AR

What are ideal values?

2011-05-09T04:42:00.007+05:30

The last two blogs that I wrote concentrated predominantly on the organization values and system which sets manages and changes them as and when requirement comes up. The system (troika) that I talked ideally should set values which always tend to excel the organization. That ideal system if at all exists, then it can be assumed that organization is in safe hands and definitely we can expect changes within the organization when organization itself looks to excel. This is the summary of my previous blogs.

Before I start my current blog, I would like to take re-organization which happened in Infosys Technologies recently with NRN going out and K V Kamath taking his position along with other management changes at the top most level of the organization. I think this change supports my theory I mentioned in my previous blogs. Because of competitive market pressure, INFY to excel itself it needs to change itself and needs to evolve to shield the market pressure. Management felt the need of overhaul. It is because of clear fundamental values associated with organization – such a re-organization had been achieved smoothly. Now we have a new troika to see INFY 3.0. Obviously we can expect changes within the organization with respect to policies to achieve their organization objective. I also mentioned earlier my blog that if organization values change too much, there will be more chances that organization will be renamed; same happened with INFY and I suppose this is one of the first changes in the organization and many more to follow as the situation is nothing but reinventing itself. I also feel that INFY becomes a matter of case study like it used to be from last two decades.

After digressing a bit from my current blog, let me come back. With some of the events that happened and happening in my professional front, I’m more fascinated to know how an organization decides its values, objectives? How it drafts policies? And the most important and tricky one – “What are ideal values of an organization?”

If I have a group of ideal people who can draft beautiful, scientific, employee-friendly organization values, will it be possible for them to draft the most “ideal” values? It will be a mystery to me to understand these things.

I am trying to explore more on what are ideal values through this blog. Before I proceed, I feel that I may be wrong here in understanding the facets of ideal values or ethics of an organization as I had been part of only one organization all through my 6 years. Also, I may have skewed-view of these values as I have been only an employee all through 6 years and never been an employer (manager).

Generally, in an objective based organization, objectives are associated with organization indirectly. However, directly they are associated with people who run organization and people who work for organization. These objectives must always adhere to organization values and ethics. This means all of them who are part of the organization will be either directly or indirectly adhering to organization values either through objectives or through changing the organization values themselves.

I believe (rather strongly) that organization values are individualistic in nature when organization is incepted and they evolve as organization grows and matures itself. Organization when incepted will have very few individuals and values will be based on these individuals. In many cases it may not be ideal when started instead they will be primitive and becomes core values as organization evolve over the period of time. The ethics or values of organization can be visualized with the different stand points – employer view and employees view.

An employee thinks that ideal workplace should provide him/her job satisfaction, job protection and good monetary benefits. I cannot think anything else other than these as of now. From an employer perspective, ideal values should meet or adhere to organizational objectives and also there will be many more other things to achieve organizational objectives and hence may not be able to provide everything that an employee thinks ideal. So, there will be a compromise plan that will be laid down by organization in agreement with “troika” that I mentioned earlier. So, organization should now set values or ethics which will eventually help to achieve the organizational objectives along with the fact that everybody in troika adheres to it. In other words, organization should draft policies which adhere to its values and creates a conducive “environment” for employees to work. I feel this will be the greatest challenge for any organization after its inception.

All I am pointing is the way ideal values will be drafted or evolved within the organization. But never mentioned anything about them and how they should be. If I can think of ideal values of any organization, I always quote a quote from mother of Narendranath Dutta, Swami Vivekananda and quote goes like this:

“"Remain pure all your life; guard your own honor and never transgress the honor of others. Be very tranquil, but when necessary, harden your heart."

If my understandings are correct and I can add my bits to the above lines –

“Be honest to yourself first and then to others as well; be accountable, responsible and disciplined so that one can protect his/her honour; never disrespect others; be calm at all the times and remain practical when required.”

If organization and people who are part of the organization follow above lines, I think and I am pretty sure that such organization will have ideal values associated with and people are following it without fail. The other important thing these lines speak – the idealism in yourself. If an organization drafts an ethical pattern which can be adapted in oneself or in other words if that becomes a walk of life – then definitely people follow it w/o fail and they can be differentiated as distinguished ideal values. I am saying this because (especially in India) we tend to celebrate everything. We believe in group based activity. We celebrate festivals together; we mourn together; we celebrate government activities such election, polio drops programme together. For us everything is celebration. Thus, if our policies or ideals are designed in that way, I am pretty sure they succeed. Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr. Modi says same thing. When a scheme or a policy be designed as Janandonalan or people-oriented then that scheme/policy succeeds. He exemplifies with water harvesting, malnourishment improvement schemes by asking milk suppliers to donate 100ml of milk everyday to name a few. I am sure that above values if adapted amongst the people and also by organization itself, they automatically become ideal.

I read above lines when I was browsing something on Swamiji. But, I have had this inhibition of comparing these lines at organizational level and individually.

I think by this time many people would have realized which organization I am talking as I have worked with only organization. Yes “VeriSign”. This company has got greatest concept of “RAPID” values and these are the values which I cherish forever. I tried to adapt it in my day to day activities along with my professional values. For those who aren’t or weren’t part of VeriSign, RAPID means Respect, Accountable, Passion, Integrity and Drive. Let us compare these values with the above lines. They match exactly! Don’t they? We have respect, responsibility and integrity defined in the organizational values which cover first two lines! We’ve passion and drive defined as well. Whatever may be the situation in employee’s life, if you have drive and passion, you deliver! Aren’t they satisfying those lines? According to me, they are for sure.

Like VeriSign, we can find many people who follow those values or principles. One of the apt examples would none other than Sachin Tendulkar.

He has been playing for India from last 21 years. He would have faced so many balls in his careers and during practice as well against such a nice bowling attack over 21 years. But even now, before match, he practices and respects each and every ball and of course every other cricketer. His humility and his humble nature towards other cricketers make him great and commands respect from all corners. So, I can mark R of RAPID as covered. Next will be his accountability. Do I need to explain? He takes his responsibilities every time he comes to middle. Integrity – I think I do need to talk about this. Passion and drive – if Sachin does not have these then he would have retired long time ago. It is his drive which took him past the tennis elbow problem and it was his cricketing passion which makes him to wake up early in the morning, practice for 3 hours, play for 8 hours on field, practice again, have tea and sleep on dining benches. He did this for 55 days non-stop at age of 14! He does even now and he may not sleep on bench though! He is following same RAPID values and of course those lines as well!

Organizational values and significance

2011-03-14T01:11:00.005+05:30

After completing my last blog, I did research more on organizational values and its principles. I found that along with strong fundamental values and universal implementation of the same, an organization must have an attitude to thrive itself further. To do that change is required. Also, this raises serious questions. Why to change? When to change? How to change? First two questions are simple. When organization decides to thrive itself or grow bigger itself, it starts thinking about the change. The last question is a serious question and implementation of change is always a challenge in any place. The probably way is to adopt re-engineering, reinventing and recycling strategies within the organization to achieve the objectives set by itself. To achieve, this I think we need troika consisting of executor, philosopher and follower with each of them work in conjunction towards the objective of thriving.

This troika is more or less similar to any democratic elected system. If India is concerned and with current set-up, it is PM belonging to party and elected by people of India acts as an executor with supporting staff like (Military, Government officials and other elected representatives). People would be the followers of the policies and of course Judiciary, media act as philosopher or guide. In this ecosystem, everybody has same objective to achieve wellness of nation and people. This means collectively troika should try in achieving the wellness of the society.

Similarly, all the profit-oriented organizations will have more or less have troika model. Like any democratic system, it will also be collectively working towards wellness of the organization and employees who are part of it. Here I would say management becomes executors, board becomes philosopher and employees become followers. All in unison will be working towards an objective of thriving themselves directly and indirectly making organization to grow.

In the political spectrum, the prime minister is accountable to people who elected him and also to the party at the same to which he/she belongs. In this sort of system, there will be considerable percentage of people who are not willing to accept the policies of the party to which prime minister belongs. So, it becomes the prime minister’s responsibility to take these people without affecting his party line of thinking. If party starts to dictate or manages PMO, definitely we see issues in the policies and people/nation will suffer at the end. It is happening now with Congress controlling PMO and it happened earlier during Nehruvian time or Vajpayee’s time. Nehru asked to remove party president when party started to question Government policies (more read: Feroz Gandhi vs Nehru). Vajpayee when he was in power, BJP’s sister concern RSS troubled him over many issues resulting in embarrassment. Thus, everybody in the troika that I mentioned earlier has got their roles and responsibilities to perform. All are accountable to their actions and responsibilities.

In the same analogy, every business organization, certainly some set of employees who are not on with management. Management has to consider them during their policy changes or making. Also, if management unilaterally takes certain decisions, then it is board which should guide them during the crunch time. Finally, the employees must adhere to the organization values set up by management after board’s approval. Like any elected government, organization’s troika must work in unison to achieve organization goals. Like any democratic systems, everybody who is part of organizational troika must perform their roles and responsibilities.

In the beginning, I said about organization thriving with reinvention, re-engineering and recycling. To achieve this, the important aspect would be that objectives tend to change. The CHANGE is the only way to achieve organization growth as change is the only thing which is constant in this world. In my previous blog, I did mention that changes should happen in the organization. Also, I did mention that changes should happen if and only if it is required. And these changes must adhere to organizational philosophies. This means changes must be in conjunction with organization values or set-up. Secondly, the changes should not shackle the fundamentals of organization as the organization has been built upon those values. Finally, changes must be universal to accept. To thrive, these things are needed and should be methodically done to achieve the organization goal. This means the changes must be designed considering the organizational values and differences of opinion on the change itself by the executors. The changes should be revisited and should be approved by the philosophers and finally it should be thoroughly followed by the followers.

Along with troika, one more important factor which can directly influence the path of change is the individual growth within the organization in specific or society in general. In a society or organization, as organization grows, individuals who are part of it will also thrive. It is natural and expected. But there is conflict of interest which can bring the organization into its knees even after having strong organizational values. The personality quotient, PQ, within every person will have direct influence on the path of change. I suppose PQ is the biggest potential to thrive and at the same time biggest threat to organization.

Let me give few examples which did not follow the process I explained earlier so that we can better understand my analogy.

Let us consider Satyam Computer Services Private Limited. This company is one of the pioneers of India’s IT supremacy. It explains in the best possible way of my analogy of troika system and personality quotient and conflict of interests. This company when incepted had had some organizational values. In the process of growth, it instrumented some organizational changes. With more personal interests, executors without the board’s approval introduced the changes without adhering to organizational core values resulting in company falling like WTC! What next – the IT czar was behind the bars. The organization collapsed and followers suffered.

Another great example would be VeriSign itself. Here the executors and philosophers failed. The company in order to thrive bought some companies which were not part of their core business strength. That change back-fired them and company CEO was also fired at the same time. In the path of thrive, company tanked.

Finally, let me consider our medium and small scale industries. Here the followers failed to adapt to valid and rational changes drafted by executors with philosophers' approval. In ‘90s, Bangalore had 15K small scale industries. In order to grow, the small scale industries needed to increase the produce. So, owners decided to introduce new working policies to thrive the production. However, employee unions did not accept the new policies. Now both executors and followers are in dire straits.

Contrastingly, Personality Quotient, PQ, as I said earlier can be a boon to an organization. Let us consider people like Steve Jobs, NRN and Richard Branson who can influence the whole organization with their mercurial thinking resulting in extra-ordinary growth of the organization. All these personalities are individualistic in nature but they never violated any of the company policies and philosophies. They stuck to their company values.

From these negative examples, my belief has increased and also even with troika system and proper implementation scheme, if anyone in the troika thinks irrationally, destruction will happen affecting the ecosystem. Also, I suppose and believe that everybody threw the values of themselves and the organization in the name of growth. The personal significance ruined the organizational values. None of them understood the significance of value-based living. On the other hand, personal influence did help organization growth since persons stuck to their values and organizational values. Therefore, I think organization must teach its employees the significance of principles, philosophies and rules. At the same time, employees should understand them and adapt them to grow themselves from one stratum to another.

Ideology, Philosophy and Policy

2011-02-11T05:06:00.002+05:30

IDEOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY AND POLICY

Ideology refers to a set of self beliefs and doctrines which are associated with a society, an institution or a business organization. Secondly, philosophy is a logical, analytical and pragmatic study of current state of society, institution or an organization with the help of philosophers. Finally, policies are set of rules, guidelines which can be used as a tool to enforce the ideals associated with society, institution or an organization.

Here in my blog, I would like to restrict myself to a business organization as I am not qualified enough to understand the sociological aspects of the society.

Ideology

Before the inception of any business organization or a social institution, the respective personnel who are part of the organization should come up with a set of ideal or ideologies primarily considering the current situation with a future vision of society and with an intention of bright future for the organization. In other words, ideologies must be adhered to a philosophy as philosophy is a scale to analyze the current state. These ideologies are generally ideologies of individuals. Every individual will have his/her own way of thoughts and beliefs. The organization ideologies will be based on these individual values and different individual values must be rightly blended together. Generally, the ideologies are agenda-oriented, very personal for most of the times, dogmatic and very emotional. Ideologies are either harmful to society and at the same time it can be very good to society depending upon how it is accepted in the society. At one time, communism was a fashion. My father and uncle say that wearing a kurta with glasses with beard on was a way of life. Communism was the thing for many individuals. However, in 15-20 years, everybody knew about that ideology and everybody has been moved out of it or moving out of it. I feel generally ideology is an aggressive of expressing individualistic thoughts and beliefs on somebody else by ideologues.

Philosophy

Philosophy, on the other hand, is a way of life. It is way of thinking, analyzing and understanding the way of life so that more wisdom and knowledge is gained. It is always analytical, logical study of way of life. It always talks about current state of life and thinks about it and tries to understand about the current affairs. Philosophy is pragmatic approach to life and is always societal or social in nature. It is neither harmful to society or may not do any good to society at the same time. It is a very passive way of understanding the things so that it reflects the current societal values or organization values. Also, it is the philosophy which creates the ideals, ideologies. All the ideologies are built upon philosophy as it is actual reflection of current affairs. Philosophy is not as rigid as ideology; but the change in philosophy is generally gradual in nature. However, sometimes it can be fast-paced to term that as revolution. Unlike ideology, there is a scope for change here.

Policy

Policy is a set of rules, guidelines which are outlined by ideologues so that they can impose the ideologies on the society or organization. Policies are always a guide to way of life. Policy is the way of implementing ideals into society or organization. Philosophers review these policies when they see winds of change in the organization generally. In some cases, it may not be true. If these reviews are fast paced and need to be changed immediately, ideally, ideologies need not to be tweaked or morphed so that new rules can be in place with immediate effect. But, if the new rule is going to change the current equilibrium of the organization, and then ideologies need to be revisited at the same time so that new rule benefits everybody within the organization.

Case Study

Societal Situations

We all know the origination of Semitic religions. This is one of the good case studies. Because of Jewish oppression and idealists’ attitude, philosophers felt that there was a need for change. The analysis and logical thinking of society was long driven process and philosophers suggested for change after a long gap of time. One of the philosophers was Jesus Christ. However, Jewish idealists went bizarre and the need for change reached pinnacle with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The philosophers ushered the winds of change across the latitudes and longitudes resulting with new ideals, ideologies etc. The new ideologies were built upon the situation at that time.

However, there are even now people who do not accept that ideologies and still follow their own ideologies. From this, it is very apparent that ideologies need not be accepted blindly and followers part ways if they cannot merge. But, now we’ve Pope or Prophet who issue new ideologies without going thru the process which their fore fathers followed. Can we expect one more change? Of course.

In India, I think we had philosophers only; no ideologues. Ashoka, the great, could be one of the ideologues who conquered the World and imposed his violence attitude across the society. Buddha was born to guide him in the right path. Ashoka accepted the fact that change was necessary and changed the ideologies and spread the new ideologies.

However, ideologies that Buddha drafted were re-looked after some centuries by Adi Shankara, a philosopher, again. Adi Shankara felt the changes that occurred over the years and felt the need of new ideologies. This resulted in new values and ideologies to society. To follow these new ideals, new rules were defined and added a new dimension to society.

The above two case studies prove that analytical thinkers are needed in a society so that changes are identified and necessary actions need to be taken whenever it is required. Also, idealists need not be in agree with other ideologies at the same time. They may agree to disagree.

Organizational Situations

If an organization is concerned, it can be seen as a society as it is comprised of individuals with different thoughts and beliefs and all are adhered to company’s ideals and ideologies. Like society, each organization has got its own philosophy and set of rules. Any organization when started will have some philosophy upon with ideologies are built. But, as time moves on, philosophy of the organization does tend to change. Generally, it is a gradual process. So, it is the responsibility of the philosophers or so called executives to keep a watch on this gradual process. Thus, there exists a responsibility to redefine, change or remove certain ideologies depending on the current state. In other words, executives need to change ideologies before changing the rules if they feel a reflective change in the philosophy of the organization.

Let us consider the European companies current state – most of the companies are under loss or labour problems. This is all because of the earlier communist or left ideologies resulted in illogical labour laws. The current situation is not at all good and there is a change in the society. Executives are coming up with new ideologies so that companies can be revived with old or existing ideologies will be scrapped. The new ideologies will be built based on current state and new rules will be defined to achieve it.

Conclusion

Ideologies for an organization are built up on philosophies with clear definition, vision and thought along with set of rules to achieve it. At the same time, these things are accepted generally across the organization. Also, ideologies need to be changed only when philosophically organization is changed.

Ironically, in my organization - rules have been bent to impose somebody’s ideology even though the current state of the organization does not need it.

The Sound Of Silence

2010-04-24T21:34:00.002+05:30

I happened to listen to Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" accidentally when I was randomly looking for good quality piano piece of "Love Story" (Hollywood movie) theme. This song depicting the sound of silence fascinated me so much that I could not resist myself from writing this piece. I am really not sure the reason behind this song; but, after some research, I did find that it was written after the assassination of the US President, John F Kennedy. But, I can relate this song with the changes that happened in my daily routine as my office got shifted to new facility last week.

The lyrics of "The Sound Of Silence":

Hello darkness, my old friend,

I've come to talk with you again,

Because a vision softly creeping,

Left its seeds while I was sleeping,

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone

Narrow streets of cobblestone,

'Neath the halo of a street lamp,

I turned my collar to the cold and damp

When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light

That split the night

And touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more.

People talking without speaking,

People hearing without listening,

People writing songs that voices never share

And no one dared

Disturb the sound of silence.

"Fools" said I, "You do not know

Silence like a cancer grows.

Hear my words that I might teach you,

Take my arms that I might reach you."

But my words like silent raindrops fell,

And echoed

In the wells of silence.

And the people bowed and prayed

To the neon god they made.

And the sign flashed out its warning,

In the words that it was forming.

And the sign said, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls

And tenement halls.

And whisper'd in the sounds of silence.

Now, let me analyze this with changes happened to my daily routine. This song makes me very significant w.r.t to changes happened to my daily routine because of office moving to new facility. Let me explain -

The time of disturbance towards my “sound of silence (sleep)” has not been changed as I get up from my bed at the same when my office was in Koramangala. However, everything else is changed from then onwards. I used to commute to old office empty buses with unknown faces and nobody had dare to disturb my sound of silence. I used to make a detour to Majestic bus stand w/o disturbing my sound of silence (that is w/o uttering a word) until I reach office. Many of the times, I've never spoken until I reach office. However, now even if I try to be silent, “known” faces disturb it; if not people, FM channels won't leave me alone. These channels bombard with high decibel utter non-sense illogical lyrical shit and hence disturbing my sound of silence. With this new office commute, my dreams which were seeded during my sleep were destroyed as my sound of silence has been destroyed with utter non-sense FM channels!

Most of the time, I was the first person to be in office in my old building. The scenario was so beautiful as there was nobody except the sound of A/C if that was switched on. The office was also happy with its own sound of silence and might be cursing me because I was the known face who was disturbing its dreams that were seeded during its sleep with a sound produced from my laptop mounting on the docking station! The scene in new building is totally different. I've whole lot of people at that time with full of disturbance to sound of silence!

In old office, the silence breaker was my manager (Oops! my ex-manager), Ravi Rao, who used to pull me out for a tea! Most of the times, I would have uttered my first word of the day at this time! The discussion would invariably on music or on the adventures of his daughter! I miss them nowadays!

Let me fast forward out clocks to lunch. It used to take 30 minutes in our old office for a peaceful lunch; but here we are forced to have our lunch in b/w the people who are talking without eating; people who are listening without eating; people are cursing that are never shared!

Now, let’s go back to song.

“Fools", said I, "You do not know…. Silence like a cancer grows…..Hear my words that I might teach you…. Take my arms that I might reach you" But my words, like silent raindrops fell And echoed In the wells of silence

So nice lines! Now, it is high time to consider the above line! I cannot keep my sound of silence like this! Otherwise the cancer of disturbance increases. So, I need to make noise to reduce the disturbance in any form; but as written above and from previous examples, it is evident that my noise will be so much that it will be more than 20K Decibels or less than 20 decibels making them not audible! In other words, it can be as silent as rain drops or it is getting echoed within the walls of mind or cubicle or GM!

As I am completing this, my mind says - "The Silence of Sound" similar to ending of "The silence of lambs".

- AR

Those Days........

2008-07-28T10:41:00.011+05:30

The title is the English translation for "Aa Dinagalu". Thanks to the "Aa Dinagalu" team for providing such a great movie to Kannada audience after a very long time. Sorry, I apologize for hijacking your title to my post.

I do not know how to start this post. I am overwhelmed with this movie!

Wonderful, superb, beautiful and nothing else I can say about this movie "Aa Dinagalu."

Being a kannadiga, it is sad or not sad that I rarely watch Kannada movies. Till date, I have not watched Mungaaru Male as well. Please do not scold me for this. I have a reason for this. Every time I see TV channels and Kannada movie trailers, it makes me sad. We will generally see a nonrhythmic music running in background with actors dancing in one of foreign locations. It does not excite me to go and see in theaters. I do not blame film makers or the audience for this. I expect different things from a movie. Every time I feel where Kannada movies heading, industry gives me a shock. Be it in the form of "Aapthamitra" or in the form of "Jogi" or in the form "Cyanide" or "Duniya". All these movie strike my chord perfectly. Apthamitra, I felt a wholesome movie for Kannada audience. Jogi is for everybody who likes depiction of emotion in a motion picture. Duniya is the harsh reality of an uneducated innocent man and a girl. These movies are completely fictitious. However, Cyanide is the real story which takes us back to early 90s and makes us to feel the reality. These are so simply made which strike kannada audience perfectly.

Recently, I think, "Aa Dinagalu" excites me and confirms that Kannada Film Industry continued to give me shock.

Well, I really do not know how to describe about this movie. When, I first read the review of this movie in Rediff, I felt it is the most hyped movie. I also felt that reviewer has written the review over the cloud of fear of real gangsters. So, I did not see the movie in the theater. Now I feel, I missed a movie which has to be watched on a big screen. I am very thankful to Zee Kannada which has taken the Television rights to telecast this movie.

Better late than never. I watched this movie in TV on last Sunday. Hmmmmm. No words to explain my feelings. I am still in the hangover of this movie. This resulted with this blog.

Coming to the movie. I really do not know how was Bangalore in 1980s. I heard and read about Bangalore was under the clouds of gangsters. Though movie does not show the actual reality of rowdism of Bangalore, but picturises certain aspects of it. It does not glorify the goondagiri, yet does not reject it completely. It made be more nostalgic and increased my interest in gangster movies.

In short, it is a love-story with gangsters involved in it. I do not want to reveal the story here as I want people who have not watched yet, should see the movie. However, I will do or give my analysis of this movie.

I think the director Chaitanya is just superb. He had chosen the actors perfectly according to their capability. Also, he has given them matching roles accordingly to their capability.

First, the newcomers. Chethan, according to film journalists, he is a chocolate hero. However he enacted his role of a lover turned gangster beautifully. Not to forget his voice. It may not be of Amithab Bachann or Om Puri. However,it is resonating and very different. Archana Shastry aka Mallika in the movie, is outstanding. Nice expression and looks very fresh in every screen that she is into.

Girish Karnad is as usual great and no comments on him. Achyut aka Oil Kumar aka Ranganna in Preeti Illada Mele is wonderful. He played his character very well.

Now let me write something about imported actors from Hindi Cinema. Ashish Vidyarthi aka M P Jayaraj in the movie is good. However, I felt, this role should have been given to either Rangayana Raghu or Avinash. Having said this, Ashish Vidyarthi did very well. I felt this as his dialogues are dubbed by another artist and I feel dubbing kills the feeling.

Not to forget, Mr Atul Kulkarni as Shridhar acted very naturally. He shows that the character Shridhar is an educated man and accidentally got into the field of gangsters to take the revenge. I do not want to comment on him as he is a proven actor. I felt he did his voice over to the role. He is very natural and does use the screen place very well and tells everything with his face.

I feel that for a movie, we should have five important and necessary things . All these should be perfect and all should hit the right chord. The screenplay, dialogues and the music are the skeletons of any movie. Finally actors along with their acting capability with the help of the director stuff this skeleton to create a wonderful looking piece. I feel "Aa Dinagalu" can be considered as an example for my analysis.

So far I had seen very few movies which have all the things perfect. I feel The Godfather, Nayagan, Therava Magan, Muttina Haara, Naagarahaavu and Lagaan (adding it after one of the readers pointed out!) are very close which will prove my statement. Now, I will add "Aa Dinagalu" to this list of my favorites.

An Dinagalu has got great narration of the script. The director brings freshness in the movie. All the scenes are expressed with ease. The scenes have great combinations of photography, music, expression. Be it an entry scene of Kotwal Ramachandra in which director expresses cruelty and cunningness of this man; Or may be the scene where Kotwal and his team scare Mallika for the first time. Director does not require to do anything here. So is the producer. Producer does not need to go out for a foreign tour to bring the freshness in the scene. It is screen play, dialogues and of course music from Ilayaraja make every scene perfect and fresh. As far acting is concerned, it is great! It looks so simple to act. However, all the characters share the screen place very well. Nobody is trying to outsmart anybody. However everybody's presence in the screen space can be felt.

My favourite part of review is reviewing music. I am not at all great to review music of Ilayaraja or anybody for that matter as I've not learned music in any form. He is genius and legend. Before doing review, I am wondering how come this group has got him. Lucky fellows who have got to work with him. Now the review: Melodious, striking and charming music by the legend. Be it in the form of Sihi Gaali ( thanks for great lyrics from Kalyan K) or the title song. The blend of simulated piano or the saxophone or the background bass guitar makes scene so rich. He brings so much melody to the song. Hats off to him for a such a great background. We have to listen the terrifying background score when Kotwal tries to kill Chethan. It is superb that high scale orchestra of violins with guitar strings strike directly to our ears and hearts and of course to our minds. I am saying again music of Ilayaraja is wonderful to hear. Thanks to Aa Dinagalu group for providing such a lovely melodious music.

Good things should come to an end. So is my post. I feel ending should have been made better. Four people killing a gangster should have been depicted better. Also, director should have given more importance to details of killings. He should have given more authentic reason for killing and also should have given another scene about their feeling after killing. This is because of the fact that the ending never directly tells what the characters feel after killing though we all know they repented for the killing. I felt camera work should have been better during the end though cinematography is awesome through out the movie. He should have taken more close-up view of the killing scene.

I would rate this movie as one of the best movies in Kannada movie history. I am very nostalgic with gangster movies and this movie increased the same. I would rate this with very high esteem and will place in the lines of Nayagan and Thevara Magan. Thanks again for good movie!

Lagaan - An Epic Movie

2007-12-30T22:17:00.003+05:30

Lagaan, an epic movie, of Hindi Film Industry. I still remember that day when the film was released. It was released on the same day when I got my 12th examination results.

I first read an article on Lagaan in Screen, a tabloid. Initially I was very skeptical about the success of this movie. Will this be a box-office hit? Will Aamir overcome the odds and make the movie a success? I personally felt the movie will be a disaster as Indians really don't like these kind of movies. Instead, we like a guy who falls in love with a girl who is already engaged to another third party with romantic songs being videoed on main leads of the movie. However, I was thinking as an ardent fan of Mr. Perfect, Aamir Khan.

Lagaan, a movie, storied on the backdrop of British Raj in India. It's not a movie on freedom struggle. Instead, it is a movie against the atrocities of British rule in India. It's a movie to show how a united front with an efficient leader can win against the rule of imperialists. It's a motion picture which shows how an opportunity should be utilized to fulfill the dream of a person in specific and society in general.

In short, this is the story of this movie:

Champaner, a drought-hit village, is ruled officially by a Saamantha Raja and virtually under the rule of British Raj; The Raja has been ruled and ridiculed by a captain of the Cantonment situated in the princely state of Rajgharh. This arrogant Captain orders an insane deal to pay the double tax ("Dugna Lagaan") as the Raja of this province rejects to eat the non-vegetarian food offered by Captain's sister. The saga of this movie continues to show how a village represented by an unskilled cricket team revolts against this and comes over a "ridicule" order.

A movie begins with an old woman who supposed to be a mother of the male lead character serving water for the cattle cursing the nature of God.

Bhuvan, an unproven leader still, male lead, of the movie secretly roaming in the forest to protect the innocent animals being targeted as the "Shikars" of Captain Russell's "Shikari" program. Bhuvan distracts the deers that are being targeted by Captain by diverging them from the place with help of stones cunningly. However, it will be identified by the subordinate of the inhuman Captain. With the gun pointed at Bhuvan's head, Captain mercilessly kills deer. This is the moment where we have to see the eyes of Bhuvan which are moist and I am imagining how Aamir enacted on to the screen. He is brilliant and hats-off to both Aamir and Ashu for coming up with this scene to make sure that audience know how cruel the Captain is and to show how is the leader of the movie. I am sure most of the people will start to hate the Captain instantly after this scene. This was the harsh reality of imperialism existed under British Raj in India.

An irrational, illogical and impractical order of double tax from the Captain creates a dogmatic situation for the farmers who are eagerly waiting for rain so that they can survive. This order from Captain made the farmers survival more difficult. The mukhia takes a delegation to meet the Raja and delegation includes Bhuvan as well.

The Captain is playing the cricket match with the presence of his majesty, Rajah Hari Singh and other dignitaries. This delays and frustrates the meeting between the disdained farmers and the king. At last after the match, the Rajah calls for the meeting with farmers. Farmers put forward their request of reducing the double tax order. However king rejects its straight away and asks the farmers to pay the double tax.

However, the cunning Captain embarrasses the Rajah by telling the farmers a possibility of abolishing the double tax order. Farmers are overwhelmed with this option and asks for the deal. However Bhuvan looks skeptical about the offer that Captain is opting for.

I would say this is the best scene in the movie. Acting is top-class. Aamir did a wonderful job and so director Ashu. I would like to admire music score here in this scene. The background score from A R Rahman is too good to the scene.

Coming to the scene of the movie, Captain offers a deal to win a cricket match against British team and the double tax will be abolished for the current year. Captain orders Bhuvan as the sole decider in the delegation to take the decision on the deal. Now, Bhuvan is the person who can make or break the raw deal.

The camera is on Aamir who looks curious and shocked a bit. Though he looks firm he is hesitant to say "YES" to the deal. After a pause, Captain offers a better deal of abolishing the tax for next year too. However, Aamir does not seem to be interested and the "dead" silence continues. On the other side farmers are scared and they are totally against as it is apparent that they cannot win over the British Cricket force. But still Bhuvan has not turned down the offer. Captain now converts the deal to a gamble by offering the deal which will abolish the tax for three years to not only to this village but to the entire province.

Now, Bhuvan is perturbed with this offer. He with a long pause accepts the deal. He says "Sarath Manjoor Hai". Captain gives a sarcastic smile and orders that match will be held in next three months.

I again say this is the best scene in this movie. Aamir acts with his eyes and face. Direction is just too good. Background score simply awesome. The conversation between the Captain and Bhuvan is awestruck.

The people who are seeing the drama are shell shocked with this and farmers take coup against him and as usual starts blame against Bhuvan.

The entire village is against him and starts cursing him. The blames are from people of village ranging from an age old man to a very common man in the village. But, Bhuvan is firm and he defends his act as this is an mauka a.k.a opportunity to get out of the tax that is put on them. He confirms that people are not in any position to pay the double tax and so villagers can use this an opportunity to evade the tax for themselves. He thinks this as blessing in disguise for village. However farmers in the village are against as they say this as suicidal deal. Farmers from other villages threaten Bhuvan to beg the pardon at Rajah and Captain. But Bhuvan decides not do so. Hence the farmers takes another delegation to Rajah. In the palace, in presence of Rajah also Bhuvan does not bog down and accepts severe punishment for this. Rajah rejects the farmers request and orders to learn Cricket and defeat the Captain's cricket army.

On the other hand, British provincial heads are furious against such foolish order of abolishing the tax with a cricket match. They give a warning to Captain and gives the order to pay the tax from his own pocket if village defeats them in the match.

Bhuvan, now transformed leader, starts to behave like a leader. He creates an illusion among the people and explains the benefits of the deal if they beat Captain in the battle of game. He accumulates the people slowly to make a cricket team among them.

Napoleon says "A leader is a dealer in hope". Bhuvan does all the magic to make sure he has team which can provide a lethal blow to Captain and his pride. He starts with himself alone as the member of the team along with his lady love in his side. He gets the help from a British lady Elizabeth, sister of Captain as she thinks this deal is unfair and harsh to farmers.

This is another incidence which I personally liked and shows how a leader should take firm and practical decisions some time. This is the scene where Bhuvan and his team is searching for a 11th member in the team.

There is one untouchable who's job is clean the roads, gutters and drainage system. According to Hindus he is Achyute, an untouchable who belongs to a lower strata of society in accordance with existing caste system. During practice, ball goes at him and Bhuvan asks him to return. He returns and ball spins away from Bhuvan. Since that guy is handicapped, ball turns away. Bhuvan picks him as team member because of his uniqueness in spinning the ball. However since he is boycotted socially from upper class, every other team member rejects this selection and quits the team. However Bhuvan who shows real leadership skill in taking crucial decision of picking this untouchable into the squad. Bhuvan says this guy will be played and he will be our main weapon against the Angrez team.

I think this scene has got lots of messages. This scene shows how a leader should make a bold decision at the when it's needed. This gives how talent overtakes other aspects of person. Also, it gives a message to respect the person irrespective of the color of the skin of the people.

At the end, Farmers XI is ready to take the battle of cricket against the British cricket team lead by Captain Russell.

The Cricket match is picturized very well. This match had all modern day masala. It has match-fixing as one of the prominent actions of the match. Finally Champaner XI wins the match. However I am not going to write much about the match details and match result. This has to be seen on screen. I am sure those who watched this have enjoyed it like a good real cricket happening live.

The victory brings a joy and Bhuvan becomes a hero in the province. The promises he had made before three months can be fulfilled now. On the other hand, Captain ends up in paying the tax of the entire province from his own pocket and leaves for East Africa. Finally the pride of the Captain is demolished. While he leaves for East Afrcia, it rains in Champner which can be considered as blessings for moral victory that farmers against a team led by inhuman human.

In the end, I can say this is the best movie made after Sholay till now. For me overall it is a cult classic. At least for now, it stands in second position among top 10 movies of Hindi Cinema. This movie, which is depicted against the British without having any link to our freedom movement, yet this movie cheers with Indian nationality with a mere cricket match. Though it's a periodic movie, it has great sense of modernization in it's display and thinking. I feel the character Bhuvan thinks far ahead of his people and some times better than our current leaders. It gives a message of how leader evolves in a group. It gives how a leader should behave when you are placed in corner. It has message to the society to co-exist together to face the situation which is beyond the scope of a single man/woman.

My First Blog

2007-10-26T10:23:00.002+05:30

I am inspired by one of my favorite actors of all time, Aamir Khan, to write a blog.

Let me try this and see how much I can travel in this journey of blogging.

Thanks

- Aravind