Movie Review - Taare Zameen Par (Aamir Khan)

Taare Zameen par – Review

Hi all, in last two days, I watched three movies – all of different kind and I would definitely write reviews of all the three.

Here is the first one for 'Taare Zameen Par'. There are no spoilers in this review.

The story reminds me of my childhood when I was in class three. I remember my atrociously bad handwriting, messy notebooks, and inability to write properly. Since I did not suffer from any problem, things kept improving day by day, however I still remember some of the students in my class who were not able to perform in the class not even to the lowest set standards. The teachers would kill them for not doing anything properly. I went to Kendriya Vidyalaya where teachers would even use sticks to beat the students who would do anything inappropriate regarding the standards of discipline. Punishments won’t exclude making the students run 5 rounds of the 200 meters tracks, beating, suspension, even rustication.

This story is an eye-opener to those teachers who still do not understand how tender the children are and that they require proper grooming instead of beating at such small ages of below eight. No one can deny that there still are some schools in India where, the teachers do not take the pains to recognize the appropriate problems which students face but rather punish the children. The story is about a class 3 child – Ishan who is not capable to recognize the letters of any language properly, a problem called dyslexia. He struggles a lot but all in vain. He is however a gifted child who has a remarkable capability to think, understand, solve complicates puzzles, and problems and represent his thoughts through his paintings, a capability which would be possessed by many years’ older children.

However, his incapability to recognize the letters would always let him down in all the subjects.

Misinterpreting this problem as his tendency to not study, the parents punish him. Teachers are fed up and would punish him and scold him all the time. Fear fills in his mind in such a young age and he would bunk the school to protect himself from such severe punishments. All these circumstances lead to his failure in class three. The parents admit him to a boarding school where same things begin all over again. The teachers of the boarding school are no better and would do the same things to him. Away from his parents and his elder brother who is incidentally a school topper and is couple of years senior to him, he loses his self confidence and even stops to paint!

Situation worsens for him, but to his rescue comes the temporary teacher in the school who is a painter himself and works in a school of mentally retarded. The teacher (Aamir Khan) has suffered from a similar problem in his childhood and knows very well what the child needs. He looks at the patterns of the mistakes he repeats and diagnoses that the child suffers from dyslexia. He goes to his parents and tells them about the problem and convinces them that he would correct the problem. Aamir inspires the child, and brings out his strengths to paint and the child finally learns to recognize the words. The child passes the courses with good grades and gets his self confidence back.

Aamir has taken the risk by producing a film which has no heroine, no thrill, no drama, no Switzerland and no dancing around the bushes. The drawbacks in the movie are sadist characters such as teachers and Ishan’s father who have been exaggerated and the only weak point I found in the movie was Aamir stylish college going student’s attire. The music is very touching especially the song ‘Maa’ sung by Shankar Mahadevan. I highly recommend the movie, but watch with a serious mind. The song can be watched here --

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Algorithms and puzzles ...

Algorithms are interesting !! They are well defined instructions for completing a sequential task ...A really complicated can be this



A simpler challenge is this :

A friend of mine asked me to design an algorithm to determine the length of an Island. The description of the problem is as follows:

An Island can be described by a set of points - Imagine discretization of a continuous boundary. The Island can contain lakes which are again discretized.

Thus Island can be given as a matrix I : [x1, y1 ; x2, y2 ; ..... xn, yn]. Similarly the lakes inside the island can be described with L1 :[ x1, y1 ; x2, y2 ; ..... xn, yn], L2 [x1, y1 ; x2, y2 ; ..... xn, yn] ... etc.

Here is the exact problem.
Starting from any point on the island, you can get to another point on the island with a shortest possible path. Consider lakes -- you can not cross a lake. For a particular point, a collection of such paths can be made by changing the other point recursively. Call it C1 for point P1. The length of the island is described as longest of (longest of C1, longest of C2, .... longest of Cm).

Design an algorithm to find the length of the island.
==================================================================

These days I am solving similar puzzles and interesting algorithmic problems. If you have any collection of difficult but interesting puzzles, please send that to me.

Who knows I might start a puzzle blog !

Much love.
Rohit

Solution of a simple case - An Island without the lakes.
Part 1 - Calculating the shortest path on an island without a lake.

My algorithm goes like this:

1. Select a rotation direction say-Anticlockwise. On any figure if you select one point, you know the next point for a clockwise direction. For now we will assume that with a code this can be found.

2. Select a point on the contour. Call it point 1. Find the shortest path from 1 to 2, 1 to 3 up to 1 to n. The max of (shortest paths) = length of island.

Definitions:
==============
** Convexity

Now let us define convexity of an angle. Considering an angle 1-2-3 of a
polygon. Consider these as vectors connecting 1-2 and connecting 2-3. By
starting at point 1 - measure the angle from the left side of the
segment 1-2 to left side of segment 2-3. If this angle is > 180 deg, then this point is called concave. Otherwise it will be called convex.

A convex angle is thus less than 180.

Shortest distance- uses the definition of convexity.
==============

Now lets define the minimum distance between two points on the contour.
The minimum distance between two points which are inside the island
is the straight line connecting the two points. If suppose a structure
similar to the following figure protrudes in the lake

island side
--0-1 4------
/ \
2---------------------3
lake side

The shortest path from 0 to 3 ofcourse goes around point 1- which is 0-1-3.
So how to avoid point 2 ?

Starting from point 0 and sequence 0-1-2, we will build up sequence
which will represent the shortest path.
Check if angle 0-1-2 is concave. If yes, the sequence will be built to
0-1-2-3. Check if the last abgle that is angle 1-2-3 is concave -- Its
not, so the sequence if modiified to 0-1-3. Now we will have to carry
out the same operation in reverse direction in order to see if the path
did not pass over the lake. Consider following figure

If I start with 3 and get the shortest path between 3 and 6, My
anticlockwise algorithm will give me the shortest path as 3-6, whereas
the clockwise algorithm will give me the shortest path as 3-2-6.
I will select the longer distance sequence as the shortest path between the two points.

6-------------------5
| -------------------|
| -------------------|
| -------------------|
| ------ island --- | lake
2 ------------------|
\ -------------------|
\ -------------------|
/ -------------------|
3--------------------4

Jeans

There is no specific reason for posting this random post.
Today I am writing about Jeans -- which are a very important part of our lives. We all wear them almost everyday although most of us do not know the history of Jeans.

As is said no item of clothing is more 'American ' than the blue jeans which were invented in 1873 by Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss. It was their vision of having turned these three ingredients -- denim, thread and a little metal into the most popular clothing product in the world. Waist overalls, was the traditional name for work pants, which is what these first jeans were called. The word jeans became more popular around 1960 when the baby-boom generation adopted the term for its favorite type of pants, blue jeans..

Following are some typical facts about Jeans ! (Ref : Click here)

• An original pair of Levi's jeans is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
• The word, 'jeans,' came from the cotton workpants worn by sailors from the port of Genoa, Italy, who were themselves known as Genes.
• The jeans market has grown to be a $14.6 billion industry
• On May 20, 1873, Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss received patent #139,121 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
• Levi's® 501® jeans are the original Shrink-To-Fit®, button-fly blue jeans first created in the 1800s. 501® jeans are the oldest and best selling product of Levi Strauss & Co. The number 501 was assigned to the jeans around 1890.
• In 1885 a pair of Levi waist overalls cost $1.25. Brand new. By the turn of the century, the company charged $8.50 for a pair of blue jeans.
• In 1997, Levi Strauss & Co. paid $25,000 for a pair of 100 year old jeans (for their museum) found in an old Colorado mine, which is the oldest known pair of Levi jeans.
• Seven out of 10 Americans say jeans are their first pick for casual wear.
• Levi Strauss & Co. currently makes 501® jeans in approximately 108 sizes and 20 finishes/fabrics.
• A typical pair of Levi's® 501® jeans takes about 1 3/4 yards of denim, 213 yards of thread, five buttons and six rivets.
• There are 37 separate sewing operations involved in making a single pair of Levi's® 501® jeans.
• The red Tab Device was created in 1936 to help identify Levi's® 501® jeans from a distance.
• Until 1960, Levi's® 501® jeans were called "waist overalls."
• One bolt of denim weighs approximately a quarter of a ton. Cutters use an electric saw to cut through 120 layers of cloth at one time. About 60 pairs of jeans can be cut from one bolt of fabric.
• The double row of stitching on the back pockets - known as the Arcuate stitching design - is the oldest apparel trademark still in use today. It was first used in 1873. During World War II, the Arcuate stitching design was painted on the pockets due to government rationing of essential items such as thread.
• Rivets were first used on 501® jeans in 1873 because miners complained that their pockets ripped under the weight of ore samples. The early jeans had rivets on the front and back pockets. Rear rivets were covered beginning in 1937 because of complaints that the rivets scratched school desk chairs and saddles. Since 1967, reinforced stitching has replaced the back pocket rivets.

Jeans are the parts of our lives and I think some of these points were worth reading. Hope you liked the post.

A Levis advertisement which took my attention is the following: The girl featuring in this advertisement is non other than the 'sabke dilon ki dhadkan' -- Deepika Padukone ... Doesn't she look fabulous ? A blue print for a Bombay / Delhi college girl...

Creative ad.




Much love
Rohit

love you Sumedha !!

Dear Sumedha, I would not mind at all falling in love with you ...

Because you are as beautiful as Diya Mirza and as talented as Alka Yagnik ! You have got everything one can ask for ...
Maan karta hai -- tum gati raho aur hum sunte rahen ...

The best performance that I liked from you was Aao huzur ...very well done !







Cheers ! -- I hope you have a very good singing career ... ~ Love ... R

Lets do it !! Chak de India

Today I happen to connect Rang de Basanti, Chak de India, and this video and remind myself to do my bit for the nation !
Chak de India !




I recently watched this video on You tube which shows the spirit of India !
It is indeed an eye opener and highly inspirational. It shows that if you have the intension, you can do your bit for the nation !

The lyrics of the song are as follows :

Palak pakad ke utho arre hawa pakad ke chalo
Palak pakad ke utho arre hawa pakad ke chalo

tum chalo to Hindustan Chale
tum chalo to Hindustan Chale

tum chalo to Hindustan Chale
tum chalo to Hindustan Chale

Lagao haath ke suraj subah nikala kare
Hatheliyon me bhare dhoop aur ujala kare

Ufat pe paaon rakho aur chalo akad ke chalo
Palak pakad ke utho aur hawa pakad ke chalo

tum chalo to Hindustan Chale
tum chalo to Hindustan Chale

Hindustan chale ...

And also -- Thanks to SRK, Abhishek and Priyanka for featuring in the following three :










Rohit

Movie Review - Aaja Nachle - (Madhuri Dixit)

Movie Review

I am writing a review after a long time – I watched many movies in past few days and I would say most of them deserved their reviews on my blog (I might write them some time soon). Lately, I had been busy and could not write much on my blog.

Here is the review of Aaja NachLe.

Madhuri Dixit Nene ! Here is the name with which I should start this review. She is back again you young gals … and I would say, I am blown away ! Madhuri has done - ‘a Madhuri Dixit show’. Perfect once again with acting, dance, expressions, style and grace.

I give the full credit to the choreographer of the movie for working days and nights – I assume that would have been required. The movie has no deep message or concept except that we Indians should not forget our culture -- the culture that has ingrained within ourselves since ages and is going to be there for ages to come. The movie reminded me of India, its small towns, the expansion schemes being employed and that these schemes must not let the culture die – Good message !

The story is no spoiler; Dia (Madhuri Dixit) is shaken by a phone call during her dance rehearsals in New York to compel her to return to a town called Shiamli, where she grew up, the town where she learnt to live and to dance. It is also the town which she left on an impulse, severing ties with her parents and her people. Her dance teacher passes away and the institution (Ajanta) that he so lovingly nurtured is going to be demolished. It is the place where her fondest memories are embedded and must now be brought down because the local political authorities feel it a waste of prime real estate. Dia sets out on a mission to prevent the destruction and resurrect the spirit of Ajanta.

In an atmosphere of mistrust, ridicule and active hostility, Dia picks up the challenge from the MP – Akshay Khanna and agrees to achieve the near impossible task of putting together a theatrical production requiring every member of the production being from Shamli town. In this context begins her tortuous journey of dealing with small town prejudices, encountering the resentment of the powerful contractor( Irfan Khan), the cynicism of the local political powers, resolve the delicate tensions of inter personal relationships and rally her naive team of non starters - Imran (Kunal Kapoor), Anokhi (Konkona Sen), local ex-MLA Chaudhary Om Singh (Akhilendra Mishra), a vulnerable tea stall owner Mohan Sharma (Ranvir Shorey), a responsible government official Mr. Chojar (Vinay Pathak), a struggling insurance agent Sanjeev Mehta (Jugal Hansraj), and else.

I liked one song very much which is going to be my favorite song for next few days. Ishq hua. Sonu Nigam does a perfect job once again. And of course, Dia succeeds in her endeavors. Good movie people!

***1/2