Monday, June 23, 2008

Adventure Kaare Koe

A nice play by Aneek which can keep you seated smiling but not laughing for two hours. Though meant for comedy but certain comments and remarks send some valuable messages to the audience. The distinguishing feature of the play is the clever use of stage light to emphasize the effects of the various dialogues.
The story centres Bipradasbabu, a wealthy but miserly person who is planning to get remarried and so plans to meet his fiance at Calcutta. But problem arises when he finds that his niece is in love with a young man whom he strongly dislikes. So he plans to shift his niece for the time being to his sister's residence at Calcutta and instructs their family friend, Supriya Devi likewise. But the smart Supriya Devi, a psychoanalyst, being quite against Bipradas' wishes, has other plans up her sleeves. So as Bipradas leaves for Calcutta, Supriya Devi arranges a rendezvous for the young hearts at a Calcutta restaurant by the name of Hormone Garden. Meanwhile two of Bipradas' frustrated staffs takes this opportunity to enjoy a holiday in the absence of their master and they too leaves for Calcutta. After partying at various places in the city these two makes their way to the boutique shop run by Bipradas' fiance. Here the story takes some unexpected but humorous turns and we find the whole lot assembling at the Hormone Garden for dinner with several of them being unaware of the others' presence.
The humour continues and the climax is at Bipradas' sister's house where several misunderstandings cumulate to a happy finish. The drama is quite good and is an enjoyable watch.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Gangtoke Gandogol

This time Feluda is involved in an intriguing case at Gangtok. At the plane to Bagdogra on a possible holiday trip, Topshe & Feluda meets Sashadharbabu, a joint partner of a perfume company, who is on his way to meet the other partner Mr. Selvanker. But once on the plains, they get the news of the tragic death of Mr. Selvanker. On further enquiry, it was learned that on his way across the moutaneous terrain, Selvanker's was killed by a rolling boulder from high up the cliff that drove his taxi over the edges of the precipice.
As Sasadharbabu prepares for an immediate departure, Feluda gets acquinted to another tourist, Nishikantababu who informs that Selvanker, an antique collector, had bought a miniature statute of a deity bearing valuable stones from him. Curious at this piece of information, Feluda makes an enquiry only to learn that the statue was never seen after Selvanker's death. Sensing foul play, Feluda launches an investigation on his own and soon encounters two more mysterious characters. The 1st is the German photographer Helmut Unger who had shared the same lodging with Selvanker prior to the later's death and whose real motive on gangtok visit seems something else than photography only. Helmut informs Feluda of the 2nd mysterious character Dr. Vaidya, a soothsayer, who had earlier hinted a possible misfortune awating Selvanker. The case gets intense from this point as Feluda and the apparently innocent Nishikanta both receives threatening messages and Feluda recovers a puzzling telegram addressed to Selvanker before his death. Dr. Vaidya also comes to the picture and arranges a seance with himself becoming the medium. On the seance, Dr. Vaidya reveals, through his clairvoyance, that Selvanker was killed by his long lost child Virendra. But a dissatisfied Feluda carries on the investigations further and the readers are put in wait for an unexpected climax.
The book once again portrays the brilliance of Feluda's analytical power but additionally Ray excels in his narration of the picteresque Sikkim that can easily be envy to any travel guide. I don't know whether it was meant for any particular age, but whenever I had gone through this story starting from my school days till now, but I had enjoyed savouring it in the same way again and again.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Chalo Let's Go

This is a story of 4 friends

Asim – A medical graduate who decides not to pursue medicine, a confident and practical lad who will pursue anything that seems best and a born leader. He starts a tourism business with his three friends but ends up as an English teacher in a North Bengal orphanage.

Hari – A sensitive soul, singer, weak towards ladies but his chief problem behind his earlier break ups with five different girls seems to stem from his innocence and his difficulty in English speaking. He, after his venture with his friends in the tourism business, finds his soulmate and leads an unblemished commonplace life thereafter.

Sekhar – A hot headed youth who is not on good terms with his father but a good friend. He ends up as a celebrity ‘Jeebon Mukhi’ singer.

Sanjay – The intellectual and a good friend but when there is a girl involved, somewhat selfish. He is the narrator to this story and his future promises of a budding scriptwriter.

These four starts a band but fails miserably on their 1st show. Then Asim decides to start a tourism business and convinces his friends on the project under the name ‘Gharoa’ (Homely). He raises the fund, and manages some clients for touring North Bengal.

Right from the beginning everything goes wrong. It starts with some of the tourists getting fussy when they don’t get the chosen window seats as was promised to them. Hari was given the responsibility to book the hotels in advance, but he had mistakes in all of the bookings and most of the clients get furious when they find they have to share rooms with others. To top it off, Hari meets a girl in distress and presses his friends to accommodate her in the party that puts added pressure to the finances. Unfortunately, news arrives of Shekhar’s dad’s death and he leaves making the team a bit crippled. But this news also brings the surprise turn when realizing their mental conditions on their friend’s father's death, the tourists now becomes softer and offer helps and advices to them. Thus a family type atmosphere prevails and now everybody interacts and in the process the audience enjoys the get-to-gether.

Speaking of the tourists we have Rudrababu, a terribly fussy as well as a responsible young man who fills the gap of Shekhar and helps Asim in the management. In the end we find Rudra joining ‘Gharoa’ as the most responsible member.

Next is Professor Dhurjati with a chemistry background who is not satisfied in any situation. All through the journey, we find him engrossed in a book with a cover that he claims to be a mystery story, but its actual contents reveals his distorted mental condition.

Again we have the Bengali Doctor from London, who is critical about Bengali’s poor organizational skills, their pitiable marketing abilities, but never offers his help to a dying local at the dark hours of the night.

His wife Tulu is also an important character who is apparently psychic but in her heart craves for a better partner.

Next is a Bengali couple consisting of a hen pecked husband and a devoted wife whose love for each other is eclipsed by the stressed family life.

There is also the lady mystery writer, who due to her attitude, is nicknamed Ms. Gambhir (Ms. Serious), but is an acute observer of human nature.

There is also the confirmed womanizer who describes his work as ‘Madam Crackerology’ and whose current companion is a girl of half of his age.

The last is the distressed Riya, who is ditched by her boyfriend and tries to find solace in the company of Hari.

Thus the story is about all the strata that comprises part of the middle class Bengalees. It portrays both sides of the coin nicely. Thus the story depicts how mutual respects are established and how it is destroyed. It speaks about growing trust between complete strangers and parallely describes mounting distrust among persons. The story is also about building relations and breaking them. But never for once the audience will feel any malice and the director has left it to the spectators to decide between the sin and the clean.

The story is studded with funny sequences blended with some scenes with a serious note and when considered to be a movie viewed within hours of watching ‘Sarkar Raj’, it is really a great relief from the modern day’s serious and complicated lifestyle.

Anjan Dutta once again chants the optimistic Bengali attitude and this is a nice and important contribution to the current Bengali movies. Saswata and Rudraneel deserves special mention as their acting, mainly the later’s are impeccable.

Sarkar Raj

Sarkar Raj is the sequel to Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar. Though the earlier film was chiefly an adaptation of “The Godfather” but influences of the later is lesser in the current movie.
Here the theme starts with one Anita Raj, a businesswoman from London, on her father’s advice, makes a project plan of setting up a power plant at Thakarwadi, Maharashtra. But she is informed by the sleezy Hasan Kazi that for this they have to acquire permission of Sarkar, Subhash Nagre. Agreeing to that, Anita asks Kazi to arrange a meeting with Sarkar. The meeting is also attended by the CM and Shankar Nagare. On hearing that the project will require evacuation of the 40000 residents of the nearby villagers, Sarkar is enraged and opposes the plan. But Shankar, who now handles much of Sarkar's works, understands the implications of the project and convinces Sarkar of how it will help in the development of Maharashtra. Believing in his son, Sarkar asks permission of Rao Sahab, the lord of Thakawadi. Once Rao Sahab gives his consent, Shankar launches a campaign through the villages informing the actual implications of the project. He quickly gathers huge support but problem arises in the form of Somji, the grandson of Rao Sahab and a very popular figure in local politics, who stirs up protest campaigns against the project. Meanwhile, on Shankar’s hint and sensing foul play in the project finances, Anita kicks out Kazi from the project. Now Kazi teams up with Kangra, a corrupt politician and plots revenge on Shankar. Shankar asks Chander, the right hand of Sarkar to arrange for a meeting with Somji but while on a phone call with the later, Shankar withnesses his pregnant wife getting killed by a bomb planted in their car and was supposed to carry both of them at that time. The Nagre family goes to mourning while Shankar removes Chander from his post as the head of security and places his man, Billu as his replacement. Chander gets enraged by this. At the same time Somdhi gets kidnapped. The media tries to use this as a possible break up between the Sarkar and Rao Sahab but both maintains harmony in front of the public. Meanwhile Chander locates the wherabout of Somji and he along with Shankar and Billu recovers him. In the process Shanker kills Kazi, the actual kidnapper. Understanding Shankar’s good intensions, Somdhi promises to co-operate Shankar on the project, in front of the press. But another problem crops up in the form of Wora, a minister of Gujarat, who makes a pact with Anita’s father and tries to shift the project from Maharashtra to his place. Undeterred, Shankar feels he can manage the situation when there is again a blow to the project as Shankar is assassinated by a contract killer. Then we find an enraged but composed Sarkar set to unearth the real plot and the masterminds behind the conspiracy. A horrifying pack of surprises awaits the audience as the evil minds are unmasked one after the other.
As a whole the storyline is more original than Sarkar but I felt that it lacked the compactness of the earlier film. Amitabh outshines the others in the last twenty minutes and Aishwariya Rai is brilliant in conveying feelings through expressions only. Supriya Pathak is a silent but important character who plays her part exquisitely. Others, including Abhishek, seemed ordinary in that respect.
At times the story touches on ‘The Godfather’, the important ones being:
  1. The sequence involving the car bomb blast which reminds us of the same type of fate that awaited the unfortunate Apollonia Vitelli, the 1st wife to Michael Corleone.
  2. An important character, who could not stand Shankar in Sarkar’s position, though remotely resembles Fredo Corleone in action, shares the same fate as the later. In ‘The Godfather Part II’, Fredo had the same type of hatred towards Michael.
  3. There is also another character who remotely resembles Hymann Roth of ‘The Godfather Part II’.
  4. Near the end we find the Sarkar lamenting of Shankar’s death, the same feeling had been conveyed by Michael Corleone following her daughter’s death as depited in ‘The Godfather Part III’.

Parts of the scenes, where the detailing and directing seemed amiss include:

  1. Shankar’s table where he meets his clients doesn’t appear to be a working table at all.
  2. Why the camera was required to be projected towards the light during several shots of the interiors, specially those involving Shankar’s office, defies my imagination. Infact, the alternation of light seemed irritating to my eyes.
  3. When the 1st shot is fired at Shankar, normally a cool headed person, he never takes ground but remains upright. I don’t think he wanted the shooter to have a better aim!
  4. The actual motive behind the setting up of the power plant seemed too much far fetched and not at all realistic.
  5. Sarkar has been portrayed as someone whom the CM visits for seeking permission of setting up the power plant. This implies that the power of Sarkar surpasses the CM as well, I don't know how anybody can justify that!
  6. Why don’t Chander ever change his clothes? From the previous movie, he seemed to be wearing the same set.
  7. Till the day that I watched the movie I understood that it was only electricity that travelled through bare conductors. But the film shows that fire too uses the same property when in Kazi's hideout when one of the electrical poles caught fire it transmitted via the conductors!!

Barring these the movie is quite good and should be watched by those who want to follow the Sarkar chapters.

To add a very personal conjecture to the summary I want to make an observation. The title of the film contains the word Raj. This is the same as the surname of Anita who is shown to be handling the project while residing in Sarkar's villa as the movie finishes. Maybe this is purely a false assumption but it may so happen that the next episode features Sarkar & Raj teeming up in their operations for the welfare of Maharashtra.

Badshahi Angti

My favoutire Feluda novel with the perfect theft blended with surprises and just the right amount of action and mystery.

The place is Lucknow where Feluda and Topshe is holidaying with Topshe’s father. There, they are guest to Dhirubabu, friend to Topshe’s father and plans their tour from there. But soon after their arrival, they meet Dr. Srivastav who shows them a ring, which is believed to be a part of Aurangzeb’s personal ornaments. Dr. Srivastav received it as a gift from one of his orthopaedic patients, Piyarilal when the doctor cured the later’s only living son, Mahabir. But Dr. Srivastav is apprehensive as he recounts that on the previous night there had been an attempted robbery in his house. He felt that the thief is after the ring. Dhirubabu understands his anxiety and offers to keep the ring is his disposal. But on the next day the ring is found stolen. The other characters are also introduced in this juncture, the chief being Banbiharibabu whose business was to supply wild animals to different firms and who now leads a retired life enjoying his personal zoo consisting of ferocious and poisonous creatures like wild cat, corocodile, rattle snake, hyena, etc. The other important character is Mahabir, now a film actor, who is on a visit to his birthplace.

These characters also get involved as Feluda tries to investigate the theft while continuously receiving threats. Suspects accumulate in the form of Mahabir, who is thought to have an interest to the ring from the financial standpoint, Banbiharibabu, who is found to be an antique collector, though he never shows interest to it in front of others. Dr. Srivastav is also suspected on the ground that to baffle the thief, the doctor might have staged a theft so as to prevent a further attempt in his house. Also there is the mysterious saint whose movements arouse suspicion and the person(s)(?) who delivers(s) the threatening letters to Feluda. We also find one Bilasbabu near the end of the story who also plays a somewhat major role.

The riddle continues and the culmination is at Lachmanzula where the actual villain is caught amidst a tension filled atmosphere.

The storytelling is outstanding and the novel, I feel, is a treasure to readers of all age.

Namak Haram

A Hrishikesh Mukherjee superhit with Rajesh Khanna – Amitabh Bacchan duet, once again hand picked by my wife to boost our proud collection of golden age blockbusters.

The story is about two friends – Vicky, from the rich business class of Bombay and Somu, from a middle class Delhi family.

Vicky is rich, noble at heart but bears a distinct class distinction in mind while dealing with the employee class, be it their servants or the employee of his father’s factory and is quite ruthless in dealing with them. This lands him up in trouble when he insults the Union leader of the factory over an issue of a worker’s rightful compensation. The union calls a strike and Vicky is coerced by his father, shrewd businessman, to ask for forgiveness in front of the workers. Vicky can’t bear this humiliation and leaves for Delhi.

Somu, on the other hand, is also a kind-hearted rational and intelligent soul but when it comes to his friend’s problem, he forgets everything else. So on hearing about his friends humiliation, he plots a revenge and asks Vicky to find him a post as the factory’s worker. He executes his plan smoothly and gradually he acquires the mill workers’ trust and becomes the new Union leader.

As Vicky feels that the score is settled but a new problem arises in the form of Somu himself. During his rise to the Union leader’s post Somu has come in close contact to the labourers and their families and he is now sympathetic to their causes and demands. He could now feel their wretchedness as a high inflation hits the country and is torn between his principle and his friendship. Vicky, also realizing this partly, can’t decide whether to support his friend or his father.

The story now takes a complex turn and will hold the spectators glued to their seats for a moving finish. The outstanding action of Amitabh as Vicky and Rajesh Khanna as Somu outshines the other actors to a great scale but the supporting cast of A.K. Hangal and Simi Grewal also deserves special mention.

mp.b

Developed in Visual Basic 6.0, mp.b is an easy to use home made Metronome for Pc.

The facilities that it provides:

1.Gives a count from 1 – 16 beats in a bar in std. beat formats of 2, 4, 8 and 16.

2.Beat speed ranges from 1 – 276 beats per min.

3.Emits a distinct beep sound as the beat is counted which can be muted as well.

4.Displays the beat count.

5.Graphical display of beat count.

6.Display of bar count.

How to use?

1.The default count of the programme is 4 crotchet beats per bar @ 138 beats per min in sound ON mode.

2.Change the beat count (range: 1-16) using the vertical scroll bar in beat count window.

a.The value in the upper box of the time signature window box will be set.

b.The number of magenta coloured circles in the lowest window in will be set likewise.

3.Change the beat type (options: minim / crotchet / quaver / semi-quaver) using the red coloured buttons in the beat window.

a.The value in the lower box of the time signature window box will be set.

4.Change the beat speed (range: 1 - 276) using the horizontal scroll bar in the beat speed window.

a.The beat speed and the corresponding beat interval will be displayed in the brown and green boxes below the scroll bar.

5.To start count press starcount button.

a.Bar count starts from 0 and is displayed in bar count window.

b.Beat count starts from 0 and is displayed in the window, right of the time signature window.

c.Beat count is graphically displayed changing the corresponding circle’s colour in the lowest window to orange from magenta.

6.To put OFF the beep, press mute button.

a.The caption the button toggles from mute to beat. If again sound is required press the beat button.

7. To stop count press stopcount button.

a.Beep, if ON, is stopped.

b.Bar count is reset to 0.

c.Beat count vanishes and is reset.

d.The colour of all the circles turns to magenta.

8.In the event of any change during a count.

a.Bar count is not reset.

b.All other displays and sounds are dynamically changed.

Point to be noted:

Dynamic change of variables is not recommended. To change any variable, 1st stop the count, change the parameter values and then start the count.

Kaun

My favourite Ram Gopal Varma suspense drama which I bought recently from a CD store. In one phrase, the chief feature of the story can be described as ‘nobody is what it appears to be’.

The movie begins in a rainy afternoon with a lonely young lady in her dwelling being continually pestered by a stranger who, it seems has mistaken the residence for the one owned my some Mr. Malhotra. The lady refuses to let the stranger in but he annoys her by hanging around the house and making undue demands which starts with his asking for permission to come in. Again she refuses only to find him peeking from the kitchen window and requesting for a sandwich. Next he comes round the drawing room window and try to watch the television. This irritates the lady further but at a certain point of time situation forces to let her allow the stranger in. Coincidentally, there is an announcement in the TV of a lunatic murderer who is believed to choose his victims residing alone. This terrifies the lady and the stranger increases her panic by his eccentric behaviours. At a later stage of the movie another person is introduced who claims to be a police officer and enters the house following a routine procedure. But it’s not long before the other two discovers that he is anything other than police. The suspense continues as each of them puts doubt in the others’ mind and the climax reveals a truth that is both horrifying and shocking.

A movie with only 3 chief characters and a dog that has a bit of role in the middle and all the scenes in the same house gives the picture a unique signature. Several scenes are there without dialogues where the light and sound has been brilliantly used to add to the suspense. A film worth giving 100 minutes to but my recommendation is watch it alone in the late hours of the night when the suspense can be best enjoyed.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Pancham Purush

A novel by Bani Basu centering eight persons of different ages related to each other by various interests. The chief characters include Aritra, a Pune based executive with a Bohemian past with his non-Bengali wife Neelam, their common college friend Esha Khan and their teacher, Professor Mahanam. The next most important character is Pupu, daughter to Neelam and Aritra. Two more characters, that of Aritra's aquintance Vikram and his wife Seema plays some crucial roles near the middle and the end while Esha's roommate Piku is used just for a better emphasis on Esha's character during the first few chapters.
The story starts with Aritra while recuperating from an accident at his house, suddenly receives a post from his college darling Esha informing tha she will be visiting shortly on course of her tour to Maharashtra and Goa. Coincidentally Aritra and Neelam gets a visit from Prof. Mahanam, who was more than a teacher to them from their university days. Feeling insecured from Esha's promised visit, as she knew that her husband is still emotinally weak towards Esha, Neelam invites Vikram, a confirmed womaniser to woo away Esha from Aritra's grasp. The rest must be read to understand the different perspectives of human nature which the novel sheds light upon but a little patience is required, which I promise, will be rewarded wonderfully as the story blossoms.
Beginning with Aritra's present life, the novel quickly touches on Mahanam's past and Esha's life. Then it revolves around all the characters in the signature Bani Basu style and just when the reader feels that the theme is slipping from his/her grasp, a nice twist brings the prime characters in the same plane and from then onwards begins the unravelling of the masked past of each individual.
The best thing of the novel is the author has brought to light some very primal and true features of the modern human being that is seen everywhere but nowhere in the book had it appeared vulgar or out of the ordinary and at the same time its literary quality remains uncompromised. It may not be impertinent in this juncture to mention that there are instances where her work bears a resemblance to that of Sankar. At places where there is a transition from the present to the past or vice versa, the author has excelled in her unique style though I felt that certain repetations and length of passages devoted to desribe the mental conditions of the characters could have been lessened at places.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

A Indiana Jones film directed by Steven Spielberg. Set in 1957, the film begins with Colonel-Doctor Irina Spalko leading a convoy of Soviet soldiers and the kidnapped Indiana Jones, infiltrates a militry base called Hangar-51 in Nevada. Jones is forced to lead them to a crate containing the remains of an extraterrestial creature. After it is found, Jones tries to escape but his old partner, Goerge 'Mac' McHale betrays him and assists the Soviets to pin down Jones in the warehouse. But Jones manages to get away though in the process he stumbles upon a nuclear test town and manages close shave of his life from a nuclear blast.
Returning to Marshal College, he finds himself under the surveillance of the FBI and is forced to leave the college temporarily. While leaving, he is stopped by Mutt Williams who tells him that Indy's college mate Harold Oxley has disappeared following his discovery of a crystal skull in Peru.
In Peru, Indy and Mutt discovers clues left by Oxley to the grae of Francisco de Orellana, a Conquistador who disappeared in 1500 while seeking the mythical town of Akator (El Dorado). It was believed that whoever returns the skull to Akator will gain immense psychic power. Following the clue, Indy finds a Crystal Skull in Orellana's grave and soon after retrieveing it walks into the hands of the Soviets. They take them to their camp where they were already holding a severely insane Oxley and Mutt's mother, Marion Ravenwood, a great acquintance of Jones who reveals in a later scene that Mutt is actually Jones's son. Then the story turns into a race between Jones' team and the Soviets to the temple of Akator to return the skull amidst the jungle of Amazon scattered with deathly insects, brutal tribes and to top it off the aliens from another world.
From the start, the movie is action packed but the comedy in several sequences gives it the appropriate relief at the right places. It is totally an entertaining 124 minutes programme where the audience themselves seem to take part in the adventure through the wilderness of deserts and forests.
Harrison Ford is outsanding again, Cate Blanchett palys the cruel vamp to perfection but it is the banter of Shia LeBouf as Mutt Williams that sounds the merry tone throghout the movie.