Work?No thanks! We're from Kolkata!

Gosh. Ever considered working? Of course you have. Ever feared that everytime you make an effort to work you would have to take eight steps back for every step taken forward? Of course you haven't, unless you are from or have been to Kolkata.

Sigh. Strike. Bandh. Power cuts. Broken roads. Traffic. Protests on streets. Adda Sessions. There always is a solid and valid reason for a Kolkatan to not work. And no matter how much some of us miscasts try otherwise, end of the day,we look like foolish people.

Take for example the last week. Mamta Banerjee has been giving the Tatas a lot of grief over the Singur issue. (Not aware of it: come on, stop being one of us. Google it! NOW!) As if scaring the industries away was not enough, Mamtadi (as she is rather affectionately called..hmm) thought it would be a brilliant idea to stall traffic and shut down th city, bringin everything to a complete halt. So, if you were driving at that point of time on a Thursday afternoon to go meet you girl friend or you were taking your grand father to the hospital, it was your too-bad. Come on, you should be aware of what the politicians are doing. Our Hon'ble Chief Minister spoke againt the strikes and road blocks, an the poor guy was given more than a mouthful from his own party members. And all this was followed by some procession on the main streets of Kolkata, followed by statements to the media, followed by more protests on the steets.

Some other prominent businessmen spoke in support of the Tata plant in Singur, and bam! their stores were damaged. Most Tata Motors ditributors are requesting a Z level security. And why not? They are currently more at threat than many others in the State.

Aah! My 10AM meeting would take place now. Its 17:30, and my client has just about made it now. You see, there was some protests all day long on the streets. The city was brought to a standstill. Bravo, I say. This is the image of the new Kolkata. Modern, developing, and full of bottle necks.

Oh, and as if the political turmoils aren't enough, a leading media channel thought it was a wonderful idea to have a road show to launch their new channel. Nothing wrong with that. But geniuses, a road show in a residential area that has many old people and infants, and is about 500 metres away from a major hospital: good idea, eh? Okay, you'd say forget the noise. The traffic snarls, diversion, inconvenience etc should be overlooked too?

I guess it should all be overlooked. Afterall, this IS the modern Kolkata. Nicely splashed all over the globe "we're changing and progressing".

You see, work happens here, but a little late. Sometimes years late, sometimes decades late. You see, we are like this only. We like to make deals about smallest of things. We write articles, blogs, have adda sessions abuse each other, but hey, we kind of never leave the city. This is THE metropolis that doesn't work constantly. And why should we? Heck! We're from Kolkata! We're the initelligent race. We are cultured, educated, and yes, we're too busy with our social agendas to work all the time! :-)

So, with a smile on my face I welcome you all to Kolkata, the land of strikes and bandhs, the land of babus and adda sessions..the land of culture and the land that has become regressive!

Cheers!

The Dark Knight : Joker scares and how!

Sir Heath takes the Bat to epic standards

When I first saw the online trailer of The Dark Knight, my wife said “so do you reckon the movie would be that good, the man bettering Jack N’s Joker, or its just a well made trailer trying to cash in on Ledger’s legacy?" Not really a fanboy, I just ignored the question shrugging my shoulders.

I am glad to say that now, I can answer the questions in a major affirmative: yes, the movie is that good; Heath Ledger makes Jackie boy’s portrayal campy. And thank God that for once the hype created for a superhero movie by Warner Bros. doesn’t just live up to it, but far exceeds it!

One wishes that there be spin-off graphic novels based on The Dark Knight, not the other way around; its far superior to ‘The Killing Joke’ and ‘Death in the Family’. For Gotham looks and feels like a real city, with real people and real emotions. This is a complete movie and you start feeling for the characters, you wait with baited breathe for your hero to succeed and you don’t ridicule the villain, nor do you empathise with him: quite simply, you’re very scared of him. You shiver every time he says "WHY SO SERIOUS! "

The plot is fairly straight forward and perhaps splashed all over the internet. Here’s a quick recap: The last good cop Lieutenant Gordon and Batman, assisted by his Man Friday Alfred and able brain man Luscious Fox are on a cleaning spree, joined by the new District Attorney Harvey Dent (who is, btw, dating Bruce Wayne’s ex-flame Rachel Dawes) and whilst all the bad boys are being put in jail, the Joker makes an offer to the underworld to kill Batman. Quite simply, he won’t do something that has a price for free. People die, Batman’s insecurity and vulnerability is brought to the fore, the Joker bleeds yet laughs; and as our hero undergoes it all, we hope and pray that the movie never comes to an end!

Late Heath Ledger is simply outstanding as the Joker. He’s eight steps ahead of everyone-including the trying-to-workout-the-plot-smarty audience. There is no denial that he deserves an Oscar nod, and if posthumous Knighthoods are bestowed, sign me up for the petition to get him one. He’s crazy, psychotic, calculating, and makes the audience think forever as to what is up his sleeve. His portrayal instils fear even with a pencil! At the expense of probably being the one-billionth person saying it, Heath Ledger’s Joker surpasses all hype & expectations, is way better than Jack Nicholson’s take on the same character and makes the world realize what a great actor we’ve lost.

It’s hard to put the rest of the cast in the same level as Ledger, but everyone does brilliantly. Had this been any other movie, probably right now everyone would be rooting for Christian Bale and Gary Oldman’s magic on screen. Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Maggie Gyllenhall are so perfect that you possibly can’t imagine other actors playing these characters. Aaron Eckhart is efficient, but just leaves the audience a little wishing-for-more from Harvey Dent/Two Face. One wonders if Good Will Hunting Matt Damon would’ve scored the areas that Eckhart missed on.

If there is one person who matches Heath Ledger here is the Director Chris Nolan. Take a bow, Chris, as you have truly created a masterpiece, without compromising on the comic book charm or the tragic hero pathos, or the twists and thrills we have known and loved you for. Thank you for rescuing Batman, and giving the movie colour you did! Please don’t stop here, and we look forward to your final instalment in this trilogy

All in all, it’s a wonderful movie. A movie that deserves respect and admiration, more importantly repeat viewing to fully appreciate the little tricks that Nolan has left.

As I sign off, once more, my salutes to Heath Ledger, the actor, who’s swansong is this magnum opus, and May You Rest in Peace, Sir Heath!

Towards Zero

Finally, after many, many years (six to be precise) I return to theatre! I'd be acting again and producing for the very first time! My lovely wife Priyanka is one of the other producers :)

On May 21st & 22nd 2008, Theatrecian production of an Agatha Christie thriller, Towards Zero at Gyan Manch, Kolkata, India.

It all began with a pretty simple conversation between Priyanka and me about my previous stint in theatre (12 professional plays whilst at university before the MBA bug bit me) and her keen inclination towards the performing arts. One thing lead to another, and before we knew it, we were speaking to good friend and founder of Theatrecian, Tathagatha (affectionately, or for the sake of pronounciability, called TC) about looking at this as a proper business venture. And after many rounds of chai, samosas, arguements, melodrama and serious contemplation, we froze on Christie's whodunnit, Towards Zero

Thankfully, we have good friends in TC, Dhruv Mookerji and Deborshi Barat, who are very highly respected names in theatre and cinema in Kolkata. The mere mention that we wanted to get into this got them keen and interested in the venture.

Without further delay, we had a young breed of highly talented actors and technicians on board

I am surprised that the theatre lovers of Kolkata have never craved for anything beyond MOUSETRAP so far.

So here it is; an un-adulterated drama-thriller; a rich aunt; ex-flame; nephews, one with two wives; plenty of friends; and a bunch of suspicious servants... ladies and gentlemen, I give you TOWARDS ZERO!

The past few days have been particularly tough. To give you an idea, since going freelance, I have been working for four clients, and at least three projects for each client at the same time. Its' like having twelve jobs! There have been moments of extreme vulnerability, when the decision to move away from the comforts of a 9-5 job with a supervisor and an assistant with an entire team to work together became lucrative again. There have been hours of staring on the computer screen in dis-belief as to how bad could MY life be; a chance look at an email made me come across this quote:

"Expecting gratitude in exchange for having done something that was hard. Yes, you built a company, you might even have bootstrapped it. Yes, you’ve got the machinery and the packaging and the retail space. Yes, you’ve navigated hiring people and yes, you finally shipped. I couldn’t care less. I’m not going to buy your brownie/consulting/services just because you worked hard on it"

Inspired me from the moment I read it. And so, I am going back to work! NOW!

Cheers.

Begin BLOGGING!

Finally, after a gazillion years of contemplating, I begin blogging today!

About what...well.. I don't really know. I have never been much of a focussed writer, so heck, why should this be any different. As and when things come to my mind, I'll pain the internet community with my rambles.

Thanks for reading, and keep tuning in!