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A model commits suicide in Mumbai, and her ex-bf (who was blamed in the suicide note) is a suspect. ToI has a fine bit for not-blaming the bf:
Don’t blame the man if a woman commits suicide, there may be more to their broken relationship, says study. After supermodel Viveka Babaji left a suicide note on Friday blaming boyfriend Gautam Vora for driving her to end her life, Gautam has become the focus of Viveka’s suicide case. Neighbours in the Bandra apartment block heard the couple fighting late on Thursday night. And the last entry in Viveka’s diary allegedly reads, “You killed me Gautam Vora.” But does that incriminate Gautam in an abetment of suicide case under Section 306 of the IPC? It should be noted that Viveka, according to her elder sister Vineeta, had attempted suicide before, and was known to be hyper-sensitive, emotional, given to manic depressions, and lived a model’s life that flirted with drugs and alcohol abuse, loneliness, bad and broken relationships, the stress of insecurities and competition. Should then a man be held responsible for a woman’s suicide? Gautam has even denied his relationship with the former model.
Well-reasoned, nice argument.
It is then followed by:
Debate: Should a man be held responsible for a woman’s death, in circumstances like these?
That’s the classic Arnab Goswami style of debate, where the conclusion is drawn before the debate.
It started when Joel Stein wrote a piece in Time called My Own Private India. Tried too hard to be funny, bad writing.
Group blog Sepia Mutiny — really just one person named Anna – decided it was unfunny and racist. Didn’t even try to be funny, wasn’t funny, bad writing, but probably wasn’t racist. I couldn’t read beyond a few paras, so my judgement could be wrong. She might have ended up praising Joel Stein. From what I hear, that didn’t happen.
Twitter was outraged, as it usually is whenever such things happen and you have so many jobless people around.
Wall Street Journal sees the outrage on the internet, and mercifully compiles all offendees’ reactions in one single post. If you were offended too, use this link to find your fellow offendees. Don’t forget to thank WSJ. And me.
Another post on Sepia Mutiny is up, which starts with the question: Was the original post just unfunny or racist? The author concludes it is racist (duh!) and writes a fine thesis on the history of racism, or something like that.
Veteran blogger Greatbong has his own take. Not unexpected.
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There was one voice of reason: Gaurav Sabnis.
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Me? I hate Joen Stein with a vengeance — for starting this avalanche. I had an opinion on the original piece. Now I don’t remember what it was. I just want the outrage and counter-outrage and counter-counter-outrage to stop.
Can we stop it?
Please?
OK, pretty please?
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Perhaps Govinda can convince you guys to stop:
Meghalaya: one CM but 4 more enjoy post.
So kinda like the Mahabharata ..
Well that didn’t take too long. Junoon guitarist Salman Ahmad writes to Junoon fans about the Ali Azmat interview that is creating waves … of laughter:
Dear Junoonis,
After reading your deluge of e-mails and tweets of disgust concerning Ali Azmat‘s recent appearance on Dawn TV,I saw the programme myself and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!
I’m stunned at the audacity of ignorance, the dishonesty and the complete hypocrisy uttered by Ali Azmat on the recent Dawn TV show.
Continued here.
Link via Cafe Pyala.
Kalakawa has a funny post on Ali Azmat, the former lead singer of Junoon who is now a part-time right-hand man of Zaid Hamid, and full-time nutcase. Excerpt from the post:
Really, Ali Azmat, seeing you on that Dawn News show with Aasim Sajjad was painful. You are inexplicably stupid. You make Imran Khan look like a neuroscientist and George W. Bush could probably run circles around in the SAT’s critical reading portion. To illustrate, allow me to reproduce a conversation you had:
Ali Azmat: “My areas of expertise – on which I’ve done a lot of research (read: have watched many YouTube videos on) – are the New World Order, Military Complex, Bilderberg Group, UN (WTF?). And I always keep an eye out for these things.”
Aasim Sajjad: “So you’re against the Military Complex? Even though you support military intervention in Pakistan? Don’t you think they have a massive complex?”
Ali Azmat: “WOULD YOU RATHER VOTE FOR THE INDIAN ARMY OR THE PAKISTAN ARMY?”
Got any comeback to that?
Read Cafe Pyala‘s take too.
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I know such interview videos self-select themselves to be ridiculed by bloggers, but are there any good talk shows across the border?
Remember the 80-foot fall of Abhishek Bachchan in Raavan? Not the metaphorical one of his acting, the very real one prominent in the trailer.
This is Abhishek on the scene:
When asked about his scene, Bachchan admitted that Ratnam was dead against him doing the stunt himself because the current was too strong and a 90-foot dive was too risky for an actor. “But there were four-five local boys around who would jump off the cliff for money. I pointed out to Mani that if they could do it, so could I, given that there was a professional diver to train me,” explains Bachchan.
He finally had his way and admits that when he was airborne, the only thought on his mind was, “Oh my God, I’m going to die!” He adds that Ratnam was furious after the shot and told him to leave such dangerous stunts to trained professionals.
Impressive, eh? Before you say R.E.S.P.E.C.T., M.S. Balram, a diving champion from Bangalore :
“I don’t want any publicity, nor do I want to create any controversy since I am a great fan of the Bachchans. Moreover, it is Mani Ratnam sir’s movie. I only want the movie to do well. But it is true that I performed this thrilling stunt for Abhishek and was paid for it. I feel proud to have done this stunt.”
More than one senior members of Mani Ratnam’s unit were also categorical that it was a body double and not Abhishek who performed the stunt.
Abhishek is bad at making stuff up — not bad as his acting though. I sympathized with Balram and was on his side, until:
I did several dry runs before it was actually shot on the morning of December 19, 2008. I am happy to have done the risky stunt for the great Abhishek Bachchan.
Yeah okay, he’s on his own.
Look, I totally get the Bachchan parivar thing that they do, but they need to not overdo it.
First, Amitabh slammed critics who slammed Delhi-6 earlier last year. Now, he’s slamming those who slammed Raavan.
Maybe the problem isn’t viewers or critics — all of whom lack credibility, he suggests. Maybe .. and just maybe .. I repeat, this is just a maybe option, so don’t get mad at me .. maybe the problem is that those movies were really that bad. And maybe that Abhishek Bachchan is not as great an actor as Amitabh Bachchan would want him to be — which also is okay. Really.
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In a discussion some months ago, the topic of Amitabh Bachchan came up. A friend said: In the 70s, Amitabh Bachchan and Clint Eastwood could be considered at par. Today, look at where each is.
It’s not a fair comparison, and I can give various reasons why Amitabh Bachchan never attained the heights of Clint Eastwood: Most of them are circumstantial and have to do with how the film industry functioned. But I would’ve respected him a lot more had he found a way to rise above the system. I immensely respect the Amitabh Bachchan of the 70s, but there is something unsettling about the Amitabh Bachchan of today.
A news piece that starts with:
This came as a shocker from Shiv Sena workers on the foundation day of their party.
cannot have this in the following line:
Sena corporators ransacked the municipal hall of the Aurangabad Municipal Body.
It’s just wrong.
Wake me up when Shiv Sena has a solution to the power crisis or debt crisis in Maharashtra. Now that would be a shocker.
Filmmaker Hansal Mehta has a rather scathing take on film critics in his post at Passion For Cinema.
His view of a filmmaker:
You are a film-maker.
You know that films are expensive to make. You believe that films consume you totally. You let films rule (sometimes ruin) your private lives. You remind yourself that films are your calling. You assume that you are the captain of the ship, the master of your tale. You live under the illusion that your films will make you immortal. You live films. You dream films. You love films. You make films.
Endless hours of toiling with writers. Boundless cups of tea. Useless drags of nicotine. Limitless patience with producers. Tireless indulgence with actors. Relentless arguments with technicians. Thankless hours spent preparing. Countless hours spent shooting. Seamless patience during the edit. Sleepless nights at re-recording.
Nervous at the dailies. Nervous at the cut. Nervous at the previews. Nervous at the premier. Nervous at the release. Nervous after the release.
Passionate. Insecure. Traded. Judged.
Unfortunately…
You are a film-maker.
Then, film critic:
You are a film-critic.
You understand English. You have been taught to write in English. You got a high ranking for your essay titled ‘My Mother’. You watched films. You always wanted to make films. You never understood films. You needed to get a job before you got to make films. You got a job to write about films. You got stuck to the job. You saw your dreams disappearing. You still watched films. You still understood English. You still write in English. You now get to rank as part of your essays. You are not evaluated. You evaluate films. You still do not understand films.
Deluded. Abrasive. Disrespectful. Callous. Manipulative. Selective. Biased.
Filling up columns with twisted words. Filling up paragraphs with biased opinion. Filling up reviews with ignorant language.
Living each week. Killing each film. Cheating each reader.
Sad to say…
You are a film-critic.
The generalization makes much of his post incorrect. But let’s say, for a moment, that his take is true of all critics. In that case, I’d argue that the quality of film critics is dependent on the quality of films. Imagine a critic like Taran Adarsh in an industry that churns out movies like Memento. He’d either resign, if he is honest, or up his game. The converse is not true. Given the dynamics of film distribution, a critic’s negative review causes minimal financial impact. And unless economics is involved, a filmmaker doesn’t have any incentive to improve.
I do think India does not have any good film critics, and that’s a bad thing. Most bloggers and critics are keen to review a movie as pass or fail — not too different from how our education system works. That includes me. In my defense, I’m not a critic or a reviewer. I merely write my thoughts on movies. A film critic’s job is to take us through the experience. Not many critics do that today.
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One of the better film writers is Jai Arjun Singh. His writes here. Read a couple of posts, and you’ll realize what is missing in film critics.
Disclaimer: I am not plugging any technology or product. And I won’t provide a full disclosure.
David Pogue of New York Times spoke at Ted Med 2009 on the topic Can The iPhone Save Your Life? It has classic David Pogue humour, and *spoiler alert* the answer is yes. He showcases a few medical iPhone apps from the App Store and here is one that totally blew me away, for sheer simplicity and imagination:
The app is called Period Tracker. Women can mark when their periods start, and it tracks and predicts when the next one will start. It also tells you when you’re fertile, and you can record what side-effects you’re having. You can also select how you feel, from 12 different moods.
But this is where it gets brilliant: It has wireless syncing with Period Tracker Companion for Men : All the information entered by the woman, is sent to her spouse’s iPhone. This let’s them know when they have to be extra nice.
Don’t you tell me this isn’t brilliant!
