Movie ‘Agent Vinod’: Gripping Espionage Thriller!

Saif Ali Khan’s most ambitious movie ‘Agent Vinod’—the title borrowed from the spy flick made in 1977--got released all over on March 23, 2012. The movie in its second week has not yet been declared a hit and its business is not overwhelming. It has earned quite a few bad reviews and caustic comments from Indian movie goers. The mood for the film seems to be biased, per-conceived and downright unworthy.

In fact I too was misled by a prominent review and was happy not to have already booked for it. But a few others made me confused and I finally decided to watch the movie to judge for myself. I took the risk on April 1^st itself, but was pleasantly surprised at not being made an April fool in the slightest.My wife also confirmed the same sentiment. 

Agent Vinodis a hardcore spy flick which is also a rare genre in India. Though the title is borrowed from the Agent Vinod movie made in 1977 this not a remake and there is no resemblance in the storyline or its dress and style codes. While Mahendra Sandhu became a household name in the key role of spy Agent Vinod that became a surprise hit, Saif Ali Khan in the same role in a more stylized, intelligent, well-structured and complicated version is still struggling to establish his new found identity. 

The basic plot of the movie is a nuclear bomb being taken to its destination and its detonator transferred in the innocuous garb of Omar Khayyam’s Rubbaiyat through an extraordinary auction.  Murder of a colleague takes Agent Vinod (Saif Ali Khan)—a secret agent from an Indian intelligence agency—to Moscow with the only clue of code ‘242’ and after shootouts with the suspect Abu Nazer ( Ram Kapoor) gang Vinod follows leads to arrive in Morocco. There he confronts David Kazan (Prem Chopra—the baddie of the classic era of Hindi cinema) and his mysterious beautiful assistant Dr. Ruby (Kareen Kapur). After a series of intrigued conflicts laced with wry humor Vinod discovers the enormity of the auction and finds himself in hot pursuit of the elusive Colonel (Adil Hussain). 

Through high-paced action, twists and turn the movie takes you on a global tour starting from Afghanistan, Moscow, Russia, and Morocco and through Riga, even Somalia, Cape Town, Karachi to finally climax in New Delhi and London with shootouts, Hitchcock-type suspense at times, breathtaking car and auto-rickshaw chases and extraordinary locales. Apart from keeping you engrossed it never even allows you to think where it is leading you to. Seemingly unconnected scenes will remain so for you if you do not follow the well-knit and intelligent script. Brilliant cinematography and razor-sharp editing add to the pleasure of watching. When you finally feel it is all over in New Delhi you are taken to London for another shattering climax. Mystery concerning the characters of Dr. Ruby, the Colonel and Mr. Metla gives you the suspense treat and surprises. At one or two points you feel there are link breaks, but you can think it over only after the thrilling fare is over! 

Agent Vinod in no James Bond, no Bourne and not even Mahendra Sandhu. It is a most positive addition to the Indian spy film genre. It is not a typical Bollywood fare and maybe that is the reason why it is going over the heads of many movie goers. Maybe the marketing and publicity strategy for the movie was wrongly conceived projecting Saif as a funny and joker spy forgetting his path-breaking performance in Omkara. His punching-the nose-of-an NRI that was seen as a publicity stunt definitely did not help his movie. But eventually Agent Vinod is set to score high.

Kudos to director Sriram Raghavan who gave us slick flicks like Ek Haseena Thi and Johnny Gaddar earlier. We hope he will go on making sequels to Agent Vinod.  We fail to understand why people of Pakistan should miss out on this tremendous thriller that talks of better relations between our two countries rather than defaming Pakistan's intelligence agencies.

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Cricket: India-South Africa One-Off Wonder Derailed!

What a pity! Team India went all the way to Johannesburg, South Africa to play just one match against the hosts. That too, a T20 cricket international or a three-hour cricket movie. But unfortunately even that little show was brutally cut short by rains. Winning the toss a still defensive Indian skipper opted to field first and his non-strike bowlers helped South Africa to post a mammoth 219/4 in allotted 20 overs. India started well and raced to 71 runs in about 8 overs when rains came down. As per the D/L method India were below the required runs and so South Africa were declared winners by 11 runs. The wonder worked ponders for India and us!

The reasons for this one-off wonder were not far to seek. This was supposed to celebrate the 150 years of India-South Africa relations. But in fact, the landmark was achieved in 2010 itself and there were celebrations too in various ways. So this must have been preserved and reserved for ‘wonderful’ celebrations!

For a change Dhoni did not mention about ‘lack of rest’ at all and a nearly full-strength team was sent with the exceptions of only Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan who were apparently rested. Team India made a long journey to reach South Africa on 28^th March, Wednesday and the South African team too had to hurry home from their New Zealand series. Now after the ‘wonder’ Team India had again to undergo a long journey to reach home either today or tomorrow—just in time for the biggest money-spinning event!

Yes! The India Premiere League T20 Cricket—Season Five (IPL-5) starting on April 4^thseems to be overriding reason for this ‘wonder’. Team India had been in an ‘unprofitable’ state of affairs after their disastrous tour of Australia, their inability to reach the CB Series one-day finals there and also their inability to reach the Asia Cup final in Dhaka. So, the ‘profiteering’ Indian cricket Board naturally wanted a booster to create the right mood for the multinational, colorful and glamorous IPL-5 that is set to go on for nearly two months with as many as 76 cricket movies. Maybe the nostalgic memory of South Africa hosting IPL-2 in 2009 due to security concerns in India was another reason! But the ‘wonder’ failed them woefully and it is to be seen what marketing strategy they adopt now. To their great solace newspapers and television channels who always cry foul against IPL for India’s Test and One-Day failures are now flush with the most glossy and glamorous publicity about the event!

Meantime, the ‘loyal’ Australian skipper Michael Clarke finally gave in to the IPL-5 temptations. He was signed by Pune Warriors (owner Sahara Group who recently threatened to withdraw from IPL-5 and also overall sponsorship of Indian cricket) as a replacement for recuperating Yuvraj Singh for a sum rumored to be one million dollars for just six matches. Of course Clark justified his decision pointing out the big gaps in Australian cricket schedule which only allowed him to have this aberration.

Bizarre Happenings and Politics of Turmoil!

From ancient times it has been a proven war strategy to try strike the enemy at it weakest point. At the moment the ruling coalition of India seems to be the common enemy thanks to all sorts of campaigns and bizarre happenings. And of course, the coalition has been at its weakest due to the number game and a series of unending scams.

If a few crucial allies withdraw support the ruling coalition of India will be reduced to minority and these allies got emboldened by the recent election results in five states of the country where Congress—the main part of the coalition—did poorly including at the most politically strategic state of Uttar Pradesh.

Opposition political parties saw another opportunity to corner the government and joined hands with the allies directly or indirectly. The state election results also indicated a possible reemergence of regional forces at the cost of the national opposition parties. The debate on center-state power equation in the federal structure of the country heated up questioning the Govt. of India on its proposals to enact central laws regarding the anti-corruption ombudsman and a national counter-terrorism center. And, bizarre happenings have become the order of the day.

• Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party came back to power in Uttar Pradesh with thundering majority and dad Mulayam ruled for his son Akhilesh to become the new Chief Minister. A major constituent of the central coalition Samajwadi Party’s continued support was reiterated by Mulayam. But suddenly he began to dream about becoming the next Prime Minister of India! Why now…obviously!
• The regional party in the southern state of Tamil Nadu—another strong constituent of the coalition—forced the government to vote against Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. A decision which the government of India would have examined intensively otherwise. Why now…obviously!  
• The regional party in the eastern state of West Bengal—another troublesome ally of the coalition—sacked its own railway minister at the center for presenting a healthy railway budget for 2012-13. The party feigned ignorance about the proposal to hike railway fares after almost a decade and created havoc just after the budget was presented. A new leader from the party was appointed as the railway minister and he immediately announced a rollback. While common people never objected to this most-urgent fare hike the party stuck to its populist propaganda or blackmail. Why now…obviously!
• In a sinister move the newly elected regional government in the northern state of Punjab decided to ask clemency for an assassin on death row who killed a former chief minister of the same state and who had been prosecuted by the same state government since 1995.  Why and why now? For regional or religious support? It is hazardous and extremely harmful to try guess any further. But obvious from our line of argument.
• The Chief of Indian Army General V K Singh chose his time to deliver a bombshell. He alleged that a huge bribe was offered to him by a retired General in 2010 to get a deal for sub-standard equipments passed. He refused of course, but waited for nearly two years to disclose the facts. General Singh had already been engaged in a bitter row with the government of India concerning his age and date of birth. Two sets of documents reveal two separate dates of births and years. He fought against the government in the Supreme Court, but lost the legal battle. So, as per his official date of birth he was to retire in May, 2012 and if the other date was proved he would have retired after nine months from this. General Singh also alleged of rampant corruption in army making it obsolete and thus compromising the security of the country in a letter written to the Prime Minister. Why this particular timing…well not that obvious, but giving ample opportunities for the interested parties to intensify attack on the ‘common enemy’.

The largest democracy of the world looks set on a course of bitter ‘democratic’ fights and politics of turmoil. Things are set at the moment to get murkier and more bizarre as time progresses.

For the citizens of the country identifying the ‘common enemy’ seems to be the most urgent task of the hour. Goddamned difficult it is going to be indeed!