknown quarter.
Manager to boss : Sir, aap hamesha picture dekhne ke liye secretary ke saath kyun jaate hai ?
Boss: Aaj kal family ke saath dekhne layak filmein kahan banti hai.

One person would be certainly offended with this joke- karan johar. His films have always upheld family values. But post kabhi alvida na kehna he is going to be the butt of ridicule of such jokes. But to be truthful, this movie definitely needs to be watched by married couples. Who knows ?? An unknown passion might get stoked.With kabhi alvida na kehna karan johar completes trilogy of a sort. In KKHH, the protagonists fall in love. In K3G, the protagonists take care of their parents. And in KANK, the protagonists get bored of the earlier two things . So they start having extra marital affairs. So far so good, right ?? No, because the movie falls flat on its face.

The movie has everything: dream cast, great music, amazing locales. But it lacks in THE most important thing - script which can atmost be termed as higgledy-piggledy. Two marriages are apparently on rocks. And one person from each marriage falls for each other. From hereon, the movie becomes part 2 of kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi. The characters are so loosely conceptualised that they are way too capricious. At one moment preity n srk hug each other and in the very next shot with no specific provocation get into haranguing n hectoring each other. Abhishek n rani's relationship is no better. Amitabh bachchan is given a role which is best suited for the likes of gulshan grover or shakti kapoor. Karan johar
sleepwalked in the direction department beacuse the whole bunch of actors were shouting in either strident or shrill voices. Ladies were cantankerous. Men were as good as them.
Its only when abhishek bachchan appears on the screen that the proceedings become alive. But due to proximity of srk to karan johar abhishek makes sporadic appearance in the film. The whole film is only about srk n rani.
However, kudos to karan johar for taking this kind of "hatke" subject. But i guess he had no conviction in the script half way through. Its a cliched ridden movie. Srk is a limping man and so his self-esteem takes a beating. Rani cant bear a child and
so she is kind of guilty for depriving the joy of having a child. And these two battered souls meet up only to bore the audiences.
Its good that the movie has been made. Extra marital affairs have always been debatable(read it as polemic) issues. Atleast the inamoratas will have kind of badinage on this movie even after its over. The projection though, has been
wrong. Do married people have extra marital affair - as shown in the movie- for physical satisfaction ?? Or emotional ?? If they are really in love, should their partners be commiserating enough to let them have a relationship ?? Well, these are
questions emanating from my mind with no defnite answers.

From trade point of view, this movie is a big letdown. It does not cater to nri audiences who expect large doses of patriotism. They would like it if AB baby would address BIG B as pitaji rather than as DUDE. On home front, the movie is an even bigger letdown. Our audiences are not mature enough to accept these subjects. I am in no way snubbing their intelligence but the truth is this. Not many can relate with this kind of storyline. Finally, law of averages caught up with karan johar and he delivered a dud. Atleast he should have changed the city. Same old new york as in KHNH. Nah..

Karan johar is better off as a brand ambassador of glycerine products. One last question pops up in my mind :Whenever taboos like live-ins and extra marital affairs have to be shown, why do the filmmakers flee to foreign cities like
siddharth anand to australia and now karan johar to new york.

P.S: I am a big AB BABY fan. I saw his bare chest in antar mahal. And in KANK i saw his long hairy bare legs. OOh.. One good reason to watch KANK. DHOOM-2 trailer is being shown. And boy oh boy, hrithik looks dashing, bips in a
striped bikini is oomph la la.. Aish looks stunning and abhi is as usual cooooll..