Why Bollywood copies so blatantly from Hollywood

Chai se jaada Kittli garam hai...

I used to scoff at the bolly figures about how they make movies whose storylines are directly lifted from Hollywood blockbusters.

I still do, of course. But now I understand why this is the case. It is obvious to all that the indian mass, the target audience for most bolly 'hit' movies, is not sophisticated enough to be watching english movies. So it is a bleedingly obvious business choice to not spend any money on script developments, and instead focus the resources on things that add value to the mass audience... frills like sleazy dances, sexy models and outfits, and pushy promotions.

But still, I have lost my cine-reverence to many supposedly stars, including Amitabh (he has regained my reverence for different reasons), Dimple, Rekha, etc. Take this for an example; Not too long after 'The Others' got its acclaim, I came across a hindi movie promo that showed Dimple enacting some scenes that were soo similar to The Others that I knew it for sure of the plagiarism. And guess what Dimple said: "I have not played such a movie before in my life. It's clearly the best movie I have ever played." Not only did she lose her credibility to people like me, but also she seriously deprecated her movie career by saying something as stupid as that. She had played some really really important roles, many pro-feminine, and was acclaimed for them. And now she is vouching for an original copy that is not even worth vouching for...

This phenomenon has been seen much in Hollywood too... So many remakes are being done... some I remember off the top of my head are: The Ladykillers (Tom Hanks), Godzilla, The Red Dragon (From 'Manhunt' in the 80s), etc. But these retain originalilty in the sense that they still have an innovative perspective at the old version, or a creative adaptation of the old script. It's not like through and through copy/paste job.

Anyway, i know u're gonna say... I know all this, I dont need to be reading this- it's nothing new. You're right. But let me at least write it out, coz things run a bit slow in my head. There are a lot of speed bumps up there.

Qualms about our Palms

Daffy: Do you want your palms read?
Elmer: Well, yes!!
And Daffy smears Elmer's palms with red paint...

Do you believe in palmistry? Myself, I do not know what to make of it. It definitely is a farfetched correlation between the creases in your hands and the events in your life. But the thing is, I have heard many earnest-sounding testimonials.

Not only that- Somebody told me a girl could read hands. I showed it to her, and she told me a few past events that were not only true, but amazingly specific and accurate! For instance, she told me that I had studied abroad, which I had. That only jolted my attention awake to listen to her telling me what had life in store for me! I could not help not believing that.

Oh- My mother liked to tell me that when I was a kid, near a temple or something, a jyotishi guy offered my mother to 'see' me. He told her never to slap me! But when I asked her, she said she had to slap me many-a-times, because I was a menace. But then, looking from a perspective, maybe the Jyotishi foresaw that I would be a menace and that my mother will be losing a lot of patience, and he was telling her to 'be easy on her kid'. Makes sense??

So, yeah. I still cannot see how it is possible that our past and future are coded into those lines in our palms. And what intuition, what revelation prompted these Jyotishis to start interpreting them. If this all is really true, are we not wasting a lot of life in oblivion- revering science and reality as we see it? You find it out and let me know!

Small Girls Are Cute

There is nothing cuter than a tiny girl with a hiccup.

I was walking back to my home, through an alley when I saw, ahead, a schoolgirl of around 4-5 class walking home a Nursery/Kindergarten kid. The elder girl was teasing that the little one, Parvati, is not quite catching up, and Parvati was retorting with her tiny, cutesy voice that she definitely is. You know... in that imperfect kidsy twang.

As I neared them, it became apparent that the little girl was hiccuping. She couldnt even get one statement straight in her plaintive attempts. And believe me, it was the cutest sound one ever hears! It is probably just because they have got the best accoustic make-up!

I wanted to slow down my pace so that I could hear their conversation further, but I reluctantly overtook them. Soon, they fell behind my earshot...