Dear Zindagi

 

In a streak of not so matching trailers and movies, witnessed a trailer grow into a movie just as supposed to be.The movie delivers just the same that it inspires via promotions.

The movie starting with title credits to Alia Bhatt before Sharukh khan, taking prominence of character in the movie over stardom is good for any movie industry. Kudos to Gauri shinde for bringing out the depth in a lighter way.The Music by Amit, cinematograpghy by Laxman Utekar is fresh, and flows like a breeze on gentle evening beach. Alia Bhatt as Kaira, is just too good with her expressions and emotional delivery. She looks so at ease on screen as one would be without cameras. Shahrukh Khan as Jug, carries the responsibility of being a therapist and the pain that lingers from his own personal life with his experience as an actor.

 

 

 

Talking of the movie, Dear Zindagi is one of those movies that make the viewer relate and introspect, A movie that is to be watched with yourself and you alone. Though the movie takes time to settle in with the backgrounds and justify the situations, it delivers a whole lot of perception with its little detailing. A slow, deep dig at all those overriding emotional journey is what Dear Zindagi is all about.

Right from Kaira forcing herself out on various situations to masking her emotions just to make her look invincible and to escape the deep lying self, the movie more than justifies how emotions can be overwhelming and interesting in an unique way. The plot points out on how instances can turn a person from who he / she is to what he / she pretends to be, irrespective of how small or how insignificant it may look for rest of the world. These instances can range from being humiliated for getting low marks in primaries to being neglected and over riddden one’s thought in the name of stereotypes. Dear Zindagi is a well compiled set of frames that try to unearth the complexities of emotions that web together in forming a person as a whole. It digs through the complex comfortable thrones to find the hard to digest base that forms the core.

Dialogues being simple and strong has an astounding impact. A few to quote (In the Verbal sense, since my Hindi is not that good to re – create).,

“If sadness, anger, hate are not allowed to express, how do one express love”
“Kaira : What do you think of a perfect relationship?
Jug : There are many kinds of perfect relationship. A perfect musical relationship, that happens with two people of same musical liking. A perfect just coffee relationship and so on. Then why do carve and we have to burden a relationship expecting it be the only perfect relationship.”

Personally, the movie felt very close to me where I could relate both Kaira and Jug’s viewpoints to things I do to me, to my life and to people around me at various instances. The decisions we make, the perception we develop, the emotional maze that we build, and last but not the least restricting to comfort of the couch., all relates to the views of either Kaira or Jug.(Atleast it did with me) To the movie to strike, it would require one to be either in a state to accept or in a state of themselves. Dear Zindagi would give different perceptions based on the situation and persons emotions while watching it.

#DearZindagi – Emotions is all

The corporate lifestyle

An old one., done a year and a half back..

Consumerism and corporate way of life has more to do with the distance between people and their natural desires.

 

Money and the shades

Though I am no economist to comment or criticize on an economic policy with technical rigor, I do have a common understanding of common people being one among them. This is a perception of that common view and understanding.

 

No doubt that corruption and black money are one of the issues faced by India and its people as a country. It is required to device plans to unearth those. But are unearthing process just easy like a tense climax of a cinema? My little conscience says it otherwise.

 

The strategy of replacing the old money with new one is a good move to control bogus notes. Doing it with immediate effect does provide a way to negate all possible circulating bogus currencies. And, replacing currencies with newer ones has been in practice every few years for various reasons including eradicating bogus currencies making it not the first of its kind (Overnight change being the difference!).

 

 

The next suggested expectation out of this particular move is to unearth or invalidate the black money hidden in darkness. This quite looks good an intention and bold move at the onset, but it very much has its own adverse effects.  First and foremost, what does this target as black money? Does it refer to the high end money laundering deposited in foreign accounts or the savings of average to low income people without receipts? Does it refer to all the assets and holdings named after Benamis or the common people having earned money through selling milk, or other household activities without bill? Does it look into people who are sophisticated enough to swipe of cards for expense or the people who find it hard to maintain a bank account and manage their own savings? The list goes on.

 

To exactly quote the finance minister

“”If the money is legitimate which had been previously withdrawn from bank or earned legally and saved and had been disclosed, there is nothing to worry about,”

“The small amounts that people will deposit like INR 25,000, 30,000 or 50,000 lying in house for expenses, whatever money could be there for meeting normal family expenses they need not worry. They can go to banks,”

Which very much is a contradiction of each other statement.

 

It is also noted that, any amount greater than INR 4000 will be only deposited into respective bank accounts. According to statistics as of 2015 April, there are around 40 % people in India without bank accounts. Even if there is a 10 % hike in this numbers by now, still there is a lag of 30% population without bank accounts. 43 % of such open bank accounts are dormant accounts (with nil activity), highest of its kind in the world. And out of all the account holders, only 39 % possess the knowledge to use or use an ATM card. There are n number of reasons for the 39% which is not just money laundering.

 

With all these data, I believe that the common people with an average to low earning and who are ignorant to technology still account to a great share in our society. So, it is even more important to educate people with the banking requirements before pulling of a drastic decision. The most possible response for the above statement from supporters would be the fact that “People were advised for the past year to open a bank account and use using various governmental measures”. Yes, that is true. But is it satisfying for to have a campaign just to ask people to create accounts? Or is it necessary for the government to educate people and address all complexes they possess over banking and move them smoothly towards it?

 

Finally, the immediate effect on the common people is of a greater concern. 4 hour time is never enough for a near 130 crore population to stock up with required change to tackle the situation. It is easy to argue on the element of surprise cultivated by the sudden decision, but that would least challenge big shots who hold money as various assets more than liquid cash. Yes, it may target middle level launderers but along with it challenges the very routine of small scale businesses like a retail shop of their hard earned money. And situations of people in travel, people with celebrations around, people staying away from home is a question of its own. Though routed as 2 days sacrifice for the betterment of greater good by the government. The sacrifice is really asked from the people at grass roots, not from the sophisticated bunch in comparison.

 

Overall, a bold move but taken with an autocratic decision making and a bottom up approach, challenging big corporate laundering the least and an average man the most is what makes the decision disappointing. Yes, we need a transparent banking system and this eyes an example, but the example should be set from the elite society rather than affecting and challenging the common people first.

 

References :

Hindu article on bank account stats

 

Finance minister interview coverage on Times of India