Movie: Conversations and Company

Actors: Ajay Devgan
Director: , Producer:



I started out, trying to review the movie "Company". The hero is a guy called Malik, no hang on, he dies in the end, so the real hero is Chandu, but wait a minute, he finishes life in a cell, so maybe the actual hero is the Big Cop Srinivasan played by Mohan Lal, but what about that, he retired to some funny farm. Maybe the hero was Malik`s moll, but then even I couldn`t recognise Monisha Koirala with her snazzy new short hair and somehow smaller, uhhhhm, attributes. So the hero was Antara Mali, but she also died.



Actually, the real hero was Ram Gopal Verma, the director, we both fantasize about Sridevi, so once upon a time I had a wee bit of a teeny weeny role in his first Telugu movie, and that is another story. I was a North Indian villian who emerges from a car and dies, all within the same shot. Believe it or not, I die saying "Yes Boss". A white Ambassador, too. And one hockey player looking dude called "Kaura Singh" is there in "Company" who is, I think, the real dude.



You want to know more? What do you think, you were going to save 10 dollars or 100 rupees? Go see the movie. Here`s why:-



The movie is great, doesn`t flag except when there are some stupid songs in the middle. Urmila Matondkar swings. Especially recomended to Pakistanis on this site who have been brought up on a staple of Bollywood which we would not let our own children go to. Theory: Bollywood films are made to corrupt Pakistanis.



Or Lagaan. Lagaan is Gujarat. More abour Gujarat follows.



Company, the movie, smells of truth and for once there is a movie about violence which has the facts down pat, and those are:-



a) multi-religious enterprise. Malik is such a lovely name, no?

b) any linkage with Pakistan is purely businesslike, no mention ISI.

c) the language used is evenly spread Bombay Hindi, reflecting your background and origins.

d) Nairobi may be a better place to go on a vacation than Bangkok.

e) It does not mention Jinnah. (This one is to help increase the response count). It solves the Indo-Pak and Kashmir issue, though, and if you value your tunda kababs, see it before the Japanese buy up Srinagar.



Meanwhile, speaking about India, and on India, here is a report from the keyboards of some of our best . . . no names, of course.



V- Small points 1) I consider myself from the Lower Mid Class,whatever my tastes and current moorings may suggest. 2) I carefully used the word "state" in respect to moral authority, to distinguish my faith in India from the harsh realities of daily life for the poor. Governments, bureaucrats, policemen: They all can be bad, inefficient or corrupt or heartless, but the State is an abstract entity which somehow pitches in during grave times and approximately is taken to mean those in the higher reaches of PMO or civil service. In that sense, I found the PM`s remarks and police behaviour in Gujarat after the violence to be among the most disturbing. To me, the moral authority of India stems from the good intentions of the founding fathers of the constitution, and the Few Good Men and Women who have somehow carried the flag forward. As a student of political science and nation building I knew that walking the talk is a tough path but somehow, always had evidence that the top --not counting the Emergency-- was reasonably okay. Your point on the Emergency is well taken. We are then back to a basic question: Who really runs India?



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X wrote: I am going to want to bring S into this . . . and use M`s closing lines as a reference point to start with:- ""For the first time in my memory, I could associate in Gujarat the loss of a civil administration and the erosion of the Indian state`s moral authority.""



Sorry. Us English speaking, upper middle class, mainly urban dwellers from larger cities or protected environments (like the

fauj of yore) can afford to speak like M. For the rest of the people, be it the current day fauj engaged in fire-fighting measures nationwide, or the ultra rich upper class, or the lower middle class and below, the State lost all moral authority quite some time ago. I can`t place a date on it, but I think it could have been around the time just after the Emergency.



Consider the ultra rich. For them, the State has no authority anyway. I have been, amongst other things, the Private PS to a

Cabinet Minister as well as a Leader to the Opposition, and now mix with that class on a daily basis now, and have learnt some of their ways.



Consider the urban lower middle class. They now connive with the elements of the state, and engage in a daily battle to claw

further up. "Naseeb" based sad future is not for them.



Consider the rural and semi urban lower class. For them, the State has always meant "yoke", ingrained into their genes.

They have no living memory, except fables, of governance anyway.

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Health services? POTO, when any cop can drag anybody in anyway? If there was a form of government that produced autocrats who sponsored terrorism, stole millions of dollars while impoverishing their citizens, shredded public education and health, permitted child bondage, tortured dissidents and tolerated pogroms against minorities then we would all condemn it. Except that in South Asia such a system is called democracy.

Using chowk as a source of information, open to all, for the past 3 years, I have come to learn so much that when I hear about our "freedom", I wonder.

Into this scenario, if somehow India reaches military rule, the people who have been subjugated the most by democracy, will be the first to support it. The rich will make even more money. The poor will stay where they are. And the upper middle class will get their come-uppance.

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After all, who are the army dying for, then?



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Subject: Re: What Mushy Did Next





R - It speaks of the times when somebody of the credibility of Gen Sethna speaks like this. All I can say to a well-meaning military man is this: Our constitution was built to last like a good engine. Hopefully, a combination of institutions like the Judiciary, Media, NHRC and the political opposition, with some nice backup from less celebrated institutions like Bollywood, would hopefully provide checks and balances and make this nightmare a passing one.

It should be quite clear after the past week, when somebody like Musharraf dared to cast a stone on Gujarat, that we badly need to put our house in order..the fundamental principle of Indian nationalism is the State`s moral authority and a civil administration, which has helped India survive the whims and fancies of crushing poverty, political corruption, the pressures of the Cold War and autocratic rulers. For the first time in my memory, I could associate in Gujarat the loss of a civil administration and the erosion of the Indian state`s moral authority. May the Good Lord show the way!--M

R wrote: This morning, I had an opportunity to interact with Lt Gen Sethna (Retd), who is now a member of the National Commission on Minorities. He has been actively involved in investigating and resolving the Gujrat imbroglio. He spoke of how the state govt blanketed the private channels and the local/regional newspapers and stopped the horror from becoming public. He spoke of how certain elements had instigated communities (both of them) on sexist lines and challenged their manhood. He compared the events to Bosnia. He spoke of how the govt connived/gave tacit support to all the killings and how

local builders / commercial interests moved this process of elimination forward.



With such governance in the country, we should spend less time in discussing Pakistan.The enemy is within us already.There must be a movement within. Sethna related events of how a local group approached them after many bureaucratic hurdles and wanted to register themselves as a minority. When asked the rationale, the group stated that they wanted to register as

national secularists as they were becoming a minority now.

Should the military have powers to take over local governance in cases where there is a situation of NO GOVERNANCE?

Regards, R



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The answer, really, lies in the closing lines of the movie. And that is the only part where Malik smiles.



Veeresh