Welcome to Amitkeerti's World: February 2010

Movie: Hindi : My Name is Khan

Feb 23rd officially marks the beginning of my 7 year itch. So to celebrate the day we decided to go and watch a movie. Since we were done watching 3-idiots and the other movies (Toh baat pakki and Click) were not worth the salt, we decided to watch My Name is Khan.
We reached the theater about 15 minutes before the scheduled time only to find the theater deserted. Not giving much of a thought, i parked my car and bought the tickets.
We were comfortably seated in our seats and the movie started on time. I turned around and found that the theater had only 10 people !!! "This is strange for a Shah Rukh Khan movie !!!" I thought. My wife concurred.

About the movie
===============
It is a very engaging movie about an Autistic guy Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) who has to navigate his way around people who are so different from him.
The movie is shot in the backdrop of 9/11 terrorist attack.
Rizwan who is born and brought up in India by his mother. After his mother's untimely demise because of Myocardial Infraction, he moves to US to live with his brother.
His brother is a distributor of Beauty products. His brother persuades Rizwan to start selling the products. This job takes him to a salon where he meets Mandira (Kajol).
What follows next is a tale of love, intimacy, shock and search for the truth.

The movie, being Karan Johar's Movie, has been shot very well. The colors are subtle and not glaring. Camera angles are very nice. Emotions have been captured very well. The screenplay is very good. Shah Rukh's acting, for a change, is not over the top. Kajol looks very cute. Her shots are filmed very well. Dialog delivery is very good.
An excellent portrayal of the anger and despair of a Muslim family.

Cons
====
Mama Jenny's story was not required. The subsequent events in jenny's village were very silly and over the top.

Special Mention
===============
Rizwan's mother has acted very well. She portrays a mother who sees only her son rizwan not his disability. Very aptly performed. Very touching.

Jimmy Shergill is excellent as Rizwan's brother. I was bowled over by his acting in Munnabhai MBBS. He had shown amazing expressions as aterminally ill patient in Munnabhai MBBS. I could see the same enthusiasm when he delivered the dialogs. His character which feels sidelined by his mother is excellent. His initial indifference and lack of affection to his brother has been captured very well.

Summary
=======
Rizwan does touch your heart.
Mandira brought tears in my wife's eyes. I could not stop the lump forming in my throat as well...

Overall a nice movie. I would rate it 3 out of 5 (Mama Jenny you ate up the 4th star).

Labels: Movie

Livemint: Indian Consumer Survey - Part 10

This blog post deals with the part 10 of the 33 part series on Indian Consumer Survey. It deals with the section c2 from the above figure
I chose this part because it is next logical step for the young vibrant India. You are married, you dont have any children and you stay in a nuclear family !

(c) livemint.com

Some salient points of this section of society:
==> This segment constitutes of about 800,000 people.
==> Majority of the junta is in the age group of 25-34 (54%). About 37% of the people are in the age group of 35-44 and about 6% in the age group of 45-54.
==> Though all are married, 34% of their spouce do not stay with them (probably they stay in their village because the main bread earner is yet to settle down in the cities...)
==> These people will move into C4 and C5 category as their next transition.
==> Annual Median Household income is about Rs 1,34,000. About 72% of the people earn less than 3 Lakhs per year. 13% between 3-5 lakhs, 8% between 5-10 Lakhs and about 7% above 10 lakhs.
==> 11% of the people work in construction/Real Estate. 15% work in Manufacturing. 20% work in public administration and 24% work in Education and Social Work. 17% are self employed (Doctors, Lawyers, trade, financial services ex: LIC agents, MF agents etc)
==> The chief wage earner is generally educated. 62% have graduate degree. 21% have post-graduate degree and about 16% of them have some form of diploma/certificate.
==> 40% of their income is spent on Rent. 18% on food and about 31% on services like medical, education, conveyance, entertainment etc)

(c) livemint.com

Image Source: http://www.livemint.com/2010/02/21205847/CCF335FF-3437-431C-A8D2-C1FA8896DEDFArtVPF.pdf

Source: http://www.livemint.com/2010/02/21205847/Rent-pinches-the-young-amp-m.html

Labels: Financial Psychology

Livemint: Indian Consumer Survey - Part 9

Livemint is doing a 33 part series on Indian consumer. They have divided the consumer segment into many parts. Below is the figure which shows the various sections of society.

(c) livemint

This blog post deals with the part 9 of the 33 part series. It deals with the section c2 from the above figure
I chose this part because this is where the young vibrant Indian Cross section starts.

Some of the salient points of this section
==> This segment covers 500,000 Indian Households
==> Generally this section consists of migrants moving to newer places/cities
==> Most of these people are between the age group of 25-35 (A third of them are less than 25 years old and 61% of them are between the age of 25-35)
==> 60% of them are graduates and 17% of them are post-graduates. A cross section of this section also holds some form of diploma certificates as well.
==> Majority of the people earn Rs 3 Lakhs or less
==> 78% percent of the people live in rented accommodation and 32% of their salary goes in paying the rent.
==> Food is the second major expenditure for them. Fast food/read-t-eat-food/off-the-shelf-food is the preferred food for majority of these people.
==> 23% of these people are in education and social work. 21% of these people are in construction and real estate. 21% of these people are in Manufacturing. 11% of these people are in Public service and Administration. rest 24% of the people are spread across various jobs (i presume this 24% will include the IT and ITES sectors...)

The figure below summarizes the above points...