JOHNNY G AND THE 1970s

As the credits roll, Eastman Colour is plastered all over the screen. You are reminded of an era where running trains formed the perfect backdrop for murder, an era when Vijay Anand sizzled with his intricate whodunit plots, double crosses and elegant song picturisations (Teesri Manzil, Jewel Thief and Johnny Mera Naam).

Johnny Gaddar deals with a bunch of crooks planning a huge joint venture and the lure of the lucre, inspiring the double cross. One murder leads to another, as the players are bumped off one by one through a combination of design and accident. It is not a whodunit for the viewer though, as the identity of the gaddar is clear at the outset. But at the same time, the viewer is encouraged to think, as the gang tries to unravel the mystery behind the killing of the imposingly strong Shiva during a train journey.

Director Sriram Raghavan uses film channels on TV to further his plot....as they relentlessly show 1970s flicks like Johnny Mera Naam and one less-known Amitabh Bachchan film of the early 1970s before he became a superstar (This film used to be the one answer to an Amitabh trivia quiz question before the days of Aankhen and Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag)

Wonderful first half though gang leader Seshadri (Dharmendra) didn't sound too comfortable mouthing English punchline after punchline. But Garam Dharm at 70-plus effortlessly oozes charm. As he says, "it's not the age, it's the mileage."

The second half though was a bit of a stretch and could have been tighter. And a self-indulgent director/writer leaves some loose ends.

Great performances from the gang members, Vikram (debutant Neil Mukesh) , Prakash (Vinay Pathak) and especially Zakir Hussain (Shardul).

Fittingly, the film is dedicated to Vijay Anand and James Hadley Chase, a regular companion of many a long-distance train journey (including Johnny Gaddar).

Rediff has Sriram Raghavan's own list of inspirational films. A Who's who of capers.

MORE THAN AN ARABIAN TALE

Tightfisted ideological purity confronted with the reality of slogging it out for a living outside home soil. In a nutshell, that's the tale of Malayalam film Arabikatha (An Arabian Tale)

'Cuba' Mukundan's travails seemed to have struck a chord in a Sunday morning show at Delhi's Sangam, as I watched the film in a full house, along with hordes of expatriate Malayalis.

Sreenivasan's Cuba Mukundan is the dyed-in-the-wool communist who would break Coca Cola bottles from George Bush's America, organise agitations against computerisation because it means less people will get jobs and destroy structures built on what was once farmland, in the name of a return to peasant farming (A pet theme of Kerala Planning Board vice-chairman Prabhat Patnaik).

At the same time Mukundan idolises Cuba and China. Wonder how he would have responded to 'Made in China' toys with way too much lead for comfort.

Mukundan in his zeal even ensures that his father 'Society' Gopalan (Nedumudi Venu) is suspended from the party, after allegations of embezzling funds. Gopalan dies, after which Mukundan takes it upon himself the responsibility of returning the money.

Off he goes to the Gulf in search of some quick money, armed with a notebook too, to study how labourers are being exploited over there!

The penny drops before too long. Confronted with the reality of serving Coca Cola in a restaurant and made fun of because he has no clue about computers, Cuba Mukundan realises the futility of rhetoric. It takes a while, but in the end he figures out that his father had been framed by another power-hungry comrade.


And then there is the China connection, which was the one reason the film was a headline on a few national news channels much before its release (Chinese heroine for the first time in an Indian film). Mukundan falls for a Chinese girl and the wide-eyed communist asks all sorts of questions to her about his land of milk and honey, China. It's chastening for him to realise that she is a victim of the Communist regime.

Arabikatha's wonderful first half laced with biting satire makes the film a must-watch. The second half though did not live up to the first, with a few contrived situations (like Indrajith's character one fine day taking off to the interiors and who does he bump into on the way - the long-lost Mukundan).

Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan did see the film. But his saga of flip-flops and holier-than-thou statements continue, be it Munnar or Ponmudi. Like Cuba Mukundan, the lack of experience in a responsible position (other than in the party) is glaringly evident. After all, VS has never even led a Panchayat, forget about being a minister. All sound and fury without a remedy to offer.

What Kerala needs is more pragmatism and less rhetoric. Not an administration which trumpets a state ban on the evil multinational monopoly Coca Cola as one of its biggest achievements. And greedily accept funds from the diaspora to sustain its economic model (Kerala model of development).

TALKING HEADS & RAM SETHU

One of the most nightmarish things to deal with in a newsroom is a Karunanidhi soundbyte. Expatriate Tamilians shudder when asked to translate the Kalaignar's words into English. The man's subtle utterings have layers of meaning, rhetorical flourishes and some poetic licence too.

Thanks to Sethusamudram and Ram, the Kalaignar's been a recurring nightmare for the newsroom over the past two weeks. And the man has brazenly stood his ground, precisely because his state is hardly bothered about Ram.

The VHP started off the fireworks with a nationwide chakka jam, which created traffic snarls in faraway Delhi, while Tamil Nadu (where the Ramar Sethu is) casually shrugged it off. But the BJP and the VHP got the opportunity they craved for, with the Archaeological Survey of India affidavit denying the existence of Ram. The saffron outfits went on the offensive, leaving a shame-faced Congress groping for answers.

For the BJP, the Ram controversy came at the right time, as Gujarat heads for elections. And a marginalised VHP had something to talk about, more than a decade after the Babri Masjid demolition.

But this time round, the saffron parties were pitted against somebody who could match them threat for threat and shrillness for shrillness. And it was a win-win situation for both the BJP and Karunanidhi. For the BJP a chance to whip up some fervour in the Hindi belt and for Karunanidhi the perfect opportunity to wax eloquent on Dravidian pride and the 'Brahminical and Aryan' God Ram. The Kalaignar's first chance to harp on Dravidian identity after the heady days of the anti-Hindi riots and DMK's entry into power.

Here's a state where the arrest of the Kanchi Sankaracharya creates hardly a murmur (except for the 2-3% Brahmin population). The BJP and the VHP had made a hue and cry about the arrest of a seer who was involved in the Ayodhya movement, but that didn't deter then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. And in the 2006 Assembly Polls, Sankaracharya's fate did not figure anywhere in the polls, not even in his headquarters, Kancheepuram.

As for Ram, he is regarded a Brahminical, Aryan God, revered by the 3% Brahmin population, which had during the British colonial regime reigned supreme in the caste hierarchy, and a stranglehold over government jobs. The intermediate castes were all classified as sudras, leading to Periyar's Self-Respect Movement and later the DMK. Local gods are now worshipped with renewed fervour by various 'intermediate' castes and anti-Brahminism has spawned a massive 69% reservation. Also this is the only state in India where kids are happily named Ravanan. So where is the space for Ram?

Things came to a head literally, with VHP leader Vedanti's call for a reward for taking off Karunanidhi's head. The undaunted patriarch responded with his customary flourish, whipping up enough emotions to charge up DMK workers to an orgy of eulogy, in a state notorious for personality cults.

Even the BJP realised the war of words had gone too far, and made conciliatory statements about being opposed to the present alignment, and not the Sethusamudram Project per se. After all, the project was initiated when the BJP-led NDA was in power at the Centre (DMK was a coalition partner). DMK's current Shipping Minister T R Baalu claims that 'no less than six BJP ministers were involved in the final selection of the present route.'

The VHP can still be strident, but the BJP knows the golden rule of politics. Foe today friend tomorrow. And Karunanidhi may again make peace someday with the 'Brahminical' BJP, if pet peeve (in fact his only peeve) Jayalalithaa makes peace with the Congress.

As for Amma, she was sent packing to her Kodanadu estate in Nilgiri district, facing threats of demolition of 'illegal' construction. Amma is now directing protests from Ooty, rooting for Ram only because Karunanidhi is against Ram.

While the verbal duel rages, will anybody spare a thought for the two human beings who were charred beyond recognition by the burning of a Tamil Nadu bus near Bangalore? But then in Tamil Nadu politics, where self-immolation is a virtue, the leaders may be touched by this. But horrified.......never.

CHUCK DE, PLEASE

You switch on a news channel and all you hear or see on the screen is Chak De India. Granted it's a catchy song with an anthemic quality, a We will we will rock you embellished with dollops of pop patriotism. And it's the ultimate sports film, picking up a sport in the doldrums and celebrating the triumph of the underdog.

But heard and seen day in and day out, even a good thing grates on your nerves. And the song itself has been hijacked by the very game the film Chak De India raised its voice against - cricket. Shah Rukh Khan was heard on news channels after India recently won the Asia Cup hockey tournament in Chennai, but then he was seen (at the Wanderers) as well as heard after the Twenty20 triumph. Therein lies the rub.

As the media circus rolled along with Team India, hockey coach Joaquim Carvalho decided to stick his neck out with hockey's familiar theme - Big Brother Cricket. Carvalho castigated a Union Minister and four state governments for ignoring their Asia Cup triumph, while showering cricketers with praise and more importantly big bucks.

Yes, Carvalho is right if he feels hockey ends up playing second-fiddle and politicians bend over backwards searching into the state coffers to reward cricketers. But then Asia Cup is one thing and the World Cup is something else. And it's not as if the Asia Cup triumph did not get its due share of importance. For starters, Chak De and its offshoots were all over the headlines of news channels and newspapers.

As Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy hinted, it's time for Carvalho to stop cribbing and think about the World Cup, Olympics, Champions Trophy etc. After all, nothing succeeds like success.

EKLAVYA AND THE OSCARS

It's the world's biggest and most vibrant set of film industries. The sheer numbers make it hard to believe that Eklavya is the most accomplished film around in India for a shot at the Oscars.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra's film does start promisingly, but in the end leaves you dissatisfied, trying to imagine what it could have been. Incompletely-etched characters and a profusion of style over substance. Hardly Oscar contender material, forget about the prize itself.

The selection procedure is organised by the Film Federation of India, an anonymous organisation otherwise. And their jury this time comprises of Sudhir Mishra (director), Jalees Sherwani (writer), Nadeen Khan (cameraman), Anil Sharma (director), Bijoy Kalyani (producer), Ravi Kottakara (producer), Ravi Sharma (music director), Shahid Amir (costume designer), Ranjit Bahadur (film editor), Jagdish Sharma (producer, director) and Vinod Pande (film-maker).

The need to attach designations give the story away. For many of them that's the only way you get a fix on who they are in the first place. There is a Sudhir Mishra and and Anil Sharma but where's a familiar name from the many regional film industries?

Take a look at the films in contention. Guru, Chak De India, Gandhi My Father and Dharm. It's just a handful of films and all from Bollywood. Difficult to believe that not even a single regional film made the cut. An Arabikatha or an Ore Kadal in Malayalam or a Mozhi in Tamil weren't good enough to even make it to the list of contenders?

Even if it's just a Bollywood race, Guru or Gandhi My Father deserved a look, definitely not Eklavya.

And we haven't even discussed Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner and auteur Adoor Gopalakrishnan's latest offering Naalu Pennungal (Four Women), which was screened at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month.

Mainstream Bollywood has dominated the race for the Oscar nomination, especially after Lagaan made it to the final shortlist in 2001. The very next year we showcased the garish Devdas and now the toothless Eklavya. Forget regional cinema, even the best of Bollywood gets sidelined. It's small consolation that in the pre-Lagaan days, an atrocious potboiler like Jeans (1998) was sent as the official entry.

An Oscar nonination is something Vidhu Vinod Chopra is familiar with. His 1978 short film 'An Encounter with Faces' was nominated for the Documentary Short Subject category. And in 1989, Parinda was the official Indian entry. But those efforts had spunk. Will he ever direct a Khamosh again instead of the likes of 1942-A Love Story and Eklavya?

WHAT WAS THE POINT?

"First of all I want to say something over here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the Muslim lives all over the world."

Thus spake Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik after losing to India at the Twenty20 final, adding he was sorry he had let them down.

Malik's let down Muslims all over the world? He's let down India's man-of-the-match Irfan Pathan and his brother Yusuf? Are Muslims all over the world one homogeneous entity? Forget different countries, is a Malayali Muslim and a Bengali Muslim the same?

The new skipper may have been playing to the gallery, a naive bid to stem any possible resentment back home. But it's shocking that his defence mechanism was irrelevant pan-Islamic rhetoric.

Would have liked to remember this Pakistan side as a younger, hungrier lot with nothing to lose and not carrying forward religious baggage of the Inzamam days, the last phase of which seemed to have more of prayers than practice.

I for one had enjoyed as a cricket fan the impetuosity of an Imran Nazir, the poise of Shoaib Malik the batsman and the long handle of Misbah, as well as the wicket-taking skills of Asif, Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir. Relished it, as Pakistan overturned the form book to enter the final. And yes, there is a tinge of disappointment that Pakistan lost.

But going by Shoaib Malik, there is no space for disappointment if you are not a Muslim. Saddening.

SALUTING THE VANQUISHED

Initial exhilaration about an Indian victory is now tempered with the sheer pleasure of having witnessed a heart-stopping match, where the momentum swung from one side to the other with dizzying regularity.

Pakistan ultimately came second best because the middle and lower middle-order this time round could not cover up fully for the inadequacies of the top order. But then they went all the way in the first place because of the unexpected brilliance of the middle-order. Along with their bowling - Mohammad Asif's swing, Shahid Afridi's accuracy. surprise new seam sensation Sohail Tanvir's sheer unpredictability and the joker in the pack, Umar Gul, coming in effectively as fifth bowler for the first time.

Here's a team even more humiliated than India in the ODI World Cup in the West Indies. A shock defeat to unknown Ireland (far more unknown and inexperienced than Bangladesh, whom India lost to) and a first-round exit. Worse still, the mysterious death of coach Bob Woolmer and zillions of conspiracy theories and suspicion surrounding it.

Soon came a major churn in the squad, with Inzamam-ul-Haq shown the door and the man who thought he was heir apparent, Mohammad Yousuf, left high and dry, with a younger Shoaib Malik handed over the reins. To add insult to injury, Yousuf does not make it to the Twenty20 squad. And immediately decides to pitch in his lot (along with Abdul Razzaq and Imran Farhat) with Zee's ICL.

Who got the nod for Twenty20 ahead of a giant like Yousuf? A Misbah-ul-Haq, somebody on the wrong side of 33, with only five disastrous tests and 12 ODIs to show for six scrappy years of international cricket. Yousuf on the other hand was somebody with a humungous appetite for runs - the record for most test centuries a year and most runs a year in 2006 being the crowning glory.

But it was this unknown batsman who made the middle-order stand up to be counted, match after match. The first India-Pakistan match at the group stage, 42 runs to win for Pakistan with three overs to go. The last big name Afridi is gone. India seemed to have wrapped it up for all practical purposes, only to get an almighty scare from Misbah's 35-ball 53. Misbah had to setttle for a tie here but for Australia, there were no comebacks.

Coming in at a precarious 46 for 4, what does he do? Whack an unbeaten 66 off just 42 balls before the world champions knew what hit them.

At the biggest stage, the final, Misbah believed when the rest of the team fell at regular intervals. And having got within touching distance, he tried to shake off the overwhelming burden with a cheeky shot. Sadly for him, he may have been better off whacking the ball straight, instead of being too clever-by-half with a scoop.

Along came a hero from obscurity at a ripe old age, that's the tale of this Twenty20 hero. This may be a faint flicker before a return to anonymity like David Steele in the 1970s, or a harbinger of great things to come. Let's hope it's the latter. Pakistan cricket needs a few lasting heroes and not blow hot, blow cold prima donnas like Shoaib Akhtar.

TEAM INDIA IN WONDERLAND, WELL AND TRULY

Sachin Tendulkar giving a phono (phone interview) to CNN-IBN sitting in Mumbai, right after India pulled off a stunning triumph in South Africa. Sourav Ganguly giving interviews cheering the team sitting in distant Kolkata. The greatest Indian cricketer of his generation and the aggressive captain courageous were sitting at home twiddling their thumbs, while a young, inexperienced team with a brand-new captain became World Champions.

Hope it's not a flash in the pan and instead is the shape of things to come in a future without the 'golden generation.' And it's wonderful to be proved wrong. Along with experts and pundits, advertisers who were initially lukewarm and bookies who may have found the twists and turns too sudden to make predictions.

It certainly helped that Dhoni and company headed for South Africa, without any baggage of expectations. There were no news channels drumming up 'good wishes' soundbytes from across the country and I don't remember pop singers/bands coming out with their World Cup 'anthems. ' The only effort being the Sreesanth-written song Jaago India which did not create much of a buzz (it was planned for the ODI World Cup earlier this year but remained in the cans due to India's early exit).

This unheralded young team had nothing to lose, just like the 1983 World Cup team. And who do they meet in the final, another unheralded young side, a Pakistan down in the dumps and worse off compared to India.

There's one thing though that I can claim to have judged correctly. The eternal underachiever Ajit Agarkar should not have been part of this World Cup party. And it's high time he is shown the door forever.

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TEAM INDIA IN WONDERLAND

BOOKIES ON THE BACKFOOT

Twenty20's frenetic pace has left bookies gasping for breath, according to CNN-IBN. It's become difficult to predict how many runs will be scored in an over, the total score, how many runs a batsman will score etc.

"None of the players stick for too long in Twenty20 matches. They either score or get out. In a 50 over game, the player takes at least a few overs to settle down," says a mournful bookie.

In short, they need to tone up on their reflexes. But in an era where batsmen happily smash six sixes in an over, bookies should be getting wiser sooner rather than later. Wonder what new formulae they will devise.

A COMMAND PERFORMANCE

8.45 pm IST, with just about 45 minutes left for the crucial India-South Africa match to begin, there is a whiff of breaking news. Yuvraj Singh, the sultan of sixes, has an elbow injury and is a doubtful starter. In no time, the news is confirmed and gloom pervades. News channels throw out their sleek preview stories, which were all set to be unleashed on the dot at 9 pm prime time.

Rumour mills and conspiracy theories are on overdrive (though not on air), inevitable in a cynical era still not fully recovered from the match-fixing controversy. So is the injury all about Yuvraj the vice-captain trying to put down Dhoni, his captain though junior to him, by backing out at the crunch? The one question to trigger passionate debates.

Remember the 1996 World Cup and the fate of then Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, who pulled out of the crucial India vs Pakistan quarterfinal citing injury. India emerged the winner and doubting mobs at home stoned his house and burned his effigy.

It doesn't help matters when India lose three early wickets. But cometh the hour, cometh the newcomer. Rohit Sharma delighted with his unbeaten 50, a combination of sweet timing and judicious hitting.

Sharma gave an encore on the field too, with a stunning direct hit. And got the man-of-the-match award for his brilliance.

But wasn't there a more deserving candidate for man-of-the-match? A spell of 4-0-13-4, out of which two found their stumps shattered. Moreover, RP Singh conceded less than four an over, that too in a Twenty20 match.

Test cricket's cliche of 'bowlers win matches' undoubtedly applied to India's performance. And RP was the spearhead, first packing off Gibbs and Smith cheaply, then bowling Shaun Pollock for a golden duck and later yorking a defiant Albie Morkel.

Fantastic show by the newcomer with the bat in a pressure situation, but the bowler deserved his due. Wishing that the bowler should at least get some crumbs in a game tailormade for batsmen remains just a lament, a lament for the unsung.

Eventually though, it's a minor quibble in a major success.

YUVRAJ'S SIXY FEAT

It was Twenty20 at its wham-bang crescendo. Yuvraj Singh smacking Stuart Broad for six consective sixes in an over to equal the world record in international cricket.

It's a pleasure and a relief to see that such a feat has come in a match between two quality sides, and not a boring, hopelessly one-sided South Africa-Netherlands clash in the recent ODI World Cup. Herschelle Gibbs had smashed his way into the record books, against a hapless bowler by the name of Daan van Bunge .

For Yuvraj the sense of achievement would be tinged with relief. After all it was the same Yuvraj, bowling the last over, who had been whacked for five sixes off his last five balls by an English cricketer - Dimitri Mascarenhas very recently. This was the only way he could wipe off that stigma, as he indicated in the post-match interview with Ravi Shastri.

It may have been coincidental, but it was fitting that Shastri posed the questions to Yuvraj, considering Shastri himself slammed six sixes off Baroda's Tilak Raj in the mid-1980s in a Ranji match. The first to achieve the feat being the peerless Sir Garfield Sobers, for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan in 1968.

As for Yuvraj's record 12-ball 50, it's the shape of things to come in cricket, with Twenty20 making the game more and more a paradise for batters.

NOSY PARKERS?

A multiculturalism overkill seeking a uniform secular pattern or insensitive corporate standards? The sacking of Heathrow Airport worker Amrit Lalji for wearing a nose stud seems to be more of the latter.

40-year-old Lalji, who worked for caterers Eurest, said she wore the tiny piercing as a mark of her Hindu faith. But Eurest says, "Jewellery can harbour bacteria, create a hazard when working with machinery and find its way into the food people eat."

Even if jewellery worn on the hands is banned, considering it's in close proximity to the food, clamping down on a nose ring up above is laying it a bit too thick. A wedding ring could have bacteria, and that's really close to the food. Bacteria could also float down from a long, flowing beard just like a nose ring.

It's small consolation, but it's not merely immigrants who are caught on the wrong foot by this vicious combination of secular fundamentalism and corporate standards. Last year, another Heathrow worker Nadia Eweida was suspended by British Airways for wearing a cross, only to be reinstated following condemnation by clerics and politicians.

How weird is "Merry Christmas" being replaced by "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings? Exactly what's increasingly happening in the name of multiculturalism in countries like the US, Canada and the UK. Are other communities so hypersensitive a judge should order the removal of a Christmas tree from the lobby of a court?

And we haven't even come to banning Muslims from wearing headscarves or asking Sikhs to take off their turbans.

Shouldn't multiculturalism be about celebrating diversity and not being afraid of it? And corporate practices also about being sensitive to the local while being global.

WHO SHOULD SUCCEED DRAVID?

'Sources' say BCCI has approached Sachin Tendulkar to take over the mantle of captaincy. If he accepts, it will be his third stint as captain. A stop-gap arrangement with the younger lot either not ready like Yuvraj and Dhoni or in the doldrums like Sehwag and Kaif.

But is Tendulkar the right stop-gap choice? Somebody who was a disaster in his last two stints as captain and walked away because he found himself unequal to the pressure. And the spectre of injury is a clear and present threat unless he plays only selectively. But can a full-fledged captain cut down on his ODI appearances? The only way to get around it - make Tendulkar test captain and Dhoni the ODI/Twenty20 captain.

If BCCI is looking for someone who can handle both ends the first choice should be Sourav Ganguly. At least he has the combative nous and was a successful captain. His batting, which was in shambles towards the end of his earlier captaincy, has regained its sparkle. Full marks for battling back from nowhere, after everyone (expect Bengalis) had written him off.

As Ganguly may not be palatable to the powers-that-be, why not the last of the so-called Fab Four - VVS Laxman for tests (with Dhoni for ODIs). He's got a raw deal over the years, from losing out on the 2003 World Cup to being stuck at number six in the test batting line-up. A man who regularly is being projected as one match away from being dropped. Pity somebody who was vice-captain on last year's South Africa tour doesn't figure in any opinion poll.

CAPTAIN'S CURTAIN CALL

A billion expectations weigh upon Rahul Dravid, announced Michael Atherton in his Sunday Telegraph article two weeks back. Dravid is quoted a saying, "What I find hardest is the absolute lack of proportion. It makes it very hard to build a team when two or three bad games provoke such an extreme reaction."

A few bad games and an exhaustive media trial, all it takes for real and manufactured (in time for the cameras) frenzy. With effigy-burning and stone-throwing doing the rounds, players become mujrims or culprits. A post-match cricket show on a news channel was called Match Ka Mujrim in which the culprits for failure were identified. What more provocation for 'fans' to go on the rampage?

What if even when you are winning, an error of judgement is dissected to death and made into a national calamity? Rahul Dravid's decision not to enforce the follow-on may have turned out to be a mistake, but how can you fault a captain for playing it safe when you have the series in the bag? If India had not lost those early wickets and instead scored at a frenetic pace, Dravid's decision would have been viewed differently. After all, there are occasions when Australia does not enforce a follow-on.

Lack of proportion, pressure, Greg Chappell, senior players who were on a different wavelength, Rahul Dravid's cup of woes was full. But it is to his credit, as Ian Chappell says, that he decided to sign off when he and his team was on a high, following a test series victory. Very few either choose to or are allowed to leave the hot seat on a high in Indian cricket. Gavaskar may have, but the likes of Wadekar, Kapil Dev, Azharuddin, Tendulkar and Ganguly all could not.

Let's forget Dravid the captain and welcome Dravid the batsman. And await future versions of a 148 (Headingley-2002), 233*(Adelaide-2003) or 270 (Rawalpindi-2004) - all before becoming captain

SUDDEN DEATH IN CRICKET

Bowl-out......another term added to the cricket lexicon as the Twenty20 World Cup captures our imagination. A slam-bang opening match between West Indies and South Africa, Australia caught napping by Zimbabwe in a thriller, Bangladesh showing West Indies the door and now the India-Pakistan clash bringing bowl-out into public consciousness.

Here's excitement and uncertainty, so lacking in the disaster of a World Cup earlier this year in the longer version of the game (yes, it's time to do unto one-day cricket what ODI did for test cricket). The shorter duration does make it more of a level-playing field, as weaker sides don't have a mountain to climb and can topple a bigwig in a short burst.

It may be more of entertainment and less of cricket, more of power and less of elegance, more of instant action and less of endurance - in short, hit and giggle cricket, with a penalty shootout thrown in. But the bottomline is - it's quick-fix viewer-friendly entertainment and takes away the predictability of a 50-over match in the middle overs, with the field spread out and the batsmen ekeing out singles.

As India and Pakistan sparred in the bowl-out, it was just like a France vs Italy World Cup final or the India vs Australia final in Chak De India. The one difference, nobody to block the ball from hitting the stumps, like a goalkeeper in hockey or football. It seemed like a weird joke at first glance, but an enjoyable one.

Only that the joke is on all the three Pakistan bowlers who failed to knock down a set of open stumps. It's no consolation, but those who shied at the stumps in the only other bowl-out instance fared worse. Shockingly in the 2006 clash between New Zealand and West Indies, the first six bowlers - 12 balls - failed to record one strike.

THINK GLOBAL, SPEAK LOCAL

The Twenty20 opening match had started. And Chris Gayle launched into the ball, swatting it to the stands. Sitting at home in Delhi, what do I hear? Pramaadam shot....aaru run. I sharpen my ears, realise the commentary on Star Cricket is in Tamil. This continued for 3-4 overs, till the cable operator switched it to Hindi.

Perhaps the first time in a cricket telecast that the broadcaster organised commentary in a regional language. When Narain Karthikeyan made it to FI in 2005, Star Sports suddenly brought in Tamil commentary in a sport which does not have Hindi commentary, considering the urban, upper-middle class profile of followers.

But that was sparked off by an individual and not by mass following for the sport. Cricket on the other hand is a sport with a mass base in India. And it's high time sports broadcasters further explore the potential of regional languages to expand their audience. There is a market clueless in Hindi and not too comfortable with English. Fans will remain fans irrespective of the commentary, but if they can relate to the commentary, they certainly can have a better illusion of participation. And yes, we need to celebrate our diversity with such subtle, albeit market-driven acts.

What next, Malayalam or Bangla commentary for the next Football World Cup?

BANG FOR THE BUCK

Twenty20 has arrived and there is hype, though mercifully there is no frenzy as a young Indian side is not considered much of a contender. Newspapers and news channels have already given a Twenty Questions crash course on what's what.

And the action on day one of the World Cup was in keeping with the format. Bang, bang, bang with the bat doing all the talking. It rained sixes and fours galore, Chris Gayle leading the way with a sizzling century and Herschelle Gibbs returning the favour.

Instant noodles cricket is enjoyable. Dugouts for the teams like football and hockey, cheerleaders and one needn't spend the good part of the day or night watching cricket.

But what about the hapless bowler as brute force holds forth? Even a leading bowler like Shaun Pollock was reduced to repeatedly looking over his shoulder as Gayle's swings sailed past him. The ultimate insult - a no-ball means the next ball is a free hit for the batsman (he can only be run out). Which means a batsman can be caught off a no-ball and caught again off the next ball, but still remain in the crease.

Doesn't the bowler deserve some crumbs of comfort? The lines between a batter in cricket and a batter in baseball are increasingly blurring. Soon we'll see some baseball figure emerging as a team's batting coach. And 400-plus scores in the 50-over game too may well become the norm rather than the exception.

Love it or hate it, Twenty20 is here to stay. The 50-over ODIs not only pioneered cheeky batting shots and underlined the importance of fielding and fitness, but also brought greater urgency and sense of purpose to 5-day test cricket. Twenty20 will certainly raise the bar for batting standards in ODIs.

As for bowlers, they have to figure out how to be more disciplined and accurate. And embrace subtlety to tackle brute power. Just like Shaun Pollock deceiving Chris Gayle into ducking in anticipation of a bouncer, and delivering a well-disguised slower ball. Pity it was not a wicket-taking delivery.

TEAM INDIA'S PLAYER OF THE YEAR

There is an Indian name in the ICC roll of honour at the award ceremony in Johannesburg. But it's none of those household names. In fact not a single male cricketer was shortlisted.

The honours went to Jhulan Goswami, declared Women's Player of the Year. I've vaguely heard about this lady, and know that she is a fast bowler. Time to explore further.

I get to know she is the fastest woman bowler in the world. An Indian leading the fast lane, operating at 120kph. With some help from Dennis Lillee at the MRF pace academy.

She's already a headline story for the morning. A rare opportunity for an unknown bunch of cricketers to come into focus. How many remember that the women's team made it to the final of the last World Cup in South Africa (in 2005)? It's another matter that the same fate befell them as the men's team (a rout at Australia's hands)

The women's game is still dominated by the white nations, with all the World Cup crowns so far being divided between England, Australia and New Zealand. And only recently has India come into its own in the one-day game.

1997 summer I was at home and I lazily watched a few World Cup matches (India was the host) but the pace of the game was too slow. There was hardly any media interest, and India on home soil failed to impress. It also witnessed big sides piling up humungous scores against minnows. Case in point, Australian captain Belinda Clark's unbeaten 229 against Denmark.

I'm assuming standards have improved in the last decade, and so has the official treatment of women's cricket. But visibility remains low. In Headlines Today, when news came that India had reached the World Cup final in 2005, we were caught on the wrong foot. How does one mount a special programme without footage? Nothing of them playing, and no practice footage either. How would there be if we had never bothered to do any story in the past which dealt with women's cricket?

Jhulan Goswami has given us a hero. And one who storms into the crease. It feels good to bring to limelight the unknown faces of cricket. An opportunity to remember a generation of women who battled it out in the field without no public recognition.

Next step - a World Cup triumph.

STINK IN THE TALE

The outrageous stink operation in the capital, framing a school teacher, should make us hang our heads in shame. It may have been the handiwork of a Hindi news channel on the fringes, which needed a big stunt to bring attention. But what about the outbreak of violence outside the school which followed?

Was it a spontaneous public reaction or did the mob chew on generous dollops of footage and vox pops (reactions taken from the person on the street) relentlessly fed on TV? Of course, relentless violence is standout headline material.

Broadcasters urgently need to formulate a code of conduct without being pushed by the government. The last thing we want is a broadcast bill with the government and its content auditor (one per news channel) breathing down our neck. But with such wanton acts of headline-manufacturing, the media's moral high ground of protecting its independence looks more and more shaky.

I've come across meticulously planned and executed sting operations. A case in point being Aaj Tak-Headlines Today's Operation Duryodhan which exposed MPs accepting cash for raising questions in Parliament. Some senior editorial figures and video editos were missing for weeks, while the official word was that they were ill or on vacation. And all the extensive background effort showed in a watertight expose.

But then it was a sting operation dealing with Big Fishes and nothing could be left to chance. Editorial rigour goes for a toss when it comes to exposing small fry.

Will news channels, especially those of the Hindi ilk, unite and ensure there is a rigorous internal screening exercise confirming the veracity after a sting operation is carried out? Once something is aired, it takes ages to come out of a damaged reputation, even if the story has a faked conclusion thanks to clever camerawork and even cleverer editing. In the recent case, Uma Khurana may not be entirely innocent, but has certainly got a raw deal.

The other increasingly emerging danger to law and order is stringers (local reporters who are paid per assignment and not regular employees) eager to make a fast buck by selling footage, preferably violent clashes between groups and incidents of mob fury against wrongdoers, real or imagined. Covering and faithfully recording such incidents is one thing, but what if these stringers themselves incite mobs and encourage them to persist with their violent acts? I've seen a lot of unedited footage which looks staged, with the 'agitated' crowd looking more like performing to the moves of the camera. We have dropped many such 'doctored' headlines but some have regrettably passed editorial scrutiny, riding high on the quest for fresh headlines.

Images from Bhagalpur, when a man was beaten up by a mob and dragged behind a bike by local policemen, caused nationwide horror recently. Undoubtedly shocking and deplorable, but I can't help asking whether the stringer who shot the visuals played his part in encouraging the mob frenzy.
The electronic media is galloping at a frenetic pace with each and every player looking for 'breaking news' to stand out. It can be argued that sensationalising is a necessary evil in a young industry, but what if news is manufactured? Let truth remain stranger than fiction and not the other way round.

IT'S ALL ABOUT TIMING

Number one headline....flyer....Vinod Kambli rises from obscurity to wax eloquent on his school chum......the media is abuzz . All thanks to Sachin Tendulkar's emphatic denial of rumours that he's set to retire from one-day internationals.

But who started these rumours in the first place? Media reports quoted 'sources close to Tendulkar', who apparently said 'he was inclined to announce his retirement on this tour of England but had been persuaded by friends to do so at home.' Which is, after the ODIs at home later in the year after Australia and Pakistan.

Build up hype about impending retirement, follow it up with top-class performances and then make the media ask Why? And respond to the media oops public with a denial. Fantastic PR exercise, whether by accident or design.

If the same Tendulkar, looking world-weary and in atrocious form as India sunk to dismal depths in the World Cup had called time to ODIs right after, the public would not have batted an eyelid.

It's been fantastic to watch him fire away on all cylinders in England, but for how long? In the later stages of his Oval masterpiece, Tendulkar was hobbling. And one attempted pull shot left him distressed. As it is, he's been walking wounded the past few years, crippled by injury after injury, along the way making us aware of the intricacies of a tennis elbow.

As the master nears twilight, the ideal way to prolong his career is to pick and choose his appearances for India, especially in ODIs. And Tendulkar has achieved everything possible in the one-day game, both in terms of entertaining the public and statistics.

Should Sachin choose to play to the gallery with more and more ODIs or look seriously at erasing the one big blot on his career - his inability to be a match-winner in a test match since the 1990s. Will we ever see again a commanding Sachin display in a test match propelling the team to victory, like his annihilation of Shane Warne in Chennai in 1998?

Tendulkar may have got his timing right now, but will he time his eventual retirement to perfection? Memories are savoured better, if a sporting icon calls it quits when fans ask `why?' and not when they ask `why not?'

Sachin has a choice....quit like Sunil Gavaskar when the going is good or wait till forced to quit...like Kapil Dev who was booed to retirement after being whacked all over, that too in Faridabad in home state Haryana.

THE ENGLISH SUMMER

It started as a battle for supremacy between two also-rans of limited overs cricket.

An England trying to get its act together with a young team under a new coach, after a disastrous World Cup. A team which bears hardly any resemblance to the side which held Australia to a nail-biting tie in the Nat West Series in 2005, just preceding the Ashes triumph. Also only four remain from the team which pulled off a surprise triumph over Australia in the Commonwealth Bank Series early this year. The common factors being skipper Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen.

As for India, they were here with a stop-gap coach, seeking confidence after World Cup humiliation. Veterans Tendulkar and Ganguly had to prove it was too early to put them to pasture, while a few remains (Yuvraj, Zaheer) of who were once thought to be the core of the future needed to make their presence felt.

With two equally matched opponents (considering recent form and not reputation), it's been absorbing cricket. England's rediscovered Owais Shah and discovered Stuart Broad and Dimitri Mascarenhas, who should be getting a ticket for the Twenty20 World Cup now that Ravi Bopara is injured. And Ian Bell has been severe with the willow.

Ever the sluggish starter, India lived up to its unenviable reputation this time too. In the test series, rain at Lord's saved India the blushes. But when it came to the ODIs there was no hiding. And Jurassic-era fielding standards haven't helped matters.

That said, there is another dimension to saying things remain the same. They may be approaching the twilight of their illustrious careers, but Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly showed why they are among the most feared opening combinations in ODIs. Tendulkar 's 94 at the Oval had blasts from the past like the paddle sweep, inside-out drive and the best of the lot - the nonchalant flick from middle to the leg for four.

The old guard stands up to to be counted, as they near sunset point. But the worrying part is that their reunion happened because the swashbuckling Virender Sehwag, once vice-captain, finds himself without a spot in the team. From the generation which followed the Tendulkar-Ganguly-Dravid-Laxman-Kumble, the likes of Kaif, Harbhajan and Sehwag are out of sight and so is Irfan Pathan.

Youthful exuberance is now the property of leggie Piyush Chawla, who's been a treat to watch. There's Dinesh Kaarthik, who's combined youth with grit. And after the Oval thriller, there is the Robin Uthappa scoop to fine leg to savour. Yes, there is hope.

Claps and shouts boomed all over my office after the nail-biting Oval triumph, chasing 316. I too felt the urge to clap, to honour a team which had bounced back in the eyes of fans, erasing the atmosphere of cynicism which followed the World Cup humiliation.

Time to applaud Indian cricket for giving us moments of pleasure, in between exasperating us with their inconsistency. And proving that matches can be won by sticking to the basics, without the help of a sophisticated foreign coach. Has BCCI got the message?

TWIST AND SHOUT

This morning we picked up an incident in UK, where two local churches in Taunton refused permission for yoga classes in their church premises. The priests argued that yoga was part of the Hindu ethos and impinges on Christian spirituality.

Good tabloid story considering the concept of yoga has grown beyond religion and is tremedously popular in the West. Church classrooms and auditoriums hold yoga classes and there's even a move to localise yoga in parts of the US in tune with religious beliefs.

But we fell prey to the charms of sensationalising and the news channel habit of presenting a micro picture as the macro picture. Yes, it is a headline but it's not the first headline overriding the outrageous decision by a village panchayat in Haryana to separate a child from his parents because the elders opposed their marriage.

And then we screamed, "Church Bans Yoga." Utterly ridiculous and a dangerous line, since we were talking about two priests from Taunton and not the whole Anglican Church or Baptist Church. It was an individual view and not the 'Church view'. Moreover, the Church is not one monolithic entity, with zillions of deniminations following different practices.

Soon follows reactions over the phone from leading figures in the Roman Catholic Church in India. What can they say sitting in India, on an action taken by priests who interpret Christianity differently from them in the first place.

It should have been dealt as a `local' and not a 'global' story with reactions from England, be it yoga enthusiasts or the Hindu community. Not Baba Ramdev pontificating on whether yoga is scientific or not.

We might have toned down the pitch later, but news channels are increasingly leaping into sweeping conclusions at the first hint of breaking news.

Also opposing a decision is one thing but painting it black is something else. That too, when it is a matter of faith. Priests in Guruvayur temple in Kerala are well within their rights to disallow non-Hindus from entering the temple. The punyaham or purification ceremony in Guruvayur temple after Vayalar Ravi's son visited on the other hand was a big story, because Ravi and his son both are practising Hindus. The punyaham was conducted just because Ravi's wife hailed from a Christian family. Here too, an issue of dogma within the Hindu fold was magnified into that of non-believers not being allowed to enter.

Similarly, a priest in a Taunton church is free to ban yoga within the church premises. There could be many believers in that parish who oppose yoga because they are uncomfortable with what they perceive as religious implications.

Tabloid headlines whet our appetites for curious tidbits, but it's dangerous when the Church itself is shown, albeit briefly, as taking up cudgels against yoga.