Un cuento chino

Imagine yourself being lost in an unknown place with no money, smartphone etc. where people speak in a different language you don't understand. So what you can do?

Un cuento chino

Before you start thinking in your mother tongue, here is an Argentine movie "Un cuento chino" that narrates the journey of a Chinese man who is lost after landing at the airport of Buenos Aires, where he doesn't speak nor understand Spanish language neither do the native people speak Chinese.

While watching the film I was imagining that if the audience don't speak Chinese & Spanish language, then watching it without subtitles would bring different interpretations. At the same time, this film has different point of view for the Chinese (mandarin speaking) audiences who can't speak Spanish.

Director Sebastián Borensztein has comically & emotionally created a bonding between the two countries of China & Argentina through a protagonist character Roberto (played by Ricardo Darín). He is a lonely man & owns a machinery shop. He maintains a strict daily routine & has a rare hobby of collecting bizarre news from the newspaper where coincidentally a Chinese story of a cow falling from an airplane & killing a lover on the boat was one among his favorite. One day he discovers a helpless Chinese man Jun (Ignacio Huang) near the airport, being robbed and left without anything except an address tattooed on his shoulder. 

Roberto (left) & Jun (right) sharing sign language

One cannot enjoy the movie with subtitles because it will ruin the real essence of this movie. Actor Ricardo Darín has taken the story to a different level by delivering the final interpretation to the audience. 

"Es una película para los amantes de idiomas" --- Those who don't speak Spanish, they can copy & translate this sentence in google. If you pause for a while & choose not to, then it will live for long just like the Chinese dialogues in this movie that I don't understand at all but it creates my own interpretation of human emotions.

Corazón de León

Love has no boundary, no language, no limitations. It is universal in a way that we can fall at any point of time. Whether we watch Hollywood movies of Woody Allen, Bollywood romantic movies or Bengali movies like "Devdas", we enjoy feeling it from our heart.

Every ambition has to pay, so does love. At some point of our life we all fall in love without thinking or judging much but rather we develop a feeling that comes from inside. Here Ivana Cornejo (Julieta Díaz) a successful lawyer, develops a feeling for León Godoy (Guillermo Francella) an architect, in this Argentine movie "Corazón de León".

Heart Of Lion

But what is so special about this couple?

Here the protagonist character, León, is un enano i.e. a dwarf & Ivana falls in love with him irrespective of their differences in height.

"Me fatlan 40 centimetros, pero es nada grave-- It lacks only 40 cm nothing much" says León on their first meeting at a restaurant. Ivana is surprised to meet him as she has created an imaginary portray of this man based on a telephonic conversation they had before.

Now the story outshines our common belief that we generally follow like- LOVE at FIRST sight, FIRST impression is the LAST impression, bla bla bla... At first it gives us a clear scenario where we can sense that nothing will work out between this mismatched couple. Dating is out of question. But the spectacular narration of this romantic comedy film by Director Marcos Carnevale, slowly unfolds the emotional feelings of Ivana for this man León. The more we enter into the film, the deeper we encounter the character of this man as a father, friend & lover surpassing his height. 

LOVE is like a dream. We don't realize it in the beginning until we wake up in the middle, not being able to complete the journey.

  

Love Sex aur Dhoka

Director Dibakar Banerjee introduce the shaky hand-held camera technique for the first time in India to make this film in 2010 with the help of security & spy camera before the arrival of selfie era that we are living now. We can find resemblance of these techniques in some Hollywood horror films like The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity & in the recent Spanish feature film "La Cueva". 

The title of this film gives the clear idea about what we are witnessing in our society among the youth. Here three different stories are being portrayed where each one of them goes through the journey of Love, Sex and betrayal.

The first story reminds me of a long lost & forgotten identity of Rizwanur Rahman in Kolkata where his mysterious death brought a terrible example in our society of committing a big error of being fallen in love with a girl of rich & conservative family.

First part- Rahul (middle), a film school student infatuated with the leading actress Shruti

The second story is the vital part of the movie where it connects the first & third part as the main plot. Here a guy Adarsh (Rajkumar Rao) tries to seduce an employee Rashmi (Neha Chauhan) of the store mall to have sex in front of the shop's security camera, so that he can make a lot of profit out of it. While playing he falls in love with her without even realizing it. So the conflict between greed & emotion starts developing until it ends with a decision at the final moment.

2nd part

The third part involves a journalist who is looking for a scandal story as a way of sting operation. He discovers an aspiring dancer Naina (Arya Banerjee) who is a victim of a Punjabi pop singer Loki Local. She was being promised to get launched in a music video with him but instead he was using her only for the purpose of sex. So the sting operation is to expose the casting couch with help of a hidden camera. Everything depends upon the trust between Naina & the journalist, whether the sting operation will be successful or not.

3rd part- Sting operation

The three different stories of the movie follow the same experience of love, sex and betrayal. Their paths somehow coincided along the way. If you are expecting a prime time entertainment from LSD, then it is more than that because the narration is the focus of all ENTERTAINMENT.  

TU NANGI ACHI LAGTI HAYE-- uncensored song

PADRE NUESTRO

This Spanish film is the directorial debut of Mr. Christopher Zalla, a Kenyan-born, Spanish speaking New Yorker. It is based upon an incomplete story of betrayal & identity theft that connects with very different characters.

PADRE NUESTRO

A 17 year-old Pedro (Jorge Adrian Espindola) who doesn't speak english, is starving & roaming around the deserted street of Brooklyn, where the lights of Manhattan's skyscrapers behind him blinks silently. He is searching for his father whom he had never met before. He was robbed on his way to New York when he was smuggled from his native land of Mexico. He was carrying a letter of his deceased mother along with his father's address and his photo.

While searching for his father, he strikes up an uncertain relationship with Magda (Paola Mendoza) a homeless prostitute and a drug addict, who agrees to help him locate his father in exchange of money.

The film starts with Juan (Armando Hernandez), a thug, fleeing from a local gang of Mexico before boarding a truck to be smuggled to New York city where he befriends with Pedro & robbed his personal belongings of his mother's letter along with his father's photo and address on the way while he was asleep. 

Juan, the impostor

The movie cuts back and forth between the two illegal Mexican immigrants-- One who is in search of his father Diego (Jesus Ochoa) an angry dishwasher and the other who manages to reach him with the stolen identity of Pedro.

At first Diego resists himself to believe Juan's lies but slowly it comes as a challenge for Juan to convince him with his charming & cunning behavior. The slow bonding between Juan & Diego creates an emotional mood like what a father & his son could experience where as Juan is after something else.

Pedro on his battle to earn daily wages with other illegal immigrants 

On one hand, Pedro who is the real son, is experiencing harsh reality on the shabbier street of New York city depending on a prostitute where as on the other hand, Juan is after something while discovering what a father could be like.

At any moment, the truth can destroy the house of cards, that are built upon numerous lies. One can find anything on this planet if he/she searches for it.

So what the final denouement would be like?? ... can't be guessed so easily     

  

I am 20

Director S.N.S.Sastry traveled all over the country India in the year 1967 & interviewed young nation's youth to make a short non-fiction documentary "I am 20".

I am 20
S.N.S.Sastry, India 1967, 18 mins

The progress of any country can be shown in different ways & here the director speaks to those who were born in the same year when independent India was born. Some interesting questions were asked about themselves, their ambition, what they feel about the progress of the country and what is to be done for the future. Their response was the mixture of irony, sarcasm, idealism, optimism & hope.

While watching this short film, I found an interesting connection with the generation gap. Nowadays we (our generation of 20s) hesitate to bond with the thinking of our previous generation because of the huge technological progress that we have made in this tech-savy era & other current issues. 

But after watching the film, I noticed a compelling fact that our past generation in the 60's era used to think exactly the same way we use to think now. After 47 years, we encounter changes in our outer appearances with different work culture (basic things remaining the same), that makes the film as relevant today as it was then.

So the question to the Indian youth of 20s (those who have seen the film & if not, I suggest you to see it first)--

If you ask yourself the same questions that were asked in the film, what comes on your mind? 

CASHBACK

"Parting is such a sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow"

                                                        --- William Shakespeare

This film is about one of the most touching & romantic breakup story, where we can relate the trauma of a broken relationship. People who have never experienced breakup till now, I will suggest them to do it in order to enjoy the freezing state of mind.... ;)

Anyway, the above suggestion is not mandatory and those who have broken their heart recently, they can adore the appealing graphic nudity of the film through the artist's point of view played by an art student named Ben Willis (Sean Biggerstaff of the "Harry Potter" series).

After having breakup with his girlfriend Suzy (Michelle Ryan), Ben starts suffering from insomnia, which is a common symptom of depression among the people. It's a feeling of being left out alone in this world without being given any chance. So the word "Move on" is the best solution you can get but the emotional attachment of the past relation keeps on breathing for an uncertain period of time.

Ben is morose at the loss of Suzy & goes on the midnight shift at a supermarket to distract himself from the trauma. While working there, he starts fantasizing that he can freeze time to explore every little details of the beauty of women without being noticed so that he can capture it through his painting. 

"A woman's secret fantasy was to have an affair with an artist. She thought that he would really see her. He would see every curve, every line, every indentation & love them because they were part of the beauty that made her unique"-- explains Ben in his voice over.

After watching the film, I feel like reinventing the true hidden artist inside me to become the next Pablo Picasso of 21st Century.... :)

So, what is LOVE? 

There are many ways to express it or may be not, but in this film audience must discover the moments of love or else you might miss it.

Y?

.........    

"A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end... but not necesarily in that order"

"All's well that ends well"

We are all familiar with this phrase/play of William Shakespeare. A story may have a beginning, a middle but the most important thing is the ending that holds the base of any story line, whether it is predictable or not.

But what happens when the story doesn't end the way it should be?

Christopher Nolan, introduced a wonderful way of storytelling in his movie "MEMENTO". Here the story is about an insurance company investigator Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), whose wife gets raped and murdered & he was left alive and injured by the culprit with a brain damage. He suffers from a short term memory loss but not to be confused with amnesia. Leonard seeks for the revenge of his wife's murderer.

The story is narrated out of sequence, with some scenes in monochrome, and at a hectic rate. This gets us involved into the film to use our own memories to reconstruct the chronological narrative. Director Nolan has used the technique of showing every sequence of the movie like the game of jumble words. The scratches on Leonard's cheek- where did they come from? Having essential information tattooed on his body- who did this and when? Meeting the attractive barmaid Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss)-- why he wants to meet her suddenly or is she using him on the other way round? 

Thus while watching the movie, we question our own perception of the world.

"But even if you get revenge you're not gonna remember it. You're not even going to know that it happened" Natalie tells Leonard somewhere in between the movie. 

So where does the story end? It's hard to reconstruct our own memories but with a line "Where was I?"

If we go back little earlier, Quentin Tarantino brought a new technique of story telling in his movie "PULP FICTION (1994)" which is considered as one of the Hollywood classic. Apart from classy style, the ending of the movie makes us wonder when John Travolta moves out of a restaurant with Samuel L.Jackson, when we see him killed inside an apartment sometimes back into the movie. 

So where does the story end? ... 

Jolly LLB

"Tarikh par tarikh, Tarikh par tarikh, Tarikh par tarikh.... 

par insaaf nahi mila milod, 

bas mili hai to sirf Tarikh"

                                                             

                                                                      -DAMINI (1993)

We all Indians agree with this dramatic and true dialogue of the Bollywood film "DAMINI", delivered by the actor Sunny Deol (not to be confused with Sunny Leone), who criticized the corrupted judicial system of India. The majority of the cases in India are pending, awaiting the dates of next hearing. It repeats on & on like a circle.

Before scrolling down, watch this creative output of the "GREEN PLYWOOD" ad below, that is entertaining for the Indians as well as audience abroad, an overview of the slowest & funny system of Indian court. One can commit crime in India & can survive by delaying trials for a lifetime.

"The first thing we do, let's all kill the lawyers." When Justice Rajendra Mal lodha quoted from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure on March 15 last year, a wave of mirth ran through courtroom 5 of the "Supreme Court". It was in response to a case seeking to stop a film, Jolly LLB, from being released.

Now coming to the national award winning feature film Jolly LLB, it's about a young lawyer Jagdish Tiyagi aka Jolly (actor Arshad Warsi) from Meerut, who wants to go to Delhi, the ultimate place of  Sab-Court-Ka-Baap "Supreme Court", to gain media popularity & make it big.

Jolly LLB

Here actor Boman Irani plays the role of Tejinder Rajpal (a highly influential & corrupted lawyer) who is defending a businessman, guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol & killing people sleeping on the street of Delhi (inspired by 1999 hit and run case of Sanjeev Nanda). Rajpal can win this case very easily and is capable of playing tricky games to change the truth into a different story. During the ongoing trial inside the court, Jolly becomes Rajpal's fan instantly and without thinking much files a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) against Rajpal's client and comes under the media attention.

Now starts the real game of politics, where lawyers use their intelligent skills to keep the corrupted system of India follow the same path without any diversion. The real battle begins between experienced Rajpal & newcomer Jolly. 

Boman Irani's performance  as a professional & corrupted lawyer will make the audience seated until the end of the movie.

At last, why experienced professionals like Rajpal in the movie are corrupted and newcomers like Jolly are confused to support corruption or fight for Justice? 

Whatever it may be, enjoy the movie where CORRUPTION here is one of the main ingredient of ENTERTAINMENT.  

অযান্ত্রিক (The Pathetic fallacy)

"Humari filmo ki tarah, humari zindagi mein bhi 

end tak sab kuch thik hi ho jaata hai... happy's ending"--

                                                                                                          -- OM SHANTI OM (2007)

This is one of the popular dialogue of the Bollywood blockbuster movie "OM SHANTI OM". Apart from happy endings, what else we can expect from the Bollywood movies?

Let's go back to the 50's era, when Bollywood was not so popular but romantic stories were always there with more drama. 

AJANTRIK(1958)

This Bengali film "AJANTRIK" is also about a love story. The protagonist character Bimal (actor Kali Banerjee) falls in love with Jagaddal. Yes, that's the name Bimal has given.

"Jagaddal" is a 1920's Chevrolet jalopy taxi, that Bimal drives everyday to earn his bread. He is driving this car for 15 years and he takes good care of it as any other living being. 

Director Ritwik Ghatak tried to portray a relationship between human being and machine, by creating a communication between them. There is one scene in the movie where Bimal feeds the car with a bottle of water as if it is thirsty after traveling some kilometers. The background sound of a human being drinking water, gives birth to a new life inside "Jagaddal". In fact, it is now a living character of the movie  with a name.

This film reminds us that we are all surrounded by objects. It can be a pen, paper, books, some gifts, etc. Every object tries to establish some kind of communication with us. As if they are alive & at the same time no. We are going through a period where we are in love with the machines without even realizing it. 

"AJANTRIK" is a classical example of modern society. The visuals of this movies are important to watch without closing one's eyes for a moment. Those who don't understand Bengali language, they can even connect with the film that it wants to portray, without looking at the subtitles. This is because of the beautiful way of story telling with less dialogues and a stunning performance by actor Kali Banerjee.

Love can be expressed in many ways but not necessarily with human invented words. It's a feeling to connect like the way things around us do.      

El próximo oriente

El amor no tiene idioma. Se puede sentir en cualquier lugar y en cualquier momento. El amor no tiene límites a no ser que intervengan el pasado o la cultura de la persona.

El próximo oriente

En este película, una imigrante de Bangladesh llamada Aisha (Nur Al Levi) que vive en Madrid, se queda embarazada de su vecino (Asier Etxeandia), quien no quiere hacerse responsable y la abandona. El padre de la chica tiene un restaurante donde no sirve alcohol por cuestiones religiosas, ya que es musulmán.

El director Fernando Colomo continúa la trama donde el hermano del chico, Caín (Javier Cifrián) empieza a ayudar a la chica de Bangladesh después de que ella intenta a suicidarse. Suena serio pero la historia se transforma en una comedia cuando Caín empeza a impresionar a la padre de la chica y terminar casándose con la chica, convirtiéndose a su religión por casualidad. Aunque él aclara a la chica que su matrimonio es solo para ayudarla a salir de su depresión y de su conflicto familiar, poco a poco la relación cómica y complicada que tienen se convierte en una relación romantica.

Siendo Bengali, me parece extraño ver a actores británicos haciendo los personajes de Bangladesh. No puedo identificarme con su manera de hablar Bengali y ni con su manera actuar, aunque imiten nuestro movimientos y nuestra lengua materna. Falta algo.

Esta película me ha recordado a una película americana, llamada "OUTSOURCED" donde la historia es diferente pero la intervención cultural de los países India y América se ve claramente en la película. Por otro lado, en "El próximo oriente" no se ha aprovechado la intervención cultural de España y Bangladesh, que es importante para el contexto de la historia. Más allá de la diferencia religiosa, la película no muestra mucho sobre la cultura de España y por lo tanto crea algunas preguntas entre los espectadores. 

La historia es entretenida. Los actores españoles han actuado de forma impresionante en la pantalla, lo que ha mejorado la historia. Pero para los espectadores asiáticos, a la película le falta el sabor porque la historia no incluye suficientemente  las culturas, los idiomas y la relación entre España y Bangladesh.

El próximo oriente (The Near East)

Love has no language. It can be felt anywhere & anytime. Love has no boundary unless there is any intervention from the person's cultural background or past.

El próximo oriente

In this film, a Bangladeshi expat Aisha (played by Spanish actress Nur Al Levi) in Madrid, gets pregnant & later ditched by a Spanish guy (played by Asier Etxeandia) living next door. Her father runs a Bangladeshi restaurant without liquor in the menu because of the religious issue.

Director Fernando Colomo takes the story to a different level where the brother Caín (played by Javier Cifrián) of the Spanish guy who ditched the Bangladeshi girl Aisha,  starts helping her after she tried to commit suicide. Though it sounds serious, things move on in a comical way when Caín starts impressing her father & agrees to marry her by sacrificing his own religion but casually. He makes it clear to Aisha, that this marriage is meant to help her out of depression and family conflict. Slowly this comical and complicated relationship converts into a romantic one.

Being Bengali, I find these British actors playing Bangladeshis very different. I can't relate their way of speaking Bengali language and acting with ours. Something is missing--"HACE FALTA" -- that's how we say in Spanish.

Comparing this film with an American film "OUTSOURCED", the story is different but the cultural intervention of both the countries- America and India,  makes it more or less clear to watch. where as on the other hand "El próximo oriente" missed out the cultural intervention of Spain & Bangladesh, which is important for this context of the story. Apart from showing religious differences, the film didn't show much about the culture of Spain and as a result it creates some questions among the audiences.

The story is good and funny to enjoy. The Spanish actors have delivered impressive performances on screen that hold the story altogether. But for the Asian audiences, the film misses out the spicy flavor because the script involves the culture, language and comical relationship between Spain and Bangladesh.    

Hotel Rwanda, Dir. Terry George

Everywhere on this planet, there are various incidents of the past, where we have made distinctions of our country people based on religion, caste, status, colors of skin, etc.

SO WHO STARTED THIS DISTINCTION?

Of course, we humans, but we made distinctions of ourselves based on the remarks of the people whom we consider so called, superior to "us"

Let me be clear with this "us" factor.

Hotel Rwanda

The film "Hotel Rwanda" is based on a true incident of genocide that took place in the land locked country of Rwanda between the two tribes- Hutu & Tutsis in the year 1994.

Map of Rwanda

This incident went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. This film was made after 10 years, that portrays the real truth of hatred and it makes me do some research on GOOGLE about the place & the history. Since it involves the first world as well as third world countries, so "us" factor is very controversial here. if I say, I want to specify only "Blacks" & "Dark skinned people" as "us" then I am still on the road of hatred based on racial discrimination.

During the year of 1994, the murder in the plane crash of the President of the African state of Rwanda was used as an excuse for the country's majority ethnic group, the Hutus, to launch a genocide massacre of their hatred rivals, the Tutsis. This hatred started since 1962, when Rwanda got independence from the colonial rulers of Belgium.  Before leaving the country, they operated a divide & rule policy by giving preference to the Tutsi minority based on their facial sharp structures & less darkened skin colors in matters of employment and education. Just like the British did before departing from India in the year 1947.

The movie concentrates on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina (played by american actor Don Cheadle), a well educated Hutu, with a Tutsi wife Tatiana (played by british actress Sophie Okonedo) and three small children. He is the manager of Kigali's( Rwanda's capital) luxurious 4 star Hotel des Mille Collines, owned by Sabena airlines.

Paul didn't have any idea, what he is capable of before the outburst of genocide. He used to believe one thing for his job ("I was told never to lower the tone of the hotel") & his wife and children ("Family is all that matters"). Gradually, Paul is seen to grow as a man to save the lives of 1268 Tutsi and Hutu refugees by giving them shelter into the hotel and taking big risks like bribing, lying & threatening to the soldiers without giving up any hope.

When no help is forthcoming from the western powers & black people are left  to their fates, Paul realizes which side he is on & his remarks " How can I not intervene?" reflects the true mankind of helping each other without even thinking about any difference, that he has learned to achieve during the genocide where 500000 innocent people lost their lives.

The film with its impressive cinematography & overwhelming performance by the actors, creates a bonding with the audience to feel the pain of the helpless people during that period. The soundtrack of the movie completes the circle after watching the film with its wonderful lyrics....

মাটির ময়না (The Clay Bird), Dir. Tareque Masud

আমার সোনার বাংলা,

আমি তোমায় ভালবাসি।

চিরদিন তোমার আকাশ,

তোমার বাতাস

আমার প্রাণে বাজায় বাঁশি।

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVjbVPFeo2o

This song is written by the poet Rabindranath Tagore in the year 1905 following the Partition of Bengal by the then viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. The first 10 lines of this song later constitute the national anthem of Bangladesh just after the "Bangladesh Liberation war" in the year 1971.

THE CLAY BIRD

This film is set during the pre-liberation war just before the birth of "Bangladesh". It's about a conservative muslim family, where life seems to be moving on a regular routine but the political situation of the country (East Pakistan then called) brings a lot of tension along with disaster in the end.

The young protagonist character Anwar (Nurul Islam bablu) was sent to Madrasha (Islamic religious boarding school) by his religious father Kazi (Jayanto Chattopadhyay). In fact it reflects the director's own experience in Madrasha school during the period of Bangladesh Liberation war. Kazi is a homeopathic pharmacist & according to him " ALLOPATHY IS THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE WHERE AS HOMEOPATHY IS THE TREATMENT OF PATIENT".

Kazi's brother Milon (Soaeb Islam) is a true Marxist supporter and their mentalities don't match though their ideologies like both Homeopathy & Marxology came from the same path i.e. Germany.

The film portrays various historical incidents of that era through human experience of the young protagonist character. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes his family with sudden death of his sister due to his father's (Kazi') refusal to use Western antibiotics, and a terrifying attack by the Pakistani troops on their village to prevent Bangladeshi Independence. "The Clay Bird" deeply reminds Satyajit Ray's childhood epic of rural India "Pather Panchali" to show the nature through simple observation of a child.

Because of the political turmoil, people in general were confused between religion & politics at that time. Some people like Kazi were supporting Pakistan because they were unable to accept the reality of brutal killings of their Islamic brothers from West Pakistan. But at last it raises question of mixing up Political and extreme religious views. 

The literary translation of this song of the movie means " Our mind is like a bird which is imprisoned inside the cage made up of human body". The music of this film represents the folk culture as well as baul. Words are very impressive and can make anyone feel free.

Sicko, Dir. Michael Moore

(1) "Do you have any health insurance?" --- This is the first question asked before admitting any patient in the private hospitals of India.

(2) "How much health insurance do you have?" --- this is the vital question. Treatment depends upon the answer. That's where the corruption creeps in. 

India, where the majority of the population lives under poverty line, these private hospitals are earning their profits unwisely without following any rules or regulations. In fact, they have their own health policy, which is affordable only by a small fraction of rich people in India.

Now coming back to the award winning documentary "SICKO", director Michael Moore, has shown the profit-oriented health maintenance organizations(HMO) in United States which is similar with the corrupted health system of India.  Getting life insurance in US depends upon meaningless terms & conditions. Many people in US are living without any life insurance and they have no adequate money to afford for their treatment where as in countries like England, Canada, France etc people over there don't worry about paying before undergoing any treatment in hospitals. Free universal health care system makes life meaningful without having the fear of losing one's entire life income to become a victim of profit making health system. 

Here in the documentary, 3 rescue workers of 9/11 were chosen by the director to represent the abusive health system of US. After the traumatic incident of 9/11, these 3 workers were considered as heroes at that time for saving so many lives, sacrificing their own health. Now after 5 years of 9/11, no one in America remembers these real life heroes when they are suffering from different health related symptoms that came while rescuing people from World Trade Center and they don't have enough money for their treatment. US Government doesn't want to take any responsibility for their treatment.

CUBA

"CUBA" is considered as a dangerous place with leftist ideology for americans in US. Government intervention is there everywhere. So how can the health system be left without any government intervention and guess what, treatment in Cuba is very cheap, almost free in comparison to US.

So what do you think? Is it possible for these rescue workers to get proper & affordable treatment in CUBA?

If you want to know, then you must watch the documentary to have a fair idea about some amazing health systems that are unbelievable for the people of developed nations like US and developing nations like India.

"IF YOU CAN FIND MONEY TO KILL PEOPLE, YOU CAN FIND MONEY TO HELP PEOPLE" --- Tony Benn (British Labour Party Politician)

DIEZ MINUTOS, Alberto Ruiz Rojo

"The golden rule is that there are no golden rules"-- George Bernard Shaw

Though most of us try to be law abiding citizen, we all break rules everyday intentionally or unintentionally. When we are on a smooth ride of our journey of life, rules play perfect symphony with our law abiding nature until we experience new path of life. It can be rough or more smooth than before.

What makes us different among the other species of our planet is the ability to think. Rules are invented as well as broken by us. But WHY?

DIEZ MINUTOS (10 mins)

Here in the Spanish short film "DIEZ MINUTOS", a man (played by Gustavo Salmerón) calls a customer service operator (played by Eva Marcel) in search of an information to connect him with his girlfriend. The conversation starts with a mechanical exchange of words where the organized stiffness of the operator refuses to help him with the information which is against the Company's rule. The man keeps on requesting the operator, to give him the information available to them which can save him getting detached from his girlfriend forever. The conversation goes on &  on, to pull the hidden emotion out of the operator, so that she can understand his state of mind as an human perspective instead of acting as a machine. But she sticks to her Company's rule of not leaking out the information, which is of vital importance to him at this moment. 

Is she mean? She has feeling? Is she afraid of overcoming the rules? ...

                                                        WHAT DO YOU THINK?

It's a long debate to come across any particular conclusion but before that, one must see this short-film to experience a whack on the head, so that we can use our COMMON SENSE instead of thinking too much about logic.

Outsourced, John Jeffcoat

Do you like spicy food? –

Well it depends upon every individual but for me of course I do.

Anyway, that is the introduction of my country India in this American movie “Outsourced”. It is quite popular outside India as it gives a complete idea about the Indian culture in brief. Those who haven’t been to India and would like to visit in future, it is one of the best films to watch before landing here rather than watching films like “Slumdog millionaire” that gives a vague perception of India.

Here in the film, an entire department of a call center in Seattle was outsourced, where Todd (Josh Hamilton), an American novelty products salesman, heads to India to train his replacement Puru (Asif Basra). Right from the Mumbai airport, the film shows how it feels to be in a place that is so different from one’s own motherland.

For us Indians, it is funny to watch our own way of doing things which is strange for foreigners to understand, especially for the people on their first visit in the land of Kali (goddess of destruction).

This film provides a lot of information about both the countries (India & USA) of how they are different from each other culturally and in many other aspects through funny conversations & very impressive way of story-telling. Though both the countries were ruled by the British, there is a huge difference of English pronunciation of Indian & American accent. Todd got frustrated of not being able to train the Indian employees to change their accent, so that the MPI(Minutes per Incident) level improves and they don’t get caught as Indians over the telephonic conversation with US citizen. Then Asha (Ayesha Dharker), a woman employee over there, suggested Todd to learn more about India.

Slowly things start rolling for positive results when Todd begins to learn more about the Indian culture, keeping in mind that a fellow American call center trainer told him “Once he stopped resisting India, it got better”. Impressed by the suggestion of Asha, he promoted her for the position of future assistant of Puru.

When MPI level improved to Todd’s target 6, his supervisor flew down to India, only to announce that the company has been outsourced to China & everyone is fired. Todd was given the same job to train his replacement in China. But at last he refused to go to China and instead came back to US leaving behind a complicated relationship with Asha. He discovered before leaving India that Asha was already engaged with another man by her family since she was only 4 years old. According to her, the intimate moment they spent together can be given a name “Holiday in Goa”.

Apart from Indian culture, we can also learn few American terms from this movie. I was not aware of some terms before watching it. So I am ending like an American way –

BREAK A LEG... ;)

Interview (1971)

Are we ashamed of wearing dhotis?

I think there is no answer to this question but rather another question can be asked, i.e. What?

Now the present scenario is, the more we neglect our own culture, the more important we feel. In fact this attitude always existed even when we were under the Communist government.

India got independence in the year 1947 from the British rule. By the way, what independence we are talking about?

Interview

Mrinal Sen’s “Interview” is about an entire day of a man (Ranjit Mallick) in 1970, where he struggles to appear for an interview of an Indo-British firm in the city of Calcutta. Here in the film, he fulfills all the criteria to get the job except one important thing. One formal black suit is required to appear for the interview. It is the most vital requirement for this job.

The film is made in a documentary style, where camera follows the protagonist character Ranjit Mallick. It brings the audience into a communication medium, where they can start asking questions to the protagonist character who intends to search for a suit throughout the film to borrow from his friends but at last fails to manage it.

Just because of a suit you didn’t get the job? Are you feeling sad?

Of course the answer is “YES”. Now the main question for the reader of this blog:

Who is responsible for this misfortune?

Currently, we are more concerned about wearing branded clothes than our own handmade products.

Gandhi (wearing dhoti) with Charkha /spinning wheel

The Khadi movement was started by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in the year 1918 with an ideology that Indians should be self reliant on Hemp and free themselves from the high priced goods & clothes that the British were selling to them. Gandhi promoted the spinning of Khadi (hand-woven cloth) for rural self employment & later started only wearing Dhoti. Thus it symbolizes his ideology of independence.

Nowadays the trend is going towards the exchange of culture & the modernization of technology where the term independence is again looking for a new meaning.