I Am - Movie Review

Star Cast: (in alphabetical order) –Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Nandita Das, Purab Kohli, Rahul Bose and Sanjay Suri

Special Appearance: Anurag Basu, Anurag Kashyap

Apart from the star cast mentioned above – there are two more actors in the movie but I cannot recollect their names. They play the ladies in Sanjay Suri’s life – one plays his ‘mum’ and the other plays the role of his ‘friend’.

I went to watch this movie without any background about the storyline or the star cast. In fact a friend pulled me in for it at the last minute. Until I saw the credits, I was under the impression that I was going to watch an English movie! But I was pleasantly surprised to find it otherwise.‘I Am’ is a cross over movie with English and Hindi used as the medium of expression interchangeably. For the benefit of the audience, the movie has subtitles in English.

The film is an interesting attempt to show four stand alone stories around Artificial Insemination, Impact of communal riots on Kashmiri Pundits, Child Molestation and Homosexuality; spanning across Kolkata, Kashmir, Bangalore and Mumbai.
Graphically represented (occupational hazard, you see! - cannot do without graphs and charts :P), this is how the arrangement of the star cast would look vis-à-vis the plot:

The movie begins with Nandita Das dealing with her desire of having a child and raising it on her own but worries about the character traits of the borrowed sperms that have a good chance to mirror in the child. The story, then, moves on with Juhi Chawla visiting her ancestral property in Kashmir only to sell it off and run away from that place but finds it hard to keep old memories at bay. Subsequently, the focus shifts to Sanjay Suri and his preferences in life; a lot of which is to do with his scarred childhood which he shares with no one until his stepfather dies. It is funny to note how Sanjay Suri’s use of Bengaluru (instead of Bangalore) comes with an effort in the movie. Finally Rahul Bose takes away the cake with his powerful performance as he tries to entice another man and lands into trouble.

All through the movie, every emotion is portrayed very subtly; and a lot of things have been left up to the audience to decipher.

I particularly liked the flow of the film as it moves from one storyline to another, seamlessly. That was possible, perhaps, because Onir (the director) has restricted the relationship between prime characters to the bare minimum and utilized it only to introduce a new character and transition into another story.

Some interesting things to note about the movie:

The story line is focused on the characters played and not on the issues they are dealing with. That is perhaps another reason why the story moves from one storyline to another effortlessly. The movie does not indulge in any sort of preaching. It does not tell the audience what is right or what is wrong or good over evil or winning and losing. The narration is good enough to hold on to the interest of the audience till the end .  But there is no concluding note on any of the stories that says  'everyone lives happily ever after' - which leaves the audience wanting for more.Onir, I feel, strategically has put Rahul’s story in the end, who again, leaves an impressionable mark in the audience’s mind through his performance. As I was coming out of the theatre my sister asked me what would I fill in after ‘I Am..’ for each of the prime characters in the movie. I couldn’t really think of any word to define their character except for their names to fill in the blank.

I feel, the movie justifies its title.

My final take on the movie –highly recommended for a watch!!

P.S: A word of caution for the faint hearted- although most of the movie follows a pattern of subtle expressionism but the climax is quite the opposite as far as use of Hindi slang is concerned. You may want to give it a second thought before watching it with people who fall beyond the radar of your comfort zone for sharing cheesy jokes! I wouldn't watch it with my dad :P

Imported Professionalism

With reference to consumer preferences, I have noted a unique thing about the Indian consumer. I am referring to our inclination towards foreign goods. The fact that any object or item that has ‘imported’ as its prefix, notionally climbs a few notches up the quality charts defined in the mind of the Indian consumer is quite typical of us. This could, perhaps, be the result of consistent better performance of imported products vis-à-vis their Indian counterparts.

By the way, for the benefit of the reader, the scope of the word ‘imported’ in this blog is restricted to developed economies (like the United States of America) and Imported ‘objects or items’ could be anything, ranging from imported chocolates to imported wine to imported fabric/dress material and so on.

I, being no different from the typical Indian Consumer, have a fetish for ‘Imported’ Professionalism.

Well how can professionalism be ‘imported’ you may ask? To which I would say, at the cost of sounding like a traitor (which is absolutely incidental), professionalism in the Indian context has always been an ‘imported’ phenomenon.
Before you raise your brows, I would like to clarify that I am not saying that we as Indians do not display professionalism (I know many of us may not agree with me on this!) but the kind of professionalism that we see in India is just the ‘customized’ (rather Indianized) version of this global trend.

Although customization is not always appalling, as a matter of fact - there are certain things (like these ERP applications) that need definite customization when imported/bought to suit the local tastes. Say for example when you try Chinese cuisine in India (which is a hot favorite amongst a lot of us) may not taste the same as authentic Chinese food in China. The Chinese food that is available in India is customized for the Indian palette. And because we are so used to the localized version, for all you know, we may not like the way it is done in China. Similarly a lot of other things have to be customized for the local crowd.

However for a universal phenomenon like professionalism, there is no need for improvisations or customizations to accommodate local requirements, because if you try to customize them – it stands a chance of losing its essence. And I am afraid to admit that I sense that loss of essence in the ‘customized’ version of professionalism prevalent in India.

Speaking of ‘Imported’ professionalism, every time I meet someone from the west, I see and feel a stark difference in their attitude and their approach to things/situations. From Communication to Commitment from Planning to Time Keeping, there is something very striking about them that always makes me wonder as to what goes behind ‘the making’ of a professional attitude like that.

Just to illustrate this with an example – there is a popular phrase used in India about punctuality. We often say ‘The problem with being early or on time is that there is no one to appreciate it’. This, I assume, is with the assumption that everyone else is expected to be late.

How true! But only in the Indian context; where 10.00 a.m. more often than not can mean anything from 10.15 a.m. to 10.30 a.m., sometimes even later.

However in a scenario when everyone turns up on time (like in the west) – the same phrase could change to : ‘The problem with reaching late is that there’s always everyone to sit up and take notice !’

This is what I refer to as ‘Imported’ Professionalism!

It is heartening to see the magic of ‘imported’ professionalism rubbing on to people when they return to India after a reasonably long stay in the west. In other words, they return customized to imbibe this quality without making any alterations to the quality itself.

Therefore, the good news is - that we have a choice! The choice is - whether to make alterations in ourselves to imbibe a quality or to (conveniently) make alterations to the quality itself to suit ourselves?

It is a difficult choice to make (like most other choices) but that is what differentiates ‘Imported Professionalism’ from ‘Customized Professionalism’ and perhaps also an evolved person from being just a creature of habit!

Pani Puri spelt with a capital ‘Pee’

The recent video of a Pani Puri wala peeing in the same vessel used for serving customers has created quite an upheaval. There are pictures and videos of the act everywhere. The article published in TOI reports that when the ‘guy in question’ was arrested; in his defense he said that there was no other place for him to relieve himself - therefore the vessel.

This incident must have grossed out a lot of people.

Some may have been grossed out to the extent of not trying Pani Puri ever from a street side vendor, or to the extent of not trying any street food ever, or even to the extent of not eating any outside food ever.

But the worry is, that apart from grossing people out, this incident has also exposed the lowest form of violation of ‘trust’ that one places on another individual.

When one buys a product or a service in exchange of money – how can one be sure that the product/service  one is buying is not adulterated or is not of low quality vis-à-vis the price one is paying for it?

How does one find the trade-off between ‘the many good things that money can buy; like food as in this case’ AND ‘the few things that money cannot buy; like Trust’

Can anyone ever equate these two factors?

The answer, after this Pani Puri incident, is NO.

The realization that the so called phenomenon as ‘honoring one’s trust’ cannot be expected by default (with or without a cost attached to it) - is shattering.

Imagine for a second, if it was possible to attach a price to 'ensuring that the trust bestowed upon another individual is honored'- even then, would there have been any way of confirming whether the trust was indeed honored unless the person in question is captured on camera conducting otherwise or owns up himself/herself?

Going back to the same Pani Puri incident, say if people decided to pay one rupee extra over and above the regular cost to the Pani Puri fellow for not peeing in the vessel used to serve customers- who could guarantee that he has indeed not peed in the vessel unless he himself claims otherwise.
If the act had not been captured on camera –the Pani Puri fellow would have continued to serve Paani Puri with some added flavor of his piss to his customers without anyone realizing it.

Well, the fact remains that there is no limit to the extent of external policing one can do to ensure everything is just the way it is supposed to be but the final responsibility always lies with the person who is supposed to act – however, the sad part is that we seem to have forgotten this responsibilty.

Anyways, my sincere sympathies are with those people who cannot do without a tangy and spicy plate of Pani Puri coming straight out of the road side vendor’s stall.

As for me, thankfully enough, I have never liked Pani Puri much. But I cannot claim the same for a lot of other things. So until the next person is caught on camera doing something as preposterous as our “Pee-ep-li Live” hero who rose to stardom overnight - I shall pretend that I am safe!!