As Vidyadhar Patwardhan gets back from his morning walk with his friends and starts bellowing "Sumi" as soon as he opens the door, it seems to transmit the viewer to the quintessential middle class home with Dada, Dadi, Papa, Mummy, and the kids.

As Vidya and Aman enter the home and try to work around Sumi to make her accept a Brit as her daughter-in-law and the ease with which she does accept it all...which child or which parent can fail to get a little misty eyed with it?

As Aman, Vidya, Sumi, and Jenny sit in the living room...joking, laughing, Sumi putting oil into Jenny's hair, Vidya and Aman convincing Sumi to let Jenny and Aman go to the party, Jenny trying her broken Hindi and saying "main sabke liye coffee banata hoon"...it is just not possible to stop that smile from coming to the lips.

As the neighborhood mechanic, Ali makes his boisterous appearances in the frame and as Ali gets straightened by Sumi and the way Vidya takes all the credit with Sumi smiling behind his shoulder...could you have asked for more?

But more is what Viruddh delivers and delivers, with panache. Mahesh Manjrekar comes into his element after a long time and after some unforgettable escapades into trash commercial cinema. He delivers the goods this time and no, he does not promise another Saaraansh, nor another Dhoop. Viruddh, as the name indicates, is not just about coming to terms with something bad that happened, but revolting against it, and doing something about it. The protagonists do not lose hope, but keep fighting till the end, and that is the beauty of the movie. Of course, who better for this fight than the pair of Amitabh Bachchan and Sharmila Tagore...seasoned actors who out perform the rest of the cast by miles.

Roughly speaking, Viruddh is the story of how an aged couple's happy family is shaken upside down by events that threaten to tear the very fabric of their home and lives and how the emotional strength of the couple, brings them out of this lurch. Nothing that has not been tried before but this time, they have done it, with a twist. More than the twist or the story in its entirety, it is the subtle moments that pack the kick.

Vidyadhar Patwardhan (Amitabh Bachchan in another of his memorable roles) tries to laugh while sitting on the park bench and is not even able to open his mouth, forget guffaw like those from the laughter club he was a regular member of.

Vidya and Sumi (Sharmila Tagore in an amazingly powerful comeback role) lie on the bed and imagine sounds when there have been none.

They don't embrace each other to share their pain but follow the more natural process of handling their individual sorrows alone...but they know, both of them know what the other is feeling.

Sumi knows that Vidya did not really want the tea he asked for as an excuse to cry alone and Vidya knows Sumi did not run out to prepare tea...touching, most touching.

The helplessness with which Amitabh, as Vidya, performs even the bravest of acts is to be seen to be believed. Doing all this, of course, is the actor we have all seen as the angry young man, an all powerful variation of the human species who does not think twice about his ability to deliver the world of all evil. Watching the same man with sagged shoulders, permanent lines on his face, and a tired gait makes you cry out at the unfair nature of it all. Believe me, Manjrekar could not have got such reaction by the medium of many other actors.

And then, there is Sumi, the mother who is traditional and yet speaks fluent English, one who cries on hearing her son's pining for her hand made sweater and yet is strong enough to support her husband who has started to lose the battle. Sharmila Tagore is as believable as she is graceful and has proved yet again why she is considered to be one of the legends...the difference that she can bring to a character's treatment is what makes Sumi so real.

John Abraham, as the ideal son Aman, does not have much to do but does well in whatever little he is made to put in. He looks serious and well meaning for the most part which is what an ideal son of Vidya and Sumi should have been. Anusha, as the Brit live-in-turned-wife of Aman, could have been much better. Though she does manage the accent pretty well and her attempts at broken Hindi are a treat to hear, they are not as much to watch. A better screen presence would have helped.

Sanjay Dutt, in a dynamic appearance (as the movie credits claim) as Ali, is good and does what he has been kept in the movie for...draw whistles. Last but not the least, Sachin Khedkar, that much under rated actor, is at it again although the role does not offer much scope to him to display his talents. He does manage, pretty well, to show his own frustration and inability.

Viruddh is not as much a take on the system as Saaraansh and Dhoop might have been but it has more to do with the struggle, a very subtle difference in the take on the topic that makes Manjrekar's effort all the more laudable. The movie might not succeed at the box office (Sanjay Dutt's whistle inducing charms notwithstanding) but this has to go down in history as one of the better movies that Bollywood has come up with and one of the better performances of that man, that legend that goes by the name of Amitabh Bachchan.

Another of the firsts happened at IIMK this weekend and this time, it was the first ever marketing seminar on campus. With some big names from the marketing arena making their presence felt over the two days of the seminar, the atmosphere was, if not completely awe-inspiring, at least electrified. The first years were witnessing an event at IIMK for the first time and fortunately, the event turned out to be a success in all respects.

Association with such firsts is always an exhilarating experience for the organizers and I am sure that the Mpower coordinators and volunteers who worked for the seminar enjoyed the entire thing right from the conception to the execution to the post event bickering. In fact, this is one major advantage with IIMK. Being a young institute, it presents so many opportunities for students to make the institute evolve with themselves, in the process setting traditions and leaving their foot prints on the sands of time.

Unfortunately, I could not attend even a single of the sessions in the seminar and hence it is impossible to present a first person review of what happened. Much that I wanted to, assignment submissions, a bad mood, and some pending matters kept me away from all the action that I should not have missed, considering especially that I am a marketing major and have a special thing for the area. Anyway, be that as it may, let me just give a few links that shall guide the readers as to what happened at IIMK's Synapse, the marketing seminar with the theme of "The brand new world - Local competencies, Global challenges".

Pre-event

Business Line's Marketing page

Online information at CoolAvenues

Exchange4Media News

Post-event

The Hindu reports

Pagalguy article

CoolAvenues Online Report

A student's perspective

[image courtesy Nilesh]

All right babies and babas, ladies and ladaas, it is time for the first Bharateeya Blog Mela at Mode C. For those who do not know what Blog Mela is, gorge on the following links:

Blog Mela Schedule
July 14th Blog Mela at Patrix's
July 7th Blog Mela at Maanga's
June 30th Blog Mela at India Uncut

[Edited for the benefit of people who want to know more about BBM]

Some more links:
Old editions of Blog Mela
Blog Mela FAQ

Now that you know what BBM stands for, let me roll the red carpet for you and your nominations. The Mela will be hosted at Mode C on the weekend following July 28 and therefore, the nominations should reach me by midnight, July 28 Indian Standard Time (not stretchable, puhleaaaaaaaaze). As we wannabe managers often like to say, there are some ground rules:

• Nominations should be sent either as comments to this post or by email to nutkarsh[at]gmail[dot]com.
• Nominations should reach me latest by midnight, July 28 IST.
• The posts must either be written by Indians or be centered on India.
• The posts must be dated between July 22-28.
• Nominations should be sent as permalink(s) to the individual post(s) being nominated and not as link to the entire blog. In case the permalink feature is not available or not working, the title and date of the post should do.
• Nominations can be self nominations or if you are feeling extraordinarily generous, you can nominate my posts, too (or for that matter, anyone else's)
• While you are nominating, please do take care that the entry is not on the lines of "I woke up, I brushed my teeth, bathed and went to office, worked, came back and slept". Even if it has to be on those lines, there should ideally be something interesting, novel and insightful about the way the person bathes or brushes teeth or works...

The word is finally out and I am not getting any scholarship for the international exchange that I am set to go for in the next term. I called up home and started analyzing the pros and cons of going, missing laterals, spending one and a half lakh of rupees...kept on hinting at not wanting to go till my mother shouted me shut. She was flustered to say the least. Probably, she was comparing this occasion to the Stanford MS call that I had to reject after my engineering due to the moolah problem. Much that I wanted to persuade her that it is not the money (ok, not the money alone) this time, she did not want to hear anything on the topic...all I can say now after I spent one whole night and part of a day thinking over the conversation is...I love you, Maa.

Amongst other things, I am being pressed down by the idea that I am becoming less of a team player with every passing day. Although I still feel that I am capable of performing the toughest of tasks at an individual level any given day, I am finding it difficult to concentrate on anything once I am in a group of say, more than three people. Cut to the conversation that I had a few nights ago with Aditya, I think it has something to do with the false sense of self-righteousness and I-am-holier-than-thou attitude that most of us (and my self in particular) generally suffer from. Cut to the meetings of Backwaters, project groups, even canteen tables, I am increasingly finding myself either all alone or in tune with at most, a couple of people...disturbing signs in deed.

My rank in class has been on a sliding pattern ever since the second term. From a top ten position in the first term to 22nd till the last one, to the current 38, the journey has not been any surprise...not to me, at least. I won't be honest if I say it has not been bothering me at all, but I always console myself by looking at what am I putting my time in (sleeping, watching movies, bitching and cribbing on this blog, Kdio, Konnect, Backwaters) and hoping against hope that these things are what will add more value to my future than the rank. Of course, this assumes necessarily that I indulge into the other activities with full passion and enthusiasm which is as far from the truth as can be, especially in the current scenario (refer previous paragraph).

I have been sleeping like a log for the past few days. It is not lack of classes or work to do...I have quite a lot on my hands and it is not as if I am sick or anything but I just am getting too lazy to even want to get up. Even spelling the word Lethargy is taking so much time for me that it seems I would be better off implementing the stuff (and contributing to what I mentioned in the paragraph above).

Hmm...guess this is quite enough as far as cribbing for the day is concerned. In other news, Campus Monitor 24X7 is set to be re-launched shortly and I am sure that the new team will find some good masala to entertain us all. The marketing interest group at IIMK, Mpower is coming up with a high profile seminar of Marketing Gurus, called Synapse this weekend. It promises to be one interesting affair, considering the popular appeal that marketing holds for so many of us. There are some really big names lined up for the event and I will definitely try to come out with a full report on the happenings shortly after the weekend.

Once upon a time, in a kingdom shrouded by the tombs of mystery and bathed in the razzmatazz of associated glamour, there lived a boy named Whatever (though it might not be apparent, real names of places and characters have been withheld due to obvious reasons). Whatever was a funny boy...not funny in his actions or thoughts alone but funny in his totality. His deliberations on life and subsequent behavior had often landed him in situations from which only funny people could come out...and come out he almost always did!

Whatever studied in a school called Wherever which was THE place to study in that mysterious and glamorous kingdom. As it turned out later, Wherever added quite a lot to the kingdom's mystery and glamour. All this, however, happened after Whatever's time at Wherever. But then again...even when Whatever studied there, the place had enough charm to completely transform the boy that Whatever was before he left his village, Whichville for the big town, Whatopolis where Wherever was situated. Whichville, it must be noted, was the place for the celibate and the retiree to relax and meditate and not for the excitement, mystery and glamour seeking eyes of Whatever. Whatopolis, on the other hand, was the dream destination for many-a-dreamy-eyed boys and Wherever, in particular, gave ample opportunity to Whatever to whet his desire for an expanded and necessarily non-celibate community.

This, therefore, was the point where Whatshername entered into Whatever's life and swept him off his feet. Not to be confused as a sweeper, Whatshername was the prima donna for Whatever, the dreamy-eyed boy who had never seen what it was to stare into eyes as deep as the ocean, as blue as the sky...who had never known to gape open-mouthed at the sweet words coming out of those perfect pair of lips that moved in cohesion with his own heart beats...who had never known the joy of watching the swaying of body to the tunes of the sweetest octaves known or unknown to the world...who had never been encompassed by the blackness of the tresses, which for a change, was not frightening like other forms of darkness but instead, carried with itself, the mystery, glamour, and soft yet vast dreaminess that whatever had always wanted to find some day.

Needless to say, Whatever was besotted with Whatshername's charms but given the funny nature of Whatever and his actions, it was not long before the eventuality occurred and the twain could not meet. This was not the end for Whatever, however because though he had lost out on using Wherever to his advantage (as some maintain was the simplest of tasks that anyone could have done), Whatever was still young and still dreamt of that ultimate Nirvana. So it was that Whatever graduated from Wherever and moved on to college in the city of Whatsgodswill. The celibate and retiree nature of Whichville being reflected in Whatsgodswill, as well (perhaps owing to the fact that the city was quite close to Whichville, unlike Whatopolis), there was not much that Whatever could do to move forward towards his goal until he went to Whatada, the city where he started working for a living.

It was in Whatada that Whatever met Ohmygodlovely and fell in love for the first time (Whatshername was just an infatuation, Whatever's friends told him). Thus it was with Ohmygodlovely that Whatever went for the walks, shared the chocolates, wiped off the tears...Whatever was lost once and for all in that lovely pair of ear rings, those haughty nods of head, that free flowing laugh, that impish smile, the melody of voice, the tune of songs, that dismissive gesture, those twinkling eyes, the mystery, the glamour, and the dreams. Funny that Whatever was, he did not waste time in creating situations that made Ohmygodlovely bid goodbyes to him and move on to saner pastures and leaving whatever alone with his dreams and memories of what his dreams could have ended in...the ifs and the buts and might-haves.

The episode at Whatada had made Whatever into the cynical soul that landed at the shores of Whatroad whence he went back to academia to try his luck once again and see if he can move ahead in his quest for mystery, glamour, and dreams. However, Whatever had become too funny by this time and regardless of the mystery and glamour and dreams presented by Whatroad and its inhabitants, nothing could deter Whatever...nothing could make him lose his insanity yet again...not even Whatallulikeya, the one with the gait to shame the elephants, the one with the face to launch a thousand suns, the one with the attitude to drive men nuts. The only problem was that funnier and funnier had Whatever been transforming into, and a funny thing he did with Whatallulikeya, too. It all ended for him but then, he had never wanted to start...not after Ohmygodlovely...he couldn't have. So ended the fun for Whatever and so ended his story or did it?