Slumdog Millionaire Review

It is an honour for me to have watched and review a movie like slumdog millionaire even before it is released for general audiences in India. If the movie has to be described in just one adjective it would be nothing but AWESOME!

Danny boyle has done a brilliant job in giving a special treatment to the movie which makes it unique. The amazing storyline is strongly and perfection in screenplay, backed by some wonderful performances by the cast and add to it magical music score by A R Rahman and you have a beautiful movie before you. A complete entertainer.

'Jamal Sheikh' played by Dev Patel spends his childhood in the slums of Mumbai and it is a journey to watch his life story unfold as he not just finds his love interest but goes on to become a millionaire. But how did he answer all the questions correctly. You better watch the movie for this. The character of Jamal played by 3 youngsters Ayush, Tanay Chedda (Ishan's friend in Taare zameen par) and Dev patel has been very promising and equal credit goes to all the three for brilliant acting. Freida Pinto is a pleasure to watch (esp. from the top of the VT station). Anil Kapoor is really lucky to get to play SRK in KBC2. Jamal's Brother Salim has a decent role in the plot and proper justice is done bny the actors as well.

Rahman Rocks in the movie with his background score.

And now the great news, just an hour ago, OSCAR nominatons have been declared and Indian A R Rahman has bagged 3 nominations; best music and best original score for the songs 'jai ho' and 'o saya mayo'. In all slumdog has managed to get 10 nominations at the Academy awards. I am sure, Rahman will surely get awarded for atleast 2 of his 3 nominations and India will finally open its Oscar account.

Go catch this flick! Strongly recommended by BM.

(Watch the movie and comment what you have to say on www.mehtabhavin.blogspot.com)

The Audacity of hope!

While i write this many, around the world would be still stuck on their television sets watching history being made. Barack Hussein Obama is now the 44th president of the United States of America. And never ever i have been so excited to watch the swearing in ceremony of any leader of any country.

But with so much hope and hype, come a lot of expectations. And i believe he with his charismatic style of leading, pragmatic approach towards problems and great oratory skills definitely be able to bring about a catalytic change in the structure of the world.

What needs to be seen is how he deals with the current economic crisis in the world, the situation in Afghanistan and troops in Iraq and how much does he succeed in reaffirming that America can still be what their forefathers had dreamt it of being.

I really hope that Mr. oBaMa lives up to the expectations of restoring peace in the world and turns out to be the real guide to the change. Long Live Mr. President.

I would not hesitate is stating that BM truly idolizes Barack oBaMa.

Has Indian Recession just begun?

Mumbai, BM Press:
The world economy is reeling under recession and its ripple effect has not left India uninsulated. The recent cuts, constant and gradual, in the CRR and the SLR by the reserve bank of India goes on to show the efforts beign made by the finance ministry to pump in enough liquidity into the system. The good signs had already been visible as the inflation rate came down to almost 6 % for the last two weeks, and banks reduced key interest rates.
However, for the Indian GDP, theres bad news. The elephant was riding high since the dawn of this decade, thanks to the IT revolution. Indian IT companies and the software exports by these companies have had significant contributions to the GDP for many years now. But are the halycon days over for Indian IT? Well, the recent events atleast suggest so.
The world bank banned the fourth largest indian IT firm, Satyam, for any operations for 8 long years. The next few days followed worse events for the company. We all now know about the (Raju ban gaya conman) event, which is considered as the biggest fraud ever in indian corporate history. With Satyam, not just the business that it brought to india from the world but survival of families of 53000 employees is at stake. Thankfully, the government is making all efforts to ensure its survival. Here we simply have to wait and watch.
But Indian IT industry recieved yet another major setback when the World bank again banned Wipro citing 'conflict of interest' as the reason. If such things continue and the Indian IT exports take a hit then the country's GDP is sure to be highly affected, add to it the effects of the recent financial crisis.
Also, on the other front, the indian transporters are leaving no stone unturned to bring a rise in the prices of essential commodities once again by resorting to strikes nation wide. Job cuts have just begun, big international projects are slipping off our hands, lacking confidence of FIIs, et al. Huh!
Lets hope the situation is not as bad as it atleast seems to be and the elephant once again gets back on its feet as early as possible.

(Have your say, post ur views in the comments section, www.mehtabhavin.blogspot.com)

Can guns really protect us?

BM Editorial:
Thousands of years ago when nature was in its infant stage of human development, the ultimate supreme of this earth would have never thought that that one day its most intelligent species, mankind, will make this heaven a hell to dwell upon. Fortunately, not everything is lost.

Since ages we have heard of wars taking place between countries, dynasties on basis of land expansions or other such unconvincing reasons to establish their own supremacy. The two world wars were thus the inevitable outcomes. Today post cold war, even though countries are not fighting for land, there is another bigger threat that has been thrown on them due to opposing ideologies. Some religious, some extremist and some anti human antagonism has resulted in another inevitable. Terrorism.

Worldover, it exists in different forms. Apart from the recent Terror attacks on mumbai, other popular attacks have been the US 9/11, London, Glasgow 7/11, Serial blasts and the list goes on. Whats more disheartening is that these are on a rise and the question is how can we citizens be protected from such incidents?

Ofcourse, military support using arms and ammunitions is very essential for self defence. But this will be nothing more than a cosmetic effort to cover up the losses, rather than preventing them. We need a solution to cut the roots of these problems which can only be solved by taking concrete steps. First, the citizens have to be vigil and keep an eye on things around for any suspicious elements. Then, the government has to initiate some strong anti terror mechanismswhich can ensure safety.

But another question that arises is how can guns protect us from our own social evils like poverty, illiteracy, discriminations on caste, creed or color, dowry systems. To address these issues we need more stringent measures.

We need another Gandhi. India needs a new modern age Gandhi for its revival. Education to all, with special emphasis to women education is a must. Also, the youth of the nation has to stage a non violent uprising to eliminate these problems completely by being socially active, participating in the political process and taking initiatives.

We need much more than weapons to protect ourselves and secure and create a better future for our children and the next generation.

(Read the comments section on www.mehtabhavin.blogspot.com. Had written it while practising for XAT)