Tag: writing

GDN – A review

‘GDN’ is a movie about the legendary Indian inventor and industrialist, Gopalaswapmy Doraiswamy Naidu, widely known as the Edison of India. The film narrates GDN’s journey from that of a humble hotel waitor in Coimbatore, to building India’s first electric motor, to running the successful United Motor Services, and pioneering many other successful ventures.

The story of GDN is one of vision, ambition, and innovation coming together. It offers viewers a slice of forgotten Indian history, one that always deserved to be told but never got the chance. While it can be argued that the GDN museum in Comibatore does pay tribute to the man’s memory, nothing communicates the scale of his contribution quite like a commercial potboiler that brings his life to the screen.

What comes through strongly in the movie is GDN’s never-say-die spirit in the face of adversity. Whether it is saving money for a motorbike while working as a waitor, establishing the United Motor Services with barely any resouces, or beating reputed companies to bagging the BMW contract, GDN’s grit is on full display.

Madhavan, who plays GDN, does full justice to his role. Without fumbling or flinching, he portrays the many shades of the man, both at the professional and personal level. Through Madhavan, we see how GDN contributed not only to science and technology but also to those around him. If his BMW dream had materialised, Tamil Nadu would have witnessed an economic transformation.

But when you reach the top, you either stay there or come crashing down. With GDN, it was the latter. Yet, as Madhavan shows with impeccable conviction, a determined and gritty man can never be defeated. Failures are but stepping stones to more success, and that true success comes to those who refuse to give up.

GDN’s rise coincided with that of the nationalist movement. While the Mahatma and other freedom fighters fought the British politically, GDN fought his through industrial vision and enterprise. He may have ultimately lost to the machinery of British rule, but he never surrendered his dignity or stature.

And that, perhaps, is the film’s most enduring meesage: success is not always about winning the battle. Sometimes, it is about refusing to let defeat diminish who you are.

The attic of no return…

‘Tringgggg’, rang the alarm. John woke up with a start. It was 6 AM, and time to get ready. He had planned to reach office early and finish by 5, so that he could devote the evening to uncle Tom’s house. Tom, who was John’s father’s younger brother, had recently passed away. He had bequeathed his house to his nephew. That day, one week after the last rites, the nephew planned to visit the uncle’s house to gauge how many things needed to be transferred to his home.

Tom was not married and had few friends. John and his parents were the only ones he could call his own. The uncle-nephew bond was strong, almost like a son to his loving father. In Tom, John found someone whom he could trust and confide in. Whenever his parents had a fight, he would go to his uncle’s house to stay until his parents reached a truce. At other times, Tom would read stories to John.

John missed his uncle terribly. He had lost more than an uncle – he had lost a friend. 

Once John was done with work, he drove down to Tom’s home. Before his death, the uncle had requested his nephew to take special care of his books, and to never allow them to be sold to the scrap dealer. Tom was protective of his books and was determined to ensure they did not end up in the shredding machine. John felt a duty towards honouring his uncle’s last wish.

John reached by 5.45 and scanned the house. There were two beds, a couple of chairs, a dining table, fridge, washing machine, and Television set. All these items now belonged to John. He knew that his home did not have the space to accommodate them all. But he was not worried, as he had enough time to decide what to do with them. 

He was more concerned about the books. 

John entered the library that Tom had put together over four decades. It housed a vast collection, roughly seven thousand in number. They were neatly arranged topic-wise – politics, literature, sports, mathematics, physics and chemistry. John started examining one book from each category, starting with Mathematics. He found ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity”, a biography of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the great Indian Mathematician, by Robert Kanigel.

As he sifted through the pages, reading bits and pieces of the text, he saw a piece of paper on Page 245 jutting out. Curious, he opened it. Upon deeper inspection, he learned that it was written in 1926, exactly one hundred years ago. 

John was amazed. He had actually unearthed a letter from exactly one hundred years ago. He wondered about the contents – who was it addressed to, who wrote it, and what did it say? Although it was none of his business, John’s curiousity got the better of him. He opened it gently, making sure it did not tear, and started reading. It began thus:

Dear John, ……

When he saw his name, John froze. What a coincidence to find a one-hundred-year-old letter addressed to his namesake. But he was more curious as to what the letter said, and continued reading. 

As John read the letter, cold sweat gathered on his face. He felt goosebumps form on his hand that had begun to shiver. John almost dropped the paper.

This is what it said:

Dear John,

I know that Tom is no more, and that he has willed his house to you. Please accept my condolences. 

I warn you: never go into the attic inside Tom’s house, because if you do, your parents and you will not live for more than a week.

Your concerned admirer.

What could this mean? And if it were true, it did not make sense. How could a letter written long ago predict events after one hundred years? The math was impossible. John was spooked.

The Perfect Robber

‘Bang’, went the gun inside the bank. Everyone – from the manager and cashier to the clerks and customers – froze in horror. For a moment, they were not sure what was happening. But within seconds, they saw the masked bank robbers and bent low to avoid the line of fire. By the time Joe, the man leading the robbers, reached the cashier, the terrified bank inmates had put their hands up and surrendered.

The Manager, who was in a separate room, remained seated on his chair, unsure about what to do next. He had half a mind to press the buzzer to alert the police, but seeing the loaded guns in the robbers’ hands, he dropped the idea.

While the bank robbery was a big, scary event in the lives of the staff and customers, it was business as usual for Joe Thomas. Joe had been robbing banks for the past twenty-five years. He began at the tender age of 15, when he accompanied his father, also a gangster, to a bank robbery in downtown New York. He had made an impact with his quick thinking and daring. After that day, there was no looking back.

Over the years, Joe robbed hundreds of banks without ever getting caught. His smooth technique and sharp execution helped him get away each time. When he was twenty-five, he fell in love with his neighbour, a girl called Mary. They dated for a couple of months and tied the knot with their families’ blessings. The couple had two children – Tom and Anita.

Joe’s family’s needs fuelled his bank robbing campaigns. He was born poor, and with little education, crime was the only way to make ends meet. The money he brought to the table fed his family, saw his children through school, and helped him own a plush car. As the years rolled on, Joe’s bank balance also rose, one bank robbery at a time.

When Joe touched 45, his children were grown. Anita had finished college, and Tom was settling into his job.

While the children were settling into adult lives, there was turbulence between Joe and Mary. Joe’s wife missed the young and athletic Joe she once knew. Years of struggle, seeing children through school, and caring for aged parents had sapped the romance out of their lives. Joe was a pale shadow of his former self, no longer capable of satisfying her emotionally, let alone physically.

It was a difficult time for Joe and Mary. While they loved their children, the latter were grown and capable of fending for themselves. The couple saw no reason to stay together and parted ways.

Their divorce was amicable to the extent that Mary did not demand alimony or a share in Joe’s property. Yet, the separation broke Joe’s heart. He was devastated by the turn his life had taken. For years, he believed he was doing everything right for Mary and the children. But the stress and responsibility of parenthood had blinded him to Mary’s real needs – love, affection, and physical intimacy.

All of a sudden, Joe found life was meaningless. His wife had left him, his children were too busy for him, and his parents were no more. He was lonely and longed for company. He fondly recalled the thrill he felt as a 20 year old as he rode his motorbike, impressing the girls in town with his swagger. He longed to return to those carefree years, when everything seemed possible and he was answerable only to himself.

Captain Barbe Rouge – The Honourable Pirate

Captain Barbe Rouge was a man of principles. He neither misbehaved with women nor succumbed to temptations like drinking or smoking. True, he was a pirate, yet he never dishonoured the women aboard the ships he hijacked. Once, when a male member of his crew assaulted a woman prisoner, the Captain ordered him hung upside down and lashed fifty times in full public view. The man nearly died, but Captain Barbe Rouge remained unmoved. To him, dishonouring a woman was unforgivable.

His wife and children feared him for his unyielding moral standards. Once, when his teenage son was reprimanded for teasing girls in school, the boy begged the principal not to inform his father. He eventually confessed to his mother, who chose to keep the incident from the Captain.

Life at sea was long and lonely. When his crew gathered over bottles of wine to break the monotony, the Captain stayed away. Discipline, he believed, left no room for indulgence.

His children longed for affection from him. They respected him, but it was a respect born of fear rather than love.
There was also the matter of his estranged younger brother.

The Captain was the eldest of three siblings. When their father died, he was only twelve, yet the burden of the household fell squarely on his shoulders. He cared for his mother and raised his younger brother and sister. With little money to spare, he abandoned his education after Class 7 and joined the family business.

Those early sacrifices secured a modest middle-class life for his family, but they left the Captain embittered. He put his siblings through college while his own dreams withered. As a boy, he had wanted to become a doctor. Fate had other plans.

Throughout his life, he worked relentlessly to keep others comfortable. Everyone sought his advice, his help, his strength – but no one ever asked him if he was happy, or whether he wanted something for himself. Surrounded by family, he felt profoundly alone.

Piracy was never his ambition. It was desperation. After his father’s death, he was broke, and a friend suggested they hijack ships to survive. What began as necessity hardened into profession.

Years later, his younger brother – now a senior government official – was suspended for corruption. The Captain was enraged. Dishonesty was intolerable. Without hesitation, he banished his brother from the family. Even after the brother served a two-year prison sentence, the Captain refused forgiveness. Blood, to him, did not excuse corruption. The brother left and never returned.

Time passed. The Captain’s children grew up.

His daughter fell in love with a college classmate. After they settled into their jobs, she decided it was time to tell her family she wished to marry him.

But there was a problem.

The man she loved was the son of a politician who had served jail time for embezzling public money. Would the Captain accept such a man’s son into the family?

‘Dhadak 2’ Review: A Bold, Unflinching Look at Caste 

Dhadak 2 is Shazia Iqbal’s Hindi adaptation of Mari Selvaraj’s Tamil film ‘Pariyerum Perumal’. It portrays an inter-caste couple’s fight against caste prejudice. 

Neelesh (Siddhant Chaturvedi), a Dalit student of law, has a simple and straightforward goal: to study hard, become a lawyer, and lift his family out of poverty. He avoids political activism, lest it derail his long term plans. He finds an empathetic friend in Vidhi (Tripti Dimri), who helps him understand the subject. And, like what happenes in most college friendships, theirs deepens into love.

Neelesh’s subservience and timidity get him nowhere: he is constantly reminded of his place in the caste hierarchy, whether in college or at social gatherings. Neither can he claim his right as a student, nor can he escape casteist taunts. 

His struggle is reminiscent of real-life Dalit students who paid the price for speaking out. The case of Senthil, the Dalit student in the University of Hyderabad who took his own life, comes to mind instantly. And when Shekhar (Priyank Tiwari), Neelesh’s contemporary in college and a fellow Dalit, resorts to the extreme step after being suspended for protesting, one cannot miss the resemblance with Rohit Vemula.

When his face is disfigured by upper caste students in college, the lion in Neelesh awakens. Siddhanth Chaturvedi plays Neelesh’s transformation into a confident and assertive individual, who will not take injustice lying down, convincingly.

Like Siddhant Chaturvedi, Tripti Dimri does full justice to her role. She is not the hero’s usual sidekick and carves out an identity and place of her own. Bold and outspoken, she doesn’t hesitate to ask uncomfortable questions, even if that means challenging her family’s honour. 

Full marks to Shazia Iqbal for boldly engaging with a sensitive theme like caste. She highlights the humiliation Dalit students face in our universities, capturing the stigma in all its rawness. She also addresses the problematic issue of upper caste family honour with the same brutal honesty.

Dhadak 2 is powerful in its treatment of caste. The crisp narrative, sharp dialogues, and engaging story enhance its appeal. It is a must-watch that doesn’t just entertain but compels reflection. The quote at the beginning of the movie sums it up best:

“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty”