Sicko

If you are from a country where nearly 400 million people still live below poverty, you should probably not be complaining about the health care system in the United States. But if you have lived in the US for sometime, it would hardly go unnoticed that the health care system is such a farce. 50 odd million people (i.e. nearly 15% of the population) are uninsured (health care without insurance in the US is worse than the worst nightmare!). It doesn't stop there. Even if you are a middle class citizen covered by a "good" health insurance, you would still dread at the thought of visiting a doctor.

Michael Moore is direct, ruthless and when given a chance, strips down his opponents with utter disregard. I was thrilled when "Sicko" was released this friday, especially because the 2008 campaign has just picked up pace. and boy, has he done a good job! It will be interesting to see if the documentary has any influence on the voters or the intent of policy makers at the Capitol.

I can't stop thinking about the pros/cons of organized lobbying and how it would fit in a more complex democratic framework like that of India. Are we much better off now? I don't know.

15 Park Avenue

Last friday was not a very pleasant one. An untimely demise of someone I knew was lingering in my head from the previous day. I picked up this movie that evening and a little over half an hour into the movie, I was ready to quit. I was definitely in no mood to watch a depressing movie. Somehow I continued to watch, and I am glad I did. There are no spoilers ahead, so read along if you havent watched it.

15 Park Avenue is Aparna Sen's second movie I was watching after Mr.and Mrs.Iyer. In Mr.and Mrs.Iyer, a well directed low budget movie, Konkana had portrayed the role of a tamil iyer to perfection. 15 Park Avenue is also directed by Aparna and has both Konkana and Rahul Bose in the lead as well.

Konkana plays Mithi,a schizophrenic, and Shabana Azmi, at her usual best, plays the role of her elder sister. The director has excelled in bringing out the delicate relations between various characters in the movie. The ending of the movie though might seem surprising, brings out the central theme to perfection.

Incidentally, this is the third movie about schizophrenics, I can't stop adoring. The first one was Puttanna Kanagal's masterpiece in Kannada, Sharapanjara and the second was Russell Crowe playing John Nash in A Beautiful Mind.

If you haven't watched this one and you do have a decent connection to internet, watch it here! Courtesy Youtube.

One of my all-time favorite Hollywood actors, Robin Williams is in a rehab for alchohol abuse after being sober for about 20 years.

O Captain, My Captain! I wish you a speedy recovery.

An Inconvenient Truth

It had been some time since I watched a good movie in a theater, and last weekend I happened to watch a very good one: "An Inconvenient Truth", a documentary film by Al Gore about Global Warming and the science and politics surrounding it. The movie is based on Al Gore's works and his mission. I was curious about the movie for two reasons, one the topic and another Al Gore himself, whether he was trying for a comeback after his narrow defeat in the controversial 2000 US Presidential Elections to George Bush and if this movie would hint anything about it.

It took only a little while into the movie to realise that this was not a politically motivated movie but based on his works and interests which have been there for a long time now. Al Gore was introduced to the topic of Global Warming when he took a course at Harvard University under Professor Roger Revelle, who was the first scientist to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Since then he has been consistently rallying on this issue as a senator in the Congress. He authored a book in 1992, "Earth in the Balance" which reached the New York Time's Bestseller list.

To become the President of a nation is the highest ambition of any one's political career. Hardly is there anyone in the history of a democracy to have come so close to achieving it but falling short by a whisker as Al Gore did. After his failed attempt at the presidency in 2000, Al Gore changed his direction in life to combat Global Warming.

Kudos to Davis Guggenheim - the director of the movie, it conveys a very powerful message effectively. Based on Al Gore's book which goes by the same name, it wonderfully weaves in his personal experiencies in American Politics and brings out the seriousness of the problem to a lay man. Al Gore has given slideshows on this topic since 1989 about a thousand times in different cities in the US and some places around the world and the recently released movie and his book attempts to reach this out to a wider audience.

Climate change is a much bigger problem that humanity is facing today than poverty, hunger or terrorism as it brings into question the basic existence of civilization. The ten hottest years ever measured have occured in the last fourteen years. This has a direct correlation to the human produced carbon. The human population has quadrupled in the last century. China is opening a coal fired power-station every 5 days. The rate of melting of ice in the polar caps and greenland has increased ten fold and if it continues for another ten years, the sea levels are going to increase about 20 feet which could be devastating. The wind and ocean currents are undergoing dramatic changes and hurricanes like Katrina are only a warning of more serious catastrophes. The movie brings out several such startling facts into light and points out that we may be entering a point of no-return in as short a period as ten years.

Are the facts that the movie brings out absurdly alarming? Is this an exaggeration? Should Al Gore be believed or is this a political motive? Consider the following.

The scientific community is at a consensus that we are responsible for global warming, there have been 928 peer reviewed papers in scientific journals between 1993 and 2003 and the number of papers which disagree with this is 0. But if you take a similar sampling of stories in the popular media, 53% of the stories try to press that Global Warming is unproven!! Why is this skewed? This is because of a lack of political will and the lobbying of oil and coal companies. Exxon Mobil, the largest company in the US and the world's largest oil company has funded about 40 organisations to brand climate change and it's activists as skeptical.

Why is Al Gore's work and mission in the US crucial ? We all see US as an angel, pollution cannot be percieved here simply because of the vastness of the land and it's limited population. we consider the demons of pollution being the developing world, most notably being China or India, because of their increasing energy needs and their populations. But take a look at some figures. Be it, country wise oil consumption or percentage of emission of CO2 into the atmosphere. The share of US is disproportionately higher to any other country. The contrast is especially stark when you consider the relative populations as well. The fuel and emission standards used in China are better than the standards used in USA!! The Kyoto Protocol brought into effect in February 2005, is an agreement made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. 163 of the countries around the world have signed this agreement and there are only two countries in the world not to have ratified it: USA and Australia!! and the reason Bush Administration isn't doing it is because of the strain it puts on the economy!! and Whose advise did this administration take to arrive at this decision? - Exxon Mobil. A senior scientist Dr. Robert Watson, who was in favor of Kyoto was removed from the US negotiation team on the advice of Exxon and in came Harlan Watson recommended by Exxon to represent US in the Montreal convention last december.

Al Gore stresses this is not a political issue, but an ethical and more so a spiritual one. Whether he will be able to change the minds of the american people about climate crisis so that the country moves past a tipping point and people demand a solution to this problem when the politicians face the electorate is to be seen. It is a must watch movie, and the movie finely ends with ways each individual can contribute in solving this problem.

The most powerful line of the movie comes towards the end when he points out that there is always an urge to move away from denial to despair without pausing on the intermediate step of actually doing something about the problem. Are we moving away from the truth because we know that the moment we acknowledge it, there is a moral imperative to act upon it? Is it simply more convenient to ignore it. After all, it is an inconvenient truth, or an Ardh Satya.

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequence."

-Winston Churchill.


Suggested Links:
--> Movie Trailer
--> Official website of the movie
--> Al Gore's interview on Charlie Rose show
--> Al Gore's interview on Guardian Unlimited

Iruvar

I must have watched this movie thrice in the last couple of weeks. Direction, Acting, Plot, background score all at it's best. Iruvar is a fine movie. About Politics, about leadership and charisma, about friendship and betrayal, about power and struggle, and about the masses. Prakash Rai and Mohan Lal have out-performed each other in their roles as pseudo Karunanidhi and MGR. I have no clue if I would be so much impressed if I had read a book or heard about them. But Maniratnam proves beyond doubt why he is such a talented director.

The other movie I saw a couple of weeks back was Aakrosh by Govind Nihilani. Om Puri, Ambrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil (a very small role) make a great casting for this movie on a very sensitive subject, Om Puri plays an oppressed tribal; he doesnt speak for the entire duration of the movie (no, he's not dumb !!) yet his expressions in the role are extremely powerful. This is probably Nihilani's second movie after Ardh Satya that I was greatly impressed, It is a must watch if you enjoy the "art" kind of movies.

Saw Swades last week, and was really disappointed after all the media praise, raving reviews and the popularity it got. To be frank, I found it to be a very ordinary movie. There was a total lack of intensity in every department of the movie. The only thing I truely liked in the movie was a great title song by Javed Akhtar.

The last two months have been great with my mother around. Took my parents to Niagara and univ. The falls mesmerises me everytime I am there. I hope to spend a whole day or two alone at the falls sometime. The sight, noise, aura, silence, the heights makes you feel completely in unison with the nature.

Ardh Satya...

Ek palde mein napunsakta, doosre palde mein paurush, aur theek tarazu ke kaante par, ardh satya …

This is a line from one of my favorite movies, Ardh Satya(Half-Truth). Om Puri plays a sub-inspector in Mumbai, who carries several emotional scars from the past and fights alone against the scum of the society.. it is a truely provocative and challenging movie.. If there was an equivalent in hollywood though with a much different storyline, it would be my other favorite, Taxi Driver. This one is a chilling character study of a man struggling to come to terms with the environment he lives in, brilliantly portrayed by Robert De Niro.

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."-- Martin Luther King

Gandhi's My experiments with truth: One facet of the book that has inspired me always is the great man's courage to speak the truth. He is least worried whether his "mahatma" image in a country of billion and many more followers across the world would get tarnished if he spoke the truth. When he speaks about his inability to resist his carnal lust even at the critical hour of his father's death or his temptations in his struggle to follow true brahmacharya there is no "ardh-satya".

As I see and grow in life, what stuns me in my experiences is how people try to distance from truth shying away from reality. Neither am I a mahatma, nor a cop fighting politicians or a person exposed to brothels, but these characters seem to have etched an indelible mark on my mind.

Current Music: Sachchi baat kahi thi maine: Jagjith Singh in Face to Face