Indian Professional League - potpouri!

Even a reluctant cricket fan anywhere in the world should be aware of the recent buzz in the world of cricket - the 'Indian Professional League' (IPL). It is sported as cricket's reply to the English Premier League (in soccer) or English County cricket, which is based on one-day cricekt format and involves lot of foreign hires. All that we know so far about IPL is that it involves a huge amount of money transaction and is probably making everyone involved in it richer by a couple of magnitude in terms of their bank balances.

For the first time in the history of sports entertainment, at this level, we have witnessed the auctioning of players, i.e. players joining to different teams without their own will. They are getting paid in an ad-hoc basis according to the mood of the bidders. Even the teams are named as franchisee of a particular company or person. The sole authority in this venture is BCCI (Board of Cricket Control in India), one of the richest organization in the world of sports and its strongman Lalit Modi visualizes IPL to revolutionize the game of cricket and popularize it to the non-cricket crazy audience. Presently, it seems that the longer nature of the game of cricket is preventing it to become a popular game worldwide as compared to soccer or basketball. So IPL is based on the shortest version of cricket till date, i.e. Twenty20 cricket.
If you ask a cricket loyalist, he will still announce that the 5-day test cricket is the real format of cricket and these shorter versions are harming the spirit of the game.

For the time-being we assume that the Twenty20 cricket might turn out to be the crowd puller, following the history where the one-day internationals became really popular from the 5-day format. In fact, the most prestigious tournament in the world cricket so far is the World Cup and that is being played in one-day format. There exists no such counterpart in test cricket. So may be in coming decade the Twenty20 World Cup will overshadow the prestige of the one-day World Cup and India will be remembered as the first ever champions in this game, overthrowing the legacy set by West Indies in 1975.

But what good will IPL do to cricket, since it is not the only tournament that adopted T20 format, ICC already has started a World Cup in this shorter version. So one may ask what is the reason for IPL. The answer can be its a immediate reply to ICL (Indian Cricket League) which is formed under some former Indian players like Kapil Dev, Sandip Patil, etc who rebelled against the monopoly of BCCI in the game. One can argue that IPL was just a hasty reply to ICL from BCCI in order to reinstate the monopoly. According to me its really a difficult link to establish between IPL and its benefit to cricket. The players generally play under a nation out of their patriotic zeal, or play for their clubs out of their choice. But here they dont even know from before who will actually own them. Under these circumstances, I really wonder what will be the source of commitment of the players to their respective team. Of course, one cannot ignore the amount of money they are getting purchased for. But even the price is not set up on the basis of the caliber of the player. The incidence of Ricky Pointing getting paid much less than the new sensation Ishant Sharma, is already rising people's concern. Apart from the rich Indian cricketers getting richer, I see IPL will involve only return of some international talents who have retired recently.

BCCI have recently announced that they will share the huge amount of their profit with other cricket boards, and also deploy some amount for the benefit of other games in the country. It will be interesting to watch how much of that will happen in practice. Lets hope as spectators, we will be able to watch all the great matches of IPL in different TV networks and there will be no more fusses with the TV rights again.

Bong !! Connection

Anjan Dutta's 'Bong Connection' is a smashit movie. The return of Sayan Munshi is really a great by-product of this film. Although some of my friends have risen their eyebrows on the version of 'Pagla Hawa' used here, I feel may be thats the need of the movie theme; it was not necessary but quite fits into the perspective.

Although I feel tremendously unattached to this word 'Bong', but people from other states refer like that and gradually you cannot do much than accept. Dont forget we also have shortties to every states and we call them by that. But anyways these are fun when they are used in right spirit. After all we are a large country with different culture and traditions, if we have freedom to respect each other, we should also have some freedom to make fun of each other, but ofcourse in the right spirit.

Perfect journey to USA

My first journey to USA was a eventful one. I was flying Royal Jordan Airlines from Calcutta to Chicago. Although I came in perfect condition none of luggages made it till the end. I had to change a flight at Amman, from where I boarded a flight to Chicago but my baggages boarded a flight to Paris. So when I was waiting for my luggages at baggage claim, risking my next flight to Albuquerque they were never there. Finally, I lost hope and thought of filling a lost baggage claim. But I was advised to do it at my final destination, since I might even miss my next connecting flight due to spending excessive time in looking for my baggages. When I finally reached Albuquerque I did file my claim. The airlines authorities were very kind to me and described their extreme apology and handed me a travel kit in order to relieve my anxiety for the lost baggages. The kit only contained essential toiletries, but they might not have notice that I arrived at USA without a single pair of clothes except what I was wearing and a night set in my cabin luggage.

My colleagues at University told that losing a baggage is always a good thing and I should file for compensation from the airlines. The next day airlines confirmed about my baggages' safe journey to Paris and consoled me that they will soon be delivered to me. I waited eagerly for a week but no new updates on the baggage front. Finally, being disgusted asked the airlines for the compensation. They faxed me two 15 pages form to describe exactly the items in the baggages, their prices, date of purchase, place of purchase, manufacturer, etc. Now, who on earth remembers all these details. I dont believe even the toppers in my batch would have remembered the same and I am just an above-average performer. So I got even more disgusted and thought of doing nothing than waiting. Meanwhile, I visited a nearby Walmart to get two pairs of clothes to cover the waiting period. Finally, by GOD's grace the luggages reached me after 3 weeks. By that time I became so busy with my ongoing semester that totally became reluctant to start a new fight for the damaged baggages and delayed receipt of the same. But decided next time it happens I will go the full yard; but luckily still waiting .....

Dr. Ranjan Ray

This article is about my recollection of Dr. Ranjan Ray, our physics professor at St. Xaviers College, Calcutta. I remember our first day of orientation at Xaviers, when Ranjan Ray came to introduce the department and various course related issues. He taught us thermodynamics in the first two years of B.Sc. I must say, I never bothered to read on this topic before the college exams, and still fared well. The credit goes to him. While we were awaiting our Part I results, he suffered from a cerebral attack and passed away the following week. Just before this shocking incidence took place, we were actually planning to visit GMRT and University of Pune as an excursion under his lead. It never happened.

Dr. Ray was not only an excellent teacher of Physics, but also a wonderful human being. He always encouraged dicussions on various subjects. I had some opportunities to discuss with him about personal and career related issues. I can say, it was probably from his advice I chose to join University of Pune for my M.Sc. His work on improving physics education through use of digital technologies was a unique effort during those days in Calcutta.

For details on Dr. Ray's career I would suggest readers to visit http://www.geocities.com/sitabhra/people/rray_bio.html.

Ballygunge Court

I apologise to the hypothetical reader, who actually cares to visit this blog, for writing another consecutive movie review. I cant help it. I watched this bangla movie 'Ballygunge Court' a few days back. Its not a new release, but I only managed to watch it recently. The movie is directed by Pinaki Chowdhury and based on Bani Bose’s story Deepshikha. The casting includes Soumitra Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Mamata and Tanusree Shankar in major roles.

Going by the trend, I will mention about the positives first. Its a film about the parents whose kids are leaving Calcutta (I still prefer to call her by this name) for better career prospects abroad. Nevertheless, they are leaving behind their parents in Calcutta, to suffer their rest of the life in lonelyness. The film is based on this appartment named 'Ballygunge Court' and builds up around the two couples played by Soumitra-Mamata and Sabyasachi-Tanusree.

The movie was great to watch, I never felt that it was stretching too much in length. The end was the most beautiful sequence, one really needs to watch it. It also deals with a social problem of the country losing its young brains to foreign nations. I think this was a major problem last decade and before that. The present trend says no one is too much excited to leave India permanently since the job offerings are becoming very lucrative at home also . Now, I think the problem is of equal opportunity. So in this respect the film actually should have been made a decade back. But anyways lets put aside the social criticism . The casting might have been made slightly better, or may be its just me; I am so used to seeing Mamata Shankar paired up with Dipankar Dey, that this sudden pairing with Soumitra was not taken very well by me, sorry for being conservative. The leads in the film where really great even the supporting casts like Biplab Chatterjee deserve special mention. I am very sad to see Manoj Mitra making such a inconsequential appearance in the movie.

Overall 'Ballygunge Court' is a good movie, worth watching and indeed supports the fact that commercial bangla movies are recovering better.

Anuranon - New Bangla Movie

Recently, I watched this new bengali film named Anuranon (meaning Resonance). Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury (an ad film-maker) directed Rahul Bose, Rituparna Sengupta, Raima Sen and Rajat Kapoor in the pivotal roles in the movie.

Onething I liked about this film was the screenplay. After a long time (maybe the first time), I watched some beautiful outskirts of London in a bengali film. The shots at Sikkim reminded of Kanchenjangha (by Ray) and Titli (by Ghosh). The ecstatic view of Kanchenjangha was the best reward for me.

The music was not of particular interest but was not out of sort as well. Although I must comment on the length of the film, it could have been slightly shorter by 10-15 min. I could not find any on-screen chemistry between Rituparna and Rahul Bose at all, some how she looked like his elder sister. The mere attraction and compatibility between Raima and Rahul was evident. I am still finding a justification of casting Rajat Kapoor in this film and doing a complicated voice make-over. I thought Bangla film industry has couple of people who could have done complete justice to his part of the role.

Overall, as a cinegoer, I am really happy to see present commercial bangla movies are getting re-defined and not just by Rituparno Ghosh but others are also coming up with their own taste. Somehow, I feel that bangla movies have always been noted for its distinct features and its commercialization does not necessarily need the inclusion of the Bollywood potpouris in it.