Mausam

Director           Pankaj Kapur

Cast                 Shahid Kapoor, Sonam A Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Aditi Sharma, Manoj Pahwa, Kamal Nain Chopra, Supriya Pathak Kapur

Year                2011

Genre              Romance

Have you guys heard the story about The Hare and The Tortoise? I cannot say with conviction that everyone who reads this blog would have.  But I can say this with absolute conviction that Pankaj Kapur has not only heard the story but also took it so much to heart that he applies it in every aspect of his life.  But there are a couple of learnings from the story that Pankaj Sir seems to have forgotten about the story.  Firstly the moral was “Slow AND STEADY wins the race” – not just SLOW wins the race. Secondly, winning happens if and only if the Hare decides to take a nap and not the goddamn Tortoise!!!! Mausam in a nutshell is the best sleeping pill one can have after a hard day’s work.  It is the ultimate prescription that a doctor can give for insomnia.  Guaranteed results or your money back.  This one is in the league of “Tree of Life” folks – complete and utter yawn fest.

It was a full house for the 2040 show @ PVR Mulund – much to my pleasant surprise and of course to the happiness of the multiplex owners.  The campaigns and probably the decent music of the movie seemed to have made an impression on quite a large bunch of suckers – chief amongst them being yours truly.  But most of us who walked in expecting a reasonable romantic movie were in for a really rude shock.  Let me speak about the positives first because that would be a quick one.  There was cinematography and credit to the team to have created a movie that may not have been a sight for sore eyes but was visually quite appealing.  And then there was the music which was good but the pessimist in me is quite certain that Pritam would have used his international resources quite well to come up with the final product.  Honestly, I cannot find much more other than these two factors.

I am quite convinced that the only person who can make Shahid Kapoor act is Vishal Bharadwaj.  I am also quite certain that there is a gene pool mismatch between father and son which is worth investigating for those who would be very curious.  That the additional A in Sonam A Kapoor is not making things work too much for her is quite obvious. And Mausam hasn’t sent her charts sky rocketing in any manner.  Most of the support cast seems non existant with Anupam Kher getting precisely 3 minutes and 38.497 seconds of screen time.  Aditi Sharma was definitely the pick of the support cast as the desperate Rajjo who cannot look beyond our hero Harry. I have immense respect for Pankaj Kapur as an actor.  But his directorial debut has been nothing short of a disaster.  Editing is all but absent.  I would strongly recommend Mausam for the sleep deprived population of the country.  3 on 10.

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZwSV5qeMoc

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Mere Brother Ki Dulhan

Director           Ali Abbas Zafar

Cast                 Imran Khan, Katrina Kaif, Ali Zafar, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Tara D’Souza, Arfeen Khan, Parikshat Sahni, Kanwaljit Singh

Year                2011

Genre              RomCom

Indian Audiences are probably very easy to please.  What else could explain the extremely positive reviews that a way below par movie like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan has received since its release.  First of all there is the aspect of a story line.  Yawn.  Everyone knows what is going to happen at the first look of the trailer itself.  Boy (Imran Khan) is entrusted to find an ideal wife for his brother (Ali Zafar) who is based in London and has no idea about the concept of being on a rebound.  Boy sincerely but unconvincingly goes about the formalities to complete his duties and is aided by his rhyming bum chums Shobhit (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) and Rohit (cannot remember who plays this).  After several unsuccessful attempts he finally receives a call that seems to have truck loads of potential thanks to the prospective bride’s father (Kanwaljit Singh) being employed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Turns out that the bride (Katrina Kaif) is an old rebellious college friend from Lady Sriram College (does this institute pay money for in film placement? That would probably explain the 100% cut off they had for admissions this year). With the aid of technology, the bride to be and the groom to be have a chat and voila we have a “middle class” Indian wedding which is nothing short of a BIG FAT INDIAN one!!!  Not to mention the obvious – boy and bride to be fall in love and a comedy of errors ensues.

Why would a debutante director, who has only part of his name different from one of his lead actors, dabble with such a predictable plot is beyond me.  It is anyways difficult to direct a movie for the first time – so what if you have the experience of being an assistant director for 7 movies prior to this? But it is simply sacrilegious if the audience knows the entire plot and the ending within a 2 minute trailer.  To make matters worse Ali Abbas Zafar is not helped with the quality of the script which can be described as stale at best.  And wait a minute. That is just the beginning of his woes. He has as part of his cast the nephew of one of the most successful actors in India whose repertoire of expressions can be summed up with the use of just one finger.  And the bride to be manages to hold audiences simply because she is super sizzling hot.  The elder brother has done his chances of a career no good at all. Disappointing – considering that his first movie (Tere Bin Laden) was such a well made one and his performance was very good to say the least. The rest of the cast is uninspiring as well.

I would consider MBKD to be yet another movie made with the “chalta hai” (anything goes) attitude that has plagued Bollywood since time immemorial.  Barring a few light moments, some decent music and leching at Katrina Kaif, there is nothing that would hold you back.  The trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1376033817/ and save time and money.  3 on 10 is my verdict.  If you still decide to go ahead – my best wishes are always with you.

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10 Things To Do Before You Retire

Don’t put off today what you can’t afford to do tomorrow. In spite of the world wide pension crisis and a growing acceptance that we must plan and save for our retirement, the harsh reality is we are actually not saving enough. Research reports reveal that only 15% of the individuals are saving sufficiently for their retired life. Here are a few tips on things to do before you retire so that your retired life is more comfortable and enjoyable.


Get Rid of All Your Debts

If you are taking a housing loan, personal loan, car loan or any other loan make sure that you will be repaying them on or before your retirement. You need to choose the term of the loan in accordance with your retirement age. You can enjoy your retired life when you have 100% financial freedom, not when you have to repay your loans.

Protect Your Emergency fund

Emergency expenses can happen any time. But the possibility goes up during the old age. So we need to enhance the emergency reserve year on year based on the inflation and change in your expense levels. Emergency fund will give you a sense of security and also you need not touch your other investments during emergency where you need to pay pre-closure penalty. Also don’t forget to refill the emergency fund once you met an expense out of emergency fund.

Establish a Retirement Budget

You need to visualize your retired life well in advance and need to create a budget for your retirement. That is you will not be going to office. So the expenses on transport and clothes may come down. Also you will have more time to spend. You may need to spend more on leisure travel and health care.

Examine Your Cash Flow

Take a close look at your cash inflow as well as outflow. Is there going to be any income after retirement? Like rent, royalty…. Would there be any unwanted outflow during retired life? Like paying life insurance, or SIP. At times during your beginning of the career , you could have taken a policy where you need to pay premium up to the age of 60. But now you may plan to retire at 55 itself. So you need to realign your existing policy and other investments in sync with your retirement age.

Grow Your Retirement Corpus
Find out how much corpus you need to have when you retire so that you will be having complete financial freedom. A professional financial planner will of great assistance to you in this regard.

Develop a withdrawal strategy

How are you planning to withdraw your cash outflow during retirement from the retirement corpus? Monthly, quarterly, half yearly or annually? Through Sytematic Withdrawal plan in mutual funds or by way of dividend or interest. All these will have a great impact on the corpus you need to accumulate. So you need to decide in advance.

Minimize taxes

Your retirement corpus and retirement income need to be tax efficient. You need to pay taxes as and when the fixed deposits matures irrespective of that you withdraw interest or reinvest under a cumulative option. But you need to pay interest only when you withdraw from the mutual funds. Careful selection of investment vehicle can reduce your tax during the retired life.

Get Sufficient Mediclaim coverage

The moment you retire, your employer will stop covering you under the group mediclaim. So you need to plan for your individual medical cover well in advance. At old age the medical expenses are inevitable. If you have not planned it properly the all your retirement plan will become a mess.
Consider Inflation adjusted annuities
The monthly income you need when you retire is not going to be the same even after 5 years of your retirement. Inflation will increase your retirement expenses year after year. So year after year your retirement income needs to go up.
Oversee estate planning
How your fixed assets and financial assets need to be distributed to your legal heirs? Create a WILL. You can avoid creating relationship problems to your next generation because of your left out wealth.


The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (http://www.holisticinvestment.in/) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

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All you wanted to know about Mutual fund ELSS

There are so many tax saving investment options; how Mutual fund ELSS Schemes stand out from all other options?

A Mutual Fund ELSS is similar to diversified equity funds. That means the fund manager can invest in shares of various companies across various industries. The difference is ELSS has got the added tax benefit, something a diversified equity fund does not offer.

ELSS is part of the Section 80C instruments which are cumulatively eligible for a deduction from income up to Rs.1 Lakh. This gives the tax payers benefits from 10 per cent to 30 per cent (excluding the educational cess) based on their current tax slab.
The other tax saving investments like NSC, PPF will give only 8% return p.a whereas the Mutual Fund ELSS has got the potential to deliver more than 12% return p.a. Also the lock-in period in Mutual Fund ELSS is 3 years and with NSC it is 6 yrs lock-in and with PPF it is 15 years. Among the various tax saving investment option, Mutual fund ELSS has got the least lock-in period.

Ulips are also one of the tax saving investment options. But now everyone has realized that Ulips has got heavy front loaded charges. Moreover smart investors want to separate their insurance from their investments. They no longer see insurance as an investment; they see insurance as a protection plan. So the smart investors go only for pure term insurance and reject ulips.

This is how Mutual Fund ELSS stands out of the crowd.

Before deciding to go for Mutual fund ELSS, here are some points to ponder over. First check your overall portfolio. Does it need more equity exposure? If yes then you can go for ELSS; if no then you can go for PPF or NSC.

Second thing is to keep in mind, the equity investments are for long term, say 5 years or more. Though the lock-in period in ELSS is 3 years it is better to invest with a time horizon of 5 yrs or more.

Also investors need to keep in mind, SIP is the best form of investing in mutual funds and ELSS is not an exception. So doing an SIP in ELSS is a good strategy to be followed.

The poor performing ELSS has given around 10% annualized return in the last 5 years whereas the best performing ELSS has delivered around 25% annualized return in the last 5 years. So investors need to be careful in choosing the right ELSS scheme. Past performance, risk adjusted return, consistency are a few parameters to be evaluated in selecting a best performing ELSS scheme. Investors also can approach financial advisors for selecting the right scheme.

There are two groups of ELSS investors. Majority of investors belong to the first group. They will wake up late to these tax saving investments. For salaried individuals, it is typical that they will be informed by their accounts department somewhere around end of January to provide proof of tax saving investment immediately or else extra tax will be deducted from their February salary. At the neck of the moment, the choice ends up being guided by convenience alone. They tend to think about tax first and investments later. As long as something saves tax, its real benefits and features as an investment are paid less attention to. That means the investments will be chosen more for convenience than for suitability.

There is another group of investors. Though this group is a very small group, it is a very smart group. They will not rush for tax saving scheme at the last minute. They will plan in advance. That means they will have more time to choose the right product. They will save tax as well as choose a good investment option. They will also check whether this particular tax saving scheme will suit their overall portfolio or not; will this tax saving investment is going to fit into their comprehensive financial plan. That means they will consciously choose an investment which saves tax as well as helps them in achieving their financial goals like children’s higher education, buying a house, retirement plans.

So…now just check up which group you are in.

The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (http://www.holisticinvestment.in/) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

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Bol

Director                       Shoaib Mansoor

Cast                             Iman Ali, Mahirah Khan Askari, Atif Aslam, Shafqat Cheema, Humaima Malick, Manzar Sehbai, Mahnoor Khan, Hania Chima

Genre                          Drama

Year of Release           2011

The very essence of movie making other than the perceived entertainment value that most people look at, is the message that is passed on to millions of people who watch it.  As a journalist (I can only assume) tells Zainub (Humaima Malick) at the beginning of the movie, “Tumhein apni kahaani batana zaroori hai.  Is se shayad kisi ek ghar mein farak pade.  Aur agar is se hazaaron gharon mein farak pade toh kya badlav la sakte ho tum”. (You need to tell your story. It may make a difference to only one household.  But if it does touch a thousand households then imagine the difference you would be making). 

Bol is the story of Zainub who has been sentenced to death following trials at every single level of court starting from a low level sessions court to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.  She maintains her silence at all her trials.  Her last request for presidential pardon is also rejected.  However, she asks for and gets permission to tell her story live on national TV before she is hung to death.  Wierd. But given that there is no political motive behind it, the President allows it.

Bol touches upon several issues that it would seem have plagued not only our neighbours but also us in a big way.  The manner in which loads of people even today twist around the “word of the lord” as defined in religious scriptures is just appalling.  Even today, people consider child birth as a god given right or should I say “gift”. And even today, there is a marked desperation for a male child when you already have enough girls to take care of.  Not to mention that in several parts of the either country, even today, vasectomy / tubectomy are viewed as sacrilegious.  And then there is the ever taboo topic of homosexuality / effeminacy.  Lets not forget the time tested issue of inter caste marriages.  One would like to believe that these are issues restricted to the other side of the border but we would only be fooling ourselves in the bargain I guess.  Movies such as Bol only get them to the fore.  It is now up to us to think and act in a manner that is correct.

I was one of the few people who found Khuda Kay Liye a really bad movie.  And this is not because of my intrinsic desire to rebel.  I just found the performances to be really bad with the exception of Nasseer Bhai’s 5 minute monologue. Thankfully, Bol, turned out to be quite the opposite in terms of performances.  Humaima Malick hogs screen time alright but she is the central character – a little over the top at times but solid overall.  Manzar Sehbai in the role of the almost Hitlerian Hakim Sahib is quite superb.  The support cast, were distinctly less involved as compared to the lead actors but definitely up to the mark. 

What stands out from the first shot is Salman Razzaq’s cinematography which is superb.  The use of colours, light and sound are extremely effective.  What it could have done with is better editing (very badly edited I must say), some real emphasis on the make-up which was too unreal to believe and consistency errors which are a dime a dozen.  However, distinctly better effort at direction from Shoaib Mansoor.  He does pick up relevant issues and tries to communicate them in a manner that is perceived as acceptable by the Pakistani Censor Board – quite an achievement in itself I would say.  Average music and some really poignant scenes which can get you close to tears to round off what is overall a good movie.

Bol will leave you with a superb thought which Zainub screams out, “Sirf Marna hi jurm kyon hai.  Paida karna jurm kyon nahin hai” (Why is murder a crime and not giving birth?) – a concept which you will understand as you go through the movie.  Add this to your list of movies that definitely deserve a watch.  Makes you think.  7 on 10.

The trailer can be viewed on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDCJzaRal3o

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