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Trailer was good, let the show begin
To reap profit, sow cash
fifty fifty The myth of the bad woman Ekta Kapoor relies on ghunghats to sell her TV soap operas and on cleavage to sell her films and The Dirty Picture is guilty of making too much of Silk Smitha’s bust and too little of her troubles and talent for the film to be accepted as a biopic Possibly one of the significant reasons why The Dirty Picture is important is that it purports to be ( however hesitatingly ) a biopic, and in India this is a rare commodity. Of course it is also important because Vidya Balan has decided to play the character of Silk Smitha with remarkable authenticity and has attracted attention with her dramatic weight gain and excellent acting. But even her bulging stomach and love handles pale into insignificance compared to the oomphy appeal of the real Ms Thunder Thighs, Silk Smitha — born Vijaylakshmi, in Eluru , Andhra Pradesh, in 1960. However that is a minor quibble —though I do have rather more weighty differences with the maker and director of the film, and thus this might be the time to ask a few more dirty little questions.
On the record
PROFILE
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Organised retail
Majid sells his vegetables to Bharti Walmart — a foreign tie-up for organised wholesale — which gets him Rs 2.40 lakh per year. This is 20 per cent more than what he used to get from the local mandi agents. Like hundreds of small farmers in this vegetable growing belt, Majid was excited over the Central government announcement to permit foreign direct investment (FDI) of up to 51 per cent in organised multi-brand retail and 100 per cent in single-brand. The move was billed as a game-changer in retail that would also benefit farmers with higher prices for their produce and consumers with a lower price tag. The proposal being put on hold under pressure from the Opposition, and certain allies of the government too, has left Majid and his fellow farmers rather disappointed, and with reason. He said: “Ever since private organised players have entered retail in Punjab, our income has gone up 15-20 per cent. They don’t just pay us better for the vegetables but also offer expert advice on horticultural techniques to increase yield and reduce cost of production, integrated pest management, and reducing post-harvest wastage.” Blaming political parties and other lobbies for opposing FDI, he said they should see how Indian private players had already changed the dynamics for farmers. His is not a solitary voice. In Malerkotla, where most farming families have managed to find an assured market for their produce with organised wholesalers and retailers — Bharti-Walmart, Reliance Retail, PepsiCo, or the home-grown Cremica — there is all-round frustration at the FDI Bill being put on hold. “In Malerkotla alone, over 350 farmers supply vegetables directly to Bharti-Walmart, while others sell their produce in the local mandi, from where Bharti Retail, Metro, Reliance, and Tata Khet Se (which recently stopped operations in Punjab) procure their produce,” said Narinder Singh, an agronomist with Bharti-Walmart. Bharti — which has also ventured into front-end retail on its own, and has over 165 easyday stores across North India, including 60 easyday stores (Bharti Retail) and four Best Price Modern Wholesale (Bharti-Walmart) in Punjab — sources almost 90 per cent of its fruit and vegetables locally. As part of its “Direct Farm Programme”, under which the two Bharti companies source from 3,200 farmers in Uttar Pradesh, the National Capital Region, Haryana, Karnataka and Maharashtra, besides Punjab, it claims the focus is on buying from small and marginal farmers, and helping them build and implement a sustainable and differentiated crop production model, which has definable benefits for farmers. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, vice-chairman and managing director of Bharti Enterprises, told The Tribune: “We contract for much higher price with farmers than what they would get in the mandis. By associating with us, their income levels have risen not just because of better prices but because we buy directly from the farm, saving them freight charges too. Since we also introduce better agricultural practices, they get higher yield and better quality, which again contributes to increase in income,” he said. Pepsi, too, has made steady progress in Punjab. Jaideep Bhatia, head of agriculture division of PepsiCo, said the company was working with 5,000 farmers in Punjab, of which 1,000 were engaged in potato cultivation, while the rest supplied rice. “We are buying potato at Rs 12 a kilo from these farmers at our factory gate, as against the current table price of Rs 3 per kilo,” he said. PepsiCo pays farmers the price as contracted, even if the market price at the time of actual sale may be much lower.
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Trailer was good, let the show begin
The
confidence that FDI in retail would indeed turn things around for farmers stems from the transformation that Punjab has witnessed in agri-infrastructure thus far with the entry of what little organised retail is there. A perishable cargo centre has been set up by the state government at Amritsar, mainly to aid two private companies export baby corn to the UK. The Punjab Agro Industries Corporation, too, is setting up five packing houses (where sorting and grading of fruit and vegetables will be done) at Samrala, Nabha, Samana, Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur. With private retailers coming in, other entrepreneurs, too, have seen an opportunity and invested in two controlled-atmosphere multi-chamber warehouses. One is already operational in Pual village near Hoshiarpur, while another is expected to be set up soon in Kharar. Talking to The Tribune, Dr Lajwinder Singh Brar, Director, Horticulture, Punjab, said since these new facilities were very expensive (cost of construction being as high as Rs 32,000 per tonne), the government was giving 40 per cent subsidy under the National Horticulture Mission. He said more retailers would mean more infrastructure, changing the agro-economics of Punjab. Farmers would get assured price and market. Even as organised retail has proved beneficial to farmers in Punjab, questions on long-term sustainability and involving more farmers remain because of concerns over lack of infrastructure such as cold storage, supply chain and poor connectivity, especially for export of perishable foods. While the state had set up a Perishable Cargo Centre near Rajasansi International Airport at Amritsar to provide a base for supplies before those are air-lifted, mainly to Europe, poor air connectivity from Punjab poses a serious problem. Rakesh Bharti Mittal said though they sourced 3 tonne of baby corn from Punjab daily for the UK, erratic air connectivity was proving to be a challenge. “If Punjab wants more private participation in retail, it will have to invest heavily in agri-infrastructure, and ensure regular air connectivity,” he added.
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In Punjab, the organised retail business began with Godrej Agrovet four years back. This was followed by various organised retailers making a foray into the state — Subhiksha, Six Ten, Spencers, Tata Khet Se, ITC Chaupal, besides Reliance Retail, Bharti easyday and Bharti-Walmart. However, many of these firms have shut shop too, mainly because they were unable to sustain the business on account of higher rents. Some also faced cash crunch. Others were forced to shut down after commission agents created a hue and cry over companies buying produce directly from farmers, avoiding mandi fee. Noted agro-economist S. S. Johl, a votary of FDI in multi-brand retail, said it was unfortunate that politicians were thinking only about the 4 crore retailers who may be affected, and not about the 120 crore farmers and consumers who stood to benefit. With foreign investment, more controlled-atmosphere warehouses could be set up, refrigerated vans for transportation introduced, and perishable cargo centres set up near airports to serve as base for food export.
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fifty fifty
For instance, while cinematic biographies often take liberties with real life — one might ask why it was necessary to show Smitha’s life as a very brief candle — which it was not. After all, she had acted in a record breaking 450 films, over eighteen years — and whilst her rise to the top is shown with enormous detail, her subsequent breakdown and her eventual alleged “ suicide” become nothing more than a scrambled footnote. One barely remembers that her role in Sadma — a remake of Moondram Pirai was praiseworthy — and in it she was hailed for her acting and not the brevity of her bikini.
Troubled teenager Regardless, her supposedly unapologetic display of her sexuality to sell films as “entertainment” is grabbed upon by the producers of the film as the sign of a liberated woman. However, the long history of Southern cinema using women in near-pornographic portrayals is somewhat buried in the sub-text. Was she groomed into accepting her fate — and then decided to exploit her own very visible talents and not fight the norm? Was she searching for respectability and a stable personal life at a later stage in her career? In many ways, wasn’t she a victim of the industry? And is this, once again, a good time to ask if the commodification of women and their sexuality (even if it brings Vidya Balan a national award) is something that we need to re-examine?
Bleak biopic Beneath the hoop-la that surrounds The Dirty Picture — is the story of the exploitation of women who “buy” into the whole myth that women actors need not go beyond being eye candy. They are the bait that bring in the largely male cinema-going audience. Obviously, while the film cannot discuss these questions — the determined attempt to package Silk Smitha as a relentless sexual icon rather than a troubled teenager and an exploited woman — make her tragic death even more inexplicable. Whilst she might not have reached the heights of Marilyn Monroe –her inability to survive in a male-dominated predatory industry (even so many years after her death) should be seriously analysed. By making her responsible for her choices –her desire to shed her clothes, jump into bed with a superstar — or later to kill herself over indebtedness — allows the vultures around her to get away rather lightly. Could this, perhaps, only be possible in a film directed and written by men ? Just as Silk Smitha was exploited in life, so she continues to be unsympathetically and cinematically disrobed after her death, even though the film has a female producer. The larger question : Did she have a choice, or was she manipulated? — is never asked. Indeed, even the moralising Emraan Hashmi character calls her “dirty”— and not the producers hovering around — and gets away with it . After all, the men were helpless! The logic is — it was Silk Smitha, who wanted to let it all hang out ! What could the poor men do? She exploited them and had so much fun that she ultimately killed herself ! The bad little hussy! Wasn’t she a wicked little thing ? Indeed — especially towards the end of the film, instead of the clumsy insertion of the ubiquitous sufiana qalam ( which is why this film will never be able to do well in the film festival circuit) it may have been better to explore the nuances of why women actors cannot escape the male gaze. And why they are irrelevant without a man. And why, the moment the prop of the superstar Suryakant is knocked away from her — she droops into death. This simply does not augur well for biopics which, by their very nature, must be able to explore the complexity behind relationships. By only showing Silk Smitha as a mistress of stunts and superficiality — the film demonstrates a stereotypical bias towards the myth of the “bad” woman. Just as her screen persona was exploited by her producers during her lifetime, this film too, is guilty of making rather too much of her bust and too little of her talent. Thankfully the film does not indulge in moralising — but it does make Silk Smitha’s life appear simpler than it possibly was. Unsurprisingly, therefore, there were many moments in the film when one felt that the writer and the director were losing the plot. But who can complain when the box office numbers are screaming success? It is interesting how the producer Ekta Kapoor relies on ghunghats to sell her TV soap operas and on cleavage to sell her films. Her three successful films, Love, Sex and Dhoka, Once Upon A Time in Mumbai and now The Dirty Picture all deal with India’s dirty little secrets — and the last two are masala packed versions of the mafia dons in Mumbai and the well-ingrained slow strip-tease by heroines in Indian cinema. The romanticisation of the two rather regrettable trends is something Ms Kapoor has done extremely well — and whilst I am no Victorian prude — the gloss of glorified self-justification is something we need to look at once again.
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On the record
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a single case of polio has been reported from anywhere in the country during the past eleven months. As many as 42 cases were reported across the country in 2010 but authorities are now hopeful that no new case will be reported till the end of January 2012. Should this happen, India would complete a polio-free year. No case, however, should be reported for three consecutive years before the country can be officially said to have eradicated polio. When he took over as the president of Rotary International - only the third Indian to do so, Kalyan Banerjee said his mission was to combat polio. A chemical engineer by training from IIT, Kharagpur, Banerjee is a past president of Vapi Industries Association, and former chairperson of the Gujarat chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry. Presently a director of United Phosphorous, Vapi-based Banerjee is credited with setting up institutions like the Gnyan Dham High School, Haria Rotary Hospital, ROFEL Commerce and Arts College and the C.D.Patel Gujarati Medium Technical school. How is Rotary International’s polio project doing? Rotary International started the project to combat polio way back in 1979 even before agencies like the World Health Organisation got into the act. The latest is that there are eight countries in the world that have active polio. India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are countries where cases of polio continue to be detected. The battle against polio has been an uphill journey in India. The good news is that India has been free of polio for the past 11 months. In January, the government will hopefully be able to say that India is polio-free. What are the highlights of the battle against polio? There have been no cases of polio in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for the past two years according to the WHO. That is a major achievement as these two states used to record a large number of polio cases. How was the battle against polio won in India? In India, the polio vaccine is distributed by the government. Elsewhere, the WHO is responsible for the distribution of the vaccine. With the government doing the bulk of the work at immunising the population, organisations like the Rotary Club pitch in by filling whatever gaps remain in the programme. Rotarians provide the infrastructure required. How successful have you been in Africa? We have achieved tremendous success in Nigeria, where we hope to completely eradicate polio by 2012. When I met the health minister there, I got to know that he himself was a member of the Rotary Club and he extended a lot of help to us. What are the challenges? In Afghanistan WHO volunteers have been shot at and killed. But there are Rotary Clubs in Afghanistan, which actively work for social welfare. There are obvious limitations but the population there is much smaller and there are fewer children. In places like Northern Afghanistan it is risky but we are in touch with the insurgent groups and work with them... we had done this in Sri Lanka as well when there was a civil war on in that country. How much have Indian corporates helped you? The efforts of Rotary have been aided by funding from agencies like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which pledged US$ 355 million for eradicating polio. In India we get funds from companies like the Tatas, Birlas.... Rajeshree Birla gave us Rs 25 crores. I am now on my way to meet (Dubai-based diamond merchant) Harshad Mehta, who has pledged US$ 3.5 million dollars. Warren Buffett, who wanted rich Indians to pledge a part of their wealth towards charity, got a cold shoulder here. Your comments? It is not that Indians do not do charity, but we prefer to do it quietly, unnoticed and unobserved. The Tatas do it regularly, the Birlas have their temples all over the country. But the Americans do it differently. They have their Foundations to do this.
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PROFILE Dr Pravat K. Mandal, an additional professor at the National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, Gurgaon, and his team have used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to track down an important component in the brain - glutathione (GSH) - that can indicate if a person stands the risk of succumbing to Alzheimer's disease. It is hoped this will help in early diagnosis by checking the GSH level in a selective brain region. Glutathione acts like the brain cell's security guard, and its level goes down in Alzheimer's patients. Not only this, "those undergoing treatment for Alzheimer's can be benefited by this study to test the efficacy of any medication by monitoring the GSH level using this technique," Dr Mandal says. Symptoms of the disease usually develop slowly, and gradually worsen over time - progressing from mild forgetfulness to widespread brain impairment. As critical cells die, drastic personality loss occurs and body systems fail. Researchers tried comparing GSH in various brain regions of healthy men and women with patients showing signs of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease. “We found that the overall mean GSH content was higher in healthy young people, especially females. GSH was distributed differently in the two hemispheres of the brain among male and female subjects,” Dr Mandal says. “In Alzheimer's and MCI patients, we found a decrease in the GSH levels. Statistical analysis indicated significant dearth of GSH in the left frontal cortex region in female patients, and right frontal cortex region in male patients.” What happens if we could diagnose Alzheimer's before symptoms started? Scientists say the hope is treatment could then target the disease in its earliest stages. Alzheimer's is a brain disorder that impacts daily living through memory loss and cognitive changes. Symptoms progress from mild forgetfulness to widespread brain impairment. As critical cells die, drastic personality loss occurs and body systems fail. Dr Mandal, 47, is a man who left lucrative posts and offers abroad to return to India and carry on his research.The graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and a post-doctoral Fellow at University of California, says: “My mother has been my first teacher, who inculcated in me the spirit of determination.” Both his parents were from academic background. He credits his teachers, too, especially the physics teacher, who he looks upon as “my hero”. Another person who left on indelible mark on his personality, he says, is noted scientist P. T. Manoharan.
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