The Writing on The Wall

I've moved my blog to biskoot.com

Migrated all my LiveJournal posts (including comments!) to wordpress there.

- Ketan

OK, OK. I won't spoil the party. Slumdog Millionaire won 8 Academy Awards. For many people, this is a great achievement, and they are elated. They are celebrating and thumping their chests. Who am I to "dare" complain and spoil the fun? I am just a humble citizen leading a fairly inconsequential life.

I am not saying it is a bad movie. In fact as I mentioned in an earlier post, I liked many things about it. I am not even passing any kind of judgment on whether the awards were well deserved or not. Honestly I don't care much about that.

My only concern is the way so many of my fellow-citizens are reacting to the awards. Receiving awards is of course nice, but come on, please don't make it a matter of "national pride".

The reason for my concern is simple. When you let others judge you and seek their approval, you will always look at the world through their eyes. This will hinder your own independent view of the world. You become their mental slave, because your own sense of self-worth becomes dependent on what "they" think and say about you.

This underlying psychological complex manifests in different ways depending on where you look. In education, it results in English being accorded primacy over Sanskrit. In Government and policy-making, it shows up as a lack of sufficient resolve and ambition to lead the world, preferring instead to accept another power's authority and supremacy in the world.

If this situation persists, sorry, India will never be a "Super Power". Come on, how can you expect others to respect you and accept your authority, when deep in your own mind, your own sense of self-worth comes from another power?

Or maybe, one fine day, USA, Britain and EU will announce that "India is now a Superpower". Yes! What more could you possibly want? Your Master has spoken and given you a favourable judgment. Once again, our Anil Kapoors will break down and cry on the stage and exclaim emotionally that "we have finally got our due, this is a great moment for India", yada yada, bla bla. Meanwhile some others' "hearts will burst with pride", and again it will be chest-thumping time for them.

Sick, no? But what to do? As long as we allow the same education system that the British created to institutionalize inferiority in Indian minds to continue, we will continue to produce intellectuals who lack cultural and national pride, who are doomed to accept a set upper limit on their ambition and level of thought, and who gleefully accept mental slavery of the West.

But, all is not lost. India will probably never be a super power, but Bharat will. What is the difference, you ask? That is the point. The difference between India and Bharat holds the key that will unlock Bharat's destiny and make it realize its true potential.

The way forward, ladies and gentlement, is to transform India to Bharat.

Ideas welcome.

- Ketan

Coming up with a name for our baby turned out to be a much more demanding exercise than I had imagined before he arrived. Life suddenly became so hectic in the days following Jan 24th, thinking of a name seemed like an unaffordable luxury. And given my natural tendency to get overwhelmed when the choices are many, picking one name over another from the vast universe of "good" names was no mean feat for someone like me.

Besides, the name had to meet these exacting requirements:

+ It must be of Sanskrit origin
+ It must be easy to write in multiple languages
+ It must not be prone to mis-pronunciation and mis-spelling

After flirting with various options and almost picking "Krish" (derived from Krishna), we finally decided on "Soham".

Our baby boy arrived in this world at 22:15 hrs on 24th Jan. Needless to say, things have been very hectic.

People in the family say that he looks like me. But I think he looks more like his mom.

Between sleepless nights and demanding days, I hope to be able to squeeze in a post now and then.

Here are links to some photos of the little one:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ketanpandya/Baby

http://picasaweb.google.com/ketanpandya/Day2

- Ketan

At the outset, let me mention that I watched Slumdog Millionaire, and liked the film. It is fast-paced, entertaining and the love story is beautifully told. The somewhat perversely voyeuristic portrayal of Mumbai's slums and poverty in India is a bit unsettling, however I don't think it is something to make a big deal about.

What *is* annoying to me is the way the Oscar nominations have once again brought out the slavish mentality of the so-called elites in India. The elites are triumphantly proclaiming how Indian Cinema has "finally got its due". Servility at its best!

Come on, didn't we already know that A. R. Rahman is a great musician? Have we not already recognized and honoured him?

If you crave for a foreigner's approval, you have already become their slave. Thomas Babbington Macaulay understood this. That is why during British rule, he created an education system that institutionalized a West-centric servile mindset. Through this system the British hoped to groom a class of Indian elites that would admire and look up the British, thus making it easy to rule India.

That system obviously succeeded beyond their wildest expectations, since even know we have educated elites in our society that think and behave exactly how Macaulay wanted them to when the British were ruling us.

It somehow does not occur to these elites that such a brazen and open display of craving for recognition exposes a lack of confidence and an inferiority complex.

A truly self-assured and confident Bharatiya would not go out of his way to make such a big deal and elevate the Oscar Awards to a pedestal like this.

A confident Bharatiya derives quiet satisfaction and pride in his country's ability to send space missions to the moon, for example. He/She does not need awards or certificates from the West to confirm his sense of self-worth.

Ketan

I have been watching with pain and anxiety the events unfolding in the last few hours after the "secret" letter from the US State Department to the Congress was leaked by Rep. Howard Berman.

No, no, I DO NOT believe that the UPA Govt. misled the people or the Parliament. I also DO NOT believe that the US Govt. deliberately misled the Indian Govt. on this deal. My being upset has got nothing to do with this. I am upset because of the way the so-called "revelations" in this alleged letter are being misinterpreted by the media. The media is proving that it is thoroughly incapable of understanding the nuances in an international agreement, particularly one of this nature.

If the news channels are incapable (or unwilling) of understanding the dynamics around the deal, they should stop passing off uninformed speculation as "news".

While I am no fan of the Congress or the UPA govt., I do believe that Dr. Manmohan Singh, Dr. Anil Kakodkar and others in the team are patriotic citizens of Bharat. I cannot imagine that they would deliberately do anything that compromises India's vital security interests.

Seriously, I am beginning to feel that there is such a thing as TOO MUCH Democracy. It looks like our democracy is somehow obliging EVERYONE in the country to have an opinion on the nuclear deal, even though 90% (maybe more) of us are not equipped to understand it.

Hello, Boss! This is an international agreement. In any agreement, there is some give and some take. Each side has its own interests to pursue via the agreement.

In this case, India's interest is to secure supplies of nuclear fuel and reactors and become an active participant in the global nuclear energy industry.

USA has multiple interests here. Firstly, helping India reduce its own dependence on oil is good for the US economy. Secondly, the US does not like the prospect of China dominating all of Asia. It prefers an Asian order in which there is a more equitable power balance between India and China. The US sees a strategic relationship with India as a step in this direction. Also, with the nuclear energy option, India will be less compelled to go for other options like the Iran gas pipeline.

So where does nuclear weapon testing figure in all this? Nuclear testing is a hot issue, and one that is invoked the most by almost all critics. The deal has been criticized on the grounds that it constrains our "right to test" a nuclear device. This concern seems misplaced. After Pokhran-2, Vajpayee must surely have received proper assurances about our capabilities from the scientific and defence establishments, before he announced India's voluntary moratorium on future testing.

So, even if Manmohan Singh proceeded with the deal knowing that India's "leeway" to test may be constrained to an extent, it could be acceptable given the size of our existing arsenal and ability to take forward the nuclear weapons program without explosive testing. If we already have what is necessary to make different types of warheads, further explosive testing may actually be pointless. In fact we should be focusing our efforts on delivery systems (missiles and the like) and command/control systems, which are essential elements of the nuclear detterent.

Coming back to the issue of the letter made public by Berman. In any agreement between two governments, there are bound to be some "unwritten" lines and implicit understandings. It is not possible to write everything down or conduct everything in public, because as a whole the public's IQ is low. The public wants everything in black and white, has crudely simple notions about good/bad, right/wrong, trust/betrayal and easily falls for cheap, sensational news reporting.

For example, the public cannot understand the finely nuanced notion that even if the US "implicitly" has no problem with India conducting further nuclear tests, it cannot put this down in writing in an agreement. For obvious reasons, such an understanding needs to be between the two governments behind closed doors. Similarly, assume for a moment that the Indian Govt. after proper consultations with its security and scientific advisers concludes with reasonable confidence that India is not unduly harmed by desisting from further testing. Even then, it is politically unviable for them to say something like this in writing in the agreement.

I am not asserting that these specific "unwritten" understandings exist in the nuclear deal. Just that such a dynamic exists in international relations. That is why we have governments, assisted by experts and think-tanks who do the decision-making and enter into such agreements.

At some level, we need to trust our government to do what's good. If they betray that trust, make them pay for it later. But I don't think it's productive to stall, impede, thwart or destabilize the Govt. at each and every step, in the name of Democracy. I think that is too much democracy, which is actually a bad thing in India, as I wrote sometime earlier.

Ketan

Is Democracy more important than Rule of Law? I find this question popping up whenever I try to make sense of things happening in India. I have felt myself forming a clear, concrete opinion on this question of late.

Does a citizen really care more about his vote than his desire for a safe, secure, healthy and prosperous environment to live in? I know this is already starting to sound like something that Indira Gandhi would have used for propaganda during the emergency, but seriously - of what use is your power to vote if the government you elect is not able to deliver on basic things - like safety, health, and civic infrastructure?

I have come around to the conclusion that Parliamentary Democracy is a luxury that India is paying a heavy price for. If Parliamentary democracy encourages somebody like Mayawati to threaten the Govt. because it doesn't give her immunity from prosecution for known wrongdoings, or if it allows so-called Communist allies to blackmail the govt., dictate terms to it and virtually paralyze it, then seriously something is wrong.

More important than Democracy is the Rule of Law.
More important is the assurance that all law breakers will be punished.
More important is your government's ability to protect you from acts of terror.
More important is compliance of the law.
More important is the image of a powerful, no-nonsense govt. which commands respect and ensures compliance.
More imporant is a Government that is empowered to take forward national agendas.

This is the only way I can explain the difference between China and India. Whenever faced with the facts about China, we keep consoling ourselves by thinking that we are a free democracy and China is not, but this is irrelevant. At the end of the day, China will be able to lift more people out of poverty more quickly than India, and that's what really matters.

I am back and hope to write something here more regularly.

However, I expect that what I write here will have very little in common with music and poetry and more in common with fire and angst. At least for a while.

Frankly, I have decided to write something mainly because I feel my thoughts become sharper and more purposeful when I sit down to write. I have a sincere hope that this will help me become a better citizen and put my energies and faculties to purposeful use for the benefit of my country.

So, I am writing more for myself than for anybody else. This means that what I write here will not always be "pleasant" or "interesting" reading for others. If you are reading this, you have been warned...

1971 is an Eye-opener. The film is about missing Indian POWs of the 1971 War believed to be still languishing in Pakistani jails. While the story and characters themselves are fictitious, the issue is real. And this film brings it out forcefully. The plot revolves around a group of Indian POWs who plan to escape from Pakistan into India. Their mission - to prove beyond doubt that many Indian POWs are indeed still in Pakistan - and to force Pakistan to release them.

Great performances, and the real historical context gives a highly "believable" feel to the plot.

This is a serious film, about a serious topic. There isn't exactly a happy ending, but it is powerful and will make you think, and feel about these missing soldiers who seem to have been forgotten.

* * * * 1/2

Other notable films (I'll write about these in a later post):

Shikhar

Sehar

Yuva

Kabul Express

While rummaging through the contents of an old hard disk, I found an archive of postings on a local IITB campus newsgroup called iitb.discuss.

I had created this archive back in May 2002, and contains all posts between Feb<-->May 2002 (basically an entire IITB Spring Semester).

Reading through these posts again was nostalgic. It brought back a flood of memories, some laughs and some surprise (did I really write these things??). These were days when I used to be extremely vocal and energetic about my Hindutva/Right-Wing leanings. I still have more or less the same disposition, just that I don't write/talk that much now...

I've html-ized this archive and made it available at http://avishkar.in/personal/iitb.discuss/

To ex-iitb.d'ers reading this - I think you'll enjoy going through those posts again...

Even if you don't know about iitb.discuss, you might find the posts interesting!

btw, in those posts, the names Virtual Kshatriya, Intellectual Kshatriya and Bauddhik Kshatriya refer to the same person (me)

"... thus, we will achieve surprise. We will annihilate their Pacific Fleet"

"Brilliant, Admiral!"

"A truly brilliant man would find a way not to fight a war"

- Admiral Ishoruku Yamamoto, on being congratulated by a junior officer on his plan to attack Pearl Harbor.

This is the most notable film I've seen in 2006.

Hotel Rwanda - a story set in the backdrop of the 1994 Rwandan genocide / civil war - is an eye-opening film. It shocks and inspires at the same time.


Shocking, because it makes you see how easily an ideology of hate can turn human beings into the most dangerous animals on earth.

Inspiring, because it tells the story of how one man, against overwhelming odds, armed only with hope, intelligence and a good heart, can make a difference.

Watching this film made me feel a renewed regard for civilization... and also reminded me how fragile civilization really is...

Having said that, I must add that the film is quite "watchable"... it moves and shakes you without too much gore or graphic violence... Terry George has directed his film sensitively.

Positives: Great performances, excellent background score.

Negatives: a bit of the "hollywood" factor is noticeable. You can tell that the film is from a Western perspective but this is very subtle and is excusable. The love angle / relationship between Paul and his wife could have done with less script-time.

Memorable scenes:

• The UN peacekeeping force officer (Nick Nolte)'s convoy being attacked by Interhamwe while he is escorting minority Tutsi refugees to the airport. Nick Nolte's performance is brilliant in this scene.
  
• Paul suddenly breaking down and crying after he has a hard time wearing his shirt and tie after a bath... he has just returned after seeing a road littered with hundreds of corpses of Tutsis murdered by the Interhamwe.
  

Overall, a powerful film.

Bharat's bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council has been formally withdrawn by the Government on 15 November 2077. I have issued the Executive Order with this instruction.

Membership of a privileged group such as the UN Security Council is a by-product of Power, not the cause of it.

Previous Governments' efforts on lobbying for a place in the Council were misguided. They betrayed a short-sightedness and bankruptcy of vision.

Our efforts should instead be focused on strengthening our Nation from within. Our aim should be not to become a permanent member of the Security Council, but to become so powerful on our own that the Security Council becomes irrelevant.

When Bharat is powerful as she should be, she will lead the world in creating new institutions on her own terms.

Karna Joshi

President, Republic of Bharat
New Hastinapur
15 November, 2077

Post-1947, a lot of misinformation has been floating around about Gandhiji. While some of this might have been done by traditional Gandhi baiters in the right-wing camp, I believe most of the damage has been done by Congress politicians to further their own agendas.

After Gandhi's assassination, the Congress party sought to appropriate Gandhi's name and legacy. It turned Gandhi's name into a "brand" and laid exclusive claim to it. Congress politicians very conveniently attributed their own views and assumptions to Gandhi and spread the disinformation that these were Gandhi's views.

One of the best examples of this is the idea of "Secularism". Secularism as a concept was not something that was championed by Gandhi, in a flag-bearing sense. On the contrary, Gandhi, while deeply religious himself, actively advocated religion as a way of life and believed people should derive strength and inspiration from religion.

Gandhi understood that religion and spirituality was deeply ingrained into the fabric of India, and for any political movement to involve the masses, it had have a religious/spiritual component.

Gandhi once said "Those who think religion has nothing to do with politics, understand neither religion nor politics". Somehow, these quotes of Gandhi are not publicized, because they are inconvenient in the context of modern day politics of Congress (and other "secular" parties).

It's fair to say that Gandhi's view of religion was inclusive and plural in nature, essentially advocating religious life while stressing harmony of religions. However, this view doesn't gel well with vote-bank politics, which thrives on the idea of a perpetual conflict between a "majority" religion and a "minority" religion.

Still other myths and misinformation prevail.

In many circles it is also fashionable to blame Gandhi for the partition of India. For one thing, the event was too complex with many actors invovled, for the responsibility to be vested in a single person. Besides, since Gandhi was immune to greed and political ambition, he could afford to continue to resist partition, even at the cost of delayed independence. Nehru and Patel by comparison were more susceptible to the realities of power politics, and it is more compelling to believe that they (particularly Nehru) would eventually "give in".

Also, Gandhi did NOT "gift" 55 crore rupees to Pakistan. This money was the balance amount due to Pakistan out of undivided India's cash reserves. The Indian Government was withholding this amount since Pakistan had begun hostilities against us in Kashmir. But the money legally belonged to Pakistan, and there was increasing international pressure to release the money. Gandhi was suggesting that India release this amount voluntarily (rather than eventually being forced to do so)

One of my aims in writing this article is to establish my credentials as an objective and fairly unbiased admirer of Gandhi. In my next article I am going to attempt a critical and clinical analysis of Gandhi's political work, and I don't want you to be prejudiced about my motivations.

From http://incometaxindia.gov.in/PAN/Overview.asp:


25. Who can apply on behalf of non-resident, minor, lunatic, idiot, and court of wards?

Section 160 of IT Act, 1961 provides that a non-resident, a minor, lunatic, idiot, and court of wards and such other persons may be represented through a Representative Assessee. In such cases, application for PAN will be made by the Representative Assessee.

Returned to Pune today after a terrific trip to Saurashtra (Gujarat).

Saurashtra is the peninsular region of the state of Gujarat - bounded by the Gulf of Kuchh (North), Arabian Sea (West, South) and Gulf of Cambay (East) . Post-independence in 1947, the princely states of the region were grouped together to form the province of Saurashtra, before the region became part of the State of Gujarat in 1960.

The region is different in many ways from the rest of Gujarat - it has a distinct dialect (called Kathiawadi) and a relative abundance of temples and holy places. My favourite distinction is the ubiquitous availablity of Gathia - mildly spiced, deep fried sticks of besan flour. If you ever visit this region, be sure to try them. They're best had as breakfast, fresh out of the pan.

In the 10 days I was here, I visited Jamnagar, Dwarka, Somnath and Diu. Here are a few decent photos I shot at the temple towns of Dwarka and Somnath (click picture to see full-size version)

Dwarka (northwestern coast, 3 hrs drive from Jamnagar)

The ancient city of Hindu mythology, dwelling place of Sri Krishna. On the banks of river Gomti, the city was apparently planned. Legend has it that Dwarka has submerged six times in the sea and the present-day Dwarka is the 7th city.

<td width="50%"> A rooftop view of the sea from Dwarka <td>

The Dwarkadhish Temple (Jagat Mandir) just after sunrise.

Somnath (southern coast, 1 hr drive from Veraval)

The Somnath Temple has been a favourite target of destruction by Muslim invaders - first by the Arabs in the 8th century and the latest by Aurangzeb in 1706. It has risen like a Phoenix each time it was destroyed or desecrated. After its destruction by Aurangzeb, the temple lay in ruins until Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel pledged to reconstruct it in November 1947. The reconstruction work was done by the Somnath Trust and completed in December 1995.

<td width="50%">
From a distance. The sea waves caressing the outer walls of the temple complex...
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	A closer sea-side view...
View from the front showing the main entrance.

(Read the prelude to this article)


Acharya Karna Joshi's address to the Nation
Karna Joshi, President, Greater Hindu Republic of Bharat
Hastinapur (was earlier New Delhi)
27 May 2077 11:58 AM IST
(translated from Hindi original)


My dear Countrymen, in the past month our country has witnessed unprecedented civil strife and political chaos. Today, understandably there must be doubts and fears in your mind about what the future holds. First of all, I want to assure you that the situation is fully under control. The last of the remaining Centralist forces have surrendered. As I speak, Rashtravaadi troops are working hard along with volunteers to rebuild civil infrastructure that was damaged during the conflict, and assisting the police in maintaining law and order.

I have set a deadline of 25th July for the formal introduction of the new constitution. In the intervening period, the 1950 Constitution will be held in abeyance and serve as a place-holder.

My Dear Countrymen, Today we are at a very exciting juncture. Our great civilization has been reborn as a new country. Today we are witnessing the birth of a nation that is truly ours. The past 130 years have been an aberration, when India was called a free country, when in fact it continued to be a Western colony.

August 15, 1947 marked political and economic freedom from the British. However, the ruling elite among our people continued to look up to the West. They adopted Western views of the world as their own. In the name of secularism, these so-called elite subordinated our own culture and left it to languish on the fringes of the public mindscape. Our struggle was against this elite and their ideological inheritors. We have emerged victorious.

We have now put this aberration behind us. The time now is for us to build a Bharat that asserts and identifies with it's own culture and past, and derives strength from it. This strength will make us powerful. I believe it is Bharat's destiny to take its rightful place in the World as Jagat-Guru and lead the rest of the World.

I do not wish to make a detailed policy statement at this time. I will address you again shortly when I will chalk out in detail the road ahead. This road is exciting and full of opportunities and challenges. Let us walk this road together. Let us build the Bharat of our dreams.

Vandë Mätaram.

Karna Joshi

President
Greater Hindu Republic of Bharat

Paritrana (http://www.paritrana.org)

That's the name of the political party a few ex-IITB folks I know have launched.

One of the founders, Ajit Shukla, is an ex-wingie and a good friend. In the IIT days, we used to have long political and ideological discussions and were allies in debates on the local IIT newsgroup, iitb.discuss.

The party has just held its first public meeting, and the response is encouraging...

This is a bold and admirable step... it requires guts to do something like this.

It has made me think and question the worth and consequence of my comfortably mundane professional life...

I am reminded of a dialogue from a Hindi movie - Agar Soch gehri ho jaye, Toh faisle kamzor ho jate hai

(If you think too much, you risk being indecisive)

It has reminded me that if you believe in something, it is important to Just Do It!

Great going, Shukla!

June 16, 2005:
From: The Indian Express

US cautioned India on Thursday that it would be making a mistake if it went ahead with the gas pipeline project with Iran and that the US would continue to discourage such projects.

According to Stephen G Rademaker, assistant secretary of state for arms control, Iran could use the money from the project for illegitimate purposes. “We think it will be a mistake. Because such a pipeline project could provide funds to Iran government which could use it for funding terrorism and weapons of mass destruction”


September 9, 2005: US Congressional hearing (excerpt from Congressman Tom Lantos' speech)

"It was incomprehensible to me that people as sophisticated and knowledgeable as our Indian counterparts should not be aware of how significant their position, vis-a-vis Iran is to this Congress, and, I hope this hearing will make them aware at least tangentially that this may be destroying far more significant relationships than they are having with Tehran unless they become sensitive to our view on that subject."


Hmmm. Looks like the Iran-India gas pipeline has the potential to become a thorn in the so-called US-India "Strategic Partnership".

That is, if you believe in the US-India "strategic partnership" thingie in the first place.

Personally, I'm skeptical about this whole strategic partnership business with the US, and I find the hullabaloo that New Delhi is making about the whole thing quite disquieting.

Firstly, a "partnership" is between equal parties. India is a growing player in the neighbourhood, yes, making some friends and influencing a few others, but it will be foolish to imagine that the bully (USA) will suddenly recognize your strength and become your friend. The bully's natural reaction will be to somehow contain your rise to power. No bully in history ever hastened the arrival of his own competition.

Secondly, the advertised basis for this so-called partnership is unconvincing. Democracy, Freedom, cultural diversity are incidentally common to both India and USA, but these are societal characteristics and are not compelling drivers for an alliance between nations. In the last 50 years, the US has "partnered" with many non-democratic regimes.

As the Iran pipeline matter brings out, there are deeply fundamental differences between the US view of the world and ours. Iran is the US' declared enemy, a "rogue state". They see Iran as a threat.

India, on the other hand, has historic and cultural links with Iran. India-Iran trade goes back to ancient times. India and Iran stand to mutually benefit from economic co-operation. In real terms, Iran is a potential ally.

So how is India going to reconcile this with the US position? Are we going to give up our independent foreign policy in order to "fall in line" with the US?

For that matter, pre-invasion Iraq was an active trade partner of India, with Indian companies doing a lot of business with Iraq in areas like transport vehicles, infrastructure projects and engineering goods. Far from being a threat, Iraq was good for the Indian economy, and we had a direct stake in it's stability.

But when our "strategic partner" invaded and wrecked the country, what did we do? Make some meek noises against unilateralism and UN being the right forum for resolving the Iraq issue. Fortunately, the NDA government wisely refused the US request to send troops to Iraq.

So much for the shared values. So what is the US interest in India? Despite what some of the West-centric elite in New Delhi like to believe, more than shared values, US interest in India is primarily driven by the desire to contain the emergence of China as an unchallenged pole in Asia.

Also, India's future energy requirements are of concern to the US as it's own economy is heavily dependent on oil and it worries about surging oil demand in other economies which could push up prices. The US-India civilian nuclear co-operation, about which such a big deal is being made, is partly driven by this energy dimension.

Agreed we stand to gain from such engagements with the US (though only in the near-term, I feel). But what we must be watchful about is that we don't unnecessarily alienate potential friends in our own sphere of influence (such as Iran) in the bargain.

Mangal Pandey - The Rising

In one word: disappointing.

Even at the most conservative level, I had expected better from Ketan Mehta. The last Ketan Mehta film I had seen was "Sardar". After watching that film I was really glad and thought that here is a director who can make a first class period film with political/historical depth and clarity in its script.

Somehow, I am still not comfortable thinking that The Rising is a Ketan Mehta film. The touch is missing. It almost seems as if he "gave up" in the middle of the project and just got the film over with. For that matter, even A. R. Rahman's touch is missing in the music.

The biggest pain point of the film is the excessive and intrusive use of music. There are just too many songs. The Holi number is totally avoidable and the timing is atrocious (immediately after a few scenes build up some tension). Music and songs can be used to great positive effect, as Lagaan showed. Most of the songs in The Rising only serve to distract and irritate.

Amir Khan's typically meticulous, fine-attention-to-detail performance is one of the few saving graces for the film.

Although, in my opinion, Toby Stephens has surpassed Amir Khan as an actor in this film. Toby Stephens plays Officer Gordon, Mangal Pandey's commanding officer who makes valiant efforts to save Pandey from the gallows.

Overall the script is very weak. You have to struggle to justify the need for Rani Mukherji and Amisha Patel's characters in the script.

Before the film ended, I had conveniently expected that the movie would go into the events of 1857 in at least some respectable detail. Perhaps this expectation was too much, though the film is titled "The Rising". I was rudely shocked when the movie actually ended, minutes after the episode of Pandey's hanging.

The funniest thing is that many key players are actually introduced and played by real-life actors on screen - Rani Lakshmi Bai, Tatya Tope and Bahadur Shah - but that's it - they are just "introduced" - making statements that they are going to join this war. This piece actually whets the viewer's appetite to see these characters in real action.

Alas, the "action" never comes. Instead, the viewer is treated to a 2-minute sequence of sketches, photographs and newsreel clips, while Om Puri's background narrative "summarizes" the events of 1857. And then, The End.

To sum up again: disappointing.

I don't know what went wrong. Perhaps so much money got involved in the film (considering the publicitly budget), that creativity was subjugated to "business pressure".

Or it could be the result of Amir Khan's known tendency to interfere in the Director's work.

Whatever, but I am still hopeful that another film (or films) will be made on Mangal Pandey and around 1857, that do justice.