Clown and the Tiger

This morning, I was reading a piece by Amit Varma, The IPL reveals India's bench strength. This was not the first piece I have been reading on similar lines—some of them by notable cricket writers. I asked myself—Am I missing something? How can the IPL tell you about the bench strength? In that case, have I understood the word 'bench strength' correctly?

These guys must be joking, I felt. How can IPL tell you about the bench strength? When Tevez isn't part of the Manchester United eleven, that is bench strength. When Lionel Messi is a reserve in the Argentinean team, it tells you about the bench strength of the team! How can a Gony and a Dinda tell you about the bench strength of the Indian team for the longer version based on some festival cricket? Probably, the IPL or T20 can give you an indication of their talents, which they need to take forward to do well in the international arena. This still doesn't add up to the bench strength of the Indian team!

How can a four-over spell in a domestic festival match give an indication of a bowler's capability at the higher level? Just because a clown tames a tiger in a circus, you can't make him a forest ranger, can you? Similarly, how can an innings of 40 in an IPL match tell you that an opener can face a Steyn or a Lee on a bouncy wicket? The ideal way is to test these guys in a four-day environment and see if they have picked up anything from the Pontings or McGraths or Warnes. If the players come up trumps and force their way into the Indian team, then you can probably mutter the word 'bench strength' (not say it)!

But I get this uneasy feeling—that our selectors will pick a team based on the IPL performances—too often have they ignored their instincts and gone by public sentiment (anybody?). Probably, bench strength means that players are good enough to sit on the bench and not good enough to play at the highest level—I hope not.

Curtain Down on Vijay Tendulkar!

Vijay Tendulkar no more—An end of an era, said the newspapers last Tuesday.

I first heard of Tendulkar when I watched Sinhasan in school. Today's generation must note that Sinhasan was a classic Marathi movie of the seventies directed by Jabbar Patel. It is probably the finest political drama ever made on cinema. Political dramas can be boring and predictable beyond a point. But not Sinhasan—it was gripping and had a feel of realism around it.

As I grew up, I saw more of Tendulkar's works on cinema—Manthan and Nishant from the Benegal stable, Aakrosh and Ardh Satya from Govind Nihalani, Saamna and Umbartha by Jabbar Patel—each a riveting drama of human conflicts. I have all of them in my DVD collection. Having revisited them again, I dare say that he was India's finest screen writer. In the coming days, I intend to watch Aakrosh and Aakreit and celebrate! I do regret that I have not seen his celebrated plays, barring Kanyadaan, which I thought was decently done by Lilette Dubey's team. I am seriously hunting for those DVDs! Anyone?

There are few things that stand out in memory!

There was liberalism written all over him. This is pretty evident from the way he created situations and characters in his work. I am often disappointed with 'liberals'—most of them are imposters who find it ‘cool’ to be ‘liberal’—that's not the point! What is important is that you need not just listen to Pink Floyd, follow Obama vs. Clinton debates, and profess atheism to be liberal. Tendulkar showed that you could be an iconoclast without having to think in English!

He was a strong personality. Some of the subjects he dealt with in his movies were women empowerment, rural awakening, and political awareness. Remember the last scene in Nishant where the entire village rises in rebellion against their employers, the village landlords, who have nothing but brutality and avarice in their CVs. Remember the female protagonist in Umbartha, who stakes her marriage to an affluent family to work in an asylum. They tell you that his characters were strong people, much like himself!

Can there be another Tendulkar? Rather, is there quality theater happening in India? No. But that discussion is for another day. Not today. Today, we’ll take a bow to someone who rewrote traditional theater in India! Tendulkar, RIP!

Parakh

I saw Parakh last night. Released in 1960, Parakh was directed by the great Bimal Roy. For today's generation, please note that Bimal Roy was one of our greatest movie makers, and he made classics such as Do Bigha Zameen, Devdas, Parineeta (old), Biraj Bahu, Madhumati, Sujata, and Bandini—each movie a trailblazer!

Parakh is a story set in a village where the do-gooder postmaster receives a cheque of 500, 000 INR(pretty huge amount in the fifties!). Instead of keeping it for himself, he calls a meeting of the village elders to decide on the rightful recipient. The meeting ends with a call for an election where people would decide on the rightful recipient. The rest of the movie shows how each of the village elder takes the extra effort to please the villagers—it’s quite funny at times. The movie has enough interesting turns till the end. What keeps you transfixed is the setting—it’s a village in the early fifties of a young independent India, grappling with freedom, development and above all a nascent democracy. The village settings with the various characters actually provide a wonderful backdrop to metaphorize democracy.

The star of the movie is its storyline. I am not talking about Bimalda—the movie showcases his obvious craft! Watch out for an effortless performance by Motilal, and an equally refreshing one from an almost-unrecognizable Sadhana. There are some gems composed by Salil Choudhury. Worth a dekko, it transports you to an era when India was coming to terms with freedom, democracy, and development. I feel the movie is a must-see because we now tend to take these very issues for granted!

Lord Krishna is playing T20

There is a story in the Mahabharata when Arjuna and Duryodhana call on Lord Krishna before the war. The Lord asks them to choose between His services and His army’s might. Arjuna chooses the Lord. Duryodhana feels that Arjuna was a fool not to use the army’s might. He goes for the Lord’s army. We know what happened in the war!

I was reminded of this twice during this week. From what I follow in a very limited manner, Viru’s Delhi Daredevils and Warne’s Rajasthan Royals are doing very well in the IPL and look to be the frontrunners for the title. Most teams packed themselves with batsmen, since the format suits batsmen. However, Viru and his management went for their Lord Krishna, Glenn McGrath. It’s been a treat to see the great man come and bowl, and take wickets. The Rajasthan Royals, again, had no star batsman, but found their Lord Krishna in Shane Warne. The master has been dishing out T20’s version of the Bhagavad Geeta! I saw some tactical gems during their match yesterday.

On 1st June, 2008, we will all know whether the Lord is winning or His army!