My journey – Marriage, Divorce, Subsequent Love & Freedom

I was among the chosen few.
Who was deemed to be of virtue.
So I was married off at 9.
With all the pomp & show that was due.

I was deflowered in full public view.
And I, young & naïve, didn’t know what to do.
I couldn’t understand or relate to anything being done.
So I just sat there and gazed into the endless blue.

And then began those sessions twice a day.
That were an endless pain but I had no say.
They’ll make me a complete being, I was told.
But 3 years without a break, not one fulfilling day.

I was 12 when the wall broke & my faith stood shattered.
My reasoning had failed and my patience was battered.
I rebelled against society, and they hated me for it.
But by then, it was me, and me only that mattered.

Self-destruction was the name of the game then on.
I coasted by on the dark road lit by neon.
Cause something still bothered me, I wasn’t complete yet.
And only the path to completion would usher in a new dawn.

Finally, dawn broke, and I’m on the path to completion.
My gut says its right and it also stands to reason.
I’m in love now, and it feels so great.
Fulfillment is now the flavour of the season.

Ironically though, the path was never far from me.
Cause my love and ex-spouse are descendants of the same tree.
My aversion for my ex-spouse guided me to my love.
I could see beyond religion and find the path to truth – I’m free.

Modern Day Education

The young man dressed dapper for his interview.
Attuned to corporate fashion was he, from hair gel to shoe.
His CV was 4 pages long; it made him look like a King Kong.
But he was still part of a protozoan zoo.
A product of modern day education.

He excelled at everything in and out of class.
He knew he was on his way to fame en masse.
He aced all his tests; for he was none less than the best.
But standing was he on a shallow tower of glass.
A product of modern day education.

For he was bred in a system that thrived on robots.
Where the likes of him were methodically manufactured in lots.
Where he was trained to follow the rule; at home and at school.
Where human creativity was reduced to naught.
A product of modern day education.

“We’re the new IT superpower”, everyone screamed their voices hoarse.
The service industry was the new economic main course.
We need process orientation; so thinking & research can go into hibernation.
And all set to conquer the world are we, with our human workforce.
All products of modern day education.

But wait a minute, my friend, is the workforce really human?
Or is it just an army of trained preprogrammed operators, instead of a thinking man & woman?
We’re well equipped with the HOW and WHAT; it’s the WHY that poses some food for thought.
How aligned is our education with questioning, logic & reason?
That for you, is modern day education.

Token Activists

Well...I'm enjoying my poetry. :)

The recent controversy surrounding the Wall Project was a topic of hot conversation all over. Now...I'm COMPLETELY FOR such projects. And I'm COMPLETELY AGAINST any damage done to such things of beauty. Having said that, it was the arrogance of the outrage combined with the indifference of the "activists" towards so many other issues far more critical that inspired me to write this piece.

Where do you vanish when passers-by spew paan & tobacco on walls & roads?
Where do you vanish when people dump garbage all over in loads?
I’d love to know your whereabouts when the silence of the night is drowned by speakers blasting to the max.
Or when walls along railway tracks are adorned with graffiti advertising quacks.

Two big inconveniences we face are political rallies and religious processions.
Speak up against them if you have the balls, instead of signing mindless online petitions.
Take a stand against POP idols and vicious rhetoric thrown around in rallies.
Pink chaddis aren’t enough to counter the ill-effects of this malice.

You marched with candles when your comfort zones were attacked.
There were dozens of online groups “championing causes”, that each of you backed.
But all that enthusiasm fizzled out in less than a year.
True champions last way longer than that, I’m sure.

You think that an involvement of 6 months can clean up 60 years of mess.
So you take a sabbatical to join the political process.
You have no idea about issues concerning the grassroots.
Farmer suicides? Education? Employment? Aaah!!! I’m only concerned about stock market collapses, about the rest I care two hoots.

You’re a great specimen, esteemed token activist. And I salute you.
But on a yodaesque sidenote, much better without you we could do.

Changing friends in changing times

This is my first attempt at poetry. The subject is something that has disappointed me for years now...so much so that I've stopped subscribing to or buying newspapers. The two times that I did buy one in the last couple of months added to my feeling that a newspaper is no more what it used to be or what its supposed to be. So, here goes my comment on the state of the newspaper today.

I recall with nostalgia those jolly days from school.
When public speaking during the assembly was a rule.
Most of us would speak about places, dreams and the like.
But those were the last things I’d feed down the mike.

For I was the born activist, always eager to take a stand.
And what better source of news could be, than a newspaper in my hand.
It told me all about what went on in the world around me.
Maradona, the cold war, Pink Floyd & the PC.

My then best friend – the newspaper.


Years have passed since, and we’ve both evolved.
But my friend’s evolution has me appalled.
Its grown into a goliath, but one without a spine.
Sensationalism and commercialization are today’s newspaper’s lifeline.

Each newspaper is some bigwig’s minion.
They pass off opinion as news and propaganda as opinion.
Celebrity gossip & irrelevant perspectives are the order of the day.
The pits are the WAG pics of the Times & the bikini babes of Mid-day.

No more my friend – the newspaper.


On an optimistic note, that’s not the end of the world.
For from the curdles of despair is the cream of change churned.
And I’m proud to be a witness to this change taking place.
We’re on our way to glory with the internet at its base.

With independence as its centre of gravity, the net heralds a new dawn.
Where everyone can speak his mind like a king and not be anybody’s pawn.
Damn!! This thing has potential, but it might go the newspaper way.
Unless we act responsibly and handle it with care, as they say.

I implore upon you all to make the best use of my new friend.
Let’s make openness, inclusiveness and constant critical communication the new trend.
I hope to live to see the world as a better place.
And if we are to create a revolution, the internet is our ace.

My new friend – the internet.

Movie Review - Tropic Thunder

Movie - Tropic Thunder
Director - Ben Stiller
Cast - Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Tom Cruise

Flashback to 2008 : There was this 2008 Bollywood release called Luck By Chance. It was probably one of the best directorial debuts I've seen in recent years. The movie was a stark exhibition of Bollywood & its internal dynamics. However, I had one small complaint with the presentation of the movie - although it tried to indulge in self-depreciating humour, it failed at that since the tone of the movie was so "in your face" dark.

Cut to early 2009 : Ben Stiller is to hollywood today what Govinda was to bollywood a decade ago...and some more. What I mean is that 10 years ago, I would have walked into a Govinda movie without any qualms since I knew that there would definitely be entertainment of the "leave your brain home" kind in the movie. Same goes for Stiller today.

I had first seen a poster of Tropic Thunder a few months ago - Robert Downey Jr. wielding a gun in an exaggerated pose. And my first thought was that its a war movie. But there was also this nagging feeling at the back of my head - Why on earth would Ben Stiller make a war movie? And what would he make of it? The feeling lingered for a while and then slowly died off, placing Tropic Thunder on a mental back burner while I moved base from Goa to Mumbai and jumped straight into the grind of dreary commutes and an uninspiring workplace.

Cut to present : Finally watched the movie yesterday. And trust me, I'm simply unable to control those occasional spurts of laughter even now. My colleague sharing my cabin must be wondering what I've smoked today. Tropic thunder was not a war movie...almost. And Stiller, true to reputation, didn't disappoint.

So, we have three movie stars with distinct on-screen & off-screen personalities. We have the multiple Oscar winning Aussie perfectionist Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr.), the superhero typecast Tugg Speedman (Stiller) and the king of cheesy comedies Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black). Add to that a newcomer actor Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) and a crazy rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and we have the cast for the greatest ever war movie. So far so good. But then, Murphy's law strikes...and things spiral out of control. The rest of the film is a roller-coaster ride full of pee-inducing slapstick and some subtle, some not so subtle references to notable Hollywood personalities.

Now, the reason why I referred to Luck By Chance. The point where I feel LBC failed is where Tropic Thunder comes out tops. It makes similar scathing comments at the prevalent system in Hollywood but it does so with an extremely endearing comic panache. I'm sure Russell Crowe & Harvey Wienstien must've cringed at the way they were parodied by Downey Jr. & Tom Cruise respectively.

The performances in the movie are all standouts. Be it Stiller as the actor unable to break the shackles of his onscreen image; Downey Jr. with his arrogant swagger; Jack Black as the heroin addict going through withdrawal and above all, Tom Cruise in his cameo as the ruthless studio head. In fact, this has to be one of Cruise' best ever performances.

Another thing that really works for Tropic Thunder is that it can touch a chord with any kind of audience. For a layperson, it's one of the best comedies to have come out of Hollywood in recent years. For the movie buff, it's a treasure trove of references. For the discerning viewer, it's a tongue in cheek comment on how self-defeating the Hollywood system can become.

Too bad that I couldn't watch this on the big screen. Would've been awesome. However, I can always watch it on some projector somewhere whenever I get a chance. This is one movie I wouldn't mind watching any number of times.

Warning : This is not for the weak-hearted or the sensitive kinds. Can offend you to the point of suicide and/or murder.

It did change my heart

June's first husband died in an accident, leaving her a few months pregnant. She turns to Kurt Nealon, a celebrated police officer who ends up becoming everything for her. She gives birth to her first daughter, Elizabeth (from her first marriage) and is later pregnant again with Kurt's child. They employ an introvert carpenter, Shay Bourne to undertake some repairs at their house. One day, when June returns home from the doctor, she finds Kurt and Elizabeth dead with Shay holding the murder weapon, Kurt's service arm. Shay is convicted to death for the gruesome double murder.

Michael is a student. And he's called on for jury duty for Shay's trial. The jury convicts him unanimously, with Michael being the last to vote guilty. Years later, Michael, now a priest, is called on as Shay's spiritual counsellor in prison.

Maggie is an agnostic radical born to a deeply devout rabbi and an overbearing mother. She's on an ACLU panel and ends up taking Shay's appeal against the death penalty in court.

Shay's arrival at a particular section of the prison heralds the advent of seemingly impossible miracles. And he gets a fan following who look up to him as a messiah.

Now back to June. June's second daughter, Claire, is diagnosed with a severe heart condition that won't allow her to live for more than a few months unless she gets a heart transplant. Shay sees this on the news and volunteers to donate his heart.

This is the basic plot skeleton of Jodi Picoult's new novel Change of Heart. And by the looks of it, one might deduce that it'll be a mundane courtroom drama, with a few dollops of emotion thrown in. But Picoult makes it into a magnum opus - a classic debate on the death penalty, religion and morality with her skillful spin on the characters and the situations. Sample this :

June's moral dilemma on whether she should accept the heart of the man who took practically everything away from her. Maggie wrestling with her agnostic beliefs and what she sees happening in the prison around Shay. Michael's dilemma on his role in bringing Shay where he is; his learnings from the seminary and Shay's miracles. Shay's chosen form of repentance that clashes with the legal stand on his execution. These are just some of the themes dealt with in the story. And then there's the reference to the gnostic gospels - something that were tangentially referenced in Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code. Here, the reference is much stronger, and unlike The DaVinci Code, they are just a subtext in the main plot.

What makes the book such a great read is that the author stays faithful to the main plot and doesn't let all the subtexts overpower it. And the fact that she doesn't take a stand on the religious aspects of the plot. The only strong stand that she does take in the book is a strong anti-death penalty one. And surprise of surprises, this book made me think strongly about the juxtaposition of my stand on the death penalty and my spiritual views. And by the time I finished this book, I was converted from a strong votary of the death penalty to an opponent of it. And that change didn't come entirely due to the content of the book. Rather, it was a chain of thought that the book initiated, which resulted in that change.

The best part of the book is the discussion subjects at the end. 4 pages full of topics and issues from the book that can be discussed and debated. And though its a really long read, I would recommend this book with a 5 star rating for its mighty thoughprovoking content.

Pirates of the subcontinent

I know that this piece might seem oversimplified to some industry insiders. But I'm putting it across the way I best percieve it. I also know that I would be admitting to have committed a crime in this article but I fully understand my actions. And maybe this article was the catharsis I needed to get the crime out of my system. I also concede that this article isn't backed with figures. That's more due to the fact that the topic under question is something that'll leave all figures redundant. Some people might also find this to be some kind of a conspiracy theory - which it very well might be. Accepted. But there is a faint veneer of reason behind whatever I've surmised. And even though it might all be alleged, its definitely not unfounded. Okay...announcements done, let me get to the point by first admitting to the crime I've mentioned here. I'm guilty of piracy. The motivations to delve into it were many. Now, I won't get into things like a defense or justification but I'll take this as a base for a presumption that there would be many more people who take to piracy for the very same reasons. And maybe other reasons as well - valid or invalid is besides the point. What I'm planning to say here is my perception of why the crime is being committed, my understanding of what the industry is doing to prevent it and maybe some inputs from my side as to what else could be done to curb the menace.

To determine where we stand on this issue, we need to analyse the growth chart of the phenomenon. During my childhood, VHS was a rage. We used to wait for holidays so that we could rent out a VCR/VCP and gorge on movies till we passed out from tiredness. And we used to get two kinds of cassettes those days. One was the legal one, bearing the mark of Shemaroo, Eagle, Bombino etc. The others were copies of the latest releases which had quite a few scenes cut, sometimes important ones too. The first pirated movie I saw was Mr.India. I wanted to watch the movie badly and my parents wouldn't allow me within a mile of the theatre playing it - as it was known to be a sleazehouse till a few weeks ago. So it was down to the video rental who had a copy of Mr.India in the second month of the release of the movie. Not that I knew the difference between a legal and a pirated copy then - and I doubt if even the guy renting them out knew. We used to distinguish them by the quality of the print - Achche print waali cassette (read original) and Kharab print waali cassette (read pirated). The quality differential continued for a good decade and a half after that and the only thing that changed till the early 2000's was the time in which one could lay his hands on a pirated copy of a movie.

The year was 2003 when I bought my first DVD player. I used to stay in Hyderabad then. And I had access to two rental stores that were diametrically different ala chalk and cheese. One was located in the upmarket Rd. # 12 Banjara Hills and the other one closer to home in a lower middle class section of Banjara Hills. The shop on Rd. # 12 stocked a huge collection - English, Hindi & Telugu, which included 90% legal prints and 10% pirated. The smaller shop had a much more modest collection. He owned 3 english movies (Top Gun, Terminator 2 and Hyderabad Blues). Well...HB wasn't entirely an english movie but I grouped it along with the 2 T's just for the sake of it. These 3 movies were legal prints. He had a smattering of old hindi movies (legal prints again). He would have a copy of the latest hindi release by the 3rd day of its release though. And then he had hundreds of telugu movies that again were mostly legal. The large shop was once raided by the cops right after Chiranjeevi's Tagore released and with that, off went all the pirated discs from his shop. And the owner of that shop has never stored any pirated titles in his collection ever since. Not even for his safe "regular customers". The smaller shop though, remained untouched by the cops throughout the 4 years I stayed in Banjara Hills.

In those days, the pirated prints of hindi movies we would get were thrown out into the market by Sadaf, a Pakistani company. They were easily recognisable by the tacky reproduction of the film's artwork on the CD cover and their striking logo. A movie on a pirated CD would cost Rs.50 in those days. And the quality of the movie matched that of the artwork reproduction. They were very clearly camera prints and the both the video and audio quality would be lamentable. Today, things have changed quite a bit. The current wave of multi-movie DVD's started around 2-3 years ago. But they were expensive then. a 5 movie set would cost a hundred rupees then. Today, the cost for the same has come down to a paltry Rs.40. And, the quality of the prints seems to have improved by leaps and bounds. Except for that rare pixellation, which might be the result of so much being crammed into one disc, the DVD's of today offer one a decent quality for watching on a 29" TV. Funny part is, most of these DVD's carry anti-piracy warnings from guess who....the FBI! :) Today, one can also watch movies online. No...I'm not talking about documentaries. I'm talking about the latest movie that is available on youtube within 3-4 days of its release.

In my opinion, this shift in pricing and quality is not entirely an economic change. Till a few years ago, piracy had a purely economical motive behind it. People were involved in the business due to the common viewer's disillusionment with cinema halls. They knew that they had a market that was ready to lap up even substandard fare purely because they got the comfort of watching it at home at a cheap price with it. Economically, if one pirated one movie, he stood to gain an operating profit of around 30-40%. The next level (the top level distributor) would append another 20% and by the time it came to the store, an end user would pay a price around 150-200% more than the cost of manufacture - leaving everyone in the food chain with a good profit. Today, we are talking about the same profit margins per disc but that's spread out over 5 movies that are being pirated in one disc. So theoretically, the entities involved from the time a copy of the movie is obtained for the purpose of piracy till the retailer selling the discs would make close to 1/4 of what they'd have made with the earlier revenue model. Now, when money is not the motivation behind such exercises, what could be?

If we trace the history of video piracy in India, one thing stands out as obvious. The 3 main centres from where the pirated movies are circulated are Pakistan, the gulf & Malaysia. And here comes the conspiracy theory bit. I don't believe I'd be way off the mark if I could relate these nerve centres to the globally growing Islamic movement. A major item on the agenda of islamic extremism in the places mentioned, especially Pakistan & the gulf is the economic destabilisation of India. And one person buying a DVD worth Rs.40 means a loss of Rs.500 (on a conservative average) to the industry. And what better way to destabilise an industry than by offering a slightly watered down version of the goods at more than a 90% discount? Going by the plethora of sales points for such media, I shudder at the number of people who might be buying those Rs.40 DVD's. In Panjim, where I currently stay, I've personally seen atleast 20 such shops/stalls. There were 7 such stalls on the stretch ranging from Chembur Station till the vegetable market under the flyover when I checked the same last year. Walk out of any suburban railway station in Mumbai and you'll see at least 2 stalls, with stations like Andheri having at least 20. You have the stats for a small town and a big city. And I won't be wrong if one such shop/stall sells at least 10 DVD's of the latest movie everyday on an average. Do the rest of the maths yourself.

What are we doing, as a state, to combat the spectre of piracy? Agreed - we have established strong laws. But is that going to be enough? The mere presence of laws is never a deterrent. Their tough execution though, is. But tough execution of laws in India is saved only for the barbaric TADA & its likes. Piracy laws? Aah!! who cares? In the third paragraph of this article, I mentioned the divide between the kind of video rental stores we have in India. The reason I mentioned it in such detail was to highlight how selectively the law is being exercised. A big shop on the main road, gets raided with the newspapers carrying the news the very next day. The hundreds of smaller shops across town however, function the same way today as they functioned 5 years earlier. Because the police doesn't have enough manpower to go after them. Even the first shop owner might have paid a fine, a bribe or both and he simply got away. Good that he stopped stocking pirated movies but I also know of many more rental shops that stand unfazed by any number of raids that might've been conducted on them. Also glaring is the number of stalls selling pirated movies out there in the open. I wonder why they are completely ignored by the law enforcement agencies. Leaving the law enforcement agencies aside, it's surprising why there aren't any proactive steps from the industry itself. All I see from that avenue is media campaigns against piracy, which according to me is the bare minimum and not all.

Which brings us to our most important question. What else can be done in addition to what's already being done in order to fight piracy? What steps can the industry take to the effect? What can you, me and all of us do to improve the situation? Let's first talk from a regulatory standpoint. We surely need to have a dedicated anti-piracy team which should ideally be formed under the I & B ministry. This shouldn't be a task force of bureaucrats, but a crack team of slueths. Their sole mandate should be nipping the piracy bug in its bud (well...whatever state it is in now if not the bud). They should also be given enough powers and less bureaucratic hassles to deal with. Maharashtra has taken a good first step by clubbing its gunda act with the anti-piracy act. This will ensure that people found guilty will be facing something much more severe than merely a fine. Of course, this would have effective enforcement of the law as a prerequisite. That itself could be a good starting point for the government. As for you, me and all of us commoners, all we can do is to try and spread the message among our social circle (friends, relatives & the lot).

The industry is what needs to tighten up its socks bigtime. It's easy to play a blaming game by pointing the finger at the authorities' inability to curb piracy. But in spite of that, the bottomline remains that the blame is not going to set the record straight. Piracy will continue and the pirate will simply laugh away to glory at the blame game. For one, the industry can try making copy proof discs. Agreed, some hack out there will know how to get around it. But a majority of the junta around would be rendered helpless. It's obvious from the improvement in the quality of pirated movies over the years that there has to be some insider involvement. So the industry will do a whole lot of good to itself if they were to indulge in some vetting exercises for all those who have access to the different versions of the movies. It would also be very helpful to them if they were to divert some of the funds being used in anti-piracy campaigns to rewards for people provinding tips and leads. Come to think of it. If there are tangible or intangible reasons for me not being able to watch a movie on the big screen, and a solution is commonly available for as cheap as Rs.40, why would I listen to an SRK or an Aamir when they ask me not to promote piracy? Yeah...but I might be quite tempted to divulge a source of pirated DVD's if I get a reward of Rs.50,000.

I've been ranting quite a bit. Guess I'll end here. But I'll end with a promise. However strong a reason I might have for not being able to watch a movie on the big screen, I will not buy another pirated DVD. I'd rather wait for the official DVD release. And I sincerely request all of you to do the same. Hopefully, if we can fight this menace effectively, we might see cheap legal DVD's soon. Moser Baer has already done it. And over the last year or so, they've released quite a few movies in inexpensive titles within a few months of their release. I just hope Moser Baer does for movies what T-Series did for music.

(Originally published here)

Ghajini - A Review

Well...against all my better sense, I blasphemed day before and I swear I'll never do anything similar again. Had a few hours to kill before shift and I ventured into Ghajini. And I came out with mixed feelings - surprisingly, anger wasn't one of them. I do remember laughing at the pretentious pretender that Aamir Khan is though.

I mentioned to someone the other day, "Making a Memento with a similar touch of class is beyong Aamir & Murgadoss". I guess Aamir was being quite honest when he said that this movie isn't a remake or a ripoff of Memento. What they've done is picked up the basic premise (Antiretrogade Amnesia or whatever) and the look and feel (Aamir's tattooes, the polaroid, the notes etc.) from Memento and made a bollywood masala flick on the same. Good that I wouldn't have to insult one of my alltime favourites continually by referring to this ordinary movie as a remake or a ripoff of it.

So what do we have here? We have a lovely case study on the marketing of a movie that's worth its place in B-school syllabi around the world. The name of the game is positioning. And Aamir has shown that he's an ace at that. Right from the time the movie was concieved, Aamir has been promoting it covertly and overtly. We had those Samsung ads where he appeared with the Ghajini hairdo. And then an appearance on a TV show where he gleefully proclaimed that this hairdo belongs to his character from his forthcoming film which is going to be a hardcore action flick. This was followed by his blogs where he made obtuse references to Memento and then "clarified". But tongues had already started wagging about Ghajini's Memento connection and curiousity levels were piqued up. Next comes the in your face poster. And all the TV interviews about how we went about developing his eight-pack and so on. Bottomline - here's the formula for success in bollywood and apna Aamir has perfected it - Sustained but clever marketing, curiousity factor and star power.

What about the movie itself then? Well...it was a 3 hour marathon. Half of it was devoted to the romance angle between Aamir's Sanjay Singhania and Asin's Kalpana. The rest was spent on Sanjay's revenge. The romance part of the movie would've really worked had it been a movie on its own. The chemistry between the lead pair was good and the pace was maintained. And Asin surely has a lovely expressive face and a great screen presence. The revenge saga was a different story altogether. It left a lot to be desired. First of all, the condition of Sanjay wasn't put across properly. And there were several contradictions to the condition in the plot. Secondly, the character development skills displayed by the director so adeptly in the romance half of the movie were completely missing in this part. Thirdly, there is absolutely no connection between the romance part of the movie and the revenge part. They look like two different movies patched up in the form of intermittent flashbacks.

Now, I don't say that nothing in the movie worked. But every positive of the movie was blunted by some glaring negative. Rahman's music was on the mark again...but was handicapped by some childish lyrics from Prasoon Joshi. Aas-Paas-Chaas-Ghaas Guzareeeeeeesh!!! Gimme a break Prasoon...and go back to the ad world. The cinematography by Ravi K. Chandran was superlative. The action was in true-blue tamil fashion. Old school and awesome. But that was all dumbed down by the editing and the screenplay. Why on earth did this have to be presented as a flashback collage? Whatever happened to the good old linear mode of storytelling? Or were they trying to find inspiration in the narrative style of Memento as well?

Performancewise, the movie belonged to Asin. She was gorgeous and spontaneous. Aamir was pretty Dil Chahta Hai-esque in the part where he romances Asin and huffy-puffy-grumpy in the tattooed getup. No great shakes from him. Jiah Khan was irritating at her best and repulsive most of the time. Her scooty did far better though. Which brings us to the most important character in the movie - Ghajini. Pradeep Rawat of all the people? Did they fall short on budgets that they couldn't get someone better to play the role? Atleast when the movie was named after the villian. This guy was a parody.

Was the movie watchable? For me, no. For the millions of bollywood buffs out there, I'm sure yes. They'll throng to the theatres like never before and make this movie a huge hit...whether I like it or not. As for recommendations on whether to watch this or not, this is a really tricky one. So take your chances, and don't blame me if you feel slighted spending those 200 rupees in the multiplex.