3 Cheers for 2 Directors

    One is basking in the glory of his most recent success-3 Idiots and the other quietly showing his prowess without any fuss. I am talking about the well known Rajkumar Hirani and the not so well known Shimit Amin. Both of them have given three back to back hits . Raju Hirani - Munnabhai M.B.B.S, Lage Raho Munnabhai and 3 Idiots. Shimit Amin - Ab Tak Chappan, Chak De India and Rocket Singh: Best Salesman of the Year (not sure if it is a hit yet).

    I liked each one of these movies. Each one had a message which was served in a very engrossing and entertaining way. Although, I have to say that I liked Shimit Amin's movies slightly better because of his subject choice. In fact, my favorite Shah Rukh Khan movie to date is Chak De India (mentioned in one of my other blog postings earlier). Shimit Amin breaks a lot of stereotypes and the protagonist of the movie is the story and narration itself. There was not much publicity about his most recent movie, Rocket Singh. It is a very well made movie and it definitely deserves a look.

    Both these directors have been able to get stellar performances from their cast. Both of them are humble and do not hog the limelight. Their work talks on their behalf. Indian movie industry is changing and I guess changing for the good. Having said that, the ratio of bad or pathetic movies to good movies is still huge. The Indian movie industry needs such new breed of directors who can bridge this gap. Directors and film makers always hide behind the excuse for making bad movies (repetitive theme), that the audience is not mature enough to accept different types of movies. I think the contrary is true, audience is always eagerly waiting for these directors to give them fun and meaningful cinema.

    We need stories which resonates with people and touches a chord in them. Movies, if used properly, could become a medium which could bring about revolution or which could dumb down people. That is not to say that every movie should have a social message. Tell stories and the movies would get made by themselves. Let us make India the biggest movie maker in the world in terms of quantity (which it already is) and quality.

Platform of Success

    A few days back I read a news article which talked about a few villagers in Taj Nagar, India, who built their own railway platform. Taj Nagar is just outside of the national capital Delhi. It now has two platforms and some trains would make a scheduled stop there. This would help the residents of Taj Nagar to have a better commute to work and in turn to have a better quality of life. For this project to materialize, each resident contributed Rs. 3,000.

    Indian Railways had, in the past, declined to construct the platform because of budgetary reasons and the insignificance of the place. The one good thing about this whole project was, that at least the railways did not create any hindrance in the people's effort and rather agreed for some trains to make a stop, if the residents built their own platform.

    It is a great example of team work, will power and perseverance. This just goes on to show that if we decide we could achieve anything. Think about a bunch of villagers taking over a giant, the "Indian Railways". I sometimes feel that the city dwellers lack the enthusiasm and drive to change the society, that the people from small towns and villages have. Urban people want the system to change but they do not want to take any steps to change that. I include myself in this group. The only meaning we, as citizens of India, have understood of democracy (people power), is to destroy the state machinery in the name of protest.

    I hope this platform becomes a launching pad for many more such successes for India. I also hope to be a part of at least one such success story in the future.