A truth for the truth.....

Have you ever recieved a mail which reads :

The Truth : Woman In your Life

Here is a girl, who is as much educated as you are;

who is earning almost as much as you do;

one, who has dreams and aspirations just as you have

because she is as human as you are;

one, who has never entered the kitchen in her life

just like you or your sister haven't,

as she was busy in studies and competing in a system that gives no special concession to girls for their culinary achievements;

one, who has lived and loved her parents & brothers & sisters, almost as much as you do for 20-25 years of her life;

one, who has bravely agreed to leave behind all that, her home, people who love her, to adopt your home, your family, your ways and even your family name;

one, who is somehow expected to be a master-chef from day #1, while you sleep oblivious to her predicament in her new circumstances, environment and that kitchen;

one, who is expected to make the tea, first thing in the morning and cook food at the end of the day, even if she is as tired as you are, maybe more, and yet never ever expected to complain; to be a servant, a cook, a mother, a wife, even if she doesn't want to;

and is learning just like you are as to what you want from her; and is clumsy and sloppy at times and knows that you won't like it if she is too demanding, or if she learns faster than you;

one, who has her own set of friends, and that includes boys and even men at her workplace too, those, who she knows from school days and yet is willing to put all that on the back-burners to avoid your irrational jealousy, unnecessary competition and your inherent insecurities;

yes, she can drink and dance just as well as you can, but won't, simply because you won't like it, even though you say otherwise;

one, who can be late from work once in a while when deadlines, just like yours, are to be met;

one, who is doing her level best and wants to make this most important relationship in her entire life a grand success, if you just help her some and trust her; one, who just wants one thing from you, as you are the only one she knows in your entire house - your unstinted support, your sensitivities and most importantly - your understanding, or love, if you may call it.

Thought I agreed with most of the things written in this forward, I thought it was glorifying women to an extent which was not actually necessary. Men too sacrifices a lot many things for marriage. Had replied by creating an answer for this mail.

A Truth for the Truth : Man In Your Life

Here is a boy who is as educated as you are , usually more,
Who is earning as much as you are , if not more,

One who has dreams and aspirations to spend his money on himself as much as you do,
because he is as human as you are.

One who has never taken anyone else's bags on himself ,
just like you and your brother's havent ,
as he was not the fairer sex,
and the world does not give him any concessions in any queues or tax payments or "reservations of seats" for his "coolie"nary activities.

One who has lived with and loved his parents and brothers and sisters,
for 20-27 years of his life, just as a part of them.

One who has left all the sports channel, friends (especially the girls), the time he could have given to his hobbies, Infact his hobbies per se, his free spirit, to adopt to your "kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi", your idea of a great evening, for being by your side.

One who is supposed to be a Master financial manager from day #1
while you sleep oblivious to his predicament in his new circumstances, environment and that "kyunki..";

One who is supposed to talk to you sweetly whether morning or evening,
even if he is as tired as you are, just to prove that he is not ignoring you.
one who is always supposed to say "darling you look beautiful today"
even if you dont , just to save the day.

to be a servant , a driver, an ATM, a care taker,
even if he dosen't want to be all that.

And is learning just as you are,
all that you want from him.

and is clumsy and sloppy at times and knows that you won't like it if he demands anything, or if he walks faster than you;

(this was wrongly written for girls and applies in these phrases more)

one, who has his own set of friends, and that includes girls and even women at his workplace too, those, who he knows from school days and yet is willing to put all that on the back-burners to avoid your irrational jealousy, unnecessary competition and your inherent insecurities;

yes, he can drink and dance just as well as you can, but won't, simply because you won't like it, even if you smell his clothes everytime he is late;


One who can be late from work,
and its not always "a party" or "someone else" you spy,

one, who is doing his level best and wants to make this most important relationship in his entire life to sustain, if you just help him some and trust him;

one, who just wants one thing from you, as you are the only one new in his life, - your unstinted trust and understanding his needs, your sensitivities and most importantly - your understanding, or love for his freedom, if you may call it.

Mr. Modi, we dont know you

There is a lesson that I have learned from Modi's Interview with Karan Thapar on Devil's advocate and that lesson is :

"If you are a public personality make sure that you are sufficiently media
friendly and you know how to use it to your advantage".

Ok, we will not discuss about the Gujarat Riots here, lot has been written on it and we are clear that the government did not do enough (or could not do enough) to contain those riots and the person at the helm of the government has to take responsibility for it, which Modi did not at that point in time. Let us not be unfair to Narendra Modi opinionating the facts and let us not see him through the dark painted glasses of media. Even without that his credibility and image are tainted enough.

Let us look in to his life after the riots, he got selected as CM of the state, a state ravaged with earthquake in 2001 and riots in 2002. Credit to him for bringing Gujarat to a place where it is acheving 10% growth YoY continuously. He was the person who revamped the entire political as well as delivery system of Gujarat. He has worked, amazingly to improve the life of every single Guajarati. He has nailed the system where it should have been way back. Corruption has decreased for sure, Business is easier now, Infrastructure has developed considerably, jobs are getting created. India today group has awarded him the best chief minister twice in three years. He definitely has the most efficient and the best resume amongst all the chief ministers of the country.

But,

People still see him as a mass-murderer, Riots are still fresh in people's mind. He has done a lot post riots but a lot is not enough to clean the blot that has been created on his career.

Just a thought, had then back in 2002, Modi had accepted that the government could not do enough to contain the riots and he takes the moral responsibility of things going haywire. Had he told this infront of media and had taken proper steps that could have saved many lives, today he might not have been questioned, snubbed, opposed, interrogated and embarassed by the media.

To me it was not him, a person but it was the Gujarat Government, the entire system that failed in 2002. No one person can be blamed for such act of terror. It were the hundereds of people involved in the riots, it were the inefficient police force of the state, the hard liners and also everyone who allowed the state to reach to such dire state.

But a lot has passed since then, there are a thousand things that he did, but national media it seems have very conviniently ignored all of them. Narendra Modi should have used all that he did post 2002 to be projected in the right manner in the media. Now that has happened within Gujarat, but not outside it. So there is a fairly positive image of him in Gujarat and fairly negative image in rest of the world.

The man is suffering from image crisis. How I wish to go into his mind and know if he is facing identity crisis? How I wish to know if he had ever wished the things that happened in 2002? How I wish to know what is the future of Gujarat that he conceives in his mind? How I wish to know many things but for his non-media savvy attitude.

Tell me who are you Mr. Modi.... what is it that you have for Gujarat's Future... tell us more ... dont walk out of interviews, we want to know, we are concerned....

Moment of the interview, that made me think all this:

During the interview with Karan Thapar, which was taken in Narendra Modi's Office, there was a point when Karan was describing narratively the cruel killings of hundereds of innocent people in Gujarat riots and was indicating his involvement and inefficiency as a chief minister. The looks, helpless, frustrated, flimsy, "dont-do-it-to-me-again" looks, that Minister had on his face told to me that there is more to Modi.... Have captured it!

Tell me Mr. Modi, What does your mirror say to you when you stand infront of it, in the solace of your room, in the peace of your mind, away from the media frenzy, Has that person in the mirror ever asked you : Was I responsible? What was your answer?

An Edit on 26th October: I am editing this blog after reading a lot and the most interesting and scary I thought was the Report by tehelka, If even 10% of this is correct, I know Mr. Modi what the man in the mirror says to you.

The King And I : Travels in Tigerland : A must read

King And I : Travels In TigerLand

A Book By Prerna Singh Bindra

How Many times has it happened with you that you believe in a particular cause, you have some skill and you try to help the cause with your skills? Atleast that has been a way of living for Prerna singh Bindra, as I follow her works through net sitting here in the little chair of mine. Well here is an exceptionally good writer, who might as well write fiction beautifully but has chosen to devote her writings to "Tigers" something that is too very close to her life. I deeply admire this very thing about this author.

While moving across the rack of business books, I found a title "King and I" which was kept their by someone's mistake. I saw the coverpage of the book

The tiger reminded me of those numerous books by kenneth anderson and Jim Corbett which I never read, one because I never had time for it and two I preferred other books over it. But turning a few pages of the book and looking at a list of different national parks in the content list, I thought this must be a very informative book about the details of various national park and I might like to read it as a refernce book. To my surprise it was neither a refernce book nor very informative. But I liked the book, a lot more than what I had expected from it.

What Made me like the book?

This is a more of a travelogue, about a young girl's (photos of the author does not make me feel that she has had 25 years of experience in wild life, compared to experts that she talks about, I would like to call her a girl) journey not just thourgh the forests of India searching for the her beloved tigers, but also an emotional journey that she has felt all along and has penned so well. She makes you travel with her and see the wild cats of India from her eye, which is both compassionate and in awe for the wild cats.

Secondly, she almost brought to life and gave human faces, attributed habits, created personality of each of the animals that she talked about. That to me was her writing genius.

Thirdly and most importantly, everyone should read it for the message that the book wants to spread. Conserve country's endangered wild species, or one day you will be wiped off similarly.

As she travels...

The book is full of photographs (some 200 of them), and all bringing to life the stories and characters (tigers, elephants, leopards...) that she is talking about. The book, in its 22 chapters tries to bring the status of the various national parks and wild cat habitats of India.

Ranthambore

She starts her travelogue with Boomburam, whose picture she loves to see in her house, a tiger of Ranthambore. Who awed Bill Clinton, who mispronounced him as Boomerang and fell in love with him at the very first sight. As you read you understand not just the beauty of the place but also the economy surviving there on wild life tourism. (The one thing that impressed me the most was the "tiger cut" in barbers' shops).

Rajaji National park

Next she talks about Rajaji National park and how human development is taking away the homes from our endangered fauna. A railway track going across Chilla, a village there makes the wild life and the wild commercialization cross path every now and then.

Dudhwa

Then comes the story of Dudhwa and Billy Arjan singh, and the pets he brought up. You feel so emotionally involved as you read about Tara, a tigress he brought up, coming to Billly to bid last good byes as she was migrating from the forest with her cubs. Salutes to you Billy.

Namdapha

Namdapha, comes across to me as a forest that I did not know anything about. Here is a beautiful landscaped forest with the rarest of wildlife, with snow leopards, clouded leopards and ofcourse tigers. Ms. Bindra's stint with the closest relatives of Human, the gibbons is definitely interesting.

Sundarbans

Stories of Bonobibi and her blessings is what the stories of Sundarbans is full of, this is also because here is place where land and water does not have a boundary and gets merged into each other with tigers, swimming in water, hiding on trees has been killing people and still is the Bagh devta. Sundarbans and the people there has a thousand tales of the man eaters

Pench and Kanha :

Next the author takes us to the land of Mowgli, where she talks of Pench and Kanha and the people there. The wild dogs, leopard, Barasingha all seems to be as much a part of these villages as the porters there. Though the game has been thinning here too.

Manas

The message that here is a place where birds, animals and water does not follow the lines of control made by the governments, comes across strong from this North east forest reserves of Manas. The story of Manas is as interesting with army of 2 countries, villagers and surprisingly ex-poachers coming together to protect wild life. The poachers now want ot make their bread from tourism rather than killing the animals. Bodo man and woman she describes are equally intriguing.

GIR

Then comes the forest so close to my heart, place where i have been and the place where recides the only forest which still preserves the asiatic lion, Gir. It tells us a tale of how the sports of Nawab, hunting has brought the population of Lions down. Human beings have invaded the lion house and now Lions occasionaly takes his tax (as a farmer describes the same in the book) in form of the cows and buffaloes that they own.

Melghat
Then came the land forest of the Vidarbha, Melghat. The beauty of this part of the book lies in the way Prerna weaves the story of people along with the forest. I especially liked an event where she gets so very excited with the pugmark of her beloved tiger. "He was here" is all he says looking at AT and BT marks (after tiger and before tiger).

Bandipur

Bandipur forest of Karnataka as described by the author to me remained in my mind as, as much a land of elephants as anyone else. All the elephants (Padmaja, Padmini...) and the leopard Baby come to life as the author describes how the royal descendents of Mysore are trying to conserve the wildlife here.

Leopard

The next chapter is not about a place but about another cat, the Leopard. The concern of this beautiful cat going the tiger's way, getting hunt and killed for money, for skin, for bones moves me. Photograph of a leopard who got entangled in a trap and people laughing at him, brought a tear to my eye. How cruel and hypocrites are we behaving so insensitvely.

Palamau

The story of Palamau is the story of Rani, only tiger left in the reserve, she wants to live a normal tiger life, has her wishes to mate and not get extinct in this world of human beings, but she will have to get extinct one day as there are no male tigers here. Authors' converstation with Mohammad Omar, whom she refers as "Father of the unmarried daughter(rani)" are a good read. He was killed later by the terrorists who have made the forest their abode.

Rumbak Valley

The author then travels all the way near Leh to Rumbak valley in search of snow leopard. Her guess of looking at the thick tail of snow leopard in the dark of night, makes her feel satisfied for her visit to the place.


Panna

The tigers of Panna are known by their radio frequency numbers, which are used to track them. The only exception to this was Ms. 52, whose name comes from her eyebrow shape. She happens to be mother of most of the tigers in Panna. Here is a bleak effort of saving a species that is being killed by poachers as much as ever.

Kaziranga

For Kaziranga, the park has more to discuss than the wild cats. The author takes us through series of royal interactions to the wild life here, One horned rhinoceros, elephants and wild buffaloes.

Nilgiri hills

She then visits in the Nilgiri hills to the place made famous as "Cheetal walk" by E.R.C. Davidar . She meets the elephant camaraderie of Rivaldo and Ronaldo here. Evening does not allow her to sleep in the tiny room there due to the ghostly cries of Hyenas. Cheetal walk true as her read was a place belonging to both human beings and Animal equally.

Bandhavgarh

Then she talks about Bandhavgarh, which shows the superficiality of the way we have treated our wild life. Bandhavgarh comes across as a commercialized wild life tourism spot where the wild tigers and elephants live in constant threat of people nearing them. The place is also brings reminiscences of the tigress Sita, once a National geographic cover girl, as Ms. Bindra puts it.

Obituary to Cheetah

Obituary to Cheetah, makes you get worried and you hope that Tiger and Lion dont face the end that cheetah faced. The way the animal was used by humans to kill and to hunt was something that I never knew. Kings used to take cheetah on horse backs for hunting other animals. The last Cheetah was killed in India in 1947, the year Indians were set free. It was the hunter, the hunting weapon and the hunted at last. Sorry Cheetah, it was our mistake, we killed you.

Corbett's Country

Carpit Sahab's (Corbetts) country comes next. The author is here not in search of tiger but tracking the path that Corbett tooks years back and the one that she has read for years. Corbett never killed tigers for the hunting sport but he killed only the miscreants who turned man eaters. He had his own wild life protection theory, which author explores as she meets people of Kaladunghi and Kaatkinaav. I have been to the Corbett national park, and I must agree you need to be there to feel it.

Sariska Tiger reserve

Then comes the story of Sariska Tiger reserve, which could not preserve the tigers. A story of the collosal failure of the Wild Life protection systems in India and its politics. A part of Project tiger, Sariska Tiger Reserve include the leopard, jungle cat, hyena, jackal, chital, sambar, carecal, langur, wild boar, four-horned deer but no tigers now. In 2005, tigers abscence in the park was officialy declared to the people.

The last part of the book and the afterword makes a strongly emotional and strongly human appeal for conservation of wild life. Tigers have been killed by man for thousands of reason. Criminals like Sansaar chand has killed more tigers and leopards than the nawabs and kings of past. We need to teach our selves that tiger skins and leopard skins are not the best kind of clothes, show people who buy it what happens to the poor animals and they will stop buying it. Tiger hunting because of human has been a greatly rewarding activity for poachers.

Prerna Singh Bindra is still fighting for the rights of the wildlife in India. I realize this as I read the latest (Aug 2007) article of hers in Pioneer, talking of the funds not reaching the national parks of Corbett and Ranthambore. She is trying to do her best to make her plea fall in to the ears of politicians which have more to gain from the tiger reserve funds than from the tiger reserves.

The positives of the book as i suggested above is the emotional and mental connect that it draws from the reader and the visuals that are sprayed all over the books. The only negative thing that i thought was that the writings on each of her travel were a little to brief. But overall it is from the heart of a true child of nature.

I salute the never dying and unflinching devotion of Prerna to the cause of conservation of wild life in India. She is fighting to get the rights of the animal back to them without glamourizing her work like others (she has written more than 1000 articles as a profile of her quotes in deccan herrald). Your Love for the wild animals, your curiosity for the wild, your compassion for the animals will definitely keep others inspired.

A definite 4* for the book from me.

I am everything and I am nothing..... A confused blabbering after a good Basic Astronomy class

Yesterday, was a bright sunday afternoon and a group of us, which I must mention was quite a motley crowd from students of 7 th standard to housewives and working professionals were all assembeled in a small room listening to the Basic astronomy workshop at "Akashmitra" - an astronomy club over here.

Well they showed us this video which I found to be particularly interesting. Do watch.





After watching the movie, I was simply amazed with the kind of symmetry that god has created in various things. We dont know anything about the 10 raise to power 27 m and what the sizes would be like and we dont know what is the world at -27th power of 10, it is all so amazing. we are here which we consider a power 0 plane and feel that the universe is too big and a DNA is too small. Its all so relative.

There is a whole lot of blabbering that is going on in my mind looking at this. Just trying to pen it down, it might not make much sense, but it might just be true.

I have a strong feeling that there in the DNA strands of mine there will be world more advanced, more advanced traces of lives living and extra sophisticated life at 10 raise to -45 m levels which we cannot even think of just the way we cannot think of 10 raise to 45 m sizes.

Similarly we might be a tiny part of a football of some giant beings at an unconcievable size. And there might be some sophisticated guy at 10 raise to -45 m who in his astronomy class might be studying about humans the way we study galaxies.

We are searching lives in our planetary neighbourhood but life might be existing in any form, at any level of magnitude, it is just that we cannot conceive how it would be. There might be some being at a size of 10 to the power 50 who doesnot even understand or have not yet found that there is a tiny thing called solar system in our world. Its all so possible and its all so unknown.

Thank you God for creating this absolutely wonderful universe (I dont know a bigger word which covers everything).

Saaransh : Gist of Life

There are good movies that you want to watch again and again and then there are great movies, which even after viewing once have the power to move you, jolt you and make you think. Saaransh is a movie in the latter category. Its a story of despair, search, purpose and above all hope. Its a story that could as a plot would look very simple but requires an extraordinary flair for presenting it onscreen. You see that this comes from the very heart of the Mahesh bhatt, one of the best from him ever, when you understand that it is entirely his movie. Brilliant writing, brilliant dialogues, brilliant direction and brilliant screenplay.

Saaransh is a story of an old couple, B.V Pradhan and Parvati (played by Anupam Kher and Rohini Hattangadi), who are living their lives at a point where there is no meaning to life. Their son, who was studying in America, gets killed in an unfotunate mugging event with no fault of his. Pradhan and Parvati could not even visit their dieing son and all that is left of him is his ashes. Pradhan sprays it over the nearby park. With loss of all the purpose they had in their life, their son, there is no meaning left to their lives anymore. They have rented their house to a budding actress Sujata( Soni Razdan) for the want of money. Sujata's boyfriend Vilas (Madan Jain) happens to be son of a politician Gajanan Chitre (Nilu Phule).

Pradhan in search of finding a livelihood goes on to search a job where he sees young and able people struggling for jobs all over. The state of the country with rampant riots, unemployment and all the problems that an ailing country could have, moves Pradhan, who had once been the freedom fighter for the country. While getting back from the job interview to home, he finds that riots are happening all over the city. He tries to run away in the havoc, but could not find a way to take home. In the subway back, where he is taking each step with a fear in his heart of not reaching home at all, sees some goons, who comes to him, takes his money, beats him up. Humiliated he keeps on saying "Main tumhare baap jaisa hu.." but the goons go only on police's arrival. This event brings to Pradhan's imagination all that his son must have faced before dieing. Though you dont see what he is thinking on screen but his face tells it all.

He does not want to live this life of humiliation any more and wants to die with respect. Vilas saves him from a futile suicide attempt. And just when the couple were about the take poison for killing themselves they discover that Sujata has conceived Vilas' child and Vilas doesnot want it as his father is going to fight an election soon. Sujata wants the child and Pradhans get ready to support them. Parvati feels it is coming home for his son through Sujata and is obsessed with the feeling.

Then starts the story of a 'hopeless' life getting a purpose. An old couple against the might of the big politcian to save a child who is not yet born. The fearless Pradhan gets back to his old freedom struggle in fighting for the rights of Sujata. The story paces fast from here to show how the couple wins against all the odds to save Sujata and Vilas and make them go to another city. The end shows the couple with a zeal to live, with a thought that even if we are not there, life will always be there and it is this life which we should live for.

The best scene that i loved watching in the movie was when a desperate Pradhan, walks in to the minister's cabin (played by akash khurana), and speaks dialogues that i feel can never be forgotten, its a voice of a common man. Anupam Kher has never matched that performance of his till date.

And the best dialogue for the film comes at the end when Anupam Kher after all ups and downs of life decides to "live" and tells his wife who is planning to die that they have to live and that "Tumhari Chehre ki jhurrio mein mere jeevan ka saaransh hai" (In the wrinkles of your face lies the gist of my life) . Very touching. Also at the end we see their sons ashes turning in to flowers of the garden and both of them touching the flowers feeling the life they have, which too is a part of them.

Anupam Kher acts his part with sheer brilliance, he carries the film all on himself. He plays an old man in his first film!! He won a filmfare award for an act in the parallel cinema. He just proves his grasp over the character in certain scenes, depecting despair and hope. Rohini Hattangadi's performance comes just next to her performance in Gandhi. Nilu Phule looks sinster, Madan Jain and Soni Razdan carries their role very well. Then there are certain characters that will leave their mark on you mind even with their small roles, whether it be the pandit, or Pradhan's friend, or Dr.Bhatt, or the goons, everyone plays their part well .

Ajit Varman gives the music as the film demanded, good. Dialogue, screenplay and writing is simply fabulous, all credits to Mahesh bhatt for etching the characters so well. you just live the lives of the characters while going through the movie. I want to see the same Mahesh bhatt back in action.

Two important people involved in this movie but were not so famous then who are worth mentioning are David Dhawan and Sooraj Barjatya. The movie was marketed by Rajashri production and Sooraj Barjatya was the assistant director for the movie. He later went on to create a cinema style of his own. And so is it true with David Dhawan who did the editing of this film.

Do watch the classic. If I was born then and had to rate this, would have rated it at nothing less than a 4.5*.

Johnny Gaddar Film Review : Sriram Anand, Sriram Hadley Chase, Sriram Raghvan welcome back...

Once in a time comes a movie that creates a genre of its own. Johnny Gaddar is one such movie. It takes how-did-he-do-it and how-was-he-saved stories to a totally different level. Bollywood is changing and there is now a whole new range of movies coming in.

Sriram Raghvan comes out as a very good director in the new lot of director. There are a very few directors in India who get inspired from popular fiction books (thrillers to be precise, cheesy at times) and can craft it well in to a picture, Sriram Raghvan seems one of them for sure. Earlier he had done a well made Shidney Sheldon type of thriller "Ek Hasina thi" (I thought it was inspired from "If tomorrow comes") and now he does a James Hadley Chase.Would be waiting for his 3rd flick, when he tries comedy(Happy Birthday starring John Abraham and Amisha Patel) for sure.

Johnny Gaddar is a story of 5 cons who are going to have a big deal with a corrupt police inspector Kalyan (Played well by Govind Namdeo), making a quick fortune in the way. The whole plan is well planned by Sheshadri (played by Dharmendra) with 4 of his partners Shardul, Prakash, Shiva and Vikram (Zakir Hussain, Vinay Pathak, Daya Shetty and Neil respectively).

The plan falls apart when one of them, Vikram betrays the others for money(and there are no spoilers here as you know it from the beginning that he is the one). The story then continues with a maze of well planned smart moves by vikram to save himself. And as the fortune favours the brave, Vikram moves on with some good escapes unexpectedly turning his ways. There is a subplot running through out the film where Vikram falls for Shardul's wife (Rimi sen). Unwillingly (a spoiler here) Vikram ends up killing all his partners as and when they come to know that it was he who did it to them. The story is neither very different nor new, but it is the execution of the film that makes it worth a watch. Though the movie does not have what we can say exactly twists and turns, there are many unexpected things happening on the screen that keeps your interest alive.

As far as acting is concerned all the characters in the movie are aptly played by the actors. The underplayed act of Neil as Vikram is definitely the most impressive debut this year till now. He has a pretty innocent face to carry on the conning part well. He needs a crash course in dialogue delivery though. Vinay Pathak as Prakash is very good. Must watch is the scene where he gets introduced, definitely his type of humor.

Zakir Hussain turns up with a performance that suits the situation. Eccentric but stupid at times. But for the last Hamming special scene from Dharmedra, his performance too was as good as others.Govind Namdeo plays his part well with a good comic timing. Rimi Sen, Ashwini Khaleskar and Rasika Joshi are just OK, which is way belo average compared to their male counterparts in the movie.

Sriram Raghvan has a definite knack in presenting his things differently. Great work by him as a director. There are so numerous scenes that he has shot so differently that at times I feel he should be teaching in a film making school. Special mention to his tribute to old hindi movies. Really good. The credits for the film when the movie starts is trend setting... absolutely wonderful.

Music by shankar mahadevan is good, especially the part where the music from old movies is played at an interesting point in the movie.

So am I completely impressed with the movie? The answer is definite NO.

I think this movie goes on to prove for me that movies are more than Direction, acting and presentation. Weak areas as per me for the movie were not so good Editing (Pooja Surti), absence of a thick story line and Characterization. Only Niel had his motives, role and details well etched out but for others though it must have been defined very well at the time of writing, it did not come out in the movie. Visit the official website of the movie and read about the characters. These were the things that I could not figure out very clearly in the movie.

Moreover there was no guilt that I could see Vikram had when he was killing all of them but after killing you see a fine little glimmer of guilt in his eyes in other scenes. That made the killings almost unrealistic for me.

The side plots apart from Neil and Rimi's were all weak. Dharmendra listening to his Dead wife's audio cassettes, Vinay Pathak fighting with his wife, Shardul's club, Shiva's Mother and girlfriend all were not properly developed and compared to the main events of the movie, this part of the movie was a big let down.

I would have loved a dark ending with Neil surviving everything and getting what he wanted.

Another thing that Sriram Raghvan missed on during the screenplay was clarity. The entire reason and planning for the incidence that starts it all did not come up very clearly. The end is not exactly predictable but is not surprising too. At times Unpredictability gets monotonus in the film.

But overall a very well crafted good movie, that will definitely be liked by people who wants to see "different" cinema. Thumbs up to the director and actors for carrying this risky part off with aplomb.

Though good, could have been better 3* for this different kind of thriller.

The Moscow Vector by Robert Ludlum and Patrick Larkin : Good In parts

Well this is going to be my first book review. And as I have not been reading book reviews (or for that matter a lot of books) it might not be a standard good to read kind of book review.

Moscow Vector, the second last book from the Robert Ludlum's covert-one series which was completed by Patrick Larkin after Ludlum's Death is a fair thriller with espionage and military angles attached to it.

characters and story

The book tries to extend the cold war days to the present day with an Over ambitious Russian president Victor Dudarev, at the helm of the sly malign intentions of capturing the other states and building the lost glory of USSR again. Its a story of military aggressiveness by the Russian president backed with a precise, lethal bio-weapon HYDRA which attacks a persons DNA and alters the cell growth eventually stopping it completely. The biological weapon is funded by a Serbian Billionaire Malkovic, who wants his piece of pie from Viktor Dudarev's aggression. The business man hires a bio-weapon expert German scientist Wulf Renke and an organization giving cover to all of them which is headed by Eric Brandt. A whole list of villains, who wants to give an answer to the ever increasing American power, plans the mission to perfection.

Now it is up to the good guys to save the smaller countries with which Russia shares the border and also lives of many American Military heads and ministers. The flock of the good guys led by Dr. Jon Smith, who happens to be a Medical doctor studying the genesis of a lethal disease killing many of the top notch ministers, and is also a secret agent with CIA on the covert-one mission to work on this project. He is accompanies by a beautiful, ever charming Fiona Devin and Oleg Kirov, an Ex Russian secret agent. The 3 of them together tries to find the details of the deadly disease as well as the intention of the Russian premier for America. The cat and mouse games between them and the Russian militia have been depicted in detail throughout the Novel. There is one more good girl, Randi Russel, working for CIA in Germany spying on to find Wulf Renke and his latest ventures. All of them connects at the end to destroy the power of bio-weapon and makes the ugly intentions of Russian President a failure.

Thumbs Up

The story moves on quickly from one clue to another and from one escapade to another for the good guys ending into the end of bad guys’ bad intentions. The good thing about the story is there are no side stories; there is nothing to get you off the roller coaster ride planned for you. The way the events shape up and continues spreading across the geography of all continents keeps your interest alive to read on. 2 good things that I liked about the book were:

• The discussion that the US president Sam Castilla has with the Russian president at the end. Blunt, straight to the point, American style.
• Author lures in the reader to think for romantic angles between the American spies till the end but does not explicitly write anything about it till the end. The last lines hence brings a smile to your face before you keep the book down.

Thumbs down
But the Novel had its own set of shortcomings. Firstly, it has a very one-dimensional characterization of the different lead characters. That totally works against connecting to the characters. Certain sections within the novel seem over the top and unbelievable. There being no side stories at times it seems that you are going through similar events and situation again and again, though it is not making the story monotonous but it does not make you run to the next page with excitement.

For me the book was a good read with Fair story, not so good Not so bad treatment, uninteresting in parts read with a lot left to be done. The author could have written it a lot better.

Read it if you have to go on a long journey or want to concentrate on other things too along with the book.

2.5 * out of 5 for the book from my side.