you have no right to shoot anyone

I have had quite a liberal opinion on having cameras installed everywhere. I mean if you are doing nothing wrong what’s the harm in having a camera around. My best learning on this was when I was briefly working at Star TV. They had two offices one at Mahalaxmi and the other at Andheri east. The Mahalaxmi one was a virtual fortress with cameras installed, while the Andheri one was a bit more relaxed and no cameras. I routinely heard of mobiles and other stuff (props/ merchandise etc) being flicked from the tables at Andheri office and absolutely nothing being lost or stolen in the other office.
I was convinced. Same organisation, same set of people moving between offices. The deterrents were the CC TV cameras. And when the cameras got installed in my current office I was the guy wondering what the hue and cry is about. It’s a good thing. I have nothing to hide and more so, who on earth has the time to look at it. No one is actually sitting and recoding whether I am actually working or not. It’s not like that data is going to decide my salary and bonus.
Yesterday I saw the movie LSD, love sex and dhoka. Dipankar the director seems to be the guy who has a complete grip on the Delhi stereo type. He perfectly hit them in his movies, well at least he has hit the Mumbai interpretation of the sleazy Delhi stereotype. I always hated Delhi and I always hated its people. Delhi is a place you need to go to in order to reach Uttaranchal. It is a necessary evil. But that is beside the point. The movie got me so uncomfortable that I wanted to walk out from it. he managed to make me believe in the characters and I hated to see anything bad happen to them. The first two stories for sure. The tension of the two lovers who eloped without their parents wishes really got to me. Jasmine and I were going around for around 4 years without her parents knowing. I wasn’t so stressed about my parents knowing. They eventually knew and I assumed no opposition. But Jasmine’s parents were another thing. Her dad was conservative enough not to let her wear pants and her eldest brother was a pain enough (now completely sweet) to cause stress. We lived in the mortal fear of being found out all the time. Some a-hole cousins of hers did not actually help as well. Roaming around was a distress. How to express love and be discreet at the same time. Aren’t youngsters in love oblivious to all around? And at the same time be on guard against possible snoops?
Watching the movie made me squirm and feel really depressed. It triggered all the fears I lived as a teenager in love. This is the first film I actually felt that fear. All other movies one does not really care too much.
The second and most poignant story was about a guy using the store cameras to keep a watch on women and about how it can be used to capture private moments without permission. That one has really set me thinking about CC TVs. CC TV is probably good as a deterrent but who on earth owns these images. If you are shooting without my permission then are you allowed to use them elsewhere or anywhere or against me or anything, without my permission? What the laws safeguarding these. More pertinent, what eth rules that control access and use of this. As a company, you have put the dam thing in place and are recording everything. What is the policy on who gets access to these recordings? How do you monitor them, how do you store them and how do you destroy them? Forget the corporate. What about the stores. They would be even more lax about their policies and checks and balances. What about the city and the public places. I can’t trust the government to ensure privacy of my licence details, how do I trust them with digital images. Police stations are places I don’t want to go, leave aside my family. I would much rather avoid the place. Will I trust them with what I perceive my digital rights? All this in the face of the plan to wire eth city with cameras, a la London.
With cameras getting smaller and powerful, it is given that people will use them misuse them. But it is vary painful to see it uncontrolled. Seeing my camera some colleagues caught onto photography and I got them digital cameras with 12X zoom which is pretty powerful. He had gone abroad and while he was showing his photos, one photo made me cringe. He had taken a photo of a lady in T shirt that showed her cleavage. I was so repulsed. How dare you click someone without their permission and that too with your ugly intentions? He is good educated guy and a genuinely nice guy otherwise. He saw no wrong in taking the photo and no wrong in showing it to us. I cringed and blamed my self for teaching him photography.
If this is the state of normal nice people, how do trust the broad junta? This will increasingly be a part of our lives and will come up discussion sooner or later. The problem will happen when the right wings will put the fear of terror in our heads to install it and the left will simply seek to ban it. Neither will make sense. But I guess the answer will come when we realise that digital power is a great power and as spidey realised – with great power comes great responsibility. We must enact strong laws and procedures that stops misuse and puts checks and balances in place.
We must realise that merely putting in cameras might stop pilferage but will also put your customers at risk. Customers must vote with their feet if they find retailers with cameras and no strong policies in place regarding their use.
I could go on and on. I feel so strongly. Rarely has a film come that made me shape my opinion so strongly. The second story had believable characters. The male actor is a believable guy with grey all over. A perfect example of a guy who is not sure of his moral standing and is pushed over by external forces. Its very real. I have seen guys like that as well his friend who pushes him over. Guys who are so perverted that they mentally undress a women the moment they see her. These are real ------ (I can’t think of a strong enough word), who have only one conversation and one agenda on their mind. Many times all it requires is just a tip. Most are so delicately balanced. All of us have these fine lines which we balance all the time. It does not really matter most of the time as the person affected is mostly ourselves but what happens in cases where someone else is at stake and the lure so powerful. I really felt for the female lead. Rashmi. My heart reached out to her. She is the symbol of all the porn clip victims that people have circulated in fulfilling their voyeuristic pleasures. Suddenly I feel sad at the clips that my friends showed me. I am not against porn, but Rashmi made me see the distinction between porn and peep. I can’t get that girl off my mind since yesterday. I don’t think I will forget her too soon.
The third story is an interesting (but not so touching) take on stng operations. I was watching TV at my mom in laws place and some TV channel was doing a n expose on some sadhu. I am not a fan of either TV news or the sadhus. My BIL was watching and commenting on the sad state of affairs with the sadhu in question. I merely asked, how can you be so sure that the channel is telling the truth and it has not planted this all. How on earth can they get the right to go inside the case which is under investigation of the police? Why should you believe them? How is all this allowed and fair game? He had no answer. Sting operations along with broadcasting ability – absolute power. Where is the responsibility?
When I came out of the movie, I told Jasmine – what a depressing movie. That was a compliment.

PS: this movie is produced by the house that is known for introducing the saas bahu tele-serials which are so painfully regressive. Comes as a refreshing twist. Ekta Kappor almost redeemed herself. Almost.

what a racquet

Jispa has been improving in her badminton class and her coach has asked us to get her a new light racquet. We went to town and got one for her. A yonex full graphite racquet. I thought that was overkill for her. But it cost around 900 (MRP 1500). I wanted to buy something cheaper but jasmine was keen on buying something nice. My theory is that her game hasn’t really reached a level where it would have made a difference and a slightly cheaper one might be the right thing for her. Whatever. But since there was hardly a price differential, we bought it nevertheless. Life has changed and how. When we came in from Dubai to Mumbai in 4th standard, we had a cultural shock of depravation. India had third grade equipment and epically in sports it was pathetic. My dad played sports in Dubai and we got along to India, some of his equipment such as tennis, TT and badminton racquets. In India mom went hyper and stored these racquets in the cupboard, safe from our eyes and hands. That Yonex racquet was only meant to see and feel, not play and spoil. I guess its still lying in her cupboard hiding somewhere. It must feeling bad that it has grown old without seeing too much sunlight. Even the tennis racquets have become obsolete now. One was a Wilson wooden frame racquet. She might probably get some cash from Sothbeys for it. I don’t think she ever realised that India would grow to be a land of relative plenty. The way these racquets are kept in a shop a metro, they almost look like vegetables. We used to remove the Yonnex racquet from the cupboard when mom was not at home, swing it around, smell it etc etc and put it back. I never dared to play with it. Jispa was excited on getting a new racquet. That too with a cover, full body cover. She was pretty happy. A new piece of equipment is always cherished and if used well and happens to grow old with you, it will be cherished even more. What an emotion. I grew up with very little of these. I felt happy and excited when I bought myself a pair of new gloves around five years ago. I loved buying my batting pads as well. Now they are old but I am at loathe to get rid of it. I have been rapped on it many times and they are in many ways my saviours. How can I discard them in such a hurry and simply but new ones? Sacrilege!

On another note, we saw this movie on Friday -“Road, movie”. This was before the reviews came in the papers. Any movie with Abhay Deol, would be an interesting watch. At least it would be different. Well this one was different. It had very nice characters and some amazing shots of the Rann of Kutch…. Er. That’s it. We did not understand anything more about it. It was an 11 pm show and Jasmine toh even slept through parts of it. We had a bunch of Gujju guys behind. They were probably on their bachelors’ night out and their commentary was constant and irritating. If they got a joke they would repeat it and translate it for their peers. Oh man, really tiresome. These movies must have a warning for these gujjus. So what’s the verdict on the movie? I don’t know. It was nice but weird. The next day I attempted to understand it through the critics, but sadly they were even more pathetic. I guess when you make such movies that supposed to be arty not but too complicated for any one to really understand, they tend to get such reviews. I guess no one wants to call the emperor naked for fearing of exposing their own stupidity. Like the TOI who gave it a good rating but said it does not have any story. I thought a story is central to a movie. Good locales and scenery is meant for a gallery release not a mainline theatre. But hell. Go see it. It is difficult to dislike but it is also difficult to fathom or comprehend. A real mixed bag.

headache

On Sunday I read some article by a critic on how lonely it is to be a critic. He thought 3 idiots was a flawed film. And he was castigated by all and sundry, especially since it was such a huge hit. Well interesting. Criticizing a hit film is always difficult. I have always been faced with the same issue and have been at odds with most others on this.
In any case my taste in movies is slightly off, than most others. I hated the movie ‘black’ which everyone raved about. Some guy even released an ad in the papers praising the movie. I thought it sucked and it gave me a headache. Yup movies and I have this headache thing quite often.
The recent one was ‘ajab prem ki gazab kahani’. I thought it was a complete ham. Result – big hit. I think Akshay is a complete ham. Another big hit. Except Hera Pheri I think most of Priyadarshan’s movies are a ham – a lot of them hits. I thought Guru was nice but the ending made me sleep. I also thought it was the greatest white wash in Hindi cinema history. People came out with a complete different view. I like rocket singh and dilli 6. Both bombed. So that’s a short history of my film appreciation skills.
So most of the time I come out and keep my mouth shut. How did you like the movie? ‘well, I don’t know, nice I guess’ or something like “in my opinion, it was nice though it might not be appealing to all” or “ tp” or some other such diplomatic stuff such as “nice acting”, ‘good locales”, ‘nice body” or even “deadly effects”. I don’t like lying so I try the ‘weaseling’.
For the record 3 idiots was a nice fun movie but it was a horribly flawed movie with too much preaching. I am nowhere near the gushing reviews. I am with the critic here.
And yes I almost forgot the movie ‘kaminey’. Liked by critics and audience alike. I was – I dunno, nice movie, interesting, but it gave me a headache.