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.