3 years on, Kasab continues to be India’s guest!
I am unable to believe that it will be three years since the 26/11 terrorist attack happened in Mumbai. In fact, the effect of the horrifying incident was such that most of us have a feeling that it was just recently that the inhuman activity took place. Although one-by-one five years have passed, Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist who was arrested red-handed for committing the crime, continues to live as India’s guest!
The whole of India (or the world) saw him killing innocents. Later, he himself admitted to it. Hence, proving his crime and convicting him wasn’t difficult. Yet, he hasn’t been punished for committing the most heinous of crimes! What the hell is stopping our law system and government?
I have said this before as well – this will surely motivate upcoming terrorists to attack India as they very well know they will get to live a long life even if they are caught.
On one hand, the US soldiers entered an unknown country and ruthlessly killed the person who committed the biggest terror attack on their homeland – Osama Bin Laden. On the other hand, we have Kasab in our custody. He is convicted but yet he is not punished. Most ridiculously, crores of rupees, which are paid by the common man in the form of taxes, are also spent on him! Shameful is a tiny term to describe this!
I think it would have been better if Kasab was killed in the operation. What have we achieved by arresting and convicting him? We wouldn't have spent crores on him and made a fool of ourselves in front of the world!
By delaying the punishment, more and more amount of salt is getting rubbed on the wounds of the victims and their families! Plus, the sentiments of the common man are getting hurt further and further. How much more will our government and law system hurt the common man?
The only possible way looks like the one shown in the movie A Wednesday. The pro-terrorism attitude shown towards Kasab is making me think like this! How can I have respect for a law system which is becoming a circus?
The Common Man & his problems
(Once more my friend Padmanabh Subramanian aka Pady has contributed an article for my blog. I appreciate his effort where he has highlighted the problems faced by the Common Man of today. Have a look at it.)
Dear Common Man,
I have been following your tweets, posts, Facebook status messages and blog writeups pertaining to the common man & his struggle, corruption, social evils, etc.
Just thought of sharing with you few thoughts, which have been cropping up in my mind since long. Just tried to connect the dots, and summarize it as under:
The Common Man & his problems
All the social / national issues, the Common Man Speaks about, are more or less, interlinked or rather 'knotted' with each other. Recall the dialogue from Mumbai Meri Jaan, by constable Kadam (Vijay Maurya) to Patil saaheb(Paresh Rawal). "
"Patil sahab yeh jo galat hai na...ek ka undar ek itna ghichid michid ho gaya hai ki saala maalumich nahi padta hai ki iska shuruaat kidhar se hua tha..."
If one tries resolving one of them, the other becomes a bigger threat. And the solution also lies somewhere within the problems themselves.
Some of the issues we usually speak about are -
- The exponentially growing population
- Democracy
- Politics
- Internal Conflicts
- Crime
- Terrorism
- Poverty
- Development / Standard of Living
- Corruption
Population, one of the well known issues in the nation, is the BAAP of all problems. Simple Mumbaiyaa logic boley toh Naukri k ghante aanth(8) hain, hafte mein din 7 hain, ghar pe khaane waale 8 aath hain, pagaar ek so saath (160) hai...ZINDAGI bole toh vaat hai !!
Development is something we have been trying to achieve since ages. But, it's only few sections of the society that have been able to reap the benefits so far. And this section is the one responsbile for IT, technology and luxury boom in the nation. Today a call from a cell phone costs you 0.5 ps per minutes and the price of oil is almost Rs 100 / litre. So, there's a paradoxical situation wherein, luxury comes cheaper than basic needs. And ultimately & ironically the brunt is borne by those who don't fall in this bracket, i.e. the common man and the ones on & below the poverty line
Overall development of this huge population, isn't frankly easy, because, to reach out 2 everyone is a Herculean task.
As a result,
1) There are few people who are lucky enough to get their share of justice and okay with the system.
2) Some of them don't want to wait in queues or lines , but just want to get their work done ASAP
3) Some are too big / egoistic a persona to share the same space with the common man.
Talking about democracy, for name sake, we have freedom of this, that and everything....but it's only few people who are actually able to exercise them and reach out their voices. Even among these, there are people who only want their rights to be granted "SADDA HAQ, AITHAY RAAKH" , but will never perform their duties and yet escape scot free.
Policies, rules & norms are subject to overnight modifications by the influential class.
Here is where come in CRIME, CORRUPTION & POLITICS
People who get away with Corruption, make it a habit, while those are not able to, resort to CRIME.
So, a frustrated soul has no other choice, but to choose one of the above mentioned.
Politicians play their usual vote bank,divide & rule, musical chairs, parliament chaos, kinda games, and add fuel to the fire, thereby creating internal conflicts as well
To get worse, some pool in relgious bias, wherein normal crime transforms into terrorism, courtesy our not-so friendly neighbouring nations.
However, when a terror attack occurs, it creates havoc no doubt, but if you see it from a different perspective, it targets the 1st problem i.e. population.
So as such, we have a dangerous dead-end in place to target all the problems, if we leave them as it is. Now it's up to us whether we allow these to continue and the circle to find its own deadly solution or WE THE PEOPLE, work on each problem ourselves separately and in parallel.
If you feel I have made some sense, do share it with the world. Ek baar spell check maar dena please !!
Regards,
Padmanabh
7 Khoon Maaf Review
Rating: 3 out of 5
Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Vivaan Shah, Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Irrfan Khan, Anu Kapoor, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Naseruddin Shah
Director: Vishal Bhardwaj
Music: Vishal Bhardwaj
Producers: UTV Spotboy, V B Films
Vishal Bhardwaj is known for making dark and unusual pieces of cinema. And after watching the promos of his latest offering 7 Khoon Maaf, it looked that this is the darkest and the most unusual thing to have come out of him. And as expected, this is indeed the case. Because of this and the final culmination, 7 Khoon Maaf will appeal only to a selected class audience and not to the masses. Having said that, Bhardwaj deserves accolades for his impressive creativity as a director and also for some out-of-the-box narration.
Based on writer Ruskin Bond’s novel Susanna’s Seven Husbands, the story focuses on Susanna’s (Priyanka Chopra) encounter with her husbands – Major Edwin Rodrigues (Neil Nitin Mukesh), rock performer Jimmy Stetson (John Abraham), poet Wasiullah Khan (Irrfan Khan), Russian Nicolai Vronsky (Aleksandr Dyachenko), inspector Keemat Lal (Anu Kapoor) and Dr Modhusudhon Tarafdar (Naseruddin Shah) – and how and why she gets rid of them. Arun Kumar (Vivaan Shah) also becomes an integral part of Susanna’s life.
Although in each story Susanna ends up killing her husband, the tales are as different from each other as chalk and cheese and so are all the murders. In fact, the unusual and witty way... (TO READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW, PLEASE CLICK HERE)
My Blog’s Performance in 2010
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here's a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
In 2010, there were 33 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 57 posts. There were 135 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 11mb. That's about 3 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was November 22nd with 83 views. The most popular post that day was In a Civilized Society… .
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, en.wordpress.com, orkut.co.in, google.co.in, and twitter.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for male and female symbols, male female symbol, male female symbols, female symbol, and sindhutai sapkal.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
In a Civilized Society… December 2009
7 comments
Haapus (Marathi Movie) Review June 2010
10 comments
Mee Sindhutai Sapkal Review November 2010
6 comments
Zenda (Marathi Movie) Review January 2010
2 comments
Ringa Ringa (Marathi Movie) Review March 2010
Prince Movie Review
Just Prince… Not King
Ratings - * * *
Debutant director Kookie Gulati’s carries out the much needed task of bringing a Hollywood style hi-fi action thriller to India with Prince. The jaw-dropping stunts, sleek approach, mind-blowing cinematography and some explosive action make way for a ride never experienced before in Bollywood. Sadly, like it happens with most of the stylish action flicks in Bollywood, the storytelling and logic take a backseat. Plus, there is this concept of brain-mapping and memory erasing and restoring which looks just too fantasy oriented.
Prince (Vivek Oberoi) is the smartest thief in the world who can steal just anything because of his intelligence and determination. He commits the heftiest theft ever when he steals many kilos of expensive diamonds. Then one day, he wakes up without remembering anything about himself or his past. He realizes that the IGRIP force and a dreaded while collar gangster called Sarang (Isaiah) are after him as he has stolen a valuable coin. A coin which has a dangerous secret hidden in it. Prince then gets to know he has a girlfriend named Maya. But he meets three girls (Neeru Singh, Nandana Sen and Aruna Shields) one after the other who claim to be Maya. Prince must soon unlock all the mysteries because he has just six days left to live.
Kookie Gulati manages to provide some extraordinary scenes. The tone sets off right from the start with the robbery sequence. The story moves very well in the first half as Prince’s confusion, the unusual events he encounters and the regular twists make for an interesting watch. The hardcore stunt scenes and the track Oh Mere Khuda are the highlights in this time. However, it’s always a huge challenge for a writer in such action thrillers to pen an interesting and convincing second half and that’s where the film falters more so because of the run-of-the-mill climax.
Sadly, there are other problems too. It’s important to show high-tech weapons in such movies but you just can’t take the word technology for granted. There’s just too much of cinematic liberty taken in the form of some non-believable gadgets. For instance, the Spiderman trick that Prince uses is just too much. As stated earlier, the brain-mapping issue makes matters worse. There is also this old shoddy thing of not a single bullet hitting the protagonist even though hundreds of rounds are fired on him.
Music director Sachin Gupta is a big saving grace as displays his talent superbly in the songs Oh Mere Khuda, Tere Liye and Kaun Hoon Main. His music is mostly responsible for the publicity the film has gained.
Vivek Oberoi’s performance is the biggest strongpoint of the movie. He carries the aura of the character with ease as does well not only in the action sequences but also displays his vulnerability and confusion with flawlessness. This one is easily amongst his top performances.
Aruna Shields, surprisingly, turns out to be the better of the three ladies. Nandana Sen does well too while Neeru Singh doesn’t get much scope. Debutant Isaiah makes a strong point in the role of a baddie. He deserves more opportunities in the future. Sanjay Kapoor once again proves that he deserves a much higher status in Bollywood. Dalip Tahil and the rest of the supporting cast are fine.
Prince turns out to be a one-time-watch for those who prefer action thrillers. However, we should appreciate the fact that finally someone has dared to tread on this path which can, hopefully, motivate other filmmakers to revive the action genre in Bollywood. Therefore I give 3 to this one. It will have a mammoth task at the box-office. Should do well in in single screens.