Migration =?= Blood Brothers =?= Prarambha =?= Positive

If =?= would mean "how is related to" what would be your answer.

Well they are abstract words, but my only aim is to compliment a few people, albeit late, but in good time for the wonderful effort they made.

And the answer would be AIDS. Yes, these movies were part of AIDS Jaago campaign last year.

The words above are the titles of four small movies directed by Mira Nair, Vishal Bharadwaj, Santosh Sivan and Farhan Akhtar in that order. I remember having read somewhere that it was the brainchild of Mira Nair. These movies were even shown on 1st December (World AIDS Day) on MTV.

Now they have been been screened free on Jaman (here). I think its no use giving brief plot of each movie, since each movies being roughly 15-20 minutes long, any takeaway from this blog would be a spoiler. But there are some thoughts on these movies that I'd like to share.

So warning here to go and watch the movies first then come back and finish reading it. Also advising you all to just go and watch the movie rather than read the sub-text before watching the movie.

Blood Brothers, was one amazing story where story's progress would be anyone's nightmare, the end everyone's heavenly relief. I think this is one movie where the real embarrassment, grief is shown in one brother and courage and spirit to fight in another.

Prarambha, to me appeared a bit pot-pourri of messages director wanted to convey but the end result was something Bollywoodish- it's a good deal if you are willing to believe the goodness of the story.

Positive, again was a movie which hammers its message slowly and you actually get to know how would you feel in this situation no matter which character you associate yourself in the movie. The son's touchy temperament, mother's patience and having made truce with situations and father's repentance and attempt to get his family back.

Migration, was another classic. I really appreciated how this movie folds itself in the last moments. In the end you have a pregnant urban mother, an HIV+ rural family.

You may claim there are enough giveaways in the movie to know who-gave-to-whom. But as the street-play portrays you never know who did the character in the movie contract it from. I think you'll appreciate the ending more if I argue that hints in the movie were not enough to blame one person so we have an open-ended movie. You just know that nearly everyone in the movie is now HIV+ and they don't know who they got it from. Just like the urban housewife might feel later, who did she get it from, his husband and she might have infected the rural worker or from the worker and she later spread it to her husband.

I believe if one understands this spread-network factor in HIV and give it a thought, once can't think of unprotected sex (at all?). Another real beauty was to portray that spread of HIV infects both rich and poor alike. I would rate this movie as the best of all (despite the fact that I hate Shiney Ahuja).

But overall, all the movies were good in spreading message of safe sex while also trying to explore how your families, friend, society and above all YOU react in these situations.

P.S. I will post EPL Vs IPL comparison-II a bit later.

Answer: My Bollywood Family

As I said in my options there are some obvious and unobvious choices. The most obvious choice would have been Bachchan family, infact as many may argue, Silsila and Abhimaan were closely related to Bachchan seniors’ life. Deol family too has had a very dramatic life with Dharmendra allegedly marrying twice.

But I think the most fitting family to fit the answer would be Dutt family. Yes, the Dutt family and I hope at the end of this blog many of you might see my point. Dutt’s would be a story that would provide ideal masala mix of emotion, tragedy, thrill although may not be the end.

Sunil Dutt, born in 1929, Khurd district (now in Pak), moved to India with his family during partition and settled in Haryana. He faced parents’ death at an early age and struggled to complete graduation at Jai Hind College in Mumbai while working as a radio announcer at Radio Ceylon.

He got introduced as an actor in Railway Platform in 1955. It is believed that Dutt braved the raging fire to save Nargis on Mother India’s sets and thereby won her love. Sunil and Nargis had a son, Sanjay and two daughters Priya and Anju. Sanjay Dutt had from an early age (at around high school) was addicted to drugs which worsened after Nargis’ death owing to pancreatic cancer. She incidentally died a week before Rocky’s release, Sanju’s first movie in a lead role directed and produced by Sunil Dutt himself, was to be released. This worsened Sanjay Dutt’s addiction who took more to it. Finally Sunil Dutt had to send him to a rehab in Texas whence Sanju suffered from a collapsed lung. It took 3-3.5 yrs of treatment when Sanjay could be “purged”. Richa Sharma had nursed him back after this and a year later they had a baby Trishala. Barely 2 months later he learnt that his wife had brain tumor. He lost the bitter custody battle for the baby against his in-laws after Richa succumbed to brain tumor.

Meanwhile in 1984 post Indira Gandhi’s assassination on Rajiv Gandhi invitation, Sunil entered politics. Since then he had been a loyal supported of Congress and worked really hard for national and world peace. Snapshots:
· Walked from Mumbai to Amritsar in wake of militiancy in Punjab for a stretch of 2000 Kms
· Walked from Nagasaki to Hiroshima for world peace and nuclear disarmament.
· Helped Imran Khan raise 1,00,000 pounds for building a cancer hospital in his mother’s name through a fund raising dinner, at Birmingham

Sunil resigned as MP in wake of Hindu-Muslim riots in 1992-93 and did a lot of relief work for muslims. Till then Sanjay had shot to fame and even accorded as successor to Amitabh. Sunil staunchly criticized Shiv Sena for the riots for which his family allegedly received a lot of threats. And months before the Mumbai serial blasts in 1993 Sanjay allegedly purchased one AK-56 from Abu Salem with help of few produced friends for personal and family safety. He had earlier taken 3 AK-56 rifles, 25 hand grenades, one 9 mm pistol and cartridges but later returned everything except one AK-56 rifle.

Following Sanjay’s arrest in serial blast case, Shiv Sena upped the ante against Sanjay and branded him as a terrorist through their mouthpiece Saamna. Sunil Dutt fought a bitter court battle only to hear that his son is not a terrorist. While Sanjay was in jail, he was regularly visited by his brother-in-law Kumar Gaurav, his then g/f Rhea Pillai. Sunil is said to have waited for hours to meet his own Congressmen leaders in Mumbai and Delhi to seek atleast bail for his son who disappointed him. Sharad Pawar was the CM then and PV Narsimharao was the PM. He then went back to Bal Thackrey, who in a small personal meeting at Thackrey’s resident, changed his stand. So did his mouthpiece Saamna, it was only then political support and support from Bollywood fraternity could be mobilized and public opinion could be moulded. Sanju was released from jail on bail and since then it is said he is one of the most humble stars of the industry. Later he married Rhea. Sanjay was later questioned in hawala deals and other cases as well.

He was later absolved from TADA charges but held guilty under Arms Act. But Sunil Dutt didn’t survive so long what he wanted to hear for more than 12-13 years: that his son was not a terrorist. Later Priya Dutt won from the same constituency in Mumbai where his father was a MP of.

And to close the serial blast trials, this day Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to 6 yrs RI. I think Dutt family has lived the most ups and down as a (Bollywood) family. So according to me Dutt's would be the perfect choice for a typical Bollywood script. It would make for perfect mix of several Bollywood movies.

P.S. I was reading the book Black Friday by notable investigative journalist, Hussain Zaidi and found some of the info in the book and some through Wikipedia and other internet links. It is an amazing book. One must read it to relive what we didn’t live through.

P.S.S.: Sources:
1) Sunil Dutt’s Biography as MP here.
2) Sunil Dutt’s interview on Rediff here
3) Sunil and Sanjay- Documentary by BBC Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Do watch these.


Next: My take on a new travel portal. What's different abt this travel portal? First to appear on my Blog!

Question: Bollywood Family

How would you react to the question, “Which bollywood family’s life would be best suited for a (typical) bollywood script”. What would be your choice? Difficult to think?? Lemme give you some choices.

· Bachchan Family- Amitabh, Abhishek, Ashwarya, Jaya
· Dutt Family- Sunil, Sanjay, Priya
· Deol Family- Dharmendra, Sunny, Bobby, Hema, Esha, Ahana
· Oberoi Family- Viveik, Suresh
· Kapoor Family- Raj Kapoor and others
· Kapoor Family- Shahid Kapoor, Pankaj Kapoor.


Let this question wait for sometime when I will post my choice and answer. I was inspired to post this question based on a book that I read recently. There are some obvious and some non-obvious choices here, but the answer would be a good read I hope.

I am waiting to read the answers and their jsutification. Will post mine very soon.