Harry Potter Comes To India

When I was ten years ols, I wrote my first play 'Harry Potter Comes to India'. It was the story of Harry Potter coming to India after he finds out that the Dursleys have been abducted by Voldemort and Ron and Hermione are spending the holidays with an Indian Hogwarts student in her house in India. Of course, there was very little magic involved, because we barely had any props, let alone special affects, and our stage was the top of the staircase in our assembly hall, but the fact that I had put together thirty ten-year-old actors in one pla and made them memorize their lines and speak them on the day of the show still makes me proud.

The following year, I wrote another play called 'Jadoo and The World' for my English assessment. It was about Jadoo encountering five earthlings. The play was unsuccessful.

Then I wrote a play called 'To Be Or Not To Be'. I had just heard this Shakespeare line somewhere and had thought it would be a good name for a play even though it had no relevance to my play. It was about a popstar who gets AIDS. I played an AIDS patient in that. I was the dignified moralist of my school and barely twelve years old, and the fact that I had written a play about something like AIDS came as a shock to everybody. It took a lot of hard-work just to make the actors comfortable to enact a play with such a subject matter. The play wasn't very successful, but it was the only time in the history of the school that a student so young had written and directed a play like this.

Next, I wrote a play called 'Meeting Point'. It was set in Goa and was a combination of four love stories that were loosely connected. No, Salaam-E-Ishq had not released back then and I have never seen Love Actually, even though I know it has a similar story. A few months later, a French film called Paris Je'Taime (Paris, I Love You) was released which had a very 'Meeting Point' feel to it. The play was rejected by the other members of my group who decided to put up a slapstick comedy which flopped miserably. Besides, even if I had got my group members to act in my play, the teachers wouldn't have approved of such young kids being in a romantic play.

'Meeting Point' was the end of my career as a dramatist. The following year, when I was fourteen, I moved to Mumbai and never got a chance to put up another play.

My father had a much better resume as a child actor. In his days, kids were the Gods of extra-curricular activities. They did everything- singing, painting, dance, drama, decoration. My grandfather had an even more interesting childhood, full of activities.

These days, I don't see any child taking the initiative to do something extra. They are too busy with their Science Olympiads. People don't seem to realize that given the chance, they can do so many creative things, and thanks to the lack of encouragement, even children don't want to try new things. It is common to hear children say, "I don't have time".

Where did all the good days go? When did things go so wrong? Since when did children not have time? Since when did kids stop play-acting?

I don't have the answers, but I do know one thing- children are supposed to be tiny, whacky geniuses, not busy people in small bodies.

The Rajneeti of Mahabharat

I saw 'Rajneeti' yesterday. Even though I am sure it won't appeal to most people my age, I loved the movie, especially the rather feminist ending. It doesn't leave you feeling soft and warm, but it does make you realize what goes into all those elections that we read about.

My dad thinks 'Rajneeti' is like the 'Godfather', but I beg to differ.

I have never seen 'The Godfather', but after hearing its premise I think some analogies may be drawn between the two movies in question. But a better analogy can be drawn with somthing closer home- The Mahabharata. Here is why-

1) The movie begins with an unmarried girl from a political family giving birth to a baby boy, who is abandoned in a boat by Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar). The boy grows up to become Dalit leader Suraj (Ajay Devgan) who is also the adoptive son of the political family's driver. He is taken under the wing of Veerendra Pratap (Manoj Bajpai) after Veerendra's father denies him succession. This is a lot like when Draupadi's son (fathered by the Sun God) was abandoned and later taken under the wing of the Kauravas.

2) The rivalry between Manoj Bajpai and Arjun Rampal begins after Manoj's father has a heart attack and his declares Arjun his successor. This heart attack does in Rajneeti what Duryodhan's father's blindness did in Mahabharata. In fact, Manoj Bajpai's character seems inspired by Duryodhan.

4) In the end, after things get murkier between the two rival parties, Bharati goes to her long lost son Suraj and asks him to return to his 'family'. Draupadi had made a similar appeal in Mahabharata.

I don't know the Mahabharata like the back of my hand, but if I had, I would probably have been able to draw more similarities.

The truth is that epics are called epics for a reason and even in the age of multiplexes and 3D, they can form the basis for great movies.

Book trailer

We all know about movie trailers but what about book trailers.

I have written a book called 'Afterlife' and I made a trailer for it. It has clippings from Miley Cyrus' The Last Song in it because I needed some beach scenes. Here, take a look:


Do you like it? Do you think my book could be published by looking at this trailer?

I also made a cast list and a synopsis for the book if it were to be made into a movie.

Time for a new beginning!

Board Results are finally in and I did well enough to study whatever subject I want. but now it's time to move on and look to the future because I know that the exams I will have to take hereafter are the ones that will shape my life. It is funny how you feel that the biggest challenge is the challenge right in front of you and when it is overcome, you feel that it wasn't a challenged at all!

I Hate Love Stories

I hate love stories. They show us pretty pictures of how wonderful life can be if you find somebody perfect for yourselves and tempt us to a blissful state which doesn't exist at all. As a result of this, people (mainly female teenagers) lead unhappy lives due to repeated failure in attaining something (that is, their own perfect love story) which doesn't exist in the first place.

So all the lovesick teenagers out there, here's a question for you: have you ever wondered why love stories end the way they do?

Possible Ending #1: Death Of Protagonists

Take, for example, Romeo and Juliet. Both of them die in the end. Heer and Ranjha meet the same end. Sohni and Mahiwal? Same old story. There is a story from the Andaman and Nicobar islands called 'Tatara-Vamiro katha' in which male protagonist Tatara's sword splits the earth in two and Tatara dies when he cannot make it to either of the two halves.

Possible Ending #2: Happily Ever After

This is the stuff of fairy tales. Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty- all of them ended with the prince and the damsel in distress both getting what they wanted. The atmosphere created by these endings is so warm, fuzzy and cuddly that readers (most of which are not over three years of age) start expecting the same ending from their lives.

Possible Ending #3: The Jane Austen Marriage Ending

Jane Austen, although old, was a very modern writer. Despite my hatred for love stories, I like all the Jane Austen novels, not only because these are romantic comedies which still form the basis for many movies, but also because she never underestimated the power of money and a big mansion when it came to choosing a husband. These stories always end with the haughty female protagonist marrying the rich, misunderstood male protagonists and becoming the mistress in what looks like a five-star hotel.

Possible Ending #4: The Twilight Ending

These days, Twilight is ruling the world. I think it is an old-world romance set in the modern world and can never represent teenagers of today, but who am I to say anything when the book has sold 87 million copies (Okay, I admit it. Four of those copies were bought by me.) The ending to the Twilight series is mainly the conclusion of the love triangle, with Bella choosing Edward over Jacob (and Jacob imprinting on a baby and forgetting all about Bella). If the love story involves three people, it usually ends like this, with the girl choosing 'what her heart wants' and not what is good for her. Not that hairy werewolves who burst out of their clothes every time they change form are good for anyone, but still.

Now, come back to my question: why do love stories end the way they do?

The answer is pretty simple- Because that's how people want it to end!

For example, Romeo and Juliet had to die in the end because nobody wanted their families to patch up and attend a lavish wedding, because then the story would become as mundane as that of Chetan Bhagat's '2 States'. So, Shakespeare thought it was much better for both of them to die so that readers admire their rather romantic sacrifice. But isn't death a little risky? I mean, how can you be so sure that you are going to meet on the other side? What if Romeo fell for another hot dead girl and forgot about Juliet? That wouldn't be good.

And then there's the happily ever after. Well, here's the thing- Happily Ever Afters suck! Once you get your perfect ending, there will be nothing left to want and then, there will be no reason to live. And besides, is it right for a young girl's dream to be to get rescued by a charming prince? There are way better dreams one could have.

Jane Austen may have been modern and honest about her views on the society's obsession with money and marriage. But what happen after the main characters marry? Do their kids have stomach infection and drive them crazy? Does the boy become bankrupt and the girl leave him? Hmmm..... Lots to wonder.

Then comes the situation with love triangles. Any person at the center of this non-geometrical triangle would probably never choose either suitor because he/she would be enjoying the double attention and the fight for him/her way too much. That's just how egotistical and self-centered people usually are!

Last but not the least, in real life, people aren't the way they are in stories. For example, can you imagine Edward Cullen going to his eight-hour job and coming back home late in the evening and losing his bronze hair as it gets older. And if Edwards had really been like that, would Bella, who has a strange obsession with beauty, ever fall in love with him? i don't think so.

But there is some good news for all those who have just had their romantic bubble burst- real life is way more interesting than 'happily ever after'.

Throughout your life, different people are going to love you in different ways. If you did happen to come across romantic love, it would not be worth losing all the other forms of love you have in your life. So open your eyes! Don't chase after the kind of love you have only read about. You won't find it, it will find you. In the meantime, enjoy all the other forms of love coming from your people and in the end, you will have your own 'happily ever after'.

Why Settle For Settlement?

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost (English poet, 1874-1963)

Imagine yourself ten years from now. What would be the things you would want to have? Perhaps a big apartment, an air conditioner, some good furniture and of course, a family of your own. From this angle the future seems to be perfect.

Now picture a different scenario. Ten years from now, you could be living in a cramped room, with only a table fan and a mattress and you could be unmarried.

Which of the above scenarios would you rather choose?

I bet you would choose the first one. But consider this- ten years from now, you are going to be about twenty-eight years old (if I am right about the demographic this blog caters to). At this age, would it be better for you to have everything in your life sorted out or would it be better to struggle for your dream? If you choose the latter, a lot of hardships are guaranteed, but when you are young and energetic, hardships are supposed to be part of your life. Why is it that we want to play it safe with all our life choices so that we are fully settled by the time we hit thirty years of age? Why do we want to be done with every experience and live like a sixty-five year old when we still have youthful zeal in us?

Well, the answer to these questions will be given differently by different people.

Most boys would say upon much pondering that when you are seventeen, you don't know what exactly you want to do with the rest of your life and so it is best to just take the path that has been taken a million times by others. This path is tried and tested and since the people who had taken it have turned out to have comfortable lives, this path is the obvious choice. Even if some boy has a strong dream, he may be scared to give up the luxuries of his upper-middle class life to follow it.

Girls would have a different answer which they may not express (thanks to the spread of pseudo-feminism). The truth is that even today girls have to chose between family and career. By the time she is thirty, she is expected to have a complete family of four. She has been taught to believe that it is not going to matter how successful she is until she has her own family. Its okay for her to be jobless, but not unmarried. Face it, people. Try being an Indian girl for a week and you will say that these observations of mine are correct. In such a situation, how can a girl pursue her dreams and take risks. And what's the point anyways if she is going to end up becoming somebody's wife?

But think about what Robert Frost said. He said that he took the road less travelled and that was what made all the difference. Whether this difference was positive or negative has been left for the reader to decide, but what matters is that there is a difference. Someone who chooses the road less travelled chooses to live with a difference. He/she chooses to live the life of his/her choice, even if this path has been described by Robert Frost as follows- '...... as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear.......'

Today, make your choice, take your route, carve your niche and face the hardships that come along the way. Chances are that one day you will saying with a relieved sigh that you took the road less travelled by and that was what made all the difference.

Let's Watch A Movie With A Real Lead Actress

I watched the Oscars a few days ago. I must say that I liked them, especially because they showed clippings of the movie-making process when the award nominations for the technical and creative categories were announced. They actually showed the designs for the 'Young Victioria' before it got the award for Best Costume Design. The lead characters from the Best Animated Feature nominations even spoke a few lines and they were funny despite not being human.

One thing that I noticed while watching the Oscars was that all the women nominated for Best Actress had the real lead role in their respective movies. Carey Mulligan from An Education played a London schoolgirl, Meryl Streep from Julie &Julia played the famous cook Julia Child, Sandra Bullock (who actually won) played a suburban woman who adopts a black teenager in The Blind Side, Helen Mirren played Leo Tolstoy's wife in The Last Station and Gabourey Sidibe played an abused teenager in Precious. When I say that they had real lead roles, I mean that they were the lead in movies which told the stories of interesting woman. They were not part of the show, they were the show. It is good to know that there still are filmmakers who consider the lives of women worthy of cinematic reflection.

And that brings me to the Indian film industry. Over the past few years, I have noticed a steep decline in the number of lead actresses in our country. Most of the new actresses are former models who just look pretty but I doubt that they would be able to carry a movie on their own shoulders without having a big actor around. Even the characters they potray are bland and one dimensional. Many of them potray young women whose only purpose in life is to live for other people, especially their leading man. The good actresses, who may score a little low on beauty but are more talented than all Bollywood actors put together, are forced to do art films which are beautiful creations that do rounds of film festivals but never make it to multiplexes.

Remember Rani Mukherjee in Black or Karishma Kapoor in Fiza? Where did all the movies about beautiful, strong, independent yet feminine women go? Does this mean that the psyche of most Indians which like to have women in the kitchen or in a beauty pageant has trickled its way into the movie halls and now we are forced to watch women be treated as mere glamour dolls? Why can't we think of women who have brains and several shades to their characters? Are all such women dead, or have we just forgotten to look at women as something different and deeper than what we perceive them to be?

I am going to keep waiting for a good Indian movie about the life of a woman (and no, Priyanka Chopra walking down the ram in Fashion does not count). Meanwhile, here is a movie I suggest you watch. It's called The Runaways and it stars Kristen Stewart (you may know her from Twilight) and Dakota Fanning (who was the little girl in War Of The Worlds). The Runaways were the first all-girl rock band in the 1970s. Their members were mere teenagers when the band reached its height of fame. This fame, although notoriously short-lived, opened the doors for many girl singers, and the fact that you see Madonna and Britney Spears or even Sunidhi Chauhan on TV today is thanks to this band. Even though these girls were controversial and their life included scandals like drug addiction, the very fact that they chose to assert themselves through their music and played the electric guitar and the drums instead of softer instruments like the piano is interesting. These were women who refused to conform and lived an unconventional life. They thought like no man could. They were also the singers of a song called 'Cherry Bomb' which I think is the mother of all teen anthems.

Below is a trailer of The Runaways and a video of the song 'Cherry Bomb'.






And by the way, I am pretty sure that there are a lot of wonderful, inspiring women in India whose lives could be the subject of movies. We did give the world a great movie called Mother India, didn't we? Khoon Bhari Maang was a Bollywood movie, right? This means that even Bollywood can make dazzling movies about women. Until such a movie comes, enjoy this video from Mother India: