Saturday 18 September 2010

Beyond the pale


I watched a movie last night. Couldn’t wait to post a blog about it. The movie name is `Rann’ starring Amitabh Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Paresh Rawal, Sudeep (kannada actor- thats the main reason I watched this movie) Hadn’t heard about this movie at all. Its theme is based on media especially the news channels.

Its about a news channel, India 24/7 headed by Vijay Harshwardhan Mallik (Amitabh Bachchan) , a renowned reporter and writer. He is a kind of person with insight and adhere to principles and values. His son, Jay Mallik (Sudeep), I think is different, is quite a character. In my opinion, he must be in a dilemma, to choose between being practical and value the principles. I ll tell you some more about him at the end. The TRP rate of India 24/7 will be falling, mainly because of a tough competitor,Headlines24, headed by  Amrish Kakkar. Amrish was an ex-employee of India 24/7, left that and had started a new channel.

Main story begins with an incident, Bomb blast, making headlines, starting a war of words between the ruling(Hooda- good one) and the opposition party leaders(Pandey- bad one) and later turns out into bloodshed. Pandey and Naveen, Jay’s bro-in-law, a businessman, manipulate the incident so as to blame Hooda for the bomb blast. They lure Jay to plan a plot against Hooda, in return promises good TRP and lots of money. A video was recorded by threatening 2 people to say that they are witnesses and the blast was done by Hooda and the two will be killed later. Jay convinces his father using the CD that Hooda is bad and this will be telecasted. Everything starts to fall in place and all is well until the truth is found out by the hero, Purab Shastry ( Ritesh Deshmukh). He is a new recruit in India 24/7, an ardent believer of Vijay mallik, respects him a lot. In every crime, no matter how clever the criminal is, he ll leave some clues. Purab catches on those clues and finally unveils the truth. But he is confused, doesn’t know whom he should be telling all these. If he ever says to Vijay he might cover up as it involves his son. So, he decides to meet Amrish of Headlines 24 and gives the cd's which are the witnesses to the truth, to him. But Amrish instead of telecasting them, he blackmails Pandey and ask for 500 crores. Purab finds out about this. His trust in media is shattered to pieces. Finally, he decides to give the cd's to Vijay and let him do whatever he wants with it. Ultimately, Vijay who thinks values are greater than family, telecasts the cd's on his channel. Story ends with Jay commiting suicide and Pandey, Naveen and Amrish are brought into the court for trial.

In the movie, Jay appears to have a very weak personality. He is not able to judge what is right and what’s wrong, lacks the ability for sound judgement, is easily influenced by other people. At the end, though he kinda realizes his mistake, he cannot face the truth, hence commits suicide. He could have been changed easily, but the harder part is to change the others who don’t even have little bit of regret. People have so much of faith in the media, they convey truth to the people, they are here to support the good and oppose the bad. I don’t know if something like this could really happen, because I always thought people working in media have conscience, integrity and they value the principles and morals. If it does happen, its a shame, people will stop trusting the media and politicians. These things happen only when a person is ready to do anything to succeed in life, and the success is often measured in terms of power, money and material things. The real success is within the heart of the person. The solution is not as simple as it might appear. People have to change for the good, they have to realize that rightfulness, honesty, integrity, morals and ethics are more than anything in life. They all should imbibe these qualities and put a decent effort to become good human beings.

Almost the same views are reflected in Peepli, live. Its based on farmer’s suicide. The director has criticized the business-minded media people and the mindless, corrupt politicians. It shows that media, just makes and telecast the news, but little it does to help the situation. All are busy big time chasing fame, publicity and money. I do hope that the media is not like this in reality, although I cannot say so in case of politics...

-S




"Whilst all the world is in pursuit of power, culture corrects the theory of success."
"I fear the popular notion of success stands in direct opposition in all points to the real and wholesome success. One adores public opinion, the other, private opinion; one, fame, the other, desert; one, feats, the other, humility; one, lucre, the other, love; one, monopoly, and the other, hospitality of mind."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


 

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