No? Neither did I until yesterday.

There I was sitting at Juhu’s Prithvi Theatre watching a compilation of short documentary films, organized by an NGO called Vikalp (formed in 2003, a group of documentary film makers fighting against censorship) and all I could think of was Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag.

Though the film turned out to be the biggest box-office failure of 2007, to me the film’s depiction of modern day daaku raj (Babban Singh) vs. Ex-Police Chief and his hired goons Heroo & Raj – seem perfectly in sync with the Naxalite situation in the State of Chhattisgarh. No laughing matter this, the reality is as dark and horrifying. However unlike the movie, the Naxalite condition doesn’t have as clear a hero-villain divide as the movie.

In order to free the state’s people from the tortures of the rebellious Naxalities (dakku raj), the government put in action the Special Public Security Act (SPS, 2005), and have also created an army of villagers called the Salwa Judum giving them bows arrows and guns, under the pretext of self-protection against the bad guys. The Chhattisgarh government wants us to look up to them in the same way as the villagers regarded the Ex-Police Chief in the film. Their life-savior, their messiah.

According to the Planning Commission 2008 report, that is not only unconstitutional, but also a form of state sponsored terror. So, no happy ending in sight here, only a spiral result of violence and more of it.

And this is where filmmaker Ajay TG’s story comes in.

Click here to continue reading ‘Do You Know Ajay TG?’

First off Kudos to Kamla for managing to pull this one off. She spoke to Abhishek Bachchan in LA, who was there as part of the Unforgettable Tour after having covered Canada and Trinidad. And as usual, Kamla’s questions were sharp, and to the point and revealed that she had done her homework. For instance, her knowing that AB baby collects watches. Who knew that? (I didn’t – not that I care enough anyways). That, and that a blog is underway.

Pity then that the interviewee was boring as hell!

Click here to continue reading ‘Abhishek Bachchan, Plugged.’

I consider myself as a 28 year old with an equally active testosterone and other such related hormonal behaviour as any 18- or 20-year-old. And yet I don’t get the fascination (some) youths have developed for an ongoing reality show called Splitsvilla aired on MTV India.

In a nutshell Splitsvilla consists of 20 women vying for attention of two young men. The folks behind this reality show would like us to believe that the concept of the show is the search for True Love (along with a fetching sum of Rs 5 lakh.) Each week one girl’s fate rests in the hands of the two men, who have the power to vote her out of the show.

Reality Shows today are the "in-thing" and like others, I too immensely enjoy(ed) watching many of them. However I fail to see the point behind a show such as this and that too being heavily promoted by a channel responsible in so many ways for shaping the minds of our youth.

Click here to continue reading ‘Splitsvilla Or Shamesville?’