Badla - a lesson in movie making

Watched Badla last weekend and loved it.
Badla is a slowish Who Done it movie which doesn't surprise much. Its supposedly an adaptation of "The Invisible Guest". Haven't seen the original so cannot comment  on the adaptibility.
I quite liked the movie for the super performances by AB (no surprises there) and surprise surprise Amrita Singh.
While it does appear slow, as the audience gets to see the crime sequence thru different possible angles of how it could have been done via flashback sequences, what stuck with me was the mimimal use of outdoor locations. Almost 90% of the movie has been shot indoors and when you dont have dances, songs and picturesque locales, its the acting that matters the most.
It is here that Bachchan proves why he is still the best. This movie would have fallen flat had it not been for AB. He plays the part of the smart lawyer to perfection. The end, although a little predictible, showcases the emoting ability of the legend.
 As said earlier the surprise package is Amrita Singh. She does extremely well to display a loving nagging wife to a helpless mother who decides to help herself.
Hats off to Tapsee Pannu for doing such a movie. Its great to see heroines of today coming into their own and doing good meaningful roles rather than being reduced to props in mindless Hero oriented commercial movies.
Is it a movie worth watching is a cinema hall? For me, the guy who looks for nuances of cinema and cinema making in any movie rather than just pure entertainment, this one was a joy watching in a cinema hall. While it did have its fault on certain missing links and unexplained things,  those could easily be overlooked as I thought the movie was an ideal lesson in how a nice movie can be made with minimum camera angles ( lots of closeup rather than long shots) and very less outdoor shooting.
For the ones who love locales and action and song and dance, this might not be worth watching in a cinema hall - wait for it to come to the TV screens but watch it nevertheless.

Corporate/ Life Lessons from IPL - 2

Another life lesson for me from RR vs CSK match on 11th April 2019 - IT'S EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO BE AT PEACE WITH ONESELF

Yesterday we saw something which was not very common for us to see. MSD losing his cool and walking onto the ground to argue with the umpires over a no ball being bowled.
Mind you, his arguement was correct - the umpire had first signalled no ball and then the square leg umpire overruled it. I don't think that's allowed. The fact is that the ball was well above waist height and hence had to be a no ball. However it was very unlike MSD to do what he did.
The question is WHY DID MSD, WHO IS KNOWN FOR HIS COOL HEAD, LOSE HIS COOL?

My analysis is that he was angry with himself for not having been able to close the match himself. The reason for him not being able to do so was that he was thoroughly exhausted.
MSD has always been proud about his fitness (he is still the quickest of them all). However, yesterday we saw the human side of him. Age is catching up - he was seen panting and even had to take a small break during the brilliant innings he played.
His mind did not accept what his body was telling him (as it was against everything he stood for so far) and hence he was mad at himself.
That was the reason he lost control and did what he did.

When a person is with peace with self, he can do wonders, but when that peace is disturbed, he will lose control and do things out of character.

Corporate / Life Lessons from IPL -1

What happened in the KKR vs RCB match on 5th April 2019 is a lesson in Leadership, at least for me.

Virat Kohli(VK) showcased exactly what a leader should NOT do when the going is tough. VK's stature as a player is undebated but as a leader his behavior was far from ideal and it taught me a lesson or two yesterday.

It's good to be demanding of your team but it's how you treat them that eventually gets the best out of them. It is here that VK faulters the most.

His biggest challenge, the way I see it, is he is far too expressive on field. While that is good as a player, it's not good at all as a captain. In yesterday's match Siraj dropped two catches. While that was unpardonable, as a good captain, VK should have sensed that he needed Siraj -the bowler to bowl in the end and hence should have kept his emotions in check. Instead VK was at his expressive best and angrily changed Sirajs fielding position after the dropped catch. That would have had a tremendous negative impact on the young man mentally (remember VK is not just the RCB captain but also India's captain) and he bowled two beamers and had to be taken off in the middle of his over.

Stoinus, who was not mentally prepared, had to complete the over and was taken to the cleaners. Again here VK was all emotions on the field. Then Southee was taken for 29 runs in the penultimate over. Now, Southee is not any club level bowler. He has single handedly won matches for NewZealand with his bowling. What happened to him can happen to the best of the best and when the going is bad, even the best need some guidance as they are not mentally in a frame of mind to think in the right direction. All he probably needed was a calm arm around his shoulder. VK should have shown more ownership and tact by speaking to Southee and giving some tips on where to bowl. Instead VK was looking like a kid lost in the woods. Bret Lee, in the post match session showed where exactly one needed to bowl when bowling to Russell. Rabada had cleaned up Russell in the super over and shown how it can be done.

What VK probably needed to do was be calm during the match and then in the team meeting or in an one on one blast the guys who were making the mistakes. By his expressive behavior in public he just created panic in his teammates and that was the cause of the defeat after scoring 200+.

Nothing to take away from the way Russell batted but the learning for me was that - there will be times that you will be outplayed in life. One needs to keep ones mind calm during these times and not make the job more difficult by creating undue pressure for oneself and ones team as, by doing that, you only make the opposition job easier. As much as Russell won the match yesterday with his power hitting, VK and RCB bowlers contributed to it by creating panic.

It takes great skill to get the best out of others and unfortunately VK doesn't have it yet. One needs to learn that skill from MSD. MSD possess that skill and that's why he is such a successful captain even when his prowess as a finisher have been far left behind.

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