Earth Hour! A symbolic act to demand action on the climate crisis

I received an email forward yesterday. When I was about to dismiss it like any other forward, Aamir Khan's determined face against a black background caught my attention. Thanks to the person who sent this and let me know about this initiative.

Earth Hour is World Wildlife Fund's global initiative where individuals, businesses and governments turn off their lights for one hour to show their support for action on climate change. Earth Hour is a symbolic event designed to engage people from all walks of life in the climate change discussion to send a strong message to our political leaders that we want them to take meaningful action on climate change. The largest climate event in history where millions of people around the world will unite by turning off their lights for one hour, Earth Hour, to demand action on the climate crisis.
(Text courtesy: www.earthhour.in)

Started in 2007, the symbolic 'lights out' initiative is to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change, by observing one hour of 'no light' the last Saturday of March every year. Many people look down on such symbolic acts of solidarity. But they are indeed quite powerful and do have a way of triggering changes.

In 2008, Earth Hour reached out to more than 400 cities with 50 million adults participating in the initiative. Major icons went dark including the Sydney Opera House, Rome's Colosseum, and Antarctica's Scott Station. This year, Earth Hour will take place on Saturday, 28 March 2009 from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm, local time and aims to reach out to 1 billion people across 1000 cities. It is happening in India this year for the first time. It's essentially not a black-out and of course you can watch television or work on your computers during the time. But don't forget to flip the switch! For more information, please look up here.

Makante Achchan a nice watch!

A lot of stories celebrating the father - son bond have been told already. However this one is a little different with the protagonists being father and son in real life too. The film ridicules a lot of prevailing trends and also comes with a social message. The first half is thoroughly entertaining. However it might get a bit slow in the second half.

Jagathy as Himaval Chaitanya, the fraud spiritual guru is fun to watch. Salim Kumar is his usual entertaining self. Suhasini's part could have been played by anyone. She is simply wasted. There aren't many characters in the movie. No character is different from anything seen before. All said and done, the movie is definitely worth a watch. It is good in parts and will make you laugh.

I was right as well as wrong about Ringa Ringa!

Yes right about it being influenced by an earlier hit 'Choli ke peeche'.

Wrong about ARR! Apparently the song is Rahman's homage to Choli ke peeche celebrating bollywood music. But I pray he doesn't pay such homages too often.

Ringa Ringa!

Everyone these days has something to write about the phenomenal 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Well I haven't seen the movie yet. Some how the superhype has left me with no desire to see the movie.

Its music indeed fetched a great deal of awards for A R Rahman including the Academy awards, making him the first Indian musician to receive the honour. I have no qualms about it. He is more than deserving for all the good music he has given us all these years. However I agree with a lot of people that it wasn't Rahman's best.

But sadder is the realisation that, while listening to Ring Ring Ringa from the movie, it constantly reminded me about 'Choli ke peeche kya hein' from Khalnayak. From Ila Arun's intermittent sighing to the basic background beats, even in Alka Yagnik's singing style, there was a reminder about the chartbuster which rocked the nation more than a decade ago with its beats as well as its raunchy double entendre lyrics. A not-so-happy revelation to me, as I have always been appreciative of the originality in Rahman's music. Listen to it and you probably will agree with me.

Subash has come up with a list of songs which strikingly resemble some other songs. He doesn't seem to be a bit generous here!