Thursday, January 26, 2012

Poora Naam... Vijay Dinanath Chauhan

If you love your mother's cooking, (and should you be naive enough to compare) then even a meal cooked by a 3 Michelin Star chef will seem "poor" "not-up-to-the-mark".  And that is people may not like the movie.

To all those I say this, watch Scarface.

Agneepath is, to say the least, a brilliant movie.  It is well directed, with very strong performances, a background score that gets your pulse racing, slick dialogues, Katrina Kaif, and brilliant actions sequences!

But what is left me with, were moments that give you goosebumps.  The final fight (Of course!!), Vijay's rescue of his sister, the delivery of THE dialogue of the movie, and the lynching scene.  I don't know about the technical aspects of movie-making, but I think they must have all been spot on, because the movie was a total audio-visual treat.

Its 3 hours long, the normal length of Hindi movies at one time.  And it was perfect!  The movie pulls you into its world, makes you a participant in its emotions, has you rooting for Vijay to win, wishing him to rise up, to vanquish evil.  Very old fashioned, very Hindi "masala" move, very very Indian.  I LOVE IT!

A lot though has to be said about the action.  You feel every punch, almost hear the bones cracking, and flinch with every blow.  The sight of Vijay lifting Kancha over his head, I actually leaped for joy in the theatre.  But my favourite scene is when Vijay rescues his sister.  We have forgotten to make action scenes like that anymore.  Call me foolish, but I much prefer these to the highly orchestrated, Hollywood types which we have come to accept as the gold standard now-a-days.  This is beautiful chaos.

I watched this movie sitting in the corner seat of the first row.  And I wont have it any other way.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

The Office Rules for MBAs (PPT to be created soon)

(this is based on personal and friends' experiences and is so limited to MBA "types" only)

As I near 5 years in the "corporate", there are a few things that I have learnt and would now like to share.
1.  Job Satisfaction:  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
2.  Money:  Show me!  Show me!!
3.  Boss:  The Good, The Bad, The VERY Ugly.
4.  Honesty:  Unnecessary.  Dangerous.  Avoidable.  Not Expected.  (Ethics are different... they should matter!).
5.  Incompetence:  Rampant.  Awarded if Combined With Favour Flattery F***.  (Choose your morals)
6.  Sucking Up:  Necessary.  (Unless you are as good and as famous Steve Jobs AFTER he launched the iPhone).
7.  Office Gossip:  Usually the Truth.
8.  Unhappy?  Quit.  Don't Grumble.  (No one really holds a gun to your head).
9.  Loyalty:  Business Conditions Dependent.
10.  Illusions of Grandeur:  Avoid.  Someone is Always Better.
11.  Client:  Paramount.
12.  Delusional Leadership:  More Common than Thought.  Avoid Correcting.  Get OUT!
13.  Ideal Job:  Challenging, Pays Well, Learning Opportunities.
14.  Hard Work:  Will be Rewarded.  If Not, Leave.
15.  Marketing:  Essential.  If They Don't Know You, They Can't Award You.
16.  CYA:  Cover Your Ar**.  At All Times.
17.  HR:  Much Maligned.  Can't Help.  Loyalties Obviously to Business.
18.  You:  Expendable.  Asset/Liability.  No Emotions.

If I knew and accepted these things, life would have been much easier much earlier.  However, you cant avoid being irritated by incompetence being awarded.  And I may have worked with/heard of/met/known some amazingly incompetent ones.  I just might write about them sometime... should make for some scandalous reading.  :)