Mr. Smith goes to Washington

Whenever I think a movie was the movie I've ever seen, there is something sooner or later, something even better comes and surprises me with ingenious film-making. Life is Beautiful, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Shwashank Redemption, It's a Wonderful Life... the list keeps growing. Now, here comes a movie that I believe one of the best ever I've seen. I know a lot of people might not share the same passion as me for this, as it is about democracy and America, still not as much appreciated by many people. But, Frank Capra and James Stewart will not make anything less than an extraordinary movie. And Jean Arthur caps it like a cream of the cake. And, Harry Carey who acts as the President of the Senate brings a highly respected and esteemed impression for his character, though he is not properly credited for this.

The film is about how a young, simple minded Midwesterner from Jackson city, Mississippi is selected for the American senate to be a honorable stooge of a corrupted businessman to replace a recently passed-away senator and how he fights the very own corrupt machinery that had engulfed the principles and ideals of America. The young man (our great James Stewart of "It's a Wonderful Life") loves and believes every patriotic ideal and adores his fellow senior senator and all gungho for this great job of law-making for this world's greatest democracy. When he first sets foot on Washington he loses his mind just watching the Capitol dome and loses time in the great memorials of Washington and Lincoln. His innocent mannerisms and plain patriotism is initially ridicule and mocked at by all those whos-who of Washington and even his secretary Clarrisa (the lovely Jean Arthur) is initially annoyed at baby-sitting this "cocky" new Senator.

The senator has visions of building a great boy's camp in his own state to teach and grow up boys with American ideals, but little does he understand that his bill to create this national camp is on the same land where the corrupt Mr. Taylor works up the nation to build a dam for his own interests. When the interests collide, Taylor tries to break up our man with allegations and when our hero has almost lost, he rises up extraordinarily using the Senate provisions (that allow for filibustering) and makes up his case. You have got to watch this, as I don't do justice for this great act, by explaining all this in a sentence.

We have all seen such stories where a lone man fights for a lost cause among the villains backed by politicians, their stooges and businessman with deep-pocketed connections in the press and other public media. But, this movie is extraordinary and puts America both in a positive light and also points out to its deficiencies. It points out to the concern of how the different estates of public sphere - lawmaking, business enterprises, media and the executive machinery have to be independent and impartial. It reminds people of their responsibilities of this democracy in selecting their representatives and keeping track of the various estates of the society. If people are not going to pay much attention to politics then the corrupt elements will, and instead of representing the will and ideas of the people, the government shall represent the vested interests of the few. Then politics and Presidentship will not be decided in the fields, factories and offices of the common man but at the expensive cocktails, conventions and conferences in New York, Chicago and Los Angels. What is said in 1939 is even more true today, when America is more and more becoming plutocracy far away from the dreams of its creation in 1776.

And it reminds the people of the great dream of its forefathers - the visions of Jefferson and Franklin in the declaration of independence, the Philadelphia bell and Statue of liberty standing to represent the freedom and liberty to all men and women, the words of Lincoln that urges us in protecting the sovereignty and maintaining democracy and the Washington memorials that stands tall to represent the ingenious ideas of this young nation. The singing of star spangled banner (the national anthem of US) during the senator's election and dramatic portrayal of various symbols of American entity is simply wonderful in this movie.

I hold a lot of personal emotions for this movie in that it points to what we have lost in politics. I always get emotional when I visit the great memorials of the Washington, the great Washington's pillar, the majestic statue of Lincoln, the great World war memorial and most importantly the capital dome viewed from the Union station just out of Amtrak, from the air taking off from Reagan airport, and from every road leading to it. It is the place where laws are made that governs the working or atleast affect it for most parts of the world. Seldom do people understand how important an institution it is, how much they really care to affect it.

We, the common people, have shrugged from our responsibility towards politics and treat it like a nasty art little realising that it is the thing that moves and works us. What is true for America holds true for most other democracies including Britain and India. Back home in India, we have left politics to rot. The great halls of Rashtrapati Bhavan where doyens like Sarvappalli Radhakrishnan and Abdul Kalam have grazed their presence, is just a ceremonial entity that overlooks a chaotic Sansad Bhavan where goons and criminals represent us and enact laws for us. More than the Americans, we have shrugged our responsibilities to elect responsible representatives for the nation and then just bitch about the poor state of the nation.

I wish movies like these come in India and other democratic nations, and more people get into the working of the beautiful web of democracy.

Three Billion New Capitalists

I was reading through Clyde Prestowitz's "Three Billion New Capitalists - the Great shift of wealth and power to the east" that came in 2005. Like many of the books of the same era including the "World is Flat" it describes opportunities and challenges that is unfolding for America given the revolutionary changes that is occurring in India, China, Brazil & the East Europe-Russia. All these countries were warped in some kind of socio-communism till the late 1980's and (almost) everything came down with a thud with the fall of Berlin Wall. East Europe followed Germany into capitalism and USSR collapsed in 1991, India became almost bankrupt in 1991 and turned into a market economy partially due to the fact that its main export destination went down pinching foreign earning, China was forced to become a capitalist with a host of events including the Tiananmen square massacre in 1989 and Brazil became democratic with a new constitution in 1988. By now the concept of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) has become a cliché for international economists.

The globalization process started since the 15th century when Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 closing an important trade route for the West with India. So, starting with Portugal, European countries were sending their great expeditions towards India and unimaginable wealth was found in Asia, Africa & Americas accidentally. This process was accelerated with the industrial revolution and Renaissance and by early 20th century the strains of protectionism-mercantilism that came as a reaction for globalization almost destroyed the world with two great World Wars, along with producing diseases of socialism, fascism, Nazism, communism, Maoism & Fabian (India).

This time the challenges are much more than the earlier rounds of capitalism-globalization that occurred till 1980s. The players were relatively small Japan, West Europe along with the big boss - America together accounting for a population of half billion+. But, the challenges that are posed with the rise of three billion new capitalists (from India, China, Russia, Brazil, East Europe) poses totally different challenges. Of fundamental worry is the Export imbalances caused by curency manipulation by Asian countries that causing dollar to be artificially strong and posing threat to everyone in the system.

The book covers a lot of these aspects and the author puts his vast experience in government commissions and private executive boards to explain how each of these challenges unfold and how US can cope up with them. Some of the interesting observations made by the author are:

1. Linkages between various sectors of economy: A lot of macroeconomists believe economies to be working linearly and free market principles can stabilize systems in almost no-time. For example, you lose an industry to abroad due to productivity difference and this will help you to have cheaper product and eventually you currency will depreciate and cost of labor will go down and you will eventually get equal or better industry. But, a lot of cases such things don’t happen. The author gives an example of how US companies like Ampex lost VCR business to Japan, thereby US lost all the additional things like disk storage & recording etc. and Japan built its CCD industry with VCR revolution and this led to Digital Cameras. Thus, by losing one industry US lost a dozen industries.

2. Economies are ecosystems: While dealing with biological & physical systems we are sometimes so amazed and shocked how important certain minor linkages are. Destruction of certain animals/plants or loss of certain soil & water streams can break an entire system just like how faulty screws could potential bring down great machinery. While biologists and ecologists are starting to appreciate such crucial links, economists are late in the game. The author gives an example of Silicon Valley. It is not just a place of producing h/w & s/w. It is a region watered by the great brains of Stanford & Berkeley, powered by thousands of venture capitalists, lawyers, Research labs and corporations and each are important to other. The corporations need universities for talent and Universities need corps for funding, and both require capital from the VCs & investment bankers. You break one linkage and you collapse the whole system. Thus, US should be careful of what it moves offshore and should make a few industries national priorities just like how biologists designate few animals to be endangered.

3. Currency manipulation & Monetary policy: The world system has gotten to a point, where one part of the world (read: America) is mad consuming while a lot of rest of the world is mad saving. Both cannot continue forever. Over saving is as bad as over consumption like what the great depressions showed. Like fat accumulation in the body, a lot of regions including Japan & China have accumulated a massive reserve of dollars (running in trillions) and they have no sound plans for consuming them. The system is thus very precarious and small moves can bring the entire system to a thud. So, major savers should diversify their savings and move a lot of it for domestic consumption. Major economies like China should move their focus from export-centric to serving their huge domestic markets. Interesting suggestions he gave include bringing Japan into dollar zone (effectively ending currency manipulation) and work with Europe & IMF to bring alterative international currencies to reduce the burden on dollar.

4. Energy security: US is spoilt with a couple of decades of cheap oil that brought new beasts like SUVs into the market. This has put it an unsustainable situation of consumer of more than a quarter of world oil. By a combination of activities including support of energy efficient vehicles, tougher standards for SUVs and support for alternate energy sources like oil from shale, tar and ethanol should be pursued to totally eliminate the dependence on Middle east oil as world oil reserves are going to be extremely pressured with the rise of the three billion people.

5. Focus on Education: Due to the policies that centered on baby boomer generation, US education is in a state of deep shit. There was a time when people could land in life long good employment with a mediocre high school graduation and such laxity has removed focus on a rigorous schooling curriculum. Teachers are underpaid and hence of poor quality, and due to legal action discipline is not properly enforced. Thus US lags the rest of the world in student quality and this must be redressed.

6. End US hegemony: Many of policies of US including the Iraq war are not adding any more friends to the US and now it has been totally isolated. So, it should focus on strengthening international institutions like UN & EU to share its burden and consult with the rest of the world in greater actions. As US is slowly losing its economic superiority comparable changes in defense policy must be made, and defense allocations pruned.

However, I disagree with the some of the observations of the author including his undue fear of wage equalization. Eventually, there will be a wage equalization where US and the rest of the world will come closer. This is because US gotten to where it was, because the great countries of the world were sleeping then. India & China contributed to 75% of world GDP till 17th century and then due to external intervention were totally broke & poor. In the meantime wars weakened Europe, and US got a golden chance to rebuild the world and in the process built a legendary economy. There were more kids and very little old men and so everybody got great safety nets and high school students landed in great jobs. US consumed half of world's major resources with one-twentieth of the population. So, what it reached in early 1980's & 90's were peaks that, in my opinion, can never be reached ever. As other nations start waking up there will be a need for equitable distribution of resources and balancing act will continue. Eventually, US will become like rest of the world consuming what it deserves and that is the best that could be hoped for a nation with scarce history & no ancient culture though they can partially equalized by great entrepreneurial spirit of the 19th & 20th centuries.

But, the challenges that involve the spreading of resources among the old and new owners will be anything but painless and great powers must ensure a smooth transition to ensure the continuity of the world.

A Critical analysis on Hollywood, Hindi & Tamil Movies in the last 3 decades

Introduction

Movies are a source of fun for many and a source of inspiration for few. But, to me it is one of the best indicators of the society on a given period. It is one of the best voting mechanisms where millions of voters around the world pay to vote for a concept, an idea and an art. In an individual sense, tell me the movies a person watches, and you can tell the character of a person. Well not exactly. If you take an individual movie there might be a lot of deviation due to the personal qualities of the actors, director etc. But, if you take a list of movies over a huge sample set in an era those personal qualities could get flattened out and what emerges out is a picture that speaks of those who lived that era, their tastes and their mentality and even their history and demographics.

Conversely, movies of a particular era shape the thinking, style & culture of an era. Thus, there is a heavy correlation between movies of a particular era and the contemporary society. Why Americans loved War movies during 40's and 50's (including the all time top - Casablanca), why they loved science fiction in 80s (Terminator, Back to the future) or fantasies in 2000's (LOTR, Harry potter due to a greater purchasing power of teenagers and young adults), why Indians loved religious movies till 50's and romantic movies in the 90s reflect the contemporary society and demographics (in the last case due to the greater power of teenagers and young men). For the purposes of this paper, I would like to take the two of the biggest film industries in the world - Hollywood & Bollywood (Hindi) along with a regional film industry in India - Kollywood. There is a strange correlation between the first and last, while the middle one seems to have a converse relationship.

1970s

Late 60s to 70s represent a new era in American and world society. It is the start of the baby boomer generation (people who came after the war had more number of kids and started building up the society) and the presence of so many youngsters started influencing the music and movie industries. Elvis, the Beetles and dozens of other pop, rock music guys changed the total atmosphere of the soft & serene western music. Counter culture develop and hippy became fashionable. In a lot of ways, the movies reflect this contrary & counter culture. While the preceding era had some stunning concept movies like Casablanca, Citizen Cane, Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mocking Bird, this era was famous for its darker movies closing on underworld and darker human aspects - movies like Godfather (1972) & its sequel (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), Taxi Driver (1976), or even the dark humor M*A*S*H (1970) defined the tradition. Later in the era, new generation of movies started to sprout reflecting the scientific advancements of the era that led to the 1980s style. Some of the samples in the category include the Star War & Start Trek series of movies.

While, Hollywood film industry was limiting in its dark hits, Hindi film industry was in its peak with its lively bright movies. It defined one of the greatest era, with the new booming generation of actors that broke the tradition from the past. Amitabh Bachan, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, Zeenat Amman and the young Kapoors took over the rein of the old Hindi cinema and brought life to it. All time hits like Sholay (1975), Andaz (1971), Aradhana (1969), Bobby (1973), Don (1978) & Dewar (1975) appeared in this period and Hindi songs showed a marked difference. Inspired by their western counterparts and some original scores, Hindi films stunned Indian cinema (and most parts of West Asia) with their songs. And a lot of people believe that Hindi Cinema never ever reached back its zenith as that era.

While Hindi movies were reveling in its great heights, the southern film industry of Kollywood, followed the tradition of Hollywood. While, its 1950s & 60s movies produced a great style and bright concepts, the 70s era was a peak for darker concepts. Actors like Rajni Kanth, Kamal Hasan began their career with darker and psycho concept based movies directed by Balachandar. Movies questioned the individual relationships and pondered deep on concepts like love, family, etc. And a few movies were remade from Hindi film industry and the music quality was going down.

1980s

The 1980s was a markedly different style in that it was subdued and the movies were light. The movies and people still showed the reminiscences of Beetles-Boney M culture that reflected in their trousers, their hair-styles and even the back ground music of the movies. 1980s in Hollywood followed the late 70s scientific era with its own good movies like Terminator (1984), Back to the Future (1985), ET & the most of the Star Wars & Star Trek series. Except for these occasional hits, this era is almost forgettable from a collector's perspective.

Hindi & Tamil movies in the era continued their bright nature movies and brought more comedy into the system. Tamil film industry particularly brought its peak in humor with all the major actors bringing their own variety. Rajnikanth with his Thillu Mullu (1981) and Guru Shishyan (1988) was in his highs only to be beaten by Kamal Hassan bringing his best humor performances in Aboorva Sagodarargal (1988), Pesum Padam (1988) and Michael Madana Kama Rajan (1990). But, in terms of concept and magnificence this era was a passable one for all these film industries.

1990s

90s marked a significant and the greatest era for the Hollywood industry. It brought the greatest concept movies like Swashank Redemption (1994), Shindler's list (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Cast Away (2000), Braveheart (1994) & late in the era movies like The Matrix (1999), Gladiator (2000) & A Beautiful mind (2001) - extending into the millennium. Some of the all time block blasters like Jurassic Park (1993), Titanic (1997) crowned while interesting action movies like Speed (1994), Mission Impossible (1996), MIB (1997), T2:Judgement Day(1991), True Lies (1994), The Mummy (1999), Charlies Angels (2000) and total humor like The Mask (1994) & There's Something About Mary (1998). The extraordinary variety, stunning concepts, crowning actors (Cruise, Hanks, Crowe & Schwarzenegger) and directors marked this greatest era for Hollywood film industry.

While, Hollywood was peaking, Hindi industry was almost tanking. It was a bare shadow of its earlier past after the great actors & music directors left. The movie industry now started focusing purely on romance & family centric movies. Some the greatest in this era include Hum Apke Hein Kaun (1994), DDLJ (1995), KKHH (1998) & KKKG (2000) and they were all romantic movies. There were not many concept movies or awe-inspiring block busters.

While Hindi was tanking, Tamil cinema rose to its peak just like Hollywood, in its own style. The humor of 80s were given way to concept, action and block buster movies. Director Shankar produced three of the all time greatest concept movies in Tamil - Gentleman (1993), Indian (1996) and Mudalvan (1999) followed by Mani Rathnam's Roja (1993), Alai Payude (2000) & Bombay (1995). Actor Rajni Kanth produced two of his sensational movies Dalapathy (1991) and Badshah (1994), while Kamal Hassan produced 3 great movies in a sequence of 4 years that were nominated for Oscar foreign film official entry from India, including Devar magan (1992), Kurudi Punal (1995) & Indian (1996) and then later for Hey Ram (2000), apart from his great action in the remake of "Mrs. Doubtfire" in Hindi & Tamil. From the middle of decade, an upcoming actor Vijay produced some of the best romantic movies like Poove Unakaga (1995), Kadaluku Mariyadai (1997) and Tullada Manamum Tullum (2000). The movies were also in spectacular style, color and awe-inspiring settings like those of Kadal Desam (1996), Minsara Kanavu (1997) & Jeans (1998). Inspired by the scores of the great music director A. R. Rahman and some great concepts, Tamil cinema for the first and only time dominated the Indian film industry and dozens of its music and movies were remade in Hindi and other languages.

Current Era (2000-2007)

Current era starting from the millennium marks a considerable difference to the earlier era for Hollywood. The rise of technology and teenage kids gave way to immature teenage fantasy movies to take center stage in this era. Movies totally divorced from reality like Lord of the Rings series, Harry Potter series, Charlie & the chocolate factory and slightly more sensible Spider Man series & Pirates of the Caribbean started to dominate the era. While the sequels for Mission Impossible, X-Men, Terminator and film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code were totally disappointing, movies like Crash could have been made better though it stood out a lone concept movie of the era. Though, we are just halfway through the era, it has already started to tank and the quality of movies have reached the nadir with directors focusing on teenagers & immature young adults to produce their blockbusters. Samples like Lady in the Water (2006) showed how worse a movie could be made.

The Tamil movie industry in its marked correlation with Hollywood is also digging its grave in a stark contrast to the earlier decade. Totally rubbish new heroes and actresses who know the least of acting started to dominate an era of imbecility and stupidity. The occasional concept movies like Autograph (2004), romance like Roja Kootam (2003) and action like Ghilli (2004) have yet to cause a considerable shift in the era. Great actors like Rajni kanth, Kamal Hassan, Vijay and legendary directors like Shankar have rubbished themselves with some utter senseless moves in the era.

While both Hollywood & Kollywood have totally fallen off, the silver lining is seen from the rise of Bollywood, in its greatest era. While the earlier era were pure romantic movies and cheap thrills focusing on the local audience, Bollywood of the current era rose to satisfy the intellectual aspirations of educated guys both in India and abroad. As an example three great movies of Hindi history - Black (2005), Paheli (2005) & Swades (2004) competed for Oscar entry last year, just like what happened in 1994 in Hollywood - a virtual clash of the Titans. Swades was one of the most perfect movies ever made in Hindi should rub shoulders with the likes of Shwashank Redemption & Casa Blanca, led the pack though it was surprisingly let down by its audience. However, two of the other greatest movies that were also made in the era - Laggan (2001) and Rang de Basanti (2006) got great approval from the audience and showed how good movies could be made. The humor mixed concept movies like Munnabhai series (2004 & 2006), Salam Namaste (2005) & Dil Chahta Hai (2001) showed the new face of Hindi cinema with its dazzling colors. Some cool block busters like Dhoom (2004), Loc:Kargil (2003), Banty Aur Babli (2005), Don (2006) and soft romantics like Veer Zaara (2004), Parineeta (2005) gave color while Fanaa (2006) was a letdown - though well made, was illegal in its concept.

Summary

Film industries show what an era of people like and an indication of their tastes. Like business cycles, movies too have their high and low eras, sometimes coming alternatively. Movies of an era (roughly a decade) have some global similarities and eras could abruptly start and end with some stellar era leaders. And there is also a great correlation between movie industries, the complementary relationship between Hollywood & Kollywood and their converse relationship with the middle guy - Bollywood.

India's Growth Model: China or America?

In the previous post, we discussed about whether India and China were ever equal. Now we will go further and discuss the right model for comparison: United States of America.

As the analysts are finding the last couple of years, India and United States are much more common than what most people think (did I just say that the world's poorest & richest country have some commonality). Superficially, India's english, democratic tradition & British colonial legacy are visible. But, we have just got started. There are much more deeper. We will randomly see them and then put them in place.

1. Hollywood Vs. Bollywood - You must be thinking that I'm just kidding, as movies are not a factor for world economy. It is. At one point, not long ago, Russia overtook US as a super power and Japan overtook US as an economic power. But, how many kids dreamed of Russia & Japan, tried to imitate their culture, flock to their universities or even learn traces of Russian & Japanese? But they did all that to US, because of a very powerful influence - Hollywood. It shaped the world cinema, and gave a way for imagination and thought. In all that imagination and dream world, only America was there and its perspective on the rest of the world. Interestingly, whereever they lived most kids saw world from the prism of United States. Thus, US got the best of world relationships, best of students & scientists & entrepreneurs and easily outsmarted its competitors. I'm not saying that Hollywood was solely responsible for America's growth, but without hollywood, a lot of American succcesses would have never happened. For a long time, US benefited from the export of Hollywoodism, McDonaldism & CocaColaism. Culture shapes billions of bucks and US companies & brands (from Ford, GE to Pepsi, Coca-Cola to Microsoft) became a marque for the world.

Coming to India: India's long lasting legacy in Asia it is its export of culture. Everwhere from Thailand, Malaysia to China, Japan, Middle East, coastal Africa... you could see great influence of indian culture. Thus, even without magnificent war & army India had conquered a huge territory, just by being a powerful holder of cultural exports. People from Columbus, Vasco Da Gama to English sailors to Chinese buddists flocked to India and dreamed on a trade with India. In a way, it is similiar to American export of culture, only a good form of culture :). And as Bollywood emerges, people from as far as Africa to East Asia will see world from an Indian prism and will bring both development and international relationships with that, and Indian companies will get the visibility and brand promotion it requires. Probably we might even convince Pakistan and China to have better friendhship with India.

This is also extendible to other media. Washington Post, Time magazine & CNN has so much effect on world media. Now India has many of the strengths and can take a part of the strength just how US took from UK (with BBC, Times etc.).

2. Enthusiasm & Entrepreneurism: If a Rip Van Winkle from 19th century America suddenly woke up in current India, he could find the comfort of home in it. 19th Century America didnt have infrastructure, had shabby roads and dusty towns, quarelling federal government, but its people had an unique power: An optimism for the future, a sense of pride and vision & an overbearing urge to succeed. They quickly moved from the heterogeneous group of colonies to bring powerful economic houses that dreamed of growing big and conquering the world. This fiery capitalism and energetic entrepreneuship is what we see in India - from slums to high raises. We are poor in infrastructure and shabby in our cities, and our heterogeneous is quarallesome, but our energetic young men & women are going to overcome all of that with the same sense of purpose our godfathers (19th century Americans) had.

3. Stress on Unity in Diversity: America has a great power, it quickly assimilates its immigrants much faster than any other country. The irish, jews, Italians, Germans who came during the last 100 years are now fully integrated as Americans. Though, there is great diversity in terms of immigrants (we have huge African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans and of course European Americans) representing every continent in the world. But, they all are almost united on a concept: American (albeit diversity and fractionsim are growing).
Historically, only one other country had such a track record: India. It had such a power that whoever came to the land became Indians (or Hindus). We definitely have an exceptions like Islamics who will never be assimiliated anywhere. The Greeks, Afgans, Aryans, East Asians, Mongols, Arabs are all fully assimilated and the art & culture as an example for it. Thus, it has such a diversity (in language, religion, art forms) but a soft thread runs among all, conscious or sub-conscious. A sense of Indianism. A lot of Indians will oppose when I say it, till they feel their subconscious emotion of it at different times.