Maangalyamaana Mangalyaan

I decided to go to Sriharikota the moment I learnt ISRO was planning to launch Mangalyaan, an orbiter mission to Mars, on November 5 at 14:38 IST. Only three space agencies (NASA, European Space Agency and Russian Federal Space Agency) have successfully sent orbiters to Mars (NASA has sent four rovers too). China and Japan tried a Mars mission but they failed. Even the formerly mentioned big three agencies have had many failed attempts. Out of 51 Mars missions attempted by mankind, only 21 have come successful. Now ISRO has set its sight on Mars. Highly ambitious indeed!

Three days prior to launch, I mailed one of the Directors of ISRO to enquire if there are any arrangements made for the public to attend the launch. There was no reply. I waited for a day. Still no reply. Now it was just a day prior to launch. I called up ISRO office directly and enquired if public can attend the launch. A nice sounding lady told she could not comment on this and she directed me to ISRO's Public Relations Officer. He picked the call and for the third time on enquiring about attending the launch, he said there are no provisions for the public to come and watch as there was no "mandate" (unless you are a journalist). I realized there is no use in pushing him, I thanked him for his time and ended the call.  

I then availed the help of Google Earth. I found a small island named Venadu adjacent to the launch site. 

This island is surrounded by Pulicat lake, the backwater of Bay of Bengal. Fortunately there is a small mud road (about 20 feet wide) that connects this island and the main road that connects Sriharikota island with the main land. I decided this is it. Me and my father started from home in Chennai at about 10:30 AM and reached via Guntur highway to Sriharikota. I decided to start early just in case there are any hiccups (as the satellite image you're seeing above was taken two years ago). 

Google maps was spot on, the travel took only two hours. As we neared SHK (Sriharikota), we could see lots of police personnel patrolling the area. We took the right taking the road to the island, which said Sriharikota is 17 kilometers ahead. The lake on both sides of the road was a splendid sight. We then bumped into a checkpost where the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel halted us, prohibiting further access. They asked us to divert right. Which right? The exact right which I had intended to take! The road existed, after all. Sigh of relief!

But its existence should not be confused with its condition. Driving in that road was like riding a jogging camel. Neither was it a cement road or tar; it was a mud road. We drove for about 3 kilometers, decided enough was enough and parked the car. We could see SHK on the left. Let me show where I then was.

Yes. It was more than thirteen kilometers (I urge you to think of a location 13 km from your house to appreciate the magnitude). Launchpad was NOT VISIBLE from where I was. It is good in a way, the debris from the rocket is bound to spread more than 3 kilometers. The time now was 1:20 PM. We decided to have the meal we brought from home (there is no hotel nearby, it's wise to bring your own food if you're planning to make it to a launch). We finished the meal by 1:45 PM.

(52 minutes later...)

I watched the digital clock in my mobile. I then hurriedly swept my eyes all over SHK. I watched mobile again. Swept SHK again. Within sixty seconds, a thing is going to go up the sky. Minus fifty seconds. I took the binocular and grazed the whole of horizon to see if any smoke is flaring up. Minus thirty seconds. Where is it? Where is it? Minus twenty seconds. Minus nineteen seconds. Minus eigh- THERE!!! There it is!!! It got launched already, damn my phone's clock. Up in the air, nice and steady, she soared majestically into the sky leaving dark red-yellowish flaming tail which was larger than the vehicle herself. I watched it in awe, my mouth wide open. The sight was also serene because all this happened in total silence, with just slight pleasant sounds of water jostling its shores. The sight was a mixture of brutal force and pristine gentleness. But after a few seconds, the sound that left the rocket during the launch reached us. It was a trembling sound. A sound that makes you feel your bones. A sound that makes you close your eyes alongside ears. Never have I heard such a shaking, ear-stuffing sound. I touched the bonnet of my car, the sound made the car look like it was running. The sound started with small intensity, grew exponentially to become highly intense and started to fade away. By this time, the rocket and its flaming tail was well high in the sky, leaving its trail of smoke to grow fat and start vanishing. We could see the PS1 separation directly. After that, the rocket became a speck in the sky. 

To give you an idea of how the launch sounded, watch this video. This is exactly how it sounded. (in speakers the effect is not as profound as the real experience though)

I immediately phoned up a relative who was watching the launch live on TV, he said all was well. I was there till he confirmed the whole mission was in good health; till the orbiter was injected into Earth's orbit, which was about half an hour from the launch.

What happened in this half hour window after the rocket disappeared as a speck in the sky? Let me explicate.

Soon after the rocket got launched, it accelerated with a thrust of about 2.18 times it's weight (only if the thrust is higher than its weight can the rocket soar up). Standing tall at 44.5 metres, the lift-off weight of launch vehicle was 312 tonnes. Soon after the countdown hit 0, a stage called PS1 is activated. The vehicle had six strap-on boosters (those small 'mini-rockets' that are fitted on the leg of the big rocket). At T+0.5, first and second booster fires. About 0.2 seconds later, the third and fourth booster fires! Now the thrust is about 700 tonnes. The ascent is very fast, it aligns itself towards south-east and rapidly progresses to the Indian Ocean. What about the remaining two boosters (i.e., 5th & 6th)? They are ignited at T+25 when the rocket is already 2.5 kilometers high. Now each of these fifth and sixth booster burns for about 49.5 seconds together giving extra thrust. The first four boosters get kicked off from the rocket at T+1:10 seconds and fall into the Indian Ocean. 

Twenty two seconds later, the 5th and 6th booster also similarly gets detached from the rocket and falls into the ocean. Now the rocket still ascents out of inertia as the bottom-most segment of the rocket gets separated and falls into the ocean (this happens between T+1:32 to T+1:52). 

At T+1:53, the second ignition starts (now the rocket is about 58 kilometers in the sky); this stage is called PS2. In this stage, the rocket escapes the dense atmosphere and it jettisons (releases) the payload fairing at T+3:22 at a height of about 113 kilometers. Payload fairing is the nose cone of the rocket, which provides aerodynamic stability to the rocket. You jettison it because the rocket is out of the atmosphere and you don't need the nose cone anymore as there is no air for aerodynamics in the first place. No nose cone --> lesser the weight of rocket --> lesser the fuel needed. 

The PS2 stage lasts for about two minutes and 35 seconds before separating from the third stage (or third segment from the bottom) which then ignites and assumes control of the rocket at T+4:26. 

The third stage is solid-fueled and it burns for straight 112 seconds to boost the rocket to what is called a sub-orbital trajectory. After burnout of the PS3 stage, just like the previous segments, this too separates (at T+9:43) and the rocket (which is now less than 25% of its original size) continues to coast uphill. This coast between the 3rd and 4th stage burns is extended to 25 minutes. During this period, the spacecraft will be in radio-blackout. It cannot contact any station as it crosses the might pacific ocean. After 1600 seconds, its signal will be received by the ship SCI Nalanda which is stationed at South Pacific ocean., off Fiji Islands. And so is SCI Yamuna. These ships will let the ISRO station know if PS3 has been successful and if the PS4 has ignited through signals transmitted by the vehicle. 

PS4 ignition:

After receiving confirmation from the two ships of PS4 ignition and the health of satellite, ISRO will then know the satellite will soon leave the rocket to get into the Earth's orbit safely - that is, the PS4 separation. After this, the satellite is safely placed into an orbit around the earth. The first orbit has a perigee of 246.9 and an apogee of 23,566.69 km around Earth.

The ascent profile of Mangalyaan mission:

Approximate trajectory of the rocket:

All the things which you have read till now, PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4, everything has been successful in today's launch. Everything has went according to plan. The agency has called it a "textbook" launch. :-)

As said earlier, the satellite is currently not on its way to Mars. It is still orbiting the Earth and it will do so till November Thirtieth. 

Till November 30th, the satellite will remain in what is called the Earth Parking Orbit. Then one fine day, when the satellite reaches perigee, a small thruster called Apogee Kick Motor (which is on board the satellite) is fired. As the name suggests, this firing increases the satellite's apogee. The magic here is that the satellite comes back to the same perigee. Now when it reaches the perigee, the AKM is fired again, increasing the apogee again. This is done three more times. And the sixth time the satellite returns to perigee, having now an orbit of 600 x 2,15,000 km, a big thrust will kick the satellite out of mother Earth's gravitational pull and viola! It starts its voyage to Mars (in the Mars Transfer Trajectory). How long does it cruise? It cruises for a straight 300 days (with slight trajectory corrections here and there). If all goes well according to plan, the Indian Mars Orbiter will reach Mars on 24th September, 2014.

ISRO has pulled all this off within a record 15 months of planning and a stringy 423 crore ($69M) budget. Besides the launch vehicle, the planning and budget includes:

1. Lyman Alpha Photometer - To measure and detect Deuterium content in Mars atmosphere and to find deuterium to hydrogen ratio.
2. Mars Colour Camera - To get detailed data of Martian surface and its compositions and also to monitor dynamic events and weather of Mars.
3. Methane Sensor - To monitor the presence of Methane (CH4) to the accuracy of parts per billion (PPB). Methane composition varies spatially and temporally in Mars.
4. Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer - This analyzes neutral composition up to 1 to 300 amu.
5. Thermal IR Imaging Spectrometer - This operates day in and day out to detect the minerals and soil types in Mars.

Borrowing an hilarious meme from Shrey Tulsian: (not to be taken too seriously though)

Being an Indian myself, this mission's launch has indeed been an humbling moment for me. We are a nation of 1.2 billion, representing about one sixth of the world. We are not yet a developed nation. We have the highest middle class population in the world. Every day an aspiration is born and a thousand get decimated. But on a global level, our endeavours in Space has made us all extremely proud and something to look forward to. 

From THIS: 

To THIS:

When the father of Indian Space Program Dr Vikram Sarabhai planted the seed for ISRO, he quoted, "There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned space-flight." 

But then, we have explored the moon through Chandrayaan. And today we have set afoot in exploring a planet.  

May you inspire generations to push the boundaries of space tomorrow than you have done today, dear ISRO... I know you will. It is pretty cool after all, isn't it? Hats-off to you!!!

The Dravid Avenue

And he hobbles away, shaded amidst other limelights that curiously shaded him in adamance throughout his career. His walls were broken, like in his late Test days. But he walked away with his head held high, why wouldn't he? He has been, after all, the closest to what a good man could be on a cricket field. The quietest monk in the monastery, yet the most respected and most revered. 

From being a shy school boy who finished his homework on time, then playing U-15, U-17, U-19, playing Ranji in 21, to making debut in Lords representing his country proudly & missing a century by 5 runs (where in this case the limelight happened to be a being carving magical off-drives), personifying solidity & showing the world what true defense means, spending most time on crease than any batsman alive (yes, exceeding by a far one and half DAYS than his compatriot all-time highest Test scorer, because hey, scoring is too mainstream than staying: a whopping 64,800 minutes), taking catch after catch at 1st slip off the bowling of a certain legend 'Jumbo', doing whatever his captain tells (or rather 'asks') him to, whether open the innings or come 1-8 down or keep wickets or walk on broken glass or even jettison himself off the aircraft without any parachute, all for the team... the shy school boy forged himself into a gritty man who can take anything and still remain the calmest monk in the monastery. 

I'm feeling numb deep inside, for his time is up in international cricket of any form. I will never be seeing him again live on TV nor his bitter-sweet drone. The least I could do is recollect a few favorite memories I could gather.

Like the 148 against South Africa at Johannesberg in 1997.
Or the 190 against New Zealand at Hamilton in 1999.
Or the 180 against Australia at Kolkata in 2001.
Or the 148 against England at Headingley in 2002.
Or the 233 against Australia at Adelaide in 2003.
Or the 270 against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in 2004.
Or the 81 & 68 against West Indies at Sabina Park in 2006.
Or the 93 & 46 against Australia at Perth in 2008.

A blogger once quoted, "He is the anti-McGrath. A batting metronome. Ball after ball, over after over, he wears bowlers down with his patience. It's almost as if he has a plan: leave, leave, defend, leave, score. He sets up the bowler, making him bowl where he wants. Amid all this he calculates the vagaries of the pitch. It's when he's in a struggle that he's in the zone."

"Don't fight for revenge", the great man himself said, "fight for pride. The more you take from the pot, the more you have to put in."

I thank him for the joy he gave my eyes and my cricket endearing soul. The word 'cricket' was synonymous to his name the whole of my life till now. I was after all in my nappies in round-building at my school in Chennai, doing my LKG when he was negotiating seam and swing at Lord's in his debut. How could he ever be separated from 'cricket' in my head? 

I want to borrow a quote I wrote in my 12th grade yearbook: 'A fish, which had been born and had died in water, never would have known the value of water, or rather, never would it have known the absence of the gasp for breath in air. Completeness blinded the absence of incompleteness. But it is when you part, you realise the real value of completeness that we all once took for granted'. 

Indeed. But I'm happy for his recognition, especially in the past few months. From now on, he will be in the folklore of cricket. Pundits will romanticize him, "There were days when cricket looked classy..." Decades from now, we will be telling our sons, daughters and grandchildren the heroics of a man who never flinched on what was thrown at him. Importantly, we will not just tell how well he played, but also of how well he fared. He will remain as an example, not as a mere entertainer. We would advise them all to walk through a road... a very good road... the Dravid Avenue.

The Mysterious Train Sound

As a kid, the first thing that came to my mind on hearing the word "train" is "thadakh-thadakh" sound. Have you ever wondered where that "thadakh-thadakh" comes from? Since ten years of age, this question has been bothering me and not until few months ago did I strike upon the answer! I am still not 100% sure whether I have found the right answer, but I am 99.99...9% sure. 

When I went about asking this question to the elders back then, one of them answered that the sound came from the gravel stones that lay over the tracks. "But how?", I exclaimed helplessly, only to avail his silence (actually he said the stones dance while train goes above it, it dances to a rhythm just like how heroes dance in the movies to a rhythm. What on earth was the bastard thinking of me?). Another wise person said the sound came from the locomotive engine. I asked back how come the sound then is so clear and audible even in compartments that are so far away from the locomotive? He then panicked a bit and replied, "Then the sound must come from compartments!". I sensed the feigning philosopher in him and decided not to believe anything he says.

Then I thought about this myself, after all the sound HAD TO come from the compartment. Because even when, as a kid, I used to have fun in strolling from one compartment to another (keeping one leg in one compartment and another leg in another compartment simultaneously at intersection of coaches is something almost all middle-class Indian kid would've done secretly in the excuse of going to toilet) and I've never observed the absence of thadakh-thadakh in any compartment. In AC compartments, I noticed the volume of thadakh-thadakh sound reduced considerably, so it was apparent the sound did not originate from inside (cabin) the compartment but from outside (since all windows are sealed in AC coaches, it was a reasonable argument). 

But I could only get this far. Time then flew, this particular nagging question fell into the oblivious section of my mind. Then in 11th grade, this rekindled. Now I was wary of Newton's laws. I knew rotational mechanics and also the mechanics behind rolling. But none of them provided any answer as to why a smooth wheel that is simply rolling (even with friction) should give out periodical sounds (unless the wheel had any slight bump, of course). It intrigued me a lot, the answer was still out of my reach.

One day (while travelling in train, of course), I noticed the thadakh-thadakh got DAMN MESSY when the compartment switched tracks. It was something like thad-thadaa-thadaa-tha-tad-thad-thadaa-thadaa-tha-tad-thadaa... followed by the usual thadakh-thadakh...thadakh-thadakh...

This is a vital piece of information. This says track too has a role to play and not just the compartment. So what could it be? What is the root behind this sound?

The answer lies in the fact that metals expand when heated. :-) Okay, that's a bit vague... let me explicate.

When the engineers constructed the tracks, they could not do it in one go. They made segments of tracks and then joined them. But did they weld two joints together? No, not always. They DELIBERATELY left a few millimeters of gap between one track and another. Like this:

This gap is crucial. The reason behind this is that during summer and spring times, the scorching heat from the sun will heat up the track metal. Metals have the property of expanding when heated (to certain extent). The extent (del L by L) to which they expand depends on the temperature to which it is raised (del T) and on the property of metal (alpha, which is a constant).

.

But hey, what happens if you don't leave any gap at all? Well, then the metals expands side-wards and upwards and then the whole track will get crazily distorted into something like this:

Okay, so what does this gap have anything to do our thadakh-thadakhs?

The answer is that when the wheel of compartment crosses over this gap, the wheel BUMPS and this bump will produce a BIG jerk in the suspension of the wheel as it lowers a bit and rises when it passes the gap.

Why should it lower and rise? It is as simple as you bumping into a small pit on the road where your car wheel almost falls into the pit & then bumps and passes over the pit. 

See this rail gap:

When the wheel bumps (pardon my pathetic MS paint skills):

But behold, why are there TWO thadakhs? There are two thadakhs because in all the coaches, the wheels always come in pairs. First thadakh for the first wheel and the next immediate thadakh for the wheel that is right behind the first wheel.

The reason why that big a sound is produced while encountering just millimeters of gap is because the coach is so damn heavy (about 40 tonnes) that even minute bumps tend to produce enormous normal reaction force. You can also correlate this solution with points that were noted earlier. For instance, the thadakhs go all over the place when it switches tracks because there are so many bumps for the wheel (and its suspension system) to deal with while tracks diverge and converge. Also, you might have noticed the pace of thadakh-thadakh reduces as the train speed reduces. This is because the wheel covers shorter distance in longer time and hence encounters the gap on the rails at a slower rate. Thaaaadakkkhhh-----------thaaaaadakkkhhhhhhh....

I suddenly realized all this while crossing the rail-cross as I saw the gap between rails. I then waited for the train to come for verifying my hypothesis and... success! Goosebumps ran all over my body! One of my childhood inquisitions can now rest in peace. Time to move on to next childhood inquisition! ;-)

Vishwaroopam Explored...

Vishwaroopam is probably the most controversial of Kamal Haasan’s films, leaving the spats about Hey Ram look like an infant. What all happened and why those happened is for another day, here I want to just write about my observations of the film. It is not criticism (not wholly, at least) , this is just a write up containing few of my opinions, importantly my inferences and assimilation of the film. 

First off, the title: if you had watched closely (even in  the trailer), the letters of the title run from right to left, unlike left to right which is how scripts of most of our Indian languages are written. This is very unlike most Indian or even Saxon languages (only one Indian language by the name of Gandhari has had script which was written right to left).  Anyway, the message is clear: Kamal obviously hints at the Arabic language. The dots over some letters and the font style of the title also imitate Arabic, subtly suggesting the movie is around Islam.

Secondly, the first line of the movie, “I believe in America.” This is probably a tribute paid by the veteran actor to the legendary movie Godfather, which also starts the same way (spoken by Bonasara while asking favor to Don on his daughter’s wedding day).

Pooja says to psychiatrist, “Everybody called him Viz, so I too called him Viz.” We realize later subtly that he had chosen Vishwanath as his coverup name so that he can be addressed with the same monicker for his real name, Wisam. “Wiz” for Wisam and “Viz” for “Vishwanath”.

The Kathak dance sequence was very graceful to my eyes. Though Kamal has very good knowledge in dance (being a dance master himself), Kathak is not that frequently danced in Tamil cinemas. But having a good base in Kathak already, he told in an interview that it was relatively less difficult for him to learn from the famous North Indian Kathak teacher (and Hindustani vidvaan) Birju Maharaj. I really loved the lyrics of the song and the song will be much more enjoyable if one realizes the lyrics and see Kamal’s expressions (or muthirais, in Tamil) for the lyrics.

We have to give Kamal kudos for this:  the effeminacy in Vishwanath’s character. He has proved yet again that he can play any character. Though this should be a piece of cake for Kamal having done Avvai Shanmughi, it really takes a lot of effort to hit the bull’s eye again. Every minute movement of every muscle in his body was unbelievably effeminate! I especially loved the way he threw himself a little bit more forward when he was running towards the ringing phone after the class had gotten over. Also the way he exasperatedly shrieked on opening of the door to the freezing breeze that blew over his back. 

Another important thing to note is that while dancing for the song, Kamal the director has shown a small statue in front of the mirrored wall. If you had noticed closely, the side of the statue facing us will be female (the outer identity) and the back side of the statue reflected to us by the mirrored wall is male (the real identity). You can also see this statue again in the slide show at end of film (shown before showing Kamal and Pooja in bed {now you remember that instantly, don’t you? :P} ). I later learnt from a website that this Vishwanath character’s identity is inspired from the Pandavas’ Virata phase in Mahabharata, where the Pandavas are forced to spend the last (and thirteenth) year of their exile by concealing their true identity. Arjuna concealed his identity by acting like a eunuch (male with female behaviors) who teaches dance outside his country (or Raajya).

When I went for the film the second (and last) time I noticed that when the actress says “America” in the first line of the movie, we can see that Kamal had asked the dubbing artist to specifically pronounce the letter ‘r’ as ‘aazh’ as opposed to our usual (Russel Peters spanked) Indian “aarrr”. Similarly when Vishwanath says to Andrea, “Shaaptu po”, he was wary of the accent delivered.  I think he wanted to elucidate on screen the social dogma of our country’s present generation which feels proud to follow the Western culture, running away from homeland and also the changing Brahmin culture (“paapaathiyamma, nee shaaptu shollu…”). I would have slipped these minute things in theater had I not earlier seen these videos of Kamal.  


Anyway, carrying on, the big and the best (for me!) scene: kidnap and its aftermath. When Farooq and the boss Deep kidnap Kamal and Pooja, we can see that a less toned humour is salted all along. I think Kamal made it that way so as to balance the violence and severity in the following sequences, for this will be watched even by families in theatres (or at home, thanks to Kamal’s efforts on DTH).

When Deep profanely asks him, “..ngummaala… evvalavu naalaa da unakku theriyum?”, he replies, “purandhadhu lendhe engammaava enakku theriyum…”. I think Kamal tries to mock the concept of profanity itself! When coming to profanity, it reminds me of this small video bit of one of my favorite thinkers of our time, Stephen Fry!

Coming back to the torture scene, I liked how drops of water dripping into a small pool were shown each time Pooja or Kamal was slapped by Farooq. I think Kamal wanted to draw parallels with the Chinese Water Torture by showing the droplets. I also liked how Farooq made Deep stand at the centre of a large laminated (and blood proof!) sheet before shooting him on the head; I amusingly found it as an intelligent and convenient way to shoot someone without any mess, wouldn't you agree! (The actor played as Farooq also played a terrorist role in Unnaipol Oruvan. Trademark Terrorist I guess, like how actor Murali was a college guy till his death!) When Kamal is asked his name, he says “Thoufiq”; we realize later that this is an eulogistic gesture to the late Sheikh Thoufiq who got lynched for treason.  And when Farooq tries to photograph Vishwanath, we can see that Vishwanath is doing his level best (with his hands tied) in avoiding getting photographed. He bangs the iPhone off Farooq’s hands with his head; he shakes his head, etc., It is because he knows he will be in trouble if the picture reaches Omar. Also when once Farooq hits Kamal, he shouts in pain, “Krishnaaaa!!!”… Those who have some music knowledge might realize that the pitch in which he shouts “Krishnaaaa…” is the same as the one in which Shankar Mahadevan starts “Krishnaaaaa…” in “Unnai Kaanaadhu”. I think this was tailor made to overlap both the voices in trailer (from which I actually realized it!). Also the “tha ga tha ga tha ga” was followed by gunshots of same rhythm in the trailer. When Omar checks in his office (if you may call it that!) for matches of Pooja’s details, we can see that the searching software has FBI logo in it. Director is meaning to convey that the terrorists have access even to confidential database of FBI!

The Arabic phrase, which Kamal prays before THE scene, is from the Quran (2:201). It is as follows:

“Rabbana atina fid-dunya 

  hasanatan wa fil ‘akhirati 

  hasanatan waqina ‘adhaban-nar”

It means: 

“Our Lord! Grant us good in this world and good in hereafter. Save us from the chastisement of the fire”. 

Just thought it might be interesting for you to know that. I am guessing the fight sequence was inspired from Robert Downey Jr starred Sherlock Holmes fight scene.

But all I can say regarding the scene that immediately is this: I can give (120 x A) rupees to watch this scene again and again, where A>100. ;-) 

The flashback scenes were really a treat for eyes. Amazing cinematography, jaw-dropping stuff! Discussing how to take a movie in a hotel room is one thing, bringing it up majestically on the big screen is completely another, credits should be given to Sanu Vergheese for splendidly doing the latter. It was even a tad better than The Kite Runner, I dare say. The editing is nonlinear. The narration is about the past while driving in a car, just like in Russel Crowe starred “The Next Three Days”, except NOTHING else is similar. I feel the editing could have been a little better, pacing up the first half a bit. Not a bad job altogether.

Osama scene’a awesome’ah they have portrayed (pun intended)! I loved how the BGM abruptly stopped when Osama stood up to the screen’s view, giving us some seconds of silence to help gulp magnitude of the sight alongside Wisam (remember, it is 2002, post 9/11). During this scene, we can see also that a Pakistani ISI officer is speaking with Osama “updating” him with news. To those who don’t know what ISI means, it stands for “Inter-Services Intelligence”. It is Pakistan’s official government intelligence agency, just like how we in India have the CBI. What Kamal tries to say is that Pakistan knew about Osama’s presence and his whereabouts but it double crossed America in capturing of Osama. What that Pakistani ISI officer updating Osama about is America’s plans in catching him. You can see Salim telling Wisam, “He will work for ISI and will also work for us *grins*”. I encourage you to see this documentary if you hadn't already. It is about how Pakistan secretly protected Osama, it is a BBC documentary so you can expect it to be pretty authentic. For now, click on the hyperlink and watch just the first 2:00 minutes.

Carrying on, I liked the way how Kamal saw Osama while leaving, retreating back, with a combination of shock, awe, helplessness and a tinge of hatred. NATO attacking scenes were thrilling and the action was encapsulating (the warning at the beginning of the movie was for these action sequences, it was a fair warning).  

We can also see how easily the terrorists jump borders in the Torkham-Jalalabad highway, between Pakistan and Afghanistan. After getting bribed, we can even see the guard at the border gate greeting terrorist Omar, welcoming him to his side of the country. If you have seen those 2 minutes which I asked you to see from the link above, you will exactly get what Kamal tried to say from that scene! The training camps were good to watch. The double used for Kamal was pathetically bad as he was too lean to dupe Kamal. I later tried to find out whose picture they were trying to shoot (besides Bush); I will be glad if someone can shed some light on that. When Nasser asks Kamal if he reads Quran in English and when Wisam replies no, Nasser laughs and says Wisam then indeed knows Arabic, subtly expressing the hatred towards the English language and the people who speak it. Hatred for English is also shown by Omar when he prohibits his son from learning it.  

 
During the song sequence in terrorist camps, you can see that two or three men wear women dresses and entertain other men. I was told by my friend that Islam prohibits crossdressing and so you can see Nasser carrying out punishments on them for crossdressing. You will later see that Mammoo, the young Afghani “Warrior”, crossdressing to sneak under a NATO tank to destroy it. I think Kamal is trying to say that the terrorists are not “true” Islam followers, flexing rules for their own wishes and whimsies. Speaking of Mammoo, I think the swing scene alone conveys the message of this whole movie: Islamic idealogists are immature and are taking the world by storm for shitty reasons. Remember the scene where Omar’s son will walk away from the swing saying he isn't a child but then Mammoo comes and sits to ask Wisam to swing him high? Later when Wisam walks past another child who is swinging, Omar shows Wisam the newspaper in which the photo and news of Mammoo’s death is put up, smiling proudly. Also when Thoufiq is hanged, Kamal gazes up to the sky helplessly as a Jet passenger aircraft flies thousands of feet above the air, not caring what is happening in the world below it. Amazing directorial touch, Kamal, you genius!!!

A friend of mine remonstrated, “Will FBI travel in NYPD cars?” Fair question, the general answer seems to be no. It would be like CBI travellingin a dabbaa police jeep. But there there have been numerous collaborations between the state police and FBI on various missions; saving NY surely is an important thing, so we cannot take that for a goof. Coming to Abbasi, the Black Nigerian Jihadi, we can see how easily he nods his head for death after just a single phone call conversation comprising not more than 20 words. Also when Deep keeps the money inside the safe, he says that the banks do not trust the customers, especially from Middle Eastern countries, Nigeria, Syria, Iran, etc., Kamal cared to throw it in at the beginning itself. The password, “moolah”, generally has the meaning of “money”. It is also the root word for “Mullaah,” an Islamic scholar…irony again! Before getting ready for detonating the dirty bomb, we can see that Abbasi shaves his hair off all parts of his body. This is a tradition of Muslim Jihadis to shave before committing suicide attacks. Actually, Muslims purify the body after one is dead, so that when the deceased person enters heaven, he will be clean. But since suicide attackers don’t have that luxury, they die with a clean body. In fact, Jihadis believe that after their suicide attack, for having waged a Holy War, they will enter heaven where 72 virgins are waiting for them to devour. For that purpose, suicide bombers even wrap their genitalia with Aluminium foil so that it remains intact and can be used in heaven. I know, no comments.  

The pigeon distraction caused by tying dangerous radioactive Caesium  on to their legs was a good irony too! It is ironic in the sense that pigeon is the standard symbol for world peace; a dove carrying an olivebranch. Also when Thoufiq is hanged, we can see that when crane operator operates the lever, a dove sitting on the crane’s silencer flies off.

You may have wondered why there was not a single hint of crescent (with star) anywhere in the film. It is simply because crescent is not associated with Islam at all; even some other site had pointed this out. It wasn't until the Ottoman Empire that the crescent moon and star became affiliated with the Muslim world. Islam.about.com says that when the Turks conquered Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453, they adopted the city's existing flag and symbol. Legend holds that the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman, had a dream in which the crescent moon stretched from one end of the earth to the other. Taking this as a good omen, he chose to keep the crescent and make it the symbol of his dynasty. Based on this history, many Muslims reject using the crescent moon as a symbol of Islam as it has nothing to do with what is said in Quran. The only time when a crescent is seen is when Kamal jumps off the airplane with parachute in the laaaast scene of the film. 

About music score, I wasn't much disappointed with Shankar-Ehsan-Loy but as Bosskey put in his Indiaglitz review, the scope for them in the movie was limited. The intro scene had amazing BGM, it fitted perfectly well.  I liked the first song too. Besides those, I thought the music was average.

About the cast, I felt many of the actors were not used to their full potential. Andrea, though is not a great actress, was given a lesser role even to her credibility! All she does is put up some dance steps, puts up some stitches on Kamal’s face, talk in the interrogation room with a black lady and walk briskly here and there. Shekhar Kapur’s role was limited too. He talks at the dining table, saves Kamal from the embassy and swallows pills. Nasser, another great specialist actor of Indian cinema, was inexcusably under used. And the old man who shoos away a pigeon on the first scene, he never comes again in the movie, that left me curious. Maybe, who knows, all these characters will have a greater say in Vishwaroopam II.  

Kamal Haasan, the Indian Stanislavsky, has taken a bold step forward in taking the Tamil audience to a whole new level. Once in Neeyaa Naana debate program in Vijay TV, he told that he is fighting against most Tamil cinema directors in trying to convince them that  Tamil audience deserve far more better than what Tamil cinema fraternity currently produces. He said that other directors are not convinced that Tamil audiences are intelligent enough to assimilate high standards of direction. May the success of Vishwaroopam be an eyeopener to both directors and audiences alike!

Awaiting Vishwaroopam II. :)

Cheers!