Run Joker Run - My take on 'Prahaar'

As a kid, I was always intrigued with the olive green and my favorite toy was also a model of the m16 rifle. It was a noisy bugger for the people around me, but it allowed me to simulate my wars and carry out ambushes.

It was the same time while I was growing up, Nana Patekar created a master-piece by the name of Prahaar. A movie that very closely captured the Indian army without dramatizing the way Bollywood has always done. Nobody talked in military metaphors; nobody over dressed and nobody had long locks of hair flashing out of the beret. Things looked real and definitely a lot of research went into the making of the film, especially the sequences filmed in CDO school Belgaum.

It was so real that in recent revelations people recognized Gen V.K Singh doing a cameo in the movie, while he was a Lt. Colonel in Belgaum. The military and training jargon used in the dialogues also has all those little abbreviations that are daily things for the 'Jokers' in the school.

I am not here, writing as a film critique or an expert. It is just my take on the movie and how it influenced me. As a young boy, I wanted to do all those superhuman things shown in the movie. In our family and especially with my parents who both as teenagers marched on the 'Raj Path' as young NCC cadets during the annual 26th January parade, they were always reminiscing about the life and adventures of a military person. Even as a kid I knew that why certain infantry regiments are known by the names of warrior tribes in India and where all are the corp headquarters.

All this curiosity for the Indian Army was cemented by Prahaar. What Nana Patekar did to his pupils during the training was amazing and so was the portrayal of the physical and mental fatigue the 'Jokers' go through. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is a top shot of the barracks where the 'Jokers' are lying half dead and a voice resounds 'Peter, mere naak se makkhi uda de yaar'! It totally summed up the hard work and toil the "Jokers' have to put undergoing the commando training.

The movie also subtly uses certain vocabulary that opens up technicalities of Army and its training in India. Like Nanak (One of the Jokers) saying - Uss chipke kaan waale ko kaun bhool sakta hai. Meri 2nd term mein platoon commander tha. Tab Captain tha, ab major ho gaya hai.....
Platoon commander in 2nd term actually refers to IMA (or probably OTA) where Capt Chavan was platoon commander and Nanak was a GC.
There is another scene where Peter is explaining to Shirley that why the commando training is compulsory for him and not another officer she is referring to. Since Peter is from Infantry an the other officer is from ASC. It was very nicely detailed.

The movie was also successful in being realistic, whereby even commandos can die in the line of action and can get seriously injured too. During the solo operation shown in the movie, Diganto dies and Peter gets handicapped. This depiction keeps the movie close to reality.

The secular nature of the movie is also very interesting to depict the multi cultural Indian army. Peter (Christian), Nanak (a Sikh), Khandagle (Hindu), Aslam (Muslim) and there are regional diversities shown too, whereby the brave guys for North East are represented by Diganto.

What also impressed me about the movie was the little sayings written in the CDO school. Vedi Vini Vinci (We came we saw we conquered) on the Commando Wall and Mushkil Waqt, Commando Sakt have still stuck to my memory.

A lot of people have also mentioned about the hard work Nana Paterkar had put in training for the role. I am sure that he would have done all that to get into the character, but my favorite scene is when he fights the goons and all his training so naturally comes out in the sequence.

Lastly, I adore the three songs from the movie - A thumri by Shobha Gurtu: Yaad Piya Ki Aaye, An inspirational song - Humaari hi mutthi mein aakash saara and lastly the beautiful song witha cameo by Late Aadesh Srivastav - Dhadkan Zara Ruk Gayi Hai.

Hope they keep making such films that inspire our youth to join the forces with higher zeal!

The Economics of War - The American Film & Television Industry

The American Film Industry is one of the biggest in the world and so are the American war expenses.

Since the Second World War, the United states has been the biggest spender of public and private money on war and military related expenses. The expanse of NATO forces, contribution in the UNPKF, joint drills with forces all over the world and the immense technological leaps taken in the field of defense are all expensive and expansive activities.

Post the World War II, USA has been directly or indirectly involved in every major global conflict ranging from the Korean war, Vietnam war, Guerrilla actions in South America, Afghanistan,Iraq, Libya, Indo-Pak wars and many more. Besides these, the arms race and opposition of Communism during the 30-40 year long Cold War proved to the world, how immensely the American economy was involved in war expenses. Even the space explorations had a defense angle in their spending.

But the Capitalist USA made a lot of money with war too. Directly, by selling and outsourcing military equipment and services, indirectly by creating award winning content for Hollywood. There are innumerable films, TV series and documentaries that came out of USA with a clear back-drop of USA's military and secret service engagements world-wide. Some were realistic and celebrated American heroes, some partly fictional and some completely fictional and yet with a back-drop of some or the other military engagement USA has had. The communist USSR could not 'Capitalize' on the same means of recovering war debts!!!!

Some of the highest grossing war movies from USA are: (Box office collections in USA Only)
- American Sniper - $547 million
- Saving Private Ryan - $481 million
- 300 - $456 million
- Pearl Harbor - $449 million
- Schindler's List - $321 million
- Inglorious Basterds - $321 million
- Rambo first blood part II - $300 million
- Platoon - $138 million
- Lone Survivor - $125 million

These are conservative domestic USA figures. International releases, VHS, DVD sales, Television rights and associated incomes are not even accounted in these figures.

And these were serious war movies. There were spoofs, comedies, animations and what not that made huge profits. The idea of war and the enormous content USA has been generating for the last 75 years has benefited a lot of creative people. In my own lifetime I would have seen 7-10 movies just based on the Vietnam war. Even one of my favorites - 'We were soldiers', is based on the same war.

Television is another big thing that has taken clue from the military involvements of the country. A size-able number of TV series and documentaries have been released based on America's military engagements.

I am no one to clarify whether USA's involvement in a certain war or conflict was justified or not. But one thing I can certainly say that they have not been at loss at all. Many veteran soldiers wrote books or articles based on which films or documentaries were made. They too were able to earn royalties and on the cinematic adaptation.

Somehow, this idea sounded interesting to me that going into wars did create a lot of employment and generated a lot of wealth within USA even outside the defense sector. Rather, apart from weapon and gear manufacturers, probably movie makers made the most money. Economically it wasn't a bad deal.

Still thinking?????????

Kohli - Easy Sailing to Records

Being born in India of the early 80's, my cricketing heroes were definitely Kapil, Sachin, Dravid, Kumble, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Zaheer and till lately Dhoni. I was not born when India won the 1983 world cup against the mighty West Indies of that time, but I did grew up watching the 1992 world cup waking at 3 in the morning to catch the telecast from Australia. That was the time when I saw some mighty players challenging each other and the ones that sustained, became legends.

The 1992 world cup created a lot of legends - Wasim and Waqar as a pace combo became inscribed in history. Martin Crowe became New Zealand's greatest opening batsman, young Sachin's class was proven on foreign pitches, Jhonty redefined fielding standards and many more names that deserve a mention in cricketing almanacs and that defined modern day cricket, emerged in 1992

Then in 1996, the underdogs Sri Lanka showed the world how to play the first 15 overs with field restrictions on. Yes during that time it was continuously for 15 overs. This changed the shape of ODI cricket. Post the world cup, Australia suddenly grew in stature and was winning every game that they were playing. In the sub-continent and the famous stadium of Sharjah, heroics of the Little Master were winning hearts. Far west in the Caribbeans, Brian Charles Lara was taking Test batting to new heights and Pakistan was as usual producing deadly fast bowlers with Shoaib crossing the 100 miles mark.

The highest chase by South Africa against Australia, India's test win in Calcutta (Kolkata) and the famous Nattwest final against England with heroics of Yuvraj and Kaif, emergence of the T20 cricket, Australia's record of 3 straight world cup victories, controversial 2007 world cup and the inaugural T20 world cup changed the face of the game. It also witnessed the emergence of the controversial yet highly popular IPL which was again won by an underdog team in its opening edition.

During this time a new talent emerged in India in the name of Virat Kohli. An aggressive and talented player with great fitness levels and a very strong will. He was sometimes termed over aggressive, but this has worked in his favor when someone looks at his statistics. Easy Sailing to Records in some respect a right heading for this article. Somehow, Kohli's journey has been 'easier' compared to his predecessors. He is being compared to many legends, but I am here to list down certain things that I believe make him an excellent player, but not a legend though. He has his records, but playing against whom and playing under whom is an important factor.

His big comparison is done with Sachin Tendulkar and in the recent past since he is crossing the 100 run mark very frequently, this comparison has become hotter. My rationale why Sachin is greater will basically open list of laurels for The Little Master.

Whom Sachin faced? *just listing down the top bowlers from each country- IN THEIR PRIME
Australia: Craig Mcdermot, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Shane Warne
Pakistan: Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Mushtaq Ahmed
England: Ashley Giles, Darren Gough
New Zealand: Chris Cairns, Shane Bond, Daneil Vettori
West Indies: Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose
Zimbabwe: Heath Streak
South Africa: Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Jaques Kallis, Fannie deVilliers, Makhaya Ntini, Lance Klusener
Sri Lanka: Muttaiaah Murlitharan, Chaminda Vaas

If we take a look at this list again, and the prevailing rules during in the 90's and early 2000's; would you believe that Virat would have had a similar record he has now? Would he have faced Wasim in the same way he faces Mohd Amir? Well he has struggled against Amir, what would have happened in front of Wasim - I leave it to your imagination!!
Would he have scored with same freedom against Ambrose bowling to his chest?
And we are not even talking about the match fixing events and the turmoil the Indian team underwent in that era.

I really do not mean here to state that Kohli has not worked hard, but definitely he has not yet had a fitting opposition.

He has also predominantly played under and along Dhoni who is one of the most astute cricketing brains I have seen, and would rate him equal to Clive Lloyd or Imran Khan for that quality.

I love Kohli's cover drive, but I loved the Dravid version more. I love his pull shot, but haven't seen him playing the straight drive with same panache. He fights, yet there is something about Laxman's version that goes down in the history. He dominates bowlers, but the bowlers aren't as afraid of him as they were of Viru.

He is doing good, and sailing on to records very quickly. When he retires he will be among the GREATS of CRICKET.

But will he be a LEGEND? I doubt that!!