March 2010

There were 3 posts published in March 2010 (this is page 1 of 1).

Playing with fire

My heart goes to the family members of the 34 persons killed in the Kolkata fire. The whole thing is so tragic. And yet we all will forget about it just as soon as news channels stop reporting it and newspapers stop writing about it. By Thursday/Friday the report was reduced to scroll on most of the news channels with updating the toll. This whole chalta hai attitude has to be blamed for this.

I am sure there are many such buildings spread across India. But they all lack proper fire fighting facilities. All the buildings in the Fort area in Mumbai are a tragedy in the making. But the problem is people sitting in Mumbai think why should we worry about something happening in Kolkata? Well you have a reason to worry when the caretaker of your building took money to have two more floors and also passed on some benefits to the authorities concerned to approve the changes.

Even the building in the Tuesday’s mishap had some structural changes which were later approved.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee admitted, \”The top two floors are illegal. We are investigating what the Kolkata Municipal Corporation\’s role was at that time, who is the owner of the building. The city has a coterie of illegal builders with whom the administration is involved”.

How come these changes approved. How come nobody saw the two floors come up all this while? It cannot be that they appeared from nowhere. Why the two floors were later legalised and on what grounds? Does it mean other buildings in the area can go for similar change? Just how much money was taken for this?

Remember what happened in Uphaar fire incident? Well even now people are waiting for justice. For the families of Stephen House victims the painful journey has just begun.

The IPL Tamasha

Lalit Modi did it again. He sure has learnt the idea of remaining in news. The cancellation of the IPL T20 bidding process at the last minute surely makes news and Mr Modi did wait for the last date.

I am sure the point which the interested parties wanted to amend could have been done earlier. To quote him “The new document will have some new conditions that the IPL governing council believes will benefit IPL and Indian cricket in the long term.”

So the clause earlier were not good for the team? Only Mr Modi knows!

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2010/03/09&PageLabel=22&EntityId=Ar02200&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

Best women centric movies

\"\"With the entire planet clebrating the Women’s Day I thought I should also join the celebrations!

But no dinners/lunch/gifts or shopping. Apologies to the women in my life!

Instead I will list movies, both Hindi as well as English, which had really good women centric script or the female cast left a lasting impression. The list is random. I love them all

1: Leading the list is of course Astitva: A very bold and unusual story. In bollywood bold means showing more flesh. But this offering from Mahesh Manjerakar and Tabu was bold in its content and the step Tabu who played the role of Aditi, takes after her husband “manages to estabilish” that he was not the real father of his son. Wonderful dialogues, this will always remain a favourite.

2: Phir Milenge: I catched the repeat telecast of the movie just last week. Again the movie is unusual as it talks about AIDS but not about the disease or how Shilpa Shetty got the virus. But what happens after people around her discover about her disease. Brilliant performance by Shilpa.

3: Erin Brokowich: Simply outstanding. The way the film opens we hav no clue where it wll end. But Julia Roberts takes us through the life of a single mother who  woks a prostitute and goes on to become a legal assistant.

4: Aakhir Kyun: Smita Patil in a really memorable role. Even Tina Munim managed to give good support to the principal cast. Add to this some really good songs popular even today.

5: Parineeta: That a movie on this theme can be made in 21st century??? Amazing performance and the good old Calcutta.

6: The Sound of Music: Maria makes me laugh and cry… Life and how to live it.

7: Charade: Saw is only last week. A mystery-comedy about a woman whose husband is dead and people think he has left her huge money which they claim is theirs.

8: Pinjar: A tragic love story about women during the Indo-Pak partition.

9: Jab We Met: Geet is again like girls today. Independent, modern and yet traditional. Hard not to smile even when Kareena and Shahid get cosy and uncomfortable… and Shahid says ho jata hai yaar kabhie kabhie…

10: Zubeidaa/Joggers Park/Silsila/Jaane Tu… yaa jane na/Pretty Woman/Abhiman/Lamhe/Chandni: All the movies had strong female roles and all were different. Far far from the conventional role we have been seeing. The women in these films had a mind of their own and did their own thing.

And the Oscar goes to Katherine… best director and best film.