Vishal Kohli: Wanna be phillim maker: Will you listen to me?

Why was I forced to be a prisoner? To be a spectacle to the visitor! This world was meant to be a stage, Then why am I in this cage? I was born here and so was my child, Together we could never see the wild. They then took away my child and my mate, Is this all really fate? Even this child’s smile doesn’t bring relief anymore, There was a time when it meant everything in the world! My cries fall on deaf ears, As they keep clicking my graying beard. If one day I woke up to see this cage disappear, Will anyone embrace me and let me come near?

How I wish I could Fly, How I wish things would never Die. How I wish the world would never Cry, How I wish some moments would never Pass-by. Just a few things that came to my mind. Hope you Enjoyed my photography. I had been wanting to do a photo-blog for a long time now. Good Night and Good Luck

So after my short trip to Rajasthan I finally reach Gurgaon and took an auto-rickshaw to visit my mom at AIIMS, New Delhi . As soon as we got on the road, construction sites could be seen spread as far as my eye-site could go. Delhi metro, flyovers, road widening, buildings, malls and what not! Common Wealth Games 2010 are approaching, so I can see all the hustle-bustle to project an image of what we are not. Standards have been set by our neighbor at the not-so-recently concluded Olympics . I am familiar with Delhi and NCR region for the past 15 years. And I have seen Delhi transform from a traffic congested smoky city to a clean breathable city where roads were widened, flyovers constructed and now back to a congested city where constructions are under way for another better tomorrow. When will this tomorrow come and how long will that last? Any clue! Anyone! Delhi metro sure has provided relief to a large population with its excellent services. Today I see the Airport Ex...

A filmmaker would say “Jo bikta hai, wo banta hai”. A film maker like Dibakar Benarjee says, “The audience mind has been corrupted to what I called Emotional pornography. Porno has that comeshotand you are building up to it. Similarly ye Emotional pornography hai. Ke BH**C**D har wakt kuch na kuch hona chaiya.” Moving further with the discourse on films, a question what do films do? They reflect the societal realities , they entertain etc are the most generic answers you will get. No one will ever say, and I am talking about the people in this business, that films make money. Big Money !! So, the question how they make money? It makes money through distribution channels like cinema hall releases, music sale, overseas collection etc. But who pays that money? It’s the audience. And why will they pay money to see which someone else has made? To be entertained! So far so good! But let’s try to see another aspect for films, especially in context of commercial films. Talking about main ...

“ Aay hay, itna pyar dikhaye ga tow affa hee marr jayuga ” is probably the best dialogue of the movie. Not in terms of the language but in terms of its placement amidst a tense situation, tickling everyone. The movie revolved around two hook points: a guitar and politics (particularly of Maharashtra ). Wonder what a guitar is doing in such a flick. It’s required by “Tashi”, because it has to be traded for two diamonds, which he calls “My twins”. Diamonds for a guitar! Ya, inside it lie 100 packets of cocaine. So, by now you get the feel of the movie and if I tell you there are two brothers, who don’t talk to each other, and get involved in the guitar-diamond game, I don’t need to write this blog any further. But still I will carry on, this is a project dude, I need to complete 24 blogs !! On a serious note there is too much to tell. So, after all the fine movies I have seen from Vishal Bhardwaj, I was in for a shock, though the movie has all elements to be a silver screen HIT!! The...

Cinema, we all know is a medium of expression, story telling, entertainment, and at the same time an art. Today let’s see it in a different light, which we all know but seldom acknowledge, and in the process unravel a few of its attributes: It all began with the invention of “ Kinetoscope ” by Thomas Edison in 1888 (mind it I am not talking about the bulb!!). Kinetoscope was a device which could record motion* on a photosensitive film. But it was too bulky to be carried to a location. Hence the performers (dancers, musicians or magicians) had to come in front of it to get shot on film. Quite contrary to what happens today, when the cameras have become so lightweight and small that they can be accommodated in a ladies purse. Another drawback of the Kinetoscope was that it couldn’t project the very film it had shot. So, a different device had to be used for that purpose and hence addition cost. Edison gave up on his invention too soon, not knowing what he had invented. With the inve...

Just as H1N1 started taking its toll, the media frenzy has created a panic. Why is Swine flu such a big deal? Let’s see. Swine Flu is highly contagious; a person can catch it with just a sneeze from another. A person, who is not infected with H1N1, can still be a carrier of the same. If not treated, before a certain spread in the body, it’s a quick killer. In order to, spread awareness so as to contain the disease, the media has been a potent weapon - Hats Off to it. But, what lies on the surface is not always the only reason. So let’s remove the dust and try to dig inside. We all love to accuse the media of over hyping things by sensationalizing them; hence we can say the media played on the commercial value of such news. But has it not been of any help? The media, and by that I don’t mean newspaper or TV channels only but also SMS’s, emails, blogs etc, have spread a sense of urgency for understanding the disease. We can just GOOGLE H1N1 or Swine flu and with in seconds we get...

This is a true story: It might happen to anyone Reading horoscope!! Some, like me, read for the fun of it but others, like Sanjally, to know the future. A day, week or month which has yet not begun, but predicted!! Where is our free will? I think we always have a choice, but thats not the point. Funny and coincidental as it is, that day both of us read our respective sign predictions, hor(ror)oscope It was getting dark. The road was wet and slippery. Driving back towards the city seemed a never ending journey. With this task at hand we couldn’t have proceed anywhere else. Finally, we reached the building. Took it out of the car and went inside. It was cold and quite. Now, they wanted us to put it in a bag. It was taken to an underground dungeon, where it was covered in a white cloth. With red stains gleaming all around the body we careful took it outside, lest something breaks. My mobile phone rang constantly, trying to know our where abouts and what was happening? A bit irr...