Ship Of Thesus [Movie - 2013]

The ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus's paradox, is a paradox that raises the question of whether an object which has had all its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object. If you dismantle a ship, plank by plank, and reassemble it, does it remain the same ship? Like all eternal questions which have remained tantalisingly out of our leaden reach, this one too doesn't lend itself to any easy answers. It could well be yes, no, and maybe, and that would pretty much encompass all of life. Anand Gandhi's film takes us through three strands featuring very different lives and situations, leaving us to taste and engage. And then he brings his planks together in a heartwarming, life-affirming manner. It feels so right that there is a click. On the screen, and in your head.

Ship of Theseus is a beautiful movie. It is one of it's kind and it shows that Bollywood is evolving. It's a sign of things to come. And I am shocked to see that Indian movie-goers are liking it very much. I can say that because before I watched it, I visited the theater twice and was amazed to be shunted out due to the show being house full.

The trailer struck to me, as soon as I watched it and I was of inquisitive mind what is this going to be about? It looks really good. And it is. The acting, the directing, the cinematography, the music [though used very less, but aptly] are all brilliant.

The movie, other than entertainment, and keeping you indulged for 2 hours 20 minutes, passes on a very sharp message. One, that was/is needed in our country. The topic of organ donation which is in a futile state.

The movie takes us through the lives of three people, a  an experimental blind photographer, an ailing monk and an enterprising stockbroker. As we watch the film, we can not speculate how these three would eventually connect/a connection would build between them in the movie. That is, you can say, the suspense of the film.

In the first act, we get to know Aliya, a blind photographer, who has lost he eyesight to cataract, and takes eye-catching photos with the help of her other senses, hearing mostly. It shows us, how one can triumph with inferior capacity. She fits the proverb of every cloud has a silver lining. After her operation to regain her eyes, she suffers a bout of under - confidence and does not believe in her talent anymore. Her husband, is a good supporting character, and actually in the movie, he is portrayed as a highly supportive person. It is nice to see the couple engage in playful fighting. I felt that this act ended aburptly though.

We move on to the next act, where we meet the monk Maitreya, who is suffering from liver cirrhosis and will not take medicines for it as the medicines are being tested on animals before putting into use and he is strictly against any form of cruelty, to such an extent that he is fighting a case against several companies and their unethical testing methods on animals.The role of Charwaka gives an additional support to the character and also provides some comical relief in his arguments/debates with Maitreya, which was much needed. The scenes of the wilderness where Maitreya takes his solitude are well shot, with great visuals. I've got to admit, the story got a little boring in this act though. I wish, it could have been made a bit shorter.

The third act reveals us the character Navin, a stockbroker, who has just received a kidney transplant and is on his way to his normal life when his grandmother falls ill. While taking care of her, he finds a layman who's kidney has been taken illegally just some days prior to the day Navin received a new one. He, feels guilt and thus, makes it his cause to find justice for him. Even after he learns that it was not he, ho had received the illegal kidney, he remains resolute in his cause, to find justice for the man. This takes us to Stockholm, which I must add is again beautifully shot. In Stockholm, he finally finds the person who had availed the illegal kidney. He strikes the man's guilt and get's, though not justice, but a monetary gain, by which the layman is content.

We are still guessing what is the connection of the three films, then we see Navin being invited to a screening meant for those who were beneficiaries of the organs donated by a man. There, we also find Maitreya, who received a kidney and Aliya, who had received her eyes from the same person. We are amazed and in awe at how this beautiful puzzle [story] has been assembled and laud Anand Gandhi's film.

Definitely a watch, such films come rare in Bollywood.

My rating - 8.8/10

Indian Political System. Change needed.

Why Congress may win yet again;



By Akhilesh Dahiya Someone's interesting take:

Read carefully again and again, and understand!
Reasons why Congress is winning for the past 65 years and why it will win in the future:
(A view Point)

Currently, on an average (over states) there are:
15% Muslims, 8% Christians, 7% Others and 70% Hindus.
That means: out of 100 people, there are 70 Hindus, 8 Christians, 15 Muslims and 7 others.

Voter registration is as follows:
90% of Muslims, 90% Christians and 60% Hindus and 90% Others.
This means: out of 100 people, 42 Hindus, 14 Muslims, 7 Christians and 6 'Others' will register for vote.

Now, interesting point
Out of the registered voters having voter ID or at least having interest in selecting their representative.

Have a look at the number of turnouts:
50% Hindus will vote, 90% Muslims will vote, 90% Christians will vote and 90% others will vote.
This means: Ultimately 21 Hindus will vote, 13 Muslims will vote, 6 Christians and 5 'Others' will vote during
election and these 45 (45%) people are responsible for selecting the representative and deciding the future
of our dear Great mother land (India!!!)

Now see Out of these 45 people of total population who votes for whom!
It is highly likely that out of 13 Muslims, 10 will vote for Congress,
Out of 6 Christians, 5 will vote for Congress and
Out of 5 others, 3 will vote for congress.
it means: Congress will get 18 non Hindu votes, BJP may get 1 Muslim or Christian and 1 others vote.
So what BJP has got? BJP has got 2 non Hindu votes!

Other parties, that are third front, may get 2 Muslim or Christian and 1 vote from others. That is, 'Others'
may get 3 non Hindu votes.

VERY IMPORTANT

Coming to Hindu votes:
Out of 21 Hindus. > If 5 vote for Congress, 10 vote for BJP and 6 vote for other parties

Final result will be:
Congress 23 votes, BJP 12 votes, other parties will get 9 votes.
This has been the trend since 1990, therefore, Congress do not bother for Hindu votes.

Congress loses in States where the Muslims do not vote for them.
If Congress scares minority from majority, which is easy in the name of burka "secularism",
their 90% work is done.
and they have been doing so religiously.

It is highly likely that the trend will continue and may vary by few percent
and the Congress will remain in Power, as minority population increases, for
the next 100 years.

So what is the Mantra to thrash congress and defeat Islamic Terrorism?
1. Register yourself for Voter ID;
2. Get the Voter ID as soon as possible;
3. Do not go for picnic and picture during Election Day;
4. Vote for nationalist and patriotic leader like Narendra Modi on Election Day;
5. Islamic terrorism is growing rapidly and soon enter into India with a bang.

if we will celebrate the picnic and go for picture on election day, our children will not be alive to celebrate all these nice moments.

Our dear mother land is calling us, vote this time, and save it from Jihad.

The Conjuring [Movie-2013]

The Conjuring is one of the rare, brilliantly made horror movies. It is not horror per se, that it doesn't leave you with nightmares and disability to walk alone at night, hardly I've seen movies which do that. But, it has quite a lot of jump scares which do surprise and startle you during the movie. Especially the scenes where Carolyn goes into the basement to find out the origin on the clap sounds, and when we find the corpse of the witch is seen hanging from the tree or when she is seen atop the cupboard by the children.

This story, to be noted, is based on true events and is set in the 70s.

There is a prologue, which introduces us to the 'ghost-hunters' Ed and Lorraine Warren [Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga], who have devoted their lives to studying, warding off and sometimes directly battling the forces of evil.

The story is pretty simple with a family moving into a haunted house, and becoming victims of one too many mishaps like dog dying, stoppage of clocks at a particular time, emanation of sounds around the house and physical harm to the residents. After this experience, The Perron family is terrified and thus, ask on to the Warrens for help. Warrens, along with their assistant and a police officer, discover the presence of the soul of a witch who has hung herself to death and caused the death of a lot more people in the area. They eventually perform an exorcism to expunge the soul. This, along with the side-story of Lorraine with her personal problem and the haunting of daughter of the Warren's keep us interested in the movie.

More than the story, the sound effects and special effects keep us glued to the screen. You don't expect brilliant storytelling in a 'horror' movie, so, The Conjuring does not disappoint, with it's adaption of the true story. One of the better horror movies in recent times and definitely the best of 2013. Don't forsee any better horror movies coming out.

I felt the portion of the doll could be eliminated, didn't give much significance in the story.

My rating - 7.4/10

This is Your Life?

This is Your Life by Switchfoot of the album 'The Beautiful Letdown'. Love the lyrics.

Youtube link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWArhq3FUEY

Adrift In Choppy Waters - an article by Varun Gandhi, BJP MP.

Damn, this is so true!

Foreign policy blunders and inconsistencies are destabilising Indias security,bit by bit


India lies in a fortunate geography.Cradled between two arms of the Indian Ocean and naturally barricaded by the Himalayas,a scorching desert and lightly travelled tropical forests,we are not easily vulnerable.Yet weve faced invasions through the Hindukush,through Burma and from across the oceans.This dynamic continues today,manifested in Poonch sector last week when Pakistanis crossed the LoC and shot five Indian soldiers dead.
Our political sovereignty has been best assured when relationships with our neighbours have been fortified through strategic ties.These regional allies are the mandalas or interconnecting circles that Kautilyas Arthashastra describes as vital to our security.
Sadly,our geographical blessings have been more than offset by our historical blunders.Particularly recently,when inconsistent,ill-conceived and immature foreign policy has caused the near-dismantling of Kautilyas rajamandala.
Beginning with Bhutan,which loves us,or did,until UPA mandarins interfered in its elections,cutting off fuel subsidies and reducing it to begging terms.Our gain Bluntly pointing out that it cant deal with China independently.Now,Bhutan is witnessing widespread anti-India demonstrations.Instead of hegemonic displays,we need to nurture the relationship through increased investment in Bhutans power and tourism sectors which will also stimulate industrialisation in our northeast.
Despite being birthed through Indian midwifery,Bangladeshs growing anti-India Islamic tilt and illegal migration to our northeast remain irritants.With a pro-India government coming to power,we squandered an opportunity to improve relations.Instead of operationalising the Land Boundary Protocol,dating back to the 1974 Mujib-Indira Land Boundary Agreement which resolves 6.4 km of undemarcated border,and building trust,we resorted to legal hokum.We need to ink the Teesta water-sharing treaty which gives Bangladesh 25% of its waters despite 40% of the river flowing through it,as well as finalise a strategic transit pact regulating access to our northeast.
In Sri Lanka,Mahinda Rajapaksa has offered the Hambantota port to the Chinese whilst expropriating IOCs oil bunkers in Trincomalee.Our reaction to protests against training Sri Lankan officers was to expel them probably all the way to China or Pakistan.Voting against Sri Lanka in international fora does little for our remaining influence with the establishment.More investments in energy and infrastructure,particularly in northeast and southern Sri Lanka,could help balance its pro-China proclivity.
A new Maldives government invalidated its airport agreement with GMR.We froze our aid,delayed infrastructural commitments and interfered in its upcoming elections.It is now taking $500 million Chinese loans for its housing and telecom sectors.Seychelles too is offering long-term naval and air bases to China for resupplying its fleets.
Even Mauritius,an India-focussed tax haven,has a $700 million Chinese SEZ whilst our negotiations with it on double taxation have run aground.Our blue water naval expansion requires the refuelling and strategic support of these island nations.Offering meaningful tax concessions and reducing political interference would be a small price to pay.
Despite Irans willingness to accept rupees instead of dollars,the UPA has yielded to American pressure to drastically reduce our annual $10 billion oil purchase from Iran,making us dangerously reliant on the political volatility of Nigerian crude.
Our contradictory voting in the UN,the proposed divergence of the IPI pipeline to China and rumours of Chinese investments in Irans Chabahar port,all point to our dithering approach.Given our current account deficit,we need to grab Irans offer to ONGC to collaborate in the Middle Furat oilfields and Farzad B gas fields.This would cement a strategic relationship,gain us access to a land route to Central Asia and a buffer against the Taliban.
The NDA government tried thrice to mend relations with Pakistan and,despite Kargil,almost came to agreements on Siachen and Sir Creek.But this last decade has been a muddle of meetings,stunted confidence building measures and a muted removal of FDI restrictions.We need to defreeze relations with the Pakistani military and build political influence with the deep state.
With China exerting itself in the Indian Ocean,building road/ rail links down to Myanmar and Pakistan,and gaining port facilities in Sri Lanka,Seychelles and Myanmar,this is no time to return to the delusional days of Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai.China has opportunistically grabbed energy concessions in Africa and iron and copper ore in Afghanistan,branding its efforts as peaceful anti-piracy initiatives.We need to leverage our soft power to do the same,whilst preparing for a long haul of border negotiations.Reviving the Quad Initiative between Japan,US and Australia should give us some heft.
The defence infrastructure to bolster our foreign policy has petrified.Arihant,Vikramaditya and our ICBM programmes are plagued with delays,impacting our nuclear deterrence capability.Only five of the 14 submarines in our aging fleet are likely to work in 2020.The army faces a glaring howitzer shortfall.Stepping up military ties with Oman and Myanmar can start generating the increased funding we need for asymmetric capabilities such as drones,diesel submarines and mountain battalions.
Undoing the rajamandala destabilises national security.We cannot be internally strong unless we are externally secure.We need a sound foreign policy with a realpolitik sense of our national interest and the ability to protect it.Above all,we need friends.And the closer they are to us geographically,the closer we need them to be to us economically,culturally and politically.

Pain.

Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they're afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. Its all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.

-Jim Morrison.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest [Movie-1975]

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest starts in a typical mental institution where sad, monotonous music plays, people are dressed in white, waiting for medicine. Enter our protagonist, and the star of the film, Randle Patrick "Mac" McMurphy [Jack Nicholson]. He does not seem to be suffering from any mental disorder. Rather, he is pretending to be, just to escape labour and serve his time in a relaxed environment that of a mental institution rather than the jail.
He comes up against the 'head' of the psych ward, 'Nurse Ratched' who has, all the patients on a leash.
They are afraid of her and follow her evey order.
Now McMurphy is not mentally ill, thus he has a free independent mind, without any side effects of any medication. He decides that Miss Ratched be taught a lesson. He quickly establishes himself as the leader of the ward and repeatedly challenges the rules and policies of the nurses.
Also steals a bus and takes all the patients fishing. Doctors start getting worried and tighten the strings on all patients. During a session, a patient named Cheswick gets very angry and he, McMurphy and an assumed deaf/dumb person, named 'Chief' fight with the staff and as a result are taken towards electro-shock therapy.
This is a breaking point in the movie as Chief reveals that he is neither deaf nor dumb and befriends McMurphy in the process. The realisation by McMurphy that he is staying in this cell for an entirety of his life makes him agitated and he makes a plan for his great escapade. He calls up his friends and bribes the warden to let them in. He and the chief make a plan to escape after having this small party. But the mix of medicines and the alcohol takes a toll on everyone and passes out. In the morning, Miss Ratched is horrified at the scene and orders a headcount at which they find a patient named Billy missing. Billy is later found out in a room with one of the girls McMurphy had called up. Miss Ratched is enraged and tells Billy that this will be reported to his mom. This makes Billy panic and he eventually kills himself. This provokes McMurphy and he tries to choke Miss Ratched until he is knocked down by the orderlies. He is later lobotmised and brought back to the ward. The Chief is heartbroken to see his friend is such a rotten condition and he can't allow him to live like this. The movie ends with Chief smothering McMurphy to death by a pillow and then escaping himself by uprooting a bathroom console and breaking the window by throwing it.

A sad end to a lovely story 'twas.

Jack Nicholson, as always, acted like a boss. He has one of the most varied expressions in Hollywood and this movie gave him a chance to showcase quite a lot of them. I like how the film gave focus to many characters to and just not the protagonist. Nurse Ratched and Chief, along with other patients like Billy, Cheswick, Dale, Martini, Taber and Sefelt have been introduced and given a good deserving screen time. The movie is shot beautifully with every scene having it's own importance.
A good quirky comedy mixed with the tragedy potrayed in the end makes a the movie brilliant. Brilliant adaption from a book. I don't think any one else could have done more justice to the book.
Worth a watch.

My Rating - 8.6/10

...Like Clockwork - Queens of The Stone Age [Album-2013]

Queens of the Stone Age are back. With a bang. They return to their original sound and are the perfect 'Stoner Rock' band. This band, along with Wolfmother and Them Crooked Vultures define this genre.
This album is all what was expected from QOTSA. Loud, catchy, dark.
My God is the sun is the perfect single for the album. Undoubtedly the best song off the album.

The best songs off the album for me are, 'I Sat by The Ocean', 'If I Had A Tail', 'My God is the Sun', 'Fairweather Friends' and 'I Appear Missing'.

Have a go at this if you like hard rock/stoner rock. Not a dissapointment.

My Rating - 8.6/10.