Since childhood I never cherished any dreams of going abroad, instead always wanted to live in India. My search for a livelihood, like any other person, just out of the college, changed my perceptions on going abroad. It was in the year 2002 that the doors to a foreign nation had opened for me. My first pay made my eyes pop out (upon converting the currency, of course)

I also realized that with a white collar job in a foreign land one could earn quickly and pay off debts easily. My initial goal was just to stay for one year, amass some wealth and go back to India. As time passed, my ambitions started changing year after year and I started spreading my roots deeper into this foreign soil thus making my position much stronger.

Until you fly abroad you find life very nice and comfortable in the way you live, but once you get a taste of life abroad– you are out of that “frog in a well” situation and find it more interesting than ever.

As I introspect, I keep wondering if I will ever go back. One side pulls me towards my country of origin while the other side is so accustomed to western life style, it holds me back. A Catch-22 situation!

Returning to country indeed is a major decision, perhaps even tougher than to go abroad. There is no right or wrong here. After spending a few years abroad, we aim for “best of both worlds” which is difficult to find, in real life.

On one hand you have these factors compelling you to stay back abroad-

Value for money – Every penny earned is valuable abroad. In India a 100-rupee denomination is becoming almost worthless these days.

Free Life Style – You do not have any close relatives or neighbors pestering you with questions that are more personal in nature. Personal space is respected abroad more than in India.

Substantial Income - Similar effort put in a foreign country pays you 40x or 80x to what one gets in India. Once you get that taste of money, it’s hard to wean away from it.

Work culture – No slogging and no late hour work culture (to impress your bosses )

Value for Life – Life is valued far higher than anything else. The quality of life we lead is definitely better than that of India.

On the other hand there is a long list of good things back home in India that would tempt you to go home – people, relations, parents, food, cost of living, education, entertainment, advance medical treatments, growing economy, opportunities, weather, culture and of course, our roots.

I am convinced that all the Indians who are abroad are Non Returning Indians.

You may have a different opinion, but 8 out of 10 people who are abroad have firm plans to settle down there. They might not agree on the face of it, but their materialistic desires will force them to settle down. Will this ever change? May be….may be not.

Our growing economy could change this dimension and trigger a reverse brain drain. For now, we may have to just wait and watch.

Image Credit: Wonker

Popularity: 25%

Today we live a stressful life and movies have become an integral part of our entertainment. I remember few years back I could watch a movie for Rs 30 which was quite under budget. No one really bothered about watching a pirated cassette and none made noise about pirated movies.

But these days people are willing to buy pirated movies than watching the movie in a theater. There are several reasons for that . I was thinking what should be done to reduce video piracy. Here are some of my thoughts.

1) Reduction in Actor Remuneration

How can a hero charge Rs.16 to 20 crores per film? If the cost of production comes down people can afford watching the movie in theaters. I see top bollywood heroes and heroines preaching against piracy. If 50% of the money I paid for watching for a movie goes into paying to lead actors, what right do they have to talk about piracy? . If they charge less production cost would come down and so would be the piracy.

If producers have right to earn Rs.250 crores by making a movie like Ghajini, actors have right to charge more than Rs.15 crores per movie, multiplexes have the right to charge me Rs 150 for each ticket, Rs 60 for a pop corn and 50 for a coke, every spectator will have right to buy a pirated DVD for Rs 30 on a pavement. Folks reduce your profits and reduce the piracy.

2) Improvement in Movies’ Quality

I made the mistake of watching couple of movies by watching the amazing trailers that were played in the break time. Trailers were superb but when I went for the movie it was as stupid as it could be. Why should I spend 1000 rupees for a family on a movie and get stranded with stupid movies, which was not even worth 10 rupees. So come out with good movies instead of coming with silly remakes.

3) Understanding Market Conditions

When market is not ready to pay more, cheap products find place. It is the producer’s job to deliver his product at the right price. Since the prices are exorbitantly high for movies, piracy has seen flourishing. The very fact that a person buys a pirated DVD for Rs.30 to 50, is a clear indication of the acceptable price range for the masses.

When a DVD player costs only Rs 3500, why should a DVD cost Rs. 500+. The cost of a blank CDs and DVDs has reduced considerably but there is not much reduction in the original CDs and DVDs. Producers and Distribution companies should reduce the cost of CD/DVD thereby encouraging people to buy originals.

If an original good quality DVD did not cost more than Rs 50 then there would be no piracy. If the production house distributes its content close to the prices of pirated ones, piracy will have to take a dip. Moserbaer’s initiatives in the right direction is worth emulating. Instead of selling 10 DVDs for 500 each, sell 1000 DVDs for Rs 50 each and you will make the same profit. This network of pirates cannot be wiped out in a few months’ time as it has become their reliable source of income and there is a need to convert them into legitimate distribution centers of entertainment products

4) Availability Of Original DVDs

Production houses should release original DVD to the market as soon as the movies are withdrawn from theaters. The window between theatrical release and the home video release is too wide a gap for people to wait and watch them at home. People don’t have patience to wait for a good movie and they would rush to the pirated dvd vendor or will download a copy from the net. So release your DVD as soon as the movies are taken off the theaters.

I hope the movie makers realize this soon and come up with ground breaking strategies that would help everyone – the movie makers, the audience and the middlemen.

Anyone listening ?

Image Credit: Jacob Botter

Popularity: 20%

Rakeysh why didn’t you call it Kala Bandar???

May be the film makers get carried away by the critical acclaims they receive for their work. Movies like Delhi 6 are results of such situations. Movies like these would stops these film makers from getting carried away with their success and bring them back to their senses. This is the only good this movie can do instead of the kind of entertainment and success it is ought to provide and achieve respectively.

Plot – No Spoiler (Frankly there is nothing to spoil)

Delhi 6 is a story which takes place in a locality in Delhi, the capital city of India. The last digit of the postal code of that particular locality ends with 6. Well that is the logic behind the title. Roshan (Abhishek Bachhan) is an NRI “kid” who brings his grand mother (Waheeda Rehman) back to India as she wants to spend the rest of her life in her home country.

Roshan is not used to the typical ways of Indian life style and friendly neighborhood and finds all happenings around rather amusing. To his surprise, there is a rumour going around about a wild animal called KALA BANDAR which keeps attacking the people in that specific region.

Meanwhile, he falls in love with a neighboring girl Bittu (Sonam Kapoor). The story then takes on and portrays how the rumours about Kala Bandar would turn the very friendly people in that region harsh on one another, while addressing strong religious issues.

Performances:

Abishek Bachhan had nothing to offer as the story demand very less from the lead actor. We hardly find Sonam Kapoor and for guys who liked her seeing the promos- a suggestion, stick to promos. Huge ensemble cast with no justification of their roles.

Music:

The only saving grace of the movie. Rahman gave one of his career best scores, alas this turned out to be a damp squib.

Script And Direction:

Rakeysh seems to be a bit too inspired with his own experiences and seem to have lost it totally while scripting this fare.

This movie strives to explore and investigate the greater levels of how stupid few of the Indians could get and exhibit it to people all over the world. And it succeeds… fails… Whatever!

Image Credit: Delhi 6

Popularity: 25%

Delhi 6- A weak story line with tit bits of entertainment here and there. I appreciate the effort Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra attempted to deliver a message on harmony in the movie. But there was no punch in the message. Movie definitely does not have fine ending just like Rang De Basanti did not have one. I wish Rakish improves this art of “finishing a movie” in his next venture. Overall nice attempt, and I really hope every individual realizes the harmony shown in the movie between the two communities.

First half of the movie is packed with parallel stories amongst sizeable number of characters. Some are very funny and some are tolerable. If you are eager to watch the movie for the sake of watching songs on the big screen, then it’s bad news for you. It’s disappointing to see 6-7 songs are crammed in the first half of the movie without showing them full. Except for Masakali, it’s a complete injustice to Rehman’s talent by not showing full songs.

Film is a story about an American born Roshan (Abhishek Bachan) coming to India and his experiences in Delhi. It was proved yet another time that its love which binds people in India and makes it special to live. Sonam Kapoor was really good in the movie as middle class girl aspiring to be the next Indian Idol to find her identity and live her dreams. I found that she at least had some role in this movie to show her mettle, in contrast to her role in Saawariya. I could not understand the connection of Ramleela (A Ramayan Play) running parallel in the movie.

For all those fashion buffs this movie has very less for you to look for anything about fashion. Film critics have more subjects to thrive on, in the movie. I am sure all the Delhi-ites will be easily connected to the movie. Some dialogues are very hilarious.

There is a suspicious character Kala Bander (black monkey) in the movie that becomes the base of the story. Sometimes it looked a bit annoying, however it portrayed the Indian superstitious beliefs very well. It was also good to see how these irrational beliefs are being misused by politicians. There are a couple of nice mockery scenes about news channels on how they look for spicy news to increase their TRPs.

First half of the movie is very abrupt with so many parallel characters and second half is packed with emotions. I would say you could probably watch it once for the funny dialogues and for the message that Rakish wanted to deliver on harmony.

Image Credit: Delhi 6

Popularity: 23%

I recently had a chance to travel out on business to Boston and London. While overseas travel is eye popping stuff at this time, I was called on to travel because of business critical reasons. One of the key considerations when I had to make the booking was obviously cost. I am a big fan of booking tickets online – sadly though, my preferred airline, Jet Airways, didn’t hop through direct and with date issues across, I didn’t have a choice but to use an agent. I started the haggling process asking them to come back with options and obviously, rock bottom fares!

With a line on the bottom line, the option that I chose was the Jet Airways offer with options to hop on to code share flights operated by American and Kingfisher! Yes – I wonder how KF fitted in, but it did! I get laughed at for taking a few hops to get to Boston quite often. While I know straighter options exist, my preference is to fly with Indian carriers! It’s not the patriotism to tell you the truth though; it’s just the fact that a veggie like me is guaranteed good Indian food! Good to go, I was speaking to my boss who casually enquired about my schedule -  hearing KF in there, his eyes popped up too.. “Good on you mate” said the Aussie with a sheepish smile, pausing to add that he too had heard a lot of good things about the airline! Isn’t it time to compliment the KF marketing guys? If I ever had to hire a marketing chap, I know where to poach on from!

I did on onward legs, hopped on a crazy 6 hour, overnight flight that eventually made it to London in a little over 5 hours, thanks to tail winds! Jet lagged, I finished by busy schedule and hopped on to this much awaited flight of mine! I felt like a 7 year old hopping on to his first ever flight! I am assuming that all this excitement was because of the hype that has been created about the airline and their service – 5 star says an ad with some of India’s prettiest faces! Having never flown on this airline before, I was super excited. Anyone seeing me would have for sure wondered if I was smoking pot!

I checked into a front row seat, was given a lounge card and given the opportunity to also pass through the fast track for the security check. Travelers from London’s Heathrow will tell you what a nightmare it can be to get through security. Fast track was super cool though – I was out in less than 3 minutes and found myself comfortably seated at the “ holi deck”, waiting to get on to the plane! Did the wait seem eternal?

The moment when the rubber hit the road did arrive! They announced boarding and I was one of the first guys to get to the gate. Finishing off the itsy bitsy paper work, I walked right through to the gate where I was welcomed by a stunningly pretty girl.  “Welcome sir!” she said escorting me to my seat. I followed her wondering where do these folks stay in Bangalore – I never get to see them in most places that I go to!

The next few moments were a sense of déjà vu!  Most of the procedures were what I thought were just an attempt to ape Jet!

• Hot Towels – same temperature, same cologne!
• Drink – Slightly different choices, different shaped glasses, KF being better though
• Comfort Kit – Bvlgari in Jet Vs Salvatore Ferragamo in KF, my vote is for Bvlgari, maybe because it is a better known brand!
• This one is different! – Welcome video from the chairman of KF with a personal commitment to hiring every single air hostess and having them treat us as his personal guest!
• Gender Diversity – Jet wins, though the visual aspect on KF will make heads turn! I saw one male as a part of the crew, but won’t complain
• Cutlery – for starters, I was served food on cutlery that had some fancy gold design. I don’t know if they were faded or was it design, especially since these days, everything is design! But the cutlery on jet wins here
• Main course – KF any day! They served a meal on a silver thali as opposed to the standard wares on Jet! I made sure to come and tell my mom that! She never did that to me!
• Quality of food – Jet! The food they serve is just lovely!! While the lead up to the food in terms of presentation and style is high, the taste was pretty disappointing
• Wine List – I don’t know if these guys use the same printer and same suppliers, maybe the same caterer, but that can’t be because the food tastes different!
• Deserts – I’m convinced that HÄAGEN-DAZS has a global contract with all airlines
• Seating comfort – The seats on Jet are in a herring bone design, meaning more privacy and a flat bed. At KF, these are shared 2+2+2. While the flat bed option is there, certainly not as user friendly as Jet
• In-flight entertainment – Jet will win hands down here
• In-flight shopping – Same printer, different prices! Jet is cheaper!
• Take off and landing – Ah, sorry, I forgot I had to stop!

The staff is certainly friendly. Mallya sets the cue on this one saying food is his passion and drinks his business! They have a bar with a bar tender serving drinks at a little seating area that has been designed! Aiya! I got it now!  Was this why the lone male staff was hired?!

Dealing with jet lag is a little hard. Unable to get some sleep and being a bit distracted, I walked around and was instantly in a conversation with the girl who welcomed me in. She introduced herself to me as the in-flight director, talk about sexy designations! I was pretty curious to ask her about Mallya. There are local versions of how the airline hires and I don’t know how authentic they are. I dare not ask her the obvious, but very casually checked with her on the authenticity of Mallya’s commitment to hiring!  “ Yes sir! He does. You don’t get hired into the airline as a cabin crew until you have an interview with the chairman. Amazing isn’t it?”. I was like, Yes! Yes!! What kind of a HR guy am I? Isn’t this best practice!??

I realize I can go on and on. But the essence for me was how I “felt” on the flight back home after a grueling week of meetings, jet lag, lack of good veggie food and of course, some unbelievably cold weather! Through the flight and in hind sight, I’d stay loyal to Jet. They truly are Indian – have the elements of style and comfort to actually make you feel at home, compared to the pomp and style that makes you feel very artificial and uncomfortable at heart!  I don’t know if this is just me, but my first experience will remain my only one for a long time coming!

Image Credit: Jim Reeves

Popularity: 25%

Remaking a movie successfully is not an easy task, but that’s surely Priyadarshan’s cup of tea. Most of the times we have seen that South Indian movies when made in Bollywood bomb at box office. Priyadarshan proves this theory wrong everytime he does it. Billu Barber, in short, is a complete family movie with some nice entertainment.

Story revolves around village environment just like some of  other typical old Priyadarshan movies. Billu (Irfan) is an ordinary, simple barber leading his life with wife Bindiya (Lara Dutta) and two kids in BudhBuda village. He struggles to meet two squares of the day but does not like getting into debts. All his attempts to improve situation becomes futile.

Apparently rumour spreads in the village that Billu is friend of an actor. There is a parallel story in the movie about Sahir Khan (Shah Rukh) as a successful hero. Life suddenly changes for Billu after this rumour, and all those who scoffed Billu at his current condition tries to treat him nicely in their own ways. Everyone seeks favours from Billu to meet his actor friend. This episode creates a temporary “happiness bubble” in Billu’s family that they start enjoying it.

You have to watch it to see how life changes for Billu, whether he would meet up with his actor friend or not. Movie has some very nice offbeat locales and those dazzling fashion wear.

Conclusion:

It’s been long time since we had a movie that all generations can sit together and watch. This movie definitely falls into this category. Irfan, as always, was effortless in acting and was at his best. Shah Rukh looked much better in this movie than his recent previous ones. A complete family entertainment with some emotional flavour added in the end. Well that’s anyway expected in Shah Rukh movies. Isn’t it ?

Om Puri (as a money lender) and Rajpal Yadav (as a poet) have some very hilarious dialogues in the movie. Songs with Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor add extra spice. Lara Datta was a surprise as a rustic girl and she lived upto the expectations.

Overall a sweet and feel good movie that you can watch and enjoy it.

Image Credit: Billu Barber

Popularity: 19%

What is a recession? The generally accepted definition of a recession is two successive quarters of negative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

It’s a known fact that we are in deep recession, deeper in US, UK and other developed nations as compared to the developing countries. Developing countries are not immune to this, as the consumption and demand from these would be impacted as a result of recession and hence a cascading affect across the globe. China reported 20 million job loss and it’s premiere has been making rounds other side of the world to ensure the ‘doors are not being shut on them..’ India reported 500K plus job losses in textile, jewellery, auto and manufacturing. IT saw a marginal growth, however NASSCOM did lower the growth expectation from 21-24% to 17%, (may be a breather for some in the near  term.)

Defence budget put under scanner, budgets tightened, expansion plans seen the door at a faster pace than one could imagine. Recently Britain, shelved a plan to buy a £13 billion naval warship.

All said and done, we are coming to terms with it and we have no choice.

So why recession?

The right question to initiate a blame game, to blame it all on the financial decisions that grossly went wrong, made by the once gurus of financial world. The same DNA that made them last for more than a century? There’s more to it than that meets the eye.

Let’s go back and glance at our economics books which states product is an accumulation of labour. Unless there is labour there is not going to be any product. Over the last decade, growth in entertainment, luxury, & multiplexes across the length and breadth of the country has out paced the growth in any other industry. There is a mad rush for the latest gadgets, to achieve the zenith of luxury and live as much a comfortable life as one can possibly imagine, hoping that this will continue forever.

Something to ponder and introspect on.

Image Credit: Eden Pictures

Popularity: 20%

I wonder if there would be a day where our commercial & entertainment capital Mumbai would be renamed to Bollywood on the lines of Hollywood.

Nevertheless the world cinema today knows only two top names, Hollywood and Bollywood. The language Hindi is considered to be 3^rd largest spoken in the world after Mandarin and English. Statistics say that we produce double the number of movies than Hollywood in a year. So having been 3^rd on the list, what Bollywood  additionally requires to edge past Hollywood? Does it qualify to have its own Oscar counterpart in Bollywood that actors across the globe aspire to be nominated and win the prestigious award? It would be a dream come true for all Indians to proudly associate themselves with our country regardless of their location.

So why are we not able to make headway in this?

• Routine stories
• Same old melodrama mixed with lot of sentiment
• Not much creativity – More of romantic movies less of creativity
• Making movies only with set of audience in mind – no bigger picture

Most of the producers in Bollywood have a mindset of making movies for masses and for youth. I understand that about India’s total population is comprised of 41% youth. But the times have changed, and audience looking for more and more variety. We have seen enough of romantic movies now. It’s high time for our producers to take Bollywood cinemas across borders. Its quite encouraging to see these days international production companies like Sony Entertainment Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures and recently Columbia Pictures investing on Bollywood cinemas.

One of the reasons for Hollywood being on the top is due to variety / creativity of movies it makes. Although there are more non-English speaking nations in the globe, all these movies are dubbed into their own language. I was watching Terminator movie in Spanish whilst I was in Barcelona this summer. That’s the reason why we have so many audience worldwide for Hollywood compared to Bollywood.

What is required for Bollywood to win the race?

• Variety
• Creativity – so that foreign countries can dub them into their own language to watch it. Are you listening all those copycat writers?
• Please do away with unnecessary songs –Hard to dub songs in other native languages. Release the songs as separate pack not in the movie. Cannot tolerate any more people around the world mocking Bollywood is just about dozen people dancing. Lets prove its more to it.

I would like to see world cinema looking up to Bollywood as a prestigious place to work and achieve.

Producers are you listening?

Image Credit: media-studies.ca

Popularity: 11%

Before you read this let us warn you that this post reveals the plot of the movie.

King Khan manages yet another romantic story. Shah Rukh’s signature style story of keeping heroines in ‘confused’ state, trying to snatch away the girl from somebody else and some emotional pack continues. If in all his earlier movies he managed running after somebody else’s girl, this movie is little different in that trying to snatch the girl from his own self. Undoubtedly his acting has been asset for the movie.

The movie begins in Amritsar in a Punjabi family. Surinder Sahani (Shah Rukh) is a simple, boring and very old-fashioned guy gets to marry equally opposite in nature girl Taania (Anushka) under tragic conditions. Their marriage becomes conditional and runs on terms. Surinder falls in love with Taania and he slowly discovers that Taania likes guys with heroic characteristics and he plans to bring her back to her original chirpy state; otherwise she was to wipe out her past due to her tragic loss of her fiancée in a road mishap.

All credit goes to Shah Rukh managing this part of the story very nicely in the movie and keeping the audience entertained as an employee of Power of Punjab (a power supplying company)

Taania, a vivid dance lover happens to see a dance competition program in Amritsar and tries to rediscover herself in that competition. This is when Shah Rukh’s new avatar is introduced as Raj. A funky jatt trying to flirt around with girls becomes dancing partner for Taania. Suri as her husband at home and Raj as her dancing partner. Of course it was very foolish to show Taania could not recognise her own husband’s face in new avatar and believes Raj to be a different guy.

Like in all Shah Rukh movies, the story reaches a point where Taania is confused between Raj and Suri and she even gets ready to elope with Raj at one point in time. Little drama after that makes her realise she should stick to the guy she is married and goes back to Suri only to find Raj and Suri the same.

Except some of the high dose emotional packs, the movie is entertaining. Some of the Punjabi dialogues are hilarious and make you laugh instantaneously. Only the title song is catchy in the movie. Om Shanti Om seems to have pioneered a trend of having songs mimicking actors of yesteryear in Shah Rukh’s movies that followed Om Shanti Om. Hope there wont be any fresh controversies like the recent Manoj Kumar’s for the mimic song in this movie.

Shah Rukh looked a bit old pairing with this new heroine. However Anoushka’s contribution in the movie is outstanding. As a new comer she did very well. Good reflexes in dance steps and advantage of her height besides her acting skills would surely bag her new offers from other banners.

If you can tolerate bit of emotional drama, then you will not be disappointed with the entertainment in this movie. Watch Vinay Pathak, he is hilarious as Suri’s childhood friend in the movie.

Go watch this for Shah Rukh.. Happy watching!!!

Rating:***1/2

Image Courtesy: Filmikhabar

Popularity: 19%

As I am writing this blog post, there are talks going on between Reliance’s BIG Entertainment and some of the BIGwigs in Hollywood – Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg and their company DreamWorks. They plan to raise 2 Billion dollars – partly in equity and partly in new movie projects. I think the split is a billion each.

Let us take a look at Reliance’s BIG Entertainment network. I will not be surprised if you are flabbergasted!

Online Gaming – Zapak.com

Zapak.com is a gaming portal launched in 2006. This site provides a wide collection of casual games, including those from PopCap Games and Playfirst. The site claims to host the largest collection of online casual games, compared to any Indian gaming website. In Dec 2007, this company made a bid to buy Sony Online Entertainment for about $300 mln

BIG Animation - Anirights.com

AniRights is a digital animation content creation company which forays into animation for theatres, TV, DTH etc.

Movies – Bigflix.com

This is India’s answer to Netflix.com. This is a subscription based movie rental-cum-downloadable site where you can search over 15000 titles and choose the movie you want which gets dropped and picked up as and when you like. A great value for money starting at Rs.299 per month

Radio - BIG92.7FM

The company plans to have a presence in 45 cities, 1000 towns and 50,000 villages reaching about 200 million houses.

Blogging – BIGadda.com

Aah ! This is my favourite adda. Full timepass. This is social networking-cum-blogging-cum-video sharing-cum-photo-sharing platform. This is where Senior Bachhan blogs

Others include

BIG Motion Pictures

Jump Games

BIG Music & Home Entertainment

Key Message

An Indian entertainment company taking on the world. Walt Disney, Sony Entertainment & Time Warner – Better watch out!!!

Anil – May your BIG DREAMWORKS come true !!!

Popularity: 15%