Jai Ho - Official Theatrical Trailer

The Meaning of the Jai Ho Poster

Source Talking Movies.com

Yesterday Salman Khan released the first poster of his upcoming film “Jai Ho”, painted by himself. While many fans were thrilled to have this first look of the film, some were criticizing it for not showing anything beyond Salman’s face. Even neutral websites merely announced the release of the poster and reported on the fan excitement, but so far I haven’t seen anyone who has really analysed the poster to understand what it is communicating.

To begin with, the painting of the poster is very much in line with many of Salman’s personal paintings, where he conveys the theme of the painting visually. Many of his paintings have a theme of religious harmony, or the unity of all religious quests, or the equality of all human beings, no matter what religious label is put upon him. The following paintings illustrate what I mean by this.

But what do these paintings have to do with the Jai Ho poster? Simply this. In painting the Jai Ho poster, Salman has followed the same kind of thematic portrayal as in the above paintings, this time to convey the message and theme of the film.

Without giving anything away, the theme of the film is that of spreading mutual helpfulness, that one good action by one person can be multiplied many fold if the recipients of that good action take it upon themselves to help others in the same they have been helped; specifically, if they each commit to helping at least three others. And each of those three others help three others in turn, and so on. Now look at the poster that Salman has painted:

On first glance, what do we see? Just Salman’s face and the title of the film. This is where many have stopped. A second glance shows the tagline of the film on top, “People’s man.” Again many have stopped here. But look a little closer, and what do you see? You see stick figures of people, like the kind that children draw. Now why has Salman drawn these? He is capable of drawing very exact portraits of people, as he has shown many times before, in his paintings of Raj Kapoor or Aamir Khan, for example. So why has he reverted to this seemingly childish rendition?

Let us look at these representational human figures. What can we tell from them. Just that they are supposed to be human beings, but without any other identifying factor. They represent people in general, of any kind, of any demographic. We do not even know if they are male or female. So that is the first point to understand about the poster. It is dealing with people, as people, without any of the labels that are commonly used to discriminate and divide among them.

But now let us look closer. At the bottom, just above the film’s title, is one lone human figure. Above it is a row of three figures. Above that is a row of nine figures. Above that again is a row of 27 figures. Continuing counting each row of figures, and you will realize that each succeeding line has three times as many figures as the previous one. That is, we have a geometric progression like this:

1, 3, 9, 27, 81, 253, …

without end.

So the first idea that the poster communicates is that something started by one person, if followed by three people at a time, can spread and grow phenomenally. At the top the figures are so dense that we can no longer really count them.

But wait! There is more. We realize now that the face of Salman is composed of all these figures, in light or shade, to give the three dimensional effect. Now we see what the tagline means. The “people’s  man” is indeed made up of all the people around him. Without them, he is not there.

And finally, let us come back down to the first lone human figure. Look closely, and you will realize that it forms the dot over the letter “i” in the name “Jai.” So the first single human figure represents the “I” who starts this movement. And the rest of the poster shows how this one single person can give rise to something that encompasses all the people around him. It is visually communicating the idea of the power of a single person.

In their every day lives, when confronted by social injustice or problems, people often say, “What can I do? One person can’t do anything!” This poster is thus visually proving what one single person can do, if he (or she) sets his mind to it, and can convince just three other people to follow that path. The poster shows that what are called “mass movements” all begin with a single individual with a powerful idea and complete dedication.

On the same day that the Jai Ho poster released, the world received news of the death of Nelson Mandela. Here was a man who took on an oppressive system, in which he was systematically rendered completely powerless by all the might of the law of the land and its government. He was oppressed, imprisoned, tortured. But he also led a movement through all those years, and that movement bore fruit in the ultimate dismantling of the blot of apartheid and the start of real democracy in South Africa. He did not do it alone. But he started alone.

Now I am not equating or even comparing Salman Khan to Nelson Mandela. I am merely giving Mr. Mandela as one example of the powerful idea communicated by the poster, of what one person can do to battle wrong, or correct a system. A power packed image, indeed! Now I await the film with eagerness.

Moimeme

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SRK copies his success speech from J.K. Rowling(Original vs SRK’s speech)

Bollywood will never stop copying. Superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s recent speech on success delivered at AIMA (All India Management Association) on 26 September was as inspirational as a blockbuster Bollywood movie. Alas! It lost its charm when a startling discovery was made about plagiarism. Parts of Shah Rukh Khan’s speech were ripped off from author J.K. Rowling’s commencement speech delivered at Harvard in 2008 titled Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination.

We have reproduced parts of Shah Rukh’s speech that was copied word- to –word from J.K. Rowling’s speech

• Shah Rukh Khan’s speech

Let me tell you. Poverty is not an ennobling experience at all. Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. I had seen my parents go through it many times. It means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. (Start from 1:17:06)

• Original J.K. Rowling’s version

I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. (Start from 5:48)

• Shah Rukh Khan’s version

But I’d like to tell you that life is not just a checklist of acquisitions, attainments and fulfillments. Your qualifications and CVs don’t matter, jobs don’t matter. Instead, life is difficult and complicated and beyond anyone’s control and the humility to know that by respecting your failures will help you survive its vicissitudes.

• Original J.K. Rowling’s version

Personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes. (starts from 10.46)

There you go. That’s a verbatim frame by frame copy of J.K. Rowling’s speech just the way it happens in our movies. Now we know it’s human to err but to get inspired and then refusing to acknowledge the source smacks of typical Bollywood arrogance.

What’s surprising though was to see Shah Rukh Khan, often known for his spontaneity and street smart eloquence, reading his speech from a paper just like a politician. And from the looks of it the actor didn’t look comfortable at all. Now we don’t know who wrote the speech for Shah Rukh Khan but this was one blunder that the actor could have done without.

Here is the entire speech.

• Original J.K. Rowling’s version

• Shah Rukh Khan’s version

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The JK Rowling plagiarism was originally pointed out by Agratha Dinakaran in her blog link

Himesh Reshammiya to compose for Sooraj Barjatya’s next with Salman Khan

Sooraj Barjatya has roped in Himesh Reshammiya to compose the music of his upcoming film. The film (untitled), which is set to go on floors next year, will see Salman Khan team up with the director after 15 long years. Previously, the duo has given hits like Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), Hum Saath-Saath Hain: We Stand United (1999).

The film will go on floor in June 2014 and the producers are looking at a Diwali (2015) release.

An official from Rajshri Productions said: “Himesh will compose the music and Irshad Kamil (of Jab We Met, Love Aaj Kal, Rockstar and Aashiqui 2 fame) will pen the lyrics.” It is an unlikely choice for the Barjatyas, who are known to stick to traditional Indian folk and classical music, while Himesh’s strong point has been highly charged electronic music. The buzz is that it was Salman who convinced Sooraj.

Although, Himesh started his career as a music composer with Salman’s Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya (1998) and followed it up with his Hello Brother (1999), Tere Naam (2003) and Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya (2005), their alliance soon hit a rough patch. And the two buried the hatchet with Bodyguard (2011).

Also, Salman recently signed Himesh for his upcoming film Kick.

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Best Salman Khan Songs: Top 10

From Indicine.com

It is next to impossible to choose ten best songs featuring one of the biggest superstars of Bollywood Salman Khan. Even while selecting his 10 best in the last 5 years, you will miss quite a few gems. Salman has been a part of more than 80 movies and his songs and dance numbers are always ones to remember in each of his films.

Musically Salman Khan’s career is heavily influenced by 3 artists – singer S.P. Balasubramaniam and music directors Himesh Reshammiya and Sajid-Wajid. Legendary singer SP sang some of the evergreen hit songs of Salman’s initial career and being Salman’s prodigies, Himesh and Sajid-Wajid composed for his maximum movies.

To select 10 best Salman’s songs, we must require some filter criteria. Since it’s the best of Salman Khan, the list will only have those songs which wouldn’t be the same without the superstar’s presence.

So without much ado, here we are with the Top 10 songs of Salman Khan:

(click on the song title for the lyrics!)

1) O O Jaane Jaana: Easy! Hope most of you would agree with me on this. This track sung by Kamaal Khan from ‘Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya’ has to be Salman’s most famous song till ever. The addictive guitar tune combined with Salman’s trend-setting shirt-less dance made the country crazy for him. The song changed the outlook of a Hindi Movie hero and as a result all the actors from the current generation are in shape and are ready to take off shirt if required. Salman has to be credited for starting the ‘gym-phenomena’ across the nation.

 2) Didi Tera Devar Deewana: This song from Salman’s biggest hit ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun’ became a house hold number across the board and topped the charts for years. The set of Salman’s and Madhuri’s outfits from the song are still imitated in Hindi movies. Didi Tera.. ignites with Salman’s famous catapult shot. It is one of those few songs where everything was perfect – be it lyrics, music, singing, choreography, picturization and lead actors.

3) Mere Rang Mein Rangne: Salman’s first blockbuster ‘Maine Pyaar Kiya’ had arguably the best music of the 80s. All songs became chartbusters and are still fresh in the minds of listeners. This particular song is taken to heights by SP’s wonderful singing and then the icing on the cake is the innocence of Salman’s performance and his boyish looks.

4) Tere Naam: This is arguably Salman Khan’s best performance till date. He lived the character of Radhe Mohan to the fullest. Himesh Reshammiya composed superb melodies for his mentor and this title track sung magically by Udit Narayan is the best of the lot. Tere Naam revived Salman’s drowning career in a big way and brought him back in reckoning.

5) Hud Hud Dabangg: The ‘Dabangg’ word became synonym with Salman’s personality and the title song of the movie composed by Sajid-Wajid is like an anthem of his current massy demi-god image. Sukhvinder Singh’s rustic vocals and Jalees Sherwani’s poetic lyrics accentuate the iconic ‘heroism’ feel portrayed by Salman as Chulbul Pandey.

6) Tan Tana Tan: Anu Mallik composed a peppy number for many of Salman’s movies. He also did playback for the actor in hugely popular dance numbers including Jaanam Samjha Karo, Ek Garam Chai Ki Pyaali and Oonchi Hai Building. His most famous composition for Salman is the foot tapping ‘Tan Tana Tan’ from David Dhawan’s ‘Judwaa’. The song became a rage for its raunchy lyrics, bouncy tune and naughty dance steps.

7) Dekha Hai Pehli Baar: We are back again to golden days of SP sir singing and Madhuri dancing. ‘Saajan’ is the best music album ever by composer-duo Nadeem-Shravan after ‘Aashiqui’. Salman got some of the best songs to portray the womanizer character of Aakash. Madhuri and Salman are ever so lovable in this foot-tapping number.

8.) Teri Meri: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan has sung quite a few memorable songs for Salman including Surili Akhiyo Wale, Tere Mast Mast Do Nain and Dagabaaz Re. His best rendition for Khan is this melody from ‘Bodyguard’ composed by Himesh Reshammiya which boasts of an ever-lasting shelf life. Song is brilliantly picturised on Salman and Kareena – both looking at their hottest best.

9.) Aankhon Ki Gustakhiyan: Salman’s chemistry with Aishwarya Rai in this Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s epic love saga is probably his best ever with any actress. He is as natural as ever and effortlessly performs in this mellow and semi-classical number from ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’.

10.) Oo Jaana Na Jaana: ‘Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai’ is yet another album which boasts of many melodious and popular songs. Jatin-Lalit were the masters of love tracks in 90s and this track is as beautiful as it is melodious and as romantic as it is nostalgic. The yoddling interlude vocals by Kumar Sanu, who is assisted by legendary Lata Mangeshkar, are addictive.

  

Well, I am not going to mention the list of the songs that I have missed as there are plenty of them and I know almost all will be covered in the comments sections below. I just hope that I did justice to the ever-lasting song bank of Salman.

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