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No, no, it’s not afew good men. Or its Indian stage adaptation Court Martial. It’s Shaurya by Samar Khan who’s claiming that he’s made a slice of army life original.

Jaane bhi do Tom Cruise- Demi Moore. After all, the outcome doeshave its rewards. To be fair, there are genuinely gripping moments, fine performances and seamless cinematography byCarlos Catalan. At the core of the needlessly lengthy screenplay, find a feud betweeen a group of extra- senior armyofficers and an army legal eagle (Rahul Bose) who’s more adventurous than Stevan Seagal. Order, order, Eagle must get serious now. Because h has to defend a captain (Muslim, of course) accused of shooting an officer with a gun that throws up more smoke than a HOOKAH. Bose, now worried, wriggles toes.  

Accompained by an intrepid journalist (Minissha Lamba looking like none of our female colleagues), Bose plays part Sherlock Holmes- part- superb-lawyer-part-humanist-part-well-just-part-part-all-big-heart. The finale, is at long last reached, with an outstanding solo piece enacted by Kay Kay Menon. Terrific. 

Deepak Dobriya,as the accused captain, is outstanding too. Bankably, Bose infuses credibility into several implausible sections of the script. The sub-plot, involving the belated marriage of Javed Jaffery, is like a wedding reception serving SHARBATS without ice. All seen and absorbed, the result is bearable. It doesn’t exactly inspire you to say KUCCH SHAURYA HO JAAYE.

Every little up move seems such a struggle nowadays. It is like swimming against a tide. Even tailwinds like global rallies do not seem to help us much. Up-moves are laboured, down drifts are quicker and effortless. The market is getting more and more distrustful of these intermittent global up-moves. Only a sustained up-move or a reduction in global volatility can settle things somewhat but sadly; that is just not coming about. Hopefully; we will be able to strike out a more substantial global up-move in April, even if it is just a relief rally.

Anything to lift us out of this morass. , By the end of this week, there could be more bad news on the inflation front. In the US, while the manufacturing data was a bit better than expected, the non-farm payroll data on Friday will be watched closely. Next week onwards, the earnings season begins for us here. The market is visibly worried and rumours are flying thick and fast on which stocks will need to make ugly disclosures on derivative losses. The whole environment is one of mistrust, skepticism and fear. What do you expect with stocks languishing 50-60 per cent off their recent highs with every modest attempt at a recovery getting sold into? There is a crisis of confidence, and it is not just in the retail segment.

Predictions are getting gloomier with every passing day. CLSA is talking about an Asian recession, IMF has cut global growth forecasts and prominent investment banks are talking about 7 per cent growth and 7 per cent inflation in India. A slew of earnings downgrades have happened in sectors ranging from banking to infrastructure — the strongest pillars of this bull-run. In earlier corrections one could say; with some confidence, that while technicals had soured fundamentals remained unchanged. Now the basic underpinnings of our growth story are being questioned. These fears may eventually turn out to be baseless but for the moment they are out in the open.

The roof over the market’s head has been swept away and it is too stormy out there to get on with the repair work. The gales need to abate for the-roof to be mended. .

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are two states divided by a common river in more ways than one. The passions flowing from the inter-state Cauvery dispute stem not from the falling levels of water in the river but the rising levels of political rhetoric, espedal1y when elections loom in either Karnataka or Tamil Nadu. Earlier, all Bangaloreans had to do to ascertain that the river-water dispute was on the boil was to switch on their TVs. The surest sign the dispute had peaked was when all Tamil TV channels were blacked out!

This time, the TV channels have so far been spared the guillotine in the wake of the TN CM’s decision to press ahead with the Hogenakkal drinking-water project. Karnataka Rakshana Vedike activists prevented the screening of Tamil movies. Some Chennai lawyers showed their respect for the law by ransacking a Kannadiga-owned fast-food joint on the Madras High Court premises. The saving grace: there is as yet no move to indefinitely black out Tamil channels in Karnataka. And the TN Cable Operators Association has said, “We’ll not block Kannada channels even if Tamil channels are blocked in Karnataka. Business and politics are different fields.” And the bureaucracy is something else. The TN chief secretary is arguing that the Hogenakkal scheme was cleared in 1998 at a meeting convened by the central government, with the decision being approved by official representatives of both states, the rationale being that TN and Karnataka would be using the share of Cauvery water allotted to each.

The Karnataka chief secretary is denying that the state had given its consent to the Hogenakkal project. Even if the war of words heats up and the TV channels get blacked out, the serial-addicts (pun intended!) can access their staple diet, thanks to the DTH services provided by the dish antenna! Technology can transcend all political divides!

The story of how Imtiaz Patel almost became the chief executive and then quietly slipped away will become one of those classics about the bungling of the International Cricket Council in years to come. From announcing Patel’s name to the public prematurely, to being unable to get to him for a week after, the ICC did everything to botch up what would have been a very good deal.

Initially, there were doubts that Patel was concerned over his role, not wanting to be seen as a rubber-stamp CEO with Inderjit Singh Bindra being given such sweeping powers. But the Super Sport boss, it is learnt, was too pragmatic a man to let something like that get in the way.

The thing about Patel is that he seemed hand-built for the job. He was lndian but not Indian at all. He was a professional with a proven track record, and cricket was his sport while television rights, international and local, were his speciality. Malcolm Speed, the current CEO of the ICC, recognised this early on, well before the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September last year, and chose Patel as his preferred successor and went about courting him.

While Speed convinced Patel to throw his hat in the ring for the big job, it was by no means a done deal when David Morgan, the ICC president-elect, announced in Dubai on March 17: “We have been unanimous in selecting Imtiaz Patel of South Africa as the next chief executive of ICC and we have recommended his name for approval by the executive committee.”

Whether this was a genuine gaffe on the part of the ICC, or a not-so subtle way of putting pressure on Patel, who had not yet signed on the dotted line, is a matter of conjecture.

A couple of days after this announcement Patel made it clear that it was not quite a done deal just yet, although few believed he would turn down the offer. Patel was then whisked away to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for a high-prbfile meeting of chief executives and other head honchos of SuperSport. In that one week, when he was far from the influence of the ICC and in the company of those he had worked with so loyally for more than eight years, he was won back. Patel’s commitment to his company and the critical role he played were underscored, and the ICC lost out.

If one thing would have tempted Patel to take up the ICC job in Dubai it was his growing concern about living in crime-ridden Johannesburg. More than once Patel has spoken to his confidantes about the unhealthy atmosphere in the city and how his son sometimes woke up in the night with awful dreams.

On 03/31/2008, Patel informed Morgan of his decision. “We are obviously disappointed that Imtiaz has chosen to withdraw,” said Morgan, while adding rather contradictorily; “However, the fact that Imtiaz has withdrawn does not mean that, by default, we will be left with a candidate who is, in any way; inferior to him.”