The Paradox of ‘The Artist’

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A nod from the Oscars is a sure shot ticket for any film to achieve celluloid immortality and this year the big winner is the unassuming film ‘The Artist’, a well deserved winner grabbing the coveted Best Picture, Best Director and the Best Actor awards along with a few other awards. Not able to contain my excitement I managed to catch the film playing on a big screen nearby. Not a single word was spoken in the movie yet by the time I came out of the auditorium a thousand words filled my mind.

Interestingly, the storyline of the movie can be summed up in one line; in fact it can fit into one tweet of less than 140 characters. I doubt if any other movie in recent times has such a simple story.

‘A superstar of the silent film era fades away from public memory as the advent of talkies makes him redundant.’

This one line story set in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s has a theme that keeps recurring throughout human history, especially relevant to us in current times more than ever. In this post I am not going to write a review about the movie but speak about the thread that remains common between the film and the evolution of human innovation and also highlight what I think is the biggest take away from the movie, a PARADOX of sorts wherein lies the true beauty of the film. So here it goes...

The Two Faced Indian!

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What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the following word?

BUSINESS MAN

That was a question I asked on my Facebook Page couple of days back. The people that follow my page belong to multiple demographics and since there is no right or wrong answer for this question the answers were many, ranging from Dhirubhai, Ambanis, Profits, Gujjus, Suits, Money, Cheat, Trade, Profit, Loss, etc, etc. Most of the answers were universal and could be understood by everyone but there were a couple of answers that I am sure baffled the rest of the people and made no sense whatsoever. The answers were Puri Jagannath & Mahesh Babu.

Now who the hell are Puri Jagannath and Mahesh Babu and what do they have to do with the word Business Man?

Ask any Telugu person worldwide or anyone living in Andhra Pradesh; he or she would instantly identify the names and chances are, before this weekend ends would have at least tried to watch the latest Telugu flick releasing today ‘BUSINESS MAN’ starring Mahesh Babu, directed by Puri Jagannath. I say “at least tried” because as per reports every single show of the film is sold out for next few days.

In the city of Hyderabad it has released in a maddening 110 cinema halls with one multiplex playing 34 shows of the same movie on day one and every single show is SOLD OUT, yes every single show. Yet, interestingly most of the rest of India is ignorant about the existence of a film called BUSINESS MAN as is evident from the comments on my page and otherwise too.

Crazy isn’t it?

Ok, if that wasn’t crazy enough, consider this.

Lokpal vs Lok PAL

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First things first, how does the Government tackle the ongoing fast by Anna Hazare which has now turned into a full blown revolution since the tone has changed to "it is now or never."

A quick solution:                                     

Going by my experience in project management and looking at how great organisations expand and implement new ideas, especially in situations where everyone thinks their solution is the right one, this is what the Government needs to do.

Implement the Jan Lokpal Bill proposed by the Civil Society with immediate effect but with a condition.

The condition being, it will be a limited beta release as they say in software terminology, the same that even Google is doing right now with its new social networking toy, Google Plus. Release the bill but implement it only on a small focus group. Choose few departments, maybe the RTO, Passport office or few other Government enterprises and implement it in a few sample cities and towns. Let the system function for some time, maybe a year, and then compile the results and let the public see if the system works. Iterations can be made as and when public feedback is unanimous for any change in what is implemented. For the time being, forget the Prime Minister and focus on the common man. There is no better way to test this system.

Well, the Govt could also try their version on a similar sample and compare the results with the Civil Society version. Sounds fair for everyone I guess. No? Then I would like to know if you have a better idea. You can post your views in the comments section below.

Now let me come to my actual blog post on what I think of the Jan Lokpal Bill and what could be an ideal solution. If you are the kind who is totally convinced with the Jan Lokpal Bill and don’t think there can be anything better, you can spare yourself the trouble and skip reading the rest of the blog post.