Monday, May 07, 2012

Aamir and his show

The man.
I have been a fan of Aamir khan for as long as I can remember and he is the only actor I have ever worshiped. I loved lagaan, DCH and I loved TZP. But something changed around that time. On screen, his acting became strained (3 idiots has to be his worst movie ever). Off screen he seemed to turn cocky, a ‘Mr. Know it all’. I couldn’t stand his Incredible India ads, when did he turn so self-righteous? Even in the satyameva jayathe song (which is brilliant btw) where he travels all over India meeting people, he seems so fake! He is intelligent, well read, versatile and talented no doubt, I don’t mean to offend his fans, just that I stopped being one.

His show.
I turned off the TV once when they started showing visuals of a harassed wife. I turned it on again soon but after an hour I switched off for good. I had to dry my clothes.
The show is not ground breaking by any means. Have you never seen Oprah? (I like Oprah better because she gives away goodies to the audience). Like Rajdeep Sardesai tweeted 'Satyamev Jayate very good: Zindagi live, Real Heroes, India Positive, Citizen Journalist with Aamir as anchor! What more can one ask for!'. Plenty of such shows, except no body watches them. I like the fact that it is aired on DD and in all languages. Like they say, it has its 'heart' in the right place.
It is interesting however to see all the reactions on twitter and facebook, opinions and people outraging over these opinions…

You must be a cynical, worthless citizen if you don’t like the show – yeah right!

Aamir vs Amitabh/SRK/Salman, they did meaningless game shows, while he is talking about social issues – why belittle the work of other actors?

He married twice so he is a bad human, hence we must not watch his show – Err, why bring his personal life here?

We are bringers of change because we send sms and solve issues – Reminds me of the Anna Hazare movement where people patted themselves on their backs for forming human chains while they conveniently continued to bribe cops, cheat with taxes etc.

Aamir is minting money – what's wrong about that?


I hope there is no outrage about this post. In any case how does it matter? Female foeticide is a serious issue. The facts and statistics shown were depressing. There will be more such issues, issues we always knew existed. What can we do about it, what has changed now? Will I watch the show again? Maybe, maybe not.

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Very amateurish but I am quite proud of it. To start with I was not happy with the shape of the canvas, but this was the only one they had at staples. I haven't used oil paints much so chose a simple theme..although I started without planning much. Initially I painted only the water and sand but it turned out too plain, so I brought in the forest. The left side remained empty so I drew the boat. It still has a lot of empty space but I didn't know what to do with it. I like oil paints because you don't have to worry about getting it right the first time unlike water colours where one wrong move can ruin it. On the downside, it requires a lot of patience and can get messy. My ipad, phone, laptop all have traces of paints. I wonder if I can finally claim 'painting' as my hobby.