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The Misunderstood Animal: Why Ranvijay Singh Balbir is a Feminist

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In this age of short attention spans Sandeep Reddy Vanga has done the unthinkable with his latest film Animal—he has not only managed to hold our attention in the theatres with a film that’s three hours twenty one minutes long, but also managed to sustain that attention by turning the movie into a topic of intense debate that’s still going on.   Like everyone else I have an opinion too, rather opinions, and have been tweeting intermittently about them, but the film’s success as well as the criticism it has been receiving calls for deeper introspection.   Through this post I hope to touch upon some of the aspects that I found interesting about the film; both good and bad.   In the process I’ll also try and explain why I feel Ranbir Kapoor’s character in the film Ranvijay Singh Balbir is a feminist and not a misogynist. I suspect many others feel that way too but don’t realise it yet or are able to say it out loudly. Hear me out and then you can either agree or disagree with me. Whatever
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The Scarcity Mindset: Reclaiming the value of our time

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They say every unpleasant situation also has a positive side to it. It ends up teaching us new lessons. Like a silver lining for a cloud. In the same manner, I learnt an interesting lesson recently. I call my lesson ‘The Scarcity Mindset’ . It’s a key ingredient of our being and something we seem to have totally forgotten when it concerns our online personas. This post is my tiny attempt to share what I learnt. I hope you see value in it too. Here’s my story.
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Artificial Intelligence vs Authentic Intelligence: The moral battle of the future

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We have been reading many stories about Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially since the emergence of ChatGPT—a generative AI tool that possesses immense human-like powers to consume and create content on the fly.   They say only those who embrace AI will thrive in the future, and that it will replace most jobs that humans can do today. There are others, like Elon Musk, who say this AI technology has the potential to go rogue and it needs to be regulated before it’s too late.   Whatever the verdict on that, and whether people choose to use these AI tools or not, one thing is for sure:   AI is going to impact all our lives at a very fundamental human level, and there’s no escaping that.   To illustrate my point, I would like to share three mini stories that I encountered recently.   These are simple stories; not about the wonderful things AI can do for us; but about our reaction to that as humans—leading to the discussion about the battle we all will find ourselves in eventually.   On
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How Shahrukh Khan's KISS gave a kick to Pathaan!

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#Pathaan Kiss karne nahi….Kick karne aaya hai…. That was Shahrukh Khan’s response to a silly question on Twitter during one of his many #AskSRK sessions before the release of Pathaan. However, what he said is just the partial truth and he did KISS. Before you jump to other conclusions— KISS means Keep it simple, stupid! The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated. That’s exactly what Shahrukh Khan did to set up the stage for Pathaan’s blockbuster success. The same principle is also used to structure and mount the film too. Let me elaborate with a similar KISS approach. I’ll pick 5 areas to focus on. At places I’ll use Shahrukh Khan’s tweets to help with the story. Here it goes…
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The self-fulfilling prophecy of RRR’s Naatu Naatu song!

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When an event in the real world is inspired by a creative work, they say—life imitates art. It’s most often used in the context of movies influencing life. Have you ever heard of a movie influencing itself through its own art? The obvious thing to say would be—if the movie is good, then more people will watch it, and then it makes more money. That’s how a movie influences its own destiny. But…there’s a higher order ‘life imitating art’ event that I noticed recently. It’s with the Naatu Naatu song from RRR; thanks to its recent Golden Globe Awards win for best original song. I see that song as an extraordinary self-fulfilling prophecy which I am sure even the filmmakers did not see coming. Here’s my theory:
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K.G.F vs K.G.F: Why I like Chapter 1 better than Chapter 2

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If ever there is a competition to determine who is the biggest fan of K.G.F Chapter 1, I would either win that contest hands down or end up as one of the strongest contenders.   I lost count of the number of times I watched that film, but I am sure it will be over 100 times. As a keen observer of films, and how they work on our psyche, I’ve been fascinated by the appeal of this film. So much so that I’ve started writing a book about it. It’s the second book in my upcoming book series ‘Movies Beyond Stars’ .   As a natural outcome of my fascination for K.G.F Chapter 1, I turned into the unofficial cheerleader of K.G.F Chapter 2 on Twitter.  For a few years now I have been repeatedly saying that Chapter 2 had the best chances of success as a pan-India film compared to all other films, even above RRR.   So, when the big day arrived, I was not surprised to see the outcome - the record breaking collections of Chapter 2.   I went ahead and watched the film too.   However, by the end of the f
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Republic of Akhanda: Where fiction gets real!

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In early 2021 I wrote a blogpost called “The Age of Bhakti” . The summary or core theme of the post was this: When society and its institutions fail...we have no other option but to depend on the divine.   The recent Telugu blockbuster ‘Akhanda’ is a manifestation of the same concept in an over-the-top commercial format.   Most movies operate in the first part of the summary I shared — where society’s institutions fail and a do-gooder hero who is usually above the law of the land comes in to fix things.   In the process our heroes even break the laws of physics as if it is their birthright, and we accept it without questioning or wondering how such things are possible. The whole act of watching movies is a process of suspension of disbelief.   The legendary actor Balakrishna is known to do these gravity and logic defying acts in the most convincing manner and his two previous collaborations with the director Boyapati Srinu have been huge blockbusters at the box office. Akhanda is their
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Missing the asli swaad of the original Cadbury Dairy Milk ad

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Everyone’s been going gaga over the new Cadbury Dairy Milk ad — a faithful recreation of its own iconic asli swaad zindagi ka ad from 1993.   The original ad evokes a lot of nostalgia for many of us and this re-creation milks that emotion very well. The twist with the gender reversal is the key point that made everyone fall in love with it.   I however feel there is one critical aspect of the original that the new one completely misses.   Before I speak about it, let’s see what the new ad does.   Here goes…
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Citizens of our own little bubbles

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This post originally appeared in my weekly newsletter.  You can sign up for my newsletter here:   Mind u Read Weekly Digest . Too much content The Indian cricket team won a historic test match at the Oval last week. I caught bits of the match on the Sony Liv app. I had a doubt though and tweeted it out… Great win by India again. I have a genuine question. How do you folks manage to find time to watch test matches when there are so many other distractions all over the internet and otherwise? #INDvENG — Kartik Dayanand (@KartikDayanand) September 6, 2021 Most people confirmed my doubt — a majority of them watch it in small bursts when there is some excitement in the game. They get to know about it on Twitter or other platforms and then jump in to watch that segment of the match. This is very different from the way we grew up watching complete matches on DD. Without any other distractions except for power cuts and news bulletins. The choice and ease of access of content nowadays
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The Age of Bhakti: A Prescription for Disaster!

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There’s one question on a lot of people’s minds these days: "Is the colossal mismanagement of India’s Covid-19 crisis going to dent Narendra Modi’s image…will his blind followers finally open their eyes?"   The short answer is: NO .   The long answer is complicated.   I said in an earlier blogpost that there are only two kinds of people in this world – those who love Modi, and those who hate him; there’s no one in the middle.   Back then I spoke briefly about those who love him unconditionally despite his many failings. I didn’t shy away from calling them Bhakts. That was more in the context of their anger against the Congress party. There are many other reasons too, but in this post, I am going to focus on what I think is the single biggest subconscious reason why someone turns into a Bhakt.   And mind you, I am not using the word Bhakt in a frivolous manner. I am treating this matter with utmost seriousness. I am intrigued by their condition, and you’ll know why once you
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Secret ingredient for great movies - Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo and more!

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What's that One Secret Ingredient that separates great movies from the ordinary ones? I've been mulling about this idea for a long time and the recent Telugu film Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo was the trigger that made me post this video. It's not a film review; you don't need one at this stage :) I instead focus on the structure of film making and see what great movies have in common. Do watch the video and let me know what you think; also tell me what other movies do you think fall under the categories that I mention here.
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Why BJP will never accept that CAA NRC protests are real

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This blogpost is available as a video on YouTube as well as Facebook . It's my  first attempt at video blogging.  You prefer reading it the usual way; then here it is: Someone wrote to me recently on Twitter, saying he enjoys all my tweets there except for when I criticize Narendra Modi. His Blood Pressure goes up it seems. We both laughed…but I also realized that it’s not just his problem. I get pissed off too, when I see people blindly defending some dumb action of the government. Is it safe to say we both are in the same boat? Maybe – maybe not. It depends on whether we are looking at events in isolation or looking at the big picture. The CAA and NRC debate is a classic example of the same. Most sensible people could put 2 and 2 together and see what this combo could do, and they protested. Whereas others chose to only look at the narrow picture – a part of the issue – and they continue to ask - how does CAA affect any Indian? It is only for refugees of 3 countr
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