Nehru: The Invention of India A review

Jawaharlal Nehru, in his 17 year long innings as Prime Minister, had influenced India more than anybody else has ever done in her long History. For most of the world, India was Nehru and Vice versa. His actions, his morals, his principles still hang around today. He is said to be responsible for everything that is good, as well as bad in India today. Quite a feat! But one must realise that he was at the helm of a nascent India, and he could have chosen any path he wanted, and India would have followed. That is why M.J. Akbar named his Nehru's biography as 'Nehru, The making of India'. In 2003, one of my favourite author, Shashi Tharoor wrote his version, 'Nehru: The Invention of India' which I just finished reading.
Tharoor confesses in the preface that it 'is not a scholarly work; it is based on no new research into previously undiscovered archives;...It is, instead a reinterpretation-both of an extraordinary life and career and of the inheritance it left behind for every Indian.' Fair Enough. He has an incredible way of putting things across, and It would be interesting to note his take on Nehru. Alas I was far too disappointed.
The book, even though it is an reinterpretation, contains no new insights. We already know Nehru's life was one of comforts, and his schooling in England, first in Harrow and then at Inner temple was not one that was 'average' and 'undistinguished'. Tharoor tries to bring out the father-son relationship, but one feels that he he could have done better. Tharoor is known as a novelist, and one would expect, that he would bring his considerable talents, and write a passionate and evocative narrative, which is wholly missing.
We plod through Nehru's early Public life, till independence, and the book read like a newspaper article. Instead of an emotive narrative, we have a elegantly written piece, that does not show us the real Nehru, only his achievements and movements. Ironically enough, Tharoor's 'Great Indian Novel' gives a better insight in to Nehru, his mind and his emotions then this one does. Another fact that bugged me a lot, was that th is a singular focus on Nehru, with Gandhi & Motilal Nehru, sharing some of the limelight. It seems like there is no one else. This somehow leaves a gaping hole, in our understanding of Nehru. The narrative reminds me of Bollywood Movies, where the hero is all-important, and the secondary characters serving only to be at the receiving end of the hero's actions and words.
The post-independence part of the book is somewhat better. The first Chapter in this section deals with his foreign policy initiatives in the Post war world. This is where Tharoor brings his diplomatic expertise at the table, and wonderfully wields his pen, to provide an insightful analysis of Nehruvian diplomacy. The next chapter deals with Nehru's declining years, and ST manages to paint an heart retching scene of Nehru beyond his prime. It is the last chapter which deals with what ST loves to write about quite passionately. He writes about Secularism, democracy and other legacies of Nehru.

My biggest criticism of this book, would be with its title: 'Nehru: The Invention of India'. It is a rather Pompous title, and Nehru wouldn't have ever thought that he was inventing India. India for him, was always there, with its 5000 year old history and culture. Nor was it just an idea for him. It was there, just waiting to be discovered. No wonder then, that he wrote a book, which briefly described the History of India, called 'The Discovery Of India'. But let us give ST poetic license to name his book what he want.
Where he fails is to do justice to the title. The book hardly touches how India was 'invented'. Yes he does mention the ethics and morals of Nehru, but that does not make India. ST might think that India is just about secularism, democracy, foreign policy and socialism...it is not.
This book would be welcomed by people who know nothing about Nehru, but given a choice, I would recommend M.J.Akbar's biography over this any day.

Dus Kahaniyaan---A review

There was quite some Publicity buzz around this movie, and it seemed quite interesting, so I had to take a look. This is an anthology of 10 short stories, in the visual format; 6 directors: Hansal Mehta, Rohit Roy, Meghna Gulzar, Apoorva Lakhia, Jasmeet Dhodi and Sanjay Gupta, paint an engrossing film of just above 100 minutes. So how is it? Well..let me first tell you about the 10 different stories.

The film starts out with quite an engrossing tale, called Matrimony, featuring Mandira bedi and Arbaaz Khan. Mandira Bedi is more famous for her spaghetti straps then her 'Shanti' and Arbaaz Khan is hardly known for his Acting Skills. Given this background, we hardly expect them to perform so well. The story has an 'O Henry-isque' ending, but the story works, even though it is quite predictable.

Then we have High on the Highway which is the worst of the lot. Not only do we have wooden performances from Jimmy Shergill and Masumeh Makhija,
but the director doesn't help either. There is no buildup, for which the frequent flashbacks are partly responsible. The main blame however lies on the story, which has no essence, or even the ending, where he dies a romeo-like-death, unable to handle a loss.

This is followed by a very wonderful film, Pooranmashi. It's a film staring Amrita Singh and Minsha Lambha. Within a few frames you start believing in both the characters, and mourn the eventual sad ending. However the scene where the daughter faces the villagers could have been better handled, given that there is hardly any interaction between the Mother-daughter, when the whole story revolves around them. There was so much potential for Minsha to act here, but she is not upto the task. Amrita Singh, however comes out with flying colours.

Strangers In The Night, is a film high on Substance as well as Style. It features Mahesh Manjrekar and Neha Dhupia, as a couple, unmasking their deepest secrets to each other. Here you have neha's character telling us about her most Intense moment, and We are first shown the incident from one angle, and then the same incident in it's entirety. These contrasting angles are so antagonistic, that instead of it being a twist in the tale that we would blame ourselves for, we tend to blame the director. This one, out of the 10, had the maximum potential, but until the second angle is better handled, it leaves us unsatisfied.

Zahir, is a film featuring Dia Mirza and Manoj Bajpai. It starts of quite well, with the canvas being painted in just a few scenes. They are beautifully handled, but then the story starts losing it's grip. It starts feeling jerky, and instead of the story moving continuously, we find that there are lots of gaps. The ending is as predictable as hell, and we are left mourning over what could have been.

Lovedale which stars Neha Uberoi and Aftab Shivdasani, is the first film after the intermission. It's a sweet love story, but I felt the writer was trying too hard to be 'arty'. It ends up looking like something a teenager would write and claim that it was going to be the next big thing.

Now comes Sex on the Beach, which is story featuring Dino Morea and some hot chick. This film provides the horror quotient to the anthology, and works beautifully due to the background music and cinematography. There are seriously scary moments during the film, and in a way provides an interesting contrast to the last one. It treats lust and paranormal phenomenon in a way that is antithetical to the last story, which I found to be quite thought provoking.

Now comes the most awaited section, Rice Plate, featuring Shabana Aazmi and Nassurudin Shah. We know that both of them have a lot of talent, but Shabana's portrayal sometimes feels like a Caricature. Nassurudin is perfect as expected with his understated performance, but when you get them together, magic happens. The débutante director is however unable to use them properly and he chose to focus on unimportant parts of the story, while glossing over the crux of the story, which was the realisation that dawns on Shabana's character.

The ninth film is called Gubbare, which has a stellar performance from Nana Patekar. Nana can set the screen on fire, on his day, and this was his day. The story moves towards its inevitable conclusion, but Nana's voice holds you hand along the way, and for once, the predictability is the strong point of the film. It leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, and not in a bad way.

The film ends with Rise and fall, which is the most stylish of the lot. It is low on substance, but you don't mind it. There are two parallel stories, and by mid point you realise that a flashback sequence is going on. The action is wonderfully shot in the rain. It might not be matrix level, but you feel each blow and cut. Sadly there is no novelty factor, because we have seen the same kind of stuff from him earlier.

Now that you know what the short films are all about, comes the important question. Does the Anthology work? The answer is not in black or white, but in the greys. Anthologies work when either you have a common theme, or if the sections provide a different insight to construct the whole. It is on this count that the film falters.

There is no unifying theme or idea. The only thing that could be construed to be the theme, would be the travails of lust... Sensual lust, carnal lust or even lust of power.

There have been attempts along this path in Bollywood by RGV, with his Darna mana hai series, but those failed because the individual stories sucked. Here the short films are of a higher caliber, and the film as a whole provide good entertainment for almost 2 hrs.

You know that you are boring

You should know that you are boring when I feel that talking to A.L.I.C.E. will be more fun.
[I actually was thinking about that when someone was boring me over Gtalk]