jayantiblogshere

Story telling and dramatization in Bollywood have always catered to the lowest common denominator. And that is because the movie makers and their producers know that your average movie  going audience  needs drama, super star ( mostly male)  and a dose of common man’s pseudo morality to come back satiated from the movie theatres.  Any variation in the formula and it would be money gone down the drain for the producer.   Here is a real and contemprorary example. Angry Indian Goddesses   is a 2015   Hindi   drama film, directed by   Pan Nalin   with   Sandhya Mridul ,   Tannishtha Chatterjee ,   Sarah-Jane Dias ,   Anushka Manchanda ,   Amrit Maghera ,   Rajshri Deshpande   and Pavleen Gujral playing lead roles with   Adil Hussain .  There are no super stars there. Pink   is a 2016 Indian   courtroom drama   film directed by   Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury ,...

Kayaking was a foreign word to me until last year.   An odd reference by a colleague, who had recently  returned from an onsite assignment many years earlier, it was not something I had given much thought to.  All I inferred from his conversation was that was something the corporate team building activities were made up of in countries where there is the luxury of long meandering clean rivers where one went along to relax and for some fresh air, recreation and an outdoor sport. But there here I was, around July the 04 th and all of America was holidaying for the entire week. Well not exactly July the 4 th , but the week preceding and succeeding that all important day of American Independence.  I find myself in Boston, locked up in my hotel room, looking at things to do in Boston.  Well, having grown up in the frugal and aspirational Indian middle class society, I pick up the pamphlet at the hotel lobby and go over all the sight seeing touristy t...

Pudhchya Varshi laukar yaa ... The last few months have been back breaking for Mai and Baba. It all started in the scorching heat of summer months.  The drought was bad  last year. They worked on the thatched roof tops so that they would be  monsoon proofed before the rains. The cattle shed too was barricaded high with stones and cemented together with clay so as not to let the monsoon waters enter the shed.   The hay for the cattle was covered from the rain over the thatched roof tops.    A month later the grey clouds loomed over int the horizon. There was hope and happiness in the air. This year would not be another drought . Rain gods would surely bless them.  As if to answer their prayers the grey overcast broke out and it poured.  Suddenly greenery  sprouted all around.     The rice fields were inundated with rain water.  The river banks  threatened to breach the barriers ...