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Kurbaan – The Movie Review
As is with everything else in India…it’s taken us 8 years to realize the impact of 9/11…or maybe it was 26/11 that made us go…”wow, there is a story in there”!
Kurbaan is (yet another) version of terrorism under the guise of religion, juxtaposed with a love story (without which there is no desi movie).
I felt it wasnt better than New York, and at the same time I felt there were moments which made the movie stand out (or made it feel realistic, which is not expected from a KJo production…for god sake…he called Kabhi Khushi his most realistic movie ever!)
Storyline predictable – Kareena (Avantika) is a Prof who lives in NY and is back in India because of her father’s ill-health. She falls in love with Saif (Ehsaan) and both of them decide to move to NY and start a life there, in the backdrop of an unwilling father.
Once in NY, the usual post-marriage love story unfolds…finding house, setting it up, kisses on way to office and back home from work, grocery bills etc etc. They move to an Indian neighborhood, which is a Muslim dominated area and thats where the trouble begins. Avantika realizes that one of her neighbours is in danger and in an attempt to save her uncovers a truth that rips her apart (cmon..we all can guess what it is!!).
This is where the movie breaks down! The characters unfold themselves in a fashion that is not normal…and honestly at no point of time are you able to connect to them, unlike New York (the movie).
The movie does attempt to (half-heartedly) bring out the other side of terrorism, pointing to the way the US has bulldozed the Middle Eastern Region due to selfish needs. And while the argument is not entirely wrong, the movie fails to really grip the audience into believing it.
And ofcourse, the high point of the movie is the realization that NY Cops are as useless as Delhi Police, when it comes to chasing convicts. To showcase simply this fact, Shiela Dixit should make the movie Tax-free!
However, to his credit, the debutant (Rensil D’Silva) does a fantastic job of making the movie LOOK awesome (but then again, its a KJo production! You would expect that, though I was surprised that Saif didnt sport any DKNY outfits throughout the movie). The cinematography is fantastic…there are some really brilliantly executed scenes which the Indian cinema has not been subjected to so far.
And if nothing, Vivek Oberoi’s American Accent steals the show, oh so totally! That guy is all set of join Genpact as Team Lead – US Processes!
Overall, good attempt. Though I wish New York hadnt happened before. Just in comparison, I would give this a lower rating
Rating – 2/5
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And while at it, this has got to be the best review of the movie possible…!
Why Do Indians Work Long Hours?
Everyone who has had the opportunity to work outside India almost always has to say one thing about it – Amazing work life balance!
I remember my days in the US when the office used to be empty by 6pm…or in Dubai when we (the Indian Team) used to be the only ones left behind after 5.30 pm (or 3.30pm during Ramzan) alongwith a few other guys from the client side, again all Indians!
I always wondered why is that the case, until I heard from some of my friends in China and Russia (they are from Kearney, so might not be a fair dataset!)
I think the reason has got to be the GDP growth rate of the country!
Indulge me…
If one were to really plot all the countries on a worklife balance scale, I think there will be a high (negative) correlation with the GDP growth of the country. The developed economies (with a low GDP growth rate) will typically have the best work-life balance. And vice versa.
The same can also apply to industries. The one with higher growth rates will typically have people with better work-life balance than the ones with lower growth rates, even within the same country!
And all this is because of the growth prospect.
Even if an american slogs his butt off and works like shit beyond office hours…how much more can he really make, financially and professionally?? Hardly anything.
But if an Indian slogs his butt off…he can easily emerge as the best in a lot of people who dont…which results in fantastic paycheck raises, bigger opportunities etc etc!
Emerging markets are growing so rapidly…and there is such lack of talent especially in the middle, that one can easily rise up provided they bring in quantifiable (or at times just visible) levels of extra output than the average. And this suddenly results in a ratrace, where everyone is trying to outdo the other by spending more and more hours at work…at times ostensibly!
Same goes for companies in general, which have a “bad” work-life culture! They know that if they get their people to work like donkeys, they can actually grow in double digits! Something that a US company cannot think of, even if it gets all its people to work 24 hrs!
This also reflects on why most Indian managers are not comfortable with the “working from home” concept! They need to SEE the output…they feel that the sheer back and forth will result in precious time lost that could bring in that additional 10 basis point of growth!
Naturally…the west is the opposite…and amazingly…working from home is turning out to be as productive as office, as this interesting piece suggests!
So…the next time your boss asks you to stay longer…blame it on the friggin 9% growth!
This is a test
Technorati Code: XR226XSV58RQ
The Perfect Interview Test
Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon, authors of I Hate People have come up with one of those unorthodox Interview Tests that could give you insights (non-technical though) into the personality of the individual.
“Observe how the candidate crosses the street”
And honestly, my experience so far with hiring, is that Attitude is all that matters! Skills can be acquired, but attitude is a “if-and-only-if” condition!
I am a wader…who are you?
20 Things You Learn from 2012 – The Movie
Write a book, even if it sucks. Because when the world ends, you may be lucky enough to have a copy of it saved by one of the survivors and be forever immortalized
So I watched the movie…and honestly…quite liked it! Cmon…what were you guys expecting? Oscar Movie of the Year! it was meant to be this crappy…but with great visual appeal. And it delivered on it…!
However, as is with every movie, no matter how crappy…there are always learnings (and hidden philosophies!).
Here is my book on…
20 Things You Learn from 2012 – The Movie
- With a wave as high as Mt. Everest some 200 feet away from you…cellphone signals are still strong enough to call your friend in the US and tell him you are dying!
- Blacks will eventually save the world!
- It will friggin take much more than a billion people in size, for India to have one of its citizen up on that ship
- After the world ends…all that will remain will be “Made in China”
- If you wish to save your ass from the world’s end…get some flying lessons! And no…no need to get a friggin license…a flight or two will suffice!
- One day you will be able to fly only 200 miles to reach US, cause the earth would have moved alongwith you!
- Africa is the only continent that will not drown. So yeah…they could die of AIDS or Malaria…but flood…not happening!
- The 2010 London Summer Olympics will be held in December…!
- If you are a stepdad…you will eventually die and the original father will take over!
- John Cusack is the world record holder for the longest duration underwater without breathing!
- The Russian President´s English is sufficient incase you want to tell him that he is going to die…in English
- The chinese build the worst things on this earth, but will make sure that there are cameras installed all across the ship to cover the remotest of insignificant corners!
- But hey…after all the billions spent…the gates can still get jammed by a tool!
- Animals will be saved more for zoo value (Rhino, Giraffe) rather than real value. So yes…no cows, pigs, sheep on the ship please!
- There will always be a senti 10 minute speech on opening the gates, when they are 11 minutes left for impact!
- Russians will always have a sense of humor, when when they are dying!
- Arabs will speak good english but will insist all paperwork and documents to be in Arabic! And yes…they love their family as much as Indians do…so they will pay for all.
- Your hot mistress will always have an affair with your hot driver!
- No matter how much you have paid for the ticket, the boarding will remind you of Air Deccan. However, there might actually be some people who will never make it to the ship, unlike Air Deccan (almost!)
- And oh! When you know 3 years back that the world will be flooded…always make a ship..! Not a submarine…a ship!
Please add your own!!
Sachin Tendulkar joins Politics
…i hope never…(or for that matter I hope someday!)…
But this is what Mr. Thackeray (no, the old almost dead one…not the young ‘always orgasming’ one!) believes Sachin has done by commenting that “Mumbai is part of India”
“There was no need for him to take a cheeky single by making such remarks,” Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ quoted Thackeray as saying.
and hey…friggin entire India comes together…and this time not to simply light candles on India Gate (with all due respect…but really…candles…solidarity…??)…but barging full-on to face the Thackerays! Ofcourse they all know that no one will ever vandalise their house for doing so…since Tendulkar is god in India…and anyone even coming remotely close to branding him otherwise will only draw flak! Least…the political party will loose all voters..!
I dont get it…politics! What was the old man thinking…?? He knew this would become a national “breaking news”. And its not even something that will draw appreciation from some quarters of the society. Anyone who says anything against Sachin is bound to be either drugged, or made to confess so by Delhi Police…(or both..!). So whats the point…!
But maybe he has one…
On the other side…ofcourse a lot of people have found their moment of fame by coming up with their two pence on what they think about Sachin’s statement! HT covered some of them….one of which was a masterpiece
“Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra, which is part of India. Mumbai is, therefore, an integral part of India”
Thanks Sherlock! Thats exactly what we had in mind when we asked you if you felt Mumbai was a part of India.
Did you pay your taxes?
Then the Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa should thank you!
An RTI reply has revealed that Yeddyurappa has spent a staggering Rs 1.7 crore to renovate his bungalow, Rs 35 lakh of which went into redoing his bedroom.
On one hand, I find it amazing that such level of information can be procured in this country…andthe ones procuring it are people such as you and me – fed up of living in the “chalta hain” scheme of things!
And on the other, I find it unfortunate that this very chief minister will come back to power, if you will, because he will distribute rice at Rs 2 per kg!
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I travel 38 kms one-way to work! And I am blessed because the road to office is awesome..and it hardly takes me 45 minutes to cover it. However, if a certain 7km stretch of the road (which I avoid…infact everyone except the trucks avoid) was to be repaired…the same distance would reduce to 32kms and under 40 mins.
Yah…its not a lot…6kms or 5mins…but if you cover this over the number of vehicles that travel this route everyday, you will wonder why no one bothers to just repair the road! A few lacs…and god knows how much will be saved in time, effort and money!
I did write to the Department of Roads, Haryana and was told that this road falls under the Highway department. I wrote to them…and never got a response!
And to think of it…I am friggin complaining about my life…when I am aware of several others who spend twice as much time on the road…covering half the distance I travel!
I know everything about you – Google!
Not that we didn’t know it…but its fascinating…and equally scary…to see how much of data has google stored through that one single username password of yours..! Gmail, Orkut, Reader, Search, Youtube, Alerts, GTalk…we dont realize how much of time we spend on Google products everyday and how all of those actions are being stored
Google released its DashBoard feature this week, which helps users with Google accounts to shit in their pants looking at the amount of information that lies with the company.
For starters, I have:
- over 18,000 received emails,
- over 7,000 sent mails and
- over 5,o00 chat conversations
saved in my GMail account!!! Holy friggin shit…!
And oh…in the month of October, i executed more than 10,700 google search queries…ALL of which are stored…!
It is scary…and also jaw-dropping…to realize that a single entity knows so much about possibly every young individual in this world!! EVERYTHING!
Phew!
8% of Internet Users Account for 85% of all Clicks
Am not surprised at this statistic…! Released by Comscore this Wednesday, the “Natural Born Clickers” research has some rather interesting revelations about the Internet and especially the clicks happening all across!
While the statistics are only regarding image ads (and not search ads, which will surely throw up numbers different, maybe drastically different), it still is fascinating to think how the industry today is so centered around clicks and you friggin find out that only 8% of the audience you are catering to, is doing most of the talking! As rightly questioned in the report too…what about the remaining audience, who rarely click, but are still surfing the net and spending a whole lot of time on it.
I realize that there will always be this section which somehow adjusts to the ads around them. They ‘zone off’ the ads! I belong to that category…as long as the ad is advertising for something else but ‘showing’ something else (if you know what I mean!). But there will be a section of the population, and I reckon a good share, that will see the ad but never click…for whatever reason. But the ad has surely had some effect on them…however minuscule in nature! How do you quantify that!
Google ofcourse has a remedy, as is does for a whole lot of things in this world except for premature ejaculation! They recently released the “View Through” conversions on the Google Banner network (not yet for text ads). Basically works through a cookie for a period of 30 days…so if I have seen an ad and then ultimately do make a conversion sometime later within 30 days…its counted as happening because of the ad!
Not 100% perfect….one can guess multiple flaws in this metric…but a start nonetheless.
In the Internet space, unlike offline media, there is so much of stuff happening, fighting for the user attention. And the switching costs for the user are zero, almost always, unless playing Farmville on FB! So I always thought that clicks is a good way of measuring intent! Definitely better than impressions! But then if clicks are also not working (in the sense, you are eliminating a huge chunk of the audience), what would be a good way to measure ad effectiveness? And thereby cost it?
What would it be?
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