MY TOP 10 HEROES

A couple of days back I went through AFI’s (American Film Institute) list of 100 heroes, villains, films etc. I agreed with many choices, disagreed with a few and missed a few deserving ones though I had no idea about many choices. Either I haven’t watched those movies or never heard of them. A thought came into my mind to prepare my own list of top heroes, heroines and villains. So, in this post, I’m giving the list of my favorite heroes, and also furnishing brief information about the role and the actors who played them. This list consists of Hollywood heroes. Bollywood’s top heroes would soon follow.

P.S. The heroes appear randomly in the list. I haven't ranked them from 1 to 10.

 Marlon Brando as Veto Corleone in THE GODFATHER

This was an Oscar winning performance. I had heard a lot about Brando’s performance in this movie from my father. He hadn’t exaggerated. When I saw the movie, I was in a complete awe. The ease with which he had played this character was unbelievable. The acting is original and dialogue delivery is superb. The Godfather part 2 might have featured greats like Al Pacino & Robert Di Neero and won more statuettes, it surely missed the original ‘Godfather.’

Mel Gibson as Benjamin Martin in THE PATRIOT

The movie has a lot of flaws as per the different reviewers and historians (I don’t care much about it. I love the movie with its flaws too.) But Mel Gibson shone brightly. He played the role of a doting father as well as a ruthless warrior with a lot of energy. It is more of an extension of a role he played in ‘Brave heart’, with a no. of more facets. Worth mentioning is the scene in which his son Heath Ledger dies in his arms. Absolutely riveting.

All the actors who have played James Bond so far

James Bond is going to turn 50 on silver screen in 2012, but the spy isn’t ready to hang his boots yet. In the last 46 years we had seen Bond in different avatars, from a kind gentleman to a ruthless assassin, from a sexy hunk to a flamboyant and flirt person. It is the charisma of this character which has kept it alive and kicking since 1962. Before ‘Casino Royale’ bond’s character had been less human who is almost non-vulnerable and infallible. Post 9/11, Bond too had decided to change, and for the good. Invincible superheroes, Rambo etc. are strict no-no now.

Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in THE BOURNE TRILOGY

Robert Ludlum’s creation is in stark contrast with the Ian Fleming’s spy. Here’s a guy who is being chased by his own agency and who has no weapons and gadgets other than his pistol and mobile. Jason is more human than bond and the role has been portrayed superbly by Matt Damon. It is difficult to imagine anyone else in this role. Damon’s guy next door looks has helped a lot and he has essayed this role of a survivor on run with consummate ease.


Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN TRILOGY


I liked this character moment he appeared in the movie. The attire and the looks of Sparrow had been attributed to Keith Richards, but rest of the character has been developed by Depp himself. Jack sparrow is some what complicated creature. He is downright funny most of the times, but is as clever as fox too. At times he’s coward and treacherous, but is a brave fighter too. Johnny depp has played every aspect of sparrow’s persona superbly. His Jack sparrow was the only savior in otherwise chaotic and confusing third part.

Brad Pitt as Achilles and Eric Bana as Hector in TROY

I don’t know why this movie underperformed in the US. It is almost considered as classic in my friend circle and I have found its name in many orkut profiles. Achilles wants his name to go down in the history as one of the greatest fighters while for Hector his country and his family held the highest respect. Both Pitt and Bana had rendered their roles marvelously. By the half time you are in love with both the characters so much that you almost regret when they decide to engage in a combat. The fighting sequence too is an absolute delight and when Achilles strikes Hector with a sword, u can feel a pain inside your heart too.

Tobey Maguire as Spiderman aka Peter Parker in SPIDER-MAN 2

For the first time superheroes didn’t seem coming from another planet. The character of Spiderman is essentially human. He is vulnerable, feels pain of being loser and goes through inner conflicts between love and responsibility everyday. Tobey looks totally convincing in his portrayal of Peter Parker. The troubles that Peter often faces are very general and we can connect with them. This role delivers this message that every human in fact is a super hero who battles out with the problems almost everyday and wins them on sheer strength of his determination


Tim Robbins as Andy Dufrease in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

Andy is a banker who is falsely accused of his wife’s murder and spends almost 2 decades in a prison where warden is corrupt and guards are ruthless with no compassion. It was a difficult role as this character is more of an introvert. It isn’t aggressive, rarely bellows and doesn’t have a screen presence that fills you with awe. Andy is a simple but intelligent man who never let the conditions dampen his spirits and hopes. This simplicity of the role makes it dear to the audience and complicated to play. Tim has played this role with complete control. Andy’s silence, his rare outbursts and other emotions seem so natural. This performance needed an Oscar nod. Unfortunately, it didn’t even get a nomination.


Russell Crowe as James J Braddock in CINDERELLA MAN


The movie is based on the life of a US boxer who was forced to give up boxing after breaking his hand. He had to work as a labor and even beg once to support his family during ‘The Great Depression’. He rose to stardom after re-entering into the ring and winning heavyweight title again. His rags to riches story and dramatic turnarounds in his life made people call him “Cinderella Man’. The movie didn’t do well and even the performances went unnoticed. That was one of the reason I decided to include it in my list. Russell Crowe has put his heart out in this film. The scene showing him begging for money to bring his children back is absolutely moving. The role was at par with that of Maximus. Only this movie wasn’t a special effects and heavy sets laden extravaganza.

Tom Hanks as Andrew Beckett as PHILADELPHIA

This was a difficult role to play. It is about a gay lawyer who is fired by his firm owing to his being diagnosed as HIV positive. The film is based on a true story. For the movie, Tom hanks had gained weight for the first part of the movie and shed a lot for the second part as the character of Andrew weakens due to AIDS in the film. His portrayal of a person suffering from AIDS and the subsequent trauma and pain brings tears to your eyes. I rate Tom hanks’ this performance above that of ‘Forrest Gump’.

Tere Sar Ka Badal Ban Jaane Ki Khwahish Thi..

Hai nahi koi khoobsurat wajah ki apne gunaho ko chhupa sakun
Labon pe muskurahat laun, palkon me aansu chhupa sakun

Main to manzar me hi gum ho gaya yun, kafila chalta raha manzil ki or
Ab to bas tanhai hai safar me, manzil ka na koi or hai no koi chhor

Kisi ka aaina ban jaana manzoor na tha, khud ka aks bhi par talash na paye
Tere sar ka badal ban jane ki khwahish thi, raaste ka darakht tak ban na paye

Ab to khamoshiyan bhi kar gayi kinara, hawa bhi mujhe sehlati nahi hain
Lehron se mera dostana kab tha, wo bhi dil ko magar dehlati nahi hain

Itni si gujarish hai waqt se ab meri, do naye pal zindagi ke paa to sakun
Chahe na de khushiyon ke saaz naye, yadon ke kuch nagme gunguna to sakun

Dhundhla Nahi Hai wajood Mera ki...

Ek anjaan paheli nahi main jise ki tum jaan na sako
Dhundhla nahi hai wajood mera ki tum pehchan na sako

karwatein badalti rehti hain lehren to kya magar
Gum nahi hote saahil yun ki tum unhe talash na sako

In Hawaon me yahan nahi hai asar abhi itna ki
Ret par mere kadamo ke nishan tum paa na sako

zindagi ki daud me kahin aagey nikal gaya hun main
Itna paraya to nahi ki aawaz de mujhe bula na sako

Ek pal ke liye hi, kabhi mera aks jehan me le aana
Ye koi aisa waada to nahi jise ki tum nibha na sako

Kabhi yaad bankar tumhari aankhon me umad bhi aau to
Itna ajeez bhi to nahi ki palkon me mujhe tum chhupa na sako

The Five Menaces for our 61 year old Nation

61 years back our nation was born (rather reborn). The freedom fighters who had toiled so hard for that day had so many dreams for our beloved nation. They knew they won’t be there 50 years later to see how much has India progressed, but they had faith in the coming generations. This feeling is aptly visible in these beautiful lines of poet Pradeep – ‘Hum layen hain tufan se kashti nikal ke, Is desh ko rakhna mere bachho sambhal ke.’

Alas! How wrong were they? Very few of their dreams have been fulfilled and rest have been shattered, few beyond recognition. Just pick up the news paper of yesterday and today. The headlines consist of the following pieces of news:

1. Violence in J & k, few dead and curfew imposed.
2. High alerts in capital along with other metros and big cities following terrorist threats
3. Inflation soars to 12.44%
4. Another disappointing day for India at the Olympics.

What an irony that most of these news pieces don’t surprise or bring a feeling of unrest in us. In other words, we’ve become habitual to these things. In this post I’m discussing about some menaces that have been giving pains to us for so long and slowly are becoming bigger threats for us. I’m not doing a lengthy discussion on these menaces but sharing with you my thoughts – what these 5 words meant to me a decade back or so and what do they mean now? I’m not talking only about myself only but reflecting thoughts of my few peers and friends too. I surely hope many of the readers would find an echo of my thoughts in theirs.

TERRORISM

Like many others of my age, prime source of entertainment for me in my school days were comics and cartoons. My favorite comic characters ranged from Indian superheroes like Nagraj, Dhruva to foreign superheroes including Phantom and Mandrake. These superheroes fascinated me a lot and often I would dream myself becoming one. Though I would do nothing other than teaching a lesson to school bullies or catch the thieves. Terrorism was an alien word for me.

As I matured a bit and began to get acquainted with this menace, my thoughts began to spread. My blood would boil over upon reading about the killings of the innocent people in Kashmir valley. But again my mind would make superficial plans about inventing new weapons (along with costumes la superheroes) and go and eliminate the terrorism from Kashmir.

Cut to 2008. The complete reality has dawned upon me. Post Jaipur blasts a sense of insecurity has crept in. Where are we safe now? As per my job profile, I’ll be in big cities for a long time, can’t say for how long. Now there is no urge to gather weapons and go to Kashmir to fight. Militants are not confined to J & K alone. They can be anywhere. A bomb can be as near as 50 m to me but I wouldn’t know. The times have changed and so has my dreams. Superheroes don’t make a visit anymore to my dreams, motivating me to fight. I guess post 9/11 they have become as vulnerable as rest of us normal humans.

RESERVATIONS

10-12 years back I had a very little idea about reservations. There was no need to know at that time. I was studying in a private school and so reservation word didn’t have any impact there. I had a fair idea about the reservations by the time I had passed my 10th and opted science- maths as my subjects for senior secondary. Even then I didn’t have any idea how much is it going to affect me.

6 years on, now that I have finished my engineering, I know how much this menace can affect me or thousand more and how it has been devouring country for the past many years. Whether I’m going for a govt. job exam or for PG whether MBA or M.Tech, what I do first of all is the permutations and the combinations of the total no. of seats and the number of seats in my category. Many might argue that nothing is impossible if you work hard and you will surely be selected even if seats are few. I don’t deny that but what I’m talking about is the psychological thing that comes in your mind when you know that another person by putting in lesser efforts will achieve the same thing that you may or mayn’t achieve with much harder work.

After my 12th, Ihad just one shot at IITs and then went for a private Engineering college. One of my friend eventually got into IITs after 2 attempts. I could see the happiness on his face when he broke that news to me. 2 years on he is little bit sad. It’s not about his career but he’s worried about the future of his alma mater. When he had joined his IIT, it ranked in the top 10 technical institutes of the world. “I ear will it be even among 50 four years later.” He said pointing to the cut offs being reduced to as low as 104 inthe SC/ST category and the new rubbish of faculty seats too being reseved.

A guy, who has been studying in a Hindi govt. school at the village, whether he belongs to general category or SC/ST, will be lagging behind an English medium student of the city. The need is to strengthen the primary education system and equal opportunities should be given at the higher stages. Political parties have made reservations their tool and that means reservations will be existing even then when our country will turn 100. I had read about braindrain but never witnessed one. I fear that day might not be too far.

INFLATION/INCREASE IN PRICES

This word was introduced to me in class 10th. It didn’t actually mean anything to me (rather all of my classmates) then. We crammed its definition like many economical terms. This word made a comeback in my academic life almost 8 years later, in my final semester of engineering. Suddenly the meaning of this word has become very important for us. Rising prices was something we knew but didn’t concern much. As far as most of the guys are concerned they would only know how much the price of petrol and diesel has increased in last 4 years. They would draw blank if you ask about any other domestic thing.

Then suddenly inflation began to soar with each passing week and most of us began to pay attention to the literal meaning of this word and its eventual impact. That was natural as we were about to leave the sweet, almost carefree college world behind and enter into a nasty real one. Offer letters by the company were began to be scrutinized properly, items other than petrol were being observed properly, guys going into MBA colleges too were giving a substantial amount of, if not equal, thought to the college being decided. Suddenly the package of 2.7 and 3 p.a. began to appear so inadequate. Things have been going out of control for a while and let’s see what new heights do this word scale before it is brought down.

UNEMPLOYBILITY AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Just a couple of day’s back one of my classmates visited me who had gone for job hunt in two different cities after our exams had ended. The first words that came out of his mouth were “Did I make a mistake by becoming an engineer?”

When I was a kid relatives and friends of my parents would often ask me, as elders always do, about what I aspire to become? Like most of the kids I would say Engineer or Doctor or an IAS and everyone would become happy. The boy has big dreams and aspirations, they would say. Entering into the world of these professionals was indeed a dream then and who would understand better than me in whose family only a handful of people went for science subject and none could make it to any of these fields I mentioned above. They worked hard, in fact harder than me, but didn’t have that much of opportunities or the resources.

Today IAS remains the only special and privileged field. The policies of govt. have made it easier to have one engineer or doctor in every home. Soon we’ll become the largest no. of engineer churning country in the world. It sounds good, but then comes a question. How many of them would be actually employable?

I could understand the feeling of my classmate when he said those words. Even after passing out of an engineering college, we lack the basic skills that an engineer requires. No thought is given to it when we enter into engineering, nor when we choose our branch neither during our college. The dilemma of my friend is that he belongs to Electronics and communication engineering but he’s not able to get the job because he doesn’t have those basic skills required. In other words, he’s not industry-ready. To obtain these skills he needs to go through different training institutes (often very expensive) who give special courses making you industry oriented. Software jobs are there but he can’t apply even though he has knowledge of two languages because most of these companies prefer students from computer science or IT engineering whom they don’t have to give that much of training. I can understand my friend’s plight. There is a lot of difference between an unemployed graduate and unemployed engineer

Let’s talk about other graduates other than engineering. My maternal grandfather, who is a retired English teacher, once told me an interesting anecdote. He used to take classes for bank P.O. preparation, with the students mostly from commerce background and few from the arts. My grandfather had asked the students to buy a book consisting of unsolved objective type questions. He was surprised next day when he saw that many of the arts students had ticked the correct answers. He asked them the reason and their answer was nothing but a sheer irony of Indian educational system. They had marked those answers so that they could cram the question for the exam rather than solving them

It was not their fault. They had been doing these things for so long. Unlike their science and commerce counterparts, they had never appeared for any competition exam and just didn’t have any idea how to prepare for it? The study for most of them begins 2 months prior to the exams and ends with the last day of the exams. They hardly have any approach towards the preparation of different high level competitive exams. It’s not surprising that they miss out completely when they face the exams with their science and commerce counterparts. Sometimes back I had read in a survey that more than 80% seats of the top 10 colleges of management in India are captured by the students from the science back ground, majority of them being engineers. This fact tells the story in itself.

DEMOCRACY

Many of you must be surprised that I have included this word in my list of menaces, but your surprise will be subsided when you will read the lines given below.

4-5 years back I was watching ‘Janadesh’, a live program giving the poll results of the assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh. Telugudesham had lost to congress and experts were discussing what led to Naidu’s defeat though under his govt. Hyderabad had become one of the top cities of India. Then one of the congress leaders (I think Digvijay Singh), who had lost elections in the MP just a few months back, quipped “ In India we have so much disparities in terms of religion, culture, region that though we might say that we have unity in integrity, but when it comes to elections, things changes. A poor farmer in a distant village wouldn’t pay any heed to how much has the state has developed technologically. He would think about his daughter’s marriage, about the road he takes to sell his vegetables, about his land. If he’s not satisfied with it, he will vote against you without caring about the other achievements of the govt.

That is where our democratic system fails. Most of the successful democracies in the world function on the basis of the clear mandates. It is contrasting in India where often now a days mandate is broken, driven by the factors like caste, region, religion, local issues, language etc. For the past one decade we are being governed by a coalition govt. We all know how the parties in the coalition have been making the govt. dance like a puppet on their own tunes for one issue or the another. Many of these parties are local ones who have base in certain parts only, but are able to show their clout because the mandate given by us had been broken. What these parties do is nothing short then a blackmail and we have provided them with the weapon, and what an irony, we are the eventual and the only victims.

Elections are due next year. Again a game would be played with the people’s emotions and most of us will give in. Again votes will be given on the basis of local issues and the final result would be same, few worthless people becoming kingmaker and we will do nothing other than rue.

Why won’t then someone think of democracy as one of the menaces, especially when its roots lie within us, unlike other menaces.

I don't like things being ended on a pessimistic note. As i was writing this post, these dialogues from the movie 'The Dark Knight' were continuously circlying my mind - "The night is darkest just before the dawn." I dearly hope that it is indeed the darkest hour for us and the dawn is approaching.

"WELL, I'M BACK...": A story

It is very strange that how a person becomes cynic over the time. Winters were always so special for me and trains running late never irritated me. Today, however, it was so difficult killing even a second in this cold night. Train was running exactly two hours late and I could do nothing other than cursing the ministry and its officials.

The night was getting colder and darker with each passing moment. The platform looked deserted. Already very few people were travelling in this train and most of them had moved inside the station to shelter themselves from the cold. Only a handful of people could be seen on the platform other than the vendors.

I was sitting on a solitary bench in a far corner of the platform. I had been sitting there for last 1 hour or so. But now it was getting difficult as wind had gained speed and I could feel its sharpness. Finally I decided to move from there to some other lonely but warmer place. I picked up my luggage and walked towards the plat form.

This is my hometown but I hated returning to it. In the past one year I had made only a couple of visits here. I had barely spent 3 days here and now I was returning to my workplace. I had even forbidden my parents to come to the station. I didn’t want anybody to know that I was here.

My eyes suddenly felt on the cigarette packet on one of the vendor’s trailers. Though I was trying very hard to let go of this habit that I had picked after my college, I couldn’t resist myself then owing to the chilling winter and the frustration inside me. As I bought the packet and lit one cigarette, my eyes fell on a girl sitting alone on a bench just a few meters away. She was sitting underneath a tube light and was engaged in a novel. I felt as if I knew her. Then as she adjusted her glasses a bit, I recognized her.

Priyanka was my classmate in the college. She was a very bold and arrogant girl with a lot of attitude. In the three years of college, she had a numerous altercations with the students as well as the faculty. Very few people liked her. After graduation she had moved to Mumbai for job. She didn’t have glasses then though, nor were her hairs so long. I didn’t expect to see her here in these odd hours waiting for train.

There was still an hour before train would enter the platform. It was really getting tough for me to kill this time. I thought it would be better if I spend this time talking with Priyanka. It won’t do any harm. I threw my half burnt cigarette away and moved towards her bench.

She was startled a bit when I called her name. Even she wouldn’t have expected me there in such odd hours.

“Sid. Wow! What a pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect to see u again after so many years here, at the railway station.”

“Yeah. Even I didn’t. May I sit here?”

“Sure. Please have a seat.” She shifted her luggage a bit and I sat there.

Now I gave a close look to her face. To my amazement she looked pretty, in her glasses and long hair. Her face wasn’t showing that ‘me-I only’ attitude but was flashing a beautiful smile.

“How’s you?” she asked smiling.” What are you doing these days? And how’s Radhika?”

“Well, she’s fine. Very fine indeed.” I replied

“It was always so good to hear about you folks. You two were perfect. Radhika is such a lovely girl. You will always be happy.”

I was surprised. Priyanka and Radhika were always at the opposite ends in the college. I don’t remember how many times they would have argued with each other. There was only one person who would pacify them, my best friend, Rajan.

“When you two are getting married? Any plans soon or already did? Don’t forget to call me. And where is Rajan these days? What is he doing?”

“Yeah I will surely invite you.” I said quickly."Enough about me. Now let’s talk something about you. I thought you had moved to Mumbai…”

And then we kept on chatting for more than 2 hours. I never looked towards my watch during this whole time. I couldn’t just believe that I was talking to same Priyanka whom I resented so much in the college. She had transformed totally. Now here was a new Priyanka who talked sensibly, who actually laughed and who hadn’t uttered a single word against any one person we talked about. Even I felt so much comfortable talking to her, though we had very few chats during college life. It was only when the announcer announced about the arrival of the train did we broke the chain of our talks.

“It was so good talking with you Priyanka. I really had a very good time. I never expected it.”

“Tell me one thing Sid. What has happened to you? Why did you lie to me?”

I was startled. Did she know something, or rather everything?

“I had seen you long before you saw me Sid, when I had entered the platform. I couldn’t understand why did you go and sit in the farthest corner of the station, far from any person. You loved being with the people, making new friends whenever you got a chance. That’s why I sat at this bench because I knew that eventually you would pass from here and after seeing me here would stop. Then I saw you smoking there. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Then when you begin to talk, I could clearly see that you were lying. Is everything right between you and Radhika?”

I took a deep breath. “Nothing went right after college. Everything fell apart. I tried a lot but couldn’t do anything.”

“And that’s what you have done to yourself? Do you remember a priyanka who used to get into trouble with every person, who was always so arrogant and selfish, someone whom everyone hated? Look at me now. Is there a even a slightest trace of Priyanka left in me? Who brought this change into me? You did. I always wanted to be like you. A person whom everyone loved and adored. A person full of life rather than hatred and frustration. A person who didn’t find fault in everything but who appreciated even the small things of life. I always tried to be like you, but couldn’t succeed. Then college ended and for the first time I faced the hardships of life away from the home. My nature always produced hurdles in my life and then one day I thought about you and decided to change myself. Look at me now. Whatever I’m today is because of you.”

I didn’t say anything. She paused for a second and then continued.

“I don’t blame you or even Radhika. Sometimes the relations just don’t work out. But it looks like you have blamed yourself for everything. I don’t know but I feel like you have moved away from the social life of yours, your friends and may be your parents. I don’t know this pessimistic, cynic Sid. I always knew one Sid and he was always cheerful, happy and ready to mingle. I don’t want to give any speech. But look at me. If you can bring change in me without even knowing it why can’t you change yourself…?”

She didn’t say anything more but picked up her luggage and soon disappeared in the crowd moving towards the train. I too stood up. Train was about to leave and I couldn’t afford to miss it.

THREE MONTHS LATER
I had returned home after three months. It was February and the morning breeze seemed so nice. My parents didn’t know that I was coming and I wanted to give them a surprise. I had just moved out of station when I found myself face to face with Rajan and his wife.

There was a silence initially as our eyes met. No body moved. Then I smiled and threw myself on to surprised Rajan. We had hugged each other after such a long time that we stood like that for many seconds. When I moved away, I could see a small tear in his eye.

“It has been such a long time.” He said

“Well, I’m back” picking up my luggage I quoted a dialogue from my favorite movie.

“It is so good to see you back, Sid”

I looked at Radhika. Two tears had rolled down her eyes.

“Thank you.” She said

“Don’t thank me.” I answered smiling. “Reserve this thanks for someone else.”