Lately this question has been discussed on lots of channels & web sites. This made me feel like sharing my thoughts about these two very different but equally successful actors.
Shahrukh Khan coming from a non “Filmy” background did some theater & then started out his career appearing in several television serials in the late 1980s, most of his tele performances were well appreciated. Because of featuring in these popular serials he got noticed & began his foray into cinema with Deewana.
On the other hand Aamir was born into a family that was actively involved in the Indian film-industry. His father Tahir Hussein, Uncle Nasir Hussein & Cousin Tariq were well known names in the Film Industry. He did child appearance in Yaadon Ki Baraat & finally starred in his cousin Mansoor Khans film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.
Both had a very successful debut, with their movies being huge success at the box office. From then onwards Shahrukh started getting consistent with performances like Baazigar, Darr, Raju Ban gaya Gentle man & Kabhi Hann Kabhi Naa. Where as Aamir did some seriously forgettable movies during those years with notable exceptions in "jo jeeta wohi sikander".
But then came “Rangeela” in Mid 90’s after which Aamir gave consistent good performances & this time with exception of “Mela”. Pparallely Mid 90’s saw Shahrukh Khan catapulting from a successful star to Super Star with the Bull’s eye “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge”.
Rangeela for Aamir & DDLJ for Shahrukh proved to be the turning point for booth these actors.
Post Rangeela Aamir’s acting showed leaps & bounds improvement & he gave some unforgettable performances like Ghulam, Sarfarosh & Earth. On the other hand Shahrukh decided to stick to the tried & tested formula of Romance & big banners (Chopra’s & Johar’s), which did succeed for him & he gave hits like kuch kuch hota hai, kabhi kushi kabhi gam. Probably this was the period when Shahrukh started to focus on being a big star & Aamir on a fine Actor.
Both these actors are passionate about films & so turned producers soon. Here again while Shahrukh has been producing movies like Main Hoon naa & Om Shaanti Om (Both being big Commercial Success), Aamir dared to work on projects like Lagaan & Taare Zameen par. Both are getting their share of success but one thing is very clear from above short analysis that Shahrukh might be a bigger star, Aamir is the better Actor.
If I have to say my favourite performance of Shahrukh I would say “Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa” & "Chak de India"….& for Aamir the list would be pretty long with “Dil Chahta hai" being my favorite & "Taare Zammen Pe" lately.
When you see Aamir’s films every time you see a different character – Sanju of JJWS, Amar of Andaaz Apna Apna, Munna of Rangeela, ACP Ajay Singh Rathod of Sarfarosh, Siddharth Marathe of Ghulam, Bhuwan of Lagaan, Akash Malhotra of DCH, Daljit Singh (DJ) of Rang de Basanti & Ram Shankar Nikumb of Taare…..all these characters were so distinct & all these characters stayed with us.
Shahrukh has many hit performances but some how the only image which comes to our mind is of a “RAHUL” or “RAJ”, although he still is the Badshah of bollywood but personally I would love to see some more performances like Sunil of Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa & Mohan Bhargava of Swades from him.
I would finally sum up this article by comparing our two very talented actors to 2 Tom’s from hollywood. Shahrukh is someone like Tom Cruse, he has some distinct mannerism, style & star power, he is a great entertainer & crowd puller. On the other hand Aamir is somewhat like Tom Hanks who dose lot of research for any role, he is a perfectionist.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
“Bridging the gaps between Industries & Institutions”
With Indian economy growing at this rapid pace there is an increasing demand for skilled people. The economy is going through a phase where both the service industry (IT, Support) as well as manufacturing industry is growing & to meet this demand there is a requirement of large number of trained professionals with respect to the industry.
All the organizations are in the race for competitive excellence, wherein there is a strong linkage between knowledge and competitive advantage, planning for the future is the key to success. This future will be “the trained professionals”—those professionals who are abreast of the latest development in the rapidly changing environment in terms of technology & scenario. There is a thin line of demarcation between a qualified professional & a trained professional. So the innumerous institutes in our country churning out millions of graduates is just supplying qualified professionals which are required to be “trained” again when they join industries.
Corporate are consequently nurturing their association with educational institutions—both management and technical. It becomes mandatory for the industry to appreciate the significance of educational institutions in achieving this objective along with the augmentation of fresh human capital.
This leads to a thought that why not blend education & training. In other words “Bridging the gaps between Industries & Institutions”
It would be a win-win situation for both, as the institutes would be able to attract students by providing career opportunities & in turn the companies having tie-up with academia would get access to the fresh pool of talent. It is important for companies to be associated with reputed technical educational institutions to ensure a steady inflow of technically qualified professionals at the entry-level. This is more required in the specialization industry where there are limited institutes in India offering courses with skill sets required in this industry, as a result, there is an acute shortage of skilled resources in that domain. Most of the fresh graduates have practically zero skills in a particular domain and need to be trained extensively when they join the company. In such a scenario, a good industry-academia collaboration to develop tailor-made curriculum can help bridge the demand-supply gap and make fresh graduates industry ready.”
This doesn’t mean that just modifying the curriculum or the syllabi would be sufficient but what is also required is to probably have an education system in place where there is a granular breakdown of specialization so that any student could focus & spend more time in the domain he or she intends to work. Also then it becomes simple to define the scope & by the time a student comes out of institute into the Industry he just needs very minimal orientation & can be deployed.
All the organizations are in the race for competitive excellence, wherein there is a strong linkage between knowledge and competitive advantage, planning for the future is the key to success. This future will be “the trained professionals”—those professionals who are abreast of the latest development in the rapidly changing environment in terms of technology & scenario. There is a thin line of demarcation between a qualified professional & a trained professional. So the innumerous institutes in our country churning out millions of graduates is just supplying qualified professionals which are required to be “trained” again when they join industries.
Corporate are consequently nurturing their association with educational institutions—both management and technical. It becomes mandatory for the industry to appreciate the significance of educational institutions in achieving this objective along with the augmentation of fresh human capital.
This leads to a thought that why not blend education & training. In other words “Bridging the gaps between Industries & Institutions”
It would be a win-win situation for both, as the institutes would be able to attract students by providing career opportunities & in turn the companies having tie-up with academia would get access to the fresh pool of talent. It is important for companies to be associated with reputed technical educational institutions to ensure a steady inflow of technically qualified professionals at the entry-level. This is more required in the specialization industry where there are limited institutes in India offering courses with skill sets required in this industry, as a result, there is an acute shortage of skilled resources in that domain. Most of the fresh graduates have practically zero skills in a particular domain and need to be trained extensively when they join the company. In such a scenario, a good industry-academia collaboration to develop tailor-made curriculum can help bridge the demand-supply gap and make fresh graduates industry ready.”
This doesn’t mean that just modifying the curriculum or the syllabi would be sufficient but what is also required is to probably have an education system in place where there is a granular breakdown of specialization so that any student could focus & spend more time in the domain he or she intends to work. Also then it becomes simple to define the scope & by the time a student comes out of institute into the Industry he just needs very minimal orientation & can be deployed.
Monday, November 5, 2007
My thoughts on Indo-US Nuclear Deal……
A lot has been written & said about this deal from both the countries & from people of different opinion…. -- a case of the elephant and the blind men!.....Few days back I was having a discussion with a friend about this deal & I decided to scribble down my thoughts on it….I’ll begin with some question that came to my mind…
Why do we need international cooperation in nuclear power, and what would be the bargain?
How will it actually affect a common man?
Do we have any alternative, or do we actually need this?
Does this agreement jeopardize our national security? & if it does then is it wise to compromise on our National Security just because we would have access to nuclear power trade and international cooperation?
We all know how deficient the country is in terms of Nuclear Energy, currently only 3% of our total energy is Nuclear but if we see China they are behind us & they have only 2% Nuclear energy, although they have rapidly started building up on their Nuclear Power Base & from almost Zero are targeting 40,000MW of electricity by 2020. India too had ambitiously declared their target of achieving 20,000MW of nuclear power by 2020, but our indigenous uranium reserves can support, at best, a capacity of only 10,000MW! Our Ex President Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam suggested an alternative in Thorium, which is abundantly available in India but in its normal state it is not Feasible & our Scientists have still not been able to develop a cost effective method to convert Thorium into a feasible state to be used for Nuclear Power generation. So this clearly indicates that we will need to import fuel for decades till the fast-breeder reactors are able to take over.
Our Oil & Gas reserves are not something to boast of. We do have a large quantity of coal but it has a very high content of ash and is a serious environmental problem. Currently India imports better quality Coal from Australia for Coal based thermal Power generation. There are some costly (patented) technologies like IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) but the unit cost of energy would be too high.
With this back ground if we look at the Nuclear Deal it appears very “cool” because it would help economy to grow, reduce poverty and build national comprehensive power as nuclear power is the most economical, most environmental friendly and most reliable form of energy among various types available for commercial use. Even our opposition party BJP who are now opposing this deal had included 'nuclear energy' as the first item for cooperation with the United States under the NSSP (Next Steps in Strategic Partnership) which was orchestrated by their Prime Minister Vajpayee & then National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra.
Now if we talk about the flip side of the deal the biggest concern/objection is that we will have to separate our civil and military nuclear facilities in a 'phased manner' and 'voluntarily' place them under IAEA inspections also we will be required to sign and adhere to an additional protocol with IAEA covering our civilian nuclear facilities. Does this mean that we would be undermining our nuclear defense capability? The answer is “NO”.
In my opinion if only our civil nuclear reactors are going to be under IAEA inspection and we would also get uninterrupted supply to fuel these reactors then it is crazy to claim that this is jeopardizing our security & that to with US having already acknowledged India as a Nuclear Weapon State.
Hold On………..if it is that good for India then what’s in it for US!!!!
The answer lies in the recent trend of Global Power shift from West to East, with China racing towards being a rising Superpower…..that makes sense….. A successful and prosperous India would be a natural balance to China…..may be this is why they would like India rise to global power status….may be this is why the Communist parties in India are opposing it so badly….may be!!!!!!
Why do we need international cooperation in nuclear power, and what would be the bargain?
How will it actually affect a common man?
Do we have any alternative, or do we actually need this?
Does this agreement jeopardize our national security? & if it does then is it wise to compromise on our National Security just because we would have access to nuclear power trade and international cooperation?
We all know how deficient the country is in terms of Nuclear Energy, currently only 3% of our total energy is Nuclear but if we see China they are behind us & they have only 2% Nuclear energy, although they have rapidly started building up on their Nuclear Power Base & from almost Zero are targeting 40,000MW of electricity by 2020. India too had ambitiously declared their target of achieving 20,000MW of nuclear power by 2020, but our indigenous uranium reserves can support, at best, a capacity of only 10,000MW! Our Ex President Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam suggested an alternative in Thorium, which is abundantly available in India but in its normal state it is not Feasible & our Scientists have still not been able to develop a cost effective method to convert Thorium into a feasible state to be used for Nuclear Power generation. So this clearly indicates that we will need to import fuel for decades till the fast-breeder reactors are able to take over.
Our Oil & Gas reserves are not something to boast of. We do have a large quantity of coal but it has a very high content of ash and is a serious environmental problem. Currently India imports better quality Coal from Australia for Coal based thermal Power generation. There are some costly (patented) technologies like IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) but the unit cost of energy would be too high.
With this back ground if we look at the Nuclear Deal it appears very “cool” because it would help economy to grow, reduce poverty and build national comprehensive power as nuclear power is the most economical, most environmental friendly and most reliable form of energy among various types available for commercial use. Even our opposition party BJP who are now opposing this deal had included 'nuclear energy' as the first item for cooperation with the United States under the NSSP (Next Steps in Strategic Partnership) which was orchestrated by their Prime Minister Vajpayee & then National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra.
Now if we talk about the flip side of the deal the biggest concern/objection is that we will have to separate our civil and military nuclear facilities in a 'phased manner' and 'voluntarily' place them under IAEA inspections also we will be required to sign and adhere to an additional protocol with IAEA covering our civilian nuclear facilities. Does this mean that we would be undermining our nuclear defense capability? The answer is “NO”.
In my opinion if only our civil nuclear reactors are going to be under IAEA inspection and we would also get uninterrupted supply to fuel these reactors then it is crazy to claim that this is jeopardizing our security & that to with US having already acknowledged India as a Nuclear Weapon State.
Hold On………..if it is that good for India then what’s in it for US!!!!
The answer lies in the recent trend of Global Power shift from West to East, with China racing towards being a rising Superpower…..that makes sense….. A successful and prosperous India would be a natural balance to China…..may be this is why they would like India rise to global power status….may be this is why the Communist parties in India are opposing it so badly….may be!!!!!!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Is the World coming to an end......
World War 3.....ever since the world war 2 ended & things started settling down in Europe there was this big question in everybody’s mind When, where & How is the third one going to take place?.....late 70's & most part of 80's we were very close to experiencing it but it just couldn’t gather enough 'heat' & ended as a COLD war.....in 90's we saw Gulf taking the center stage but US of A was too powerful for Iraq.....early 2000's the focus was again on the Gulf.
All this while Scientists around the world kept working on more disastrous weapons like the Laser Weapons, Gamma Rays, Hydrogen Bombs, Biological & of course the Nuclear .......WW3 obviously seems a possibility in foreseeable future. Albert Einstein once said
"I don't know how man will fight World War III, but I do know how they will fight World War IV; with sticks and stones."
Not so recently came the 'Turning Point' 9/11....as some News channels said " The World will never be the same again".
"So does that mean this is the beginning of the end?"
All this while Scientists around the world kept working on more disastrous weapons like the Laser Weapons, Gamma Rays, Hydrogen Bombs, Biological & of course the Nuclear .......WW3 obviously seems a possibility in foreseeable future. Albert Einstein once said
"I don't know how man will fight World War III, but I do know how they will fight World War IV; with sticks and stones."
Not so recently came the 'Turning Point' 9/11....as some News channels said " The World will never be the same again".
"So does that mean this is the beginning of the end?"
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