Ranjit Monga receiving award  from  RIICO from Shri C K Mathew, Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan for media and communication coordination during Vastra -2013, on behalf of IANS . In picture Shri Sunil Arora, Additional Chief Secretary, Industries, Govt of Rajasthan, and Chairman RIICO ( Extreme Left) and Shri Naveen Mahajan, MD, RIICO (Centre) 

Media led Society

The Media is the mainstay of society and in recent times it has become like a Giant Screen in the sky which beams everything that goes on around us, minute to minute, live. Nothing escapes its scrutiny. It is loud, it’s in your face and it’s invading hitherto unexplored territory in its thirst for news and a few minutes of live feed.

In such a scenario it is easy as well as difficult to catch its attention. Easy, when you have a controversial story to tell, or an opinion about a news item currently on top of the agenda in society.

And difficult, when you have a credible story to tell, but it is not in the ‘news’ and it is not served as ‘fast food’ to the media.

In such a scenario, organisations plan elaborate ‘events’, get celebrity endorsements  and sometimes even offer certain incentives to media houses to attract their attention.

The corner stone for any organisation, especially one which works in the public arena, is its credibility and its relationship which it builds with the society in which it operates. It is therefore, very crucial for the organisation to be seen in the proper perspective – with more stress on its work, its ideals and its mission.

If your organisation, operates in such a context, it has a relationship with society, which it serves.The only way, your wok can be projected or seen by society in the proper perspective is, if there is no attempt at any unnecessary ‘projection’ as such.  And when there is serious and sustained interaction and the projection is only an outcome of that.

Videos Produced and Directed by Ramon Productions (playlist)

Time for transformation

We live in a time of great change. The change is seen not only in society, morality, polity and business areas but also the way we perceive the world around us, the way we communicate and relate to each other. Though we have more tools for communication and accessing information of the world around us, are we really taking the time to understand the turning points and transformation of over lives? Some time ago, we all saw, on our TV sets devastation of the kind mankind had never seen, at least in living memory. The flooding of coastal areas of Japan by giant Tsunami waves. The live images of overturned ships and cars being carried by waves like matchboxes were traumatic to say the least. But soon afterwards as the news channels found a ‘new’ story to show, everything was forgotten. In our desire to return to normalcy and to move on to the next big story, are we missing out on some important reflection? But the images are being repeated with an alarming frequency - the flash floods in Uttarakhand, in which perhaps tens of thousands if not lakhs of persons are still unaccounted for. And today's disturbing visuals - the washing away of a bus in the Bhakra river in Punjab, a motorbike on which two people were travelling being washed away while crossing a flooded river and tourists stranded because of floods at a picnic spot in Rajasthan are pointers that we need immediate reflection which may be crucial for our future. In this case, did we take out enough time to learn the lesions from the Tsunami and the flash floods about climate change, about pollution levels and green house gases and about disaster management? If we do, then we can find ways of preventing and responding to them in future.

Flashpoint comes to Delhi



For more information www.flashpointfilmfestival.com

Miral sets the pace for Flashpoint

Miral, the celebrated film of Director Julian Schnabel set the pace as the inaugural film for the 2nd Human Rights film festival - Flashpoint at the Alliance Francaise de Bombay here last evening.

With the added attraction of a spirited performance by Freida Pinto, the movie was a perfect start to what promised to be world class fare in Human rights films over the next three days. Miral, which is a red flower, which blooms in the Palestinian desert, is only the second outing for Freida who has only been seen in the Oscar Nominated film Slumdog millionaire till now, So, the film which manages to blur the line between cinema and Documentary, also perhaps slots Freida as an actress committed to ‘meaningful cinema’.

Here she plays a school girl, growing up in a hostel for orphaned and abandoned children in the midst of the Arab-Israeli war in the 1970s and 80s. She and other girls are shaken out of their protected life, when they witness the brutality of Israeli soldiers during an outing to a refugee camp. From then on, the fire in her is ignited and she declares “we have to do something” to the indomitable Mama Hind (Played by Hiam Abbas) who has nurtured this home for children and protected them fiercely so that they grow up to be good and educated Palestinians. In that moment you get caught in a dilemma, who is more patriotic, whose method do you prefer aggression which kills or kindness and compassion which saves.
The film has all the elements of cinema with interesting characters set in true human emotional context. The film also manages to inform and keep to a timeline of events as they unfold in the nearly 6o year old conflict.
One may say the film remains one-sided, as it is a story about Palestinians. But very subtly the bias is balanced with the introduction of just one character. A Jewish girl who is dating Freida’s cousin. “How can you date her, she’s Jewish” she remarks to her cousin. “Because she loves me”, he replies. This jolts Freida and she gradually opens up to the girl’s overtures of friendship. The turning point comes perhaps when the gild plants a kiss on her lips to show her how her (Freida’s) cousin kisses ‘like and angel’.
The film closes with Freida more accepting , as she experiences two tragedies, that of her father dying and her boyfriend and fellow revolutionary, who had begun dreaming of an agreement with Israel ‘To settle down and bring up their kids” being branded a traitor and murdered. Her going away to Europe and having a safe life is perhaps a metaphor for all the conflicts of the world. Does any armed conflict ostensibly for human rights lead to that? Or do they ultimately violate.
The film is based on author Rula Jebreal’s novel, which is a strongly autobiographical account of her youth in West Bank. The screenplay of the film is written by her. More interestingly the Director Julian Schnabel is an American Jew.

Awards won by Miral at the Venice Film Festival in 2010: UNESCO Award and UNICEF Award. It was also nominated for the Golden Lion.