Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Gandhi to Hitler: What's the story again?
'Gandhi to Hitler' is the movie that attempts to link two disparate leaders by letters they exchange, and by the time the final credits roll – you are still wondering what the movie was really all about.
The movie directed by Rakesh Ranjan Kumar, stars Raghubir Yadav, Neha Dhupia and Aman Verma.
The story is ideally about the last days of Adolf Hitler, which he spends hiding in a bunker in Berlin while the Allied Forces close in.
One of the most hated men in history stomps around his bunker, fumes about failed plans, commands traitors in his own Reich to be hunted down and killed, believing all along that his victory is assured. In a desperate attempt to show the other side of the coin, a shadowy, unimpressive figure of Gandhi takes innumerable walks with his silent group of followers talking about his non-violent beliefs. Things get as bad as it could with Hitler muttering in rage –"An eye for an eye!'" and is juxtaposed by Gandhi's – "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind..."
Against the war of beliefs of these two leaders runs the story of a bunch of soldiers from Subhash Chandra Bose's Azad Hind Fauj lost in the dangerous terrain between Germany and France – trying to find their way back home. The pack is lead by Aman Verma who keeps penning letters to his wife back in India – none of which he manages to send. The soldiers squabble amongst themselves, reminisce about the fields and the food back home and in their walk back to the homeland, keep losing one brother after another and only two survive. And we are not even sure if they make it back home.
Raghubir Yadav, who is a splendid actor otherwise, completely reduces the figure of Hitler to a caricature. When furious – his speech gets garbled and his shaking frame does not do justice to the leader of the third Reich. None of his officers are believable in their roles, not even Joseph Goebbels. The only two believable characters are Eva Braun and Joseph Goebbels' wife Magda. Braun tells her new husband Hitler, after their marriage in the bunker – that she does not want to die ugly – she has just been married for a few hours. Magda on the other hand, stoically poisons her six sleeping children, finally biting in to the capsule herself and dying in her husband's arms.
The acting in most cases is not believable, the sets are bad, the footage of World War II war carnage has weird orange flames added to it. The worst and the most redundant scene is perhaps the song for Holi, filmed in Punjab, showing the contrasting beliefs of Aman Verma – the soldier and his wife Amrita – who lives by Gandhian principles. Another was a soldier kissing his girl good bye and then getting blown up a few meters away from her.
The only good scene was one of the last ones – Hitler's followers burn his body, Goebbles shoots himself in the head with his dead wife in his arms – a mirror image of Hitler and Eva Braun's last moments; Aman Verma lying dead in a picturesque valley in Switzerland with the letters to his wife strewn around him and back in India, his wife turns the lantern down for the night.
Hitler with traces of tears around his eyes when his favourite architect Albert Speers puts in his papers and chooses to leave is less believable than Aman Verma breaking down in the forests with his small band of army when he sees them fight amongst each other.
The only connection between Hitler and Gandhi are the letters. Gandhi writes him one letter opposing his cruel ways and repeating the fact that he is sure Hitler is not a bad person; which Hitler is shown to reply to. Clearly neither party makes any accommodation for the others ideas.
In the end the director chooses to show the fluttering Indian tricolour with Nehru's freedom speech playing in the background – while back in Berlin, Hitler's last few followers burn his and Eva Braun's body and then shoot themselves or bite into cyanide capsules.
And one has to wonder – sitting in an empty hall – is THIS what the director tried to show? The Third Reich and Hitler failed because they did not believe in ahimsa and committed liberal war crimes?
There has to be some more connection!
- Jhinuk Sen, ibnlive.com. Updated July 30, 2011 at 03:39 p.m. IST
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/gandhi-to-hitler-whats-the-story-again/171628-8-66.html
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Srini's Diary: Favorite Actor Duos
Srini's Diary: Favorite Actor Duos: "Guys have a lot of time for useless things and one such thing that I did was to make note of the movies that I watched and to give them rati..."
Friday, July 22, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
when was Kasab born?
Just as my Twitter TL was busy discussing the issue, I found this article helpful enough to answer them.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/when-was-ajmal-kasab-born-july-13-or-september-13/167333-3.html
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/when-was-ajmal-kasab-born-july-13-or-september-13/167333-3.html
Chronology of major blasts in the country
This is what I found on my twitter timeline just as the Mumbai blasts were being reported. Thought it was indeed some good food for thought.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/chronology-of-major-blasts-in-the-country/167298-3.html
Following is the chronology of major blasts in the country:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/chronology-of-major-blasts-in-the-country/167298-3.html
Following is the chronology of major blasts in the country:
Varanasi, December 7, 2010: Two-year-old girl killed and 25 others injured in
a blast which takes place between the Dashashwamedh and Shitla ghats on the
river Ganga.
Pune, February 13, 2010: 17 people killed and over 60 injured when a bomb
rips out the famous German bakery in the city.
Mumbai, November 26, 2008: 166 people killed in coordinated serial explosions
and indiscriminate firing across Mumbai including the crowded CST railway
station and two five-star hotels, Oberoi and Taj.
Assam, October 30, 2008: At least 77 killed and over 100 injured in 18
bombings across Assam.
Imphal, October 21, 2008: 17 killed in a powerful blast near Manipur Police
Commando complex.
Malegaon, Maharashtra, September 29, 2008: Five people killed after a bomb
kept in a motorbike goes off in a crowded market.
Modasa, Gujarat, September 29, 2008: One killed and several injured after a
low-intensity bomb kept on a motorcycle goes off near a mosque.
New Delhi, September 27, 2008: Three people killed after a crude bomb is
thrown in a busy market in Mehrauli.
New Delhi, September 13, 2008: 26 people killed in six blasts across the
city.
Ahmedabad, July 26, 2008: 57 people killed after 20 synchronised blasts in
less than two hours.
Bangalore, July 25, 2008: One person killed in a low-intensity bomb
explosion.
Jaipur, May 13, 2008: 68 people killed in serial bombings.
January 2008: Terrorist attack on CRPF camp in Rampur kills eight.
October 2007: Two killed in blast inside Ajmer Sharif shrine in Rajasthan
during Ramzan.
August 2007: 30 dead, 60 hurt in Hyderabad terror strike.
May 2007: A blast at Mecca mosque in Hyderabad kills 11 people.
February 19, 2007: Two bombs explode on board a train bound from India to
Pakistan, burning to death at least 66 passengers, most of them Pakistanis.
September 2006: 30 dead and 100 hurt in twin blasts at a mosque in Malegaon.
July 2006: Seven bombs on Mumbai's trains kill over 200 and injure 700
others.
March 2006: Twin bombings at a train station and a temple in Varanasi kill 20
people.
October 2005: Three bombs placed in busy New Delhi markets a day before
Diwali kill 62 people and injure hundreds.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
the comeback post
sigh! writer's block ok. but for this long is socially unacceptable schizophrenia i guess! well yes. not that i havent had time to write or i havent had issues to blog about, but its just tat will to sit down and write.
there's isnt anything specific im going to write about right now. rather its going to be some rantling in general. this is just a start for what might be coming up (hope so!), more like a warm-up post may be!
yes i have been hibernating for quite a while now. i was indeed away from any form of socialising. reasons several and none needs explanation. but whatsoever, im out of it right now, and yet i havent made time to write. there cannot be an excuse of lack of time. although im a new mother with a seven-month-old, i believe its always about making that time. again, its not an issue of priority either since i have always to loved to blog. to become an avid blogger might be tough now given my circumstances, but just a simple post a day should suffice to keep my passion for blogging alive and to keep those silly/ stupid writing errors at bay.
one more must do right now for me would be reading. im now restricting myself to just few coffee table books of parenting and motherhood. but yes it does make me feel extremely guilty to confess that i havent read a proper book in atleast two years now. shameful! i know.
my first must do - blogging, has been ticked. now its the reading thats going to continue to haunt my dreams until i pick one off my book shelf. here's me wishing myself good luck!
hope to back soon with a post.
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