What can Cinema do to the Society?

"He had seen the movie Dhoom and since then had been toying with the idea of committing the crime using a motorcycle"

R K S Rathore , Noida Superintendent of Police

This was the comment that Mr.Rathore came up with, on the kidnapping of Adobe India CEO's three-year old son Anant. The kidnapping incident was a developing story couple of weeks back which hit the headlines on all Indian news channels. Well, thanks to God almighty that Anant was back home a couple of days after the dreadful Nov 13 kidnap. I was taken back on reading this article and wondered how strong the influence of cinema is, on today's society. The full article here.

Talking of the cinema influence, I happened to read another article today about a married Andhra woman Maheshwari (a.k.a Snadhya) re enacting the famous suicide scene played by Dharmendra in the super hit Hindi film Sholay ( 1975), just to unite with her lover. It looked funny that the whole village of Godavarikhani in Karminagar district, Andhra Pradesh was there to witness the highly tensed drama which lasted for four hours. But again, in the hindsight we need to think about the fact that Cinema can no longer be seen as an entertainment for 3 hours. It goes beyond that! The full article here .

Having said this, I just hope that Cinema would influence the society for all good reasons at least from now. Winding up my post with an interesting quote that I came across this week:
'We had an amazing time in Varanasi. I have never seen anything like it; I have never seen a country like this. I told my friend... put this on your list; you must come here... see this'

- Brad Pitt

Nanya!
You are in the middle of a family get together, happily chatting with everyone and that stupid cell phone rings. You silence the ringer and get back to talking, but that old man who has been paying your school fees and bills for a while now, asks you about the call and the whole room is waiting for your answer with anticipation. what would you do?
"Nanya" - pat came the answer. Few people were satisfied that they at least got a reply and continued to chat. But he again interrupted and added - it meant "None of ya'll business".
Who is this guy and what's he doing? - NANYA :)

Are quitters losers?
Winners never quit;quitters never win!
Agreed, quitters never win. But are they losers?
Yes, Trescothick cannot win (or be a part of winning team) , because he is not even playing. It is difficult to win when you are not playing!

Trescothick had to quit the Ashes team and return back to England due to a stress related illness. I think England is better off now and it could have been even more worse if he did hang around in Australia and perform poorly. He has at least given an opportunity to another player who can commit 100% to the team and game. The media has been very understanding and respectful of his decision so far and I hope it stays that way. He can still win a lot of things. Win back his strength and resolve, his self-confidence, his place in the side and his team mates trust.

He cannot lose, he cannot win, but he will also never know if he could have made the difference to the scoreline!

Yet again!
Certain people refuse to go away without a fight. Few others refuse to go away even after the fight! For most people Saurav Ganguly is a closed chapter in the Indian team. For a handful of people like me who follow his travails - we refuse to read his "cricket obituary" though we know its already written. It can be secured inside the envelope, atleast for the time being.
Yes, Saurav is amongst runs!!! atleast at the domestic level. He scored a fluent century for East Zone and did what he does best - throw open passionate arguments. Given the recent performances of the Indian team and the form (or the lack of it!) of some of the batsmen, maybe...just may be we can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Can he make another comeback?

Interesting Quotes!
"I don't need to watch myself. I know what I am already - flamboyant. if I were to watch myself, it's going to be pretty, definitely. It's got to be pretty."

-Chris Gayle

This is called Konfidence.

"The draw will take place on 30 November and winner will be notified by 2 November 2006. "
-http://iccchampionstrophy.indya.com/

and guess when the prize is given away, November 5th 2006.

"You know, education - if you make the most of it, you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

-John Kerry

Jay Leno remarked yesterday that Kerry should atleast be happy that people are listening and responding to his speech unlike his election campaigns.

"I have an old-fashioned view, I judge sports organisations on the basis of three things: 1. How the team performs. 2. How the board looks after its stake-holders in terms of facilities on the grounds, and 3. How well they use resources like population to produce great cricketers."

-Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive

Game on...I am very sure there is going to be a retort from Lalit Modi.
But can the Indian cricket team respond??