Monday, February 13, 2017

An Actor Can Not Exceed The Script

The script is everything. A show or a movie floats or sinks on the strength of the script, or lack thereof.

In India there is a saying. A bad cook adds extra chili powder to everything. Mindless plot twists, and mindless use of sex and violence are often used as that extra chili powder.

There are countless movies about people falling in love. But the theme of deepening of love in an existing relationship is not much explored. How do you go deeper after you have been married 15 years? Such themes are not much explored.

Law enforcement is another perennial topic and rightly so. But law enforcement does not only struggle with those that might cross the law. Law enforcement struggles with itself, it struggles with diversity issues.

Why only law enforcement? What about commandment enforcement? The complex organizational structure of something like the Catholic Church is not any less fascinating than that of a large police department or intelligence agency.

And the four constantly intersect: human love, divine love, law enforcement, commandment enforcement.

Diversity is not just about sprinkling a few different kinds of faces on to the screen. Culture is a body of knowledge. Gender is its own culture. And gender, as we know by now, is not binary, but a spectrum, not just in society but also inside individuals. Inside every man there is a woman.

Technology changes the basic assumptions. Digitization is a huge force. For one it creates numerous fragmented markets of different sizes. Costs can go down.

Story telling is as old as humanity. Movies might be a new art form. But not story telling. Art speaks to society. Society speaks to art. Movies as an art medium are uniquely positioned to help humanity make progress on race and gender issues. I am talking social science fiction.

A better actor can better respond to the script but an actor can not rise above the script.

In the post 9/11 era intelligence agencies from different countries with fundamentally different languages and cultures have tried to collaborate. But pre 9/11 the two major intelligence agencies in this very country acted like they were in different countries.

Cultural diversity is not just skin pigments. Were that so it would be so much easier. Diversity is primarily sociology. You can have everyone speak English and try to cover it up, but it does not go that way.

This is now the era of global movie making where you confront diversity head on. You actually immerse into the different cultures in their natural settings across continents. Stereotyping falls flat. Intellectual laziness falls flat. The texture of diversity is real.

God has decided to come into mainstream movies and music, big time.

Monday, February 06, 2017

Stephen Colbert, White Guy From North Carolina



Colbert tried. Very hard. He made all the right noises on "Bollywood" and Priyanka Chopra's "50 movies." And then, boom, just like that, he gave it all away.

When you are a talk show host, and you have a guest on the show, you are like a cab driver, and the guest is that person in the back seat. But Stephen just could not resist. You might be the Quantico TV Star, seen in over 100 media territories in the world, Miss World, Bollywood heartthrob, but guess what, I am the one in the American living rooms every evening! I am The Stephen Colbert! Successor to The Jon Stewart! I am The.

He just had to do it. It is like Mitch McConnell saying to Barack Obama, you might be President Of The United States, twice elected, but guess who the white guy from Kentucky is! Wanna have beer?



What would it take to cure the attitude problem of the white males? A Great Depression maybe?

Hollywood is a specific place. Like in Manhattan there is Chelsea, or Hell's Kitchen, or the East Village. Hollywood is a place like that. And it must have been a forest at one point, hence the name. Somebody was looking for cheap real estate. In Mumbai, they have an unnamed Film City. It is still a forest.

By that token the right name for the counterpart in India would simply be Mumbai. There is Hollywood, and then there is Mumbai. But Mumbai is like Los Angeles. And Hollywood is no longer a place. It is the figment of imagination. It is a dream factory in the sky.

White liberals are the most racist people on the planet. The people in the other camp at least know they are being racist. White liberals walk and talk like they have no clue. They say being dead is like being stupid, you have no idea how hard you are being on other people. Being racist is like being dead and stupid at the same time. You have no clue.

Jesus Is Back, But He Is Hard To Look At

Live With Kelly, on the other hand. She is exemplary. She misses out on the racism like she was not even white. Maybe it is not racism, maybe it is sexism. Easily both.



बाबरी मस्जिद में भगवान राम की ही तो पुजा हो रही थी




येशु आएगा ये बात प्रथम बार भगवान कृष्ण ने गीता में तब कहा, ५,००० साल पहले, जब बाइबल की एक शब्द नहीं लिखी गई थी। Adam paradise से किक आउट हुवा ४,००० साल पहले, तो कुछ लोग कहते हैं इस पृथ्वी की आयु ४,००० साल है। गलत कहते हैं। भगवान कृष्ण ५,००० साल पहले। उससे पहले ७,००० साल पहले भगवान राम।

गीता में कहा गया है ये ब्रह्माण्ड ६ बिलियन साल से ज्यादा तक रहेगी। अभी का जो स्वर्ग है वो १०० बिलियन साल तक कायम रह चुकी है। और एक cosmic cycle १५०,००० बिलियन साल का होता है। Cosmic cycle जब ख़त्म होता है तो सिर्फ पिता परमेश्वर और पुत्र परमेश्वर बाँकी रह जाते हैं। बाँकी जितने being हैं, चाहे angel या मनुष्य, सबको परमेश्वर अपने womb में वापस ले लेते हैं। उसके बाद एक नया cosmic cycle शुरू।

उस पिता परमेश्वर को हिंदु विष्णु कहते हैं। उन्हें यहुदी Yahweh कहते हैं। मुसलमान उन्हें अल्लाह कहते हैं। क्रिस्चियन उन्हें Holy Father कहते हैं। उनका पहला मानव अवतार भगवान राम। यानि कि बाबरी मस्जिद में भगवान राम की ही पुजा हो रही थी। सिख उन्हें अल्लाह और राम दोनों नाम से जानते हैं।

Holy Son जिन्हें क्रिस्चियन कहते हैं उन्हें ही हिन्दु ब्रम्ह कहते हैं, यहुदी Wisdom के नाम से जानते हैं और Holy Daughter कहते हैं। उस Wisdom अर्थात ब्रम्ह का पहला मानव अवतार येशु २,००० साल पहले। दुसरा मानव अवतार मैं।

ब्रम्ह ने हिंदु को वेद दिया। उसी ब्रम्ह को हिन्दु लगातार २,००० साल तक नकार चुका है। अजीब बात नहीं? कहते हो रामभक्त हैं। उसी राम के मंदिर को तोड़ दिया। उसी परमेश्वर के मानव अवतार स्वीकार लेकिन उनका जो unmanifest रूप है वो अस्वीकार?

भगवान कृष्ण ने गीता में कहा है, मेरे दिखाए हुवे रास्ते पर १०,००० में एक लोग चलेंगे और जितने चलेंगे उसमें से १०,००० में एक सफल होंगे। लेकिन Wisdom (यानि कि ब्रम्ह यानि कि येशु) के रास्ते पर चलने वाले सभी paradise पहुँच सकते हैं, चाहे कितना ही पापी क्युँ न हो। ये बात येशु के आने से पहले ३,००० साल पहले भगवान कृष्ण ने कहा।

पृथ्वी एक, स्वर्ग सात। लेकिन जिसे सबसे उपर सातवें स्वर्ग तक पहुँचना है वो वहाँ येशु के रास्ते नहीं पहुँच सकते, उन्हें भगवान श्री कृष्ण के दिखाए रास्ते ही जाना होगा, और वो है योग का रास्ता। अब ५,००० साल बाद शायद ratio बदला जा सकता है। शायद अब १०,००० में एक नहीं १,००० में एक संभव हो जाये। बगैर प्रयास के कैसे पता चलेगा?

यानि की हिन्दु सब baptize हो जाओ और क्रिस्चियन सब के सब योग करने लगो।

जरा सोंचो, सर्वशक्तिमान पिता परमेश्वर जो कुछ भी कर सकते हैं, omnipotent, omniscient, उनके जन्मभुमि पर कोइ उनके अलावे किसी दुसरे का मंदिर बना सकता था क्या?

अच्छा यही होगा कि उस जगह पर मंदिर मस्जिद दोनों बने side by side ताकि उनके मानव अवतार की भी पुजा हो और उनके formless, unmanifest रूप की भी।

गीता को समझने के लिए कोरान पढ्ने की जरुरत होती है।

Arjuna said:

What is it that drives a man
to an evil action, Krishna,
even against his will,
as if some force made him do it?

(Geeta 3:36)

इस प्रश्न को भगवान कृष्ण deflect कर देते हैं क्यों कि उतर के लिए न उस समय अर्जुन तैयार था न मानव जाति। इस प्रश्न का पुर्ण जवाब मिलेगा आपको कोरान में जहाँ खुल के शैतान (Satan) का जिक्र किया गया है।

God So Loved Humanity He Denied His Own Son

Gospel में एक जगह जिजस (येशु) कहता है, यदि तुम में श्रद्धा है तो तुम पहाड़ उठा सकते हो। वो हनुमान के बारे में कहा गया। हनुमान से बढ़ के कोई भक्त पैदा ही नहीं हुवा।








Friday, February 03, 2017

Priyanka On LinkedIn: So Very Inspiring

This reminds me of that essay I read on the New York Times website years ago.

LinkedIn: Priyanka Chopra: We live in tough times... but I have hope
Let me take this a step further… I see us like IGA Jedis, taking UNICEF’s cause further. We are and will always be their catalysts of change.
The picture of PC that emerges is so much fuller, so much more real, so much richer than what you often see in the mainstream media. This makes me appreciate social media just a little more. Her Instagram page is pretty impressive, but this takes it to a whole different level.

Thursday, February 02, 2017

Trump Can't Afford A Trade War



A trade war is a sure recipe to a Great Depression. America had a hard enough time fixing the Great Recession. America will have no options to fix a Great Depression, because the Fed is already tapped out. It has no maneuver room. A Great Depression will mean America will not only become Greece, it will stay Greece, with no way to dig out of the hole.

Which means, if Trump were to lead America into a Great Depression, it will prove the guy is insane. You can then be thankful it is only a Great Depression, and not a nuclear war.

Or maybe all parties concerned will see that a trade war is an empty threat.

The idea of a trade war is as stupid as both Russia and America threatening to "modernize" their nuclear arsenal a few weeks ago. Both Russia and America already have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the planet several times over. What do you mean "modernize!"

The post World War II order is over. Voters in Britain and America have spoken loud and clear. Neither country can afford the leadership roles they have had. It is dollars and cents. And a new world order is not China taking America's place. A new world order is the one person one vote principle taken to its global conclusion. You are looking at a world government.

Britain And America Are Trying To Readjust



The post World War II world order is over. But a new world order has not taken shape yet. The Brexit vote and the Trump victory are Britain and America admitting the leadership role they have had for 70 years is now too expensive. They simply can't afford it anymore.

And that is not a vacuum for China to fill. It is not for any one country to fill. China can't afford it either.

A new world order will be the one person one vote principle taken to its global conclusion. A world government is in the offing.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Border Security?