Vinod Narayan

Sholay is one of the greatest Bollywood movies of all time. Though inspired by Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai; Sholay brings to screen a similar theme with all the bollywood ingredients including songs, dance and action.

Sholay brought to Bollywood a totally new genre of action, what Magnificent Seven had bought to Hollywood.

A set of very capable but misfits and outlaws uniting to fight a greater evil and in the event embracing heroism and Martyrdom.

Sholay also brought to the Indian screen a negative character that is still considered as one of the greatest villain roles in the Indian film industry and was played by the late Amjad Khan.

If you were to have one Bollywood Movie, I would say you have this.

Movie needs a variety, I believe that the fact of being stereo typed is not just for actors or directors or script writers, we as avid viewers also should not be stereo typed in what we pick to see. Be it the theme or language, so today’s treat for your eyes is the Farsi movie by the Iranian/Canadian director Babak Payami, Secret Ballot (Raye makhfi)

Released in 2001 Secret Ballot tells a day in the life of a young female elections agent, a Secret Ballot box and a Soldier in a remote Iranian island. The

movie has a slow and sleepy pace but it goes well with the location of the island and the characters often bringing in a humor tint to the movie as they move through their day.

The movie starts with a box being parachuted on to a beach where two soldiers take turns and stand guard to catch smugglers with one bed, one rifle and a jeep. The box has the secret ballot and instructions for them to wait for an election agent shortly. To the surprise of the soldier on duty a motor boat comes to the shore carrying a young female election agent (he probably did not anticipate a lady). The soldier becomes reluctant to help or take orders from a woman till she hands over the written order that gives him no chance but drive her through the island in his jeep

As the day moves on the agent and her approved list of candidates are faced by a local electorate who at many times need to be persuaded to vote. The movie is fun to watch as the agent confronts interesting objections, like the women who will not vote without permission from their husbands, men who don’t vote because their candidate is not in the list and a religious fundamentalist who insists that the god should be in the list.

The movie ends with the agent and soldier returning back to the beach much different than they started, knowing each other better and understanding the landscape and culture in a clearer plane

The agent and the soldier do not have a name in the movie but are played by Nassim Abdi and Cyrus Abidi respectively.

If you like slow movies, and want to see a different movie, watch this.

Sometime you go to the store searching for a movie you want to watch and end up taking something just because you like the actor, or you like the plot or just because you felt so for any unimportant reason.

Unaware of how long the interest is going to hold on, you get home, switch on the TV put in your DVD or VHS and start watching and then as you

progress in the movie a kind of WOW feeling grips you and you start relating with the plot, the characters, the message in such a way that makes you think, “You know what? This is a damn good choice”

‘The Big Kahuna’ was one such movie for me, after no reason that I could remember picking it initially I might have seen that over and over about 6 or 7 times in the last five years.

This still entertains me to the core

The Plot
A day in a sales Convention when three salesmen in the Lubricant industry meet up to catch a big fish that will keep them and their company floating. The last chance to make a sale that will make the difference. Two veteran salesmen (Phil and Larry) played more than perfect by Danny Devito, and Kevin Spacey while shouldering this great responsibility of closing a deal also need to sharpen a recent Management Grad (On Training) played by Peter Facinelli (Bob), in the words of Kevin Spacey’s character (Larry) “grease another asshole for the lubricant industry.”

The movie is filled with one liners like the one above and as it progresses as a discussion among the three it touches upon some interesting views of life, profession, duty, religion etc… that will make you think even after the movie is over.

One more quote from the movie for the road “Well, I’ll be a son of a bitch! I don’t smoke, you quit drinking, Bob here wouldn’t even dream of looking at another woman with lust… between the three of us, we’re practically Jesus.”

The Big Kahuna, was adapted from Roger Rueff’s play Hospitality Suite

If you are in Sales you should not miss this and if you are not in sales then you should definitely watch it.