Blogger, Search Engine Optimizer, Social Media Marketeer, Lover of Cooking & Science Fiction and a Dreamer

PK: Jo dar gaya, woh mandir gaya

December 27, 2014

If you have followed all the previous movies directed by Rajkumar Hirani, then you are already familiar with his signature style that there must be a number of immensely popular dialogues or phrases in his movies. “PK” is not an exception. “Peekay ho kya?”, “Dancing Cars”, “Wrong Number” and most interestingly “Jo dar gaya, woh mandir gaya” are such kinds of dialogues or phrases in “PK”. Before its release, PK created some curiosities and even controversies due to one of its posters in which Aamir Khan was seen posing nude with a well placed boombox hiding his private part. Everyone knows that Aamir Khan loves and always tries to do two things for his movies. One is perfection and another one is adopting peculiar strategies for promoting his films. This particular poster was certainly a part of his unusual and weird strategy but it still created some buzz about his role in this movie.

PK (the central character played by Aamir Khan) is an alien whose spaceship landed on the desert of Rajasthan in India and he alone came out of that spaceship. Much to our surprise, he was completely naked having only a necklace on his neck. The alien was sent to Earth for research. But what kind of research? Where were his scientific tools or devices for research? Was it a research on the social structures or social behaviours of humans on Earth? The only device he carried with him was that necklace. It was a special necklace because it had a big gem which was also showing some kind of electromagnetic pulse in it. This special necklace is not a long distance signal sending beacon device but actually a remote control device for his spaceship. Now why does an alien need a remote control device for his spaceship? Because he can only recall his spaceship with the help of that device. Now the next question would be whether he was the alone space voyager in that big spaceship or not. It seems that he was alone otherwise he should have carried a beacon device or even a communication device for keeping contact constantly with the spaceship or other aliens in that spaceship. I have watched many alien movies in which a single or a group of aliens came out of the spaceships. Some of them did have that beacon device but nobody carried a remote control device with them. This is something new, weird and of course out of logic. The second weird thing was the nudity of that alien. The last alien in a Bollywood movie (Koi... Mil Gaya), Jadoo also came out of a spaceship wearing a spacesuit. It is simple science that if you travel into deep space for interplanetary spaceflight, you will need a spacesuit and if the alien looks like a human, that alien definitely needs a spacesuit for that purpose. The third weird thing is the biological structure of that alien. He looks like human and later he also learned how to talk in human language. But later he informed us that nobody in his home planet talks because the communication between two aliens is done completely by telepathy. Biology says that nature builds all animals even humans and develops all the organs as per requirement of those animals. That means if the alien doesn’t need to talk for communication in his world, that alien body should not have a mouth at all. If we consider that he has a mouth only for eating, then what about the ability of talking which he develops later on Earth. I think Vocal Cord is also considered as an organ in Biology. This kind of fact was handled quite wisely in the Hollywood movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still” in 2008. The alien was re-born rather genetically re-modified in its human shape with the help of pre-collected human DNA from Earth.

“PK” is a Bollywood Hindi movie and certainly not a science fiction movie. So, discussing scientific facts in this review is a waste of words. Let’s get inside the movie. Soon after the Alien lands on Earth, he loses his remote control device. A villager snatches that device from his body and while chasing that villager, the alien managed to get the boombox from the villager but couldn't recover his lost device. Without that device, the alien cannot recall his spaceship and return to his home planet. So, the first target would obviously be to find out that remote control device. This is where and how his journey begins on Earth. The alien starts to learn human cultures and behaviours. The first thing he learns that humans wear cloths so does he. Next lesson is that there are male and female versions of clothes. Even different male or different female humans wear different types of clothes on different occasion or purpose. I don’t think this human alike alien doesn’t know the difference between a male and a female animal. Then he understands about the value of money in human society. He discovers two ways of earning money and clothes. One hilarious way is stealing money and clothes from dancing cars. If humans do sex in cars, that car shakes and the alien describes that car as dancing car. Another way is stealing money from the bowls of blind beggars. May be you’ll find a few dancing cars in remote places in India but I don’t think you will see dancing cars publicly in Indian cities in broad daylight. This alien meets Bhairon Singh (played by Sanjay Dutt) and becomes his friend. Bhairon finds that his new friend always tries to grab hands of other people. Bhairon thinks that his friend needs sex so he takes him to a nearby brothel. There the alien meets a prostitute and grabbed her hands for some hours for absorbing her memories and knowledge. By the next morning, the alien learned her mother tongue Bhojpuri and therefore the alien also starts talking in Bhojpuri and eating paan (betel). Now the alien understands that if he wants to find his lost device, he will have to go to Delhi.

The core story actually takes place in Delhi. In a big city like Delhi, people get irritated by his simple questions that whether they have seen his lost remote control device or how to find that device. People generally react with asking him in return “peekay ho kya?” which means “are you drunk?” but eventually the alien was labeled with the name PK. He met all kinds of people and even police and asked for his device but finally he came under the impression from all the reactions he witnessed that only God knows and can help him to find his device. But who is this God? Where does he live? He visits all kinds of God’s houses like Temples, Churches, Mosques, Gurdwaras etc. to meet him personally. But God personally doesn’t live in any of those houses and finally PK gets into the conclusion that God is as a matter of fact missing. He distributes the leaflets that God is missing and if anybody finds God, can contact with PK and inform him about the whereabouts of God. While distributing those leaflets, PK meets the television reporter Jaggu (played by Anushka Sharma). Jaggu has got her own story. Her actual name is Jagat Janani which was given by a God-Man Tapasvi Maharaj (Played by Saurabh Shukla). Jaggu’s father (played by Parikshit Sahni) respects this God-Man Tapasvi Maharaj and doesn’t do anything at all without consulting with him or taking permission from him. When Jaggu informs her father that she is in love with Sarfaraz Yousuf (played by Sushant Singh Rajput) who is a Muslim and also comes from Pakistan, Jaggu’s father immediately rushes to meet Tapasvi Maharaj for his advice. This God-Man predicts the future that Sarfaraz will betray her. Next day Jaggu decides to marry Sarfaraz but on the wedding day, due to a misunderstanding, the marriage didn’t happen and then Jaggu returned to India from Europe with a broken heart. Jaggu joins a news channel as a reporter and looks for sensational news. When Jaggu meets PK, Jaggu follows him and tries to understand him. PK tells her his whole story but she couldn’t believe him completely. Later she got the proof that PK really can grab memories by touching hands of other people. Jaggu was not completely sure whether PK is an alien or not but she was quite sure on one thing that the way PK behaves, how he asks straightforward and innocent questions to people around him, there must be something special in him. Somehow PK himself seems to be a news to her. In his quest of finding his device, PK comes to know that some God-Men have direct contact with God as they claim to common people. One day PK reaches to an ashram or gathering place where the God-Man Tapasvi Maharaj was running a demonstration of showing people that he can contact directly with God and therefore he has got all the solutions for the problems of common people or his followers. PK notices that that God-Man Tapasvi Maharaj has got his remote control device in his possession but that God-Man is telling people that this device is actually a part of Lord Shiva’s Damaru which Tapasvi Maharaj has found in Himalayas. When PK claims his property, the guards forcefully showed him the door. PK amuses why so much people follow and trust these God-Men without any doubt and pay their respects to them. He gradually understands that this is actually a business. These so called God-Men sometimes perform some magic tricks to gain the trust of common people that they have the real divine power of communicating with God and if they want, they can show the common people the remedy and solution for the problems in their lives. So if the common people make him pleased with money, he can also get them out of their miseries in return. The only capital which these so called God-Men are using in this business, is the fear of common people towards God. So PK’s ultimate realization is “Jo dar gaya, woh mandir gaya” which means “On being scared, one goes to temple”.

Now Jaggu plans a strategy how to expose these frauds and so called God-Men to the people of India. She takes permission from her boss (played by Boman Irani), assembles a team of cameramen and PK. They went to the ashram or gathering place of God-Man Tapasvi Maharaj with full arrangement of recording videos and then PK challenged Tapasvi Maharaj that whatever remedy or solutions he is offering to his followers or common people pretending that all the solutions are actually being conferred by God directly to him, are all wrong and by no means God could have provided such solutions to the common people because God loves every human being equally and treats them as children. God cannot make his followers suffer more while ending their all kinds of sufferings in life. That means the way in which that so call God-Man Tapasvi Maharaj was pretending to make contact with God directly, was completely wrong. PK described that as the “Wrong Number”. That incident was recorded by Jaggu and her team and later she showed that video on her news channel and asked common people to send her this kind of videos naming them as “Wrong Number”. People responded very well by sending a lot of similar videos to that news channel. One Muslim school girl even sent a video with a message “Itna chota nahin ho sakta hamara khuda, ki use hamare school jaane pe aitraaz ho” which means “God cannot be so mean that he imposes objection against our will of going to school”. Then Jaggu’s boss was convinced that they can telecast a live show on this subject and conduct a face to face debate between PK and God-Man Tapasvi Maharaj on that show. Both Jaggu and her boss were confident that PK would expose that fraudulent so called God-Man Tapasvi Maharaj to the people of India. Tapasvi Maharaj was nervous and scared of being exposed and losing his well established business of cheating people with fake assurances that he can make people out of their miseries. Tapasvi Maharaj even questioned in front of media whether anybody knows which religion PK actually belongs to. The media pressure, popularity of PK and negative publicity on this kind of religious or God based business left Tapasvi Maharaj no way but to accept the challenge of facing PK in a live debate on TV. Tapasvi Maharaj thought that if he successfully confuses PK about religion and the way of following God and PK doesn’t give him the answers, he can save his business and regain popularity. The show started and Tapasvi Maharaj directly questioned about his religion and asked if he has any better way to show people compassion or help them being out of their miseries. I thought this debate was going to be a tough and long one but it soon became a personal challenge between Tapasvi Maharaj and PK. Tapasvi Maharaj once predicted that Sarfaraz Yousuf would betray Jaggu and exactly that had happened. PK said that Sarfaraz didn’t betray Jaggu rather it was a simple matter of misunderstanding. Tapasvi Maharaj was furious and announced that if PK proves that the prediction was incorrect, then Tapasvi Maharaj himself would hand over that remote control device to PK. Then PK asks Jaggu to contact with Sarfaraz Yousuf in Pakistan over telephone. After a few attempts, she made a call to Sarfaraz and then the actual truth came out that PK was right. PK got his device back and then he reached the desert of Rajasthan accompanied by Jaggu. PK returned to his home planet by his spaceship at the end. But after one year, PK returns to Earth again with a group of aliens including a special one (played by Ranbir Kapoor). It was more like a packaged tour to Earth with PK being the guide of that tour party. The director Rajkumar Hirani has also kept the interests alive for a sequel.

Rajkumar Hirani makes all his movies including "PK" with full of comedy and very very hilarious punch lines and comical incidents often make the audience compelled to fall down from their seats bursting out with laughter. But Rajkumar Hirani also conveys a strong social message through his movies. He has raised a lot of questions via a straightforward and innocent person like PK about all the religions, the diverse and peculiar ways of following respective Gods in those different religions. The tagline “Jo dar gaya, woh mandir gaya” is the message he has tried to convey to the audience and the people of India. But Temples, Churches, Mosques, Gurdwaras etc. or the religions Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism etc. or the different ways of following the respective Gods themselves are not the subjects Rajkumar Hirani is trying to make fun of, in his movie “PK”. Religion is a sensitive issue in India and nobody dares to play with the issue or make fun of it specially if you want to make a film touching that issue, you will definitely play with care otherwise the sensor board as well as various radical religious groups or extremists will come into the arena. I think Rajkumar Hirani has targeted only those so called God-Men who have flourished in India over the years. We are currently living in the twenty first century.
The time has changed, and so must we. We should not allow these God-Men doing business using our faith, religion, our emotions and respects towards our deities pretending that they are the only direct communication or media between God and us. If the common people have faith on their God, they can pray directly to God or visit the home of God like Temples, Churches, Mosques, Gurdwaras etc. and pay their respects directly to God. I remember a particular dialogue in a recent Hollywood movie “Man of Steel” in which Father Leone tells Clark Kent (Superman) that “Sometimes, you have to take a leap of faith first. The trust part comes later”. This is a very important sentence if you want to define God and religion.

This is not the first time that a film director tries to convey this message to the people of India. We have seen “OMG – Oh My God!” directed by Umesh Shukla couple of years ago. But by comparison with that movie, "PK" has performed better and God himself also didn’t come to rescue his followers in “PK". I also want to discuss on couple of other issues which are somehow inter-connected with each other in “PK". While exploring the human nature and behaviours, PK falls in love with Jaggu but senses that Jaggu in fact loves Sarfaraz. PK hides his own love and only at the time of returning his home planet, just before embarking on his spaceship, Jaggu discovers PK’s sentiments towards her but couldn’t react at all. Later Jaggu published a book on PK and explained that PK actually sacrificed his love for Jaggu and never looked back to her while departing Earth because he probably wanted to hide his tears. In another incident, while Bhairon Singh was coming to Delhi to meet his friend PK and hand over the thief who snatched PK's remote control device,  both Bhairon Singh and the thief were killed in a bomb explosion in the Delhi railway station. That explosion took place just in front of PK and he got cold feet due to the intensity of that explosion. The thief paid the price for his crime but PK's innocent friend Bhairon Singh was the victim of either the act of terrorism or the pursuit of destiny. The loss of Bhairon Singh taught PK the lesson of going through the pain or sorrow of losing somebody like a relative or friend. PK has learnt both the feelings of love and sorrow in one life on Earth. He came to Earth naked and while departing Earth, he never looked back to Jaggu. Maybe Rajkumar Hirani was inspired by the “Mahaprasthanika Parva” from the Indian epic “Mahabharata” that he has tried to showcase the great journey of a human being on Earth from his birth to death.

My favourite and most memorable tweets

October 22, 2014

My first tweet













Bang Bang: A typical Bollywood movie, too much bang bang but nothing more

October 8, 2014



I had a good time in these Durga Puja holidays without any specific programme of watching big movies in theatres. There was no release of any big science fiction movie in India on that time which would have suited my taste better. But I knew that two big starrer Hindi movies were going to be released in India during Durga Puja festival. One is 'Bang Bang' and another one is 'Haider' but I didn't have any plan to watch either of them in theatre. But a small news headline caught my attention that 'Bang Bang' had earned a whopping big amount of Rs. 175 crore worldwide in just four days. Boy, there must be something special in that movie, big star casting, an exciting trailer, action and romance…..What more can you ask for?

I had some other plans to enjoy my holidays but ultimately I decided to watch 'Bang Bang' instead. Just like everybody else, I entered into a movie theatre in south Kolkata with high expectation but by the time this movie reached its half time, I already knew that it was a shocker and a heart breaker as well. But I still didn't get into conclusion that it was a complete waste of my time rather I was still waiting for the climax and also looking for other entertaining elements in this movie. I also thought about writing a review.

Why did they choose
‘Bang Bang’ as the name of this movie? The sound is no doubt very loud. It has a Title Track ‘Bang Bang’ which I think came first and then came along the Title of this movie otherwise it doesn’t make any sense to me that the name has anything to do with the story of this movie at all.

Let's start from the beginning. When I said beginning, I meant Title Sequence. After showing all kinds of partner shit (this partner, that partner, xxx partner etc.), then the Title Sequence of the Distributor was shown that ‘Bang Bang’ was distributed as well as produced by Fox Star Studios. Encouraging huh! I was excited and waiting for a thrilling show with high expectation. The story starts against a backdrop of terror at the very heart of London. A terrorist mastermind Omar Zafar (played by Danny Denzongpa) was caught by London police but held in a special cell right at the MI6 Headquarters. But as the story goes, this character didn't look like a terrorist mastermind to me rather it should be outlined best as an international gangster. Do you know what kind of agency the MI6 is? It is the British intelligence agency (Secret Intelligence Service or SIS, commonly known as Military Intelligence, section 6 or MI6), the counterpart of India's own secret intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing). Don’t you remember James Bond movies? He is the fictitious secret agent of this same MI6. I don't believe that MI6 handles any gangster like Omar Zafar by any means. So, Interpol or Scotland Yard would have been the appropriate agency in this case. An Indian Army officer Viren Nanda (played by Jimmy Shergill) along with two more Indian Army officers arrived there to receive Omar Zafar and take him back to India. After a brief lecture, he informed Omar Zafar that India and UK are going to sign a new extradition treaty. First of all, Indian Army does not engage in this kind of extradition activity especially in overseas because there are other Indian agencies in place for that kind of jobs and secondly India and UK have already signed the extradition treaty in 1993. Had the extradition treaty presumably not yet been signed between these two countries by then, how come the UK govt. would have handed over Omar Zafar to India without signing the treaty? Omar Zafar’s henchman Hamid Gul (played by Jaaved Jaffery) along with a handful of men with automatic guns then came into sight to rescue Omar Zafar. They killed all the guards in MI6 very easily and subsequently killed Viren Nanda with high drama before rescuing Omar Zafar. As a matter of fact, Omar Zafar himself killed Viren Nanda in cold blood by shooting and then burning him alive. Surprisingly all the guards in MI6 were either Indian or from Indian origin and I think James Bond himself would have fainted for sure should he knew that how easy that rescue operation was.

Let’s proceed further. As soon as Omar Zafar flees from MI6, a new news headline emerges on all the TV news channels across the world that the precious and prestigious Koh-i-noor diamond has been stolen from the Tower of London. The interesting part is the very reason behind that stealing which is the declaration of Omar Zafar that he will give a reward of $5 Million to the thief who must be an Indian, so that Omar Zafar can hold both India and UK to ransom in order to prevent the extradition treaty which is yet to be signed between these two countries. If this is the motive, then what on Earth an Indian thief is necessary for that, because the nationality of the thief is not important but the diamond itself is, if the mission has to be accomplished successfully. OK fine, next stop is Shimla in India. A meeting has been arranged between the thief Rajveer (played by Hrithik Roshan) and the men of Hamid Gul for a deal for Koh-i-noor. Now Rajveer doesn’t agree to complete the deal with the initial reward money of $5 Million but demands $20 Million instead, as a new price. I was confused that if we just leave the successful smuggling part of the diamond from UK to India, why any thief comes to an agreement to finalize the deal in India instead of somewhere safe place in UK so that the risk of being caught could be avoided or minimized. If I am not wrong, the price tag of Koh-i-noor should be above $1 Billion or it could even be priceless. If you can get $1 Billion or some less than that in black market, then would you like to deal it just in Millions? Did you see the Koh-i-noor diamond which Rajveer showed to the Men of Hamid Gul at an open restaurant in Shimla? It was a good and typical diamond shaped diamond but not the good replica of Koh-i-noor. I think the actual replica of Koh-i-noor won’t look like a good and typical diamond in the movie and therefore it was an intentional presentation of the diamond by the Director.

Now the sweetest part of the film takes place, which is the appearance of the Heroine of this movie, Harleen Sahani (played by Katrina Kaif). I must say that the Director of this movie has portrayed this character Harleen Sahani in a very peculiar way. She works in the Bank of Shimla as a Receptionist but where is the Reception Desk? She sits in a common desk along with other Clarks inside the Bank and handles some telephone calls. Please don’t tell me that this is a new ultra-modern type of Receptionist job. She is single but doesn’t have a Boyfriend. It is not like that she doesn’t want a Boyfriend, because she is still looking for a Date with the help of a dating website. A modern young female character with a great figure and a good job and who lives in a modern city of India, is still looking for her first Boyfriend. Can you believe that? Sorry, I cannot buy that story. May be the Director could have presented this character Harleen Sahani in a better, mature and acceptable way. I don’t want to spend too many words how Katrina Kaif speaks in Hindi or how good her acting skills are. It’s a open secret and already well discussed by the fans of Bollywood movies. There is nothing to add there.

The arrival of Indian secret agency Internal Secret Service (ISS) is another interesting part of this movie. Make no mistake that it's 'Internal', not 'Indian' in ISS. So, UK has SIS, Pakistan has ISI and India has ISS. They thought that it couldn't have been better than that but why ISS, a fabricated name, instead of RAW or IB. If you can use the name of MI6 for British intelligence agency, then what makes you think to use a new fictional name
instead of a real one for Indian intelligent agency. Is there any copyright issue for using these real names in movies? “Kahaani’ or ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ told us otherwise. No, I think the actual reason is Pakistan. We have seen how ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ was banned in Pakistan due to the presence of RAW and ISI in that movie. I think the Director has successfully saved the market in Pakistan for this movie. Did you see the CCTV footage of Rajveer with the Koh-i-noor in his hand, which came into notice of ISS chief Narayanan (played by Vikram Gokhale) and his deputy Zorawar (played by Pawan Malhotra). That CCTV footage was taken in Shimla at the time when the deal between Rajveer and the men of Hamid Gul was about to be done but the fact is, that restaurant, its owner or its waiter do not seem to me reliable for owning and positioning the CCTV camera in place besides the fact that this restaurant was an open restaurant and if you consider the angle of the shot, it seems impossible to place a CCTV camera in that restaurant.

As the Hero and Heroine are running away together, Heroine is witnessing the spy kind of fighting by Hero with the bad guys, crossing continents without passport or visa, experiencing the life in Hideouts; it slowly reminded me about a Hollywood movie ‘Knight and Day’ (Played by Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz) and as much as the events unfolded, they seemed familiar to me, I was literally losing my interest in this movie and practically it was too hard for me to hold my patience till the end. Who are the Script Writer and Director of this movie? Are they stupid and do not do any homework at all or do they think that the audience are all stupid? How can the Director gets inspired so much and copies the scenes of ‘Knight and Day’ so obviously in ‘Bang Bang’? Later I came to know that ‘Bang Bang’ is the so called official remake of ‘Knight and Day’. Really! An Indian version of that Hollywood movie. Good Lord! Please give the Oscar to the Director of ‘Bang Bang’ in a new category which is “How to Remake Officially and Destroy Successfully, a Bollywood Movie”. Please do the official remake shit only for south Indian movies or even try to remake officially the old Bollywood movies. A few Bollywood Directors have successfully done that but please keep the Hollywood movies aside for now.

The story circles officially from London to Shimla via Prague and Dehradun. But the change of locations didn’t follow any logic. The couple escaped from Shimla and reached to a hideout which is an island somewhere in Europe and close to Prague, but without any passport and visa. Remember Harleen Sahani when she escaped form the grip of ISS in hurry and clearly she couldn’t carry her passport with her. I am leaving the passport and visa part in this movie. It looks real that the she can be brought back to India by the help of ISS and Indian Embassy in Prague. Finally the Heroine has been kidnapped by the men of Omar Zafar form her house in Shimla and brought to the hideout of Omar Zafar in the middle of a Desert. Bike riding, F1 car riding and sea plane all close to a Desert which looks to me a modern Arabic Desert probably in the Middle East. The locations are fine as far as this shiny and bang movie is concerned but there is no such place in India close to Shimla and the Thar Desert in Rajasthan doesn’t look like that with ultra-modern highways, F1 cars, flyovers, sea planes etc. OK let me leave this change of location part here. It can be accepted in movies especially in Bollywood movies.

The climax was like a typical old Bollywood movie from 70s and 80s. The control of the situation gets exchanged three or four times from the Hero to the Villain and vice versa before the end of the evil. Before the fall of Omar Zafar, Rajveer or Jai Nanda revealed the secret that it was a joint operation of MI6 and ISS altogether to catch or kill Omar Zafar and Jai Nanda is the brother of Viren Nanda who was killed by Omar Zafar at MI6 Headquarters in London. The Koh-i-noor was actually never stolen from the Tower of London. It was a trap for Omar Zafar. The Heroine Harleen Sahani once followed the trail of Rajveer and reached to his real home at Dehradun and discovered that Rajveer is, in fact Jai Nanda, the brother of Viren Nanda and an Indian Army officer like his brother. So, the Indian Army with the help of ISS, sent Jai Nanda to pursue his personal vendetta and catch Omar Zafar dead or alive. I believe Indian Army will never allow that kind of secret mission officially or even unofficially. The last scene is a happy ending with the reunion of Hero, Heroine and the parents of the Hero (played by Kanwaljit Singh and Deepti Naval) at the home of Jai Nanda in Dehradun.

Some of the songs and their picturisation are good in accordance with the modern Zen-Y taste and also good for night clubs. If you are the crazy fans of Katrina Kaif or specially Hrithik Roshan and if you know how to ignore the logic and yet just want to enjoy a typical Bollywood Hindi movie, then you can watch this movie without any hesitation. This movie has its own entertaining elements and all the masala of a typical Bollywood movie. Hrithik Roshan has been presented as a complete entertainment package and some may say that it’s a complete paisa vasool movie, after all, it has joined the Rs. 100 Crore club in the first week of its release.

World Cup Football 2014 (Brazil) - English Songs

August 23, 2014

Jennifer Lopez & Claudia Leitte ft. Pitbull - We Are One - (Ole Ola) [The Official 2014 FIFA World Cup Song]

Shakira ft. Carlinhos Brown - La La La (Brazil 2014)

What do Indian Men think of Women and vice versa?

January 17, 2014

What is happening to India? What’s wrong with this country? Everyday sexual assault after assault is being reported by our news media and we are getting horrified by these incidents. It sounds very shameful and weird that a new rape is taking place every 22 minutes in India. Is this just a modern day Indian statistics destined to end up in our coffee table discussion or a harsh reality? Nobody has a doubt that India is a rising superpower. Its economy is booming. Since 1991 after the economic liberalization, its socioeconomic structure is getting stronger in this Twenty First century. Its growth rate was phenomenal in last two decades. More and more people are crossing that so called below poverty line and the number of middle class people in India is now the highest in the world. India even claims that this country has the most young people in the world. Don’t you feel proud by all these developments that India is currently going through? Our society, our education level or the standard of living are all progressing ahead. So, all the developments and growths we have got in last 65 years, has nothing to do over the fact that a lot of dark patches are still there deep inside our society. The good sign is that these sexual assault cases are now being brought to light by either by the news media or by the victims themselves. It’s a burning topic for discussion in India and around the world. Since the December 2012 notorious gang rape case which made the national and international headlines, the world is now calling India especially New Delhi the rape capital of the world.

Sometimes I wonder whether we are really progressing as a society or walking backward to the Middle Ages. May be it is because of the women of India who are now becoming more educated, getting free from social barriers and being even more courageous to report their sexual assaults to the authority and that is why these new complains are adding up to the statistics even more. On the other hand there is also a possibility that the typical mind setting of Indian men towards women is getting more and more freakish day by day. As an Indian man, should I feel ashamed of these incidents? Of course I am, because as a common Indian, I am also feeling the heat. I am a typical urban guy and gradually I am sensing that all these incidents are also showing their effects within the society itself. The mutual respect of men and women towards one another has also been coming under tremendous stress and that is now very much evident in our day to day life. Even younger women are getting more and more suspicious over middle aged men in streets, trains and buses and even throw strange eye sights towards all kind of men as if every man irrespective of his age, is a possible rapist. Young women have also got such a scary impression that older men are more dangerous than young men. When such an incident is brought into our notice, our skeptical male mindset doesn’t accept its reality. We think that it is either an over emphasized story or a twisted truth. India is a land of nuclear families with love and respect towards our elderly people. Indians are brought up with this rich Indian culture and traditional values. But this new phenomenon of downgrading our mutual respect towards one another has been staining that clean and robust Indian culture and traditional values that we have been very proud of till date.

Humans are nothing but social animals and they also have animal instincts. Humans like all other animals also need to use sex for reproduction. In the animal kingdom, you will find that there are very simple rules in place for sexual reproduction process. Male animals fight with each other and whoever wins the battle, becomes the alpha male animal and then he mates with the female animal. This process of reproduction in animal kingdom varies from animal to animal but the basic rules that the nature has written for animal reproduction and survivability, are almost the same as the best animal genes are carried with to their successors. We call it as survival of the fittest.
However humans are also very much different from animals in terms of both physiological and social structures. Some animals too live in social structures but that doesn’t come into comparison when it comes to human society. Humans have developed over time, a very very complex social structure in every part of this planet with their language, knowledge, technology and culture. Now humans do not choose their life partners only by their physiology rather it is now subject to many different complex criteria and thus that has also developed a very complex human psychology. But deep inside our body, our genes still drive us to select the best life partner as far as possible. A woman still loves men with good physic and handsome looks. A man still loves beautiful women with good health and body and considers that a young woman with beautiful and healthy body means she will carry, give birth and take good care of his child. It is the gene that tells a man in his subconscious mind to look for a beautiful woman with big breasts and wide buttocks. Beautiful face means that a woman is still young, big breasts mean that they will produce enough milk for her child and wide buttocks mean that they will ease up the child delivery with less complexity. So, in his subconscious mind, a man always gets attracted easily with a beautiful woman with beautiful body. When a man considers a woman as sexy woman that means he also wants to mate with that sexy woman. But does it mean that men always look at women’s body with shameless eyes? The answer is No, because our culture, education, conscience and ethics always prevent us from acting such a way within a society. Our society also doesn’t allow us to do so and thus all men are also aware of that fact and behave accordingly living within a society.

Indian men are no different than Western, African or other Asian men when it comes to human genes and it has nothing to do with skin colour. But the cultures are different. We the Indians are so proud of our culture that we give the best respect to our women. India is a Hindu dominated country and most powerful and respected Hindu Gods are women. Then why the most number of female molestations and physical assaults are taking place in India? Some feminists would also say other than their usual explanations that since the women of India have improved so much in every fields shoulder to shoulder with men, Indian men now have become more jealous of women and thus that jealousy is often being resulted in physical assaults. I would rather oppose that theory because improvement of the status of women in India is very much helping our country progressing ahead but that doesn’t mean that Indian men have suddenly become anti women. The answer lies deep beneath our social root of Indian society. We now live in modern world rather modern India and there are many modern catalysts which are really responsible for these kinds of mishaps.

Bollywood is the second biggest film industry in the world. The difference between Hollywood and Bollywood movies are quite significant. In Bollywood movies or even all kind of Indian regional movies, the hero sings and dances to impress the heroine and often teases her in public to get her attention and acceptance. He constantly teases her with songs, words even by physical touches and the heroine constantly rejects him and refuses his offer. But the most ridiculous part is that in almost every movie, the ultimate result would be in favour of that hero. The heroine ultimately accepts him as her life partner and also accepts all his mischief with a smiling face. No matter if it is a top class or a third grade movie, these movie scripts are always written in the same manner which ends up in a happy climax. Our society, our people and government love these kinds of movies and so does the censor board. Since our society accepts these kinds of movies and our people love to see these kind of movies, all the movie producers also want to make them too for good business and profits. Good business and profit also mean good tax for government. So there is an official acceptance or social stamp always attached on these kinds of scenes in all these movies and we are being raised watching these kinds of movies from our childhood in India. What kind of general impression the general public gets from these movies is that, if it is possible in movies then why not possible in real life? After all, movie scripts are also written based or inspired by the society itself. So, if an Indian man teases an Indian woman and she rejects or refuses constantly that actually doesn’t mean No to that Indian man rather he thinks that if he continues to tease her no matter how she reacts, ultimately he will succeed and get his girl with her smiling face, just like a Bollywood movie. Now the Indian society has started to realise that these Bollywood and regional movies have played their crucial role which ultimately helps increasing the number of eve-teasing in Indian society. I hope the government also listens to that call.

India has been transforming itself from a rural agricultural country to a well developed and urban industry based modern country. The rural Indians are now running in great numbers towards cities for better earnings and a better life. But the rural cultural background they are coming from and which they have been experienced with their entire life, is completely different than that of the life styles in cities and they often end up in deep cultural shocks. In most of the rural India, the most popular entertainments are cheap liquor, third grade movies and rural sports. The generally listen Radio but most of the rural India doesn't know what the Television is and many distant parts of India do not even enjoy electricity. Rural life in India is very hard, more complex with restrictions in social barriers which is based on casts, religions etc. Poverty is another factor they also have to deal with in their day to day life. But whenever they go to a modern Indian city, they have to live in slums with very low quality infrastructures around them because a labour is still very cheap in India compared to Western countries and that low earnings doesn’t allow them to afford high quality living besides the other factor that they also have to save money for their relatives back in the rural India they came from. In these slums, they often have to live in a group without their women companions. Sometimes they feel a little bit of freedom from their social restrictions but despite their new freedom they also meet with the modern culture, modern clothing, food habit, the way of living and the modern standard of living the urban elite enjoys in modern cities. They also feel themselves as they have been deprived of money, better living, similar social status and also sex by none other than our society itself. City brothels do not solve their problems all the time. This sense of injustice with their lives sometimes helps growing anger, loss of ethics, confusion and frustration in their minds. I must say that Bollywood movies also play a huge role in their minds because Bollywood movies also show that all kinds of elite, rich and powerful people are bad and the under privileged people must stand against them even with force and that is called heroism. This vast labour force often get confused and sometimes resulted in committing crimes. Their poor education and low quality social background sometimes over shadow their minds for ethics and the sense of aftermath of their crimes.

Indian politics sometimes is also well connected with powerful businessmen and underworld. Some politicians, businessmen and underworld criminals think that their power comes from the money and guns and if they have got money and guns, they can do anything they want as well as evade Indian laws very easily. They want everything they see and they think that they will get whatever they want by their power of money and guns. Their hunger for more money and power, lust for something and everything don’t just stop ever and they think that they will fulfill their personal desires either by hook or crook. This nexus between politicians with businessmen and underworld sometimes successfully prevents our law enforcement systems and judicial system to act upon these crimes. If any female molestation or assault is reported by the victim accusing another person who belongs to a nexus of this kind, that powerful nexus always shows the confidence that it can easily save the accused from justice by its power and money. But that also now seems to be very hard for them in this modern India.

When a female molestation or a sexual assault happens with a woman, our stereotype male dominated society often blames that woman for that very crime for which she wants justice. Some people blame her clothing and others even do not hesitate to question about her attitude and character. Every time the blame goes back to the female victim instead of the criminal who committed the crime. Our society thinks that the victim herself should be held responsible because she must have provoked that person to commit that crime. Had she not dressed like that, had she not gone to that place, had she gone to that place at that time, had she gone to that place without any trusted or elder male companion, that crime would never have happened at all. Sometimes politicians also ask questions about the clothing of modern women as they think that modern day female clothing do not cover up the body curvature of a woman completely and that might act as a provocation or a catalyst which increases the male instincts and that might hamper the law and order in the society. When politicians ask a lot of questions about the presence of the victim at wrong place at wrong time even knowing that these kind of questions could impose a character certificate to that victim, it is understandable what prompts them to throw those unreasonable questions. Those politicians think that over publicity of these crimes would hold those politicians themselves responsible for the lack of law and order in those areas or states. Those politicians even think that these bad issues might be taken up by other political parties. Sometimes they also come up with some conspiracy theories that those crimes must have plotted by opposition political parties to malign the ruling parties. They just want to avoid moral or social responsibility and wash off their hands from these issues as quickly as possible otherwise they think that these uncomfortable issues might affect their political carrier or vote bank.

Modern young people of India love to wear modern clothing but the older generations of India still love traditional clothing till date. Although these young modern people come from different social backgrounds but most of these young people of modern India have been raised watching their parents wearing mostly traditional clothing. So, most of these young Indians are still not used to see modern clothing of other young Indians as normal culture. In Western countries, any kinds of modern or ultra modern clothing are considered as normal in general opinion because those are nothing new to them. India is currently going through many cultural transitions which might last in our future generations as well. So, that kind of cultural acceptance might take some more time in every part of India. I think the news media as the fourth pillar of democracy is doing a great job improving and purifying the standard of our society in India but I also think that education and general awareness will also have to play a greater role in our society to overcome these obstacles.