Thursday, September 19, 2013

Movie Review: Yamla Pagla Deewana 2

You would be a brave moviegoer indeed to subject yourself to this monstrosity, especially if you’ve been through one round of the Yamla Pagla Deewana assault.

The Deol trio possesses oodles of charm all right. But does that mean that the threesome would be just as appealing when they indulge in outright buffoonery? Watch Yamla Pagla Deewana 2, directed by Sangeeth Sivan, if you aren’t sure of the answer. But if you are, stay away.

Dharmendra, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol are joined by an orangutan in this moronic comic caper about a father and son duo that is out to con the world in the face of stiff resistance from the third member of the family – an honest son/sibling who swears by mehnat ki kamaai.

Sunny Deol is Just One Singh, as Johnny Lever (in the guise of a bumbling avatar of Shahrukh Khan’s Don) puts it after being pilloried mercilessly by the Super Sardar.

And the ape is Einstein – yes, that is what the orangutan is called – and his IQ is higher than the two men in its charge in London, Dharam Singh Dhillon (Dharmendra) and Gajodhar Singh Dhillon (Bobby Deol). These two guys are Varanasi thugs who have landed in the UK in the hope of swindling a wealthy nightclub owner, Sir Yograj Singh (Annu Kapoor), of his riches.

Varanasi was the setting of the first film and that is where the sequel opens. Dharam Singh’s upright son, Paramveer Singh Dhillon, is now a UK bank loan recovery official who takes it upon himself to protect the interests of the man that his dad and brother are trying to dupe. The conmen have no idea that their intended prey is deep in debt and is struggling to save his business.

There are two girls in this soup, both daughters of the bankrupt tycoon. Gajodhar has his eyes on one of them (Neha Sharma), while Paramveer falls for the other (Kristina Akheeva).

The rigmarole make about as much sense as Dharmendra’s attempts to communicate with the orangutan. Gibberish infects the entire film and the air of inanity thickens to such an extent that what is supposed to be humorous repeatedly takes the shape of tiresome gags.

On a serious note, it is hard to believe that 77-year-old Dharmendra is in such dire straits that he is reduced to this. One can only pray and hope that the generous rabba that Sunny Deol keeps appealing to in the film, will save the Deols from any further misadventures of this nature.

The spirit of Salman Khan is invoked on numerous occasions in the course of YPD 2 and Bobby Deol even spouts lines from films of the Dabangg star.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
ExecutiveMBA

Monday, September 09, 2013

Sidney Herbert to Florence Nightingale

Crimean War was fought between Russia on the one hand and the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, France, and Sardinia on the other. The causes of the conflict were inherent in the unsolved Eastern Question and dispute between Russia and France over the Palestinian holy land. British statesman Sir Sidney Herbert, who was head of Britain war office, wrote this letter to Florence Nightingale urging to mobilize and train nurses for the war victims. Nightingale responded positively and was awarded with the sobriquet “Lady with the lamp” when war got over.

16 Feb 1855, Crimea


You will have seen in the papers that there is a great deficiency of nurses at the Hospital of Scutari.

The other alleged deficiencies, namely of medical men, link, sheets, etc., must, if they have really ever existed, have been remedied ere this, as the number of medical officers with the Army amounted to one to every 95 men in the whole force, being nearly double what we have ever had before, and 30 more surgeons went out 3 weeks ago, and would by this time, therefore, be at Constantinople. A further supply went on Thursday, and a fresh batch sail next week.

As to medical stores, they have been sent out in profusion; lint by the ton weight, 15,000 pairs of sheets, medicine, wine, arrowroot in the same proportion; and the only way of accounting for the deficiency at Scutari, if it exists, is that the mass of stores went to Varna, and was not sent back when the Army left for the Crimea; but four days would have remedied this. In the meanwhile fresh stores are arriving.

But the deficiency of female nurses is undoubted, none but male nurses having ever been admitted to military hospitals. It would be impossible to carry about a large staff of female nurses with the Army in the field. But at Scutari, having now a fixed hospital, no military reason exists against their introduction, and I am confident they might be introduced with great benefit, for hospital orderlies must be very rough hands, and most of them, on such on occasion as this, very inexperienced ones. There is but one person in England that I know of who would be capable of organising and superintending such a scheme; and I have been several times on the point of asking you hypothetically if, supposing the attempt were made, you would undertake to direct it.

The selection of the rank and file of nurses will be very difficult; no one knows it better than yourself. The difficulty of finding women equal to a task, after all, full of horrors, and requiring, besides knowledge and goodwill, great energy and great courage, will be great. The task of ruling them and introducing system among the, great; and not the least will be the difficulty of making the whole work smoothly with the medical and military authorities out there. This it is which makes it so important that the experiment should be carried out by one with a capacity for administration and experience. If this succeeds, an enormous amount of good will be done now.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Saturday, September 07, 2013

Movie Review: Go Goa Gone

Saif Ali Khan is a bit of a freako in B-town who, despite enjoying star-lineage, is truly different.  The Chhote Nawab has a definite life beyond movies, is a voracious reader, known to have a scintillating wit and is forever open to the unconventional.  Story goes that when the director-duo went across to Saif for a narration in the hope of getting him to play the lead role, initial zap & bewilderment [“a movie about zombies?  Are you guys nuts?”] was followed, very soon, by hysterical laughter and a firm commitment to not only act, but produce the film as well!

As expected, G3 is bizarre and has zero reference to context in terms of anything Bollywood has ever done in this unusual, crazy genre.  What for chrissake is a zombie-com??  This could pose as a huge roadblock with fans of the usual B-town staple [toilet humour, action & rom-com] but audiences with open minds and willing to enjoy the whacky & weird are in for a treat!  Three fun-loving guys & their girlfriend rock at a rave party in Goa hosted by a mad-looking Russian and get bombed with booze & drugs.  They wake up to find that they are in zombie-land.  Scared like hell, they run helter-skelter, clueless about the next move and given some kind of protection by the crazy Russian, who himself is scared shit too but doesn’t show it, feigning bravado.  Its pure, unadulterated madness cut loose unleashing wisecracks powered with manic energy on an overdrive.

The performances are uniformly good – Kunal Khemu, Vir Das, Anand Tiwari and the girl Puja Gupta.  Saif as the crazy Russian [with that funny golden hair] is superbly spot-on too.  It’s a very different genre with the concept of zombies coming centre-stage and all the action around them offering a novel experience.  The camera work – lensing Goa & Mauritius – is sumptuous, the music appropriately wacky, but as a narrative – situations & dialogues – can sometimes be a bit tiresome due to its repetitiveness & forced gags.  After all, how long can you keen the zingers going fresh, hilarious & original, na?  Everything considered, however, a great bold leap into a whole new fun-land!  Heavily recommended for al lovers of whacky fun!  Bravo Krishna & Raj … Go, Goa, Gone will go places!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Monday, July 29, 2013

The end of poverty

Will World Bank's plans to eradicate poverty by 2030 succeed?

Jim Yong Kim, President of World Bank, has set out on an ambitious goal. He is looking to remake the world in his own image that will surely appear utopian to many. What Kim wants is to have “a sustainable world where all households have access to clean energy. A world where everyone has enough to eat. A world where no one dies from preventable diseases.” That looks like a tall order but the World Bank has a plan of its own. It is to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. At a time when the world is yet to recover from a full-blown recession and where more than one-fifth of the population still languishes in dire poverty, Kim's chances of fulfilling his dreams may look improbable, if not impossible.

However, this bleak economic picture is not deterring the World Bank from pursuing its lofty goals. Its stated mission “to end extreme poverty within a generation” has not been compromised. The target itself is an update of the Bank's Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set in 2000. It was born out of the Bank's desire to end the misery of 1.3 billion people living on less than $1.25 a day. The MDG goals, according to World Bank, are reasonably supported by the organization’s data, which showed a drop in absolute poverty from 43% in 1990 to 21% in 2010.

However, there are two impediments in the way of accomplishing Kim’s dream. First, the environmental challenge of climate change could act as a big dampener to economic growth and development. The lives of 360 million people would be in jeopardy by the turn of the century if the root causes of climate change and its devastating effect on food grain production are not tackled. Experts predict that catastrophic climate changes would be brought about by noxious emissions and increasing pollution to the environment. Environmental abuse would lead to a rise in the global temperature by as much as 4 degree Celsius – an outcome that must stopped at all costs. Second, the developing and underdeveloped nations will need to catch up with the richer nations through sustainable economic development if they aspire to lift their teeming masses out of poverty.

The problem is that lifting the first impediment can have a negative impact on the second. That is because industries in the developing world are mostly environmentally non-compliant and polluting. So enforcing emission norms would mean shutting down manufacturing units. That is one reason why the geographical pattern of poverty reduction is largely lopsided – only 45 out of 84 developing countries are on track towards meeting the environmental goal. Likewise, the prospects of achieving sustainable economic development appear not too bright considering that it requires adroit planning, inclusiveness and uniform wealth distribution, which are often missing in the developing countries’ economic agendas.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman

ExecutiveMBA

Thursday, June 06, 2013

EPA proposes, industry disposes

Why its environmental proposals have failed to pass muster

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) deadline of April 13, putting a ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions on new factories, has fallen flat on its face. As a result, it has been forced to extend the deadline. The emission target was set by the EPA a year back to limit the release of CO2 per unit megawatt hour of electricity for new factories to 1,000 pounds. But the target makes life difficult for factories, especially coal plants, which on an average emit about 1,768 pounds of CO2. Given this reality, it's not surprising that the EPA directive has prompted over two million outraged comments, forcing it to extend the deadline and ponder on the validity of the imposed targets.

This is not the first time that the EPA has been constrained to stretch its deadline. Even before, complainants have moved court, putting the brakes on EPA's plans. Most of these legal manoeuvres have been prompted by economic reasons. But to say that the impasse was created only because of stakeholders wanting to protect their financial interests would be stretching things a bit too far.

Of course the EPA move would affect the economy negatively, at least in the short run. But it also goes to show that policy wonks haven’t got their maths worked out prudently. The EPA model for Tier 3 improvements doesn’t factor in, according to the Environ International Corp, any health betterment for the people. On the contrary, as per the American Petroleum Institute, the gasoline price will be hiked by 6-9 cents per gallon. And that’s an indirect cost on top of the $10 billion direct capital outlay. Clearly, the internally made model of EPA is flawed to its roots. It neither provides a solution to human health improvements nor does it help in mending the economic frailties as they exist.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles