If you’d asked these questions to your organisation, you would find the below interesting.

Sumantra Ghoshal in an article written shortly before his death, dwells on revitalising people and “the smell of the workplace”. He illustrates how organisations wading through those slog overs of satisfactory underperformance with controls that constrains, could revitalise its workforce with stretch and discipline.

Generally, adults do not change their attitude. They do so only in response to profound personal tragedy, profound personal grief. Otherwise, things happening in office, trying to get manufacturing competitive advantage etc, do not change attitudes - not of adults.

That being the case, we have a problem. I really believe, revitalising manufacturing, revitalising a business, revitalising a company, takes, among other things, the revitalisation of people.

He compares the smell of Downtown Calcutta and the Fontainebleau forest in France and explains why most large companies in India end up creating “Downtown Calcutta” inside themselves.

So every year, in July, I used to come to Kolkata for almost a month. Why July? Because that is the only time my children had a sufficiently long break. The whole point was to keep them in touch with my parents. Think about it — downtown Kolkata in July. The temperature is over 100�F with humidity of 98%.

The reality was that I felt very tired during most of the vacation. Most of it I spent indoors and a lot of it simply in bed.

I used to live in Fontainebleau. It is a pretty little town, 40 miles south of Paris. What makes it outstanding is that around it is the protected forest of Fontainebleau, which is one of the prettiest forests in all of Europe. You enter the forest in spring, with a firm desire to have a very leisurely walk and you cannot.

There is something about the smell of the air, about the trees, that will make you want to run, jog, jump up, catch a branch, to throw a stone, to do something. You will find that even though you entered the forest to have a leisurely walk, you are doing something else — and that is the essence of the issue of revitalising people.

Sumantra explains how management creates Constraints and Control…..

What is the smell when it is a part of a large organisation? Constraints. Top managements — you — are very wise, have lots of information, have good people. So, by products, by customers, by markets you create great strategies. You also work very hard — sixteen hours a day, eighteen hours a day. You take all the decisions, know exactly what needs to be done.

But what does this mean for those working in the shop, in the factory, sixteen levels below you? How does your hard work boil down for me? Constraints — that’s what comes down to me.

All the systems that top management create — human resource systems, manufacturing systems, planning systems, budgeting systems — each by itself is totally justified.

However, collectively, what does it feel for me, sixteen levels below, down in the factory floor? That I have to comply. All those systems hang like a black cloud over me. So I start asking myself, why does my boss exist? Not just my boss, why does the entire management infrastructure exist?

As far as I am concerned, they exist for one reason and one reason alone — to control me. To ensure that I do not do the wrong thing.

The job becomes a contract. The budget is a personal contract, transfer prices are contracts, relationships between colleagues and departments and divisions are all contracts.

That is the environment - constraint, compliance, control, contract - that is the smell of the place. And yet what is the behavior top management wants from me?

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Since DASAVATHARAM review was posted here, I’ve been moderating comments every other hour (hyperbole!hyperbole!) which calls BVN an “Asshole”. Some way or the other google lands some KS Ravikumars here. I didn’t review the other asshole’s movie six months back because he has these rabid fans, but didn’t expect the same for Kamal. Though most of the comments called BVN an AH, some of them called other people who commented AH. Three of them demanded that BVN spend 100 crores on a movie and then speak.

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Education Reform in Kerala - VIIth Heaven Standard….

Yet another pastoral letter across churches yesterday, KSU(Congress’s student wing) activists and police clash across the state, Muslim League enters the protests arena in its North Kerala strong holds, and today the opening session of the state Assembly comes to a virtual standstill on the issue. Education Reform in Kerala is in the eye of another storm and this time it is the revised 7th Standard Social Studies textbook. The pastoral letter has threatened protests till the book is withdrawn and asked the believers not to teach or learn the book; KSU, Muslim League and the Congress have called for an immediate withdrawal of the book.

Even though several issues have been raised about the new textbook, to be precise, one page in the textbook is in the eye of the storm. This is how Page 24  reads….

Page 24 - Titled - Jeevan without Religion (Jeevan means Life in malayalam)

The lesson is set in a school room where two parents and their kid meet the Principal for school  admission. The Principal fills in the forms,

Principal: “What is your name?”
“Jeevan”
Principal: “Nice…father’s name?”
“Anwar Rasheed”
Principal: Mother’s name?”
“Lakshmi Devi”

The Principal  looks at the parents

Principal: “What should I fill in for the kid’s religion?”
Parents : “Keep it blank…or else add No Religion”

Principal: “Caste”
Parents : “not needed”

The Principal leans back on his chair and asks solemnly

Principal: “What if he wants a religion when he grows up?”
Parents : “If he wants a religion when he grows up, he can choose the one he likes then”

End of Lesson

Do I see a problem with this? I do, based on yesterday’s Pastoral letter read across churches and TV Channels…

1. This revision in text books and deviation from the syllabus prescribed till now, in the name of improving the thought process of children is a handywork of Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP - Kerala Science and Literature Movement), the left leaning NGO in Kerala which has permeated every level of education in the state.
2. This lesson creates animosity in the minds of children towards religion and propagates atheism, which in turn will result in a society devoid of values.
3. The education department drops a hint through this lesson, that right from the Principal, every faculty should teach and propagate atheism in class.

This is not the first time the Left front government has tried to inculcate Communist ideology and Atheism in children, they have permeated every sphere of social and cultural activity through their shadow organisations like the KSSP and the Progressive Arts and Literature Society. The left front ought to be fought tooth and nail if religion is to survive in Gods Own Country. If the recent attacks by the left junta on Hindu God Men and Christian Charismatics be any indication - the Commies will have to be stopped in the streets if Ram and Allah and Jesus and their Mullahs and Mukris and Bishops are to have any future in the state.

As Youth Congress President Siddique pointed out on TV “…you dont have to create thought in children or let them think at this age, just teach them to read and write and the lessons….they’ll think for themselves”

Right On Siddique, we don’t need no education!

Then I remembered our last election in college, when the commies would say “use your brain” and Siddique’s party would say “use your heart”. In the final day of the campaign, before the commies swept the election, one of Siddique’s protégés got the message all wrong, he literally cried out through the microphone “Please! Please! Do not use your brain”

Are you listening Kerala? Please! Please! Throw that book away!

Readers of the comic strip “Mayavi” in “Balarama” would remember the two nerd scientists - Lottulodukk and GulGulMal. They come up with these quirky gadgets for the evil likes of Kuttoosan and Dakini, and in the end of the strip “Mayavi” destroys the gadget (sometimes he pours water on that, sometimes it falls down from Dakini’s hand) - destroying evil and sustaining the good. Dasavatharam’s story line revolves around a more siller invention, a more sillier plot, a more sillier way to destroy the invention and a very silly way to tell a story. Kamal’s most hyped movie till date goes directly into the forgettable basket.

The movie reeks of a fancy dress competition, with Kamal playing 10 characters (a lousy world record for INR 100 crore) AND 5 of the 10 characters : George Bush, Christian Fletcher, Shinghen Narahasi,Kalifullah Mukhtaar and Krishnaveni literally wearing masks. Going by this logic Kamal can get one of those Rs.5 tiger masks from Marina Beach and claim he is playing a tiger in his next movie.

Kamal, as an actor has no comparisons in Indian cinema. But as a film maker, he is not a “master” even if you consider Thevar Magan, Virumandi, Anbe Sivam and Hey Ram - the ones he created. The lack of cohesion while trying to do so many things at the same time shows off in the movie. It doesn’t even reach Avvai Shanmughi’s entertainment level because of 2 reasons - Avvai Shanmughi was a borrowed script and Dasavatharam has almost no chance of exploiting Kamal’s comic timing except for one or two characters. The movie tries to be comical, preaching, philosophical and exquisite - all at the same time and falls flat as there is no time for anything to develop properly around the 10 fancy dress characters.

Perhaps the only excuse is that, the other great superstar used all his star power to make the audience feel like worms in hot shit (that for you is one of the coolest dialogues from Vincent Poovaraagan in Dasavatharam),  while Kamal used all his star power to make an average movie. If you have expectations from Kamal, you’ll feel like “Aalavandhan”.

1. Even though 9 Kamal’s are there in the fray at one time, the make-up and characterization gives us a feel that there is only one Kamal(Dr Govind,the hero). You panic when the formidable Christian Fletcher (looks like Shane Warne) chases Dr Govind, it doesn’t hit you that both are Kamal and you root for your hero. Maybe thats Kamals message about religion as a whole, packaged well and very fast.

2. The scope of the film and the effort that went in may go unmatched in Indian cinema. The effort is epic, sadly the product is not.

3. The first 20 minutes and the last 20 are superb (including a 3 character fight in the last scene), must watch. Sadly there is no way you can do this in the theater. The action scenes are classic Kamal.

4. 2 Characters Vincent Poovaraagan and Balram Naidu, played by Kamal are exceptional. Sadly, they get like 15 minutes on screen.

5. Kamal Haassan man! What an actor!

3. Music and cinematography are nothing close to an epic effort. falls flat.

4. The story I guess was borrowed from Tinkle or Chandamama. Science Fiction (3-7 years)

5. Asin man! I’m still having that headache

6. The screenplay doesn’t let anything develop, its a bonsai garden of stunted efforts at everything from sentiments to philosophy to action.

7. Kamal recently said, he doesn’t strive for perfection but excellence. This time you have to give it to him.

8. “Avtaar Singh” - this character gets his throat cancer removed by a passing bullet. Is Rajnikanth watching?

9. Will somebody stick some cotton into Asin’s mouth? What a pain!

10. Like they say, if you strive for perfection you reach excellence. Kamal strived for excellence and ended with a half baked movie which will be forgotten in six months time.

You may say, I made up 10 points just for the sake of it. So did Kamal make his 10 characters.

Verdict: Too much money involved, let them make some. For 50 bucks, you get to watch 10 Kamals. Go for it! Call it a Blockbuster.

In the end Asin (somebody give her her ‘Perumal’) agrees to marry Dr Govind if he would stop saying “there is no God”

Classic Kamal dialogue then, in his usual subtle, breaking style “I’m not saying there is no God, All I am saying is that it would have been really nice if there was God”

That was a good one!  Kamal doesn’t seem to have a problem with the inside or the outside world, his problems are around the intermediate world. Sadly thats where his “magnus opus” ends up, the intermediate world, right in the middle, mediocre.

10 years ago on a cold dark night
Someone was killed neath the town hall lights
There were few at the scene but they all agreed
That the slayer who ran looked a lot like me

She walks these hills in a long black veil
She visits my grave when the night winds wail
Nobody knows nobody sees
Nobody knows but me
The judge said “son what is your alibi
If you were somewhere else then you won’t have to die”
I spoke not a word though it meant my life
Cause I’d been in the arms of my best friends wife

[Cash asks the audience to appalaud at this point - thanks, BVN]

Now the scaffold is high and eternity’s near
she stood in the crowd and shed not a tear
sometimes at night when the cold wind moans
In a long black veil she cries over my bones

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