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Daggubati Rana At Fans Meeting Photo Gallery Venkatesh Photo Gallery Venkatesh Photo Gallery Venkatesh Photo Gallery 1 Venkatesh Photo Gallery 2 Venkatesh Birth day celebration Photo GalleryCast: Gauhar Khan, Shazahn Padamsee and Ranbir Kapoor.
Director: Shimit Amin
Running Time: 2 Hours 30 minutes
Rating: 4 out of 4
Release Date: 11 December 2009
Are you a sales person? Or have you every worked in a sales job. If you haven’t you will still enjoy the movie, but if you did work in sales, the movie is a lot more fun.
Harpreet Singh (HP) believes that he can persuade anyone, anywhere. He also believes in being ethical and giving the customer what they deserve. He knows his career will be in sales because that is the only job where it is your smartness and not your exam scores matter. He attends an interview, gets the job in his very first attempt, and he has already achieved the first step in his dream.
Not really. HP soon realizes that the whole thing is a sham. His job involves bribing customers, promising them the moon but giving them garbage and trying to reach targets which lack any reasoning behind them. Over time, he grows to hate this job because his upbringing never prepared him for this way of life. So, what does he do? The system wants to play games with him, so he decides to play games with the system. This is when the movie becomes a lot more fun and rest of the story unfolds.
Movie has very memorable characters. There is HP, who absolutely believes that, chasing people is more important than chasing numbers. There is this porn loving service engineer, knows the company is doing wrong with the customers but just goes with the flow. A receptionist who lives among wolves, but still retains her angel-ness. An Office boy, who knows how to assemble a computer but has no clue how to use the computer he assembled. Fantastic acting coupled with awesome character development. I love it!
I liked the amount of research put in, to create an authentic sales office. (I can vouch for this because of my own brief stint in sales). Cubicles filled with motivational posters. After sale daaru parties, just one girl in the entire sales team of 20, sky high sales targets and cribbing sales-team. Awesome. The production values are just great. Yashraj Studios, never miss out on this. As a plus, the movie has no songs, which means there are no gaps to the smooth flow of the movie. I will extra points to any movie which decides to move away from songs for the sake of making the movie better.
The movie could be used by any number of b-schools in their sales sessions. The old way of chasing numbers using all kind of pushy methods is not going to work anymore. Chase customers with realistic promises and make sure you keep them. When people believe you, they would not think twice before putting their money in you.
And when we see such unspectacular triumphs as Rocket Singh: Salesman Of The Year, it is clear that mere nails and efficiency aren’t what hold them together: like his latest leading man, Sahni sells because he believes.
As said, Shimit Amin’s [ Images ] film is an unspectacular one. And it’s quite hard to express just how bloody refreshing that is. Comfortable in its own skin, the film never tries too hard, and while it takes a little while to really get going, it completely eschews glitz and bling — never an easy thing to do, moreso considering the hero’s the hottest property in town since a certain Mr Khan moved to Bombay and stammered obsessively — and does its own thing, nice and easy.
Ranbir Kapoor plays Harpreet Singh Bedi, a lanky Sikh who struggled through his college marksheet and is now ready to sell. Armed with more than his fair share of enthusiasm, the good-natured lad finds himself in a trainee job in a ruthlessly competitive officeful of computer-selling sharks. Harpreet watches, wide eyed, as targets are met and chowkidars are bribed, but the morally staunch boy raised by his grandfather can’t quite stomach high-stakes skullduggery, and before he knows it, he trips over his own goofy grin.
The rest is right up Jaideep’s alley, a tale of justice a la Jeffrey Archer, a tale that involves entrepreneurship, scruples, profit-sharing and friendship, and the writer-director duo let it unfold gradually, with such warm geniality that Jerry Maguire’d jump at the chance of working in our sincere sardar’s Rocket Sales. Predictable to a degree, certainly, but some films are such an easy watch that you consciously avoid second-guessing the filmmakers, you don’t want to predict what happens three scenes later.
The boy, as we are all getting used to saying, is excellent. Two films ago, Ranbir Kapoor [ Images ] acted in something where more attention was paid to his tee-shirts than to plot, and yet now he slips so comfortably into the skin of this humdrum Harpreet that it’s easy to forget his glamour. He’s a versatile, instinctive actor working on roles that are much harder than they look: in this film, he’s burdened by the most trite lines in the script, about belief and friendship and ethics, but his earnestness sees him carry them through. This isn’t a traditional hero role — his plans are more than a trifle harebrained and there are no showy moments of grand triumph — but the way Harpreet keeps plugging away at it makes him more of a role-model than most our postermen.
The ensemble is quite delightful, really. D Santosh is the pick of the bunch as Giri, a computer-assembler who surfs porn through the night and lies to clients by day; Naveen Kaushik is super as the uniquely sideburned Nitin Rathore, a sales shark who really knows what he’s doing; Mukesh Bhatt does well as Chhotelal Misra, a peon capable of more; and Gauhar Khan [ Images ] brings some nuance to her role as Koena, the ambitious receptionist.
Yet this only brings us to another aspect of the film: the romance. Harpreet meets Sherena on work, and then bumps into her at a party, where they drink in the bathroom and he shyly asks her to a movie before he has to get up for some guy who has to throw up in the commode.
Seldom do we see a romantic track handled so casually, but Shimit knows love is completely incidental to Harpreet’s story, and even though the director is obsessed with detail — it isn’t a coincidence that this tale of entrepreneurship sees Harpreet nicknamed HP, like a certain computer company formed in a garage, or that he goes to work at a store that is part of the Tata umbrella, a nod to the entrepreneur like no other — he lets the romance drift in and out of the narrative, treating it with a breezily light hand. Smashing.
The best films about sales are compelling narratives about savage closers, like David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross or Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, audiences lapping up the con-games used by piranhas in action, but the Rocket Singh story is the exact antithesis of the ‘greed is good’ dictum: this is about a straightforward, sincere lad who believes in sharing.
And it works, because the film’s innate honesty makes us want to believe. That, and the lack of razzle-dazzle. (Heck, the office party sees people drink whiskey in transparent plastic cups with music running on Windows Media Player.)
Rocket Singh might not be everyone’s idea of a good time. It’s not a film that grips you from the word go, or one that leaves you rolling in the aisles, but it’s an impassioned effort that tosses skepticism out the window. Watch it, really.
Rocket Singh won’t suddenly break into a jig, and there’s something quite priceless about the way he digs into a plateful of noodles after shoving his necktie into his pocket.
Rating:
“One can see more layers in Abohomaan (The Eternal) than my previous film Shob Charitro Kalponik,” declared Rituparno Ghosh just before the screening of his latest film at MAMI. The statement was potent enough to spark the curiosity of the audience sitting inside the theatre. For those who had seen Shob Charitro… it was a challenge thrown at them by the confident filmmaker, who was sure to floor his fans with his latest offing. For those, who had missed out on the previous one rather decided to enjoy the film they had come for.
Once again Rituparno chose his favourite subject – filmmaking – as an intrinsic part of his storytelling. Abohomaan revolves primarily around four characters associated with the art in some way or the other.
Dipankar Dey plays Aniket, a reputed art house director. The opening shot shows an ailing Dipankar muttering incoherently about different aspects of filmmaking as he watches Jisshu clicking pictures of the surrounding hilly terrains. Jisshu, who plays his son Apratim, pleads him to take some rest.
Though Jisshu comes across as a caring son and Dipankar a doting father, we could immediately sense their strained relationship; something was definitely amiss.
For a fleeting second one could catch a glimpse of Amitabh Bachchan of The Last Lear in Dipankar.
Cut to the next scene and we get the news of Aniket’s sad demise. Rituparno zeroed in on this awkward moment to introduce the rest of the characters in the film. Strange but true, the impact was bang on.
The focus shifts on Sreemati, a reputed actress, who is terribly miserable with the news and the media hounding her for bytes.
The story then goes into a flashback. We see Mamata Shankar playing Aniket’s devoted wife Deepti. Aniket had fallen in love with Deepti during the audition of his dream project, Nati Binodini, and they got married. For some reason the project couldn’t take off. But never mind …
Years later, Aniket decides to revive Nati Binodini with a new actress. And there comes Shikha, the outspoken, unsophisticated, unrefined yet beautiful aspiring actress Shikha (Ananya Chatterjee).
It didn’t take Deepti too long to give up her career for her husband’s and for their son Apratim. There were moments when she felt she has lost a little of who she was in the process. But she was happy.
The plot becomes intriguing when a reluctant Aniket auditioned a young actress Shikha and the inevitable happened. It was Deepti who kept pushing Aniket into giving Shikha one chance.
Little did she know her innocent gesture would backfire and shatter her happily married life… It was Deepti who led Aniket into the trap set up destiny. Interestingly Shikha has an uncanny resemblance to young Deepti. Deepti takes it on herself to coach Shikha for the role – so much so that Shikha with proper grooming becomes more like Deepti with each passing day. As a result an aging Aniket falls in love with her, someone as young as his son.
The film certainly has many layers. One hand we find the ‘Pygmalion concept’ dexterously embedded in the Shikha-Aniket episode, the kind of bond Nati Binodini shared with the legendary Girish Chandra Ghosh who is still considered the father of the modern Bengali stage.
Abohomaan is also about the two women (Deepti and Shikha) bonding on the same character, working towards the same goal.
The film had generated a buzz when a few people close to the director insisted similarities between late Oscar winning filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s personal life and Aniket’s character. Apparently, Ray too had some issues with his wife and son. But Rituparno has vehemently rubbished the point saying it’s strange that whenever there’s scope of a potential romance in the storyline, people start dragging in real names.
Whatever be the reality, the film boasts of some beautiful moments like Shikha pouring her heart out to Apratim; Aniket supporting his son despite his insolent behaviour, trying to explain his situation to Deepti in his own calm manner. In fact, he poses an interesting question when Deepti confronts him. He asks, “Isn’t it possible that both of you co-exist in my life?” You actually feel for the man and his predicament and yet tend to get judgmental knowing Deepti’s plight.
Abohomaan doesn’t have too many symbolisms and dream sequences like Shob Charitro Kalponik, but skates closer to The Last Lear in emotional quotient. As in Shob Charitro… Rituparno again uses the same technique of switching between past and the present.
Dipankar Dey in the film has definitely given one of the best performances of his life. Mamata Shankar was good as usual. Jisshu who seems to have become a permanent fixture in Rituparno films showed maturity. Riya Sen, who debuts in this Bengali film, is okay. Ananya Chatterjee deserves a special mention for her brilliant histrionics – both as unsophisticated Shikha and later as successful actress Sreemati.
Verdict: Watch it for Dipankar Dey and Ananya Chatterjee’s fantastic performances.
Rating: 3.5/5
I’ve wanted to blog about a lot of things I’ve been up to recently such as publishing papers and contemplating a book and reading several books, including Ashok Banker’s Ramayana series and a bunch of mathematical experiments with the binomial distribution applied to nonlinear dynamics. I haven’t found the time for blogging about these things because of what keeps me occupied the rest of the time – work.
I made time today to blog about Paa – the new R Balakrishnan movie starring the Bachchan father-son duo and Vidya Balan. I saw the movie today and liked it immensely. Most of a movie’s impact is in the story, in its writing, and I think R Balki has written the script well, if not perfectly. The performances by both Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan are great and they’ve pulled off the role reversal very well indeed. Vidya does adequately well, if only a bit too schmaltzy in places. (Did I mention that she looked ravishing?) Paresh Raval is a comic genius but doesn’t fit into this movie too well – he neither plays the politician dad convincingly, nor is his humour used effectively. Amitabh really steals the show with his performance as a 12 year old with Progeria, a genetic disorder that causes accelerated aging, enough to rob a child’s youth and reduce life-expectancy to between ten and twenty years. Amitabh’s acting is excellent, although his juxtaposition with actual kids of his age makes him seem a tad out of place – and I don’t know how people couldn’ t find his make up hideous – but having said that, I find his performance praiseworthy.
A notable feature of the screenplay of this film is how the story is conveyed in breeze-through snippets – not because this is new, but because it is used effectively. Groups of these snippets are used to tell stories in parallel to the main narrative, but the director doesn’t take away from the narrative and confuse the audience in the process. Balki seems to respect the intelligence of his audience, and this is to be lauded. I have seen far too many Bollywood movies that are an insult to intelligence, these are like watching someone beating a dead horse (set to Punjabi music, of course, and throw in gaudy costumes).
Amitabh has managed to convey the infectious enthusiasm of a more-than-twelve-year-old and a sort of blunt, precocious manner – the scenes with the school kids are hilarious as are the moments between father and son spent at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The movie is endearing for its ability to showcase people who have made decisions with compassion – Vidya’s decision to have her baby out of wedlock, and her decsion to care for her child despite its condition are somewhat moving. The couple’s coming together because of their child is incredible but feels like poetic justice, except when it gets cheesy at the end with the couple performing a saptapadhi around the ailing child. Overall, I loved the true-to-life and frank feel of the movie although aspects of it were unconvincing – such as Amol’s complete incorruptibility and his dad’s pliability – and these are so perhaps because of my coloured perceptions of how politicians should be. Having said that, the media-bashing scenes in the movie are vindictive and more importantly, satisfying. A word about the soundtrack – I found an old Ilayaraja number in a Malayalam movie recycled into a song on this movie – anyone care to educate me on the track? I’ve heard it being performed by Balabhaskar (a well known violinist) too.
All in all, Paa is a good watch, worth my money and better than most recent Bollywood movies.
Super model’s presence in Reality Show Bigg Boss sparks off a series of articles on Indian television in the European press
Popular supermodel Claudia Ciesla gets Channel Colours a few million new viewers from Europe.
By Frank Franklyn – Futuristic Media Network
When Endemol India and the channel Colours decided to sign on German supermodel Claudia Ciesla for the third season of their very popular show Bigg Boss, maybe they didn’t realise that Claudia – who is a very popular ramp and fashion model in Germany and the rest of Europe – would become some sort of a brand ambassadress for Indian Television.
Knowingly or unknowingly, Colours as a brand has ensured that its reach has spread to Europe and Germany for sure. Says Claudia Ciesla’s manager in Germany Gergor Kaden, “A lot of people in Germany have begun watching the channel Colours thanks to Claudia as she is very popular as a model, singer and fashionista out here. While the channel would have otherwise been an unknown entity among the common man in places like France, Germany, Italy, Poland, etc., Claudia’s presence and persistence in Bigg Boss has sparked off a flurry of media activity.” In the last six months, there must have been about 2-3 articles on Indian television, but the last two months has seen about 8-10 stories on the ‘booming Indian television market’.
Claudia Ciesla’s Indian publicist Flynn Remedios – himself a senior journalist and Media Analyst says: “While Bollywood and Bollywood movies were discussed and have been mentioned time and again in the European press and media, in the last two months, thanks to Claudia Ciesla’s ongoing stint in the popular Reality Show Bigg Boss, Indian Television shows have become the apple of the European media’s eye. At least 8-10 articles have appeared in the mainline European print media in the last one month alone,” explains Flynn, adding that one of the biggest German (and European) papers BILD has published two articles on Bigg Boss and Indian television shows in the last one month itself.
“A prestigious eco-political magazine FOCUS has also written about Indian Television. Local newspapers in Germany, Poland (from where Claudia originally hails) and Baveria (where she currently stays) have also run articles on Reality Shows in India,” adds Flynn Remedios displaying the clippings of these articles. “It’s not just the tabloid press or the entertainment media that’s suddenly taking additional interest in India. It’s also the business, commercial and financial media. Analytical articles have appeared on the advertising potential, the reach, etc of Indian channels like Colours. Even the quality of Indian TV programming and software has come under scrutiny with the latter coming out in a very positive and encouraging way,” explains Remedios. “Indian TV shows, their packaging, presentation, style, concept, publicity strategy and the works are now being discussed in detail in the European trade media,” informs Flynn Remedios, who tracks the international media with an eagle’s eye for his clients.
Another media analyst and entertainment journalist, Rejane Coelho opines that Claudia Ciesla’s participation has bridged Indian television with the mainline European media.
“It’s not just the print media in Germany and Europe, even local television channels have run clips and footage of the Indian version of Bigg Boss regularly, showcasing Claudia Ciesla’s performance – something which they probably would not have done if she was not in the show. She could barely speak a few words in Hindi when she very bravely went into the Bigg Boss house,” says Remedios, who was responsible for Claudia Ciesla’s media strategy, branding and imaging in India.
“Even I was worried. How would Claudia cope? How would she manage when her culture, customs, diet and lifestyle are so very different?” But Claudia Ciesla the fighter has managed to stick on for almost ten weeks, when others like Sherlyn Chopra with a much greater fan following were evicted in the first phase of the show itself.” Between Greg and myself, we had given her 6-8 weeks, says Remedios, but she has really done well for herself. “When the show went on air, some of my media friends and even editors said Claudia Ciesla was a bimbette and kinda dumb. But that was a well-thought of strategy to lie low and stick around,” adds Remedios whose strategy has probably helped his client do what other Indian actresses like Sherlyn Chopra (co-incidentally his former client) failed to comprehend. Keeping a low profile, lying low was a rehearsed strategy. Claudia Ciesla is otherwise a very aggressive woman with fire in her belly, says Remedios.
By Frank Franklyn – Futuristic Media Network
Hollywood actress (and Bollywood too) Claudia Ciesla was awarded the prestigious Karmaveer Puraskaar Award by iCongo - for her involvement in social work on 26th November. iCongo is the confederation of NGOs and the apex body representing major NGOs in India and the Khemka Foundation with partners like TISS, BCCI, NASSCOM, etc.
Last year Kajol was the recipient of the same award and Claudia Ciesla joins the elite group of Bollywood personalities including Rahul Bose, to be recognised for their contribution to society and their efforts to “make a change”. The award was accepted on her behalf by her spokesperson and manager in India, Flynn Remedios as Claudia Ciesla is locked up in the Bigg Boss house – a very popular reality show on the GEC Colours.
Speaking to media immediately after the award ceremony at Delhi on Thursday, Claudia Ciesla’s manager Flynn Remedios thanked iCongo representatives Meenu Chopra and Jeroninio Almedia and Rajeev Sharma of Khushii for ensuring that Claudia Ciesla’s humanitarian work in India didn’t go unnoticed. “As a Bollywood actress, Claudia Ciesla is often in the news for her alleged linkups and hot photos. While linkups, red hot photos and other gossip are all part and parcel of Bollywood, Claudia Ciesla is a woman with a golden heart. She has been ceaselessly working for the poor and downtrodden in India for the last six months and has involved herself in fund raising, charity shows, resource mobilisation spending hours interacting with the under privileged, street children, orphans and destitute women. While it would incorrect to even try to compare Claudia Ciesla to Mother Teresa, in all humility I will venture to say that Claudia Ciesla is probably another Mother Teresa in the making,” said Flynn Remedios.
The Karmaveer Puraskaar, is iCONGO’s National People’s Award for Social Justice and Action that honours concerned citizens who have been and led the change they wanted. In the past, Ad guru and social activist Alyque Padamsee , Dr Leo Rebello, Rahul Bose, Remo Fernandes, M S Swaminathan (Father of the Green Revolution in India) have been recipients of the Karmaveer Puraskaar.
Speaking about the award, Rajeev Sharma – Director Resource Mobilisation, Khushii said, “Claudia Ciesla has willingly supported the cause served by Khushii, especially its remedial education programme for the underprivileged children called “Shikshaantra” in many complementing ways, be it participating in a recent fashion charity event (fundraiser) with a complete waiver of fees to meeting and interacting with the less privileged children that study in the Shikshaantra schools at Sangam Vihar, New Delhi. Her compassion and humanitarianism shone through especially when she met and talked with the beneficiaries, forging a bond of mutual respect and affection.
Claudia has also offered to serve as an ambassador of KHUSHII and Europe and beyond, advocating the cause to a wider audience. Her commitment and passion for education and cause of the underprivileged goes beyond the lines caste, country and creed. I hope that as she becomes more successful in life her contribution to the social cause will enhance in the same proportion. And hence I believe that her winning this award will encourage others as well to come forward and contribute towards the betterment of the society.”
