The dream for Utopia with Aamir

‘3 Idiots’ is a 2009 Bollywood comedy film directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with a screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It was loosely adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. 3 Idiots is the highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time.
The sole responsibility for making a movie bang in box office or slide down the rungs of ladder has always been put mainly on the leading actors. It’s character of the lead actors that turns the face of a movie.
Let’s try to critically understand the role of Aamir Khan as Rancho in the recent movie “3 idiots”. The ordeal of Rancho as protagonist starts in the movie when the students are shown been ragged by the seniors. The long shot of Rancho Khan cutting to a close up showing his immediate mutiny in the facial expression gives an impression to the audience of exclusivity. The revolting nature of the protagonist is immediately reflective when he refuses to put his pants down and enters the room. This sequence of shots- from entering the college to electrocuting the senior marks him the real hero. His adamant behavior and remarkable queries asked to his professor leaves a sharp image on the mind of the audience. The two other characters as quick friends also play its role in making the protagonist an amicable human. The character of Raju (Sharman Joshi) that directs the audience about his dilemma of whether or not to be a friend of Rancho drives the audience into a state of bewilderment. On the other hand, Farhan (R. Madhavan) another friend trusts Rancho the very first day that ads to the overall confusion. Audience tries to understand the character of Rancho further to come to a conclusion. It is this panic that drives audience to glue to the movie.
Narrative plays another vital role that makes the character important. The first person narrative in the movie sets the plot quite perfectly and arranges every possibility to make the lead role laudable. In the opening scene the narrative (Farhan) describes how he came to the engineering college against his will and his meeting with Rancho. Throughout the movie the first person narrative of Farhan makes people believe how important and unique the character Rancho is. The narrative takes away the audience into a world of kindness and intelligence being dominated by Rancho.
Rancho was never shown in a negative way. However, he might have committed mischief like going to Professor’s house at night to meet his daughter , changing the welcome speech, stealing question papers from the office or. But the consequence was never burdened over him. He was kept ideal. Consequences of such conflicts never tainted his character. His friends were however made the scapegoats.
The undeveloped antagonist Chatur Ramalingam is also responsible to set the plot perfectly for the lead role. The rival who is not evil by nature takes a position very different from Rancho. The ideologies are different and the principles are not alike. This arena of indifferences between Rancho and his rival attracts audience. The audience is shown how the rival makes mistakes and Rancho snatches away the empathy of the masses. The shock was aptly thundered when Rancho comes first in the exam.
Professor Viru Sahastrebuddhe, another arch rival impacts the audience a lot. His annoyance and insensitive nature puts a pessimistic blow on the audience. Interestingly, it is this pessimistic character that makes Rancho look laudable and praiseworthy. The deep rooted rivalry among the two characters is a matter of great interest to the audience. It drives them to hate the professor and praise Rancho who proves right in every way.
Rancho’s intelligence, easy going nature, optimism, helpful, amicable, and humorous and god like figure portrayed in the film was a way to give message to the masses. His character highlighted through meaningful speeches about- stress on students, grade system and education system reminded audience to dream of Utopian society.
The emotion and moment of catharsis in form of tears with background music at regular intervals perfectly set Rancho as a hero. As a lover, the character performs his best. The deep rooted friendship tie between the three characters shown being tightly held by Rancho in good and bad times taught a lot. With climax and anticlimax by the end of the story, the culmination was however unrealistically shocking to the audience. All was well with Rancho despite shocking revelations of his background. However, it seemed that being an intellectual it was not hard for Rancho to become a scientist and create a utopian society in a distant place.’

By Jayant Bormudoi

Crossing over- ‘Hollywood picks Indian Flavour’

India has a significant influence on Hollywood movies. The culture of India encompassing tradition, language, dialects, lifestyle and more importantly Bollywood has contributed as a good ingredient to make Hollywood movie taste awesome. The strokes in form of music, costume, inference to India and its people has always completed the work of art in many parts of the world.

The Indian Media and Entertainment industry has grown to an international level. With its movies and music, Indian media is also making its presence felt in the global market. The momentum gained in the genre of crossover movies and crossover audience is a sure evidence of growth. The use of Indian themes in the international market has emerged as a result of the following trends:
•Increasing box-office revenues of Indian movies in other countries
•Growing popularity of Hollywood movies in India
•Nomination of Indian movies at the Oscars and international film festivals
•Popularity of the Indian actors and global exposure
•Increasing market for the dubbed movies

It is this ever growing demand and popularity of Indian themes that has obliged Hollywood to pick the Indian sounds and subject. Let’s see the inclusion of Indian themes in some of the Hollywood movies.

Movies
•Inside Man (song Chaiya Chaiya from Bollywood film Dil Se used as background score during name casting of the film)
•Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind (background score of Md. Rafi’s song used in the movie when Jim Carry visits Kate Winslet’s apartment)
•Moulin rouge (song Chamma chamma from Bollywood film China Gate used as background score during the dance performance on stage)
•2012 (the scientist comes to India to meet his friend, background score- classical Indian music)
•Day after tomorrow (Agra’s Taj Mahal shown in the movie)
•Matrix reloaded (The character Sati is an Indian, presumably shows the power of Indian women)
•Harry Potter and the goblet of fire (Indian character- Padma and Parvati Patil as classmates in the movie)
•Curious case of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt writes letter to his girlfriend and mentions that he is in Banaras India, he also mentions that one should come to India as it’s a sacred place)

There are thousands of such movies where we can see Hollywood assimilating Indian subjects and settings. Indian movies and themes have been successful enough to create a niche in the world market. The themes have contributed to the success of many Hollywood movies and have become their big attraction. This is a brief reminder that makes us realize that Indian market is growing and assimilated Hollywood within it. Whether it is selecting names for recent Hollywood movie Avatar or getting Anil Kapoor in FOX's 24 TV Series with Kiefer Sutherland, the connotations are surely positive.
By Jayant Bormudoi

Media’s role ‘Watchdog or judicial custodian’

Take any recent issues; media plays the role of a beacon- exposure of Mumbai water mafias, cops dancing with underground dons or issues like Ruchika’s molestation. These are some recent issues but older ones do have same history.

The media theorists were very critical of media’s role in the society. Media has a very strong cultural and social impact upon society. This can be attributed to the fact that mass media has the ability to reach a wide audience with a strong and influential message. Television broadcasting has a large amount of control over the content society watches and the times in which it is viewed. But does it mean that Media should take the role of Intelligence Bureaus and bring the crime to the front? In other ways, can it be viewed that media is crippling the law and order system of our society which depends largely on the media.

Investigative journalism has become the other word for exposing crime. The law and order system of our country puffs cigarette and sips coffee while the crime section is left for media to look after. Media is performing tasks extra than its role and the systems keep their eye open for some novel ‘Breaking News’.

Will law and order system of our country wait for another media exposure of crime or corruption episode happening in the country? Media’s role as a watchdog or judicial custodian is debatable and needs to be debated.

The idea would best end with the quote of Ted Koppel (American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for Nightline)-

“People shouldn't expect the mass media to do investigative stories. That job belongs to the 'fringe' media”

By Jayant Bormudoi

Militant violence in Manipur continues but media clogged

Media prioritizes some of the news originating from key places and kills the other. No matter how important is the news or its nature, the story is rebuked to sit silently in a corner only because the news is from an ‘aliened world’.

Interestingly the story illustrated below is of greater importance than Katrina’s New Year resolution, son of BJP MLA firing gun at a bar in Delhi, Vladimir Putin showing his excellence in martial art.

Since July 23, 09, Manipur is in disorder following an alleged fake encounter death of 27-year-old Chongkham Sanjit and a pregnant woman in the heart of state capital Imphal. The immediate provocation for the string of protests was the publication of a set of photographs that punctured the security forces’ claim that they had killed the youth following a gunfight. The photographs revealed that security forces took the youth, Chongkham Sanjit, inside a pharmacy in Imphal and then his dead body was brought out.

There are some 20 militant groups active in Manipur, bordering Myanmar. Their demands range from secession to greater autonomy.

Since Sep 9, all educational institutions in India’s agitated northeastern state of Manipur have been shut for the past three months. There have been no classes and students are on the brink of losing a vital academic session.

The indefinite closure of all academic institutions was called by the All Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU), demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh to protest against the alleged extra judicial killing the youth. The Manipur government has failed miserably to break the impasse and the AMSU has adopted an aggressive posture. Students are at risk of losing an academic session as there have been no classes for exactly three months now.

Manipur is becoming a lawless region with both state and non-state actors wreaking havoc - militants pulling down hospitals, killing government officials and Hindi-speakers, extorting money from temples, while fake encounter killings continue to rock the region. Almost 400 locals have died in militant related violence in 2009.

What is media doing at a time when abduction is routine and ransom threats are part of daily life in Manipur? Isn’t all the news of Manipur talked about is of less or no importance? Why has the northeastern part of India been kept aloof from the mainstream media?

However, on 27^th Dec news flashed on internet that a non Manipuri is killed by militants. The outfits have warned transport companies in Guwahati to stop issuing tickets to non-Manipuris. To add to the general fiasco, NDTV 24X7 was a rare channel that offered a news time of two minutes to the story.

The turmoil in Manipur is bigger and needs to be handled sensitively and exclusively. An intermediation by media can surely help in exposing the issues, the cynical region, panicky people and rectify the tourism breakdown. When we know that elements prominent on the media agenda become prominent in the public mind, news/reports from northeastern region should be carried in the mainstream media.

By Jayant Bormudoi