THE DIARY OF Z

Dear lovers of history, particularly Japanese and Chinese history. If you want a deeper insight on the rape of Nanking, nothing like reading this internationally award-winning essay written by me and honoured by none other than the Iris Chang Foundation. It was declared an ‘essay of distinction’.

You could download an e-book for $2.48 and make it your own by clicking the button below. Do read and patronise.

Valentine’s is a funny day. People, who are normally sane, staid and composed behave strangely. Grown men are reduced to tears. Mature women become crooning babies. The very mention of a saint called Valentine causes wobbly knees and an expectant sparkle in the eye. If you are the sort who wants to honour the saint anyway, here are a few gifts that could knock the stockings off your Valentine.

•    Gift her a Valentine kit that will make the art of seduction easy. Costing $275 on RedEnvelope.com, it features a Kiki Motif Instrument of Pleasure, an ergonomic, multispeed vibrator adorned with the Kiki motif, handcuff-pattern silk restraints, a massage candle, personal lubricant, Kiki Select Kimono condoms, and before-and-after mints. This gift will set a precedent for fun. It is a gift the two of you can share. It is romantic and adventurous without being scary.

•    If you have money to burn and don’t want to buy islands for her like the other business magnates, buy her a plot on the moon instead. Yes, you can do such a thing in this time of space age technology. Just the way a female fan has been gifting Shah Rukh Khan every year on his birthday.

•    Arrange for a 1-carat solitaire to be delivered to her along with red roses declaring permanent love for her from an admirer. When she gets the little box, the courier boy would declare that the little box comes with a free gift and present a big carton with the label ‘Love Inside’. When she opens it, you’d pop out and plant a kiss on her cheeks she wouldn’t forget.

•    You could get sentimental and walk down memory lane by gifting your love a beautifully decorated frame containing the photo of the place where you proposed to her. Or better still, you could video record your personal thoughts and remembrances about her and play it on V Day by candle light.

•    If you want something small but thoughtful all the way, you could gift her a personalised flower pot with a message that says, “Our love grows”. Or a love letter in a bottle with the message: “Our love is unsinkable”. Or a personalised diamond keepsake that says: “Like a diamond, our love is forever”. Or all of these things to make it a themed gesture.

•    Gift a custom-made book to her, containing all your letters, emails, sms-es until the time you got married. Print them all out and have them bound into a book, with the final page saying that it is NOT the end of your love story, but ONLY the beginning…

•    Go the DIY way. Make a memory box. Glue photos or pictures to the outside of a wooden box. Use Hodge Podge glue to create a sealed glaze over the pictures. Fill the box with tokens and mementos of your time together. Write memories you share on small slips of paper to fill the box. A thoughtful gesture that will last a lifetime.

•    Get a packet of balloons. Fill a few with little things — a cute key chain, a pair of earrings, candies, a little message on paper — anything at all but not too big. Blow up the balloon and write your own personalised romantic message on it and then deflate it and present it to her. She has to blow up the balloon to see what you have written and then pop it to get the stuff inside.

•    How about an aphrodisiac love potion and a Beating Heart Pillow? Yes, UniqueValentineGift.com sells this for $20 and $150 respectively. Organically designed to have the same effect as Spanish Fly, the elixir of love claims to increase the inner sexual conscience of the mind to achieve various sexual advances. Only 20 drops of the love potion in any drink is all that is required. Both males and females can expect increased sexual stimulation, propensity towards sexual activity and improved overall mood. If that doesn’t set her heart racing, there is the Beating Heart Pillow. Hold the heart a moment and you’ll begin to sense your own heartbeat slowly syncing with the pillow’s carefully designed rhythm. It is designed to help you relax, daydream, meditate, and nap. Perfect for Valentine’s.

•    Create your own raffle/coupon book using hand made paper or even coloured drawing sheet paper that has irresistible offers on every leaf of the coupon:
#1. A long lasting kiss with eyes wide open, offer available for 15 mins from receipt of voucher.
#2. Avail a bear hug within 24 hours after Feb 14, 2010.
#3. Luxurious foot massage after 7 days from receipt of voucher.
#4. A sweet honest smile when I am most angry.
#5. Steaming cup of tea within 10 days even when I am dead tired.
#6. A seven-course meal on your birthday with special friends at home.
#7. Looking for car keys (3 times ONLY) even if I am most busy.
#8. Allowing you in the loo even if I woke up first in the morning. Offer valid only for Feb 2010.
#9. Watch Sex & The City (5 times ONLY) when my favourite serial is on; offer valid for the whole of 2010.
#10. Free facial at my home spa after a day out with friends.

3 Idiots is continuing its dream run. Realistic, funny and with an accent on thinking out of the box, the film deserves all the moolah it’s making. At last count, the Indian box office collections stood at Rs 185 crore after tax. A box office record, making it an all-time blockbuster, even beating the likes of Ghajini, Gadar and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun.

While it’s hard to pin point reasons for its monumental success, some of the reasons for its fantastic opening include:

1. Aamir Khan’s marketing wizardry: In industry circles, he is being called ‘god’ and a marketing maverick. With good reason. The way he disguised himself and played tricks on the ‘aam junta’ and celebrities alike made many heads turn and filled so many column spaces in newspapers and sound bytes on TV channels.

2. The script is king and with a director like Rajkumar Hirani of Munnabhai fame, the story could relate to just about anyone, class and caste no bar. It was as much a multiplex film as it was a single screen film. As much a success in urban and rural areas.

3. The casting was apt. Everyone did their job well. From eccentric professor Boman Irani to the room boy to Sharman Joshi and R Madhavan to even Kareena Kapoor. Very few films have the best cast and crew. Sample this one. It had No 1 director Hirani; No 1 actor Aamir; No 1 actress Kareena and No 1 producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

4. Ladyluck is on Aamir’s side for the last two years. Sample Taare Zameen Par, Ghajini and now 3 Idiots. Everything he touches turns to gold. Midas touch!

Adoor Gopalakrishnan began small to make a big impression. He began as an amateur theatre actor and later graduated to writing and directing plays. His very first diploma film was a 20-minute documentary called A Great Day way back in 1965. Today, he is a nine-time national award winning Indian film director, script writer, and producer. Not to mention, the recipient of many state and international awards, including the International film critics’ prize (six times), UNICEF film prize (Venice), British Film Institute award, OCIC film prize (Amiens) and INTERFILM prize (Mannheim).  Most of his films go to festivals around the world. He has been a member of jury in Venice and Hawaii and presided over the jury in Singapore, Alexandria, Fribourg, Brussels, Cairo and Dubai International Film Festivals. He was a director of the National Film Development Corporation from 1980–1983 and also pioneered the film society movement in Kerala in 1965. Without further ado, here are excerpts from a tete-a-tete I had with the legendary filmmaker.

Tell us about your childhood. Your dreams, desires…

As a small boy, I wanted to become a doctor because I thought I could serve the sick and the suffering. My passion was of course theatre. I had started writing, acting, and producing plays with my friends at the early age of eight.  My maternal uncle owned a couple of cinemas in our small town and adjoining areas and I could watch films free once in a while. The films were mostly in Tamil and they were invariably mythological or sheer spectacle. The world of cinema – one of magic and mystery- was very distant and I could never imagine that I would one day end up there as a practitioner. After I passed out of the Gandhigram Rural University, I got a government job. But all along, I had been dreaming of specialising in playwriting. An ad in a local newspaper calling for applications to a course in screenplay writing and direction caught my attention and I imagined that screenplay writing should be similar to playwriting. I had by then published a couple of plays. This was in 1961, the year the Film Institute started. In fact, even after joining the institute, I pursued my study of theatre and dramaturgy on my own and the well- stocked library there came in very handy. 

How has your degree in Economics, Political Science and Public Administration helped you in the film industry?
Everything helps in filmmaking. There is no area of human activity that is of no significance. Even bad experience becomes good material for your work.

Director. Scriptwriter. Producer. Which role do you enjoy the most?
I enjoy all these roles although my role basically is that of the writer and director. I turn a producer once in a while out of compulsion. But being your own producer allows you a lot of creative freedom where you do not have to convince anyone that you are doing the right thing.

All your films have won national and international awards. Who do you credit this to and is there any film festival where you are yet to make a mark, but you want to?
My films have been to most of the important festivals around the world and have received some measure of recognition. But you are just as good as your last film.

Agreed that many of your films have made waves, but which is that one film closest to your heart?
I have enjoyed making each of them.  It is difficult to find a favourite. Each one has a different form and content. Critics and my audiences have their own choices and strangely, of the eleven films of fiction I have made every one does not pick the same film.

Does it upset you that most of your films are rarely released worldwide in DVD or VHS. Are you more happy having your work shown at various film festivals around the world?
Two films have had international DVD release – Rat-trap and Shadow Kill. A third one is on the anvil – Man of the Story. The remaining ones are also in the pipeline. DVDs came into vogue only recently and that explains the delay. In fact, I keep getting enquiries from all over the world about my other films.  

Which commercial actor of today do you find to be the most promising?
An actor is an actor. There is no such thing as a commercial actor or a non-commercial actor.  There can only be good actors and bad actors. I don’t feel comfortable naming anyone in particular.

You normally discourage your crew to read the script or even have an inkling of the story. Is this your way to keep them away from rehearsing their roles a little too much? Or is this to prevent story leakage?
The idea is to avoid actors interpreting the roles on their own. The film, according to my conviction, is one composition, artistically integrated and thematically unified. There is no scope for individual interpretations and the resultant discord. In my method and approach, it has worked very well so far and I have no reason to do otherwise.

You’ve won so many awards but which award is the most precious to you?
I think it was the national award I got for my first film, Swayamvaram. It gave me enough courage to carry on with my convictions.

What’s your take on the dying film society movement in India due to satellite TV, DVDs and the Internet? What are your suggestions to revive them?
Films societies came into being at a time when there was no other means of accessing notable films being made around the world. Today, the situation has changed. The DVDs have become like books. A dream has come true for the cineastes. And there are film festivals all over the country. This is a world phenomenon now. It is time we re-oriented our film societies and its functions. 

But how?
I have no ready answer now.

Okay, do you think offbeat cinema should be commercial for wider reach and be more sustainable? What has been your experience in this direction?
Off beat cinema per se is non-commercial as the description suggests. Off beat cinema should be able to stand on its own without making compromises with the box office. This does not mean to the exclusion of an audience. We may add that this kind of cinema seeks out a discreet audience everywhere in the world. One of the functions of film festivals is to promote the cinema of artistic integrity and original expression. Winning an award or even selection in a noted festival becomes the selling point for the film. 

Hmmm… is there a new brand of cinema you would like to promote that is both offbeat and yet commercial?
There is no such brand of cinema. Or maybe you could say, all cinema is commercial because you need to sell tickets.

What are your parameters for selecting a script, be it a film or documentary? Can others give you their stories in the hope of having it made into a movie by you?
No. I prefer to work from my own ideas and script. On those rare occasions when I adapted a story from outside, I saw to it that it was a short story. The script is basically a ground plan I make to base my film on. No one else can be of help here. It is my own idea of the film I am going to make. And the script is one major stage in the development of a film.

In your early days, you made more films. But now, they are few and far between…
True. In the beginning, the interval between my films on an average was three years. In later years, it became longer and the longest interval in the recent past has been seven years. Time simply passed by even without me noticing it.

What has 44 years in the filmmaking industry taught you besides making you far more sensitive to the world around you and within?
As long as your intentions are pure and idealistic, you are alone. Yield to pressures and compromises, you get support from all around all the way.

I would call you the next Satyajit Ray…
Please do not do that. We can’t clone filmmakers. I am as much an off shoot of the environment I live in as Ray was in his Bengali milieu. Of course, I am a great admirer of Ray. He was the first complete artist to work in Indian cinema. His ‘Pather Panchali’ (1955) became a path-breaker which opened new vistas for many of us.

Which filmmakers do you admire the most, besides Ray?
Mrinal Sen, Ritwick Ghatak, Shyam Benegal, Mani Kaul, Girish Kasaravalli. Mrinal Sen has inspired filmmakers of my generation who constantly experimented with the medium while he kept his commitment to the common man. Ritwik Ghatak was my teacher at the film institute, a great teacher as well as a great filmmaker who brought from his theatre background a fresh approach to visuals as well as sounds. Shyam Benegal and Mani Kaul started making films about the same time as me. Shyam brought a qualitative change to Hindi cinema after Guru Dutt and Bimal Roy. He has been the most prolific filmmaker of my generation crossing over genres and styles, always humanistic in his approach. Mani stands apart from all the others in his uncompromising attitude to cinema. Girish is my favourite among the directors who started making films after I did. I like his work again for his accomplishment in telling stories so convincingly and artistically while being firmly rooted in his soil.

Some say, you make films only for festivals. Is this a conscious decision or are you scared of commercial cinema and its fickle success ratio?
I just make films the way I like. I have not made a film that I have not liked. When you compromise, you are not making your own work. You presume others’ likes which are not necessarily yours. Some of my films have been very popular with the audiences at home. Every time I make a film, I hope and imagine that more people would come to see it. You cannot make a judgment on the basis of commercial success at home. Cinema has suddenly become international and if your film is original in concept and execution, the chances are that you get shown in festivals and thereby win an international audience. My films bring back their investment over a certain period of time, not instantly as in the case of commercial films.

Which recent films have you enjoyed watching of late?
A difficult question. I don’t feel comfortable answering it.

What’s your take on corporatisation of cinema? Will this result in better films and free them from malcontents like the underworld?
We have to wait and see.

Do you love travelling? Which places do you prefer the most?
I love Thailand and Thais. For the nature, food, their courtesy and hospitality.

Here is my suggested wish list for celebrities stepping into 2010…

Madonna: Stop giving young boyfriend Jesus a $10,000 monthly allowance and adopt a dozen more babies instead.

Rakhi Sawant: Find a maid (male) in Mumbai on reality TV.

Kareena Kapoor: Ditch ‘size zero’, so Saif has more surface area of his beloved to explore.

Sachin Tendulkar: Organise more auction workshops for charity than play the actual game. Keeps him ‘fit’ that way.

Shashi Tharoor: Stop being a ‘Twitter minister’ and start being out and about.

Nicole Richie: Three resolutions - eat something, eat something, eat something.

Mukesh and Anil Ambani: Smoke the peace pipe even if it contains the harmful petrol fumes.

Jude Law: Not to get back together with Sienna Miller for the fifth time and instead find a woman to date with less of a penchant for shacking up with co-stars.

Shah Rukh Khan: Stop making news based on caste, creed or colour.

Paris Hilton: To get a real job other than just being a party girl and lose the catch phrase, “That’s Hot” because everyone is sick of hearing it now.

Ashutosh Gowariker: Start cracking jokes at himself, so others don’t.

Paul McCartney: Perform thorough background checks on all future girlfriends and start work on new album to increase cash flow.

Salman Khan: Find a surrogate mother and end all speculation regarding Katrina Kaif. He is no Salman Rushdie.

Kevin Federline: Buy condoms in bulk and actually use them, and also get a real job other than just being Britney’s ex-husband.

Britney Spears: Wear underwear on a daily basis, especially underneath dresses in public.

Gul Panag:  Replace frequent tweeting with regular conversations and stop calling up friends from an unknown number and offer them loans.

Amitabh Bachchan:  Stop blogging, because the more he blogs, the more enemies he makes.

Cameron Diaz: Continue with the same New Year resolution of last year: stop smoking, stop shopping and start wearing a bra.

After blogging directly from the Wordpress account on the web and only recently from my smartphone, I am now blogging from my desktop blogging application, Windows Live Writer.

The best part of this is that you can write offline and post it by setting a publishing date. What’s more, you can add pictures, maps, videos, and tags in one seamlessly integrated tool.

Will let you more about this as I continue to blog from this platform. If you have something to share, feel free to leave your comments.

All this while, I thought Cellspin was my solo Symbian plug-in for E71 to blog.

But I was wrong.

Here comes a freeware called WordMobi that allows you to blog on Wordpress, including self-hosted sites like mine, using the Wordpress platform.

Not only is the upload quick, you can also add tags, photos, videos and personalise. You can make certain words in bold and italics for instance.

Just Google it and you shall get the download link. If you find a better app for Symbian, feel free to share.

If you are a Nokia smartphone buff, here is one cool app you must not miss…Free-isms: runs your apps in comic blurbs like in a conversation; allows you to send fake sms from say a celebrity; schedule an sms and also flash sms where your message will flash on receiver’s screen and vanish.And yes, it’s free. So make the most of it. Just google it and you will get the download link. Happy messaging!Will let you know of more apps in my future posts. If you know of any, feel free to share in Comments.

Who indeed? And does she know about it! She is a fine actress, a busy mother, a wife, a Peace representative….. which of these would suffer if she put up for the Presidency?

How much world and international experience in all things political has she? What does Sarah Palin think about this likely candidate? Could it be a contest between two Amazon lady warriors? Might she succeed where Hillary Clinton failed? (Although in her defence she was unlucky having such a charismatic opponent).

The plot gets curiouser and curiouser! Hold your breath…..
2012 could be a vintage year for the Media!

Contributed by Barbara Turner

In Kerala the answer is yes. Seven bus operators voted in favour. In their defence, they are thinking of students and a suggested decrease of their fares but an increase of minimum fare to Rs 5 for other passengers.

The problem is that an increase might reduce the number of travellers and then jobs will be in jeopardy. For long journeys, the drivers will be safe as they are needed. But if buses run with fewer passengers on short routes, the operators might use fewer buses and students will suffer too.

What to do?

Talks will help but maybe end in stalemate. Will it be checkmate to the drivers or the operators? Will the students be pawns in their hands?

Contributed by Barbara Turner