THE iNFINITY

Look Who's Talking

During the Samuel Johnson days, they had big men enjoying small talk; today, we have small men talking big. 
- Fred Allen
After my last post, I had twittered about having run out of ideas for my post titles. This post did not have any such qualms attached to my choice of title, though there was a long, cogitating pause before I finally decided what title to go with for this post. And since the root of it all seems to be (at least) a movie, I decided I could borrow my post's title from another Hollywood flick. On to it... No wait! We have BREAKING NEWS here on iNFINITY! Arindam Chaudhari is possibly considering making another movie, starring, you guessed it right - Amitabh Bachhan and he wants the Big B to cut down on his price for the same. And, he is leaving no stone unturned to make AB do that. And no, this isn't Aaj Tak, so I don't have video proof from a sting operation to prove it. You'll just have to... read on. 

My friend told me of a review that Mr. Arindam Chaudhari had written for Slum dog Millionaire on January the 25th, on his very own blog, which, interestingly, is called - Passionate About India. Nice name, coming from someone who seems to be more passionate about his ponytail and free-laptop-for-the-hapless-student B-School, than India. I could buy that from him someday, you know he's got almost thirty times the readership, that my blog has. But, that's for the sometime later. The movie for now...

The review, if you could call it one, starts with this description for the movie "A phony poseur that has been made only to mock India for the viewing pleasure of the First World!!" Now, I don't really know how many people who have seen the movie go on to read my post, but if you could trust me, (I'm really sorry, but the why-you-should-trust-me piece that I promised in my last post will have to wait some more time. We could do with blind faith in the mean time.) it's anything but a mockery of our motherland. Mr. Chaudhari admonishes us against watching the movie, branding it the "Emperor's new clothes"! [?] 

He question's the movie's 'hard to spot brilliance'. (Does every movie need be brilliant?) Can't some movies be brilliant for the sheer joy that watching them brings to you? And anyways 'Slumdog...' has it's flashes of brilliance, if only, they are flashes.  

"Had this film been made by an Indian director, it would have been trashed as a rotting old hat, which literally stands out only because of its stench, but since the man making it happens to be from the West, we’re all left celebrating the emperor’s new clothes." says, the conceiver of IIPMs. I believe, we do have really talented directors in India today, who could have done a better job, but yes, maybe even then it wouldn't have been noticed like now, for being a Bollywood flick. And, that sums up the brilliance of Slumdog Millionaire - something that Mr. Chaudhari could not have spotted. 

He calls us "shameless fools" for "gloating over its success without realising that it makes a caricature out of India". Sir, if you could have looked it over from an artistic perspective, which I sure supposed, you did have after watching The Last Lear, few nations, and that too as vast and diverse as India, have a defined comic undertone which runs through each nook and cranny, so that they can be 'caricatured'. I'm not as good with watching and especially understanding movies, but, of whatever Hollywood I have had the opportunity of grasping, I sometimes find it funny, being centered around NY, Vegas, California or at the most... a Texas for that matter. At least I was proud (yes I was!) of the caricature that it depicted India as. You - I guess, are a bit too Passionate About...   

There's a lot more about "Slumdog..." that Mr. Chaudhari has to say. But iNFINITY I guess, has gone beyond providing easy publicity to quirks.(OK. that was just going overboard with attitude!) So, you better check out his blog if you are so very interested in a first hand read.

One more thing, he's a bit too concerned with the age old cliché of snake charmers and elephants being replaced by slum dogs and their dream stories of turning millionaires. Think again, sir. Isn't life when viewed from a bird's eye view, all about perspectives, which in turn, boil down to clichés.   

And lastly, if the movie has been nominated for the Oscars, it isn't really a masterpiece. Not all movies that go the distance are masterpieces... they are just those, great entertainers.

He signs off, by urging us to spend our precious time watching an Amitabh Bachhan starrer instead of wasting it on "Slumdog..." which 'he believes' - sucks. We'd do that any day Mr. Chaudhari, but sometimes you need to embrace the new to discover something good about it. And, I'll advise you, not to make a multilingual, the next time you plan on making a movie. Apparently, your review on "Slumdog..." rants a lot about "jarring dialogues delivered in cumbersome manner in a language which doesn’t come naturally to most of the actors."  

Mr. Chaudhari, by the way, writes here. Do me a favour if you plan on visiting. Don't come back without reading the comments. On iNFINITY, your comments, are always sought after, as usual.

Dedicated to: Our slums and their spirited dwellers.

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31 reflected back...:

That's real post that everybody, specially 'Arindham Chaudhari' should read about is he really "PASSIONATE ABOUT INDIA"? He is only passionate about giving free laptops and free trips to foreign countries for his college students in which he feels very proud!!!


You got it sooo right!
That's one post which Mr.Chaudhari should read, and also people like AB who're being PAID a whooping 110-115 crores just to write their blog..and have successfully given away thoughts to the media..even if they don't mean what they say!
]
Btw..you can comment on my current post..saw your shout in my shoutmax..
Had forgotten to enable comments!


Mr Arindam needs to go through thei write up for sure... an eye openor for him and a lot others.. good one!


thank god someone blogged about this!! been meaning to myself but just too caught up with this story im doing...

getting to the point... your sarcasm thrills me.. arindam choudhury and his atrocious views are quite laudable and all those who claim the same... and i second you on this one fore sure... very well written :)


**Does every movie need be brilliant?) Can't some movies be brilliant for the sheer joy that watching them brings to you?

I am so there with you on this- However not every movie gets oscar nominations...
I just read Chaudhari's review in the newspaper and yeah it got me thinking.

I mean even I was surprised to see khalid mohamed giving full five stars to the movie, which means it excellent and the best types that can be made
And when I came out of watching the movie..I wondered what was so special about it!

Offcourse I got my lessons from SM just like I get my lessons from every other movie I see - but nothing really THAT special you know-
Lets say something that SWADES had.
I mean I loved every frame of swades.
Anyways I am not going to be prejudiced and had just started internet to look for stuff on SLUMDOG- some positive reviews and find out why it deserves oscar nominations.

Anyways, thanks for visiting my blog
:-)


@ Atul:
you know I had been planning to write something about his line of IIPMs, I hate his full page adds shouting at us and daring us all to be different. But, I ran into his blog before that and this is what I come up with... Thank you for your views again...


@ Cяystal:
Oh! Dont't remind me of AB and the hefty sum he gets to write his blog... I mean aren't somethings best left to specialists... people like you and me, I suppose? :)
Sure, I'll be coming back to comment... and thank you so much for being here...


@ the pink orchid:
I doubt he'll have time for doing that... remember, the BREAKING NEWS. Thank you again for being on iNFINITY and commenting.


@ Phoenix:
'and all those who claim the same'... wish you had named a few. ;)
and thank you so much for the praise you showered... I'm flattered... :P
would be looking forward to what you come up with about his atrocious views...


@ bhaw:
I really think the Oscars are just 'another' awards... like the plethora of them given out in India each year... So, it doesn't really speak about the brilliance of a movie if it gets nominated or even wins... for every Ben Hur or Godfather, there's a Taare Zameen Par which fails to win even a nomination... Just because "Slumdog..." won 10 nominations, it doesn't mean we start with our own post-mortems seeking the brilliance of the whole thing... may be, there just isn't any, and the jury, decided to go with the tide(read media, viewer response eta al.)

That, is my view... But yes, I didn't get any lessons out of SM :)
I dialled a 100 time or so for KBC..the damn voice never summoned me to bombay :)
Thank you for commenting...


Oh i was confused by the heading, but yes i read that blog article in the newspaper yesterday, its just a movie and i don't understand why people are getting hyper sensitive about the name?? If the movie had not received any awards, Nobody in India would have known it existed also!!!


@ moi:
precisely... the fact that it's getting rave reviews, nominations and awards, is working both for the movie (it's getting noticed) and India (the novel that it's based on, and the dark and light side of our nation)... It doesn't carry a message, instead, it conjures up one.


I cant understand why some people always come up with negative comments when something good happens around..
Cant people just take the movie name as it is... Why make such a huge fuss about it...
And Mr. Arindam Chaudhari from B school really needs some positive attitude classes!


Hey I dnt know whether its just my experienc or is it a universal fact..."Why do u all d Chaudhry's hve so much attitude?" Neways nice post...i just hope that Mr AC reads it...


@ Charmed One:
Rightly said there... and I suppose Mr. Chaudhari's brand of B-schools don't teach positive thinking, just dare us to be different :). So not his fault there...


@ buddy:
Don't know about AC, but i hope your 'other' Chaudahri does.. :)


I didn't read d article, but i know u r correct...asd can neva b wrong!!!


okay pal...! hope i dont get smacked..m gonna be; in a way .. the devil's advocate.

i wouldn't completly agree with mr arindam.. but i would find it difficult to completly rubbish his ideas.

the theme of the movie, have to say, is a brilliant one.. but at the same time.. the acting part surly let me down. Except young salim and jamal, who took me to a different world altogether with their dramatic excellence; every other person seemed to lack the feel one would think a subject like this demanded. And Mr.Arindam, according to me is pretty right when he says that the movie quite possibly wud hav been trashed if it were directed by a brown skin. I hold no racist agenda here but yeah... we indians(maybe not all, but surly a few), still, to some extent suffer from a colonial hangover. Why do you think a movie like black friday doesnt succeed...? Maybe one wud expect it to be dull on the box office for its subject.. but what about the critics..?? m sure danny boyle wud have gathered more applause.

Nonetheless, i do have my differences with Mr arindam. I believe he is, as you rightly said, busy in his world of the IIPMs and giving off free laptops. So much so that, he makes me feel that he doesn't think there are multiple faces to this beautiful country, of which, some face are not too easy to cope with. Maybe india is no more a land full of snake charmers but thier sure is a dharavi and a kamathipura Mr. Arindam. In the glitz of B schools and white collared jobs, lets not forget, their are people who cannot afford to dream.


@ Akshay:
Is that a return gift for a gift I never gave!?? :)


dat muvi is more hype than substance n so is that man... grrrrr..


@ Allen's Grey Matter Inc. © 200...whatever !!
talking of brown skin directors.. which Chopra / Johar / Nadiadwala has dared make a similar movie in the past decade... I'm talking about our A list directors who get watched no matter what. Instead they have been busy showing a different India of billionaires and their problems..... Boyle did it, and I believe, deserves credit for it...
Arindam Chaudhari, as you said, is in a world of his own too!


@ Trinaa:
OK. Agreed both are overrated an hyped, but then one is more than the other, and no prizes for guessing... :)

P.S. you first comment was 'spontaneity at it's very best'. Why did you have to delete it ?? :P


Without a rich father to put him through the Family Business School, the poor Jamal Malik went through a life of "slums, open-air lavatories, riots, underworld, prostitution, brothels, child labour, begging, ....." and so on, and never became an economist, management consultant, educationist or a philanthropist, and obviously knew nothing about 'The Great Indian Dream'. For many of the genre of Arindam, dreams appear in broad day light, eyes closed to bring darkness, oblivious to the stark realities of life. No great wonder! There is in India such abundance of Nouveau riche and petty bourgeoisie, who refuse to think beyond their insulated world view.


@ Babu Daniel:
You got me thinking on what i missed out in my post, sir. Mr. Chaudhari's version of The Great Indian Dream is indeed a farce, and a pretty short sighted one, if, he can't appreciate somebody else's celluloid version of a similar dream...


Well, I don't really have anything new to add about the movie coz I've already written about it my blog... but about Mr. Arindam, that man is definitely a hype... all front and no back types!


The posts here are so sooooo brilliant!My brain is bleeding!huhuhuu


@ lunarhemizphere:
Do I consider that a compliment?
Anyways... Thank You.


@ Akansha Agrawal:
I'm so glad to know that so many people share with me, the respect I have for Mr. Chaudhari. :) Never had so many comments on any of my posts... And no, this ain't even 'one of the best' that I have written!


Your query replied here;
http://bloggerstop.net/2009/01/premium-blogger-template-cellar-heat.html

Feel free to ask your doubts !

Regards
Sai


Check the link again....it will be all fine now !

Regards
Sai


Apart from the music of the movie...nothing much really made me go wow...on the other hand...i didnt think it was horrible either...sometimes i get annoyed by all the bad publicity the film receives...good post btw.


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