Article 15

·         The movie is good and bad. Good parts first but why I call some of it is bad that it has done great disservice to the cause it espouses despite being able to capture some nuances very well.

·         Sleepy north Indian rural milleue with its poverty and infrastructure has been depicted quite accurately, especially government hospital or government residence. In a small town ( overgrown village) the so called gentry consists of business persons and sundry government officials as shown in movie. The new IPS who is essentially a transplant from an alien environment ( not from same state but also the culture ) gets shock and is treated by local people exactly the same way as shown in movie. A seemingly innocuous man like bodyguard of addnl SP who is himself shown involved in the crime , or one fiery village woman who dares to speak truth, or how post-mortem can be manipulated at government hospitals, or how SP deliberately leaks news to media or local businessman tries to get cosy with SP is pretty accurate and shows script write have ear to grounds. The way politician of both sides unite and how victim of dalit community don’t get help from leader of their community is pretty accurate.

·         Sadly though good things end here. First movie tries to allude to a real life incident which was actually an honor killing by the family of the victims in UP. Movie strings together various crimes from all over India over different periods of time in a single time frame in a single place painting a picture of doomsday. The SC police inspector is shown taking orders from dominant caste senior which is so patently false. The sad truth is police is divided across caste lines and more often than now whoever is in position of power plays saviour for people of his caste.

·         The SP must have cleared UPSC, got trained for a year and then at least 2 years in field before becoming SP and his incredulity at surroundings is simply laughable especially when asking who is which caste as the very exam he would have appeared inot and training he would gone through constantly reinforces these ideas.

·         Robin hood of the village who does nothing but sermonises is as unreal as moon in daytime and no demonstration, dharna or morcha by public or family of victim is not what happens in reality.

·         Overall the mood picture paints and especially the cinematography is very good, performance wise people shine in their role, especially corrupt policeman, businessman, lady doctor, assistant police officers , Ayushman acts well but his role is not written perfectly and so is issue with robin hood and his love interest.

·         Overall one should watch the movie but remember that it is fictional and substantial part of it never happens in real.

Sepoy to Subedar

From Sepoy to Subedar is a very rare, first person account of a sepoy who served in both the East India Company's army until the mutiny and then continued serving after the Indian army was brought directly under government control. Sita Ram began his service for the Honorable Company in 1812 and fought in virtually all the army's major campaigns. Ram's narrative describes his active service, and provides a private soldier's insights, into the Gurkha War (1814-1816), the Pindari War (1817-1818), the incursion into Afghanistan(1838-1839), and the subsequent retreat (1842) to include his capture and time as a slave before escaping to return to India. Ram's story continues with his actions in both Sikh wars, and the Mutiny in 1857.

What makes the book interesting is that it provides a soldier's level perspective of all these actions and life in the Indian Army. What makes it even better is it is written by a soldier in the Indian Army along with the insights and perspectives of a Hindu soldier in the service of the Raj. It's this perspective that makes the book unique and worth reading.

As with many soldier's narratives, it lacks the context that would go along with a more polished military history. However, the book's editor provides both context and background at the beginning of each chapter and in the footnotes.

It would be interesting if we get  sepoy/soldier level perspective of IPKf, Kashmir insurgency, naxalism etc. But his memoir also points to some painful reality, like technology won the day for Britishers, caste was an important fact for north Indian hindus which were prevented  to go abroad or serve beyond Indus and even mere touch or eating with impure irritated them to no ends

Cure of Troy

History says, Don’t hope

On this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up,

And hope and history rhyme

Video Games

one of my favorite songs

Swinging in the backyard
Pull up in your fast car
Whistling my name

Open up a beer
And you take it over here
And play a video game

I'm in his favorite sun dress
Watching me get undressed
Take that body downtown

I say you the bestest
Lean in for a big kiss
Put his favorite perfume on

Go play a video game

It's you, it's you, it's all for you
Everything I do
I tell you all the time
Heaven is a place on earth with you
Tell me all the things you want to do
I heard that you like the bad girls
Honey, is that true?
It's better than I ever even knew
They say that the world was built for two
Only worth living if somebody is loving you
Baby now you do

Singing in the old bars
Swinging with the old stars
Living for the fame

Kissing in the blue dark
Playing pool and wild darts
Video games

He holds me in his big arms
Drunk and I am seeing stars
This is all I think of

Watching all our friends fall
In and out of Old Paul's
This is my idea of fun
Playing video games

It's you, it's you, it's all for you
Everything I do
I tell you all the time
Heaven is a place on earth with you
Tell me all the things you want to do
I heard that you like the bad girls
Honey, is that true?
It's better than I ever even knew
They say that the world was built for two
Only worth living if somebody is loving you
Baby now you do

(Now you do)

It's you, it's you, it's all for you
Everything I do
I tell you all the time
Heaven is a place on earth with you
Tell me all the things you want to do
I heard that you like the bad girls
Honey, is that true?
It's better than I ever even knew
They say that the world was built for two
Only worth living if somebody is loving you
Baby now you do

I am

Just watched this movie out of four stories found story featuring Sanjay Suri and Juhi Chawla most poignant Specially Juhi Chawla one... first of all it is first movie which shows plight of Kashmiri Pandits in unambiguous term, no root cause theory .. How kashmiris were chased away by very people with whom they had shared lives, how Kashmiiris mask the even by saying Kashmiris ran away, how their properties are either decayed or occupied, how old generation of Kashmiris never like delhi or other indian cities where they ultimately settled but one very important thing this movie shows different from movies like tahaan, sanjay dutt bipasha movie, mission kashmir, or shourya is how conflict means lost opportntites or rather lost life for some people Manisha's acting is superb in her small yet powerful role of a woman who lost her youth, her love, her brother because she was caught in a wrong place in wrong time and in that sense maybe character of Juhi Chawla was rather lucky story of Sanjay Suri is perhaps first portrayal of child abuse on Indian mainstream movies. like many other secrets of our society this is never talked about and as general lack of sex education means that those who are abused feel they are themselves guilty and never complain about their tormenters must watch to understand absurdities of modern civilization

Agneepath

Producers may claim that they were not marking remake on some minor plot points ( like husband of amitabh's sister) or no development of character of Amitabh's dad but still movie has imprint of old flick

plus - choice of very good location as mandwa, Om Puri, Rishi Kapur and minister were apt for their role. Praise for rishi kapur who shines in possibly first negative role in his life. Fight between his son and himself has certain godfather movie like feeling there are many opportunities which are wasted. e.g. Kancha's near maniacs is never explained, though towards end his dad is shown as proverbial uncle of Ravan who tried to stop him.Similarly in old movie goga kapur though less frightening but comes out as more scheming character which Sanjay dutt does not fight scene towards end is completely ridiculous and sole aim of it seems to show physique of Hrithik. Priyanka chopra is also wasted in small insignificant part. Praise for lady playing sister of Hrithik, she does not have many dialog but she delivers by her eyes

Movie review Ragini MMS

After a long time a decent Hindi horror movie maybe after darr of RamGopal Varma before he turned himself into a factory.Premise is simple and though they say it to be inspired by real events this kind of story of a wronged soul communicating with innocent/scheming outsiders has been repeated umpteen number of times. But thankfully it does not have that typical Ojha/magician so common in all Hindi movies who comes to deal with the bad soul neither it has a religious figure normally a priest or someone who comes to frighten away the ghost. This makes the story very realistic. Acting by lead pair is too good ,though movie sags towards end but length has been kept proper and it ends before viewer will get bored. Good movie. 8/10