Aiyan's Journal

All The Masala In The Films !

2008-08-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

Do you smell what’s cooking? Spicy delicious food and Bollywood films are the factors which Indians are obsessed about. They just love these two elements which are completely connected to their culture. Spices are the thing that makes Indian food delicious, actually a mixture of various kind of spices are used in almost every Indian cuisine. The word masala is the Indian version of English’s spice. From the perspective of the films in India, the term masala goes with the genre. Indian people loves various genres in their films as well, like their food, they just can’t stick with only one. There have to be Music, Dance, Romance, Action, Comedy, Melodrama and plenty other genres. We used to know that as mixed genre films but the critic’s community of the film industry found a new name for that kind which is Masala Film.

The Major Characteristics of Masala Film

What really masala film means is full on entertainment movies, where has to be a bit of everything. Indian audience digs on films which have plenty of star actors, full of glamour and sex appeal, half a dozen songs including dance sequence, eye catching sets and locations, high profile melodrama, trend setting costumes and rib tickling comedy all together. Movies like - Om Shanti Om, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Jab We Met, Namstey London, DHOOM are the evidence of the fact because these are the biggest blockbusters of Bollywood. People want to see films with all of these characteristics and with a happy ending for sure. Bollywood audience love to walk out from the theater with a smile in their faces. A new term is also added to the public demand is Item Numbers. Skin showing dance sequence with high tempo disco tracks are a must have in every masala films now days… These are the characteristics that influenced major quantity of the real time masala films.

The Difference of Masala Films from the Narrative Conventions of Hollywood

Film makers from Hollywood are the best in the business what so ever. They are capable of making movies realistic than the real. From technicians to the director, all are top notch, but its all about perspective. It’s the point of view of the Hollywood & Masala Films audience. Bollywood audience never can digest films like – Saving Private Ryan, A Beautiful Mind or Schindler’s List, They even won’t complain if the story goes unrealistic but there has to have
the aroma of masala. Hollywood films very often change their plot in the middle of the film, either it’s going to be Musical, Horror, Action, Romance, Sci-Fi, Adventure or it can be mixed genres with two or three genres together. But Bollywood goes way beyond in the case of genre mixing. They try to put every single spice in the cooker as the audience wants. The most noticeable difference from Hollywood is the songs and dancing sequences. Hollywood also has musical films but in Masala films sudden change of attire and music in the air with hundred dancers all around scenes is a must to score in the box office. I’ve figured culture is the main difference of Masala Films from narrative conventions of Hollywood.

The Significance of Songs in the Masala Film

Speaking of songs in the masala films, they even don’t bother to mix the musical genres in a single film to make it more packed as well. There will be Romantic, Sad, Disco, Soft Rock, Item Number and a title soundtrack for the promotion of a single film. This song signifies the mood and emotional condition of the characters, it describes the story, and it usually expresses love, anger, happiness, sadness, passion and all the situational aspects in a film. Songs and music are the identifier of Bollywood films. Even the very first Indian sound film had five songs in the year of 1931 and the people of India can’t imagine films without music since then. Not to forget the business of music industries. Producers sometime cover more than half of their investment by selling the music of their films to the stores and in the internet, so why say no to music? It’s the only thing that makes them unique from Hollywood. India always produces classy music directors from R.D Burman to A.R Rahman who carried the Indian music to the international circuits. I think entertain the audience is the main significance of songs in the masala film.

There are much more characteristics and significance than I have described. I like Masala Films, I like the songs even more. It doesn’t matter weather its logical or not, as long as it feels and sounds good...

The Reflection of Power & Knowledge from "Enemy Of The State"

2008-07-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

Knowledge is skills, an experience, an information about something or anything, and power is executing that idea or the knowledge to the desire. Power and knowledge are right onto each other, they are technically linked and dependent. There’s no power without having the knowledge. That’s the idea I’ve got from watching the blockbuster, action-thriller movie “Enemy of the State”.

In the movie, a team of skilled NSA (National Security Agency) surveillance operatives has the overpowering knowledge of ultrahigh technologies which became their power. A very sensitive video tape of murdering a congressman by the NSA officers lead by another congressman Thomas Reynolds (Jon Voight) is the curse. Which somehow been given to an attorney named Robert Dean (Will Smith) without his knowledge. The NSA officials want to retrieve that tape from Dean. They started to use their knowledge of technology by bugging Robert Dean totally, starting from his house, his car, cell phone, suite, watch even his pen. They planted surveillance chip onto Dean’s stuff so that they keep trace of him all the time, here the sense of applying the technology becomes power. They have been tracing Dean by a high-tech satellite which is about 155 miles above the earth, now that’s what I call power which totally converted from the knowledge.

Robert Dean was completely clueless about what is happening to him, why a team of NSA is turning his and his family’s life hell.Then came to the rescue a former NSA communication analyst Edward Lyle a.k.a Brill (Gene Hackman). Brill was aware of all the NSA intelligence as he was one of them once. When Robert meets Brill, then the power of knowledge switched into their side and they goes for the counter attack against their enemy using the same method of surveillance technology. Point is.. Brill has the knowledge of technology but not the power of law and enforcement like the NSA, still when Robert & Brill applies that technology it started to work as a power, which absolutely proves that knowledge is power.

Knowledge and power are two convertible elements, both rely on each other in different manners. It clears me the point why Michel Foucault finds relation between those two words. Its obvious that power and knowledge are mutually reinforcing relation in between. That’s why Foucault titled it “power/knowledge”.

This is how the “Enemy of the State” reflects the idea of power and knowledge.

Urban Myths of Bangladesh

2008-07-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

I personally think myth is a believe, a thought. Some information about someone or something which no one actually knows whether its true or not, does it exist ? Its like a mystery.

In the urban places of Bangladesh, we also heard about a lot of myths which are superstition oriented. Here are five of those myths.

If someone sneeze just before starting a new work, its going to harm that work. If he sneezes more than once then its going to harm even more. So basically sneezing before starting a work is unlucky.

In the urban places we usually see a bird call 'Shalik'. The myth is, if we see a odd number of Shalik it means you'll have a bad day and in case of even number of Shalik we believe its a good day coming.

Cutting finger nail after the Magrib's Prayer is very unlucky for the person. Something bad will happen to him/her. I've seen people believe that myth pretty strongly.

New years first day. Urban people love to believe that the first day of the year is going to reflect the whole 365 days. Which means if you pass your first day badly, the entire year is not going to be lucky for him/her and vise versa. So people try die hard to pass their first day without causing any trouble.

In the Muslim religion we've heard that if someone has a pet dog in his house or anywhere, the Angels or the Holy Spirit will never show up in that place. This place will no longer be sacred for the Messenger of God we know as 'Feresta'. Because dogs are not friendly to them.

That was my selected urban myths of Bangladesh.

The last myth is a bit controversial because the information is taken from our Holy Prophets Book.

The Connotations for Western & Eastern Audiences of Swastika

2008-06-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

The Swastika symbol has been used for thousands of years already in almost all human civilizations as a sign for good luck, protection, as a materialization of life and the changing seasons of the year. The word 'SWASTIKA' is taken from the Sanskrit's 'SVASTIKAH', an ancient Indian language. In Sanskrit the word means 'being happy'.

Swastika symbol is found in numerous and diverse cultures around the world, including the cultures of Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. It has been prominently used and seen in India, Japan, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and many other countries.

Speaking of connotative meaning, Swastika is a symbol of prosperity and good fortune for the Eastern people. Specially for Hinduism and Buddhism. They think it represents the revolving sun, power, fire, life and good luck so they use that symbol at their temples, house, school, shop and anywhere possible where they wish to have good fortune. It has been like that for thousands of years. All in all the eastern audiences took Swastika as a sign of peace. Then came the Nazis...

In the year of 1920, Adolf Hitler's Nazi adopted the Swastika symbol at the Slazburg Congress in August 7th for World War II. The Nazis used the symbol to murder millions of people, Hitler then became a villain to the western civilization. From then the people of Europe and sub-continents know the Swastika as a symbol of murder, violence, death and hatred. The connotative meaning of Swastika represents fear and all the horror moments from world war II. Virtually the Nazis gave that ancient symbol a new worst meaning possible.

The swastika existed as a symbol of good fortune thousands of years before the Nazis even existed. The eastern people still thinks the symbol as a positive meaning but the Western side of the world knows Swastika as the logo of the evil. The better thing is people didn't forgot the symbol yet. Many countries like India, Greece, Germany, China, Japan, United Kingdom, Argentina, France and Sri Lanka is still using the Swastika symbol for many different purposes.

I personally find the fact very amazing that the same symbol represents completely opposite connotations to the Eastern and the Western civilization.

References: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika) & (http://www.swastika-info.com)

The Social Construction of Reality From "WAG THE DOG"

2008-06-14T23:27:00.000-07:00

We are the people of our society, what we see and hear in our world, major amount of the people believe that, this is real for them. Therefore, what we see and what we hear around is reality to us.

I have figured that when the entire society is observing or forced to observe and believe that observation completely, that is the social construction of our reality. A very strong pillar of that construction is based upon the media.

In the Oscar nominated film "Wag the Dog" the director Barry Levinson wants to state the fact that, media is the biggest constructor of our reality. Media is capable of creating a war and they even can make a war which is not happening. There is no war but people will believe when media is showing that.

Our society is changing and getting practical day by day. It wasn't like this before but slowly we were sinking into the media's pond, and now we are totally depend on it. We are now bound to believe what media is saying and there also have no other option left.

Media is something what we see and hear everyday, so what we see and hear in our daily life and life goes on like this that is our social construction of reality.

This is a statement of my very own perspective.

What Is Real ?

2008-06-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

We have been asked three questions in class. in our perspective What is Real ? Who told you Its real ? How do you know its real ?

I believe ghost is real because I've some real life experience with it. My elder cousins used to tell me ghosts stories in my childhood, I never believe those stories then but till now I've faced couple of supernatural incidents by myself. So I'm quite sure ghost is real.

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY

2008-06-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

The Social Construction of Reality is a book about the sociology of knowledge written by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann and published in 1966.

1.Q: What do you understand the term renaissance to mean ?

Ans: I've Understand the term renaissance means "rebirth". The idea of rebirth originated in the belief that Europeans had rediscovered the superiority of Greek and Roman culture after many centuries of what they considered intellectual and cultural decline.

It describes the intellectual and economic changes that occurred in Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries.

It was the reformation of many old ideas and the formation of many new, this was called the Renaissance. It was a time of fun and enjoying life, and it brought many changes to Europe. The economy rose as a result of all the new explorations. The flourishing economy helped to inspire new developments in art and literature, and new ways of thinking were formed.

Science was another change due to renaissance. People began to put their ideas to use. Astronomy, geography, medicine, natural science, and Greek mathematics emerged significantly. People began to think intellectually.

2.Q: Who was Nicola Machiavelli?

Ans: Nicola Machiavelli was a great political interpreter. He was born on May 3, 1469, who lived in Florence. He worked as a diplomat and grew up to be a lawyer and politician. As he grew up, he took office until the Medici took power and pushed him out of office. In 1512 to 1527, he was kicked out of office again and this led to his in-depth view of the politics at that time. When he wrote The Prince he was determined to regain the favors of the Medici Family and to help other rulers keep their power. This was intended to help only the rulers and not the lower classes.

Machiavelli was a great political interpreter during the Renaissance. However, as time moved on, many different types of governments such as democracy and communism sprung up. What Machiavelli failed to interpret were the types of governments ancient civilization had. Therefore, as time moved on, some governments chose to branch off from ancient civilization rather than Machiavelli's interpretation of politics.

3.Q: Who Was Edmund Burke?

Ans: Edmund Burke (12 January 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher who served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig party.

He is mainly remembered for his support of the American colonies in the dispute with King George III and Great Britain that led to the American Revolution and for his strong opposition to the French Revolution. The latter made Burke one of the leading figures within the conservative faction of the Whig party (which he dubbed the "Old Whigs"), in opposition to the pro-French-Revolution "New Whigs", led by Charles James Fox.

Burke also published a philosophical work where he attempted to define Emotions and Passions as well as how they are triggered in a person. Burke worked on aesthetics and founded the Annual Register, a political review. He is often regarded by conservatives as the philosophical founder of Anglo-American conservatism.

4.Q: What does the term 'doctrinaire radicalism' mean?

Ans: The term 'doctrinaire radicalism' refers to socio-cultural reforming or revolutionary activities which doesn’t even care whether human lives or certain happiness is harmfully affected for itself or not. It is certainly a devastating way of reforming human thoughts, e.g. the activities of revolutionaries had tried to do in The French Revolution in 1789.

5.Q: From reading this, how would you define the term 'socially constructed'?

Ans: Yet to publish

6.Q: What Does 'a priori' mean?

Ans: I've searched some dictionary to figure the meaning of 'a priori'

Thats what i got

a priori

Translation

derived by logic

Adjective

(law, Latinate) Known ahead of time.
(logic) Based on hypothesis rather than experiment.
a priori knowledge
Self-evident, intuitively obvious

Adverb

(logic) Derived by logic.

In Philosophy the word ‘A priori’ is used to distinguish between deductive and inductive way of thinking. A person can study over his social errors caused by inductive thinking and must get some Notions from its research. As its impact the notion can totally change the point of view/the way of thinking from experiential to logical. Thus the new notion got from the experimental process is called 'A priori'.