Writers and their films

While sipping Vodka with lime at Bijoy’s house, we were musing over which movie we need to see amongst the Vishu releases. After seeing the promos and a song we decided that it won’t be “Innathe Chinthavishayam”. But eventually, we gave in to the wishes of one of our comrades who wanted to see the same. Must say that, we (at least I) were disappointed but not surprised.
We knew that it would be something of this sort. If it is Sathyan Anthikkad, then it has to have certain elements, family being one of the most important and the protagonists being morally correct people who take on the onus of counseling the world around them. It’s no different in Innathe Chinthavishayam.

But I need to admit one thing. All writers in general have certain common elements in some of their scripts. We have already seen Sathyan. If it is Sreenivasan, then for sure there will be one or two references to the color of his skin and his height. The degree of this self-derision also doesn’t vary with movies. Having said that, Sreeni is one of the finest story tellers in Malayalam. One doesn’t have to go too far. Katha Parayumbol, as Rahul says was the saving grace among all the movies of 2007 as far as commercial films are concerned. Impeccable story telling along with some fine dialogues that had the tinge of sarcasm, a regular feature of Sreeni and a superb cameo (in its literal sense) after a long time by Mammootty were the highlights of Katha Parayumbol. The climax of the movie wherein Mammotty comes and delivers a speech in the school is excellent and is what is called a real cameo. Compare it with the climax (especially the dialogue part) wherein Mohanlal speaks about his own problematic childhood, its poles apart. Hats off Sreeni…

One of the reasons why I prefer to watch a Renjith movie is primarily because he is one writer who sells dreams. His protagonist, most often, a free spirited globe trotter will be a person with specialties. He will mouth philosophical dialogues with most of them as Jayasankar says having a touch of soft hindutva; he will be a connoisseur of arts and most of all, he will be a “know it all” types. But Renjith’s films also have certain common traits – character sketch of the main protagonist as we have just seen, a few friends of the hero who will be waiting for him in the native land and of course loads of nostalgia, which the protagonist, most often who comes back after a long time brings along with him. Though predictable, it’s enjoyable.

So there’s nothing to complain about Sathyan except for the fact that it would be good, if he can attempt to make something different next time which the other two writers do at times.
Well, for this Vishu season, my bet is on “Dey Ingottu Nokkiye” by Balachandra Menon who has taken the courage to put a junior actor Jayasuriya in the lead unlike others who are still dependant on the veterans...

Happy Vishu...

It’s all about an experience….

Two years at TISS have come to an end thereby marking the end of formal education. What has TISS given me? A brand name that has enabled me to reach the threshold of an organization. What next?
Well, in fact formal education can take you this far only. It can give you a brand and open doors. Further opening of doors and finding the way completely depends on you and your personal brand.

There are 2 things that come to my mind especially at this juncture when I am going to join an organization. First of all, there would be many like me who are eager to join their respective organizations where they have been placed. Personally, I have a lot of expectations and also hope to add value to the position that I am going to occupy. At this point there could be point of concern, i.e. to what effect can you bring about changes in an organization. Well, the fact is that ideally one should not hope or think too much about introducing an organizational change as early as joining.

Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in Stephen Covey’s 7 habits of which one is to widen your circle of influence (1). While joining the organization, we might belong to a particular department, say human resources. Ideally, the focus should be on improving the systems and processes that lie within the realm of HR and thereby slowly gaining the confidence of the people around you. Here is where your personal brand matters. Be it any sort of transaction that you are having with your people around, you need to create an experience for the other person (2).

For instance, as HR people, one of our routine functions is recruitment. If we were to draw a parallel between a prospective customer and a prospective employee (synergies between HR and other functions can be another post in itself), the way we would go about interviewing a candidate would be different. This only means that the interview in itself should be an experience for the candidate. What would constitute an experience is completely up to you. Basic etiquettes like offering tea, snacks etc are to be followed and attempts to make the candidate at ease should be made. It would be great if the candidate upon rejection could be given some sort of feedback as to why he failed to make the cut. All this would prevent the candidate developing a negative feeling and instead would etch a positive impression in the mind of the candidate about the organization as a brand and he/she is most likely to join your organization in future given a chance.

This is just one example of what HR professional can do in terms of providing an experience. There are umpteen transactions that happen in an organization on a daily basis. Care should be taken to make them all meaningful and engaging experiences.

As poet Maya Angelon said, “People will forget what you said, they will forget what you did but they will never forget what you made them feel”.

It’s all about providing an experience and thereby enhancing your brand value and subsequently your organization’s brand value…

After a long time…

Well well…for those who visit my blog, I am writing after a long time..hence am having cramps in writing. Yet I will make an attempt to write something..There is no specific topic in this blog. Just a few random thoughts put together, that’s it.
The recent tussle between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the Hogenekkal issue is surprising. The issue was resolved ten years before and has now surfaced again. The interesting aspect is the timing of the issue – just before the elections in Karnataka which in itself is a huge manifestation of vote bank politics that continues till date in India. This is not the first time that such a thing is happening. It’s sad because in this case, the issue was resolved previously and for no reason has been brought up. The intent in this case is pretty clear – to gain political mileage and garner more votes.

I was immediately reminded of a similar thing that happened in our TISS campus just before the union elections. A very sensitive issue was brought to the front by the constitution review committee which was whether there should be any affirmative action (read reservation) for certain communities in the executive body. Once again, it is the timing that created ripples. In a college like Tata institute where the majority of the students come for programs like social work, by virtue of what they learn and what they are forced to think, they always favor reservation without even understanding the larger purpose of the same. The institute clearly got divided along two lines with the people going against the concept of reservation being a minority (in terms of numbers). For sure, the aspirants who by virtue of their philosophy opposed the concept of reservations, lost because of sheer numbers.

The timing of an issue and the sensitivity can create a huge impact as people, I presume, generally vote on the basis of emotions and not rationale. I can bet on this, otherwise India for sure would have had better leaders. Secondly, the stakeholders never speak on the issue. For instance, I am not sure whether the people who are out on the streets of Karnataka and Tamilnadu destroying properties of each other are the actual representatives of the culture of the 2 states. Karnataka is generally known to be a peace loving state but the current status doesn’t quite reflect that. So was the case in TISS. The so called communities or people from communities never expressed desire that they wanted reservations. It was from some faculty corner or straight from the brains of a few intellectuals who wanted social justice to prevail in TISS as it represents a microcosm of the society.

Applying principles of position vs interest (courtesy: Conflict Management class of Patwardhan sir), the positions of both the states are clear. But it is the interest of Karnataka state that is appearing a bit murky. The issue is not water for sure. The interests lie somewhere in the upcoming elections.
Similarly upon probing a lot, the group that supported reservations in TISS were never quite able to provide satisfying theories. The communities are getting marginalized and hence they need representation or they need to be empowered and hence they need reservation; all these sound like mere rhetoric. If discrimination is the problem, use the cell that already exists for the communities in a more effective way. If empowerment is the real interest, then build the capacities/capabilities of the communities instead of fighting for a position in the union which would in the long run benefit the communities too.

Moving from position to interests in fact helps a lot in arriving at the root of the conflict. But whether it gets resolved or not truly depends to a certain extend on the skills of the parties involved and to a larger extend on the authority. In TISS, we were finally able to stall the process of amendment (of creating reservations for communities) by reaching out to a higher authority. In case of Karnataka and Tamilnadu what will happen is something that we need to wait and see..