Formula 1 - How did it turn around? - A response

I usually try not to bother about how the press covers certain sporting events however this article in the Times of India is a good example of getting the facts wrong right from the word go.

The writer starts off by calling the erstwhile Spyker F1 team 'bedraggled and tardy'. Bedraggled they might have been but tardy, hardly. There's no space for tardy in the cut throat competition that exists in Formula 1. The writer should have known that Michiel Mol the co-owner of Force India also owned a part of the Spyker F1 team. Has he even heard about Mike Gascoyne who has worked with most of the F1 teams on the grid who was fired last year from FIF1?

The article goes on to say about the charm and convincing power of FIF1's team prinicipal. If McLaren were that convinced why was Simon Roberts taken aboard? Simon Roberts was McLaren's Operations Director at the time of being absorbed as COO in FIF1. Mercedes high performance engines was signed on as a engine supplier and McLaren would supply gearbox and hydraulic systems and also give on track support. KERS was available as an option which apparently FIF1 haven't exercised up till now. 

The only area where FIF1 has had to do some R & D was in the wind tunnel in Brackley which has a Jordan legacy attached to it. Of course the work these guys have done in the aero package has paid rich dividends in the medium downforce circuit that is Spa. Any one who has a decent understanding of the sport would invest in a windtunnel, that needn't be a good idea injust in 'hindsight'. The writer goes on to state that "Force India obviously found that important piece of the puzzle", pray what puzzle I ask? Isn't that a basic requirement if you want to run an F1 car in a competition?

The writer stretches his ignorance further by calling KERS "Kinetic Energy Restoration System" and "an ex McLaren brain" "Simon Peters". KERS my friend stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems and the "ex McLaren brain" is Simon Roberts. A simple visit to FIF1's website would have helped the TOI writer to double check his facts. But that is just too much to ask isnt it because then he'd have also seen that not one name on 'the force' page is 'Indian' except the team prinicipal. In fact RIL (Reliance Industries) and the lovely women on Force TV (who apparently also double as pit babes) are what's only Indian in this Formula 1 team's website.

The icing on the cake is this statement -"Mallya has brought pride to a nation that has achieved a lot but has never been associated with this technology driven sport". Can someone please say what brings pride to a nation that doesn't have engineers this team thinks are talented enough to work for them, that doesn't have an F1 driver this team thinks is good enough to drive for them? As somone who has been following the sport since 1997 I take great interest in the sport. It's nice to see FIF1 make such a great improvement to their running, but to call it an achievement to India, to run cover story on our newspapers and to expect that all Indians should take great pride in it is simply stretching things a bit too far.

Imagine the amount of revenue a team can make if it converts even 1/3rd of the cricket crazy sports fans to watch F1. How much more sponsors will line up to support the live coverage of the sport? The bidding price for live coverage in Asia would run into billions of dollars, look at the broadcasters competing for cricketing rights. Force India is a Formula 1 team owned partly by an India but to paint the car in the colors of my national flag and to even expect me to applaud it's achievements only because it's 'supposedly' Indian is a fallacy.

Geo's Talkies - Kaminey

This is going to a little difficult, trying to write about a movie I enjoyed completely without spelling out it's plot. 'Kaminey', the newest Vishal Bharadwaj movie comes with a lot of baggage. The man at the helm of affairs doesn't treat the audience with kid gloves and is adept at making movies for kids and adults with such aplomb that you wonder if he suffers from multiple personality disorder, and I'm not even talking about the fact that he writes his own music.

'Kaminey' is Vishal's take on the time tested hindi movie 'twin brother' plot. The movie is a roller coaster with lots of thrills, it's twisted and take off into various directions, however the grand finale comes across as fitting. Charlie and Guddu are identical twins who are opposites. The former has a speech impairment which makes him pronounce 's' as 'f' and the latter stammers. Charlie works for a group of Bengali Brothers who fix horse races while Guddu is associated with an NGO. Guddu is caught in a situation when he impregnates Sweety during an outing, the irony here is that the song just before this revelation is about protection, condoms and AIDS. Sweety is the sister of a linguistic chauvinist who mouths 'jai maharashtra', whose name is Bhope Bhau. Bhope cannot fathom the fact that his sister has fallen for a guy who is an outsider, another lovely piece of screenplay where Guddu's real name Sanjay Kumar Sharma (hails from UP) is portrayed on screen.

Any more of the story would really be a farce, the movie is best enjoyed on screen. It takes about half hour in which about ten or so characters are introduced on screen and you might end up wondering what's going on. But you got to let the movie play out and by the time it's interval you are almost familiar with everyone. This movie is infested with 'kamineys' in the form of drug lords, cops, politicians and what not.

This movie also is so grounded in today's world, the world where a guy from UP is perceived as an outsider in Maharashtra, a world where Trivandrum has become Thiruvananathapuram, Bombay, Mumbai, Calcutta, Kolkata and so on. There's a lovely scene between Sweety and Shahid on screen where she proclaims her love for him using the city names (read politically correct), Vishal can combine love and politics so subtly into the screen play. Charlie and Guddu's Father who hails from UP works for the Railways, the anti-narcotic squad cops who are hand in glove with the drug trafficking mafia are some examples.

Trains play an understated role in this movie, some of the sweeping moment in this movie are framed on screen with a train passing by or still which almost plays conscience or mirrors the flow of thought in the head of the character on screen at that particular time. Colours in the movie are muted to give it a noir feel I suppose. Most of the filming is done using the steadicam which transports you right into the action.

The writing is probably the star of 'Kaminey', every character get's his/her own time on screen and it takes a while to get used to this kind of exposition. Shahid has done a superb job of portraying Charlie & Guddu and almost makes us believe that they are two different people, Priyanka finally has done very good acting. I believe they've used sync sound in which case the work done capturing sounds and dialogues are amazing. Amole Gupte (hint: Taara Zameen Par) excels in the role of Bhope Bhau. There are many more people who have played their part to perfection. 

Tassadaq Hussain's camera work is exquisite. Vishal's music is as much a star as the writing of this movie. The background score complements the narrative without screaming for attention, a quality that is rare. This is one of those movies where you have someone in charge who is sure of the direction he wants to go and comes out with flying colours in his effort. Vishal's fascination for Shakespeare is well known, he's done a brilliant job of adapting Shakespeare to the Indian milieu in two of his previous outings. On this one he's tried to incorporate some plot elements of the Bard along with screenplay elements of Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie and the like. A nice song plays in the background during the gangster show down in the very end almost like the title song in 'Omkara' which was filmed with scenes of action and violence.

I'm not going to talk about the laconic black humour that is lined up in almost every scene, they keep the laughs coming. The result is an excellent movie which keeps the viewer enthralled during it's playing time and doesn't indulge in insulting the viewer's intelligence by playing out long drawn flashback sequences for every plot twist. Bravo Vishal, can't wait for the next movie which would complete his Shakespeare trilogy.