Readers Inc

Monday, January 31, 2011

Femina’s Leading Lady

Vimla Patil’s motivation for penning her memoirs My Times is to tell “the story of the impact of such a journal [Femina] and … [paint] the portrait of an organisation which made such a journal possible. I don’t feel that she manages to do either in entirety.

Patil’s book seems to be divided into two; the good and the bad. In the first few chapters successes seem to be around every corner. She appears to have Midas’s touch. Femina does well consistently, with almost no pitfalls. And so does the Miss India venture. Any problems or hindrances that might have been there are usually skimmed over or overcome. This makes her memoirs appear not entirely genuine, like a part of the story is being withheld. I feel her achievements would have had a greater impact on the reader if equal importance had been given to shortcomings and successes.

Furthermore, her intention was to tell the story of the impact of Femina. This she does only in one chapter when she talks about eminent doctors demystifying women’s health issues in the journal. In many of the other chapters she details what how women’s status changed in three decades but does not clearly outline Femina’s contribution to the cause.

The last half a dozen chapters all focus almost entirely on the negative. She writes about Samir Jain and his abhorrent management policies, and has dedicated an entire chapter to Pritish Nandy’s inadequacies. She did have to deal with Nandy quite a bit but not so much with Jain. Thus most of her criticisms concerning Samir Jain are just hearsay and not based on first hand knowledge.

As the editor of one of India’s longest running women centric journals, I expected much more from Patil’s memoirs. But unfortunately, My Times fails to deliver an impact the way it was intentioned.

prevent-shopping-cart-theft-loss-200X200 http://www.a1books.co.in/my-times-memoirs/itemdetail/8174761489/

Jerusha Chande

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Behind the Scenes

The first thing that one tends to notice about the book is the honesty with which it has been written. Simonelli and Frumkes do not shy away from acknowledging their short comings, doubts and mistakes. The book doesn’t unnecessarily glorify them. From the very beginning, Simonelli, recovering from surgery, is ensnared by Frumkes, his partner, into agreeing to direct The Sweet Life. He openly accepts that at the beginning he underestimated the project and even admits that he lacked knowledge of direction. Laid out in a logical, methodical manner, the book takes the reader through the way, step by step, the movie takes shape. It includes dozens of legal forms, checklists, sample budgets, and other ready-to-use tools and describes the daily challenges faced while producing an “indie” shoot on a budget. Since it’s a book about serious film making, a normal reader might find certain chapters a little boring and may not always be able to connect with the script. However being witty, the book will not bore a movie fan with some amount of interest in the back-story or behind the scenes of a movie. For an aspiring film maker on the other hand, the book is the closest they can be to getting an insider’s perspective of producing an “indie”. The book also acts as an eye opener for all. It breaks the stereotypical notion of film making being all about artistic self realisation, but also introduces the difficulties faced and the business acumen and inner growth demanded. However, at certain points, the book comes across as whiny and too detailed about the difficulties faced, most of which can be easily overcome by some amount of planning, thick skin and an optimistic attitude. But then again, this simply helps to reaffirm a number of things that you simply should not do when making a low-budget movie.