3 idiots - emphasizing the need to follow your passion

Saari umar hum mar marke jee liye,
ik pal tho ab hamein jeene dho jeene dho .....

Saari umar hum mar marke jee liye,
ik pal tho ab hamein jeene dho jeene dho .....

(All our life, we have been dead while we were alive, at least for a moment let us live, let us live..)

Give me some sunshine,
give me some rain,
Give me another chance,
I wanna grow up once again ...

The song above pretty much sums up the entire movie from a student's perspective. The pain in Joy Lobo when he just doesnt get another chance to follow up his passion and commits a suicide, haunts you long after you leave the movie theater. As Aamir puts it, Education is supposed to be about learning and growing wiser and not about cramming some lines from a textbook for an exam. In our search for riches and society-defined comfortable life, we lose the emphasis in following our passion, the passion that defines a meaning to our life. And yet, we put our children in the same path thinking about what Mr. Kapoors' and the like would think of our children if they don't become doctors or engineers. And the cycle never ends.

An excellent movie with an excellent emotional and comic mix, 3 idiots touches your heart though it takes some cinematic liberties. At the end of the day, "All izz well"

Do yourself a favor and watch it. If it doesn't make you change your lifestyle and the way of thinking, it will atleast make you think for some time about what your passion is and the meaning of life for you is. It will define the importance of following your passion which would be followed by success and not the vice-versa.

At the outset, I think it's a great move by my friend who chose to leave a society-defined great job and comfortable life style in USA to follow his passion through to India. I sincerely wish him all the very best in his endeavors...

And by the way Happy New year 2010 everyone...

Mee Sreyobilashi - Suicide is not an option, so is giving up for an entrepreneur

Just watched the Telugu movie Mee Sreyobhilashi. Gist of the story. Around 10 people who are vexed with life and want to end it travel together in a bus to take the bus down to a valley and die together. Their journey to the realization of the value of life is the movie...

The movie spurred a bunch of thoughts. First of all, why should anyone commit a suicide. God has given us the life to live. Life is a challenge, we need to face it. If everyone starts ending their life due to some problems or the other, then what is the essence of life in itself. Death is just the absence of life, not an end to it. No problem on earth is big enough to force any one to death. People who are handicapped or have many other disabilities are living a happy life with tons of self-confidence. Why cant normal people do the same...

And then there is one more way of looking at the whole thing. If living the life symbolizes your dream of making it big, your dream of being a success, giving up symbolizes the death of a life, the death of an aspiration, the death of a hope.. A person never really is a failure until he gives up. One thing is for sure. Every one of us is going to die sooner or later. And that is one thing that we can never avoid. That is one thing we cannot run away from. Then whats the point of living life in an insipid manner. What is the point of giving up... Live life to the fullest and never give up... The day you give up is the day you fail, whether you give up your hopes or dreams or even your life... Dont quit your hopes, your aspirations, your life...

Taare Zameen Par - Because every kid is special...

I haven't done my homework and prepared for the exam well. I was hoping and praying that the exam would get canceled, I was praying to God again and again that something should happen, a flood or earthquake should come so that the exam gets canceled, and I don't fail. Because failing the exam is a doom, that would set a downward spiral on, which would leave me with no future. I won't have a place to live or food to eat in future. What could I do now. The thoughts of "if only" run through my mind as I promise myself, if somehow I pass this exam by God's grace, I will always prepare well for every exam in m life.


Source: Movie Home

And boom, I suddenly wake up in the middle of the night realizing it was just a dream, realizing that I have finished my Masters and am in a stable job making a decent salary and set for a decent career. But why do I still get these dreams. My parents never compelled me for anything. Still there was fear of exams, fear of failing, fear of going nowhere in life, that has captured my thought process so vehemently that even at about one-third of my lifetime, I still get such dreams. Is it a psychological disorder. Of course not, it is the psychological set up of almost every Indian student who has gone through the rigors of Indian system of education, the stress of what the society would say if you fail. Is the fault with the Indian system of education. Nope. the fault is with the societal mind set in India or at least in Andhra Pradesh, where you have to be an Engineer or a Doctor in your life. Other career options don't even exist..

The thought process above was triggered in me, after watching the movie Taare Zameen Par. A wonderful movie that takes us through the journey of a kid who suffers from Dyslexia. Trying to camouflage his inability to read and write like other kids in a cover of stubbornness and frustration, Ishaan slowly loses interest in one thing he is the best at, painting. As Aamir points out, his parents and teachers were seeing the symptoms of the problem, but none try to understand the reason for his problem. It is not that he does not want to read and write, its just that he cannot. Having suffered through the trama himself in his childhood, Aamir sets out to help the kid. With the kids' Dad not understanding the situation, he gets the help of the Principal to get the kid to normality by giving him ample time to learn things his way in his own pace. And guess what, he brings progress in the kid by projecting his positive points and building up his confidence.

A really wonderful movie with superb action from the kid who portrayed the role of Ishaan. Aamir Khan performs well enough, but the best part in the movie is his direction. His sincere attempt at a heart touching story strikes an emotional cord or two by making you fell for the boy, because you have been there! Overall cent percent to Aamir Khan for a honest attempt at a genuine subject, instead of song and dance routine.. Do yourself and your kids or your future kids a big favor. Watch Taare Zameen Par, because it teaches you how to be a real parent. Because it lets you see a child's mindset from his point of view. Perhaps your kid might really benefit from your changed outlook. Perhaps India will see light in careers other than Engineering and Medicine !!

Happy Days - A Nostalgic Retreat

Watched Happy Days (Telugu) movie in Irving Hollywood theaters this week. What a way to remember the happiest days of my life, viz college days. As the emotions of students joining the engineering college overflow mellifluously on the screen, one cannot help but bring these characters to real life experiences, with expressions like Shankar in the movie was like this guy in the college and so on. 4 years of Engineering - from fear of ragging to ragging of juniors in 2nd year, from a novice of life to a career planner of life, from few friends before engineering to numerous friends, from nobody to an 'Engineer' - thats the life you have experienced that unfolds on the celluloid leaving you with a tinge of smile on the lips and a nostalgic feeling in heart..


The story is simple. 4 guys and 2 girls come to CBIT as engineering students. The life that they encounter with love, friendship, career choices and emotions is the movie. The entire credit goes to an adept handling by Sekhar Kammula, who gives us back our precious college memories. I don't remember the last time that I had taken a moment to remember all my Engineering classmates and about my experiences with them. But after seeing the movie, I went back to my nostalgic memories. Yes, I went through ragging and yes I did rag a few juniors in college within limits, and I was one of the many students who used to scold our college and I did love the samosas in the fifth gate of our college with a mini Pepsi :) But in the last two years, I probably never spent a moment in remembering them to bring a smile on my lips, but seeing the movie, all I could think of the next whole day was my engineering college days.

The music by Mickey J Meyers is simply superb and the lyrics of the song Oh My Friend are just awesome. I would have listened to this song like 100 times so far. And the characters are simply lovable. The best is Tyson with a caring heart and sincere love for a senior. The next is Rajesh who cares a lot about his friends, my favorite among the girls is Tamanna and also Sonia who played the senior. And the theater in which the movie was showed was really good. Kudos to the exhibitors who maintained great standards. Once in a while, a movie comes that reminds you of memories that you cherish, and lets you associate yourself with the characters and feel their characters instead of seeing the actors in those characters. Happy Days is one such brilliant movie. A really good watch worth every penny spent :)

Redemption of a man's lost dignity - Chak De India

One man, Kabir Khan captains the Indian team and takes it through to the World Cup finals, where they meet long time nemesis Pakistan in finals. He thinks its just a matter of 70 minutes and all there was is to go out there and give his best shot. Little does he know that his pride, dignity are at stake just because of his religion. Hell breaks lose on him not because he misses a penalty stroke in the penultimate moments of the game just like a zillion people before him have, but because he is a Muslim in Indian team and because he happens to have the sporting spirit to congratulate the winning team. Accusations of his being sold out to the country where he belongs to, take an uproar in the media and with the aam junta and he is forced out of the team and his ancestral home with a label as Gaddar (The traitor).

Spending seven years in anonymity Khan returns for a redemption of his lost glory. His aim, to convert the silver medal that he had, to a gold in the world cup.. As he mentions later on to the committee in an intense way, he spends these seven years in preparing for the interview with the Association. The path to the World cup is not easy for the Khan, because of the politics in the Association and more than that, the diversity in the team which has lost the identity of a 'team' by itself. Its the dignity of the person at stake and yes he delivers big time..

Thats the story of Chakk De India in short, but the way it unfolds itself on the celluloid in the direction of Shimmit Amin is excellent. CDI works big time not just because of the powerhouse performances of the cast, but because of the intensity of emotions portrayed during the duration of the movie. A girl is willing to desert her family for the love of her game while another is willing to do 'anything' for the position of the captain. Another girl is out there to teach a lesson to her boy friend according to whom the National game of India is just a stick and ball game. And yet another is out to prove her parents that she can make a mark in the world of Hockey. And above all of them who will do anything to get his dignity restored..

CDI may not reap harvest of profits for the Yash Raj films but it will surely stand out as one of the best attempts by the production house ever. Though I personally dislike Sharukh Khan for his over the top performance I cannot help but appreciate his performance in the movie. He is restrained, a wide gamut of emotions overflowing in him during the movie, from a coach who pits his girls against the men's hockey team for a chance to go to the World cup to the person who inspires the same team against the six times champion Aussies with a powerhouse speech. Seventy minutes is all you have in your life that could make a big difference in your lives, he tells the players, and you could easily associate that to yourself in all the crucial moments in life. For example, 3 hours is all you have in IIT JEE to enter the premier institutes of India or to spend the next four years in colleges which do not justify their existence as the Engineering colleges of India.

The girls perform equally well, Bindia as the senior player who has a wonderful game, but would refuse to play as the coach says just because she is a senior player in the team and wants the things her way. Watch out for her intense portrayal when she offers herself to Khan for the captaincy of the team. Though Vidya as the captain doesnt have great scenes in the movie, she does leave her impact when you leave the theater. Balbir, who transforms from a person who doesn't have a restraint on her anger to the person who uses it properly against the Argentinians in the Quarters. Komal, the bubbly young girl who wants to teach the Memsahib Prreti a lesson by making the maximum number of goals but passes the ball to her at the last moments of the finals for the sake of the nation. And above all my favorite among the lot, Preeti Sabarwal who almost loses her breath for a place in the team and is out to prove her boy friend Abhimanyu Singh that she has a career of her own as an independent woman and doesn't heed to the whims of the star cricketer. She is my favorite among the lot not because she is a gora memsahib as mentioned by Komal, but because of the enigmatic look that she carries with herself throughout the film. A look that portrays dis interest in the pettiness of Komal, a look that shows her determination for proving her might to her boy friend, a look of respect for the coach while at the same time disliking his ways, a look that leaves you haunting even after the movie is over as to what was really going on in her head while enacting the role and what emotion she was actually trying to emote more than others..

CDI might not fit in the regular Bollywood dance and routine but it is definitely worth a watch. I am sure the film would bring the same kind of inspiration about hockey as was brought by Rang De Basanthi in the youth about the country as a whole, but guess what, just as days pass by, CDI will not be able to retain the inspiration just like RDB couldn't. I still remember seeing a lot of Yahoo groups formed by youth of India who got inspired by RDB, but that was all it could go to, before it became just any other thing. Sure, CDI will generate excitement about our national game Hockey, and might retain it for a year or two, but in the wave of cricket that sweeps the nation by its feet, the national game will keep trying hard to justify its identity in the nation, until the Association and the government decide to do something to retain the lost glory...