Fashion ka Tashion

#WARNING: This post is a rant. Feel free to ignore!

I always thought Madhur Bhandarkar to be a wannabe movie director trying too hard to be different. Then I saw Fashion. I now think he is also a narcissistic individual replete with vanity. This is how he defines himself and his movie Fashion right in the movie itself -

Did you hear that? Yes, he does research to make a realistic movie. I have never seen a more self-indulgent, self-referring and self-absorbed 15 seconds by a director. This 15 seconds destroyed any chance I had to complete this movie in my second attempt and with the leeway that a Bollywood flick gets by default. Agreed, that such self-references and signature-style movie making is common among some directors. Inglourious Basterds comes to mind among the recent ones. But even when Tarantino indulges himself by referring to his previous movies or explicitly naming his movie styles, he does not so much as exploit the medium to satisfy his attention seeking disorder. If you remember the last dialogue of the movie, he almost edged towards conceit but again, not tasteless and rather intelligent and humorous. Other directors too, like Subhash Ghai and Shekhar Kapur in Bandit Queen, who couldn't resist appearing on the screen themselves chose to make only cameo appearances. And as if this wasn't enough, Madhur Bhandarkar hits another self-eulogy:

Poor Mr. Bhandarkar - he's so much concerned with the social issues and the dedication to the movie art that he can't look beyond realistic cinema, with the quotation hand gestures. The trivialities of world shown in the glamorous mainstream cinema is for lesser mortals like Yash Chopra.

Well, right now, this vulgar and in-your-face display of conceit makes me feel he is Mayawati of Bollywood.

A new movie award

This is a season of movie awards. Some have just concluded while others are anxiously awaited. Some reassure that you are not a mutant with deviant movie interests while some others make you cringe. However there is one category of actors who I believe are never recognized for their worthy contribution to movies. Therefore I have decided to create this award myself, and do the nominations and offer it to one I consider best. This is called FAADU award, or Fame Acquired As Dramatics Underdog awards. As the name expresses it so eloquently, this award recognizes those actors that appear on screen only for few moments, aren't listed among dramatic personae but still leave a lasting, and sometimes the only, impression of a movie. Here are them from some of the movies I have seen.

5. Charles Durning for Hudsucker Proxy

Charles, who play Hudsucker in the movie, graces the screen for only few minutes but the impact he leaves is much longer. This sequence always plays in my mind at work during one of our weekly meetings. As the meeting rambles on in a very similar conference room and even though I don't sit where Mr. Hudsucker sits, I imagine how liberating a free-fall like that would be. But, ahem, the price tag for that feeling is a bit too high!

4. Rajiv Gaur for Oye Lucky Lucky Oye!

This movie has enough FAADU actors to inundate these nominations. It could be the pissed off guy at parking lot, the Paan-wallah near the end of movie or the Haryanvi constable searching through Lucky's stolen collectibles but I think the waiter of New Amar restaurant has the most wicked grin I have ever seen. This grin sabotages jr. Lucky's authoritative manner ('Haan ek butter chicken le aa') to a meek kid out on his first date ('Khane pe bhi tax?').

Digging through web, I found this ZEE News journalist Rajiv Gaur who also looks suspiciously similar to him ;-)

3. Unknown for Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda

Notice the person on whom bridegroom falls upon from horse. Also notice how he, after lifting up the groom from ground, also lifts the spirit of band company by his hand gestures.

This FAADU actor has the longest screen life among his competitors as he keeps re-appearing for a while in the movie. He's also hardest to justify as a nominee for he has some definite contribution to overall movie story. However, he's also the inspiration behind this award. Some of his other scenes are also just as interesting, like when he is next seen carrying luggage, or giving an advice to his master while riding taanga. There are no extraordinary dialogues for him except a frequent use of word 'mijan' but his manner and gestures make sure that he stays on in mind even after end credits start rolling.

2. Another Unknown for Haasil

I owe this to a friend for bringing it to my notice. This movie, Haasil, also has a menagerie of FAADU actors but the rickshaw puller's sequence of 5 seconds takes the show hands down. He is also the most adulated and discussed of his competitors among a group of my friends.

1. Couple of Unknowns for Mr. Hulot's Holiday

OK, I am not doing this because movie awards are supposed to be controversial but I seriously found the woman and his son in the first 15 seconds of the movie extremely hilarious.

This is undoubtedly the best slap that I have ever seen in a movie. When I first saw it, I had to hit the rewind button a few times to make sure this was not an actual slap accidently getting captured on camera. It's a real piece of acting on what looks like a real railway station. Also notice how effective the slap is - her son immediately knows how to behave and stop being a nuisance anymore. A great opening to a good movie. So, hereby, I proclaim this women and boy joint winner of FAADU awards whose names I couldn't find even with my best googling techniques.

Usually it's the director who is given credit for introducing such FAADU actors in a movie. Therefore FAADU actors, though deserving in all respect, lose out in the race of any award, any recognition and sometimes even notice. It's like cinematographers losing out on their awards just because they are only capturing a director's vision.

Lastly, a confession of a hidden agenda behind this post. If I could get one FAADU role in a movie, something similar to that foppish rickshaw puller in Haasil or that irascible parent in Hulot's holiday, I would meet my childhood ambition and die content!

A Life of Contradictions

Whenever I hear of real life examples of caste brutalities or homophobia, like this recent one, I am almost always reminded of these prophetic words of Dr. Ambedkar spoken to the Constituent Assembly while discussing our new found polity:

"On the 26^th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value."

As inclusiveness becomes the new buzz word, making noise from Davos to Bihar, I wonder how much of that would would turn out to be music!

A for Applicability

In the newly independent India, a satyagrahi and his wife arrived at a dusty village set around an arid landscape. Pt. Nehru, on being turned down on his offer to join his government, had instructed him to spread education in a village that he had recently visited. The visitor's first challenge was to set up a shack that would serve as classroom. Selling some personal belongings helped him do that. His next challenge was to bring village kids to classrooms from reluctant parents's home. He persuaded them and was able to form a class of boys and girls, students from upper and lower caste, and Dalits. It was nothing less than a social revolution under that shack. One of his student, a woman, went on to become a prominent politician of Haryana and, later, Lt. Governor of Pondycherry. Others became officers in public departments. Another of his student became a school teacher himself and his grandson, yours truly, received one of the best education in India. This working paper on education improvement techniques in rural India, recently cited in Economist, made me remember this story and I wondered what would have I been had that satyagrahi not come to my village.

I was lucky. And so was my village. But most of the other villages were not. About six decades on, so much has been done but quality education still evades rural India. This paper experimentally proves how a novel technique of monetary incentives for teachers can improve the quality of educated imparted in rural India. This paper, IMHO, would largely be a disappointment for policy makers as it lacks any 'actionable' information, if I may borrow a term from diplomatic parlance.

The authors of the paper observed performance of students in two sets of government run schools in rural Andhra Pradesh. In one set, they introduced a scheme of performance bonus to teachers of science and language in primary schools. The other set was left untouched to serve as a control for comparison with the first set. After a period of two years, authors observed a much higher performance of students in the first set as compared to second set in independently administered tests. Now, who didn't see that coming!? Further, authors argue that "performance pay might not only increase effort among existing teachers, but systematically draw more effective teachers into the profession over time". This is a naive conclusion that I would want to differ with. The paper lack thoughts on many implementation issues that can derail author's noble intentions.

Authors have ignored the difference in performance of schools in rural settings as compared to urban schools. Urban schools perform better because (a) parents are more conscious of the importance of education, and (b) urban lifestyle allows time for study as compared to rural places where most of the families are associated with labor intensive agriculture, and (c) teachers are regular in discharge of their duties due to higher visibility in cities. While the proposed scheme may create more diligent teachers in rural area, it leaves the first two factors unchanged. It's also more important to bring quality education to rural places because they don't always have a luxury of private school as an alternative. Private operators find it tough to invest for low student population in villages. Coming back, since scheme leaves first two factors unchanged, it will push teachers to seek postings in urban places over rural places. As the number of teachers is always low than required, this can create a negative bias towards rural schools. This might be corrected by additional policies that enforce teachers to serve in rural schools for a certain period of time but this would then engender use of influence to get the desired postings by a teacher. This can also result in teachers leaving rural schools as soon as their terms get over. Teachers protesting against such a harsh policy is a different matter altogether.

Authors have also kept quiet on how to administer exams fairly. Would teachers not be tempted to assist students when they proctor them during exams? Even if teachers are not proctoring students from their own class, what stops him or her from helping students in return of the same favor from another teacher. How often should this exam be administered and in which grades? What happens to a teacher who is recently transferred to a class that will take this exams? What about cheating during exams? I have myself seen scores of family members and friends throwing answer notes (chits as they are called) inside examination room to their dear ones despite presence of teachers and police around. In fact, looking from outside, the examination centre looked like a fallen fort with the 'ravaging army' attempting to enter it from every possible inlet.

Would this policy not be unfair for other subject teachers if it is made applicable for only science and language teachers, as authors did for their experiment? A potential of protests of huge intensity would make any government rethink this part of the scheme. If all subject teachers are made eligible for the bonus compensation, would it still carry the same value? Another of the paper's finding was that students did better in all subjects and not just for the subjects for which teachers were paid extra. This spill over benefit would be tough to use through a government policy.

It has usually been remarked that services run good when government pays and private organizations provide. It's hard to envisage a situation where this could be applied to education in India. There is less incentive to open private schools in small villages with small student population. It's therefore more effective to build the right infrastructure that would make commuting easier to nearby town. It's also important for majority of population to move from labor intensive agricultural practice to specialized skilled labor. This would in effect increase priority among parents to see their children get quality education. This priority can also increase if the state run institutions become fair in providing employment and other opportunities to youths. A sense of nepotism and corruption lowers incentive for parents to seek quality education for their kids and promotes throwing chits to their wards during exams. If things were fairer, increasing pay and not bonuses to teachers would attract the right talent into teaching. Of course, this is nothing less than a social revolution and we also don't have any more satyagrahis around!