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Governance the key
Modi’s truce with Gadkari |
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Rightful royalty
The Eurozone crisis
Emotionally yours
Enough of creepy-crawlies
Thrilling all the way
This prince charms
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Governance the key
The
report of the three interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir has finally been made public, a full seven months after they submitted it. The trepidation apparent in the delay on the part of those who have to act on it may be an indicator of what it may lead to — very little in the immediate future. The reactions — from Kashmir, Jammu and the various political entities — have been rather predictable, just as the report itself. While nothing radical was expected — or even desirable — the interlocutors have gone with common sense. Build confidence, respect human rights and personal liberty, ensure transparency in governance — all ingredients of good governance anywhere. The only controversial recommendation is for restoring the special status of the state under Article 370, and the setting up of a Constitutional committee to examine all Central laws extended to it. The pulls in various directions from all the powers that be in the country, especially within the state, would allow little movement in that direction. While these ‘big issues’ never seem to find resolution, the basics get ignored. The challenge lies in ensuring dignity — and the perception of it — to the people. That can come via ‘political freedom’ — on the definition of which people may differ — or through effectively and equitably meeting the immediate personal needs of the people. While one may not come for long, the other is possible with transparent governance, as recommended by the interlocutors. The usefulness of the report — produced after a year of genuine legwork — lies in its observations, such as the one that 75 per cent of the memorandums the interlocutors received sought an end to curfews and other security restrictions. Only 25 per cent had political demands. It’s been more than 20 years of militancy; people are fed up, and their perceptions today are different from what they were when the trouble broke out. They need peace. The government would thus do well to convey that is its priority too. When the time for peace comes, you don’t need dramatic political solutions. It is not the semantics of governance, but governance that matters. |
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Modi’s truce with Gadkari
The high-profile Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to attend the national executive meeting of the party in Mumbai following the forced resignation of his bete noire Sanjay Joshi from the BJP national executive does not mean the end of dissidence in the beleaguered party. Party President Nitin Gadkari has bought peace with Modi for the time being, recognizing his clout in the BJP rank and file and growing stature among the people at large. As a gesture of reciprocity, Modi will not stand in the way of a second term for Gadkari which is on the anvil through an amendment by amending the party constitution which currently provides for only one term at a time. But it would be foolhardy to expect Narendra Modi not to press his claim to being declared a prime ministerial candidate. The choice before Gadkari would be to either acquiesce in Modi’s ambition or to face his wrath again sooner than later. With former Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa openly siding with Modi, veteran party leader L.K. Advani threatening to stay away from the party rally at the conclusion of the national executive meeting piqued as he is with Gadkari ostensibly for not reining in Yeddyurappa, there would be no dearth of action in coming days. Sanjay Joshi too is no pushover. It was the key role assigned to him by Gadkari in managing the U.P. assembly elections that had led to Modi not campaigning for the party in that election. Significantly, Joshi has the staunch backing of the RSS and while Modi’s attitude brings him in direct conflict with the RSS, the latter can hardly abandon Joshi without itself losing face. Normally, the RSS should have been happy with Modi’s Hindutva agenda. But the RSS leadership finds Modi too overbearing and wants to cut him to size. The die is cast, therefore, for some new battles in the BJP at a time when it can ill afford to look divided. Gadkari indeed faces Herculean challenges in his second term not the least of which is the attitude he adopts towards a volatile Yeddyurappa in Karnataka and his ability to leverage Narendra Modi’s skills to mobilize support for the party across the country. With Congress facing a rough time, this is an opportunity that the BJP can ill afford to fritter away. |
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Rightful royalty
The Copyright Amendment Bill -2012, passed unopposed by both the Upper and Lower Houses, has brought cheer to the film industry. Many of them — lyricists, music composers and singers — who were paid only one-time fee to surrender all their copyrights to the producer or the music company under the existing laws, will now secure lifelong rights over their creative works. Once the amendments are implemented as law, the copyright of a film that currently rests with the producer for 60 years will be extended to 70 years and will be shared by the director too. Artistes — like lyricist, composer and singer — will get 12.5 per cent royalty every time their songs are reproduced. But apprehensions are already being raised in some quarters. Critics say, “right to receive royalties” is never mentioned as a separate right anywhere else in the Copyright Act — they claim the act was not critically examined by any of the MPs who were swept off their feet by the rhetoric and the homage paid to yesteryear artistes who died in penury due to the flaws in the existing copyright law. The unintended consequences of such an amendment may lead to new contracts where, instead of lump-sums, lyricists and music composers might be asked to bear the risk of not earning anything at all unless the film is profitable. These doubts apart, already IPRS (Indian Performing Right Society) is demanding procedures to be defined to allow the use of songs as caller tone, ring tone, and by FM on payment. The statutory licence given to broadcasters and FM is also causing a lot of worry among the producers, who say they will further eat up the share of the royalty without paying a regulatory fee. There is also a demand to get the actors earn royalty. Then, art directors, choreographers and assistant directors too are waiting in the queue. Another theatre in the making! |
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Genius is eternal patience. — Michelangelo |
The Eurozone crisis
A
Greek tragedy is waiting to happen in Europe. Greece will probably have to leave the euro zone and go back to its old currency which has been the drachma since the time of Alexander the Great. But fearing the exit, thousands of Greeks have been withdrawing their euros from banks. There is fear of capital flight which can be disastrous for an economy already burdened with a huge debt. Greece’s bailout is being worked out by the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank. The Greek government is going to the polls again next month in order to have a workable, unified coalition that can decide about the crisis which has led to a huge rise in unemployment. Already Greece and Spain have 20 per cent unemployment, but for their youth it is more than 50 per cent. Greece’s problems, which started in 2009, are casting a deep shadow on world stock markets and India is also feeling the impact. The BSE Sensex took a deep plunge though it has recovered recently. The rupee has been falling in terms of the dollar during the last few weeks touching an all-time low of Rs 56.38 to a dollar but has recovered slightly after the RBI’s assurance of its intervention to rectify the situation. Since the beginning of the crisis, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been fleeing emerging market countries like India and going to safer places like the US or Canada. The withdrawal of around 43 per cent of the investment funds from Indian markets in the last one year has been partly responsible for the rupee going down because it created a vacuum in the supply of dollars. This has been exacerbated by an increase in the demand for dollars from importers as exports have been outpaced by imports and the trade deficit has widened to $13.4 billion in April. India’s current account deficit stands at $185 billion (2011-2012), an unsustainable 4.3 per cent of the GDP. Exporters have benefited from the falling rupee but costs have gone up for industry as all imported inputs are costing more. Oil imports will cost more and India imports around 80 per cent of its requirements. Students’ fees, tourist expenditure and servicing of India’s short-term debt by the corporate sector will be much higher. Around $137 billion debt repayment by the corporate sector is due in the next 12 months. There would be more problems for the Indian industry which is going through a bad patch as is evident from the industrial growth which shrank by 3.5 per cent in March. How did the Greek crisis happen? Many Eurozone members (17 countries using the euro) blame it on the socialist government which was in power under President George Papandreou. The government went about in a ‘profligate’ manner, increasing spending on pension funds and wage hikes and not worrying about the size of the budget deficit which kept on increasing. It began borrowing from the market to bridge the fiscal deficit at increasingly high interest rates. Finally, it led to a very high, unmanageable sovereign debt and landed the government in a terrible crisis. Austerity measures were applied at the behest of the European Central Bank. There were huge protests in the streets of Athens as it led to big expenditure cuts. Since the crisis hit the Greek economy, there have been many bailout packages but none of the conditionalities that came with the packages has been acceptable to the Greek people. Germany, the most successful country of the EU today, has been insisting that the Eurozone crisis should be solved with the application of higher taxes and austerity measures. Others want Greece to have more labour reforms and wage freeze. The problem of high labour costs, low productivity, higher pension funds, low taxes and generally weakening of the export sector have been blamed for Greece’s problems. Greece also did not have the option of devaluing its currency in order to regain competitiveness and instead faced recession. It has been very difficult for the Eurozone to manage the 17 economies that are members because while there is the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, there is no central fiscal policy or fiscal union. It also does not have a system of fiscal transfer to members. Thus, unlike in India, which is also a federation of 28 states, the weaker states are not getting a bigger amount of revenue sharing. How the 17 Eurozone members manage their revenue collection and expenditure is up to the government of each member country. Some are managing well and sticking to the norm of 3 per cent fiscal deficit which means they are effectively controlling government expenditure and are keeping costs low while others have not been able to do so and are borrowing heavily to bridge the budget deficit. Greece is not alone in its problems of high debt because Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Slovenia and Italy are also in a similar situation. Most of the beleaguered countries in Europe are facing resentment against austerity measures from the public and it led to the return of Socialist rule in the recent French elections. According to famous economist J.M. Keynes, more public spending in times of recession generates jobs and incomes and creates demand. It would require pump-priming the economy as too much austerity may throttle the demand — which is what is happening in Europe. The EU’s lower demand for goods and services is impacting the exports of important partners like India. This in turn is resulting in industrial slowdown. The Eurozone crisis will affect India’s service exports also especially when the time comes for renewing contracts. Industrial growth is vital for India’s GDP growth which in turn is very critical for creating jobs for our youth. Industrial slowdown has been accompanied by high inflation though it has moderated from its previous double-digit level. But the Rs 7.50 per litre petrol price hike will lead to an increase in inflation because of a rise in transportation costs. High inflation will be disastrous for exports and for the wellbeing of the common person as it will result in the poor getting poorer. Greece’s problems are clearly affecting the entire world, including India. Unless a proper package acceptable to the Greek government is offered, no headway can be made. In such a situation, cracks will appear in the Eurozone and Greece will have to quit it. It can then devalue its currency vis-à-vis the dollar and boost exports again. But a huge loss of hundreds of billions of euros will have to be borne by those Eurozone members who have underwritten the Greek debt. Spain, Portugal and Italy could be next to quit the
Eurozone. |
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Emotionally yours
My father-in-law’s room was like a big store-house with piles of newspapers, magazines, letters and pamphlets which nobody dared disturb. There was an old record player which had pride of place in his bedroom. Though never played for decades, every effort to replace this junk piece with an operational music system was met with resistance. Equally strong was his bonding with the old alarm clock which had been lying out of order for years but could not be discarded. It is a fact that emotionally we are so attached to the things that we are not ready to throw them even after they have outlived their utility. We keep clinging to useless stuff in the hope that someday, someone is going to put them to some use. No wonder, my house looks like a museum, full of junk articles with which one or the other member in the family is sentimental about. In one corner of the verandah there is a permanent fixture, an old Vespa scooter, which has not been driven for years. Then there is an ancient heavy-duty ceiling fan, a legacy of the British period, which adorns the ceiling of one of the rooms because attached to it are fond memories of someone in the family. Over a period of time, I must admit I have become finicky about my own collection which I fiercely guard. In fact, I am so sentimental about the odd pieces of decoration, ceramic articles and the little knick knacks which I have collected so fondly that I find it hard to throw them out; even if they have lost their sheen, got chipped off or become faded and jaded. My children criticise me for cluttering the house but I ignore their taunts. In fact, so deep is my attachment that despite the addition of new decoration pieces, I cannot think of parting with the old ones. Since I don’t have the heart to discard any of my prized possessions, the old decoration pieces get shunted from the drawing room to the lobby/bed-rooms and then to the back courtyard. No wonder, my backyard has become the parking ground, or I may say, the final resting place for many of the junk pieces which have migrated from other parts of the house. Looking back, I realise how ruthless I had been in clearing the ‘junk’ collected so lovingly by my parents. Every time I visited my parents, I would take upon myself the task of clearing the ‘mess,’ heartlessly dumping the useless articles and pieces into the dustbin. My mother would resist my overzealous cleanliness drive. At times she quietly rescued and recovered the articles discarded by me, many of those I would find restored at their designated place on my subsequent visit. As I grow old, I realise how difficult it is to part with the things which are emotionally
yours. |
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CINEMA: NEW Releases RATINGS: «««««Excellent I
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So,
they are back Men in Black 3"but with fading interest in each succeeding sequel. You may have creepy crawly emerging from the palms of the villains and all kinds of weird happenings taking place on the skyline of Big Bad Apple but the only redeeming feature is the glib one-liners and where Will Smith is still as suave as ever. This time it is an old score to settle. Boris the Animal (Jermaine Clement) has just escaped from a lunar prison where he was from 1969 because of his intention to destroy the world with the help of extra-terrestrials. Boris now renews his old threat and for that Agent J (Will Smith) has to go back in time and prevent Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) from repeating the mistake he made then. Actually, the camaraderie between these two agents has been the USP of the film with Ethan Cohen (one of the Cohen Brothers) excelling in his script. Back in time the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) is forced to play the junior of the two which is discomforting but director Barry Sonenfeld just about manages to keep the film going by bringing in cute cameos like Griffin (Michael Stulbarg), the Miracle Man and Agent O (Emma Thompson), to say nothing of the hee-hawing villain Boris. Most of the fist-fights are atop the skyscrapers imbuing the viewer with a good deal of claustrophobia. But unlike the James Bond series where each new venture had something innovative, this series is jaded with the sameness that is palpable. Tommy Lee Jones too seems jaded and Jermaine Clement hams too much. It is Will Smith who salvages this sequel. The trouble with Hollywood is that is just doesn't know when enough is enough. |
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Thrilling all the way
Talk about the human, undaunted efforts for survival and the lengths they can endure and also times they reach a breaking point. Talk of a plethora of drifters and their eccentricities, shades of Nathaniel Hawthrone's Outcasts of Poker Flat they too appear. That splendid uncertainty is what makes The Grey such a riveting, mind-boggling thriller, all 117 minutes of it. Ottway (Liam Neeson) leads a bunch of oil-rig roughnecks going on leave when their plane crashes in the Alaskan tundra wilderness. The entire crash is shot vividly from within by Japanese cameraman Masamobu Takoyanigi whose work stands out right through the film, be it the night shots with the wolves eyes standing out or the daring cliffs the Unfortunate Seven are forced to encounter. Prominent among the others are Diaz (Frank Grillo), Talget (Dermot Mulroney) and Hendrick (Dellas Roberts), always dreaming of his little daughter. Not unexpectedly they keep disappearing like the 10 little nigger boys, but their angst during the crisis comes across strongly in their choice one-liners. Also, their humour is heart-rending but heartening. Everything is shades of grey. The opening shots are quite unimpressive with Ottway penning a letter to his wife (Annie Openshaw), visions of whom crop up egging him not to fear. It looks like a sob story pure and simple. But once the group of losers come under the scanner it never lets up. Liam Neeson, of course, gets the most footage but he does not make a meal of it like a glutton. Underplaying the part to a nicety his leadership is contested. There are power fights which the pack of wolves cash in on but there is some logic too in the reaction to the animals. How much is enough, is the pertinent question and the viewer just waits for the final rescue. Here's where director Carnahan uses copious doses of suspense. Some of the deaths are gory and could have been avoided but all this can be ignored in the light of a real-life like experience. The performers are very natural as are the wolves' attacks, with nature at its most impersonal best. |
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This prince charms
For a while now India has been catching up with the west as far as technological treatment of its films is considered. Of course, animation films are still miles behind its counterparts in Hollywood. Yet, Arjun: The Warrior Prince is an earnest attempt and a positive step forward in the world of Indian animation. Even if it may not be a stupendous effort, the film stands out for telling an Indian story in an Indian way. But then this is a story culled out of the annals of tradition, the enduring and riveting mythological saga called the Mahabharata. Of course, if we haven't grown up on the tales of Mahabharata recounted by our grannies, BR Chopra's mega serial clued us into the many dimensions of the great epic. Certainly an animation film in comparison can't possibly do justice to the multilayered complex narratives of the Mahabharata. So it is in the right spirit of things that the movie focuses primarily on one character, Arjun, easily the most engaging hero of the epic tale. But since the hero is incomplete without his guru Dronacharya, the other Pandavas, his wife Draupadi and of course his arch-enemy Duryodhan, you get to see much more than his transformation from a diffident young man to a warrior par excellence. Arjun's interface with his guru, who beseeches him to face his opponent, irrespective of who he is, and the legendary swayamvar in which he pierces the eye of the fish, are the highpoints of the film. As for the animation effects, the swayamvar scene and the one where Arjun finds his gandiv are best created. Though the movie doesn't recreate the Kurukshetra war and depicts only the battle that Arjun won single-handedly in defence of the kingdom of Virat where the Pandavas had spent a year in anonymous exile, battle scenes too are well executed. His and Lord Krishna's combat with adversaries in the first part of the film is arresting too. The traditional feel is enhanced by the right kind of classical backgrounds, most suitably apt for its momentous moments. Vishal Shekhar's music is yet another value addition to the film. Voices of the key characters lent by seasoned actors like Yudhveer Bakolia, Anjaan Srivastav, Sachin Khedekar and Ila Arun keep the emotional temper just right. Neither frayed nor over the top, dialogues and its rendition befits the storyline. Of course, deliberately or adroitly, the director keeps away from showing Draupadi's cheerharan or for that matter even the fact that she is the wife of all five Pandavas. But none of that can dilute the fact that produced by UTV Motion Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures, here is an animation film that works-wonders for children and eminently watchable for adults, including the skeptics who think animation is not their cup of tea. |
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Movies on tv Saturday MAY 26 The Expendables is a 2010 American ensemble action film written by David Callaham and Sylvester Stallone, and directed by Stallone. The film is about a group of elite mercenaries, tasked with a mission to overthrow a Latin American dictator who they soon discover to be a mere puppet controlled by a ruthless ex-CIA officer. It pays tribute to the blockbuster action films of the 1980s and early 1990s MOVIES NOW 7:45 Back to the Future Part III 12:00 Tremors 2:00 Into the Blue 4:15 12 Rounds 6:30 The Golden Compass 9:00 Ip Man 2 11:15 The Lost World: Jurassic Park STAR MOVIES 7:33 Gulliver's Travels 9:52 Tangled 11:52 Knight and Day 2:07 The Legend of Zorro 4:42 Death Race 6:49 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines 9:00 Cars 2 11:15 The Expendables FILMY 9:00 Sarkari Mehmaan 12:30 Pyaasa Sawan 4:00 Meet Mere Man Ke 8:00 Chhoti Si Baat SUNDAY MAY 27 Bhoothnath is a Bollywood Ghost film directed by Vivek Sharma, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawla, Aman Siddiqui, Priyanshu Chatterjee and Rajpal Yadav in lead roles. Shahrukh Khan appeared in an extended appearance. The film is an adaptation of the Oscar Wilde short story The Canterville Ghost. FILMY 9:00 Daud 12:30 Bhootnath 4:00 Pratighat 8:00 Sherni STAR MOVIES 7:38 I, Robot 9:53 Cars 2 12:11 The Day After Tomorrow 2:34 2012 5:29 The Expendables 7:33 Winnie the Pooh 9:00 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 11:12 Unstoppable MOVIE NOW 5:45 The Golden Compass 10:00 The Lost World: Jurassic Park 12:45 Rocky IV 2:45 Ip Man 2 5:00 King Kong 9:00 Gladiator 11:30 AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem |
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Movie: Men in Black 3
Movie: The Grey
Movie: Arjun: The Warrior Prince
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