A Few Good Men : A tribute to slected Hindi Films directors.

Mukul S. Anand



Mukul anand was in the making of a great film maker. Was is a painfull word which says “is not” and “will never.” Painful is the loss of Mukul Anand for hindi film industry and the viewers.

Date fact is Mukul Anand has never given a box office ruler or a critically acclaimed cinema. Many might question his place in a few good men. But for me its very important to mention Mukul Anand's name because of his notable efforts to make a good entertainer with new approach, a new thought. Basically, experimenting with mainstream cinema like his co-laterals Ram Gopal Verma, Pankaj Parasher, Mansoor Khan, Raj Santoshi etc. Some of these above mentioned names went away dumping the expectations raised by their work and a few are struggling to get it right. Such is the graph of creative energy. Who knows if Mukul Anand was around today, he might have had a block buster or a metal doll from some moviefair. He had the capacity, but unfortunately the journey came to a hault.

Manmohan Desai, sultan of non-sense cinemas as they called him, once said, "from the new breed, Mukul Anand can be a very good film maker, only thing he lacks is command over emotional drama." How true it was. Now we have to understand this from a general indian film lover's point of view. Either its three brothers donating blood directly to their mother throwing all the medical science out of the window or the subtle but heart stirring tale of a poet, Emotions come before logic to Indians. They want emotional attachment with the characters, in case of cinema if the protogonist is bogged down with calamities, we instantly generate a soft corner for him/her. Mukul Anand's films seldomly carried these emotional tear jerkers, the emotional encounters in his movies would be rather power generators.

But the reason Mukul was more known for was his technically suave films. Remember the super stylish scenes of Amitabh in Hum, capturing the rustic beauty of Bombay Docks, Bushquashi in KhudaGawah, Landscapes of Afghan, Amitabh running through the slums with a sword in hand. These kind of things are critisised as choreographed violence in all parts of the world cinema. Fact remains is the command of the movie director over the medium.

Mukul Anand's first hindi movie "Kanoon Kya Karega?" was based on hollywood thriller “Cape Fear” as his following film "Aitbar" was taken from "Dial M For Murder". Both the movies had a very good narration and slick handling. After that Mukul tried a costume drama arabian style "Sultanat" with Dharmendra, Sunny and Karan Kapur which was Karan's and Juhi Chawla's debut movie- Sultanat. But being on a grand scale, big starcast Mukul Anand couldn't bring the X factor in the movie.

Surely the path raiser period was when he signed a 3 film deal with Amitabh Bacchan, then fading superstar. Agneepath today has become a mile stone in many ways. Mukul Anand had really cultivated his characters very beautifully. Be it the trio of dons who adapt Vijay and then go against him, or Rohini Hattangadi's school teacher mom, Mithun's sweet malbari nariyal pani wala (he won awards for it), Danny Dengzopa's suave don 'Kancha Cheena' and ofcourse standing tall 'Amitabh - Vijay Dinanath Chauhan'. Amitabh potrayed this cold, confident don with high intensity. After a long period an actor was given what he was best at. Even today whenever any channel has 'Agneepath' on, all hardcore Amitabh fans are glued to their t.v. sets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMPU8r_-Xjk

Second of MA & AB venture was 'Hum'. This time Mukul experimented with Amitabh the superstar and nearly 1/4th of the movie showed Amitabh as an above middle aged, over protecting, over worried and over fearing family head. I'm sure many of the Amitabh lovers might be at a lower degree when they saw him bearing the mild look with grey hair. But it remained for first few minutes because mukul anand brilliantly weaved the screenplay in such a manner that people got involved with the character.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3da-wmMk3M

Unfortunately neither 'Hum' nor 'Khudagawah' could reach 'Agneepath's level. Mukul Anand's later work 'Trimurti' under Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts was pathetic, barring Anil Kapoor's performance. Two of the best directors from entertaining cinema genre failed to create their much expected magical spell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5vpaqCRMaE&feature=related

After “Trimurti” Mukul Anand planned “Dus”, an action thriller, starring Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan. The auto generated hype because of it’s plot, star cast and shooting reports were convincing for his fans.

Mukul Anand passed away when the film was 40% complete leaving his fans who still believe that Mukul Anand was in the making of a great director.

http://www.mukulsananddreamsgalore.com/

Counter Strike is Back

No one at c2w had imagined that the evening of 28th march would be so entertaining rather thrilling. It was a grand comeback of Counter Strike 1.2 (a popular LAN game) tournament for the inter-office teams. Everybody was pumped up and since it was a Friday, drinks were on the cards. Given time was after 7.30 pm and it indeed started after 7.30 pm because as usual on weekends a lot of time goes in winding up the work.

There was a huge fracas selecting the teams. As per the playing experience and the skills, knowledge of the game- people at c2w are divided in three layers. Rookies, Regular, and Very good players. No body obviously wanted to be a part of the weaker team.

But finally the teams formed had the right “Khunnas” equation amongst them. Team A was lead by Tiger with Scorpion, Scientist, MAK, KP, and Nil. Team B was lead by Suppafly with Blaqwulf, Dr. J, 2Die4, Bryan, Ajagarrr. Team C was lead by Dr._____, with Spartan Kid, Spy, Yo, GP and Dark Side. Team C was the ‘underdogs’ as they were comparatively newer to the maps of CS.

As the drums rolled, first league match was decided by a chit pick. It was Team B Vs Team C.


Team B Vs Team C [League Match]:

Team B were the defending champs and Team C was a mix of good players and new bees. The map picked up was ‘Dust II’. Each team had to play both Terrorists and Counter Terrorists for 10 minutes round. Each win would give 2 points to the team. And the battle started.


Team B being T’s first, were far superior to Team C and they crushed them in the first round. In the next round Team C tried to put up a fight when they were T’s but Suppafly’s boys took full advantage of the lack of discipline in Team C and earned a mighty 4 points badge.


Team A Vs Team C [League Match]:

Everybody expected team A to nudge Team B who was topping the charts with 4 points as Team C was looking scattered, uninspired. The map they got was Aztec.

Team A started as ‘T’s. With a solid strategy chalked out everybody was wondering how Team C would tackle it. The answer was seen in next few minutes when Team A surprisingly started getting knocked off by Team C’s mob attack. After a first few rounds Team A as ‘T’s was looking like a bunch of gangsters getting shot by CTs. Team A lost the first match, and that did a lot to boost Team C’s confidence.

Next 10 minutes were tasting period for Team A (Little did they know that this was going to happen for every round they would play next) but they managed to win as CTs in Aztec over Team C.

One of the major problems with Team A was the ‘state of the art’ technology support at office we get. Game in Tiger’s PC was lagging, MAK had to swap three different PCs for the same and the topping was- CS was not at all installed in Scientist ‘s PC, which was ‘discovered’ at the last moment.


Team A Vs Team B [League Match]:

Now this was the beginning of ‘Clash of the Titans’. The defending champions and the runner-ups were going to say hi to each other for the first time. The map picked up was ‘Corruption’.

Team B started as T’s and they played like it was their ‘daily Karma’. Team A’s strategy was still not getting rendered. One of the major worries was Team A’s ace marksman Scorpion was under a bit anxiety attack. He was not the usual smooth operator and to top that, the support line he needed protecting the bomb site never reached him.


Team A lost the round and Team B started getting more visual to upset Team A. This time Tiger and team realized that they had to win this or pack their bags as they were hanging to the charts with only 1 point. Being T you always have the advantage of being quick, and that’s what Tiger, Nil and KP started doing from the word ‘Go’. It wasn’t easy at all to dodge the CT’s as corruption is the home ground of suppafly and his boys. But as they say in CS ‘Be Quick or Be Dead’. Team A and Team B was 3-3 at this and in the last minute, Team A went all guns blazing for the much required one game win, and they snatched it.

The chart was showing quite interesting equation now. Team A was ruling it with 6 points. Team B and Team C were at 3 points each. The fight was on to reach the final between tigers of team A and the young guns of Team C.


Semi Final – Team A Vs Team C:

It’s well known that Team A is not quite fond of two maps. One is ‘Corruption’ and the other is ‘Prodigy’. So when there was not a very encouraging experience at ‘Corruption’, Team A was very cautious as the map was ‘Prodigy. So was Team C, because this was a ‘Sudden Death’ game. Where only one round was to be played of 10 minutes and no coming back chance with swapping sides. Side’s decision was decided on coin toss. Team C captain Dr._____, won the toss and wished to fight as CT.

Team A’s captain, Tiger relieved the controls and told the teammates to forget the pressure and play a natural game. The only strategy was to reach a certain bombsite in a disciplined manner. Being ‘T’ you can afford to be together instead of guarding two separate bombsites as ‘CT’s would do. So Team A started working as per their plan. It was such a disciplined convoy that Germans would have been jealous. Everybody did exactly what they were supposed to do. Nil opened up with flash bombings, Scorpion and Scientist stormed in with Nil. Tiger and MAK protecting the back. But whatever KP did in this game was absolutely stunning. He swept the little confused Team C soldiers with a ride.


After the first 3 wins Team A played a rather controversial ‘Negative Game’. Which was introduced by Suppafly. In a round of 10 minutes if ‘T’ side wins first 3-4 games, they start chilling at the base and ‘CT’s have to come calling and face the guerilla attacks of ‘T’s. I accept this is a fair “War” strategy but not sure how fair is this as a ‘Game’ strategy. It is also true that ‘CS’ was no longer a game now. It was a “War Of The Worlds”.

Team C was helpless and Team A had to be ruthless. They had to reach in the finals. They wanted Suppafly and company to fight really hard for the ‘Caps’. Team C lost badly and Tiger and his boys were in the finals.


THE FINALS [Team A Vs Team B]:

In the game of cricket, it is said that a final at ‘The Lords’ is the final moksha. For this final, Both Suppafly and Tiger knew the meeting point. Where they had pulled the triggers for the first time, where they had taken their first head shot, where they had learnt the art of war and where both of them had always an issue of ‘Claims’. It was the ‘Mecca’ of ‘CS’.

‘The Dust’.


Team B started off as ‘T’s. Team A was ready to welcome them as ‘CT’s. It was a dream final, and both the teams were in their favorite avatars. If there, ever would be a ‘CS’ training and Tiger and Scorpion would be the professors – the first thing as ‘CT’s in ‘Dust’ they would tell you to buy a sniper and reach the ‘A’ kitchen. This is how they had earned a ‘Kitchen Killers’ tag. (Kitchen is a place in bombsite ‘A’ of map ‘Dust’ from where you can snipe the ‘T’s easily coming from the tunnel.) Where as Suppafly and Blaqwulf would love telling you not to spend your time in shopping and storm in the ‘A’ Side before the ‘CT’ reaches there.

Both the sides knew who will meet whom and where. The question was who would be the first to reach? Blaqwulf, Suppafly and Dr. J started zipping through the tunnel doors to ‘A’. There was an intense battle at the tunnel and double doors of ‘A’. But gradually Tiger and Scorpion started crashing, as Team B was getting too aggressive and both of them were also losing on the backup lines. After losing first few games, Team A again forgot the basic mantra of discipline and opened a random attack. On the contrary, after winning the first few games Team B as ‘T’s started playing the ‘Base-Rest’ game. Tiger and team was finding it really hard to rush in as they were out of money, ammo and mind. Team B had won the first half and drawn the first blood. The difference was 6-2.

Team A was again on the verge of a nervous break down. They had lost a game, where they thought, they were the best. Now they had to win this 10 minutes game as ‘T’s which none of them were confident of. This time Scorpion, MAK, Scientist, KP everybody shared their plans with Tiger, and all of them came with a bit risky strategy. they had to beat the eye of Blaqwulf, who was sniping from kitchen. Beat Dr. J from Dhobighat, the other sniping point.

As Tiger told everybody to dump the losing fear and it was okay even if they loose, it was so in contrast with his characteristics, but it helped the team as a booster. It killed- the anxiety effect on Scorpion, made KP and Nil free, removed pressure from Scientist.

Scorpion and Scientist took the responsibility of taking care of the ‘Kitchen Eye’. Nil, Tiger and KP were to come out from the ‘Upper Sub-Way’ blinding the ‘Dhobi Ghat’ sniper. Team A had decided to go to bombsite ‘B’ as they assumed Team B would concentrate more on the regular bombsite ‘A’.

As the round started Team A started goofing up. Nobody went as per the plan and Team B began with a positive note. In the second round Tiger and team composed themselves. Scorpion went ahead in tunnel calmly as Scientist followed. Sometimes people realize the risk they had taken, only after they take the total control. Scorpion, struggling to get back his command had this one chance. It was the toughest place to protect ever in this tournament. It was to fetch a meatloaf from lion’s jaw.

Scorpion and Blaqwulf, share the same equation as Suppafly and Tiger. (Same as Scientist and Dr. J.) Both of them were racing in game at the stake of their lives.


Whatever Scorpion did from the tunnel was so lighting fast that Blaqwulf never really had the chance to shoot the hens with his expensive toy. Scientist was equally superb as a side rhythm. Nil from the other end was precise with his flash blinding, which made way for Tiger, MAK and KP. Team A’s plan to reach bombsite ‘B’ was indeed working. It started putting pressure on Suppafly’s Team B. They knew, if they lose first 3-4 matches Tigers will be taking a chill pill at their cave, and to go calling for a hunt was not a good idea.

Team A was determined to work it in the same way and Wallah! they were successful in pulling the first three games. Now everybody knew the scene and being the promoter of the ‘Base-Rest’ game, Suppafly was quite prepared for this. Team B started storming in the tunnel. But Nil and KP were easily toying with the invaders along with Tiger. Scorpion and Scientist along with MAK, had a different hangout at the ‘T’ spawn to take care of Team B’s shockers.

Team A won this round by much more margin than Team B had won as ‘T’s. Some of the Team B members thanked their faiths for not pushing their idea of marginal victories.

It was so story like, so inspiring for Team ‘A’, that they had made even with Team B. But it is never easy to be the Champions, The deciding final was a sudden death between both the teams. The map was ‘Dust II’. Suppafly won the toss and chose to fight as ‘T’s, which sent shivers in the camps of Team A.


The Ultimate Final: Sudden Death:

Dust II has mixed reactions from both the teams. But Team A was more worried about the ‘Base-Rest’ strategy Team B would go for sure after initial wins. Tiger’s prediction was ‘T’s would go for bombsite ‘B’ and hence Team A put two snipers – Scorpion and Scientist, with a backup - Nil in ‘B’. In bombsite ‘A’ MAK would check the stretch, which comes to ‘A’ and Tiger would be at his right side looking at guests coming in from the corridor.

KP was kept at the spawning point to be flexible to help both the sides.

But who knew what was on ‘T’s minds?

‘T’ started very unusually. Mob attacking from ‘A’ which was a move Tiger and team never expected. MAK crashed to their attack with Tiger. The picture was clear. They were planting the bomb at ‘A’. Suppafly had thought really of a smart strategy. Team B started with a Win. In the second consecutive attack they knocked off MAK and Tiger from A. But to confuse Team A, some of the ‘T’s went to bombsite ‘B’.

That proved to be a blunder afterwards, because Scorpion and Scientist were sitting in ‘B’ for a grand welcome. Scientist, who had chosen his place, his strategy and his backup was so precise, that many of the ‘T’s never really realized what hit them. Scorpion next to him was doing what he loves best. ‘Shooting chicken’.

Suppafly had a really brilliant plan to attack ‘A’ and he succeeded too, but there was someone who changed his equation. It was KP who was kept at a hand’s distance who once even defused the bomb killing Suppafly and Dr. J. While the ‘CT’s and ‘T’s were firing at each other at the opposite bombsite ‘B’.

Team A had taken a lead now. Which derailed Suppafly, and he made his first and only mistake in the whole tournament. He ordered his team to follow him blindly. Same mistake, which Tiger had done earlier, was to make players follow a plan and not planning as per their skills.


You can afford mistakes in league matches but not in sudden death. ‘T’s started barging in ‘B’ and whatever happened after that was a plain massacre. Scorpion enjoyed pulling the trigger royally as he enjoyed his scotch. Because, Scientist was playing a game of his lifetime. A man, who was ridiculed for playing with a sniper in small maps, who was teased as ‘Sniper mamma’s boy’, who was accounted as a spent force in CS, was screaming from the D3Au barrel and shutting the opponent’s mouths forever. He was playing, what he knew best. ‘Blasting the ‘T’ heads.’ Clouds of anxiety attacks started surrounding Suppafly and his boys now. Team B’s lieutenants – Blaqwulf and Dr. J were simply confused and for the first time Team B rhythm and confidence was shattered. Surprisingly Bryan and Ajagarrr, last line of Team B, started putting up a fight.

It was too late by now. Team A was leading with a big margin of 7-1. When the game stopped, Tiger, Scorpion, Scientist, MAK, Nil, KP couldn’t just believe what they had achieved. It was not just a cap. It was a symbol of the unbelievable team spirit, out of the world game play, courage under fire and above all it was a symbol of invincible pride. It was a badge which made them different from rest of the world. It said ‘We Are The Champions! We Are The Champions!’

Shut Your Mouth Aussies!

“Talk less than you know.” Perhaps no body taught this to Mr. Ricky Ponting when he was a child and may be was less arrogant. The result is showing so often in India’s tour to Australia, early this year (Dec 2007 – Jan 2008).

Before the first 20-20 World Cup this same Mr. Australian Captain had dismissed Team India, not as a possible threat to Australia. He went further saying that India was a highly overrated team and he knew whom to watch out rather than India.

Everybody knows Dhoni’s boys owned Aussies and further captured the First T20 world cup.


After that the T20 match in India, was a replay of the T20 world cup where Indians proved their superiority in this version of cricket.

Spurts of controversy surfaced even before Indian team landed in Australia. Harbhajan the turbunator along with Yuvraj singh declared that this Team India was not going to take the verbal blows lying down; on the contrary they would come back and make the scores even.

Australian players were not ready for this payback as they were not used to this. I would even say that they were not prepared for something like this from players of subcontinent.

Harbhajan was marked.

First test at Melbourne was lost by India in a pathetic manner, may be that was the reason India cam back so strongly at Sydney in the second test.

Whole world saw whatever happened in the second test at Sydney, and is marked as an event which will be referred as an example to the whole cricket world in future. Steve Buckner had to go back home, ICC had to bend and release Harbhajan from the “racist” tag.


And then Mr. Ponting again with lot of Australian players started saying that Indians were making issues because they could not win against them. This was a popular myth amongst Aussies as they were the regular world cup champs. In fact it was an Australian who went running to the umpires and complained about Harbhajan.

India came back strongly in Perth, which is supposed to be on of the fastest wicket and was supposedly a graveyard for India – Australia fell in that and India drew the first blood.

The fourth test at Adelaide was tough for both the teams and it was a draw.

Australia won the series by 2-1. (One was the great Sydney fiasco caused by bad umpiring), from that time Australian cricket fans and players had started promoting a ‘fact’ that was – Even if India was a victim of a few bad decisions, they could never stand as a challenge for Australia.

Next was the commonwealth triangular series with Australia, India and Sri Lanka. But everybody knew that the finals were slated between Australia and India.

Muttiah Muralidharan, great Sri Lankan off spinner but another Australian ‘not so favorite’ boy, was attacked as Sri Lankan team landed in Australia. If the same incident would have happened in India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka, Aussies would have even cancelled the tour on security reasons. But even Murli preferred to ignore that. (May be that is what a ‘cultural difference’ between Australia and the other teams as defined by Mr. Alan Border.)

Qualifying the finals, Australia was at the top positions but again in the pool games there were unpleasant incidents and this time Australian players found a new scrape goat and that was Ishant Sharma. This lanky youngster was a major problem for Ponting and CO. Specially Ponting was a bunny for Ishant. They had to do something which could spoil the young man’s rhythm. And there was Symonds again, complaining to umpires. No so ironically only Ishant was fined as the norm goes with subcontinent players.

Australian strategy was very clear. Kill the opponent on the field and off the filed. Pick up the match winners from the opposite team and drag them alone, like they did with Sachin Tendulkar in the 1999-2000 tour (remember: the infamous ‘Shoulder Before Wicket’)? Like they did with Murlidharan. Like they did with Shoaib Akhtar. They tried to do the same with Harbhajan and Ishant Sharma. But thankfully the Indian media, Indian online communities, people from India stood united and let the world know that the dirty tricks they played under the label of ‘aggressive game’ were no longer acceptable.


Before the finals started Sir Ponting again opened his big mouth and said “There will be only two finals. (Australia will win first two finals so there will not be any need of the third one)”. Sachin Tendulkar said the same to one of his Australian fan when he was questioned whether he will be playing in the third final. Tendulkar said and made sure that he was not talking nonsense by scoring a century and 91 in both the finals and helping team India’s clean win.

Mr. Ricky Ponting, time has come that you and your boys should concentrate on cricket more and win matches on your merit. Australian Cricket Board is known to be a very strict institute where champions like Warne and Mark Waugh were not spared so time for a reinvention Team Australia. No one is invincible; one has to fight for that. A lesson to team India or all the cricketing teams as well.