And now people blame SRK for German bakery blast

For the record I have not heard from XXXXXXXXXXXX since.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jimit Shah
Date: Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 1:26 AM
Subject: Re: names
To: XXXXXXXXXXXX


Shahrukh Khan did not select any Pak player in his team because he had to go with the majority (probably due to rest of the franchise owners decisions).

Everyone has a right to speak their mind in a democracy and that is what SRK did. All he said that in his opinion the Pak players should have been selected. And I believe more in freedom of speech and multiplicity of views rather than cut-thorn-by-thorn or flogging-in-public theories.

I personally abhor Aman Ki Asha type of cheesy initiatives and prefer the diplomatic route that Chidambaram has taken but both of those have nothing to do with the bomb blast in Pune.

RAW or other means of intel used by home ministry cannot be underestimated in anyway. However I do believe that the police was doing what they needed to do on that day - Protecting our cities and the citizens from terrorists known as Shiv Sainiks. What would you have said if there were to be violence at theatres and consequently a few deaths. I am sure you would have been the first to pounce upon the police to say that they are incompetent lot who could not do anything to stop something like this from happening and a party of a few thousand hooligans is allowed to hold an entire state to ransom. It would have been shameful to say the least.

And no, I don't even buy the argument that SRK should have apologized to Bal Thackeray or that he should not have said what he said. In a democratic country everyone is entitled to freedom of speech guaranteed by the constitution and there is nothing anti national that SRK said.

It was very very important for the cops to have guarded the theatres on that day. They did a good job of it. And in any case, there is nothing concrete to suggest that there was specific intel with home ministry regarding this attack and they did not act sincerely (as had happened on 26/11).

I am appalled with the thought that people can actually blame SRK for this bomb blast. The thought is more appalling than the movie itself !!

On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 11:43 PM, XXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:

All this Pakistani players being allowed [keep sports away from politics etc], Aman ki Asha & all the rubbish must be immediately stopped.

Use a thorn to pull a thorn.

Anybody who speaks on behalf of Pak for their personal or monetary gains must be flogged in public.

Don’t underestimate our intelligence. They just need supplement of local police force & discipline & no distraction. Its tough but not impossible…. Look at the amount of checking in Delhi regularly at public places. It is lacking in Pune….

The IM spokesman had openly announced in pak about Pune as candidate…

From: Jimit Shah [mailto:jimit99@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 1:04 PM

To: XXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Re: names

I am no fan of SRK. But to blame him squarely is outrageous. In a country with a billion people the check nakas do not help much. Stopping and inspecting vehicles cannot stop terror attacks.

Agreed that there was *some chance* that the attack would have been foiled. But there is no guarantee. Usually the terror suspects from IM mask themselves very well and are not easily spotted based on looks or conversation. To think that Pune police would have spotted their vehicle AND also opened up their red handbag AND discovered the explosives WITHOUT an explosion is IMO quite difficult.    

But then India is a great democracy and people can always speak their mind very freely just like Thackeray does. So ........

On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 10:46 PM, XXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:

For sure it would help

YYYYY knows how many times we used to pass cops & checking on NM road near khabad house & osho ashram

I squarely blame SRK for this.

In fact I wish they had bombed the stupid Aman Ki Asha concert. What a phoney concept.

From: Jimit Shah [mailto:jimit99@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 12:14 PM
To: XXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Re: names

You actually believe that the cops would have stopped the terror attack from happening if they were not watching the stupid movie?

On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 6:39 AM, XXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:

T Sundari (22) resident of Bangalore, working in Amdocs Pune, Binita Gadani (22) resident of Mumbai, working in Amdocs Pune.

http://www.mynews.in/News/List_of_Pune_blast_victims_released_by_Mumbai_Police_N38066.html

From: XXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2010 7:05 PM
To: 'Jimit Shah'
Subject: RE: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/8-confirmed-dead-33-injured-in-blast-at-Pune-bakery/articleshow/5569873.cms

2 girls from our comapny died in this L

The bomb was under their table.

All because of MNIK & SRK. All the cops were in the movie hall. Not joking. Sitting beside me and in between I got call from my sis & also the cops. They rushed out immediately….

My watching MNIK was an exercise towards social obligation [upon the insistence of neighbor friends] in way it was a blessing sicne usually I follow the N Main Road & almost defi stop over at Krishna Medicals – the shop next to German Bakery for my sinusitis medicine !!!

From: Jimit Shah [mailto:jimit99@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2010 1:51 AM
To: XXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Re: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/8-confirmed-dead-33-injured-in-blast-at-Pune-bakery/articleshow/5569873.cms

XXXXXXXXXXXX,

I am not sure if I am more shocked at:
a) The bomb blast
b) That you were watching MNIK (Blasphemous) or
c) MNIK itself - I am sure it must be more potent than the bomb itself - How was the movie?

Gather from YYYYYYYY that you've become a Hindu movie buff lately. How do you choose to answer that?

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 8:55 AM, XXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:

News channel confirm that its terror L

An IED explosive device

Quite close to Jewish Khabad house. Read it all…

Imagine I was watching MNIK at the very same instant & my sis called me to alert me

From: YYYYYYYYYY
Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:23 PM
To: XXXXXXXXXXXX
Cc: Jimit Shah
Subject: Re: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/8-confirmed-dead-33-injured-in-blast-at-Pune-bakery/articleshow/5569873.cms

Yikes !!

And to think I used to frequent that place quite often when I was in Pune. :(

Might have been some freak accident maybe and not actually a terror attack.

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 10:42 AM, XXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:

First time in Pune L I still don’t suspect or believe it to be a terror strike.

Pune has always thankfully been insulated from it [until now?] …

My Name is Khan and my film is a dud

Let me set the record straight at the outset. 
a) I have liked all Karan Johar films till date including the much maligned KANK.
b) I do not dislike SRK the actor but I am not a fan of his either
c) Judging by the trailers of MNIK, I had a feeling that the film will be a washout and it did not seem appealing to me.


After all the controversy surrounding the release and multiple positive reviews here and here and here and here (I could not find a single review where the film got less than 3 stars) I thought to myself that the movie cannot be a flat out dud. Expectations still not skyrocketing but at least there was this anticipation of watching the film.

Coming to the film itself. The concept of the movie was not bad - the implementation of it was totally flawed and bollywood'ish. Liberal doses of unwanted melodrama, which if I may mention, did not evoke any emotion.

Rizwan Khan (SRK) suffers from an autistic condition called Asperger's Syndrome and moves in with his brother in San Francisco after his mother's death. He is allergic with fast moving objects, loud sounds, strangers, new places and the color yellow. Of course he is allergic only when the director wants to utilize that facet of his character. Rizwan takes the spoken word quite literally and is quite, for lack of a better word, childish in his demeanor. He befriends and then marries a divorced Mandira (Kajol), who also has a teenage son. 9/11 happens and due to communal tensions everyewhere, his son gets involved in a fist fight at school and gets accidentally killed. Believe it or not Mandira blames this on Rizwan (due to which they got the last name Khan) and kicks him out of her life. She tells Khan to return only after he has met with the president of USA and told him that his name is Khan and that he (and his son) are not terrorists. So that the president can tell HIS people that not all muslims are terrorists. Our Mr. Khan then embarks on a journey to meet the president and many melodramatic and bizarre moments later gets to meet Obama duplicate (which IMHO was the most hilarious moment in the entire film) and convey him the message. Done and dusted. This is the story.

Kajol's acting was very good. But her role was cut short. The fall jackets that she wore were nice. Though the opulence surrounding a Karan Johar movie was clearly missing from this movie.


SRK's acting is bound to generate mixed reactions. I personally liked his acting. It appeared to have been liberally borrowed from Tom Hanks' act in Forrest Gump but not even a shadow of Hanks' performance. However thankfully SRK did not over ham.


Good to see Sugandha Garg (who played Shaleen in Jaane Tu ... Ya Jaane Na) back on screen although it was an insignificant role. BTW - I did not know that this girl has married Raghu Ram (MTV Roadies fame)


The camera work at places was fairly decent (Golden sunlight when Rizwan was getting his haircut, downhill on SFO downtown). However it fell apart in more than one place (Most noticably in the Georgia flooding sequence, where the scene was captured in a studio for maintaining production values and also when Rizwan showed Mandira the view of SFO downtown at sunrise).


Music was functional at best. SEL disappoint on that front. The background score can go unnoticed. Noor-E-Khuda was best of the lot and decently picturized.


Funny portions with African American Mama Jenny and Funny Hair Joel in Georgia were too inspired from Hollywood and hardly funny. 


The best portion of the film was when Obama duplicate meets our very own not-a-terrorist Rizwan Khan. It was a moment to be savored. Be ready to whistle in the theatre - Cannot imagine Karan Johar can produce such a moment on celluloid.


All in all, the movie deserves a generous 2 stars out of 5 because I am in a good mood and am writing this review 3 days after watching the film.


*****