Excerpts from Businessworld....And more !

When I read Shashi Tharoor's interview in last week's Businessworld, I wanted to write about it immediately. But I could not write it as I was busy with CAT preparations. Anyway, the point he made about globalization caught my attention really.

"Globalisation is like a fast train. It stops only at a few platforms and not every place in the world is connected to it. In some places, the platforms are there but the train doesn’t stop. We have to find ways to get more people onto that train".

He also talks about Indian politics, International politics, besides globalization.

Anyway, the this week editor's note was very interesting. The editor starts off by criticizing the makers of Om Shanti Om , for the 'obvious' lift from Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical, The Phantom of the Opera . The point he wants to make is that a bunch of returning NRI's are making news for their research, which is original and imaginative, as opposed to stealing other's works.

That crushed my desire to watch Om Shanti Om. The only reason for me to watch it was Deepika . I do not have a very high opinion about Farah Khan's directorial qualifications after seeing Main Hoon Na. And am not a big fan of SRK either. Though I must admit I loved Chak De and liked SRK in Chak De, but not otherwise. Main Hoon Na was half-baked. The scenes were rather nonsensical. I can't believe people enjoyed that movie. Ofcourse except for Sush, there was nothing likeable in that movie. Anyway, so my point is Om Shanti Om is getting rave reviews and doing a good business world over. Apparently it was the biggest grosser in the US, surpassing the collections of Lions for Lambs. So much for a movie that was lifted.

Anyway, I read the stories of both Om Shanti Om and The Phantom of the Opera, but really could not establish an obvious connection. Ofcourse there is a Chandelier crashing scene in both the movies, but otherwise I could not fathom the association between Arjun Rampal's character and that of the Opera Ghost. And I checked www.itwofs.com, the leading website on plagiarism in the Cinema Industry in India. I did not find any mention about this. So I am not going to give a verdict on this, yet, as I have neither watched Om Shanti Om nor The Phantom of the Opera. For the time being, I have to subscribe to the editor, Mr. Jehangir S. Pocha's words.