Enemy - Lurking around Darkness

"Enemy" by Denis Villeneuve starring Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the few films in recent years which sticks to its charm of darkness without overplaying the card of testing the viewer with the perplexed plot which reveals itself as the film progresses.

Denis Villeneuve manages to push me into this uncomfortable zone of darkness right from the beginning with the edifying and encapsulated screenplay assisted with cinematography which doesn't let your brain to escape from cramped space of murkiness.

The plot of the film looks perplexed, adds the beauty, but its the recurring theme of chaos which is the connotation of the film and arguably the pivotal part of the film. I was so mesmerized with the gloomy effect of the film that when I watched the film for the second time, I was thinking "How did I miss all these things".

The case against the Uniform Civil Code

How often do we find ourselves trapped into moral ambiguities arguing over an imperative issue and eventually end up being seen as a comrade of the opposite side of the ideological spectrum? Laws which govern or regulate individuals, groups and communities are pivotal of any functioning democracy. It’s the perspective on laws which loosely defines the attitude of the government towards its society; to be precise it represents the perception of the state towards an individual.

Let us have no doubts that making (framing) laws is a tough job in a pluralist sovereign democracy which had got rid of the colonial past and only some of its colonial draconian laws. India, is still dealing with colonial hangover by having loyalty to some of the colonial laws. Like any other republic or democratic nation even we have our problems when it comes to Criminal and Personal laws.

A call for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in India has a history which nourished intellectual thinking, political thought, challenged ideological positions and sometimes manifested the aspirations of political parties. The Hindu Code bill defines the personal laws of people who follow Dharmic faiths i.e. Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs, and is not applied to the people of Non-Dharmic faiths that being Muslims and Christians. A nation should have one code whether it’s the criminal law or personal law irrespective of religion. But, does the previous statement have any chance to taste its existence in the near future?

Oil vs Dollar – Its affects on world economy

Note 1: In world every good has a price, demand side and a supply side. The higher demand OR lack of demand hints supplier to increase OR decrease price of a good accordingly.

Note 2: Someone told you "An apple a day keeps doctor away". Now you decide to eat apple and you think its nutrients rich. People like you think similarly, such that, apple gains prominence.

Now combine above two NOTE and read on. You have 100(some currency) with you and you went to market on a bicycle to buy apples. Seller says each apple is 12, you bargain badly with seller. Finally both of you agree on 10 per apple, and you bought 10 apples for 100. Both seller and buyer are happy (don't worry about how much it costs for the seller; limit your imagination to this transaction under current market conditions of this buyer and this seller). Now someone goes in a BMW car to buy apples from the same seller, this guy will not bargain and buys at 12 per apple. Essentially 100 fetched buyer1 10 apples, for buyer2 8.333~ apples.

What if apples production is scarce? Now seller will not heed to buyer 1 bargain and for buyer 2 this seller might quote a higher price (say 15). In this scenario buyer1 gets 8.33 apples for his 100, buyer 2 gets 6.666~ apples for his 100.

What if there are abundant apples? Now this Seller might drop the price to 10 per apple. Buyer 1 will still bargain for 8 per apple and gets 12.5 apples for 100. Buyer 2 will get 10 apples for his 100.

Moral of the story is, any "Good" be it apple, t-shirt, gold or Oil, the price of it is determined based on goods availability, the quality of goods, suppliers greed, purchasers bargaining ability, purchasers financial ability etc.. Which are called market forces. With this knowledge lets now try to understand recent trend in decreasing Oil prices, how it affects $, how it is affecting Russian Ruble and Indian Rupee.

Luc Besson's "Lucy"

Like his previous films 'Nikita' and 'Leon', Luc Besson's "Lucy" has a female protagonist played by  Scarlett Johansson who gets trapped into the murky dealings of drug mafia and accidentally Lucy gets extraordinary powers which are not possessed by normal human beings as normal people use just 10 % of their brain where as Lucy gradually increases the utility rate of her brain to the greater good of sharing knowledge to the next generations.

The above plot may not come closer to any of Luc Besson's previous works but "Lucy" has Besson's signature where Sci-Fi elements gets involved with nature. "Lucy" has the style of Luc Besson approach, its just that here we have a Sci-Fi element.

Finding Vivian Maier

Sometimes people may ask these questions to you regarding the non-official or part-time work which you are doing.

• Who is going to read it?
• Who is going to watch it?
• How can it make a difference?

The above questions does make one ponder, but some people do things which they feel like doing even though they are sure that it will not bring fame, money etc...

A Facebook status, a tweet or a blog post may seem to be worthless and merely a time waste but those small things in the long run do make a difference, same is the case with the photographs of unknown Vivian Maier who was recently discovered and stunned the photographic lovers all over the world. Finding Vivian Maier is a film which tracks the history of mysterious woman Vivian Maier. I wont say its a must watch documentary but definitely a good one.

Bumpy Journey of BJP in the Telugu land

Allow me to start this post with ironies surrounding the BJP. BJP has no active role to play in the politics of West Bengal which is the birth place of one its ideological founder. BJP was officially founded by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K.Advani, who have taken the party from 2 seats to 3 digits. Out of the 2 seats which the BJP won, one was from Andhra Pradesh and other being Gujarat and history tells us how BJP progressed in both these states.

When there was no strong opposition to counter the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh, NTR formed Telugu Deasam Party (TDP) with a landslide victory on debut. In May 1983, NTR successfully held a meeting of opposition leaders spanning across the country at Vijayawada which was attended by MGR, Ramakrishna Hegde, Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Pawar, Menaka Gandhi, L.K.Advani and others. NTR was not hesitant in showing that his regional party can play an active role at national level but the same spirit was never found with the BJP which was a national party to be an active regional player in Andhra Pradesh.

In 1994, NTR was back with a bang. TDP+ won 250 out of 294 assembly seats and L.K.Advani in a discussion with Prannoy Roy said “This marks the beginning of the end of the Congress party as the dominant political force of India”, L.K.Advani is right but the lotus failed to bloom in Andhra Pradesh despite the chances given to them.

It may come to many as a surprise that the first mayor of Vishakhapatnam (Vizag) was from BJP. N.S.N. Reddy was elected as the first mayor of Vizag and also served as an MLA. It was because of the lack of clarity and direction in state unit, the BJP could not take its leaders and ideology into the masses of Andhra Pradesh.