(This is not a movie review, but my impressions of The American.)

George Clooney’s The American opens in theatres tomorrow. This is a different kind of a film with sparse dialogs, hauntingly beautiful images accompanied by long stretches of silence and ambient sounds where the background score is used in a sparse and elegant way. That is it: sparse and elegant are the two words that best describe this movie. Outsider and a lone wolf are the terms that come to mind when you watch Clooney in The American. In some ways I was reminded of Clooney’s role in Syriana except in The American we see a well-dressed, sleek and athletic Clooney. We see a very different Europe in this film. The images of Sweden and Italy, which is where the film was shot are not the usual images of Sweden and Italy that you see in American films.

The film is directed by Anton Corbijn and based on a novel A Very Private Gentleman written by Martin Booth. Described as a thriller and suspense novel the film delivers on the suspense part. but we see very little of the action part unless you describe a scooter chase by Clooney as action packed footage. Or,the methodical way in which Clooney goes about building a customized rifle for his client.

The film opens with a long shot of a snow-covered house with light streaming out of its windows set somewhere in Sweden. Slowly the image dissolves to reveal a bearded and brooding Clooney sitting with his female companion in their bedroom. In the next shot we see a Clooney and his companion walk out in the snow. When they talk the actress’s voice is perky, while Clooney’s voice is low and quiet. And that serves as the first clue about the tone of the film. Their companionable silence is broken by sharp gunshots fired in their direction. Clooney quickly jumps into action and kills the intruder and instructs the woman to go call the police & then suddenly we see him take an aim at her retreating figure and kill her in a cold-blooded fashion. Why did he do that? Who was that intruder? What was the connection between the intruder and the female? Was she Clooney’s girl friend, wife, what? Who is Clooney?  Your mind is filled with questions and yet you get no clue. For the next 10 minutes you watch in silence as Clooney packs and leaves Sweden. Next thing you see is a lean,well-dressed Clooney sans the beard land up in Rome, Italy and make a cryptic phone call to someone, who asks him to meet at a cafe. It is during his meeting with this unnamed person you suspect that Clooney must be a hit man of sorts.

The rest of the film is set in the beautiful hillside town of Castel Del Monte, where we see Clooney let down his guard a bit. Suspense hangs thick in the air air since you have no clue what is going to happen next or when you will hear your next set of sentences. The town priest asks all those unanswered questions lurking in our minds. The priest is observant and does not buy Clooney’s explanation that he is a photographer and instead dryly points out that his hands are that of a craftsman and not an artist. Then there is Clara, the prostitute, who calls Clooney Mr. Butterfly because of the butterfly tattoo. “You are a good man, but you hide secrets,” says Clara.  That is the key: what is Clooney hiding? Why is he so low-keyed and secretive?

When he is not with Clara or talking to the priest we watch Clooney religiously exercise and methodically work on creating a customized rifle for a female client. Again, we don’t know much about the client except she is beautiful and a skilled marksperson, who knows a whole lot about guns, silencers etc. That gun plays a pivotal role in the film and you will have to watch the film to find out how the movie ends.

The lack of dialog strangely draws you into the narrative and gives you space and time to think and kindle your curiosity. What next is the constant question in your mind as you mutely search for clues through the beautifully constructed images or the musical score that accompanies certain scenes. There is no visual sensory overload in this film. There are no computer graphics images or special effects and instead all you see are a series of beautifully and lovingly crafted shots. You also begin to notice the beautiful quality of light in the film and the way Corbijn shows the play of light during different times of the day and in different settings.

Corbijn has directed a highly stylized narrative, where the visual images do most of the talking and not the actors. It appears that this film was created by a small team of people, who paid a lot of loving attention to the composition of shots, ambient sounds and music. The film worked for me only because of Clooney. By the end of the film I felt a tinge of disappointment and a tad unfulfilled and felt I needed to know a little bit more about this very private gentleman, who spoke so little.  I was expecting a little bit more and I suspect so were others in the audience. Like I said earlier this is a different kind of film that is worth watching when you have time in your hand. If you are looking for an adrenalin rush then this is not the film you will enjoy watching.

Chris Nolan directing Di Caprio & Murphy

“I am the most skilled extractor,” says Leonardo DiCaprio in Chris Nolan’s Inception . “You taught me to navigate people’s mind,” DiCaprio says to Michael Caine, his mentor and father-in-law in the film. “The truth is it is Nolan who is the skilled extractor and navigator. It is Nolan who got the best out of his cast, crew and audience via his new film Inception and that is a rare feat to achieve. Manipulating minds via dreams is an old theme that many science fiction lovers will recognize, but translating that theme in celluloid that appeals to a vast section of the audience is not that easy to achieve and this is where Nolan has exhibited his mastery as a story teller and director.

It has taken over a decade for Nolan to make Inception and convince DiCaprio to act in one of his productions. This might come as a surprise to some when you consider that Nolan has had a string of box office hits including Memento and The Dark Knight among others. “About ten years ago, I became fascinated with the subject of dreams, about the relationship of our waking life to our dreaming life,” Nolan says. As he put it, “At the heart of the movie is the notion that an idea is indeed the most resilient and powerful parasite.”

Inception

DiCaprio is Dom Cobb, a thief-for-hire who can skillfully extract dreams from others. Japanese businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) hires him to plant a dream, a seed of an idea into his competitor Robert Fisher’s (Cillian Murphy) mind and that is basically what the story is about. How do you plant an idea, and how does that seed grow and become a reality? Or as Watanabe put it how do you translate a business strategy into an emotional one?

Helping DiCaprio achieve his objective are his point man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), architect Ariadne (Ellen Page), forger Eames (Tom Hardy) and the chemist Yusief (Dileep Rao).

The storyline is complex and nested and with a little bit of patience you get the finer nuances of the film. It is through Page that we understand what is happening in the movie. She asks those unanswered and unspoken questions that we, the audience have running in the back of our minds like why don’t we see the faces of DiCaprio’s children or how did his wife die? It is through Page we understand the bond between DiCaprio and his dead wife Marion Cotillard aptly named Mal (evil). An eerie coincidence in the film is the constant use of a musical refrain from an Edith Piaf song. Perhaps it was intentional on the part of Nolan to use Piaf’s song since Cotillard won an Oscar for her portrayal of Piaf in the movie La Vie en Rose? Hans Zimmer’s music provides a nice touch and edgy feeling to the movie.

Half-way through the film it struck me that Inception is modelled like a video game and the dialog reflects the language of video game with its liberal sprinklings of words like navigating a maze, different levels, architecting, length of time and operation. I suspect we will see a videogame version of Inception sometime soon.

Just like Cotillard accuses DiCaprio that he infected her mind, all I can say is that Nolan’s movie took control of the audience mind and infected them into a dream like state. Or as DiCaprio says in the film: “You create the world of the dream. You bring the subject into that dream and they fill it with their secrets.”

Mid-way through the movie I looked around at the audience and noticed I was the only one taking notes. All others were deeply engrossed in watching the film. Later I heard someone next to me say out loud “That was a really good movie.” I knew that Nolan had scored a victory. On my way out all I heard was people talking about a dream, within a dream. within a dream.

Inception is an engaging a mind-bending and complex thriller. Or to borrow a phrase from comic standup Russell Peters: This was mind blasting.

Inception releases on July 16, 2010 in the USA and other parts of the world.

Picture credits: Warner Bros Entertainment

Bollywood’s latest offering is I Hate Luv Stories – a light hearted movie about Bollywood and addresses our collective subconscious on why are Bollywood films so formula driven? At times you get the feeling that I Hate Luv Storys is about a tight knit group of Bollywood insiders letting you in on how movies are made, but that is not the focus of the film since you only get passing references about it.

Boy meets girl, boy/girl like each other, there is some tension, which gets resolved and the couple live happily ever after. This syrupy Bollywood formula has kept us engaged for years and I suspect will continue to engage us in the future too unless they start producing desi versions of I Robot or Star Wars. I Hate Luv Stories at times felt like an inside story of a tight knit group of Bollywood folks who are letting us in on how Bollywood films are made.

I Hate Luv Stories is a movie within a movie. Jay or J (Imraan Khan) as he prefers to be called is an assistant director  and Simran (Sonam Kapoor) is an Art Director. Both work for a successful Bollywood director  Veer (Sameer Soni), who has that elusive midas touch and has happily churned out one hit after another. Guess who is the inspiration for that successful director? Did I hear you say Karan Johar? Well, it is. Our hero hates 2 things: love stories and dating. Simran on the other hand loves films and is a big believer in the power of love and is engaged to be married to Raj (Sammir Dattani). But things change once sparks start flying between J and Simran and that is the stuff this movie is made of. There are lots of tongue and cheek references to Bollywood and if you pay close attention you will notice a couple of interesting T-shirts, including one that boldly proclaims Bollywood sucks. I wish they had fleshed out developed Sameer Soni’s character as a Bollywood director. It would have been interesting to see what really goes on in his mind when he creates these frothy romances that never fails to seduce his audience.

There is lot of natak (drama) in the movie but the audience clearly like it.  I watched I Hate Luv Stories in a packed theatre  in Silicon Valley where there is a huge desi population (many of them are under 30 years). Many of us have that absent makes the heart grown fonder syndrome and one of the things we appear to grow fonder as time goes by are Bollywood films. I know people who left India in the 1960s and 1970s and stopped watching Bollywood films once they landed here. (There are many reasons for that and that is a whole different story). Now these same set of people watch Bollywood films regularly and marvel at the improvement in the production, story line and packaging of Bollywood films. Karan Johar clearly recognizes this fact and he has the Non Returning Indian (NRI) on his mind when he makes films. A good portion of the revenue for many Bollywood films comes from outside the country. I suspect I Hate Luv Stories will do very well with the NRI audience, especially the younger generation.

Avatar: The Last Airbender was originally produced and directed by Dante Di Martino and Bryan Konietzkon and aired on Nickelodeon in 2005. The animated series quickly gained a huge fan following, including Shyamalan’s kids. He started watching the show with his kids and got hooked and decided to make a feature film and that is how the film was born. Night Shyamalan does a fantastic job of films where children play a key role. Remember Haley Osment in The Sixth Sense? Sadly, the last two films of Shyamalan’s ended up disappointing quite a few of his fans. There is a lot of expectation from Shyamalan this time around with his latest film.

The Last Airbender explores Book One from the TV show and is centered around the element of Water. In Avatar the world is divided into 4 camps or tribal nations: fire, water, earth and air. Within each of these camps is a small group of people who can bend their elements, but over a course of 100 years the leaders of Fire Nation have successfully eliminated  all the Airbenders and have now turned their focus on Waterbenders. The leaders of the Fire Nation wants to dominate the world and other nations have basically a Hobson’s choice: join or perish. But, there is one person who can stand up to the Fire Nation and control all 4 elements and that is Avatar.

The film follows Aang (Noah Ringer), the Avatar, as he embarks on a quest to master all four elements in order to save the world. As in the television series, “The Last Airbender” journeys from the South Pole to the North, knowing that Aang, the Avatar, is the only living creature that can restore peace and balance to all the nations. How will he succeed in resorting the balance in the world is what The Last Airbender is about.

When the film started I thought something was wrong with my 3D glasses and turned to my companion to verify that the movie was in 3D indeed. For some inexplicable reason that feeling of not watching a 3D film returned a couple more times. Within a few minutes into the film I heard a whisper from my neighboring seat about bailing out and half-way through the film I saw a couple of people leave the theatre. The narration was a bit confusing and the lack of punch in the dialogs did not help in viewing the film. In spite of a great set of actors and a production crew consisting of cinematographer Andrew Lesnic of The Lord of The Rings fame, editor Conrad Buff of Titanic fame and costume designer Juliana Makovsky of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s fame the film lacked a certain zing.

Shyamalan had all the right ingredients for the film but the final product left me strangely unsatisfied. Was it the dialog? Was it the story? Maybe the movie was not meant for adults, but targeted for a younger generation? “It was alright,” commented a teenage movie goer when I asked her if she liked the film. “I preferred the Nickelodeon version,” she added.

The film failed to engage me completely and I found my attention wondering and the 3D part did not work its magic on me either. This is not the kind of film you expect to see from Shyamalan. The person who grabbed my attention was Shaun Toub, who played the role of Iroh, Dev Patel’s uncle. I must mention that Noah Ringer, who acted as Aang was good in the film and it is not his fault that he had to deliver lines like: “Is there a spiritual place where I can meditate.”

Looks like there will be other sequels to The Last Airbender. According to Shyamalan, “This film is just the beginning, as this is really one long-form story. Aang has to master all four elements and, in the end, acquire serenity. He was born into one, Air, but he still has to master Water, Earth, and then Fire, and that will conclude our trilogy. All in all, I deeply felt this was an important movie to be made.”

While this movie was an important movie for Shyamalan it just might not be an important film for his fans and movie goers. It will be interesting to see how the sequels pan out. Shyamalan will have a distinct advantage this time around and will have the option to shoot the next sequel in 3-D from the start and that might remove the wrinkles evident in The Last Airbender. Maybe he can go a little easy on CGI the next time around?

It would be so good to see the original avatar of M. Night Shyamalan, the man who held our imagination captive in The Sixth Sense.  It seems a bit unfair to go back to his first film, but he set the expectation for his fans on what he can deliver and he needs to rediscover that magic for his fans. Can he go back to being one of the chosen ones who can control the power to tell a story and have us believe in his vision? Or, is Shyamalan losing the power to bend our imagination and take us along with him for an interesting ride? This is not the first time he has disappointed his fans. What do you think?

M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender opens in theatres on July 2, 2010.

Based On the Series “Avatar: The Last Airbender
Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko
Written, Produced and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Dev Patel, Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Toub, Aasif Mandvi and Cliff Curtis.

Grown Ups is funny, entertaining and yes, has a strong dose of juvenile sense of humor, but that is to be expected when you see a film written by Adam Sandler. The humor is bratty and bawdy with some clever one-line zingers that we expect to hear (admit it) from a movie that includes Sandler, Kevin James (Paul Blart & Hitch),David Spade, Chris Rock and Rob Schneider.

Grown Ups

Grown Ups is about 5 childhood friends who are meeting after 30 years at the funeral of their basketball coach. The friends end up spending a weekend with their families at a big house and what happens in a span of 3 days is what the films is about. Four are married, while Spade leads a footloose and carefree lifestyle of an unattached bachelor.

Sandler is a successful Hollywood agent, with a successful fashion designer wife played by Salma Hayek. James pretends to be the owner of a small business. Rock is a house husband with wife Maya Rudolph bringing home the bacon. And Schneider has a thing for older women and is happily married for the third time. Adding spice to their weekend sojourn is Schneider’s daughters from his first marriage. You have to watch the movie to find out what happens when they all get together.

Is there a message in the movie? Sort of. Here is one from Schneider’s wife: In life the first act is exiting. It is the second act that is where the depth comes. (Now, don’t go looking for depth in the movie.)  The movie also highlights the passage of time and the invasion of technology into our lives, especially into the lives of young children. Grown Ups underscores how today’s kids no longer go out and play in the great outdoors, but prefer to be inside the house texting, playing on their Nintendos or other gaming device. The rapid change in our lifestyle is highlighted by this dialog: “Hey Dad what is the box attached to the TV?” asks Sandler son looking at an old-style TV. Sandler embarrassingly replies that not everyone has an LCD TV.

The movie is fun and entertaining with a strong dose of juvenile humor.

The movie is rated PG-13 for crude material including suggestive references, language and some male rear nudity.

Directed by: Dennis Dugan
Written by: Adam Sandler & Fred Wolf
Cast:  Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph

Still wondering about Wilder? Surely, you remember this memorable scene with Marilyn Monroe from The Seven Year Itch?

Wilder was born on June 22, 1906 in Sucha Beskidzka, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. (A few years later the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire led to the outbreak of World War 1). Billy was named after the American hero Buffalo Bill by his mother, who spent some time in the USA as a teenager.

Wilder’s life spanned the entire 20th century and he  lived through World War I and II, the cold war, the dissolution of the USSR and the breakdown of that infamous wall between East and West Germany. Persistency is what got Wilder to Hollywood all the way from a war ravaged Europe, where he had made his initial foray as a filmmaker. In 1939 he arrived to the USA and remained undeterred by the fact that his knowledge of English was sketchy. A quick learner, he picked up English and by 1939 made his first successful film Ninotchka with Marlene Dietrich. He made some of his most memorable films in the 1950s and 1960s.

A talented writer and filmmaker, each one of Wilder’s film is a classic gem. In 1950 Wilder made Sunset Boulevard with Gloria Swanson and William Golden and won 3 Oscars for it. Sunset Boulevard: A Hollywood Story brilliantly and poignantly captures Hollywood in transition. It is the story of Norma Demon, a fading silent film star, who is unwilling to accept the changes taking place all around her in Hollywood. Here is that memorable line from Sunset Boulevard by Norma Desmond: “I am big. It is the pictures that got small.”

Wilder’s Witness For The Prosecution based on Agatha Christie’s book with Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton was a runaway hit. Witness For The Prosecution was nominated for the Oscars.  This cross-examination scene is one of the most memorable scenes from the film.

Many of Wilder’s films have inspired and influenced Indian filmmakers. For instance, the movie Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe appears to have had a significant amount of influence. Specifically, this scene, which I believe has been recreated in quite a few Indian films. (Tip: watch the full clip)

Or, what about this movie The Apartment with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine? Bollywood film Life in A Metro may have been inspired by The Apartment to some extent.

Wilder considered himself a writer first Jack Lemmon once said. Lemmon worked in seven films with Wilder. In this video clip Wilder talks about his writing and mentions how it can be a drag. Writing, he said is “blood, sweat and tears” Wilder apparently did not like to write on his own and often had a writing partner.

By the early 1970s Wilder’s career slowed down and the last film he made was Buddy Buddy in 1981. He won a series of awards including the Irving Thalberg award towards the latter half of his career.

Wilder passed away in Los Angeles on March 22, 2002.

Other Billy Wilder films include Double Indemnity,Sabrina, Irma La Douce and The Front Page.

Thank you Mr. Wilder for entertaining us.

Woody & Buzz in Toy Story3

Where do I begin with Pixar’s Toy Story 3?  I connected with the movie at so many levels. Many years from now we will look back and probably label Toy Story 3 as a master piece and a film that captured a world in transition from a analog (traditional) to a digital lifestyle. The world of toys is a fast fading one for many people, at least in the developed world.

Here is a list in no particular order of why Toy Story 3 appealed to me. First, Toy Story 3 is a well executed film with a well developed plot and characters. The introduction of Barbie and Ken in the film is a master stroke. (Watch out for the disco number and the one by Gypsy Kings) Two, the movie highlights the end of innocence and freedom of childhood. While watching the  movie become acutely aware of the passage of time, which we take for granted. Three, Toy Story 3 paints a picture of a fast fading cultural activity: playing with toys. These days our fascination is with electronic toys, gaming consoles and digital devices like iPad. Playing with stuffed animals is passe. Four, the movie tells the story from the perspective of toys and their universe and their belief that “All good toys have gone to new owners.” You know that is not what happens to all good toys in real life. This movie definitely tugs at your heart strings, and you find yourself rooting for the toys. Finally, the movie is in 3D, which adds to the whole visual experience of watching it.

It is hard to believe that Toy Story 2 was made 10 years ago. It seems like we saw the picture just a couple of years ago. In Toy Story 3 we meet Andy, who is all grown up and getting ready to go to college. The question is what happens to his favorite toys: Woody (Tom Hanks) Buzz (Tim Allen) and others?  The toys fear that they are are going to be thrown away and know that “every toy goes through it.”  The toys harbor a faint hope that Andy will keep them and not give them away.  Well, their hopes are dashed when the toys are given away to Sunnyside, where they go through a miserable time. It does not help that the cute, cuddly and sweet talking  Lotsa (Ned Beatty), who welcomes Andy’s toys to Sunnyside turns to be a big bully with a wicked plot in mind. Watch the movie to find out how the toys escape and find a new life for themselves.

Toy Story 3 is a delightful and charming film and is sure to be a box-office winner.  Pixar clearly appears to have yet another winner in its hands. Is it any wonder Pixar has won so many awards for its various films?  Oh! Did I mention that Steve Jobs sits on the board of Pixar?

Toy Story 3 opens on June 17th in the USA. Initial projections estimate that Toy Story 3 could rake in $100 million (releasing in 4,000 theares) and make it one of the biggest box-office openings for Pixar.

Toy Story 3 is directed by Lee Unkrich, who also directed Finding Nemo and Toy Story 2.

Voice:  Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, Blake Clark, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee Ermey, Jodi Benson, Ned Beatty, Bonnie Hunt, Timothy Dalton, Kristen Schaal, Jeff Garlin, Whoopi Goldberg and Michael Keaton

Producer: Darla K. Anderson

Story by:  John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich

Screenplay by: Michael Arndt

Music by: Randy Newman

Solitary Man

What was the last Michael Douglas movie you saw? Ah! ha! struggling to come up with a name right? That is because Douglas has acted in just a handful of films in the last few years. But, Douglas is back this summer with two movies: Solitary Man and the much-awaited sequel to Wall Street (1987) where he essayed the role of Gordon Gekko. Remember that famous Gekko credo: Greed is good…Greed is right…Greed works…

In Solitary Man Douglas delivers a great performance as a flawed and complicated person. And you know Douglas is a master at playing flawed and complicated characters. Brian Koppelman wrote Solitary Man with Douglas in mind and I suspect Koppelman might have been influenced by Gekko in turn. By the way you can follow Koppelman on Twitter.

Solitary Man

It was eerie when you see the opening shots of Douglas in Solitary Man. It was as if you are meeting an older Gordon Gekko. Douglas plays the role of Ben Kalman, a fifty something businessman. Once a successful and honest car dealer, he fudges the books and ends up loosing his business, money, wife (Susan Sarandon) and serves time in person. The movie begins when we meet Douglas, who appears to be on the verge of making a comeback. But then things start to unravel so fast that he does not see it coming and is reduced to borrowing money from his daughter and ends up working in a restaurant owned by his old friend Danny DeVito.

What is it that unravels Douglas’ comeback plans? Sex. What is that widely quoted statement: men think of sex every few seconds? Well, we see sex in men’s brain in ample evidence in Solitary Man with Douglas playing an aging Casanova of sorts. Solitary Man is the male equivalent of Sex and the City. This movie is about men   or should I amend it and say a single man and his sexual escapades with that punch line: What do you get out of this transaction?  But, wait the narrative can’t be that simple. You know there is a reason for Douglas’ behavior and that is the crux of the movie. Oh! did I mention that quite a few in the audience were cheering and clapping during the movie?

There are some great lines in this film like this one: “There is nothing noble in failure.” Or, what about this one on aging: “I accept it is biological but it doesn’t happen to me.”

While Douglas’ performance was fantastic he could not have done it without the rest of the cast like Imogen Poots, Danny Di Vito and Susan Sarandon. Watch out for Poots, who delivers a fine performance in Solitary Man.

Solitary Man is directed by Brian Koppelman and David Levien. The movie has had a limited release in the USA.

I spoke to Sam Rizvi on the eve of Race Across America (audio interview) and he sounded super excited and confident. After 3 days of racingSamm succumbed to influenza and sadly had to cut short his participating. He is busy recovering from this unexpected health bump but is all pumped up about participating in Race Across America next year.

Congrats to Sam (video link) for showing up and participating in the race. Here is wishing him speedy recovery and all the best for next year’s race. We all can take a leaf out of his book and learn how to think like a winner.

Jaden Smith

You might want to keep tabs and create a Google alert for Jaden Smith (11), who has double the charisma and screen presence of his parents Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. Or, if you like you can choose to follow Jaden on MySpace. Why am I so gung-ho about Jaden? He appears to have the right attitude, talent and above all that engaging, elusive quality known as charisma. Plus, Jaden can sing, dance and act as he demonstrates in his latest film Karate Kid.  Jaden collaborated with the current teenage music idol Justin Bieber for the song: Never Say Never featured in Karate Kid.

I remember watching the original Karate Kid in 1984 and recollect what a hit the movie was. The movie garnered a lot of attendtion and was nominated for a couple of Oscars. This new version of Karate Kid with Jaden and Jackie Chan is similar to the original with some tweaks to the plot. Jaden and his mother move to Beijing, China because of his mother’s work.

While Jaden and his mother are busy settling down to a daily routine in Beijing, Jaden comes to the attention of a school bully. The reason? The bully resents the budding friendship between Jaden and  Mei Ying and that is the central tension in the film. The rest of the film is about how Jaden conquers his fear and learns to beat the bully on his own turf: martial arts. You see the bully is a goood at martial arts. Jackie Chan plays a reluctant martial arts teacher and  mentor to Jaden. It was a bit of a surprise to see Chan play the role of a quiet, sullen and withdrawn character instead of his usual boisterous self that we have come to expect.

The movie is a bit slow in parts as we witness the slow progression and the hoops that Chan puts his student through. In the process we also get a quick peek into a China in transition (notice the new buildings etc) and some well-known Chinese monuments like the Great Wall of China.  We also get to hear a few strategically placed dialogs heavily laced with Eastern wisdom like this one by Chan: Win or loose it does not matter. Fight hard and people will respect you. Or what about this advice from Chan to Jaden: It will be hot if you focus. And it this piece of advice that becomes Jaden’s guiding principle when he participates in a martial arts tournament and wins. Of course, he defeats the bully in the pr.

During the last few minutes the clapping from the cinem hall  co-mingled with the clapping from the movie. To me that clearly signals the level of audience engagement and that is something you cannot buy. However, I must also confess that  sitting in the theatre were quite a few martial arts students watching the movie, which  might partially explain why the audience was rooting for Jaden. The point still remains that the young audience seem to like the movie and that is the target audience for the film.

Jaden is the the star of the movie. Something tells me that we are going to seeing more of Jaden through the years.

Karate Kid releases worldwide today.

Directed by Harald Zwart, Written by Christopher Murphey and Story by Robert Mark Kamen.

Picture credit: Sony Pictures Entertainment

A few days ago I happened to see a 99 second trailer of Rajneeti and was impressed with what I saw.

Rajneeti appeared to have all the right mix of ingredients and had a great cast of actors: Nana Patekar, Nasserudin Shah, Manoj Bajpai, Ranbir Kapoor, Ajay Devgan, Arjun Ramphal and Katrina Kaif among others. That brief shot of Katrina dressed in a sari with her hair swept back bore a startling resemblance to Sonia Gandhi and brought  back memories of  Suchitra Sen as Indira Gandhi in Aandhi (1975). Of course, between the release of Aandhi and Raajneeti a lot of water has flown under the political bridges in India. The politics of the 1970s is vastly different from the political landscape of modern day India. Then we had a couple of powerful political leaders in the center and the politics at the state level was controlled by the center. Dynastic political families were uncommon then, but not so anymore now. And of course there were no 24/7 news channels with breaking headlines every hour of the day.  So like I was saying there I was sitting transfixed watching the 99 second trailer of Raajneeti and thought to myself finally, it seems like finally here is a political movie worth watching.

I had not read any reviews of the movie nor did I know anything about the movie except for that brief trailer. I decided I did not want to see the movie with a whole bunch of preconceived notions. The movie started off with great promise. Watching the opening title in black and white with the thunderous roll of drums signaled that we were about to watch an epic movie of sorts. I noticed in the credits that the film was shot in Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. Was there any symbolic significance to the film being shot in Madhya Pradesh, which is in the heart of India?Maybe or maybe not. And then the opening shot or the establishing shot of the film: a slim lady with salt and pepper hair alights from a Mercedes Benz and the camera pans down the sloping path to the banks of river Ganges. Ah! So, that is how the privileged people get to the banks of the Ganges was my first thought. And then I noticed the sleek, shiny and powerful Mercedes Benz and that signified the first change. This was not the India of the 1970s and 1980s, this was the story of an India whose Socialist shackles were removed over 20 years ago, and political power has devolved from the center to the states. In that opening shot instead of the staid and trusty Hindustan Motors Ambassador there stood this sleek, modern German automobile.

For the next 60 minutes I was engrossed in watching the unfolding of a complex nested political plot. Without giving away too much, the film is centered around the younger generation of a powerful political family and the intense fight to keep a tight grip over political reins of the state. In the ugly race to retain power many people get killed, assassinated, blackmailed, compromised and threatened. Deceit hangs thick in the air in almost every frame of the film but it peaks every time Manoj Bajpai appears. Bajpai’s brilliant portrayal as one of the younger generation members reminds you of a cunning and sneaky hyena when compared to a suave, smooth talking and American educated Ranbir Kapoor or the convent (I am guessing he did go to a convent) educated Arjun Ramphal. Nana Patekar’s delivers big time in this movie. He plays the role of a political mentor, who operates behind the scene, and his dialogs are sparse, but the range of emotions that flit through his face reminds you why Patekar is one of the best actors in Bollywood. Patekar’s facial expressions are the equivalent of those famous verbal soliloquies in Shakespearean plays. Arjun Ramphal delivers a strong performance and Katrina Kaif delivers a pretty good performance. Then there is Ajay Devgan, who plays a marginalized Dalit with misplaced faith in his political boss.

After the first hour the narrative starts to get flabby and sags a bit, but it still managed to keep my interest. By now I was hooked to this complext plot and wanted to see how Jha was going to bring the different strands in the story to a grand finale. The final half hour had a fair bit of violence with a surprise ending. Perhaps, there is a sequel in the making?

Here are some reasons why the movie might appeal to the audience. It has the right mix of ingredients. The story offers a peek into what goes on behind the dynastic politics in India. Yes, it is a fictionalized account, but there are many real examples that come to mind when you watch the film. It also offers a peek into the political horse trading that takes place during every election. When watching the film you also begin to better understand the phrase: politics makes strange bed-fellows. Jha makes it a point to highlight or underscore the role women play in politics, and the compromises they need to make in order to push the political cause. Ranbir Kapoor’s character brings a modern touch to politics in terms of branding and marketing and also underscores how he is willing to play hard ball if needed.

I wished Jha had fleshed out Nasserudin Shah’s character a bit more, and had expanded the role of the actress, who played Ranbir Kapoor’s mothers.

The casting in the film was outstanding. For example, the contrast between the modern and smooth talking Arjun Ramphal and his cronies was in stark contrast to the cronies in Manoj Bajpai’s camp.

At times the movie reminded me of Mahabharata, The Godfather and Telugu director Dasari Narayan Rao’s poltical films (Aaj ka MLA etc). The movie was over the top in some parts, but then again Indian politics has become over the top in recent years.

Raajneeti delivers in spite of being flabby and a bit long.

Here are a couple of reviews that I read after writing this post. Often I have a hard time reading reviews about Bollywood films in The New York Times, and this one is no exception. Anupama Chopra pegs it when she writes that Raajneeti is exhausting and compelling.

The first shocker was when I heard “haan ji” uttered by  Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), who explains to her friends that the word means “yes” in Arabic. Huh? I did not know that folks in Abu Dhabi had appropriated the Hindi/Punjabi/Urdu word “haan ji” as part of their Arabic lexicon. Maybe I missed it when I visited the United State Emirates (UAE) not so long ago. “Laa” (No in Arabic), cannot be possible that I missed hearing this all too familiar word in UAE. Wonder how SATC2’s director/writer and researchers let that little boo-boo slip in? “Haan ji” that is an unresolved question in my mind and I am guessing maybe yours too?

The second desi element in SATC2 is a desi character called Gaurav played by British actor Raza Jaffrey. Not really sure how they spelt his name. I thought I spotted Sarah Jessica Parker writing it as Gaurav. Jaffrey does a pretty authentic portrayal of a desi working in the hospitality sector in Abu Dhabi. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) in fact is inspired by Gaurav’s pearls of wisdom about marriage, which in turn inspires her to stop agonizing on why that zing, chemistry between her and Big is declining. Guess the word “comfort” does not exist in the dictionary of the fab four girls from Manhattan?  Bet you that comfortably settled in a marriage is not how Carrie would want to describe her marriage. No sir. Definitely not Ms. Carrie.  Not after all that committment tamasha. So, we need some desi influence to push the narrative along.

The third desi presence is Art Malik’s cameo appearance in the movie. Malik (hilarious link of Malik in The Kumars ) plays the role of a rich Sheikh Khalid, who extends an invitation to Samantha to experience the plush and opulent lifestyle of his hometown of Abu Dhabi.

These were just a few desi elements that I spotted in SATC2. Did you all spot any other desi influences/elements in SATC2? Do share.

You could smell and see the sheer glamor and  luxury as the camera pans into Carrie’s lush apartment and studio-size closet. I sank deeper into the seat anticipating a frothy, fun and fabulous film about fashion, friendship and angst among these 4 women: Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Krisitin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon). They are the ultimate BFFs, who come through for each other through thick and thin.

The Fab Four

It was 12 years ago when we first met the 4 single women and good friends in the HBO version of Sex and the City. The series became a must-watch for girls and women around the world. It seems like we just could not get our fill of Sex and the City. We wanted to be one of them and dress like them and live our lives like them. There were Sex and the City dresses, accessories, shoes etc. etc. Then in 2008 the 4 girls made their appearance in the first full-length film Sex and the City, which grossed over $400 million in worldwide sales. The first movie was clearly a runaway hit. Plus, we all wanted to know what happened to the girls, especially Carrie who had a commitment phobia. With that kind of success from the movie what could go wrong with making a sequel of Sex and the City-2 (SATC2) right?

I drew a deep breath and told myself: Me and You for 143 minutes. Just us two to borrow a phrase from the movie. Me and the movie, and an escape to fantasy land were my initial thoughts when I sank deeper into my chair when the first scenes of the movie unfolded on that big silver screen.  After that shot of those shimmering shoes we get a quick update of the the fabulous four. Except for Samantha all the others are married and learning to deal with the change in their status. Carrie is now married to Big, but is preoccupied that the zing,  the chemistry between the two  is slowly disappearing from their marriage. Big, you see, like many men is fond of his big-screen TV and wants to spend his evening watching old black and white pictures. Charlotte is married with 2 kids and is dealing with the angst of having a very sexy nanny that her 2 girls adore. The trouble is Charlotte thinks that her husband maybe fond of the sexy nanny too. Miranda, the lawyer is having work related issues and feels she is not getting the recognition she deserves. Samantha, the unattached one is fighting with all her might to stave off her menopause and knows that she can conquer it. While Samantha is dealing with her menopause issue it does not mean that she is not interested in meeting the next exciting man in her life.

Given all the challenges in their personal lives the girls need a break right? They need to get away somewhere and get things sorted out, right? Ta dah! That is where the sexy Samantha steps in and rescues them all. She  gets a free, all-expense paid trip for all of the BFF from a rich sheikh to go check out Abu Dhabi.  Decadence is calling…”  Samantha says. How do you think the others could resist not experiencing this decadent, opulent lifestyle? It is in Abu Dhabi (actually Morocco, which is where the movie was filmed) that a good part of the movie is based.

And what a decadent lifestyle these ladies experience in Abu Dhabi complete with their individual Maybachs (there are apparently about 26k cars in the world), individual rooms complete with their own personal Jeeves. This is where things start to unravel a bit. And then Samantha manages to land them all in trouble with her public display of affection (PDA). PDA is not the done thing in the Middle East. But this is where the movie fails. Instead of taking an opportunity to empower and highlight why PDA is not the done thing, the movie comes across as making fun of the people. Somewhere in the fab four’s self-absorbed and mindless sojourn in Abu Dhabi my thoughts began to stray and I stopped paying attention to the dialog for a while. I had to drag my meandering thoughts and focus on the movie.

SATC2 started with lots of promise but half-way through the frothy narrative it hit a snag and starts to unravel pretty fast. Displaying cultural insensitivity in this day and age especially in the age of instant and virtual communication via  Twitter (where SATC2 has been trending for a couple of days now) and Facebook and expecting not to hear feedback or criticism is just plain unthinkable.  Wonder if the folks who made SATC2 read any of the many, many travel guide books on the Middle East before they made the movie? Many of them have a list of do’s and dont’s.

I don’t mean to sound preachy, but Me and You,  yes SATC2 … it did not work out that way. After I said “I do” the movie did not manage to sustain my interest. I am sorry ladies it did not work out that way between me and the movie. It was missing something. But then it is just me. I bet lots of folks will find the movie interesting and riveting and enjoy watching the fabulous wardrobe,  accessories, food, cocktails etc. etc. SATC2 did not work for me. But then it is just me.

Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Krisitin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, John Corbett, Evan Handler, Raza Jaffrey and Penelope Cruz.

Directed by Michael Patrick King

Photograph credit: Craig Blankenhorn

Sometime you can also find me doing a music show on Stanford University’s radio station KZSU. You can listen to it live on 90.1 FM if you live in San Francisco bay area or listen to a stream.

Thanks for checking in and do say hello if you are on Twitter.

And as always thanks for tuning in.

The reason why we may not have heard of Anandibai is because she came to the US in the late 19th century. The US did not figure in the imagination of young Indians under the British Raj and neither was  it their country of preference to study. It was England and the English universities that were the preferred destinations for modern young Indians like Kadambini Ganguly (who studied medicine in England the same time Anandibai was studying in the USA), Pandita Ramabai, Gandhi, Nehru and others.

So, how did Anandibai end up in the USA to study medicine? It appears to be a combination of preparation and luck along with a set of happy coincidences.

Anandibai was born on March 31,1865 to Ganaptrao and Gungabai Joshee in Poona, India. When she was 9-10 years old she was married off to Gopalrao Vinayak Joshee, who worked for the Indian postal service. Gopalrao was passionate that young women need to be educated and undertook the task of educating his young bride. How Anandibai came to study medicine may have influenced from a personal tragedy. Within a couple of years of her marriage Anandibai gave birth to a young baby boy, but tragically lost him within a few days of his birth. If only Anandibai had access to better medical facilities she may have been able to save her son. But that was not the case. Perhaps it was this personal loss of her young baby that inspired Anandibai to study medicine and specialize in obstetrics.

By the time she was 18 years Anandibai had been home schooled and was fluent in English and grammar as this letter highlights. Around this time Gopalrao had gotten in touch with Royal Wilder, an American missionary living in Princeton, New Jersey. Wilder was an old India man, and one of the early American missionaries to work in India. He came to India sometime in 1846 along with his wife and raised a family there. He worked mostly around Kolhapur area in Maharashtra for close to three decades before returning to the USA and founding “The Missionary Review” in Princeton. Wilder was the person who helped Anandibai and wrote about her desire to study in the US in his magazine, which in turn was read by Theodocia Carpenter, who eventually became the surrogate family for Anandibai during her stay in the US.

Through the efforts of Mrs. Carpenter and other Americans Anandibai was admitted to study medicine at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. This was the first medical college for women in the world and was established in 1850 and is today part of the Drexel University, College of Medicine.

When Anandibai arrived by ship to the US she was received by Mrs. Carpenter, who continued to be in constant contact with the young Indian student. Anandibai sent long letters to her husband about her stay in the USA. It must have been a challenging experience considering that Anandibai adhered to a strict vegetarian diet and was not used to the brutal cold weather on the East Coast. During her last few months of her stay in the US she contracted tuberculosis. In spite of various challenges, Anandibai appears to have bravely endured the hardship and novelty of living in America and successfully completed her medical education. Interestingly Anandibai’s research thesis was Obstetrics among the Aryan Hindoos (see the image). For her graduation ceremony Anandibai invited her friend Pandita Ramabai, and this is confirmed by Max Mueller in his book Auld Lang Syne. Second Series. My Indian Friends.

On March 11, 1886 Anandibai received her degree in medicine, and instead of staying back in the US, she went back to India with her husband, who had come to accompany her back for the trip. In an interesting twist Anandibai went back to work in Kolhapur, the same are where Wilder had worked as a missionary during his 30 year stay in India. But, within months of her return Anandibai succumbed to tuberculosis and died. Her ashes were sent to Mrs. Carpenter, who erected a tombstone for Anandibai in her family burial plot in Poughkeepsie, New York.

When she was exploring her options to study in American she was often asked if she would convert to Christianity, a suggestion she resisted. Perhaps that might explain the reason why the epitaph on her American tombstone reads: “First Brahmin woman to leave India and obtain an education.”

Sadly, one of the unintended consequences of Anandibai’s progressive education was the change that it brought about in her reform-minded husband. While she was adjusting to her new life in America and putting up a brave face her husband appears to have developed a certain amount of resentment towards her progress.

Anandibai’s pathbreaking education did not go unnoticed. In 1886 Carolina Dall wrote a book on “Life of Dr. Anandbai Joshee.” where she outlined in great detail about the Anandibai and her life in the USA.

Thanks to Dr. Ashok Gore in Southern California for sharing the information and pictures and images related to Anandibai Joshee. Dr. Gore was kind enough to let me leaf through an old and well-preserved copy of Life of Dr. Anandibai Joshee written by Caroline Dall in the late 19th century. Mrs. Dall was one of the first people to write extensively about Anandibai. The book appears to have got quite a bit  of publicity including this one-line description from The Nation in 1888. The proceeds from the sale of the book was to benefit Pandita Ramabai’s school fund. The book is a treasure trove that contains all kinds of information about the first Indian woman to study medicine in the USA. Dr. Gore has been tirelessly working on collecting and spreading awareness about Anandibai Joshee for nearly 25 years.

On March 9, 2010 Cisco unveiled its plans that will “forever change the Internet.” Cisco unveiled a new mega router CRS-3,  and this was the big announcement. CRS-3 will be available in the third quarter and is currently being tested by AT&T. The product will sit in the data centers of big telcos like AT&T and others and help speed up the delivery of content to end-users. CRS-3 has a capacity to deliver 92 terabits per second. What does this mean? It means you can download all the movies (I believe I heard there are 2 million movies? Don’t quote me on this.) in the world in 4 minutes, download the content of the Library of Congress in one second and every man, woman and child can be on a video call simultaneously. That is a huge improvement from what routers can deliver today. But, like many observers and analysts have pointed out building a huge network capacity is closely tied to the last mile access, which has not yet been resolved.

Cisco’s big announcement fell a little flat and I guess many were expecting something more than the unveiling of a mega router. Many people were left wondering how could this big router change the Internet forever? “The shift happened so quickly that it felt both jarring and stupendous at the same time,” wrote Ashlee Vance in The New York Times.

I missed watching the announcement because of my radio show at KZSU, Stanford. The next day after the announcement I trooped down to Cisco’s headquarters to talk to Srivatsan Desikan and Melissa Mines, who are both marketing managers. The result is this short video clip where Srivatsan and Melissa answered some of the questions that were on your mind and my mind as well.

Lucia comes from a traditional, close-knit Mexican-American family, while Lance is brought up by a single dad, who lives in a big house and is a control freak. Lucia and Lance discover that the word family takes on a whole different meaning when it comes to organizing a wedding. The relationship between the two fathers starts off on the wrong foot. Carlos Mencia is a traditional, family oriented Mexican-American, who butts head with a modern and unorthodox African-American father played by Forest Whitaker.

Most of the movie revolves around the differences between the two families on how the wedding should be organized. There are some funny moments when the two fathers go to a club to check out a DJ for the wedding or when Lucia’s extended family comes for the wedding. Like many wedding movies, Our Family Wedding also dwells on the relationship between the various characters and how they re-discover their lost love like Lucia’s parents do, or like Whitaker discovers his love for his long-time lawyer/cum friend played by Regina King.

Our Family Wedding is a romantic comedy with some really funny moments. America Ramirez aka Ugly Betty from the ABC series sparkles in the film, while Lance Boyd pulls off a good performance. Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia have their funny moments, and Regina King does a great job in her role as a lawyer and friend to Whitaker.

It is after a long time I saw Whitaker in a somewhat of a funny role.  Whitaker won an Oscar in 2007 for The Last King in Scotland, where he played the role of Idi Amin, the brutal dictator of Uganda.

Our Family Wedding is directed by Rick Famuyiwa. The screenplay is by Wayne Conley and Malcolm Spellman and Rick Famuyiwa with story by Wayne Conley. Director Famuyiwa’s debut feature film The Wood was also about family and marriage, but through a male perspective.

The music for the film is by The Transcenders, who are also the founding members of The Black Eyed Peas.

Our Family Wedding stars Forest Whitaker, America Ferrera, Lance Gross, Carlos Mencia, Regina King, Anjelah Johnson and  Diana Maria Riva.

The film opens in the US today.

Photo credits: Fox Searchlight.

In Part-2 of the interview Yogen talks about innovation, digital lifestyle, his mentors and his old high school headmaster Jack Gibson of Mayo College.

In case you missed you might want to listen or read the transcript to Part-1 of the interview with Yogen.

If you like, you can listen to a podcast of the interview.

This is Kamla Bhatt. We bring you part two of our conversation with Yogen Dalal, Managing Director of Mayfield Fund, a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. In this segment, Yogen talks about innovation, Mayfield’s investment strategy and his mentors. Here is Yogen.

Kamla: How are you fostering innovations through your investments?

Yogen: Well, it’s a tricky line you know. Our goal here is to invest our limited partners’ money to make money for them and so successful investments are those that are just a little bit ahead of their time. So that when the company has a product that is ready to be launched, it fits in with the needs of customers, whether they be businesses or consumers.

So you know our job is to take risks. So we’re on the cutting edge of figuring out what is likely to be a good outcome but as you know; if you’re a little too early well they tell you about the pioneers who’re the ones with the arrows in their back.

Kamla: So how do you keep yourself informed as to what are the new things that are available out there, what is it that people are looking for?

Yogen: They always tell you that you have to have a prepared mind and the best way to have a prepared mind is to have an open mind and you start off by spending time reading, living the digital lifestyle, getting a Facebook account before it becomes all the rage, spending time with young students at the leading Universities, by being their mentors, watching what your own children and what their friends do with technology.

And then you know, talking to the innovators of the world. I think the worst that anyone can do in our business is to walk into a meeting with a closed, prejudged mind.

Kamla: What kind of a digital lifestyle are you leading?

Yogen: The digital lifestyle I lead, you know involves of course, you know, having an iPhone and an iPod but more than that you know, I’m a big email user but I spend time surfing the Internet. I spend time checking out some of the new methodologies or ideas. You know, whether I do a lot of Facebooking is not critical, the important thing is that I know what it is that people do when they go to Facebook on an every day basis. So an important part of living the digital life style is to set aside time and to include that along with all the other things that you do now in your life.

Kamla: Have you asked any of your kids that they include you in their Facebook account?

Yogen: Well, you know my kids have Facebook accounts and I told them even though they invited me to be a friend that they were now young adults and that I declined their invitation you know, in order to give them the privacy they deserve.

Kamla: This is new! I’ve not heard any father declining. Usually they want to see what their friends are doing.

Yogen: Well I know but you know, I think there are so many ways to find that out and deliver digital life style but I’m also just a big believer that you’ll have to let your kids grow up and not be what people often call “helicopter” parents where you’re hovering around them all the time.

Kamla: How has your focus changed? What changes have you made when you assess companies or opportunities compared to the dot com boom and the early 1990s when you joined Mayfield?

Yogen: Well in the early 1990s we were all technology investors. That’s really what we were about. We were about building the infrastructure for today’s technological marketplace and so you really looked for entrepreneurs who have the entrepreneur drive but have the technological savvy to pull it off. As the technology foundation has become well established, we’re now looking at business innovation. How do you take all that technology that’s out there and innovate from a business model point of view in order to satisfy market needs. For example- today software, the service means that you rent the capabilities that you want rather than buying the software package. So that’s not technological innovation. It is- requires technological savvy but it’s a business model innovation.

But more importantly, Internet is the new form of media so most of us have to now think about what does it mean to invest in businesses that are satisfying consumer needs as opposed to business needs. And that’s a whole different game because as you know Kamla, you can’t guarantee that the new movie is going to be a hit or the new restaurant that is opened on the corner of the street is going to be a true success. Everybody wants to satisfy the needs of consumers, but you get flops too.

Kamla: Where are you going today that you’ve not gone before?

Yogen: Where are we going today- I think that you know, green tech is certainly the big buzz word of today. But it’s a long term market so what we’re looking at is not alternative fields or anything of that nature but how can computing technology that we’re very comfortable with in now somehow make a difference. We’re basically looking at, in the whole green phenomena that’s going to take over the world, where does information technology fit into that? There are other people that can do very successful things, like ethanol and all the variety of other bio-fuels. That’s not our expertise. Our expertise is to playing this market place by encouraging entrepreneurs to know what they do well in communications and computing and apply those methodologies to making the world more green.

Kamla: What about the India option? You know, I’ve come across a couple of places where you’ve mentioned that India is a place where companies should set up a development center.

Yogen: Well, it clearly-we’ve always believed that having some cross border activity enable start ups to be more successful because there’s a load amount of talent not only here in Silicon Valley but also in China and in India and other parts of Eastern Europe.

So virtually all companies are going to be global not only in their structure but in their market. I think start-ups are not just looking for customers in the US but looking for customers world wide.

And I think when countries like India in particular are completely re-structuring their economic foundation, with the creation of a massive middle class, the infrastructure needed to satisfy the needs of this very, very large middle class will rely on information technology.

Kamla: I have a product related question. How do you think entrepreneurs should build products?

Yogen: We all know that true innovation comes because there’s a passion driving that innovation so if you want somebody who’s willing to leap the charge, who’s got a sixth sense that helps him decide whether they’re going to take door A or door B and in some ways it’s no different that another metaphor I’ve been using when you talk about people who climb mountains. Why do they climb mountains? They don’t climb mountains- you have to have the team but you also have to have the leader. The leader has to have supreme self confidence that they know how to take the team to the finish line.

Kamla: But the young start-up often are in a lot of flux. And there is ego involved and you know, if there is more than one co-founder, it becomes a little bit difficult to figure out who’s the leader. What are some of the common problems that you’ve seen time and again with start-ups that can be avoided?

Yogen: The most common problem with start-ups is that there isn’t a leader or two that is magnetic in their ability to pull together a team. So the leader has to be brilliant, clearly with an idea but they also have to be able to create a team that will follow them. You want a person who has a sense of their destiny and who is able to attract other people- and I would use the Google metaphor or the Hewlett & Packard metaphor to men in both cases who had a sense of their destiny, and who were able to inspire people to join the journey with them.

Kamla: What kind of leader are you?

Yogen: What kind of leader am I? Well, I think I may have been a sort of a hard charging leader in my technology days because we made some sort of major inroads into how the world should operate but I would say these days, I’m much more of a collaborative coach-oriented leader. That’s the stage in my life and the stage in my partners. They look to me for that kind of a role in leadership.

Kamla: Who mentored you?

Yogen: I’ve been fortunate to have some of the most important people in this industry mentor me. From Vint Cerf who was my thesis advisor to Bob Metcalfe, who hired from my first job to David Reddan who ran the product program at Xerox and then of course,Bill Campbelll who is known to be the ultimate coach was the President of Claris. And so these people have given me the tools to think about how you encourage people to make a difference.

Kamla: Do you have a sense because you keep talking about the sixth sense… I want to take advantage of that sixth sense of yours and find out where do you think these new centers of innovation would be?

Yogen: I think that Silicon Valley be continue to be the Centrex of innovation. If you just go to Stanford and look at the new $ 400 million engineering court that has been constructed, it will produce some of the most amazing innovation you know, 10-15 years down the road.

But I am quite confident that if you look at the history of Silicon Valley, that centers in India and in Beijing will become new centres of innovation after a cycle. It’s really companies like Fairchild and Hewlett Packard that began Intel and all of these other companies. So eventually smart engineers will leave Infosys and Wipro to become entrepreneurs. So what’s been created is a foundation of infrastructure in cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Bangalore at least in India, where the foundation will be laid for a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Kamla: I know I said it was the last question but I can’t resist sneaking this question about Jack Gibson. The last time I spoke to you, you were going to become a blogger, now you I see you’ve become one. Tell us about your blogging experience and Jack Gibson. This is the headmaster of Mayo.

Yogen: Well you – I didn’t sort of list him as one of my mentors but I would have to say that he is probably the first one of them. He is the renowned principal of the Mayo College during my days there in the mid-60s. That was the man who sort of influenced a generation of students to make a difference to the world and March was his 100th birthday anniversary. And a bunch of his students, including me have constructed a blog site where we’re collecting memories of this incredible man and along with that, three of us impart on using the Internet and the digital lifestyle to take his memoirs and to have it re-published as an electronic book.

So this is our tribute to a man who deserves to have his memory preserved forever.

Kamla: Do you think he’d be surprised by this digital tribute?

Yogen: I think he would be. He was clearly a man who was not afraid to look around the corner but I think that he would be amazed if he was looking down how all of us pulled together, without actually being in the same room, at the same time.

Kamla: Yogen, it’s always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for this conversation.

Yogen: Thank you Kamla. I’ve enjoyed this very much and I look forward to many more!

Kamla: You were listening to Yogen Dalal, Managing Director of Mayfield Fund, located in Silicon Valley. This is Kamla Bhatt. This interview was brought to you in association with Livemint Radio and as always, thank you for tuning in.

You can read or listen to Part-1 of the interview with Yogen Dalal.

This interview was created in association with LiveMint and published on their website in Nov 2009.

How do you describe the magic of Silicon Valley? What is the magic that pulls people from all around the world to come and work here and make their dreams come true? What is the digital silk road? I turned to Yogen Dalal, engineer turned entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, who came to Silicon Valley in the early 1970s when computer software was just starting to take off here. In this 2-part interview we talk on a wide-range of issues including magic of Silicon Valley, Vint Cerf innovation and his alma mater Mayo College in India.

Can these elusive magical qualities of Silicon Valley be reproduced in other parts of the world? What are the missing ingredients that make it difficult to recreate that magic? What was it to be one of the first graduate students of Vint Cerf, the Father of the Internet? What has surprised Yogen the most about the growth of the Internet? What was it like to work with Apple? What are his thoughts on IPv6 and the new wave of innovation, esp social media and the questions about privacy? Tune it to find out.

If you like you can listen to a podcast of the interview with Yogen Dalal.

This is Kamla Bhatt. Today my guest is Yogen Dalal, who is Managing Director, at Mayfield Fund, a venture capital firm located in Silicon Valley. Mayfield currently manages over $ 2 billion and has invested in 500 companies out of which 100 went public. Mayfield is also active in India and has invested in a handful of companies there.

Yogen has been in Silicon Valley since the 1970s and worked with Vint Cerf, the father of Internet at Stanford and co-authored the specification for Internet Transmission Control Program or TCP. Yogen was a founding member of the Claris Corporation and Metaphor Computer Systems and prior to that, he worked at Xerox Parc. He’s currently on the boards of Naunce, Revenue Science, Audiofeast and others.

Yogen has a PhD from Stanford and has an undergrad degree from IIT, Mumbai. Welcome to the show, Yogen.

Yogen: Thank you Kamla. Always nice to talk to you and get your perspectives on the world.

Kamla: Today I’m going to get your perspectives and the valley. What is the magic of Silicon Valley?

Yogen: Well, the magic of Silicon Valley is that you have people who want to change the world- people who come with fresh ideas and are who are given the opportunity to live their dreams. But the true magic of Silicon Valley is that failure is not viewed as something negative. If you fail the first time, that means you try to do something that was amazingly difficult and you’re given the second and many times a third and a fourth time.

Kamla: Can this magic be re-created in other parts of the world?

Yogen: People have tried to do that and in some cases, its been successful but I don’t think there’s any other place like Silicon Valley because Silicon Valley has been built now for over 30-40 years. It’s a culture; it’s a way of thinking. There are so many different people who are all trying to change the world that it’s a melting pot of ideas where one idea leads to another purely by accident.

Kamla: So you came here in ’72 and just a year before that the term “Silicon Valley” had been coined.

Yogen: That’s right. I think the whole notion was that somebody, a Fred Terman who was the Dean of Engineering at Stanford had this dream that industry and academia work together and many of his students were the ones that helped create what we now think of the Silicon Valley, particularly Hewlett & Packard who were one of the first true entrepreneurs of this Valley along with many other people. And Silicon Valley owes its term for the fact that it really was the electronics capital of the world where chips and semi-conductors and electronics were being designed. Now we think of Silicon Valley as Google and Yahoo and Apple Computer and variety of other companies like Cisco.

Kamla: You missed out on Facebook.

Yogen: Well, clearly Facebook is the next company being created but the point I was making is that we’ve moved away from Silicon to what we now think of as Internet Media. And the vibrancy of the Valley is that it keeps on re-inventing itself from building electronics to building chips to building routers, now to building experiences that each and every one of us want.

Kamla: Let’s stay with the 70s. You were part of Vint Cerf who just became a professor in ’73. He was a fresh grad and you were involved with him in creating TCP. What made you take that fork on the road as Yogi Berra would say, and work with Vint?

Yogen: Two things. You know when you meet somebody who is truly remarkable as we’ve discovered he is, he just was inspirational the first day I met him. But I, as an undergraduate of IIT Bombay was fascinated by this whole notion that computers were more than just machines where you solved complex equations and the notion that computers could communicate with each other and that we as individuals, could use computers to communicate with each other was just fascinating. And so when I read all the work he had done on the Arpanet, I knew this was the person that I wanted to hitch my wagon to.

Kamla: What has surprised you about the growth of the Internet?

Yogen: Well, the growth of the Internet is that it’s unstoppable. It’s one of these standards that continues to evolve; it’s an organic system, not controlled by any one company. You might say that Google controls one aspect of what people want from search but the fact is that the technology underlines the Internet that can be constantly improved upon by any one who knows how to make it better.

Kamla: Let’s switch to Apple because after Stanford, you went to Xerox Parc and then you went to Apple and you were a part of ClarisWorks where you were with Bill Campbell who is regarded as the coach of Silicon Valley CEOs. What was it like working at Apple because it is one of the companies that had tremendous ups and downs.

Yogen: Well, you know I helped Bill start Claris in 1987 which in some ways was a spin-off out of Apple even though in many ways regarded as a wholly owned subsidiary that Apple eventually bought. But Bill Campbell is exactly as everybody says. He is the ultimate coach. He knows how to motivate people. He’s a brilliant marketer and for me, it was the first time in my career that I went from being a purely technologist to somebody who was building products that would have mass market appeal. In this case, application software for the Macintosh. So I’ve just always been a big believer that Apple is one company in the world that will constantly transform the world. Even though it’s had some bad times in the past, it’s managed to survive them because the fundamental notion that the people at Apple know what it is that consumers want has not changed ever since Steve Jobs started at Apple way back in the late ‘70s.

Kamla: Are there times when you look at it and wonder what is it that this company is doing right and how is it that they are able to change course and correct course so frequently?

Yogen: Well, I think what Apple really stands for is excellence- excellence in terms of the user experience. I mean, they are masters at making sure that all the details are right.

So when you as a consumer want to buy something; whether it’s a car or something else you want it to be perfect. You want it to work the way you want it to work and Apple, over the years has just discovered what does it mean to build a wonderful operating system whether it is Mac OS X or build an iPod or build an iPhone. So they’ve got people there who truly understand why details matter and why the consumer would be happy with the final product.

Kamla: What was your experience like working with ClarisWorks?

Yogen: Well, you know Claris Works was an integrated application. We had some brilliant software engineers who wanted to take things like word processing, drawing, and painting and just combine them into one application. And today, ClarisWorks is often, is called I believe, Apple Works.

Kamla: It died in the last year.

Yogen: It died last year? Well, I think the reason it probably hasn’t survived the new era is that today people are quite comfortable with many of the applications from Microsoft for Macintosh but also the Internet and the web has come to play where people are able to get some of these simple applications through their browser.

So if you wanted to write a simple document, you don’t even need Microsoft word. You could use Google docs or a number of other applications straight from your browser. So that need- that people want is being satisfied in just as simple ways from State-of-the-art methodologies.

Kamla: What prompted you to become a venture capitalist?

Yogen: As I often tell people, by accident. I was in between careers so to speak after the Claris’ experience and I had known the Mayfield partners and they asked me to come hang out at their offices and help them think about where the world was going and this was in ’91 when Windows had just come world was ready for client server computing which is what I had spent many of my years doing at Xerox and at Metaphor. So I was able to help them think through their strategies and we made some superb investments and eventually they asked me whether I truly wanted to be an entrepreneur and go back out or whether I wanted to cross the line and help entrepreneurs; I didn’t know whether I’d like it or whether I’d be any good at it and I said yes and something I’ve done many times in my life, sort of gone with my instinct on where I think the world was going and what role I might play in it and I’ve never regretted that decision.

Kamla: What you didn’t mention was what were these companies that you invested in?

Yogen: Ah! The companies that I invested in, in those early days along with my partners were Vantive Systems, which was one of the first companies to do customer resource management, Arbor Software, companies like Pure Software or further down the road companies like TIBCO, BroadVision; these are all what I would call infrastructure software companies that continue to march along the path from client server to web services.

Kamla: You have deep knowledge of the network space. IPv6 is round the corner. What that means is, there’s going to be IP addresses available for billions of devices. What that means, I’m guessing is proliferation of devices and experience then becomes the focal point. How are you looking at IPv6?

Yogen: See, in many ways the changes that will come with IPv6 is to really enable, as you said Kamla, thousands and thousands of devices to become Internet enabled where they would have an address. Well, it’s like saying if you don’t have enough street numbers, you can’t add any more houses to the street and we want to make sure that you can add as many devices as you want to.

Now technologically, doing IPv 6 is fine but the question is, what are these IP devices going to do? Are they going to be phones, are they going to be MP3 players? Are they going to be digital picture frames? We just don’t know but the point is to make sure that there are enough street addresses so that the innovators, the entrepreneurs can figure out what these devices might be.

And then consumers will benefit from these devices and not only consumers you can think of street lights, traffic signal, every thing is going to be an IP device and the ones that really succeed are the ones like the iPhone or the iPod where it meets customer needs – consumer needs.

Kamla: I’m curious. Why didn’t you mention the Ad network?

Yogen: Ad networks are very very important and I think the world eventually is all about commerce and we know whether we are living in the United States or Europe or China or India that advertising makes the world go round. Most of us sometimes get annoyed by ads but I think we are willing to live with ads because the benefit of that is that the service that we get is for free and so there’s this constant tension between “for free” and “for subscription”. But what the Internet has done is, it’s created a very unique mechanism to allow the smallest company to get world wide distribution. All you have to do is type some random phrase in a Google search box and you can find that small company that will satisfy your need.

Kamla: So personalization becomes the key phrase there.

Yogen: “Personalization” is the key phrase that the ad networks and the Internet will eventually give you ads that you really want as opposed to ads that are irritating you.

Kamla: So that brings up the question of privacy.

Yogen: All technology has dealt with the issue of privacy. You know, privacy of what you do, what you don’t do and I think that’s a constant set of checks and balances that the industry will create to ensure that privacy is upheld. But today, for example if you wipe your credit card, your credit card company knows exactly what you’ve bought. So it that a violation of privacy?

Only if the organization that you’ve trusted misuses that information and I think there is sometimes that concern that companies on the Internet aren’t quite as crisp in terms of protecting the consumers’ privacy and I think there will be technology and a variety of other mechanisms, not necessarily legislation which will protect the consumer.

Kamla: I want to switch to Judy Estrein, who is an old friend of yours. You have invested in her companies. She was the CTO of Cisco and she has recently published a new book, “Closing the innovation gap” and one of the things that she points out in the book is that the innovation eco system in Silicon Valley is polluted; both in the US and Silicon Valley. She says that the roots of the innovation system have started to rot. What are your thoughts?

Yogen: Well, innovation is something that is critical for the survival of not only Silicon Valley but also I would say, inevitably the American economy and so the worry that Judy has trailed in her recent book is expressing through interviews with a number of innovators is that we continue to feed the goose that’s laying the golden egg.

That is we have to construct mechanisms to enable innovation to survive. Otherwise, people look for short term gains and profits and don’t spend their careers building truly innovative technologies.

So we have to construct a mechanism by which researchers at the greatest Universities are given the freedom to doing the research. When you think about all the stuff we have today, it was done by researchers funded by DOWPA, NSF, at the research labs that I worked with at for years in the ‘70s before any of this really came in to public attention. And siting Judy is basically creating a “call of to action” that govts, Universities, Presidents and that corporations should pay attention to innovation long term and innovation across all disciplines, just not the discipline that’s core to their business needs.

Kamla: Tune back in for Part 2 of our conversation with Yogen. This is Kamla Bhatt. This interview was brought to you in association with Live Mint Radio and as always, thank you for tuning in.

This interview was created in association with LiveMint and published on their website in Nov 2009.

Listen to Part-2 of the interview of Yogen or read a transcript.

If you like, you can listen to a podcast of this interview .

This is Kamla Bhatt. We bring you the second part of our conversation with Oscar-nominated music composer AR Rahman. AR has been nominated for three Oscars for his music composition in Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.

In this episode AR talks about his journey as a music director and the role that his mother played.
Kamla: Welcome to the show AR.
A R Rahman: Hi, nice to be here.
Kamla: How has your journey been from Kodambakkam to Hollywood?
A R Rahman: My journey. Very unpredictable journey actually. When I was a child I never thought that I could probably perform properly. I was famous from the age of 11 because I was in a children’s show on TV every Sunday. So, they asked me to play film songs and I used to play that and people used to recognize me. Fame was not an unusual thing even then. But my confidence level and the level of probably delivering something all those things suddenly feel surreal. When you come here and you meet the people in America and Los Angeles. All the movies you have seen. Last night I saw Oliver Stone and one of my favorite movies of his is ‘Born on the 4th of July’. So it is really a big trip isn’t it from there to here?
Kamla: And you are enjoying it?
A R Rahman: Yes, in a way, yes.
Kamla: Do you consider yourself to be lucky?
A R Rahman: Well, I think it is a very complex question. Luck can happen once and then we need to sustain it .To sustain that we need to have a state of mind and a way of life, I think. Because I feel that there is definitely a destiny part and the divinity part, which is again based on well wishing and love and prayers. But, then how much can you shape it and probably create the longevity is also a question. I think when I was young and all those mishaps my father not being there, dying very soon and me going to work and as a single mother, how my mother suffered probably to cope up with my career and all that. She was not only a mother; she was also a business partner I would say. When I did my studio, she invested money in it and bought the equipments. Whenever necessary, she would stand like a wall for my protection. So, she knows my state of mind, she knows that these guys are going to disturb my son so I will make sure that they do not come and disturb him. So, there are a lot of things, which she did and though she is not a- I mean she is just a housewife in a way. She is not a musician but she understands the temperament.
Kamla: One of the forces that have shaped up your life has been your mother as you have pointed out.
A R Rahman: Yes, whatever decisions she took were guided by the fact that I remain in the field of music because I was not very clear at that time that my future is music. I was more interested in other things, scientific things and electronics. But I think she took the decision saying that this is my future. I had to be grateful to her because now I am enjoying all this stuff because of music.
Kamla: Do you think you have been fair to her by calling her homemaker because she displayed a lot of business flair in honing your skills?
A R Rahman: Well, that is just a name, homemaker. The most ultimate thing for all if you do not have a home and then there is nothing. We always want to go to home. For that I think somebody has to do that. What I meant was she worked from home.
Kamla: She showed a lot of faith in you as a child. Like you have pointed out you were 9 years old when you lost your father. What does that kind of total faith in a child do to a child?
A R Rahman: Well I think it has something to do with the South Indian tradition also. Mothers are very possessive about their sons. Though my sisters will complain that no she did not show that much love to them. It is not true. I think it is much more because I was the only son and only male member in my family and had three sisters and she. We were just five of us. So in that way I think there is more focus in what she was doing for me and for the family. I think she also went through — she knew exactly how everything worked in the music field or in the movie world. Father overdid, overworked and probably exhausted himself and feel sick and lost his life because of that. Probably she wanted to correct those things, which were a mishap in my father’s life and she exactly knew what was right, what was wrong in the way of working, in the way of many things actually. So that is one of the reasons even I started doing very limited films. When a composer used to do 30 films in a year, I started doing probably 4 of 5. I said this is enough for me because I do not want to lose. I do not want to be in the same boat as my father and overworking and you know probably destroying yourself. I knew that somewhere if somebody–nobody cares when a person dies. I think it is just the very few days of asking- How are you? And what is going to happen? And then everybody has his or her own lives. Life is a big kind of a challenge for everyone. So that is what happened. Probably that also made me more firm in deciding that all of us have to take care of ourselves and we have to be mature enough to do that.
Kamla: So you are not a workaholic then?
A R Rahman: I am a workaholic but not to that extent where I need to work like that. Sometimes I think due to passion I work. But my father wanted to make a living and he wanted to earn and make money for us. Unfortunately, all the money, which he made, went for his medication.
Kamla: Being in this film industry is a very difficult thing especially when you have seen your parents struggle there. What have you learned in terms of working within the film industry and how have you changed the way you work?
A R Rahman: Well, first of all I think I was lucky enough to go into a path of Sufism. This was a major change in my life. After selecting that path I think I could probably separate myself with so many things and look at it from a very external point of view. So whether it is fame or money or people or love or anything or even music. So, even if you do a piece of music, you finish that and then completely disassociate with that and go outside to look at it from another point of view. Whether it is flattery or whether it is criticism, success, failure and so that is a great thing. Then having a kind of hope and satisfaction everyday that life is worth living for love, for giving love. It is probably a service also in a way actually-art.
Kamla: You think art is a service?
A R Rahman: Absolutely. Yes.
Kamla: How does music inspire your faith and your faith in music, you mentioned Sufism?
A R Rahman: Well, I think for everything there is an intention. So people have an intention for any deed they do. Some people have intentions as money, some people have intentions of fame, some people have more-I do not know. It is what in your mind comes out as music or any film. Like when a filmmaker does a film he would say I want to change something in the society and so I want to do a film. So I want to give them this and I want to make them question about something. So like that everything, everybody has something in mind to come out. And for me, when I was in a state of probably disillusionment — one of the things my mother said to me was why don’t you live for others and then you will find a meaning to life. So that is a very simple thing, which she said but I think it has stuck onto my mind in a very big way. So living in the sense — you are doing music to make people happy and to enrich their lives and in the same time feeling happy that you are doing that. It is almost like cooking. When you are serving someone food that you have cooked and they are happy about it, it is a great feeling.

Kamla: When did this change come about? Was it before Roja or after Roja?
A R Rahman: I think it was couple of years before Roja when I built my studio — my home studio.
Kamla: Yes, I remember seeing that (in the studio) in 1992.
A R Rahman: Yes, yes you came.
Kamla: At that time it was state of the art studio.
A R Rahman: It was a really small studio.

Kamla: So now you have expanded the studio?
A R Rahman: Yes, now there is another studio in the next week.
Kamla: Tell us about Sridhar, he has been a very important person in your life.
A R Rahman: Very few people could understand my state of mind, what I wanted to do. Sridhar was one of them and couple of other musicians whom I work with. Also, I think a sound engineer for a composer; we see each other more than anybody, more than a wife or a family or anything. We worked there for, I do not know, 14-18 hours a day and then we go to see our family for one hour and then sleep. So, I think sometimes you are much more intimate with your friends and he was like a sound engineer for me. I think very few people work with me till my first 10 years. I think it was only Sridhar and then Siva Kumar and my other guys like Sami and Noell. So, there are very few people because I did not want too much of crowd. Music was something like a baby in the mother’s womb till 10 months isn’t it? You cannot just expose it before it comes out. So it is something like that for me. So that is the reason why we worked in a very isolated way. But then all the concerts and all those stuff happened in 2000 and that is a different life totally.
Kamla: You lost Sridhar recently?
A R Rahman: Yes, it is a great loss I think. But what is good is if a person dies and people love him. Lot of people go the moral summit so it is a good sign that the person is a kind hearted person and he is respected. He died happily doing his job and being in his house. So that is a good thing. But he could have lived definitely around 20-30 years more.
Kamla: Now he knew you had been nominated for the awards.A R Rahman: No, we sent the master and he communicated with Interscope here in the US and uploaded all the music for the record. And then we were working on another film called ‘Ghajini’ and almost towards the end of the film, the background score, just couple of days before he died.
Kamla: Oh! So he never knew that you had been nominated?
A R Rahman: Yes, nothing at all.
Kamla: So he does not know about the success of Slumdog?
A R Rahman: He knew about all the reviews and stuff. But at that time, no nominations or award. In fact, after that I wanted to get out of Chennai for a change and then I came to L.A. and then all these awards were announced and then just probably one week after he died.

Kamla: Really sorry to hear that. Who has been your major source of inspiration? We have talked about your mother but besides that?
A R Rahman: Too many people, I think. Every amazing person is my inspiration. Sometimes its major, sometimes it is — I think it is the urge to probably supersede what you have done before and not procrastinating and not being complacent is one thing. We all need that to — so that creates the inspiration and that creates the drive.
Kamla: Where you are going to get your new drive? Now that you have been nominated for the Oscars, you have got the Golden Globes. What is left for you to achieve?
A R Rahman: Well, it is one way, I would say that it is a great recognition and it gives you an exposure to do other things and to build bridges and to reach out to a particular section of people, whom we cannot even think of reaching before. At the same time it does not mean that a person who is singing in Lucknow, who is extraordinary in music is not good because he has not got an Oscar. So, in my opinion, it is probably a milestone and at the same time when you look at art or life, it is infinite, it is endless. So there are major things to be done, major things, which could be collaborated and done, major things, which could be changed. So I am looking at that aspect of life more than as a destination.

Kamla: Are you surprised by what all you have achieved? When you look back as a nine-year-old child, and look at what you have done today?
A R Rahman: Well, I have not achieved anything. I have not ended poverty level. I have not stopped wars happening. These are achievement. And in my opinion, I am just a very small musician who has got an award that is it.
Kamla: You are being modest.
A R Rahman: I am not being modest. I am trying to be realistic. So — yes I am trying to be realistic.
Kamla: A R it was such a pleasure to talk to you. Wish you all the best with your Oscar nominations and we look forward to talking to you once you win Oscars.
A R Rahman: Thank you. Bye.
You were listening to Oscar nominated music composer AR Rahman. In case you missed, you may want to tune in and listen to Part-1 of our conversation where he talked about Slumdog Millionaire and how he composed music for this film. This is Kamla Bhatt, and as always thank you for tuning in.

(This interview was originally aired on NDTV.com in Feb 2009)

This is a 2-part interview with Oscar winner AR Rahman. An intensely private person, AR was pretty candid in this 2-part interview where he talks about his journey as a musician. AR entered the Indian film industry as a young boy, and through sheer hard work and determination rose to become one of the top film composer in India. In 2009 AR became the first Indian music composer to win 2 Oscars – for music composition and best song Jai Ho in Slumdog Millionaire.

If you like, you can listen to a podcast version of this interview with AR Rahman.

This is Kamla Bhatt and today my guest is AR Rahman, who is being nominated for three Oscars for his work in Slumdog Millionaire. He is the first Indian music composer to be nominated for three Oscars. In 2005, Time Magazine listed the musical sound track from his first film Roja as one of the top 10 movie sound tracks of all time. AR as he prefers to be called is also one of the top selling recording artist in the world.

Kamla: Welcome to the show AR.
A R Rahman: Hi, nice to be here.

Kamla: So, when you won the Golden Globe, who was the first person you called?
A R Rahman: I text from my agent Sam Schwartz’s Blackberry to one of my friends to tell my wife. Because we were sitting there and phones were not allowed and I think they saw it on TV.

Kamla: After you got out, whom did you call then?
A R Rahman: I spoke to…Oh I forgot too many awards. I spoke to her after I came out.

Kamla: What was your reaction when you got nominated for the Oscars? Where were you?
A R Rahman: I was with my family. Actually I was in Chennai and we saw these three nominations for director, best film and stuff. My agent Sam Schwartz called from Los Angeles (LA), he said did you see those three nominations? I said yes directors, no, he said music nominations three and then I was like really surprised and that it was great news.

Kamla: Why should you be surprised after you got the Golden Globe?
A R Rahman: Surprised because we entered two songs and on both the songs we got nominated. It is a big deal. Also the score…it is actually … it is not a very conventional kind of score and even the songs become score in most of the places, and blurring the line between score and songs. I did not analyze all those. Initially I did not even think I should submit it because and then they said no, everything becomes a score together in a platter. So, you never see, you never analyze and you never calculate things sometimes creatively, but it happens.

Kamla: And was Danny Boyle surprised?
A R Rahman: He was thrilled actually, yeah. I could not go for the premier to Mumbai because I was all prepared and suddenly had to finish of Dilli 6 pre-commitment. So, I could not attend the premier and I was stuck in Chennai and doing the stuff.

Kamla: Now is it true the Dilli 6 has been postponed because of all the Oscar buzz and you being in LA?
A R Rahman: I have finished almost 60% when I came and I am going back tomorrow to finish the other portion. So, I think we have done, the background score is almost over.

Kamla: A quick question about Jai Ho. Where did you come up with the idea of getting different sounds — you have Spanish, you have Hindi, and you have English? How did you compose that Jai Ho?
A R Rahman: Well. I think it was almost like a celebration. I do not know, it was just that we wanted to do a crazy song and because this song was already choreographed for another kind of song. So, I wanted to write an original song and sometimes you get this instinct and you just go with it.

Kamla: Tell us about Slumdog Millionaire, how surprised are you by the success and why do you think it succeeded?
A R Rahman: I think first of all the optimism and the hope of the film, which we all need; all of us are in trouble. When I saw the movie I loved that aspect. When I came out of the film, I felt positive not like depressed or felt why I went to this film and not that kind of stuff, which is great. And it is not a normal film where you just see a usual thing it enriches your intellect and makes you think and it takes you for a roller coaster ride. I loved the screenplay and there are so many things, which I liked. It is good to see that two points, which are proven in the film, is that there are no stars in the film at all and it shows that any film made well can have its own fame. So, it shows that feeling like empathy, love and everything is universal you know the way you can relate to it and that is what I felt.

Kamla: You mentioned to Danny Boyle that the movie reminded you of Sawshank Redemption.
A R Rahman: Yes.

Kamla: I asked Danny Boyle that question he says I do not know you need to ask Rahman he said.
A R Rahman: Why I told that is …It is probably — there is a parallel that, there is so much of suffering there and how life is mean to this family, these two brothers and how in that again when he comes out he feels so good. So, that is the same kind of feeling I felt in this. I said this is it man that you have done in a very different way, but that is how I feel. So he could not get it, why you are saying that film.

Kamla: Do you think in some ways it is — you were also able to empathize with the movie and the characters because of your early experience, the struggles that you went through as a child and a teenager?

A R Rahman: I think that everybody goes through something and in a way yeah I took it as a universal feeling and not as a personal thing, but also these days you see so many suicides happening after the recession, after business collapses. There is always hope, I think, and whenever something goes wrong there is probably three times better things going to come in future and we also… We need to have that hope in our mind that something better is always there for us in the future and never loose hope. We always think about the present and think how, what will happen. Tomorrow is never the same and either it may be the good or it may be the bad, but it is never the same. It is different definitely than what we think. Of course if we follow and if we go on probably the right path and then we can probably foresee what is going to come tomorrow, but at any time the future is bright.

Kamla: What kinds of music do you listen to? How do you relax?
A R Rahman: How do I relax? I come here to L.A.

Kamla: And what do you do in L.A. when you come there?
A R Rahman: I am just getting up at the right time in the morning, sleeping at the right time, eating right food.

Kamla: But seriously how do you relax though?

A R Rahman: I relax when I do music too. It is no work kind of thing. It is, I think, we are in a profession, which is very satisfying at least so far, and you are doing stuff and then that itself is like a therapy for us.

Kamla: Now, what does the Golden Globe award mean to you?
A R Rahman: I do not know. Probably after a year I will look back and know what it means to me. It gave a reason for celebrating along with so many Indian people there. Well, that is a great thing. Because after all those Bombay mishaps and the horrible things, which happened and Sridhar passing away and there was a flood inside my studio and all those stuff. You know after this incident, I don’t know why it came from my heart that I want to share this with one billion people here. And somewhere I think it is a great moment to rejoice with all the people rather than take it as a personal victory. I thought it is a great moment to share with all of them. So that was good, that was memorable. It is going to be a memorable moment in my life.

Kamla: So, after the National Film Award that you got in 1992, is this next most significant thing?
A R Rahman: Yeah, I would say because even that was a surprise and nobody ever, never expected when I made Roja that I would get the National Award, an award which old people get. I was 23 or 24 years old and in my first film I got a National Award. It was a great surprise. In fact a lot of people said don’t you think it is too early for you and you lose your motivation to do more music.

Kamla: And then so how did you answer then?
A R Rahman: I don’t know. They gave it to me and I am enjoying it.

Kamla: So, how are you preparing yourself mentally for the Oscars?
A R Rahman: Oh God. I don’t even think about it. I am just enjoying these days now. So, just probably two days before I will get all tense up and then think about it.

Kamla: There have been reports that you may be performing along with Sukhvinder?
A R Rahman: Well, we do not know yet what the scene is, what they want. I am just going to have a meeting and decide.

Kamla: And what about the news that you are going to be working with the Pussy Cat Dolls?
A R Rahman: Nothing confirmed yet. I think if something is there, I will let people know.

Kamla: OK, so nothing has been confirmed. Let me ask you about “Jai Ho”. There is an interesting story about that song.
A R Rahman: The whole music of Slumdog Millionaire was done very secretively. I did not tell anyone that I was doing this film. One main reason for the whole thing is, since I was doing so many other films I wanted to become — this is the first time I am working with a director like Danny Boyle who is so reputed and stuff. I did not know that how well we are going to vibe, whether he is going to accept the music I am making for him. There were too many question marks. So, nobody not even writers or nobody knew about which film I was scoring. Even the musicians did not know. I was just doing stuff. Only me and probably Sridhar knew about it. And only when Toronto Festival happened and the film got a great review, they saw my name and they said Oh! You did music of that film. There were too many speculations over too many things like this song is from that film and all that stuff which is all false. I want to make that very clear. So, all the music in this film was made for this film and that is very important.

Kamla: OK, so how did you get to work with M.I.A? Whose idea was it? Was it yours or Danny Boyle’s?
A R Rahman: It was Danny’s idea that both of us should do something together and we met in London and finished the track.

Kamla: How was it working with her?
A R Rahman: She is great and because I admire her work also and she also wanted me to write something a year back.

Kamla: Coming back to the Oscars and the Golden Globes, what was it like sitting in the same room as people like Clint Eastwood, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, and James Newton Howard …people that you probably wanted to meet?
A R Rahman: Aahh. I think everybody has that little Oh my God. Oh my God. He is there, he is there. Actually when I first came in to L.A. for this whole thing, for the promotion of Slumdog Millionaire in December, first trip I had met Hans Zimmer, and then Danny and then Howard. I met Alexander. So, I think after that I got used to all of that. We are in the same room and Oh yes, it is Clint Eastwood. Hi! How are you?

Kamla: Oh so you spoke with them?
A R Rahman: Yes I spoke to Spielberg too. All of them loved the film. After that you kind of lose that childlike oh yes, he is in there — sort of excitement that OK, hi how are you?

Kamla: So, who is that one person that you have not met and that you would like to meet?
A R Rahman: I met almost everybody. I met Peter Gabriel, whom I admire. Then I met Sting also during the Golden Globe and so almost all of them.

Kamla: If you do win the Oscars, how is that going to change your life?
A R Rahman: I do not know, let me win it. And then let us see if something changes. It will definitely be a great honour if we get one of those.

Kamla: Whether you win or not your life has changed?
A R Rahman: Yeah.

Kamla: Because I am assuming that you are going to get offers from Hollywood now?
A R Rahman: Yes, I am not jumping the gun, I just want to make sure that I put the energy from the right thing because now it is all over the place like lot of offers, lot of different collaborations and all coming now, but they want to make sure that there are only certain thing I can handle properly and you know all those things.

This is Kamla Bhattand, you were listening to A R Rahman. Tune back in for part two of our conversation where AR talks about his journey from Kodambakkam in Chennai to Hollywood. And as always thank you for tuning in.

(This interview was first aired on NDTV.com in Feb, 2009.)

This is Kamla Bhatt and today my guest is Danny Boyle who is director of Slumdog Millionaire, the surprise movie of 2008 that has won four Golden Globe awards and has won 10 Oscar nominations. The New York Time Magazine called Slumdog Millionaire “The ultimate Danny Boyle movie”. The film had a shoe string budget of less than $15 million and has grossed over $52 million at least until early January. Danny directed the critically acclaimed “Trainspotting”, “28 Days” and more recently Leonardo Di Caprio in a big budget Hollywood film called “Beaches”. But what Danny likes making are films that are lower down on the radar or as he puts it, not on the radar at all.

Danny won an Oscar for best director for Slumdog Millionaire. The movie went on to win 8 Oscars in 2009.

If you like, you can listen to a podcast of this interview.
Kamla: Welcome to the show.
Danny: Thank you very much. Nice to be here.

Kamla: How did you manage to put Slumdog Millionaire, the cast and crew, right in the middle of the radar?
Danny: “With lots of help” to be honest is the short answer. We had an extraordinary time making the film and with a huge kind of talent and application of the caste and crew — all of whom are really, apart from Dev Patel and a couple of people that I brought from London with me. Everybody is, basically from the Bollywood film industry. And it is a tribute to them really. And more widely to everybody in Mumbai who helped us make this film whether knowingly or unknowingly, in a way. Once we made the movie, we were very proud of the movie. There is whole different universe you enter, which is trying to get the movie on the radar as you put it. For that you need the support of your distributors and in Europe that is Path , a company called Path and in America, it is called Fox Searchlight. Fox Searchlight in particular, have done an extraordinary job since we first premiered the film in Telluride and in Toronto in September and had grown very very slowly and let it work by word of mouth, by not huge advertising, but by a kind of word of mouth, you know. And people talking to each other about the movie — that they are finding a movie that they want to recommend to friends. You cannot buy that kind of word of mouth. It is the only thing, it is the only really free, democratic thing that remains in this huge film industry and it is extraordinary the way it works. We have benefited from that enormously and when you appear in the award season and that one thing leads to another if you are very lucky. But you need a lot, a lot of help all along the way.

Kamla: So do you feel a little bit like Jamal with this jackpot and the Golden Globe and Oscars, especially considering that you lost your distributor a month before it was supposed to release?
Danny: Yes, I mean it is an extraordinary passage the film has had. There is an element in the film where destiny appears to play a role or is implied that destiny has played a role in Jamal’s fortune and in his journey through the film. And it certainly feels like that for the film itself because we have had some things that have happened where you just think “Oh, my goodness me that is the end.” And what I learned funnily enough from being in India was not to react with rage and terror to those events but actually to accept them and absorb them. You know the good things and the bad things come your way and you have to embrace them all. You are in a very privileged position as I am — as a film director. Whatever happens extraordinarily as I do not know whether the stars of the line show reward or something. Everything seems in the end to have worked out, to the benefit of everyone involved in the film. I think that is because in a way and the only way I can explain it because I don’t understand those forces. I have a glimpse of them and I am in awe of them. I just think that we made the film in the right spirit. Everybody involved in it approached it in the right spirit and I think in the end that does do you good, more than you know, almost more than anything else in a way. I think the spirit conveys itself in film sometimes and you sense that in the audience. The audience sense that unconsciously in a way and that helps them appreciate the film more or take the film to their heart, which they certainly have done around the world.

Kamla: So you mentioned something very interesting. You said you know, believe in the good. Isn’t that something that your mother taught you when you were growing up in Manchester?
Danny: It is actually. She is dead now, she has been long dead. She always said to me if you have not got anything good to say about people do not say anything at all. I do not quite follow that but the spirit of that I do follow and I always try to look at it in a positive way and try to look for the good in people. I think people respond to that and they often show you the good in them because we are made up of many different things on many different days. But if we seek the good in people, it is often there, I think and that is what I tried. Even though the films have very-often very dark elements in them, there is a life affirming nature to them, which I am really proud of it and Slumdog Millionaire, particularly I think, shows that – its triumph against all the odds for this kid. It is a very romantic idea obviously but it is something we all want to believe might happen. You see it because these are extraordinary things that you see. I am in Los Angeles at this moment promoting the film and there is a woman here who has given birth to eight babies and things like that. You say that is unbelievable and you wish them well and hope everything works out for them. But those kind of life reaffirming things I mean, where you believe in the power of life and the ongoing nature of life. The film celebrates — even though many of my films tried to celebrate, the origins of the films are dark in many ways and disturbing often.

Kamla: So how was your notion of destiny changed ever since you made the film because growing up as a Roman Catholic in England — you go to India and you make this film which is all about destiny. How was your notion of destiny changed because even the movie took on a “life of its own”, as you put it?
Danny: Yes, it has. I’d be honest; I am a rationalist or I was.

Kamla: Ok.
Danny: You know, I wanted to try and explain everything scientifically and I have learnt working in Mumbai for a year that there is another way of approaching things as well which is trusting other forces, which sometimes cannot be scientifically explained. But they still have a bearing on our lives in an extraordinary way. I think for a western audience the idea of destiny in this film is very charming, but I learned working and making great friends in India for the film that it has a very profound meaning as well. A very deep and profound meaning that it is very difficult to explain in words but you sense it very clearly. I’ll be absolutely honest I think we have benefited from it. I do not know who to thank, but even if there is a “who” to thank. I do thank whoever that “who” is.

Kamla: So how do you label the film? You know, you are from Manchester, Simon is from Yorkshire, the author is Indian and then you have Tessa Ross who put his whole project together?
Danny: Yes, well Tessa Ross…she is from Channel 4 Films has played an extraordinary role in beginning the project. She first commissioned Simon to adapt Vikas Swarup’s book; and put it together with Christine Colson, the producer and me the director. That is the kind of imaginative thinking that an executive… a really great executive producer, which she is. It is very creative, it is very “hands off” in the end. She is supportive, critical, when necessary, but also lets you get on and make the film. She was wonderful to us. Channel 4 television — the one she works for– they were going through a very tough time at the moment and it again it — the way these things work; it is wonderful that Slumdog Millionaire has had such a global impact and it helped channel 4 and her job there or play enormously. You know, to have this kind of profile — ironically and extraordinarily — at this very moment when there are on the terrible crash — financially you know.

Kamla: So how do you label the film? Is it a hybrid film, is it a British film?
Danny: I guess it is. It is obviously some kind of fusion in some kind of way. I mean, it begins, in many ways it owes its — some of its beginnings to British film for a couple of reasons. The game show was invented in Britain, ironically long time ago and has gone around the world and in India it is the biggest game show, you know its impact, its prize and you know its viewers… it is the biggest in the world. So that is an extraordinary connection. But I also think that there is realism at the beginning of the film, which has shocked some people in India. That is very British. That dependence on realism. You know, that I wanted to show some real locations and I wanted to check all the facts to make sure they were, I believe true; these things can happen, do happen and it is plausible within a society and that character could come out of that society. Obviously in the second half of the film, it takes on and it becomes more melodramatic and more — not a fantasy as such but it takes on a spirit that does owe itself partly to Mumbai and an extraordinary industry that it holds there. Because it is extraordinary that he wins it against all the odds. We want to believe that left really but its origins are kind of, I suppose the British realism set in India really which is why we filmed on real locations rather than film it in studios like a lot of Bollywood films do. Like we were advised to do. I declined that advice because I wanted to — I felt the only way a Westerner is going to get it even semi accurate is to do it in the real places with as many real people as possible. We did cast lots of people who lived there, who are in the film. We tried to as much as we could.

Kamla: And you also had that scene of the policeman saying “stop filming”.
Danny: I loved that. But you are not supposed to do things like that. But I leave things like that. That is the spirit of the film. A little glimpse into what it is like make a film you know. So we kept that bit in it.

Kamla: So what was it like to make a film for you in India because this was your first visit to India? How did you get a feel for the texture and the vibrancy of the city?
Danny: There is a great photographer Sebastian Selgado, who actually took one of the world’s most extraordinary photographs on Church Gate station in Mumbai. He was asked what was the most important piece of equipment for a photographer. He said your shoes. And I always think of that because you just got to get out and get about really. That is such an exciting thing to do in Mumbai. So that is the first thing. And the second thing is the people that you hire locally to help you make the film. We again had fortune play a role in this. We hired the most extraordinary good bunch of people to help us make the film, who we got to know and trust and I think they grew to know and trust us and we worked together on the film. So it is a fusion of those people… they helped us and all the mistakes in the film are my own. I would not blame them for any of those. But all the good things in the film I would blame them for because they are. Thanks to them that we are able to achieve any of it like now.

Kamla: So did you see any of Mira Nair’s films or read Shantaram before you started making the film?
Danny: I did not read Shantaram funnily enough and I know Mira Nair’s films very well and I am very indebted to them. And not just for the films themselves also for instance, the casting director who we hired which was like our first appointment and one of our best appointments. She was somebody who had worked with Mira and I had seen her work with Mira’s films and that is Loveleen Tandan. So that is a very key moment of Mira’s influence. Irrfan Khan has been in a number of Mira films was a key piece of casting for us. Salaam Bombay is a very, very inspirational film obviously. And closer in time is Namesake, which Irrfan and Tabu are in, giving two extraordinary performances. So there are lots of things that you are inspired by. I am also inspired by Shekhar Kapur and films like Bandit Queen, but also the fact that he came to Britain and made two period dramas. You know that the thing with the British is we specialize in them and he shows them how to do them. He made a little bit of the Golden Age and that gave me the confidence because I thought it’s — you know, a British guy going to India making a film on India. I think, basically what Shekhar’s is I’m trying to do is something as good as Shekar has done. So with people like that you get all sorts of inspiration from — certainly, yeah.

Kamla: Did you watch Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding? Have people made any kind of a connection saying that Slumdog is celebrating Bombay’s spirit to some extent whereas Mira Nair’s film celebrated the Delhi spirit to some extent?
Danny: It did, didn’t it? I mean it is a wonderful film obviously, a wonderful film. That was one of the films I think Loveleen Tandan is working on, whom we hired as the casting director. Yes, it was a wonderfully inspiring film to watch and enjoy. I mean I could not make a film like Monsoon Wedding. Our film is a very picaresque in a sense …it is very Dickensian…it has a kind of wide scope, an epic scope rather than being the kind of very beautiful, fine detail that Mira works on in her movies. But it is a very inspiring film to watch.

Kamla: How did you prepare for shooting the film? As a director how did you surrender to India and at the same time maintain control over the narrative? How did that happen?
Danny: Well, what helped me is I obviously got some experience, but I abandoned it. The experience gave me the confidence to abandon my experience — if you see what I mean? Because I realized very quickly from walking around in the city and living in the city, there is no way you can control this city. You know in the way that film directors try to control films. I thought you have got to approach it differently because of this extraordinary tidal wave of circular energy that flows through the city in the day that anybody who has been there will know. I mean it is just extra ordinary and you have never seen as many people in your life. Each day; you probably see a million people and you think when am I ever going to be able to say that ever again in my life? I wanted to benefit from that, so I let the film ride on my wide wave and it means you do not get the old things, the old things that you normally expect like continuity, control of detail, the ability to repeat things exactly and all that kind of stuff. You do not get those kinds of elements or what you do get and it is hundred times better; the compensation you get, is your narrative is then in this wave of energy in the city and it helps to create a kind of realism and it helps benefit from the spirit of the city, which despite all the problems of the city and they are manifold obviously and manifest are huge — it has a breath-taking resilience and resourcefulness and joy in life. That is what we wanted to try and ultimately capture a bit of that. But, there is no way anybody can capture that city entirely. Obviously you are ambitious and you think you can. If you are lucky and you are blessed, you will capture a bit of it — you know and that is what we hoped to do, that was all.

Kamla: So when you saw the rushes for the film, when you saw the first copy before Rahman started making the music, what went through your mind? Did you think that this film would work?
Danny: When we finished, I saw a three-hour cut of the film, which is what you start with and where everything is and it’s not fine cut yet. I remember thinking we have caught a bit of it. Now there were lots of problems that we are going through in the editing and it was a wonderful process that we have edited in the film, but I thought we had got a bit of it. I did think about it yes, and that was inspiring because it pushes you on into the next stage then. Which is to craft the film you know, reduce it to 2 hours and hone it, shape it and then, give it to this guy A R Rahman. That was a late and huge benefit to the film giving it to him you know what he added to the film his extraordinary, which is what you hope from your musical composer you know.

Kamla: And you told him — is it true that you told him no cellos?
Danny: I did but I am sure if there are cellos there, I know because he just hid them. I do not like cellos because they are usually used in a mournful way. I have nothing personal against cellos. Well, I do actually. I wouldn’t want to upset any cellists. Basically what I was trying to say was I wanted it to be and I also did not want it to be smooth in the film…his work on the film, I wanted him to be jagged and surprising because this city as you know is not a smooth transition day by day; huge extremes of banging into each other all the time and I wanted him to do that in the music. Of course the genius as he is, the Mozart of Madras or the Tchaikovsky Chennai or whatever it is that you want call him now. He can do that and he can work superbly on the film and we got three nominations for him which I think is unprecedented. I was so pleased with all that because I know what he means to people who love cinema in India and I have been there enough to know what he means. Not only that but it is well deserved as well, it is well earned, it is extraordinary sound track I think.

Kamla: How did you come to choose him?
Danny: Well, I obviously was looking around and listening to music. He was just outstanding and the way that everybody spoke about him, I just thought I should just go and try. I took the chances of getting into were very small. He is usually busy and I sent him the film and he was most gracious about this and wanted to have to go with it because I think it was a lovely change for him because he had not worked with any westerner on a film before. So I think it was a nice challenge for him really. We worked together very well. He does not say very much, which is wise because musicians cannot really talk about music. They say talking about music is like dancing about architecture and it does not really make any sense and it is true.

Kamla: And he is famous for his short e-mails.
Danny: Yes, he sends these really cryptic e-mails, very, very short. In fact he said to us — when I sent him the film — he said I enjoyed your film very much. He said it reminded me of “Shawshank Redemption”. I did not understand at all and I wrote back and I said oh! I think you mean “Usual Suspects” because “Usual Suspects” also uses a very fluid timeline that doesn’t announce itself, it doesn’t feel like flash backs and he said — no, I know “Usual Suspects” and like it very much. I meant “Shawshank Redemption”.

Kamla: And he meant “Shawshank Redemption” why and in what sense?
Danny: I do not know. I still have not worked it out; you will have to ask him.

Kamla: I will.
Danny: Get an interview with him and ask him why he said “Shawshank Redemption.”

Kamla: I am interviewing him in a couple of days so I will ask him.
Danny: Good.

Kamla: This question is about the mixed reviews that you have got in India and there has been a case filed against the title.
Danny: Yes.
Kamla: What is your reaction and then what do you make of it?

Danny: Yes. Listen I had this huge privilege of working there for a year with enormous support and incredible inspiration. I also know my responsibility is to accept criticism completely. However, the title thing is — I really have to speak about that. The use of Slumdog is not meant as an insult; it is quite the reverse, which I believe the people who brought this court case believed. The film is a celebration of an underdog who lives in — who comes from the slums really and that is where the title has arisen.
It is used in a pejorative way in that one character within the film, a policemen but it is not meant for the film makers in a pejorative way at all. And I will on my mother’s grave — I will stand there and tell you that. The film is a celebration, a vindication — a triumph for someone who comes from very humble and very limited background and yet triumphs against the resources, the glitz, the glamour of money, fame, television, the authorities, everybody. He out wits them all and he does it because he is not entranced by any of their illusions, he is entranced by love and dedicated to love. I am very proud of his triumph in the film and of our role in the film in presenting that triumph.

Kamla: And what about the children? Again there are stories about the children.
Danny: Well we tried to know ever since we have been making the film to look after the children in a long term way. Two of the children come from very poor backgrounds. The film benefited from it enormously. We have tried to protect them as much as possible by putting in place a long-term plan for their education. They are attending an extraordinary school and they will do so hopefully until they are 18. Provided they continue with school and pass their exams, provided they attend seriously their school, over all that time. This will be long that film has vanished into history. A substantial sum of money will be released to them from a fund that we have set aside. A dedicated bank account has been set aside for them and all the people who have influence on the film in terms of distribution…. the moneyed people in the film have contributed to that fund and will continue to contribute to that fund.
So it is a long-term plan for them. We discussed it many times and they started that way. When we finished filming in February last year, they started school shortly after that. In fact, I went to see them at the school a couple of weeks ago and it is wonderful to see the benefit that they are already getting from it. You can see them and their confidence grow with the education. I know people in India really, really value education as we all do. And it is the way you can make some — that the film, which benefits from someone can actually give them some genuine long-term benefit, which could really change their lives in a proper way. It was lovely to see them benefiting from it. The other kids who are in the film keep are all in education anyway and they are all you know… we are trying to stop them getting too close up to this whole world of the film so that they can concentrate on their school work. Because their parents are worried about the film was distracting them all time from what they should be getting along with, when they realize which is far more important than this film which just looks important at this moment.

Kamla: Danny, are you going to make any Bollywood movie? There are rumours you spoke with Aamir Khan? You hung out with him at a party when you were in India?
Danny: Oh he is — I saw his movie TZP and you know it is an extraordinary movie. In fact gave him an award at the award ceremony. I was honored to present him with an award for that movie. I thought the movie was extraordinary and of course Taare is as good as any movie I have seen in the last 5 years. I mean it really is. To get inside the mind, the world, and the eyes of a dyslexic child is extraordinary. To do it within the mainstream Bollywood tradition is extraordinary you know. To ride those two horses in that way. I admire him enormously as a performer and as a director. I would love to make a thriller in Mumbai. I really would. Seems like an extraordinary city. We’d make a picaresque film if you like with the thriller elements in it but there is romance, there is comedy; there are all sorts of things in it. All the time, I was working, I was thinking — “God, you could make a thriller here!” And then you have got people like Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan. You look at their acting talent — the pool of acting talent, which I do not think, is recognized in the West because most of the guys do not work in English. You know like for Anil, it was his first film in English. It is an extraordinary achievement for him to make his first film in English like this. You look at that pool of acting talent and you look at what the city offers you in terms of a thriller and you think — it’s got to be, isn’t it? We got to able to make a thriller here. There is going to be more and more people working in your country these days you know this century. I’ll be long gone but people will be drawn to it in the way that people have been drawn to America for so long in the last century to make movies in America. It will happen more and more. You are going to get used to it and I am afraid even if you don’t like it very much.
Kamla: Danny, we wish you all the best for Oscars and thank you so much for your time.

Danny: Kamla, thank you very much indeed. Very nice to talk to you.

Kamla: Thank you Danny.
Danny: Bye bye now.

(A version of this article was originally published in Open Magazine, June 6, 2009.)

(Charlie Chaplin is an icon in India. Curiously in the state of Uttar Pradesh in North India Chaplin is often referred to as “Chaliss Chaplin.” Like many kids I grew up watching Chaplin movies. Every time my dad saw Chaplin he would invariably comment: “This is a bioscope.” I filed away that piece of information and did not realize that one day I would be living close to the area where Chaplin shot his famous film The Tramp and that it was in the San Francisco bay area that he met his leading lady  Edna Purviance.)

The large white letters spelt ‘N-I-L-E-S’ reminded me of that other famous sign: ‘H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D’. I often wondered about the startling similarities between these two signs, both perched on hillsides, and if there were any deeper connections. I finally gave in to curiosity and took a detour to venture into a street that looked straight out of an old western. Niles Boulevard, the main street, had mostly antique stores on one side and a railway track on the other. And way above the track was the sign I’d come to know so well: N-I-L-E-S. My eyes caught the Charlie Chaplin figures on the lamp posts. Why Chaplin? Intrigued, I drove on, looking for clues, and found my answer. The sign read: ‘Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum’. It wasn’t open.

I returned over the weekend and headed straight there. Inside was a treasure trove of information and what to me was a long-lost connection between Niles and the US film industry. Before Lucas Films, before Apple, before YouTube, there was the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company—a ‘new media’ pioneer in its day. All that remains today in mute testimony to its work is this museum and some artifacts that do a marvelous job of recreating their past glory. Even a hundred years ago, it seems, the San Francisco Bay Area was a startup zone.

Never heard of Essanay? Then you may have seen their films. Remember the silent Bronco films? Or, better still, Chaplin’s The Tramp? Essanay was known as the “House of Comedy Hits,” and played a pivotal role in advancing Chaplin’s film career. According to the museum’s historian David Kiehn, it was “the most successful film company [in the Bay Area] until Lucas Films came along”. George K. Spoor and Gilbert ‘Bronco Billy’ Anderson, the company’s founders, were classic startup guys. They took a chance in the early 1900s when nobody had a clear understanding of the new medium that was cinema. (George Lucas grew up in Modesto, Northern California and his studios are located in Marin County and San Francisco.)

Both were in their 20s, and already had colorful resumes in the nascent film industry back on the East Coast. Anderson had moved to New York to act in Broadway, was broke by 18, and staged a comeback as a bit actor in The Great Train Robbery, made by Thomas Edison. Spoor, on the other hand, was a business guy. He made his money as a film distributor. Spoor was the doer and Anderson the creative one, a true Jobs-and-Wozniak duo. They took a gamble against all odds, and they did it without business plans, without PowerPoint presentations and without mission statements, making their fortune in an industry that was in the chokehold of one man—Thomas Edison.

Yes, Edison played a key role in inventing much of the early technology and camera equipment for those early films. In the early years most of the film were made on the East coast. By the early 20th century, he not only owned most patents on motion picture cameras, he used his east coast Edison Studios to turn out films at a steady rate. By tightly controlling the way his patents were used, Edison was the presiding patron of every aspect of cinema, stifling innovation and hampering growth.

In 1908, Edison formed the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPCC), which brought together a handful of film producers, including Essanay. The joint agenda was to restrict others from entering the film industry. So it enforced a strict regime of licensing and regulation of film making and distribution. It also had an exclusive arrangement with Eastman Kodak (another East Coast company)  for that precious material to make films: raw film stock. While independent filmmakers like Carl Laemmle and William Fox scrounged, MPCC members were rolling in celluloid.

The MPCC monopoly was challenged in court and it proved to be a turning point. In 1915, MPCC lost a landmark case when the Supreme Court ordered that non-MPCC members be granted access to restricted equipment and material. West coast piracy played a role in subverting Edison’s regime, no doubt, but it was this legal change, and the new cinema that came of it that put MPCC out of business and shifted America’s film industry to California, which was home to independent filmmakers. This move to California eventually led to the birth of Hollywood as the film capital of the USA.

The folks at Essanay meanwhile decided to branch out of their Chicago headquarters and  establish a studio at Niles in the San Francisco Bay Area. One of the reasons for shifting to Niles was that it was in on the railroad line and therefore easy to reach. Spoor and  Anderson built their studio right across from the rail road tracks and built a cluster of homes around the studio. Interestingly, Essanay was nearing the peak of its film production years and was ill-prepared for the tectonic shifts that were taking place in the film industry. It had just taken Chaplin under its wing, raising his pay from $150 a week at Keystone to $1,500 a week with a hefty bonus to boot. Chaplin worked with Essanay from 1914 to 1916 and made about 11 films, five of which were made at the Niles studio. It was during his stint at Niles that he met his leading lady Edna Purviance, who acted with him in The Tramp, his 41st film. The Tramp was shot in and around Niles Canyon. Ironically, Chaplin was not a happy camper in Niles. He pined to get away from Northern California to sunny Los Angeles in Southern California, which was fast developing into an important hub for young filmmakers and actors.

After spending less than 2  years with Essanay Chaplin decided to leave the company and head down south to Los Angeles, where he went on to carve a name for himself.  This was in early 916 and  around this time, Anderson was also itching to do things differently. He wanted to make feature-length films, says Kiehn, but Spoor didn’t want to switch to the new format. The two partners decided to split and  Anderson sold his share of the studio to Spoor for $500.000.  For the next 2 years Spoor tried to keep Essanay afloat but decided to  shut the business down and retired in 1918. Spoor had about  $4 million in his bank amount, which was a lot of money in those days says Kiehn, the historian at Niles Silent Museum.

During its short span of existence, Essanay made hundreds of silent films and released new films every day of the week, rolling in millions of dollars in profit. But Spoor and Anderson were unable to use their success to make the transition to the next level—feature films with sound. Spoor and Anderson’s contribution to the growth of the film industry during the silent film period did not go unnoticed. In 1947 the Academy of Motion Pictures presented a special award to Spoor during the Oscar ceremony. Ten years later in 1957 George “Bronco Billy Anderson got a special award during the Oscar ceremony as a ”motion picture pioneer, for his contributions to the development of motion pictures as entertainment.” Nearly 15 years later In 1972 Chaplin won an honorary award from The Academy of Motion Pictures for his contribution to the motion film industry. When Chaplin was  presented the award during the 1972 Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles he got a long, standing ovation.

Ironically, 100 years later, the equation between technologists and content creators is similar, but only deceptively so. In today’s entertainment market, it is Internet formats like YouTube that have skirted copyright law and are pushing established studios and filmmakers to embrace change. Back then, technologists had to be drawn kicking and screaming by content creators to adapt to market preferences. Now, as 21st century Internet ‘independents’ reshape the scenario, it seems quite the reverse. Content creators, who are supposed to have a feel for the audience pulse, are the ones seen as being resistant to the liberation of media assets. Techies are the new liberators. Will entertainment content become available anywhere, anytime and on any device? There is once again that heady mixture of cutting-edge technology, entrepreneurship and regulatory pressures. This time round, with the audience also part of the fight. (Read blog post on Netflix’s CEO Reed vs. Michael Eisner, former boss of Disney and their take on innovation, content and streaming.)

Yet, what stays unchanged is this: it is content that must ultimately engage the audience. Everything else is a matter of technical detail.Who knows what would have happened to Niles, for instance, if Spoor had only agreed to entertain Anderson’s idea of making feature-length films? Indeed, all this was a lot to mull over as I stepped out of the museum into a warm spring afternoon and headed back home, past the letters that spelt N-I-L-E-S.

The first few minutes of the movie were a little slow. The movie opens when you  briefly meet a very young Alice, who wakes up from a dream about a rabbi hole and blue caterpillar. Her father reassures  and tells her it is just a dream. He then tags on a line and pronounces that she is bonkers and that all smart people are a bit out of their mind. (I don’t recollect the exact dialog). Alice’s father you see is somewhat of a visionary, whose business ideas are considered mad and unachievable by his friend. (A bit of Silicon Valley magic here? Believe in your ideas and execute on your vision?). Alice is a big fan of her father & inherits his wishful and visionary way of thinking, which is an important ingredient in this film. Reassured Alice goes back to sleep. In the next frame we meet a 19-year old Alice, who is not a big fan of the prevailing  19th century Victorian norms on how a young woman should dress and behave. It comes as a bit of a shock when you find out that she is actually about to get engaged. So, that is a departure from Carroll’s version. Back to the story. There is Alice standing in a gazebo after having  received a marriage proposal in front of a huge crowd. Of course, our feisty Alice is not interested in the marriage proposal & says she needs a few minutes to think. The next thing you know Alice leaves the young chap standing with his lower jaw unhinged and dashes off chasing a white rabbit. Predictably, she  falls down the rabbit hole and we are drawn into Burton’s version of what happens to Alice in the Underland or Wonderland.

For the next 90 minutes we meet some familiar characters: the hookah smoking blue caterpillar, Mad Hatter, Red Queen, White Queen, Knave of Hearts, dormouse, the white rabbit and Jabberwocky, the dragon. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the twin brothers provide a nice comic relief in the movie. While Alice’s journey in wonderland keeps you engaged the movie kind of fizzles out towards the end when Alice pops back from the rabbit hole into the real world. I am not able to put my finger, but at times while watching the movie I was reminded of The Wizard of Oz. Maybe it had something to do with the way Alice was portrayed in Burton’s version of the movie. And for some inexplicable reason I kept wondering if the rich visuals and the magic from the Harry Potter series could have been used in this movie? (I know, I know it is a mad thought, but it is just a thought.)

The person who steals the show Helena Bonham Carter, who plays an absolutely believable character as the “perfectly horrid” Red Queen. She is haughty, imperious and a bad-tempered little girl at the core. With her arched black eyebrows and the vivid blue eye shadow and her over-sized head Bonham cuts a striking picture of the evil Red Queen. When she shouts out that familiar order ”Off with the head,” it makes you want to reach out and  box her ears. (Like teachers did in the old days when you misbehaved in school.)  Bonham’s character is an amalgamation of the Red Queen and Queen of Hearts and that is another departure from Carroll’s books.

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter does a good job. Being Depp you can expect to see a certain element of quirkiness to the character and he delivers on that front. Stephen Fry does a brilliant job as the voice for the impudent blue-striped Cheshire Cat as is Alan Rickman as the voice for the blue caterpillar.

Mia Wasikowska as Alice does a good job, and at times came across as a bit reserved or quiet. What was missing from her character was a sense of delight and happiness. Maybe that is the way Burton conceived his 19-year old Alice?

Danny Elfman’s music adds a nice touch to the movie. Elfman like Depp is a long time collaborator of Burton

If you are a die-hard Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland fan, you will come away a tad disappointed by the movie. This movie is Burton’s “vision” and “dream” of Alice In Wonderland.  If  you go with an open mind and with no expectation you will enjoy the movie. I went to see the movie without having read any reviews or the synopsis that came with the press invite. I wanted to  see the movie with no pre-conceived notions and maybe that is why I enjoyed the movie for the most part. I was drawn into Burton’s world, but did think for a fleeting moment that the visuals could have been far richer. Like I said the last few minutes of the movie sagged a bit & was a tad disappointing to see the way it ended.

Alice in Wonderland releases today in the US.

Cast: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas and Mia Wasikowska as Alice

Voice Cast: Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Christopher Lee, Paul Whitehouse and Barbara Windsor

Director: Tim Burton

Screenplay: Linda Woolverton

Music: Danny Elfman

Aziz “the bored” Ansari is a rising star in the world of entertainment. Within a short span of time Aziz has carved a name for himself. He  currently appears on NBC’s sitcom Parks and Recreations. He has appeared in a handful of Hollywood films and is working with Hollywood Director Judd Apatow on 3 films.  Last month he released his hour long Comedy Central special Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening. The title of the album I suspect is inspired by his love for smooth R& B music.

As you may have noticed in the video clips Aziz’s mind runs at 64,000 RPMs and there is a certain edginess to his style of speaking. He started exploring a career in the entertainment field while he was studying marketing at New York University. A quick study Aziz is deft at answering those questions about his nationality. When asked where he is from his studied response is: “From the South,” and that is the truth. He is from the South in two ways: he was born and brought up in South Carolina, and his parents are from Tamil Nadu, South India. Often, he will mention in passing how he can speak a little bit of Tamil. (Don’t miss his hilarious reference to the singer M.I.A.).  I guess it is kind of expected for desi stand-up comics to mention their cultural heritage. Russell Peters does it, Aasif Mandvi does it, and now Aziz Ansari does it.

Like many young people Aziz  leads a highly networked life (is that the right term?) and is connected either to his Blackberry or laptop. He constantly makes references to his Blackberry, Facebook and Twitter in his stand-up routine, and then there is the reference to his young cousins, whom he likes to tease mercilessly on Facebook and IM.

Keep your eyes on this rising star. In the meantime check out Aziz’s website or Twitter for updates. He is prolific.

That is a demo of Cisco’s TelePresence, which provides an incredible “true-to-life” experience. Sitting around the table at this virtual meeting were people from  different parts of the world. There was no lag and the quality of audio and video was superb. Using Cisco’s TelePresence is a delightful customer experience.

Currently Cisco’s TelePresence is deployed in 50 countries. Earlier this week Starwood Hotel and Tata Communications rolled out Cisco TelePresence meeting suites at W Chicago City Center and Sheraton on the Park Sydney, Australia. Starwood plans to launch TelePresence suites at other properties properties in Manhattan, LAX, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Frankfurt. You could almost feel the infectious enthusiasm from the Starwood team during the press conference hosted via Cisco’s TelePresence. In this age of frenetic travel and 24/7 connectivity it seems a good fit for Starwood to offer Cisco TelePresence solution to its business guests.

Tata Communications has provided the service layer over Cisco’s TelePresence. Cisco TelePresence suites are available in India through its partnership with Taj Hotels.

It was over 3 years ago that I saw a demo of Cisco’s TelePresence at the inauguration of Cisco’s new campus in Bangalore, India. That first demo of Cisco’s TelePresence by John Chambers, CEO and Chairman, left an indelible impact on me. It demonstrated the power of virtual live communication using high-definition audio and video and IP technology. Watching Chambers talk with his team member sitting thousands of miles away in Silicon Valley was surreal. It was as if the person was right there live on stage standing right next to Chambers. I understand this was a demo and folks must have worked frantically to make the experience flawless. That is how technology should work I thought to myself. Just flip a switch and then there is that instant magic of a rich, interactive virtual meeting.

Since that initial demo I have attended a handful of Cisco TelePresence conferences and events and continue to be impressed with the quality and level of interaction that takes place. Is it any wonder that I have been craving to get my own Cisco’s TelePresence ? You would too if you saw it. Apparently Cisco is working on a consumer edition.

The Dalai Lama is currently on a tour of the United States, and held a low-key meeting with President Obama last week. He is now traveling around the US meeting and speaking at different cities.

Last evening when Evan Williams, co-founder, Twitter wrote that he met the Dalai Lama and pitched him to join Twitter, the spiritual leader laughed in response. But, within hours of Ev Williams’ pitch to the Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama officially launched his Twitter account. The news about the Dalai Lama on Twitter broke out earlier this afternoon (California time) and  within hours he has garnered over 16,000 followers and is included in almost 800 lists. (Update: make that over 21,000 followers and included in over 1000 lists.)

Twitter is banned in China.

The Dalai Lama is fond of technology, especially all things related to clocks.

Often dubbed as a realist the Dalai Lama has been living in exile in Dharamsala, India since 1959. For the past 50 years he has been fighting for the autonomy of Tibet, and does not subscribe to the view that Tibet is part of the People’s Republic of China. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Two years ago author and essayist Pico Iyer wrote a book about the Dalai Lama. In this interview Pico talks about the Dalai Lama, China and the future of Tibet.

Mr. Sidney Poitier turned 83 today.

An actor, director and a diplomat, Mr. Poitier’s story reads like a textbook case of a person going from rags to riches. He grew up poor in Bahamas with little education, and came to the US when he was 15 years old. He worked in a series of menial jobs to support himself and by the time he was in his early 20s he got his first break in theatre, and thus was born a gifted actor.

His story is an inspiration and reminder that if you apply your mind, energy and time you can succeed. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Mr. Poitier did not set out to become an actor, but once he put his mind to becoming an actor, he applied himself to becoming an excellent one and got the right breaks.

He was the first major male black actor, who went on to win an Oscar for his performance in Lilies of The Field. “It was amazing, amazing, amazing,” he said in an interview about winning the Oscar. But, the movie that stands for many is Guess Who Is Coming For Dinner that addresses inter-racial marriage in the 1960s, when it was not exactly a topic that was widely discussed.

His other movies include To Sir, With Love, Paris Blues, In the Heat of the Night and The Greatest Story Ever Told among others.

If you missed watching Mr. Poitier’s film, it might be worth checking them out. May I recommend Guess Who Is Coming For Dinner?  Besides Mr. Poitier the movie stars Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, and is directed and produced by Stanley Kramer. Hepburn won the best actress award for the film in 1967.

There is something about Mr. Poitier that inspires you…

The very first question that Eisner asked Hastings was about the unlimited leave policy that Netflix supposedly extends to its employees. And  that question set the tone for the evening, where Eisner constantly probed, prodded and questioned Hastings about Netflix, its strategy, whether it is a content company and how it plans to work in the changing digital environment (think streaming movies).  You could immediately sense the faultlines between the two people through the sub-text of the conversation. It seemed like Eisner was trying to understand the startup and innovative culture of Silicon Valley, and what makes Silicon Valley companies different. It does not seem like Eisner is a big fan of free massages/flex hours and options. But that is what people tend to focus and not on the long, interminable work hours, the broken promises to your family to attend a birthday party or your child’s first show that is so common in Silicon Valley. Those long hours, those broken promises are the unspoken parts of what goes behind the success of Silicon Valley companies. But how do you bottle the essence of Silicon Valley culture and help folks understand the power of ideas and dreams?  As an observer to the conversation between Hastings and Eisner you could  spot the difference between Northern (Silicon Valley) and Southern (Hollywood) culture and the difference between old  and new media world. I don’t think  Eisner would be very flattered to be referred to as a member of the old media since his current company creates content for the online world.

I digressed. Back to the conversation between two very different CEOs and their views on how content should be served to the audience.

Hastings talked about the culture at Netflix, which in many ways is a reflection of a unique work culture that exists in the valley. He defined Netflix as “a specialist firm” that has adapted itself to changing business scenarios and went from renting DVDs to streaming content online. Netflix started by renting out DVDs in the 1990s and currently has about 12 million members in the USA.

Eisner was curious to know about Netflix’s strategy for streaming content, and pointed out to Hastings that “unless you get the rights for the first run of the films” for streaming it might be difficult to break into Hollywood. Hastings replied that Netflix’s  strategy is to stream and pay big checks to the companies. Hastings believes that the new model for viewing content will be click and view and that is what they are focused on working. He was also quick to point out that their DVD mailing business continues to grow simultaneously.

Do you change strategy as you grow asked Eisner?  Hastings responded that innovation is key to their strategy and pointed out that companies in Silicon Valley fail when they stop innovating (he offered Sun Microsystems as an example). Which is when Eisner shared his experience of Disney’s acquisition of InfoSeek, and how that acquisition did not work out for them. “InfoSeek was McKinsey’s fault,” said Eisner, who clearly stated that he is not a big believer in acquiring companies.

Throughout the conversation at various points Eisner kept going back to how Netflix was going to acquire original content besides Hollywood movies. At one point he told Hastings that Netflix has made a better mousetrap and then quickly tagged on a question about content. At the end of the conversation Eisner made this pronouncement: “My take is you are way too close to content than you are admitting.” And added that Netflix is right now in the licensing business but “you are totally in the environment of content.”

Listening to the exchange between Eisner and Hastings it was interesting to get a feel for the kind of conversations that might be taking placed behind the closed doors of many, many companies in Hollywood, Netflix, HBO, NBC, Hulu, Amazon and others as they struggle to figure out what is the right model/strategy for serving content online. These are early days and nobody has the right answer on how to tap into this growing opportunity. Eisner was right in emphasizing in creating quality content, and Hastings was right in saying Netflix will pay big checks to stream content. But do either of them have the answer to this question: What does the audience really want?

What I tried to say in my post was brilliantly captured in less than 140 characters by @Wildgw #churchill club event…reed hastings and michael eisner was like two 747s passing in the sky… many great points… different plans……

It came as a shock to hear that Nirmal Pandey passed away earlier today. He apparently suffered from a heart attack earlier this evening in India and lost his life.

A talented actor and an alum of India’s National School of Drama, Pandey made his mark in theatre before migrating to the silver screen. It was in the mid-1990s that Pandey made his mark in Shekar Kapur’s Bandit Queen (1994) based on the life of Phoolan Devii, a well-known dacoit, who later became a politician. Two years later in 1996 he once again made his mark as a transvestite in  Amol Palekar’s Daayara (1996). But like many talented actors Pandey was typecast and mostly acted as the “bad guy” in a handful of Bollywood films and was reportedly tired of being slotted as the bad guy. Who can blame him? Perhaps that might explain why he may have become selective and turned down offers to play such roles. We will never know the answer to that question since there are barely any lengthy interviews or Q&A of Pandey. Even though he acted in a handful of films, his powerful presence on the silver screen left an indelible impression on many people.

Pandey’s last film to open in theatres was Kedi a Telugu movie starring Nagarjuna. Next month his new Bollywood film Lahore is slated for release.

Besides acting, Pandey was also a singer who released  a couple of albums. Who knew that the opening line from his song applied to his fans when he said “Maar dala, pehle naazar pe maar dala.” It was Pandey, who had us mesmerized from the first time he appeared on the stage, silver screen or the TV set.

Our heartfelt condolence to his wife and family.

Thanks Pandey jyu (juu is the Kumaoni term for “ji”) for entertaining us.

This is an excellent  2-part interview of Kabir Bedi by Riz Khan that is definitely worth watching.

There are very few actors like Kabir Bedi in Indian cinema. Bedi has all the trappings of a polished  film star. He has the dashing looks, the deep baritone voice and the elegance. As if that were not sufficient, he is a polyglot, who can effortlessly switch from English to Hindi to Urdu to Italian. And the icing on the cake  is the respect and courtesy he shows to others during his interactions, which I bet scores a lot of brownie points for him.

Bedi began his  career in Indian theatre and Hindi films in the early 1970s. He was one of the early Indian actors, who crossed over to International cinema and TV, much before other Bollywood and other Indian actors did. He acted in a series of English films, including the James Bond movie Octopusy. But it is in Italy where that Bedi made his mark with Sandokan, a popular TV series, where he played the title role.

Bedi has also acted in a string of American TV dramas and soap operas including The Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital and One Life to Live.

An under-appreciated actor, just imagine if Bedi had started his career during the Internet era. Imagine the access he would have had to social media tools like  Facebook and Twitter and the kind of virtual fame he would have achieved.  He has a Facebook account. Wonder if Bedi is thinking of jumping into the Twitter bandwagon. I bet his tweets would be far more interesting than some of the prosaic and non-interactive tweets from some of the stars, who make their home in Mumbai.

(Note: The title for the post was inspired by the Hollywood film ”There is Something About Mary.” I was trying to come up with a catchy headline for the post.)

Ideas and inspirations transcend physical and geographical boundaries as history has shown us time and again. While most of us recognize the power of ideas, it still comes as a pleasant surprise when you  actually see and hear people talk about who inspired them like this short video clip of Martin Luther King where he talks about how he  first heard of Mahatma Gandhi.

“While the Montgomery boycott was going on, India’s Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of non-violent social change. We spoke of him often,” wrote King. Although King never got to meet Gandhi, he went on a month long trip to India in 1959. He wrote an article on his India trip, which is definitely worth a read.

But, I wonder if King knew of his influence on young Indians? His powerful oratorical skills with that unmistakable rich cadence and rhythm is (was) familiar to many young Indian school and college kids. At least it was when I was growing up in India. Take a listen to this last speech King gave in 1968 before he was assassinated.

Steve Jobs clearly recognizes the power of storytelling.

A consummate marketer Jobs known the art of storytelling, and this Stanford Commencement address is a great example. “I have 3 stories to share,” he says in his introduction. The 3 stories seem to map to birth, life/love and death. The cycle of life. Jobs apparently subscribes to Buddhist teachings and perhaps that informed his storytelling?

In the commencement speech he talks about his birth, adoption, attempts to study in college (thanks Hare Krishna temple for the free food), getting fired from Apple and fighting cancer. Note how he uses simple words to get his point across.

Here is what resonated with me, and I am sure if you listened to the speech you will find these to resonate with you too.

“You have got to find what you love.”

“None of this would have happened if I had been fired from Apple.”

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you have not found yet, keep looking…Keep looking, don’t settle.”

And finally here is the punch line: Stay hungry, and stay foolish.

Great advice, a bit difficult to follow, but good points to hang on to when you are going through a rough patch.

“Don’t let other opinion to drown out your inner voice.”

So, I am staying hungry, and staying foolish and listening to my inner voice and continue to explore and find those stories that remain untold. These are stories of inspiration, motivation, and of how someone got started, who influenced them and why they do what they do. My goal is to tell stories with a context or to use an oft-repeated marketing term: 360 view of the person. It is hard, it is challenging, but I love it. I know creating long content pieces is not fashionable or “the thing” to do, but I also know that a good, absorbing conversation always resonates with people. Thanks for listening and for your support.

He has done it once again. He did it with Bollywood films, he did it with his role in Danny Boyle’s Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire. And he has done it with making the crossover from mainstream Indian cinema to mainstream American TV. We are talking about Anil Kapoor, who made his prime time TV debut in the wildly popular show: 24.

In 24, Anil plays the role of Omar Hussain, the president of a Middle Eastern country. He will appear in 16 episodes of 24, which basically means you can catch him on almost every episode of Season 8 of 24 Anil is perhaps the first Bollywood actor to migrate from the big screen to the small screen in the USA. Kabir Bedi set the precedent when he moved from Hindi cinema and to the small screen in Sandokan, a wildly popular TV show in Italy. Kabir also appeared in the American soap The Bold and Beautiful.  But, Anil is the first Bollywood actor to appear in a prime time American TV show.

Slow and steady is the term that comes to mind when you look back at how Anil started his career and slowly built it into a successful one. Growing up in Chembur, home of the famous RK Studios, Anil was surrounded by films and film personalities. His father was related to “the Kapoor” family of Indian cinema.

Anil first worked as a production crew member in the mid-1970s before he decided to become an actor. He got his first break as a leading actor in South Indian films. He worked in Mani Ratham’s first film Anu Pallavi Anu, a Kannada film  followed by Vamsa Vriksham that was directed by Bapu, a well-known Telugu writer/director.

His early success in Hindi or Bollywood films were Hum Paanch (directed by Bapu and produced by Boney Kapoor, Anil’s brother) where Anil had a small role, and this was followed by blockbuster success of
Woh Saat Din, Tezaab and Mr. India. In the 1990s there was Beta, Lamhe, Taal, and Virasaat. The list continues and Anil has acted in over 100 films so far.

After 20 some years of facing the camera, Anil decided to try his hand as a producer and has made a handful of films including Badhai Ho Badhai and Gandhi, My Father.

But, it was his role in Slumdog Millionaire that catapulted Anil to international fame and brought him to the attention of Hollywood producers and directors. Ironically, Anil almost passed up the opportunity to act in Danny Boyle’s film and it was his son, who persuaded him to act in Slumdog Millionaire.

After spending 30 years in mainstream Indian cinema, Anil decided to take the plunge and move to the small screen and the result is his appearance in 24. While he is busy with this American TV schedule, Anil is also busy acting and producing Bollywood films. He is doing all this without much of a fanfare or hullabaloo. And I suspect that is the kind of person he is: a low-keyed professional, who enjoys what he does and listens to his children’s advice with an open mind. If it were not for his children Anil might not have been on Slumdog Millionaire or 24.

At the turn of the century Rich, who was in her 40s suddenly finds herself fired from her magazine job and is not sure what to do next. As a long time cancer survivor Rich is in some ways used to living with uncertainties and is “perpetually in half-alert” about a recurring bout of the disease. She decides to learn Hindi in New York first from a desi and then from a Bulgarian Hindi teacher. Rich then lands a scholarship and a book deal and the next thing we read is that she is enrolled as a full-time Hindi student in Udaipur, Rajasthan.

Rich spends a year (2001-2002) in Udaipur and through her book we get a peek into her life and the cultural learning’s she uncovered during her educational sojourn in India. She spends part of the time as a tenant of a local Jain family where she is introduced to the intricacies of navigating an Indian family system. The period she spent in India is a tumultuous one both in the USA and India. Barely a few days after she lands in Udaipur, the famous World Trade Center in New York is destroyed. And during her stay in India the horrible massacre of Muslims in Gujarat takes place and she witnesses the widening of schism between the Hindus and Muslims. She also discovers the cultural differences when speaking in “shudh” Hindi to her Muslim rickshaw driver, who chides her when she says “dhanyavad.” He corrects her and says that the correct word is “shukriya.”

It is difficult to slot the book neatly into a category since it is part memoir, part travelogue and part scientific. These three strands are interwoven in her narrative, and sometimes the scientific parts can be a little distracting to the reader. Why the focus on neurolinguists I ask Rich. “I wanted to find out about the science of language acquisition. I wanted to make a guinea pig and see what happens.” So, if you are interested in learning what happens to your brain when you are busy acquiring a new language then Rich has the answers for you.

I am still a little puzzled since like many Indians I am a polyglot and don’t have the foggiest notion of the changes that take place when you learn a new language. While she agrees with me she correctly points out that most Americans tend to be monolingual and when you learn a new language as an older person the whole process scrambles your brain in a way. “Your brain sets up another world cognitively and you begin to think in a different way.” By learning Hindi she wanted to access India in a very different way.

So, who is her intended audience for the book I ask her. It turns out the audience for Rich’s book is actually Americans. “The book is for an American audience that is monolingual. We have to make a change, and cannot afford to be monolingual in an increasingly globalized world. The book is also for smart people who read The New Yorker.” What about the Indians I ask? That too she answers. “Indians in India are always curious to know what others are thinking about them. I meant this book to be a love letter from India.”

At this stage of our conversation I am curious to know what changes she underwent when “she slapped herself back to life from the edge of the desert?” “I am a lot nicer from the experience of learning Hindi. Me having to learn a new language stripped me down completely. I am from New York and we are edgy. I lost some of the edges,” she replies.

While I am busy listening to Rich answer my questions there is a parallel process taking place. I recollect Rich quoting Michel Paradis, a well-known neurolinguist, who says when learning a new language as an adult, “You will always be off by a beat, by a stress, detectably from someone else.” And the first thing I noticed when Rich started speaking is that she was off by a beat, by a stress when she pronounced “Hindi” with a sharp “d” instead of the soft “dh.” I also noticed that the minute she heard my voice on the phone she switched to a sing-song Indian accent. Puzzled, I ask her why? She quickly defends herself by stating that she she does not get to practice her Hindi often. But, why the Indian accent I ask her? Apparently that is a natural instinct to mimic when learning a new language. But, she dropped the sing-song accent and switched to her regular American accent after that.

One of the things I noticed when I got a copy of the book was the use of Tamil looking fonts for the title “Dreaming in Hindi.” I ask her what was the reason behind the choice of fonts? Apparently Rich had no say in the title and offers an explanation that maybe the book designer wanted to avoid the cliched look that you see in Indian restaurant menu that generally mimic Hindi looking fonts.”

Now that Kathy is back from the edge of the desert after discovering herself in Hindi she is busy  slapping herself back to life by taking weekly Hindi lessons in New York and keeping in touch with her Indian friends via FaceBook. She is in the process of writing her third book: a novel.

“Dreaming in Hindi,” is a book that is a little bit of everything and it can be a little dense in parts. But, the book makes for an unusual read since the author looks at India with an interesting pair of lens.

As many of you may already know 2009 was a very interesting year, where my show was featured on Mint and NDTV’s websites. I had an exiting mix of guests: Ninja Srinivasan, Editor-In-Chief at Yahoo!, Guy Kawasaki, Padmasree Warrior, CTO of Cisco, Oscar winners Danny Boyle and AR Rahman and Bollywood filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra among others.

As some of you may know I took a sabbatical in mid-2009. I went on a quest. As I discovered there  is a lot to learn from traditional media. Creating those one minute news package for TV was both challenging and exhilarating. Writing and polishing the news copy just minutes before going live had my adrenalin pumping. Learning how to engage with your on-air (radio) audience in a 10 second spot in-between songs was an invaluable experience. I have new respect for camera people, floor directors and video editors, whose painstaking work often goes unnoticed. I have new respect for radio DJ’s and program directors and the hours of hard work they put in to create that unforgettable radio experience.

During the break I stayed connected with all of you via Twitter.

I am back now and look forward to sharing new content every week.

I look forward to your continued support, feedback and suggestions.

Thank you.

What you can’t do in real life, you can do in movies commented Bollywood’s film writer Jaideep Sahni in an interview. Sahini’s stories reflect that line of thinking in movies like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Chak De! India and now Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year. For the second time Sahni teamed up with director Shimit Amin to create a winner. Their first project was Chak De! India.

I went to see Rocket Singh simply based on the song Pocket Mein Rocket Hain that I saw by sheer chance. I was instantly drawn to the song and my husband nailed it when he commented that whoever made this film had lot of fun making it. There was something fresh and appealing about the song and I simply had to see the picture. Plus, having worked in marketing and sales in a previous avatar I was curious to see who this Rocket Singh: Sales of the Year was? How did Rocket Singh survive in the shark tank, which is what sales teams are often referred to. How did he become the salesman of the year?

May I say that I was not disappointed with the movie even though it had no songs (I mean duets) and no running around trees, no vamp, no sick mother or grandmother… in short many of the important ingredients of a Bollywood film? Each character in the film was fleshed out pretty tightly and delivered a fine performance. Both the director and the writer clearly respect their audience and that shows through in the film. I liked the way the film was edited and I suspect that Amin, who has worked as an editor for American TV & movies paid special attention to this aspect.

I will refrain from sharing the plot and instead focus on why this film appealed to me at different levels.

The film underscored what it takes to build a company and be an entrepreneur ,who has integrity and ethics. (I maybe looking at the film with a biased eye because of my interest in startups.) Ethics, Warren Buffett famously pointed out cannot be taught in schools, but is something that is learned at home. That message shines through clearly in the movie. Ethics and integrity matter and you adhere to it even in the face of deep disappointments. (Yes, I know it is idealistic, but such people do exist and operate successful businesses.)

The film also showed that being smart and being at top of the heap does not automatically translate to success in the real world. Ever wondered those who graduate at the bottom of the class and go on to make a successful career? We don’t hear such stories very often, and Rocket Singh is one such example.

The movie also highlighted the notion of an incorruptible young Indian, who want to build business the right way and play the game by the rules. (Yes, I know this is treading on that dangerous “ideal world” scenario.)

The movie is an old story recast and tailored to meet and appeal to the sensibilities of young India, where 500 million people are under the age of 30. And I think Rocket Singh has delivered a product that will appeal to its target demography. Watching Ranbir Kapoor on screen reminded me others who portrayed such characters – Balraj Sahni and Raj Kapoor, who played similar roles in a different period.

Just like Chak De! India became a case study for business schools, I think Rocket Singh is on its way to becoming a new case study on how to become an entrepreneur with integrity and ethics. Once a business person losses his/her integrity it is very difficult to regain it and that struggle is clearly highlighted in the movie (You will have to see the movie for that.). “People matter.” “The chemistry in a team matters,” is a refrain that you hear very often in Silicon Valley, but you don’t realize the importance of it until you start working on your business or work for a startup, which is when it becomes blindingly clear why ethics and integrity matter. Why working with a team that subscribes to a shared value system matters and this is once again highlighted in the film .Yes, I know this is a movie that ends just like a fairytale does, where everybody lives happily ever after.

Rocket Singh delivers an effective message without become preachy. Now, that is a rare feat to accomplish in Bollywood, and very few filmmakers have been able to achieve it.

Let me know what you thought of the movie? What was it about the movie that appealed to you? Would you recommend this movie?

Accompanied by his entourage the Mayor’s short trip was to seal the sister city relationship between San Francisco and Bangalore, and also announce San Francisco’s partnership with Cisco for sustainable urban development.

Three years ago, Cisco opened its first Globalization center outside the US in Bangalore, India that is currently headed by Wim Elfrink. Smart connected cities is Wim’s favorite phrase. For over a year now Wim has been  tirelessly promoting Cisco’s smart-city initiative and how Cisco’s technology can be deployed in monitoring and efficiently using resources.

In a virtual press conference from Bangalore using Cisco’s telepresence,  the Mayor and Wim fielded questions from journalists from around the world.

I had sent out a Twitter wondering if people had any questions for either Wim or the Mayor and I got a mixed bag of questions through tweets, DM and emails. This question sent by @PaulWiggins in Australia was the one that I asked the Mayor: What did the Mayor of San Francisco see in Bangalore, India? “I have seen the future here,” was the Mayor’s short and pithy answer. And the video captures the rest of his response including if people from Bangalore are on Twitter.  The Mayor never misses an opportunity to talk about Twitter, the small startup that has changed the way we communicate online. And of course, the Mayor has a twitter handle.

In 2006 I was lucky to meet both the musicians individually and interview them in person. Both were terribly gracious with their time, especially Rudresh since I missed my subway stop and landed up at Coney Island instead of getting off at Brooklyn! I remember Vijay babysitting his little daughter and putting her to sleep so that there was some quite time to do the recording.

You can listen to the individual multi-part interviews with Vijay and Rudresh, and one where they both speak about their collaboration. Rudresh describes their first meeting as “bizzare,” where both were seizing each other up to see how Indian each of them was, and what they knew about Indian music. They were introduced at Stanford by jazz musician Steve Coleman in the late 1990s, when both were attending a jazz workshop. Interestingly, until then neither of the musicians had met each other.

Both musicians spend time traveling to various schools and colleges to talk on career days and help students (esp desi students) understand that they can make a career out of music. Both serve as important role models for a community that is obsessed with their children making a safe career option in medicine or science.

In this video clip you can catch a glimpse of Vijay playing that irresistible, foot tapping and catchy tune called Galang from his album Historicity.

Rudresh pays homage to his South Indian roots in this album called Kinsmen that he co-created with Indian saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath. Here is a short refrain from their track called Ganesha, where you can listen to the artists perform a “jugalbandhi” of sorts focusing on the western and the Indian musical traditions and how the saxophone is utilizedwithiin each of these traditions.

Robin Williams is back: big time, to use his current favorite phrase. Last week he was on Charlie Rose’s show (link to the interview) where he spoke about his heart surgery, bounding back, his new show and his mentor Jonathan Winters. Don’t miss his spot-on imitation of Jack Nicholson and and Marlon Brando.  Just for fun keep tabs on how many times he uses the phrase big time.

A trained actor from Julliard, Robin first made his mark on the small screen, and then moved to the big screen. But it was  stand-up comedy scene that keeps drawing him back over, and over again. He has a gift for picking up accents and all you have to do is watch any TV show, movie, standup routine or TV interview and he is a riot, who at the drop of a hat can seamlessly move from one character to another complete with accent.

Check out Robin hijacking a TED conference.

He is currently on the road for his new show called Weapons of Self Destruction.Don’t know why Robin is not playing  in his hometown of San Francisco.  We would love to see him live on stage. Could we get him to perform in the bay area, please?

Hats off to this great entertainer who never fails to bring a smile or laughter into our lives. Wonder who brings laughter in his life?

There was almost unanimous consensus that the luxury of having a big marketing staff with a big budget is a thing of the past. Donna’s marketing staff at Mint consists of 4 people, while Mark Wilson has a staff of 40 people.

Donna said that Mint they did not do any paid advertising. Prior to Mint, Donna worked at Expedia and Intuit. At Mint she operated with a small team of 4 people and a small marketing budget. Her twin marketing weapons of choice were PR and Social Media that gave them lots of ROI as she put it. ” PR and Social Media is the new advertising,” she said. “I love SEO” declared Donna and stressed that at Mint they were big fans of SEO. Her lean marketing department spent time creating good content and did lot of SEO and social media outreach and ”We did not do any paid advertising,” she said. Good content is essential to marketing and she shared 3 points about what she meant by good content:

• Know your audience.

• Develop a voice for your company.

• Keep to a timeline and deliver content on a regular basis. Often at Mint they published 2 blogs posts a day.

Mark talked about content-based marketing. Creating good piece of content whether it consists of  webcasts, videos or blogs was crucial in achieving their marketing goals he said. He also pointed out how good content can be re-purposed and effectively used for internal, as well as external marketing. Sybase recently built an in-house studio and they create video content at a steady pace, which has been a big hit internally, as well as with his customers. Mark stressed the importance of creating simple and sticky content.

Vince made a telling point when he said that creating good white papers is crucial to marketing and that it is still a basic prerequisite for effective marketing. He also pointed out how companies are starting to outsource some of their marketing needs and that in turn has helped trim the costs.

Donna captured the heart of the debate when she said that in the last 20 years what was missing was an intimacy with the customers. In the old days the corner hardware store owner interacted and knew his customers on first name basis and was often privy to their stories, but that intimacy got lost over the years. By effectively using social media and web 2.0 tools you can recapture some of that lost intimacy and create a brand for your product she pointed out. And that I think is the core of marketing in this brave, new world, which is a 2-way, interactive channel.  Storytelling is back, and there are many touch points available today for a company to reach out and interact with their customers and find out what they want and need.

For three days people around the world witnessed the brutal carnage unfold on their television sets. In hindsight, it appears that the 10 young men were receiving instructions from a source in Pakistan on how to execute the attack.

Earlier today on the eve of the first anniversary of 26/11 the Government of Pakistan announced that it has charged seven suspects for organizing the attack. The seven arrested men have not pleaded guilty to the charges according to reports.

Madhavi at The Trajectory blog writes that Pakistan’s actions comes after a year of “vehement denial” of the attacks. She continues:

“The most high profile name among those charged is Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, head of the banned militant group Laskar-e-Taiba.”

Madhavi’s post has an interesting twist in the end when she asks:

“Pakistan has handed India an anniversary gift for 26/11 in the form of Lakhvi & company’s verdict; the people of India are still hoping to receive forgotten anniversary gifts. March 13th 1993, December 13th 2001, July 11th 2006, November 26th 2008…how many more strikes do we need before even a single mastermind of these terrorist attacks is punished by the Government of India?”

Nita at A Wide Angle View of India wonders why are the foot soldiers (the Mumbai police) being blamed for doing an effective job in staving off the attack? It is not the foot soldiers that need to be blamed, but the top politicians and security folks of Mumbai. She writes:

“So many died in vain, but not a single person has taken responsibility for the carnage. We need to mourn the dead, but we also need to ask for the answers. It is the top cops and the politicians who are to blame. For the lack of coordination and action. It is really pathetic and in really bad taste to see television channels blast the foot soldiers. Try and shame those poor unequipped men who had rifles that were rusted, men who ran helter skelter because they had no leader to direct them. Men who weren’t even sure where the terrorists were, how many there were, what they were up to. […]

The foot soldiers in Mumbai had nothing. If some of them ran, let us not blame them.”

While there were lots of articles written and many recommendations made in the immediate aftermath of 26/11 not much progress has happened, notes Filter Coffee. He writes:

“Sadly, barring a few cosmetic rearrangements, not much has changed in India, and no one, least of all Mumbaikars seem to care.”

Nyaypati Gautam of India Story appears to echo the feelings of Filter Coffee about the lack of change in the past year. But, he wonders what it is that he can do to bring about some change? He writes:

“We continue to be as apathetic as before. If any terror strike were to happen today I fear that the same things would get re-enacted. I hope I have got it wrong but I have a dirty feeling that I am not. It is so frustrating. What can I do to channelise this anger in a meaningful way?”

Many people used Twitter to share news and express their opinions. Here are a few examples of those messages:

RodrigoRMorais: USA Today is saying “Mumbai commemorates one-year anniversary of terror attacks”. What is there to commemorate about?

aniljayakumar: A minute for Mumbai………….

NitinNDTV: all of us will forever remember 26/11,but let’s not forget victims of earlier attacks & the brave men who continue to die in defending India

madhavgk: Politicians abused after 26/11 last year… politicians abused after 26/11 this year… nothing changes in Indian politics!

nsohanlal: 26/11 Jingoism on twitter today… Alas will be forgotten as a mundane Monday come Sunday!

This post was cross-posted in Global Voices.

26/11 collage from Keerthi’s Flickr photostream and used under a Creative Commons License.

Here is a round-up of some of some recent commentaries, analyses and news on Mr. Singh’s visit to Washington & the future of the US-India relationship.

Josh Rogin of NPR offers a sneak peek into Mr. Singh’s visit to Washington with comments from Ashley Tellis and Stephen Cohen. This piece paints the big picture and gives the context of Mr. Singh’s visit to Washington.

Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria offers his perspective in this piece aptly titled The Prize Is India and drives home the point that the Obama administration has a strong chance to strengthen its relationship and regain its strategic focus with India. Zakaria points out that South Asia is a failed tarpit that consists of dysfunctional states except for the long-functioning Indian democracy. But the question is will the Obama administration bag the prize called India?

Prof. Raja Mohan writes in a Forbes opinion piece that President Obama has a good chance of improving the US-India relationship, but cautions against the Pakistani army’s role. He highlights the powerful role of the Pakistani army and writes:

“The only institutional force that remains hostile to India in Pakistan is its army; it is a pity, then, that the Obama team is ready to buy into its new story about the link between Kashmir and Afghanistan. The sources of the troubles of the United States, Afghanistan and India stem from the unwavering dominance of the Army over national security politics of Pakistan.”

There are many dimensions to the US-India relationship and an important one is the US relationship with China and how that will impact India. The recent joint statement between the US and China has created quite a bit of storm in India. Lydia Polgreen of The New York Times captures the mood in India and describes what the mainstream media and analysts think about Mr. Singh’s visit to the USA. Predictably, the US-China questions seems to be on the minds of many people. Polgreen writes:

“The vague statement (US-China)  has been widely interpreted here as an invitation to China to meddle in India’s backyard, and prompted howls of dismay across the political spectrum. Mian Ridge of The Christian Science Monitor writes “pundits in India are more interested in the question of where the US’s new friendship with China, as well as its relationship with Pakistan, leaves India.”

Perhaps, one of the strongest pieces urging President Obama to seize the opportunity and improve its tie with India comes an opinion piece in today’s The Wall Street Journal . Written by Walter Ladwig and Anit Mukherje the duo offers their suggestions to President Obama. They highlight how the Obama administration maybe squandering an opportunity with India. President Obama needs to harness the current opportunity and  put the India-US relationship back on track is their primary piece of advice.  President Obama’s administration should not view India as a player, but as future power in this region the authors point out. The US needs to “first needs to clarify where India fits into both its Asia policy and its broader vision of the world. A statement supporting India’s bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council would send a reassuring signal to New Delhi.”

They go on to write that the Obama administration needs to do something meaningful on the first anniversary of 26/11 and they write:

“..the Obama administration should send an unequivocal message on terrorism by supporting India’s demand that Pakistan bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice. Islamabad’s delay in prosecuting the alleged plotters of these attacks has not only held up the peace process between the two nations but has also prolonged India’s national trauma. The attempted compartmentalization of terror groups on the part of U.S. and Pakistan—by differentiating between Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, or between sectarian and Kashmir-focused militants—needs to stop. The U.S. and India must present a united front against all these groups and their benefactors.”

Will we get a clearer picture of where President Obama’s administrations stands on India? We’ll hopefully know that by this weekend.

This was the first time the reserved and thoughtful Mr. Singh shared his views on 26/11 the, day Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital, was attacked by 10 terrorists from Pakistan. This Thanksgiving weekend will mark the first anniversary of the attack on Mumbai. Besides the foreign policy and domestic issues, Mr Singh spoke about the importance of the economic development of India and how  if it succeeds the Indian economy could prove to be an International public good. Being a brilliant and lucid economist  and thinker, Mr. Singh laid out the assumptions that India needs to fulfill to succeed economically.  Some of these include cracking illiteracy and poverty. If these issues are cracked then India has a good chance of succeeding, which in turn could serve as an effective economic model for the poorer third world countries he said. Two-thirds of the world is still poor and they are dealing with similar issues Mr. Singh underscored.

Zakaria’s prelude and concluding remarks were rather telling. He pointed out that President Obama’s administration appears to be making a small series of fumbles in its South Asia policy, and seems to have adopted the world view of the Pakistani army, which is that Pakistan needs a pro-Pakistani government in Afghanistan. He added that the urgent is driving out the importance in the policy being pursued by the administration. The US would have missed an opportunity if it does not build on this opportunity he remarked.

What are Mr. Singh’s expectations of his visit to Washington? The ever-pragmatic economist turned politician apparently has none. Even though at a personal level Singh and Obama might get along swimmingly, when it comes to foreign policy each leader subscribes to their own national self-interests. That national self-interest might partially explain why the US government might (is) subscribe to the Pakistani Army’s world view in South Asia. Having two failed states in South Asia would destabilize the region and will not contribute to the success of USA’s Af-Pak policy. (Then there is China and the difference in the way the US and India deal with China. The Tibet question adds an interesting wrinkle to the whole issue.) But, does the success of Af-Pak policy require that India be sidelined as questioned some of the observers? Moving forward can the Obama administration fix the small fumbles in its South Asia policy that Zakaria spoke about?

India, as many observers have pointed out, has shown enormous reserve and restraint especially on 26/11. Hopefully President Obama’s administration does not miss this historical opportunity in effectively engaging with India.

Looking at the developments in the last few weeks it appears that India is back in the spotlight and the buzz is all about Mr. Singh’s visit to Washington later this week. This will be President Obama’s first state dinner, and I suspect there is some symbolic significance to that. Mr. Singh’s visit comes at a crucial time: on the eve of the anniversary of the Mumbai attack, also known as 26/11. Just a year ago on Thanksgiving weekend 10 Pakistani men crossed the waters from Pakistan to India in a small boat and terrorized  India’s financial and entertainment capital for over 3 days.

Interestingly, what appears to dominate the current buzz of Mr. Singh’s visit to Washington are not issues, but is instead about the social aspects surrounding the upcoming, all important first  state dinner on Tuesday. The buzz appears to have originated in the beltway region, but has since percolated to various media outlets.

We will know the outcome of Mr. Singh’s visit a few days later when it gets sliced and diced by various analyst, observers and news media organizations. In the meantime, the chitchat is all about the who, what and where of the state dinner for Mr. Singh. Who is being invited? Who is the chef that is going to whip up the dishes for this state dinner? According to various reports it could be Marcus Samuelsson of New York’s Aquavit that might cook the dinner. Will there be curry, or should I say Indian-inspired food on the menu? President Obama is partial to “desi khana” and is supposedly partial to dhal and can whip up the dish in his kitchen. (Remember the 60 Minutes interview with candidate Obama where he talked about desi khana?)  Oh, and let us not forget the fashion angle to this whole social event. What will Michelle Obama wear for this event and what clothes should others wear?

Mitra Kalita of The Wall Street Journal writes in Desis in White House that an invitation to this prestigious White House dinner is at the top of the list for quite a few movers and shakers in the desi community.  In spite of the supposed embargo on the menu, guest list etc somehow news has trickled down on who will be at Obama’s first state dinner. Politico reports that the Republican Governor of Louisiana  Bobby Jindal will be there. However, the Republican minority leader has apparently  declined  the dinner invitation. Rumors have been floating around that talk show queen Oprah might be there for the dinner. Of course, Kal Penn Modi, the Hollywood actor who has is on a hiatus from his acting career and working with the White House will be there for the diner. Hillary Clinton will be there, minus President Bill Clinton according to some reports.  We will know the details of the guest list, the menu, entertainment and all other social aspects of the dinner only on Tuesday. In the meantime, Politico has come up with its top 10 dream-list suggestions on who should be invited for this much talked about dinner event.

The last time Mr. Singh came to the White House for a dinner was in 2005 when he was hosted by Mr & Mrs. George W. Bush. The question is: could this state dinner hold a recipe for success? We will know next week and in the months following that dinner.

But, before I sign off let me offer my 2-cents of what to expect in the menu.I suspect there will be more than one Indian-inspired dish, but I can say with some degree of confidence that these ingredients will be used for sure: cilantro, ginger, rice, yogurt, and maybe mango. What do you say? Have any ingredients to add to this list?

I picked up this delighful collections of essays on a whim, while browsing through the always interesting book shelves at Kepler’s in Menlo Park. Once I was in possession of the book, I  put it away with the intention of reading it at some indeterminate future date. For the moment it was sufficient that I had discovered an interesting and eclectic book that promised to be a good read. Then, late one evening sometime in the year 2001 I picked up the book, and casually started reading it. I was instantly hooked. I continued reading till the wee hours of the morning, and only put it away after I read the last page. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

This slim volume with about 160 pages has about 18 essays. In this book Fadiman share her on-going love affair with books. And as Robert McCrum of the London Observer put it, “Witty, enchanting, and supremely well-written, one of the most delightful volumes to have come across my desk in a long time…” Need I say more?

This collection of personal essays is a celebration of the written word. After reading this book I have become a carnal lover of books and boldly make notes on the margins of the book. Fadiman says that there are two kinds of book lovers: courtly and carnal. For courtly lovers the “book’s physical self was sacrosanct,” but for the carnal lovers “a book’s words were holy, but the paper, cloth, cardboard, glue, thread, and link that contained them were a mere vessel, and it was no sacrilege to treat them as wantonly as desire and pragmatism dictated.” To some Fadiman’s observations might come as a bit of a shock, but I think her thoughts on approaching your books as a carnal lover makes a lot of sense provided you don’t deliberately deface the pages of the book. I find that jotting comments or thoughts on the margins of the book helps me a lot. It helps me understand what my first impressions or if there was a tangential thought that popped into my head. I bet you would do the same once you read Fadiman’s book.

Fadiman is no common reader. She grew up in a house surrounded by books. Both her parents were accomplished and well known writers. Her father, Clifton Fadiman, was a critic, anthologist and a judge of the Book of the Month Club and her mother Annalee Jacoby Fadiman was a distinguished war correspondent during WW-II and worked with Time.

She is the editor of The American Scholar and a National Book Critics Circle Award. She currently teaches at Yale University.

Related Link: Shefaly’s review of Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader By Anne Fadiman, Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998

This month Sarah is traveling around in the UK, Austria and Australia to show her film. I have listed  the date, time and venue where you can catch the film at the end of the post.

Last month I saw The Sky Below at Stanford. Like many people in the audience I was amazed to how Sarah put together this documentary. She was the producer, director, camera person and editor of the film. That is a lot to do for one person and happily for her the final product is one that prompts you to stop and think. I also got an opportunity to talk to Sarah briefly about how she made the film. She had over 100 hours of film footage and it took her over 4 months of intense editing before the first version of the film was born. Sarah’s dedication and passion to tell the story is clearly reflected in the film.

A couple of years ago Sarah quit her job New York and went to the Indian sub-continent. It appears Sarah’s goal was to chronicle and understand what really happened 60 years ago. What memories and perspectives do people to have and remember of that horrible event? She traveled from Kutch to Kashmir and to Pakistan to understand what historical residues have been left behind? What memories do people have of that event, especially those who had to leave their home and go elsewhere to make a new home, identity and life? How did that event shape the history and politics of India and Pakistan?

And if you are wondering about the title The Sky Below here is an interesting historical tidbit. Sir Cyril Radcliff, the British officer who was in charge of partitioning the India sub-continent never physically visited the region by foot. Instead, he did an aerial sortie and got a quick look of the region from above. What Radcliff missed and failed to understand are the consequences of his actions that took place below the sky in August 1947. In an ironical twist, it appears that Sir. Radcliff had poor eyesight.

Sarah is traveling around in the UK, Austria and Australia in the next month.  Listed below are the date, time and venue where you can catch the film.

UK PREMIERE:

Nov 15th (London) http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/maharaja/events.html

Oxford: Nov 17, 2009

London School of Economics: Nov 19th (London)

Glasgow Film Theatre: Nov 22nd  http://www.gft.org.uk/content/default.asp

Showroom http://www.showroom.org.uk/inet/visMovieInfo.aspx?MovieName=The+Sky+Below&CinemaID=10001

Nov 24th (Sheffield): School of Oriental and African Studies

Nov 26th (London

AUSTRIA PREMIERE: Dec 2nd (Austria)  http://forumstadtpark.at/index.php?idcatside=273

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE: Dec http://qag.qld.gov.au/cinematheque

Stephen Alter is a second generation Pahadi American just like his first cousin Bollywood actor Tom Alter.

Born in the hot and dusty plains of Uttar Pradesh, Alter grew up in the foothills of Himalayas, where he went to school at Woodstock, in Landour, Uttarakhand. Ask him where his home his, and Alter replies, “Mussoorie in Uttarakhand.”  He confesses that he is happier living in India than anywhere else, and visits his family home in Landour, near Mussoorie, twice a year.

“Pahadi” means someone who comes from the mountain in Hindi.  Although he speaks Hindi, and can read it “slowly,” Alter wants to take a year off and spend time learning Garhwali, the language spoken in the hills of Garhwal.

The Alter family has lived in India for more than 80 years. In 1916, Alter’s grandparents, Emmet and Martin Alter, came as missionaries to Mussoorie, but spent most of their time in Abbotabad and Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan). Alter’s father, Robert, was born in Kashmir, and studied at the American Missionary School Woodstock. Both, his father and grandfather were principal of Woodstock. Chris Anderson of TED is an alumnus of Woodstock.

Alter completing his college in the US, Alter went back to India where he spent the next ten years. In 1987 he moved to Cairo, Egypt to teach writing at the American University.  “Cairo is like India, and reminded me parts of Darya Ganj in Delhi,” says Alter. After spending 7 years in Cairo, Alter moved to Massachusetts where he taught  creative writing and fiction at MIT.

A couple of years ago Alter and his family moved back from Boston to Mussoorie. However their happy time in Mussoorie was marred by a horrid incident. In 2008  Alter and his wife were attacked by 4 unknown people in their own home. You can read about the attack and its aftermath in an essay that Alter wrote. The essay clearly reflects his bewilderment and his resolve to continue to stay in Mussoorie in spite of this incident

This Q&A is about Alter’s book “Sacred Waters” published in 2005. Alter’s book is a welcome addition to the few goods books that exist about this region. The book is a wonderful introduction to understanding the history of this Himalayan region (which has often been ignored) and the central place the River Ganga occupies  in the lives of  many Indians.

“Sacred Waters,” is a beautifully written narrative of Alter’s journey to the sources of River Ganga (also sometimes referred to as Ganges) in the Garhwal Himalayas.

Alter paints a fascinating picture of the changing moods and nature of the river as it bursts from the mountains and courses down to the dusty Gangetic plains, and into the ocean. The book provides a fascinating mix of facts and myths of River Ganga whose source is hidden in the beautiful and rugged mountains of Garhwal, often called as “Dev Bhoomi,” – the land of the gods.

Surprisingly, there exist very few good books on the rich myths, and natural history of the hill districts of Garhwal and Kumaon. Till date probably the best known figure from the region is Jim Corbett of the “Man Eaters of Kumaon” fame followed by Ruskin Bond, who continues to live in Uttaranchal and diligently churns out a delightful stream of essays and short stories.

“Garhwal has been a part of my imagination,…” writes Alter in the book.

KB: How did you come up with the title “Sacred Waters: A pilgrimage up the Ganges River to the source of the Hindu Culture.”

SA: I feel somewhat uncomfortable with the subtitle, largely because I have used the word “Ganga” throughout my book, but the American publishers felt that the anglicized “Ganges” was more recognizable.  The Indian edition is titled, “Sacred Waters: A Pilgrimage to the Many Sources of the Ganga.”

KB: How did you come to choose to write on the Ganga and the char-dham yatra?

SA: Growing up in Garhwal, I was aware of the epics and myths, and had heard about them. I went back to those places, and connected the stories to the physical landscape.  I tried to make a connection between the myths, the natural history and my experience.  I did not set out to debunk or argue any of the myths, but simply to hear the stories and what they meant to me. Some stories resonated within me. There is something in nature that does effect us sometime or the other.

KB: What kind of myths exists in Garhwal region?

SA: There are 3 different myths: epic, colonial and localized. I was at one level working with the Hindu myth but also the colonial myth like the Pahadi Wilson, Jim Corbett. But I could not get much information was the myths of the Garhwalis, especially the gram devattas (village dieties).  Also, the primal myths of the mother goddess have been overlaid by other stories. There is a whole movement in Garhwal to reclaim the myths; with the creation of Uttaranchal the people are re-assessing their identity.

KB: Did you verify these myths?

SA: I did not verify these myths, and made no efforts to verify these myths. There are many versions, and when I re-told them, I tried to blend them as I heard them. Ultimately, when it comes to myths, there is no true myth or false myth.  For instance in Western Garhwal the Kauravas are the heroes, and not the Pandavas. You cannot pin down these myths since they change with each telling.

KB: Describe the Ganga to us.

SA: They myths do a wonderful job of describing the Ganga springing from the matted locks of Shiva. Ganga is made up of different streams coming out of different places, and when you go upstream you see the tributary itself.  The Ganga in the mountain is different; it is volatile, and it is as if the mountains are trying to contain it, restraining it, but it cuts through the Himalayas. It fights its way out of the mountains. And when you see it in the monsoon, it is swollen. The Ganga is physically profound and there is a hypnotic quality to it when you listen to the sound of the river.

KB: How much do people know of these myths when they go on the yatras?

SA: It varies – some know the myths, others go with marginal knowledge. Before the roads, the pandas (priests), often accompanied the pilgrims along the route, so it became a narrative. The myths were told, and the physical landscape was identified. But, now the narrative is broken up but the stories are still told. Technology is disrupting the char-dham yatra. One panda said, “They want to sit in the video coaches, and watch Hindi films. When they reach the destination, they come out and do darshan.”

KB: In the book you lament about motor-roads being laid in the Garhwal region. Why do you think motor road is not a good idea or development?

SA: Wherever motor roads go, destruction follows. Wherever they went, there was environmental destruction.  It brings the culture from the plains, and many of the people who benefit are not the Garhwalis, and it tends to corrupt their culture. And I think if the motor road comes, the temples will accommodate a deity that is known throughout India.

KB: How many trips did you make to India to collect information for the book?

SA: I made 4 trips at different times of the year and used public transportation every time. I walked the route of the char-dham in 4 sections: Rishikesh to Yamunotri during the monsoons; Yamunotri to Gangotri during the winter, Gangotri to Kedarnath in late May, and Kedarnath to Badrinath in late May.

KB: Which leg of the char-dham did you enjoy the most?

SA: The first one, the Rishikesh to Yamunotari was enjoyable. This is because it is a less-traveled route. I was walking through sections of Garhwal that did not have many motor-roads, like Dodital. The winter pilgrimage from Yamuntori to Gangotari was important because I could see many of the places without the clutter of the pilgrimage season. And it has its own charm and power.

KB: How did you take notes for the book?

SA:  I stripped myself of distraction when I went on my travel. There was no computer, no audio cassette, and no camera. I carried a regular notebook that I kept in a zip lock bag to protect from damage. I made notes in the book.

At the time of the interview Alter was already busy working on his next project, which is about elephants in India. “I have always been fascinated by the elephants,” says Alter. That book on elephants titled “Elephas Maximus: A Portrait of the Indian Elephant.” His latest book is titled “Amritsar to Lahore: A Journey Across the India-Pakistan Border.”