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Thread: Hollywood Caliber

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    Hollywood Caliber

    This thread is a counter to the 'Hollywood Ballyhoo' thread in the Canteen forum. Here let us discuss the high caliber with which Hollywood and other films exposes the falsity, farce, hypocrisy, and the alarming trends in the corridors of power, science, religion and society.

    The film 'Outbreak (1995)': Subverting democracy

    Is democracy, which is supposed to be the "government of the people, by the people, for the people" nothing more than a farce, even in a lavishly liberal country like the U.S.? Is it only the military which is behind vital policy decisions and runs the democracy by proxy?

    The film explores the dangerous extents to which the government and the military can go to 'contain a situation' such as the following:

    • The US military discovers a killer virus named Motaba in the African jungles and decides to preserve it as a biological weapon. A mercenary camp that discovers the virus is infected by it. The army annihilates all the members of the team, disinfects the area and contains the virus, all in one stroke--by dropping a fuel-air bomb on its own soldiers. The army also develops a serum for the virus but keeps it a secret.

    • Twenty-five years later, the virus resurfaces in Africa again. Col.Daniel is sent to investigate. He and his crew manage to contain the virus but after they are back in the US asks their boss Gen.Ford to issue an alert. The General ignores the warning since he was among the two authorities who gave the decision to destroy the mercenary camp earlier.

    • Meanwhile, a White-fronted Capuchin Monkey, the host animal of the virus, is smuggled into California to be sold illegally to breed in a pet store. The monkey spits on the man who smuggled it, so he catches the infection. The pet store owner rejects the offer as it was of the wrong gender. The monkey scratches the hand of the storeman and infects him. The smuggler lets out the monkey in the woods of California. These two men die within days.

    • A hospital man, who treated the two infected men, gets the infection as he was careless, goes to a packed movie theatre and infects the crowd as his own infection was airborne, caused by a new strain of the virus. Soon most of the citizens of the town Cedar Creek get the infection and start dying.

    • The US army takes control of the town, imposes curfew, restricts movement of the citizens beyond the critical area, blocks public communication lines, and declares the area a no-fly zone. The media spreads the news without the actual knowledge of why an entire town is held captive. A meeting of expert virologists speculate that at this rate the whole country of US could be infected in less than a week. So they discuss 'containing the virus' by 'objectively viewing the situation' and recommend to the President, the annihilation of the town Cedar Creek, with its 2600 inhabitants. The military promptly takes up the presidential directive and prepares to annihilate the town.

    • Meanwhile, Col.Daniel defies the authority and orders of his bosses who seek to arrest him under the false implication that he is a carrier of the virus. Daniel's systematic and fast-paced investigations reveal the story of the monkey as the host animal, which carries both the original and the variant strains of the virus. Daniel also comes to possess the serum the military developed long back and tests it but finds it ineffective as the new airborne virus is a variant strain of the original Motaba virus. Thus the only way to cure the town people is to catch the African monkey that had the necessary antibodies.

    • In a narration full of suspense, the film reveals how the monkey is caught, how Daniel encounters two army helicopters that seek to kill him, how he and his colleague in their own chopper outwit the army crafts with a decoy crash, manage to reach the site and proceed to disinfect the people, how they learn about the decision of his bosses to destroy the entire town, and how Col.Daniel successfully meets the situation and convinces the soldier pilots of the bombardier plane to defy authority and thus save the town.

    Dustin Hoffman, one of the best actors produced by Hollywood, shines in the role of the colonel.

    The moot questions the film raises expose a shadow reality lurking behind the supposedly people-friendly actions by authorities in the corridors of politics and governance. At least in the film there was a hero to save the people. In reality, there would be none and only the news of such misdeeds would be contained from the general public.
    रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
    ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥

    To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.

    --viShNu purANam

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    Re: Hollywood Caliber

    The film 'Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)'
    Look who says software piracy is wrong!

    Is there anything new under the Sun, specially in the field of intellectual creation? Aristotle in his 'Poetics' says that the entire gamut of fiction is contained in the basic 36 plots or dramatic situations. Georges Polti, in his The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations, has reconstructed the 36 plots (http://www.fitz42.net/writer/cw/files/Plot.pdf).

    Where then is the question of one person copying or pirating another person's ideas in fiction, poetry, art and software?

    Microsoft and other leading software corporations are making clamorous pronunciamento that the ordinary, poor users who make pirated use of their inordinately expensive software packages and operating systems will be legally prosecuted, adding insult to injury because the users are already persecuted when they are using the software packages that are hard to use beyond their expectations and sometimes even crash their systems.

    In these days of broadband Internet usage, Software giants like Microsoft are trying their latest tricks to plug the holes in their supposed revenue loss due to pirated software by prompting the users to upgrade the latest in their free packages such as the Media Player, Internet browser, etc., snoop into the user's system and find out if it is using unlicensed operating system and freeze the OS if it does.

    The bitter irony of the whole situation is that today's leading giants such as Microsoft and Apple Computers were themselves software pirates originally! If the users pirate their software for their daily personal computing needs, these companies plundered the original design and ideas of their most popular software packages--such as the operating systems, spreadsheets, word processors and device drivers for their GUI (graphical user interface) gadgets--and reengineered them for their own extravagant commercial ventures. Their victims include the corporate giants like Xerox and other little software firms that were snuffed out from the market by these pirates.

    The height of it all was that, Steve Jobs, co-founder of the Apple and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft were close buddies who were constantly at each other's throats for expansion of their business!

    This movie, 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' written and directed by Martyn Burke, tells the tale of the friendship and business rivalry between these two geeks who from being college dropouts rose to the position of power and affluence in the software world, whose hallmark is cutthroat competition.

    Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs and Anthony Hall as Bill Gates have played memorable and creditable roles in living out on the screen their hilarious, love-to-hate friendship and rivalry in trying to transform a lowdown reality into a high-rise corporate giant by overnight.

    A speciality of this movie is that the director Burke never spoke or consulted any of the real-life counterparts of the main characters, but based his film on their real life incidents after a seven-month intensive research. This was because he did not want to make just authorized biographies of them. Both Gates and Jobs later saw and were awe-struck with the film, though they chose not give any definite comments.

    Here is a brief of the tale of two friends-cum-foes that the film unfurls in remarkable incidents and telling pieces of dialogue. Steve Jobs has a rare combination of religious discipline and business acumen intent on churning out only the best for his users. Bill Gates would rather set his sight on reaching the market first and quickly start to monopolise it by killing competition.

    • The story is narrated by Steve's partner Steve Wozniak and Bill's partner Steve Ballmer for the ventures of their companies.

    • Steve Jobs explains his mission in life in some serious, catchy dialogue as the film opens:

    "Don't want you to think of this as just a film. ...some process of converting electrons and magnetic impulses. ...into shapes and figures and sounds. No. Listen to me. We're here to make a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why even be here? We're creating a completely new consciousness. ...like an artist or a poet. That's how you have to think of this. We're rewriting the history of human thought with what we're doing."

    • Both the guys understand that "Information is power" and the most successful business venture would be to make the common person have it at his/her fingertips. This motive drove them to invent the first successful personal computer at an affordable cost, in the days of room-sized computers that cost astronomical sums and were accessed only by governmental and high-profile corporate employees.

    • Another motive that gave them a kick-start was a quote Jobs said was from Picasso and Gates in the end said was from Van Gogh: "Good artists copy. Great artists steal." So Jobs goes on to 'steal' the mouse design from Xerox (whose executives looked at this invention of theirs initially with contempt, not knowing how useful could it be).

    • Gates and Ballmer go to meet the IBM executives after he learns that they are out to make their first PC. Even with nothing on hand, he offers to license an operating system called DOS "To make all those zillion IBM computers compute". Later they offer "measly 50,000 bucks" to a guy of a small software firm for his operating system who couldn't believe his eyes!

    Ballmer narrates their meeting in these words:

    "This is amazing. Not just amazing, it's historic. It should be taught in all the history books. I mean, hung and framed in the National Gallery or something. Because this is the instant of creation of one of the greatest fortunes in the history of the world. I mean, Bill Gates is the richest guy in the world because of what started in this room."

    • While DOS makes Microsoft a corporate software company overnight, the Apple Macintosh PC with its GUI operating system with a mouse gives Jobs the edge. And there starts the one-hand-over-the-shoulder-another-on-the-knife-in-the-trouser-pocket friendship-rivalry between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. No prize for guessing who turned out to be the fox and who the chicken.

    • The rivalry--and the movie--ends with Microsoft getting into 'an alliance' with the Apple and Bill Gates towering as the Big Brother over Steve Jobs in the 1997 Macworld Expo.

    Other catchy dialogues and narratory pieces:

    Gates: You know what they say in the Mafia? You keep your friends close but your enemies closer.

    Gates persuading the Altair guy for selling his BASIC language interpreter: Next, Ed, this business of a $ 15 royalty for BASIC sold in every 4K Altair, it's just not acceptable. The reality is that your machine is brilliant, but it needs our language. And without it, you know, it's just a tin box that lights up. So let's double our royalty from $ 15 to $30 a copy.

    Wozniak (at their first computer fair): People swarming all over you. Hordes of them coming to see this amazing machine with 62 chips and ICs that make all these colors.

    Jobs: For the first time in my life, people are coming to me, instead of me going to them. Man, this is insanely great. People were going nuts over the Apple II. I couldn't keep up with anything.

    Jobs (explaining to Woz why he rejected a tie-clad, ex-IBM candidate by bewildering him with personal questions in the interview room): Woz, what we're doing right now is like opening doors. Every day. If you open the wrong one, all sorts of bad things will come at you.

    Gates (his friend Ballmer before the IBM meeting): You know how you survive? You make people need you. You survive because you make them need what you have. And then they have nowhere else to go.

    Gates (to the IBM executives): Now, we know that IBM has set up this place to compete head-on with Apple, and you're gearing up to come out with a personal computer that will wipe them out. So we can get you an operating system. ... It's called DOS. To make all those zillion IBM computers compute. We wanna be able to license it to you. ... and one other thing. We have to be able to sell it to other outfits.

    Gates (to Ballmer, waiting for his friend to get the OS): (IBM deals with us) Because they're successful, Ballmer. Success is a menace. It fools smart people into thinking they can't lose.

    Gates and his friends come to Apple to have a look at the prototype of forthcoming Macintosh. Gates is amazed at how the computer hardware can handle the mouse-cursor display. An employee prompts, "Hardware's got nothing to do with the mouse. It's all in the software." Jobbs interrupts him saying, "Enough. There's no point in torturing our guests with what they can't have."

    Later Gates talks Jobs into giving him examine his forthcoming Macintosh and pirates its GUI operating system to releaze his Windows. The Apple guys find it loaded in the Japan's NEC PC and Jobs confronts Gates, "Your Microsoft programs. They're almost identical to ours."

    Gates: There may be some similarities, Steve.

    Jobs: Similarities? Try theft.

    Gates: Steve, all cars have steering wheels, but no one tries to claim that the steering wheel was their invention.

    Jobs: This is like doing business with like, a praying mantis. You get seduced and then eaten alive afterwards.

    Gates: Get real, will you? You and I are both like guys that have this rich neighbor, Xerox, that left the door open all the time. And you go sneaking in to steal the TV set. Only when you get there, you realize that I got there first. ... You're too late.

    Jobs: We're better than you are. We have better stuff.

    Gates: You don't get it, Steve. That doesn't matter.

    **********

    Such is the saga of the rise of Microsoft and Apple that leaves Microsoft a Big Brother with MRP (monopolistic and restrictive trade practices) and Apple, sort of rotten.

    Authors of books have their copyright made public domain after 50 years. In the world of software, where updations and new versions are biennial or even earlier events, I strongly feel that the older versions of Operating Systems and Office packages must be made public domain after 2 years or so, since the company had already earned all its revenues in the first two years and there is hardly any chance of anyone buying an older version when a newer one is there at almost the same cost.
    Last edited by saidevo; 26 March 2009 at 09:39 PM.
    रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
    ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥

    To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.

    --viShNu purANam

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    Re: Hollywood Caliber

    The film 'Outsourced (2006)'

    This is the first Hollywood film I have come across that presents the Indian culture and religion with a positive outlook.

    If you think that a Call center is used to mainly receive and make telephone calls and internet communication for telemarketing a company's products, and is often located in a foreign country where labour is cheap, you might perhaps be surprised to know that the current innovation in business strategy also makes the Call center employees to "pretend" that they are located in the company's native country and do the company's business. The employees get a training in the everyday accent of the native country's language, and there is an MPI (minutes per incident) index to measure the Call center's performance.

    Thus Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton), an employee of the US telemarketing company 'Western Novelty', who likes spicy food, and is no longer required in their office at Seattle, is sent to India for 'accent training' the employees at the Company's Call center in the Gharapuri village near Mumbai. The Company is ready to pay the local manager Purohit Narsimacharaya Virajnarainan ('you can call me Puro') half a million Rupees a year because that would only be 11,000 US dollars ('The savings are incredible').

    Todd misses the car sent for him at the Mumbai airport and is surrounded by Autorickshaw-wallas. One of them tricks him into his vehicle by standing near a taxi and making him think that the fellow is a taxi driver. Todd manages to jump into a crowded train at the railway station and reaches Gharapuri village. Puro meets him there, informs that he sent a car to the airport, and insists on Todd staying with a local Hindu family (Aunt Ji's guesthouse) where he will have social company, instead of a hotel where he will be lonely.

    Auntji welcomes Todd (everyone calls him 'Toad'), gives him tea and 'kurkure' (crunchy, spicy snacks) and starts her questions to him: "What does your father do?", "Are you married?", "You got a girlfriend, hmm?", "Why break up (with her)? You should be married.", "Not yet (ready to 'start a family')? My god. You are old enough to be a grandfather. What are you waiting for?"

    Todd starts eating the snacks with his left hand, licks his fingertips and then places it back on the food. Puro explains that Indians use only the right hand to eat, and 'the hand that was inside the mouth should not be placed again on the food'. Todd wonders why the left hand is considered 'unclean' and the old man of the house sitting on an easy chair behind Todd gets up, and demonstrates to him in a gesture as to what the left hand is used for.

    Todd finds his room cozy and is sort of nonplussed to notice a portrait of Goddess KALI in his room. He climbs up the rocks to reach the top of the building compound wall and finds that the adjacent place is a 'dhobikana' (washerman's workplace) with their huts nearby. He finds people giving their leftover food in plates across the compound wall to the dhobis and is happy to give his own leftovers too, an act that is acknowledged with a flower on the plate when it is repeated.

    Todd visits the Company local office and finds that the building is still under construction, and they have no other place to rent even in Gharapuri. A cow has entered the building to bless them. He learns that the employees work from six in the evening to six in the morning, getting themselves accustomed to the inconvenience. The MPI reads at 12:17. He starts his job of training the employees on their Company's product details, and on speaking English with the American accent. The conversation between him and the Indian employees on English speaking is telling about the right attitude an Indian should have towards business and speaking English, rather than copycat the American ways:

    Todd: Things go faster if the customer feel they are talking to a native English speaker.

    An Employee: But we are native English speakers. English is the official language of our government.

    Asha, an employee and the heroine: You got it from the British, and so did we. We just speak it differently, but in many cases our pronunciation is better. We say 'internet', but you say 'innernet'.

    Todd: Fair enough, that’s exactly my point. I'm asking you to say 'innernet'. Next time you're on a call, try to listen carefully to the customer's pronunciation, the slang, small talk. Try to learn from them...

    Todd: If anyone asks where you're located, just say 'Chicago'. When you make the 'a' sound, hold your nose, to flatten the vowel like 'Chicaago'... and if anyone asks how the weather is, say 'windy'.

    Asha: Isn't that a little dishonest? I mean, I'm not going to lie. I'm not in Chicaaaago, I am in Gharapuri. If I have to do this job, I was told that I would be selling product to a customer...on the telephone. I did not know we had to be deceptive.

    Todd: A lot of Americans are upset about outsourcing.
    Asha: Sir, most of the products they're buying are made in China.

    At home, Auntji asks Todd, "you want to meet a nice Indian girl?" When he says that he isn't interested, she asks "Are you homosexual?"

    At office, Todd is worried about the MPI being over 12 as "we are losing money on every call". Puro assures him that it was 15 when he started and that they would bring it down to the target (of less than 6, though the Industry standard is 7). Todd says, "If we don't get it down to 6, I'll be stuck in India for the rest of my life."

    Todd listens to the recording of the employees' earlier telephonic chats and finds that the main problem is with their lack of knowledge about the American slang: an American grandpa who phoned them up as to what he might buy for his grandson's birthday was advised to buy him some 'rubbers' instead of 'erasers'; the grandpa was aghast, and the employee did not know that in American slang a 'rubber' meant 'condom'!

    Fed up with local food, Todd takes a taxi to Bombay, paying 4000 rupees to get his favourite cheeseburgers at a MacDonnell's. He visits a local outlet, finds no cheeseburgers there, as he learns that the outlet is called MacDonnell's and not McDonald's. A fellow American who dines there comments to Todd, "You know what INDIA stand for, don't ya? 'I'll Never Do It Again'" He also mentions about a guy who was getting 70 grands a year, outsourced his US job for 12 grands to a guy at Bangalore, giving the impression to his boss that he was telecommunicating and is now thinking of taking up another job in the spare time he has thus obtained. He further says, "We got Indian doctors, reading American X-rays, lawyers, writing briefs and customer service." The new friend strongly advises Todd, not to 'resist India' but to just 'give in' so he would feel 'much better'.

    The next day happens to be the day of the Holi festival. Todd goes out in a sleek white shirt, Puro rescues him from the revellers in colour, nevertheless they get their good share of the colour powder and liquid on them. Todd takes the advice of not resisting India and joins the celebrations, feeling happy about it. He goes to office wearing a 'kurta'.

    At office he finds that his own employees are interested in their products, so he works out a scheme of incentives to the staff who perform exceptionally well. He asks his boss in the US to ship them samples of all the products, saying that his scheme of incentives would surely bring down the MPI. One more improvement that Todd is smart to do, is to permit the employees to wear their Indian apparel at office and keep their religious and cultural images and family photographs on their desks.

    In a private conversation with Puro over a glass of liquor, Todd who is often reminded of his parents while in India says "Its funny. I should think about my parents." Puro suggests that he misses them but is alarmed to find that Todd is not living with his parents, nor does he visit them, although their home is only a two hours drive from his place.

    Todd finds on the very next day that his office is decorated with the 'mUrtis' (statues) of Ganesha, KrishNa and Hanuman and that every employee's workspace is full of Hindu mementos and photographs--some of them have Western objects too--and that the employees go about their work feeling happy, relaxed and energized. After a lecture on business tactics, the employees gently force Todd and Asha to do a Bollywood film dance after Salman Khan, a movie clip playing on the projector screen.

    The shipment of incentives is wrongly sent to another Gharapuri, at 3 to 6 hours drive from their place depending on the traffic. Since Puro is unable to accompany Todd to retrieve the goods, Asha has to go with him since Todd has earlier made her the Assistant Manager (impressed by her skills).

    While they are travelling, Todd asks about the KALI statuette hung above the car dashboard:

    Todd: I'm pretty sure there is a painting of her in my room. I feel like she is following me around.

    Asha: That's KALI, the goddess of destruction.

    Todd: Why would you want the goddess of destruction in your car?

    Asha: Sometimes destruction is a good thing. She ends one cycle so a new one can begin. Why don't you ask her for something?

    Todd: Alright. Destroy something for me, so I'll understand.

    They reach the jetty from where they need to travel waterway by a ferry to reach the other Gharapuri. Asha and Todd come across a Shiva temple as they walk through the concrete path to the sea. Asha explains to Todd that in the Shivalingam, the lingam is the 'male part' and its base is the 'female part', they worship them as symbols of creation. She says, "You see Shiva was a powerful god and he grew tired of the cycle of life, death and reincarnation. So he decided to give up the pleasure of life and he smeared his body in ash. He didn't eat or drink or indulge in any physical pleasure. This created a terrible fire within him. And they transformed him to a blazing lingam, which threatened to destroy all creation. The other gods didn't know what to do, so a Yoni appeared, as a goddess. And she absorbed the terrible heat, restoring balance to the world and saving the universe from destruction."

    Presently they find that the ferry is on fire, so Todd and Asha are forced to stay in a Hotel. A typical Hollywood holiday ensues. There is only one room available and that is the Kama Sutra Suite. Asha is hesitant at first and quarrels with Todd, that the man at the reception is a sleazy guy who lied about the rooms and that Todd did not ask him anything about the accommodation. She points out that Todd asked KALI to destroy something for him, so the ferry caught fire. And in the hotel room, her own virginity is destroyed, albeit with her consent.

    Asha says that she needs to lie about their stay to her parents and say that they stayed in separate rooms. She asks him to say the same at the office, because she is engaged to Ashok in an arranged marriage and that it would be fine for her to learn to love a man after marriage, since her parents did the same. When Todd points out "To me that’s crazy", she retorts, "Some people would say America's 50 percent divorce rate is crazy." As to how she regarded their affair at the hotel, she says it is like a 'Holiday in Goa' and explains that a friend of hers who had a crush on a boy known to her since her school days, lied to her parents that she was stressed hard in her work and wanted to spend some days on holiday alone in Goa, where she enjoyed the company of the boy, came back and got married. Todd asks her, "So I'm just your holiday in Goa?" and she replies, "Not 'just'; my only holiday in Goa."

    The dhobi who received food regularly from Todd invites him to partake their simple lunch. Todd accepts it and is moved by the love and concern the family members display. Their boy who had ealier 'stolen' Todd's mobile phone by pretending to hug him, returns it with a painting he made on its outer cover using the materials he bought with the money Todd gave him.

    Todd's boss Dave suddenly visits Gharapuri village to inspect their working. To his utter dismay, Todd finds the office flooded due to irrigation of the adjacent farm lands, and the MPI stands at 12:17. Dave says to Todd in anger, "I want to shred your passport." Todd assures him to relax and that they would bring down the index that very night by getting online again at the open terrace on the roof after doing the wiring there in 20 minutes with the help of a 'consultant'. Dave says, "It's impossible" and Todd replies, "Maybe back in the States it is." The 'consultant' is none other than his neighbour, the dhobi man who is also an electrician. Work starts as challenged and the MPI is brought down to 5:57 in the next few hours. Dave is amazed at Asha's chat skills and salespersonship:

    Customer: You got to be kidding me...I'm buying a freaking American eagle from a company that is supposed to be in America and I get it in India?

    Asha: I have a solution for you. Please understand that all Americans are upset about outsourcing...so we have located American made versions of all our products. If you have a pen, I will give you the website of an American company...that makes an eagle statue very similar to ours, same size, same material. Only theirs are made 100 percent in America.

    Customer: Well, thanks, I appreciate it. But is the price the same?

    Asha: No, sir, there’s $212 more.

    And the deal is clinched. With such skills and enthusiasm, the employees bring down the MPI to 5:57, and the wily Dave is happy, but he has other plans for Todd.

    Dave reveals to Todd that the purpose of his visit is that their company Western Novelty is acquired by a larger US firm and that they have decided to close down the operations at Gharapuri and move over to Shanghai, China where the labour ratio is "20 heads for the price of one."

    In the celebration party for the success with MPI, which Dave does not attend, Todd is forced to tell the employees about their losing their jobs with just a month's severence pay. The employees, except Puro are not too agitated by the news. Puro says that with their skills they would get a job within a week at Microsoft, Dell, Office Tiger; only he with his management skills would be unemployed.

    In the end, influenced by Indian traditional values, Todd does the incredible thing: he makes over his China assignment to Puro, returns to his home in Seattle and calls up his parents promising an early visit. Back home, he places the star sticker bindi between the eyebrows on a memento with a portrait of George Washington in his cupboard. And His mobile phone rings the familiar tone of a call from Asha...

    My impressions about the film

    The film is more like a Bollywood classic. Josh Hamilton as Todd Anderson looks very young, handsome, charming, and neat and lives his role wonderfully well. Ayesha Dharker as Asha is equally amazing in her acting and matches the hero frame after frame. George Wing the director and BC Smith the music director have done their job with some good understanding of the Hindu religion, culture and tradition. The music is all Indian, with Hindi numbers, melodized all over by Sitar.

    The film has a positive presentation of Hindu values, culture, religion and life. Even where the meaning of Shivalingam is explained, although it is a bit naive, it is not derogatory. The heroine sleeping with the hero before her marriage is perhaps the only thing that looks like an infringement on Indian values, but I guess pre-marital sex is not unknown to the Indian youth who work in multinational companies although it might be uncommon. And unlike the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire', this film presents poverty with its dignity in life.

    With more such films, Hollywood can surely give the jitters to Bollywood!
    Last edited by saidevo; 06 August 2009 at 12:05 AM.
    रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
    ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥

    To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.

    --viShNu purANam

  4. #4
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    Re: Hollywood Caliber

    This movie is now a television show!

    It comes on tomorrow night (Thursday) on NBC. We watched the pilot episode this past week and I was very happy that they were showing India in a very positive way. They even had the cow at the office. I suppose it's too early to give it a grade, but my Beloved Husband Ron just asked before you posted about when it would come on. I think he liked it very much.

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    Re: Hollywood Caliber

    Also, I really liked the way they showed Todd was an open minded American willing to accept a new culture...and they contrasted him to this loud American who shipped meat all the way from the U.S. to eat at his lunch. When offered the food Todd says something like..."No thanks...I think I'll find something Indian that will agree with me."

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    Re: Hollywood Caliber

    namaste NayaSurya.

    Seems that negative American sentiment is already building up against the 'Outsourced' TV show: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1593756/...nest/171128157 Today's news that the Anti-outsourcing bill has failed the Senate may add to it.

    In the TV show 'Big Bang Theory', a Hindu character Rajesh Koothrappali is shown to be unduly influenced by every facet of the Western culture, which seems extrapolated. Most Hindus working in the US are there to save money--not spend it extravagantly--and perhaps become wealthy back home, taking advantage of the US-Rupee currency exchange rate. Most of these Hindus are bachelors who live their daily life extremely frugally. There might of course be a few who take to the Western ways of beef-eating, drinking, dating, dancing, etc. I liked the BBT show for the performance of the character Sheldon.

    What about the 'American Desi'? Anyone watched this film?
    रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
    ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥

    To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.

    --viShNu purANam

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    Re: Hollywood Caliber

    Quote Originally Posted by NayaSurya View Post
    This movie is now a television show!

    It comes on tomorrow night (Thursday) on NBC. We watched the pilot episode this past week and I was very happy that they were showing India in a very positive way. They even had the cow at the office. I suppose it's too early to give it a grade, but my Beloved Husband Ron just asked before you posted about when it would come on. I think he liked it very much.
    What time does it come on on the east coast? I really wanna see this show. We don't actually have cable so I might have to watch it on Hulu.

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    Re: Hollywood Caliber

    I am very sorry this show is already having problems with ill feelings. I do not understand this at all.

    My beloved husband lost his job to outsourcing in 2006 right after we bought our home. The company was very good, owned by a kind man. They had holiday bonuses and parties for the families of all the workers. Even provided meals two or three times a week. He hired this big name man from Enron who took over. He was flown in twice a month to "Consult" with the managers of my husband's job. The man was paid a half million...and even the jet was provided by the company. It was one of the largest online electronic payments sites in the world with contracts such as GMAC and even the U.S. Government.

    Once they hired this wretched man, they could no longer afford to pay the employees and the place went dark. They fired everyone without even a days notice. Not one day.

    Accounts were outsourced to India. Honestly, Hubby and I were both scared very badly because the economy had already began to down turn, also new home with almost 2k mortgage each month. But, those jobs would feed families and for this we were very happy. Our acceptance of this and move on without animosity or obsessing over this loss created the opportunity for my beloved husband's job he has now.

    Perhaps if people would give the show a chance they would see the people who replaced them overseas are wonderful people who deserve jobs too. I feel this show could help those still so angry and placing the blame upon innocents to shift their point of view....see things more clearly.

    The show comes on later in the evening. I think it's about 10 EST. Unfortunately they placed it after that show called "The Office". So it's on rather late.

    I haven't seen American Desi, but it looks interesting...perhaps I can search for it on our Dish. Very good movie reviews.<3

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    Re: Hollywood Caliber

    I'm gonna be out tonight, but I MIGHT be home early enough to see it if its on at ten, assuming we still get NBC. I'd hate to miss it. I can understand the reasons behind people in this country having such ill will toward the show, but I don't feel that they're right to feel that way. The world isn't just a stage for America to get up on and make every watch how awesome we think we are, and there are plenty of countries that have NEVER had it as good as we do even now.

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    Re: Hollywood Caliber

    I was just informed that it comes on at 9:30 instead of 10. Sorry about not getting the time correctly.<3

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