10 things we did not know about Vishwaroopam

Here are 10 facts about Vishwaroopam, which many of us do not know.

Vishwaroopam is the first Indian film and second film worldwide after Red Tails (2012), to utilize the new Auro 3D sound technology.

The film is also the first of its kind to release via direct-broadcast satellite also known as direct-to-home (DTH), a concept which allows a one-time viewing on home entertainment systems for a fee of 1,000.

An early estimate by Kamal Haasan stated the film to earn 350 Crores from all its sources including music and distribution rights.

Many Bollywood actresses were approached to play the lead female character including Sonakshi Sinha, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Sonam Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Sameera Reddy and Anushka Shetty. However all of them declined due to conflicting dates with other assignments.

New York based model-actress Pooja Kumar was signed for the role after she was recommended by Kamal Hassan’s partner Gouthami. The initial audition for Pooja Kumar was held over Skype. Being a non-Tamil speaker, her dialogues have been dubbed by actress Abhirami. Hindi version has her own voice.

As Kamal Hassan is ardent reader of Richard Dawkins, he had named Miles Anderson as Dawkins in the movie.

Sets resembling Afghanistan were created in Chennai, with many foreigners from Russia, Iran and Africa playing American soldiers, while Kamal Haasan wore an Afghan look. In November 2011, the team also pursued schedules in Amman and Petra in Jordan.

Haasan learnt Kathak from Birju Maharaj for an important portion in the film.

Gouthami designed the costumes for the film. A research had to be carried out on the American army's hierarchy for the costumes.

Kamal Haasan's younger daughter Akshara Haasan joined the crew as an Assistant Director.

Has Congress helped or harmed Rahul’s prospects…?

Once upon a time, there was a herd of monkeys going around from one area to another in a jungle. They were guided by an able monkey who was their leader. All listened to that money for any directions / decisions.

The leader monkey had a child which was quite ordinary. The leader monkey had a very soft corner for the child monkey, for obvious reasons. As a result, all other monkeys also started respecting the child monkey. Their respect for the child monkey was more out of compassion and respect for the leader monkey rather than the qualities of child monkey.

As the child monkey was growing, it got used to the respect it got from all other monkeys. The other monkeys also continued to show respect partly because of the habit and party because it did not really affect them. In the process, the child monkey started having firm belief in its mind that it was a special monkey, different from the rest.

The leader monkey was watching all this and was actually worried about the future of child monkey. It knew that the child monkey would find it difficult to lead the group one day when it retires. However, it pretended as though the problem did not exist. It gave lots of opportunities to the child monkey from time to time, to learn and gain experience, but the child monkey just could not get the things right. It miserably failed in every assignment and opportunity bestowed on it, to prove its mettle.

In the meantime, the monkeys in the group were also growing big and some of them had developed leadership qualities as well. They started silently nurturing the dream of becoming the leader of the group. However, they knew very well that on the day of reckoning, the group would support the child monkey as their leader instead of any other capable monkey.

Finally the day came when the leader monkey started feeling old and tired. It had to pass on the mantle to someone in the group. The leader, like any other parent in the world, had too much love for its child and announced one day that the child monkey would be holding number 2 position and be their leader in future. The child monkey was thrilled and the group celebrated the ascent. However, silently everyone wondered as to how the child monkey was going to lead the group.  

The future…

The future holds an interesting scenario.

The entire group of monkeys can be divided in four groups.

Old leaders

These were the old monkeys of group who had leadership qualities and supported the main group leader at all times. They were slightly hurt as their chance to become a leader were now faded.

Followers of old leaders

These were the old monkeys who were supporters of these old leaders. They felt sorry for the old leaders and were wondering whether they should shift their loyalty within the group.

Young leaders

There were some young monkeys with leadership qualities. They had nothing to lose by working under the child monkey, as they had age on their side. They were comfortable of the fact that once the child monkey is proved a failure, their chances of becoming a leader would become automatically bright.

Supporters of young leaders

These were the largest in the entire group and were only happy to see the child monkey take over the reins. They had not much knowledge about the qualities required for leading the group, or tough decision making etc.

Summary

Has the group been responsible for keeping the child monkey weak throughout, by excessive praise and respect than what it deserved?

Were the older leaders of the group not guilty of keeping the child monkey away from reality about its true capabilities all these days?

Were the younger leaders in the group not displaying opportunism to further their interests in the process of praising the child monkey, as it helped them to get closer to power centre in new scenario?

Has everyone in the group not failed to bring the up the child monkey in a proper environment because of excessive compliments, which further weakened the child monkey?

It is better to be able and fail… rather than to be incapable but get recognized and praised…!

5 reasons why India should act against Pakistan now…!

Once again India was shaken by the brutal killing of its two soldiers by intruding Pakistani army near the LOC. What is disturbing is that they have not only killed two soldiers but also mutilated their bodies. It is not just a loss of two soldiers guarding our borders. It is an insult to India. It is a mockery of Indian sovereignty by the irresponsible acts of its devilish neighbor.

Time and again such incidents have happened. However, sadly, after a national furor and some heated TV debates, the country goes back to its normal and routine works. The media gets some other juicy stories and they quickly shift their focus. The government puts this issue on the back burner and the people too conveniently forget this problem by engrossing themselves with less important day to day problems. The only people affected for longer periods are the grieving families and the concerned colleagues of the two soldiers who lost their lives.

However, at some point we have to say enough is enough. How far will we suffer this ignominy of arrogant aggression by meekly responding with some courageous talk but no action on ground? How long should we continue to hold peace talks with those whose priorities unfortunately do not match with those of ours? How do we reconcile to the fact that we are simply not appearing a responsive entity to our neighbors at all?

There are some very important reasons why we need to act now. And the results are going to be disastrous for our future, if we do not act promptly. The disaster may not happen tomorrow or the day after. But by keeping quite now, we shall be in a way feeding healthy fertilizer to the seeds of wild imagination in the neighbor’s evil minds to act in an even more bizarre and dangerous manner, the next time.

The most important five reasons are given below:

A habitual offender gets encouraged for no reaction from victim

Whenever a child does a mischief in a class, the teacher has to punish him in order to ensure that he does not repeat it again and also it serves as a lesson for other children not to do so. Similarly, by taking no action now, we shall be encouraging Pakistan to indulge in more such acts in future. They have been doing it audaciously all along. And they will continue to do so, unless a strong reaction is shown by India. The bigger danger, however, is that with this inaction from India’s side, even our other small neighbors bordering on northern and eastern side may be tempted to indulge in such acts.

Perceived as a weak entity

The big danger which we are creating for ourselves by no action is that soon, all our neighbors will start considering India as a weak entity. Everyone knows how strong reaction comes from Israel whenever their one soldier gets injured. They almost bring the entire Middle East region on the brink of a war. And here we are sitting talking peace and avoiding any confrontation. We are creating a situation for ourselves where our policy of non-violence and peace will be considered as our weakness and timidity. This is not so good for India’s future.

Morale of Army personnel

One thing that has resulted with this incident and India’s reaction is that the morale of Indian army personnel has further dipped. The army jawans spend their lifetime on the borders protecting the country and they definitely deserve a better respect from the country’s establishment. It would be very difficult to imagine what must be going on in the minds of colleagues of Hemraj and Sudhakar Singh, who continue to be on duty on the vast border stretching for hundreds of kilometers in the north. Because, if no concrete action is taken now, they could be the next in line of action. Their morale needs to be boosted immediately. That is the minimum the country should do for them.

Image in International arena

The image of being a weak country will have its repercussions in all other dealings with the international community whether in trade or defense collaborations. Our say will not be heard on any important issue concerning us. We may be forced to compromise our position on various issues detrimental to our interests as a progressive nation. In today’s world this will be a big disadvantage for India and Indians.

Dignity of Citizens of India

We are a nation of One billion plus population. We are also the largest elected democracy of the world. And we are struggling to take action against a minnow neighbor? This puts our citizen’s dignity at grave risk. The country needs to protect and uphold the sovereignty of the nation and the self-respect & honor of each and every citizen of the country. The country needs to get its act together and act boldly.

If we do not act today, it may be too late tomorrow.

War may not be the best solution in this situation… but sitting quite is definitely not an acceptable and desirable solution either…!