As compared to another Japanese ingenuity ‘Miuro’ where does Rolly stand? Well, again we don’t have that liberty to see face to face as Miuro is still sperated by thousands of mile of waterland. Anyway, still have a look who haven’t already -

1. What makes a good or a bad movie? Particularly when passing through the minds of our official/self-proclaimed critics? What’s their thought process? The gumption with which they dissect a movie (and everybody associated with it) Left-Right and Center and rate it a classical ‘legend’ or just a run of a mill Hindi ‘Filum‘ I wonder whether they use some points matrix? Surely, not! In fact nobody use I guess, but that shouldn’t reflect a poor understanding of cinema and seemingly mood-based analysis. So when a movie likeTashan can get a 2.5 and 3 star Rediff ratings with a title ‘A stylish Spectacular’ for example, by what standards Sarkar Raj could only muster a frivolous ’2′ star rating and a meaningless title ‘Sarkaricature Raj’ ? Film at fault? I don’t believe so!!

2. What defines the pace of a movie? Is slowness an attribute of a bad movie and always worth questioning? Again, I fail to agree! If so what is our take on all time best movies like Godfather and Shawshank Redemption or for that matter or No Country for Old Men (a more contemporary example)? It’s not the pace of movie which makes it good or bad but how it’s been laid for the characters to evolve across the whole story. So wherein Godfather takes it time to build the character of Michael while he escapes and looms lonely across the continent, Sarkar Raj was more than able to achieve its purpose while laying out the foundation and subsequently placing each character in its place around a remarkable plot. Well, it’s not at all a comparison but an example (more on this later).

3. What attributes to a great/dumb/solid script or a story? Something which incites emotions – excitement, fury, rage, bursts of laugh, feel good feeling or just ridicule? Or it is the one which is able or not able to connect with its vision? Not every film is a recipe of emotions, but still it can quite effectively tell what it set out to tell. Saying that, I feel Sarkar Raj quite effectively does both. Whereas it produces some of the most intense emotional and inter-personal trials within and outside the powerful Nagre family, it also expands in vision than its predecessor encompassing a vicious and filthy ‘all level’ ubiquitous politics which can emerge from the remotest parts of India.

4. What makes an actor? What is acting in general? Is it the art of ‘portraying’ the protagonist or ‘living’ the same in those two and half hours? Or is it just the way an actor ‘plays’ it? Or is it just a pre-conceived notion about the actor even before the first scene on screen? hmm… So when I can say that Mr. Bachchan may have faltered on many occasions while ‘playing’ the protagonist, I would have to say he has ’lived’ the one in this. He smiled on his son’s laurels, cried on losing him and punched as avenger being ‘Subash Nagre‘ all through. Bachchan Jr. didn’t disappoint either.  

5. Director and Directorship? Is it the perfection with which the scope, vision and impact of the script is endured and laid out within those 2-3 hours or is it again pre-conceived ideas of the style or mistakes of a particular person? The clichés or the repulsive close-ups which may seem to some in Sarkar Raj is an impactful art which only some has mastered in Bollywood. Ramuji, might be deft only with certain themes (fear or power struggle) and might err and burn hands while trying to play with fire (Sholay) or may take an inspiration from Godfather and deliver a Indian counterpart (which to me to Ramu’s credit, has its own individuality and is very different than original) still we can’t and shouldn’t take away the credit for which he is worthy for. He does what he does quite remarkably!

However we see it, still the fact is our public reviewers and critics influence our decisions and as such I would than anybody else like them to be more consistent and unbiased in their analysis. Unlike a common cinemagoer who may love or hate particular celluloid release for their obvious reasons, they own a moral and social responsibility firstly to understand and secondly to opine on what is presented, for what it is in those three hours disconnected from everything else!

Regards,

GA.

Apparently,

‘Finally’ seems to be a antithesis of a title for the first post, but then something in me almost ‘sighs’ as I sit down to pen my first post. After being in consternation, fighting procrastination and constantly persuading myself for almost a month on the idea of starting my own blog, it felt like an insurmountable task for a newbie like me to find a handle to begin in the web ‘jungle’. Not that I’m completely duck to the world of web, but finding an apt environment and researching through the plethora of possibilities which exactly suits you, may take a breath out.

 After comforting with the idea to start a blog, it all began with the perusal and research through multiple blog services with the likes of Blogger, WordPress, b2evolution, TypePad, WordPress.com, LiveJournal and many others. Blogger is an offering of Google and is one of the most popular services which provide blogs hosted on ‘blogspot‘ namespace. Typepad is also a similar service but a paid one with somewhat more flexibility and features to customize the blogs. WordPress from WordPress.org and b2evolution are the blog environments which can be setup on any hosted domains and provide the maximum flexibility to control and customize your blog environment. So, while choosing a service like Blogger or Typepad provides maximum ease of use they lack the customizations, control (like a personalized URL e.g. www.yourblog.com – though Blogger now provides this as an upgrade) and the proven blog environment as provided by WordPress and b2evolution. On the other side, a WordPress or a b2evolution solution requires to find and set up your own host and install and customize the solution there, which can be little difficult for the starters looking for the ease and cost effective solution. There are some hosting services which provide free hosting but most of the time they are limited by functionalities and display ads to compensate the costs.

 So, while comparing the snap-in amateur type and overwhelming professional type services, I chose to pick WordPress.com, a service having an unmatched flavor of both types. While not only it provides the WordPress – one of the best blog environments, it also has the ease and flexibility of the snap-in services where you can start immediately. Moreover I mapped my own domain by purchasing an upgrade for 10 bucks and chose to have a space of my own with a personalized web address. What more, I could set up my email on the same domain through Google Apps, everything almost the way I wanted! Not bad for a starter, huh!!  

 ’Finally, here I’m silently insinuating my way through the web to see and describe world around me in a whole different perspective…