Matters of heart can be solved with logic!

In a recent interview to Film Companion, Karan Johar said, "There is logic in ADHM. The lead hero aspires to be a singer and therefore sings." I think the logic ends precisely there. What about love and relationship Karan?

For many, like me, who have grown on film's by Johar and Yash-Adi Chopra, love either results in couple's unision (Dil Toh Pagal Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai) or sacrifice and move on! (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Kal Ho Naa Ho)

ADHM lingers between one sided love (without apt justification why Anushka's character Alizeh doesn't reciprocate love to the 'Aashiq' Ranbir's- Ayan till the end) and Friendship which actually is so blown out of proportion that it doesn't appear to be Friendship but love. (Remember ek Ladka aur ek Ladki kabhi dost nahi ho saktey if one of them is so close-physically chipku -Hum Tum)

Once Ayan confesses love and is rejected, he moves on - partially to somebody who is shown to understand love but is a divorcee! Alizeh suffocates in her other 'lovely' relationship and disappears without giving hint to even his lover Ranbir, it is Ranbir's one sided love that fumes on her news of absconding, ditto Jab We Met style, to find her, only to re-discover that she still feels Ranbir to be a friend (Matlab- Kuch Kuch Hota Hai Par Tum Nahi Samjhogey)

ADHM is a film of contradictions. Alizeh who keeps on saying "Mohabbat karna humarey bas mein nahi, ussey dur jaana humarey bas main hain" Then why did she go back to the first lover when he has ditched her! Ranbir once says 'Aasan Hai Kya, Aisi Mohabbat Karna Jiskey Badley Mohabbat Na Miley? It is not! Then why hope for reciprocation throughout the film and crib about it! (Btw he does same to Ash-No strings attached, "Rishta wo jo aasani se toot jaaye.") No body taught them to Move on with memories in heart!

Imagine, if in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, while the daughter reunites SRK with Kajol and SRK says 'I am just your friend' or in Kal Ho NA Ho, Preity refuses to marry Saif after SRK has sacrificed his love or in Jab We Met, Kareena would not have accepted Shahid after he rediscovers her-would the films have been successful and loved by masses.

ADHM tries hard to feed us that 'matters of heart are difficult' through forced emotional complications. It can be easily resolved with logic. Move on guys!

Post-script: Ranbir Kapoor, can't keep selecting scripts where he is subjected to confusion, careless and childish behaviour. Time is already up for him. Better actors with wider range like Ranveer Singh, Sushant Singh and Varun Dhawan are catching up. Confused, Childish and careless persona cannot be labelled and sold as versatile acting.

Anushka is natural but her character suffers between selfishness and self awareness. Aishwarya's exit is difficult to digest and I wish Ranbir and she would have settled for each other. However, the director is adamant on making us feel the resilience of heart's "ek tarfa pyaar"- alas through vulnerability of logic and from the mouth of an accomplished 'lover boy' who has 'acquired' other's love in every romantic film he did.

2/5 stars.

Should I do Bachelors of Mass Media (BMM)? How good are the career prospects?

A lot of students have been calling me off late. Most of them who have given the HSC (12th grade) examination call to seek advice on whether or not to take BMM. Let me put at the on set, I am not a big expert, but having done BMM myself (graduated in 2007) I posses a decent understanding about how the next 3 years for a student opting to do BMM would be and what there career prospects could be.

A student of BMM will have to go through 36 different subjects over the 3 years ranging from, Economics, Political Science, Creative Writing, Broadcast Journalism, Niche Magazine Journalism, Photography, Introduction to PR, Media Studies, Culture Studies, Understanding Cinema etc..

It is in the last year of the course that one has to select a specialisation - Advertising or Journalism. However the dilemma for many who call me (especially from Commerce) is whether the professional course has an immediate job prospect? I answer by saying YES. Many still have doubts. Will they have to struggle and slog a lot to reach the desired post? Guess what YES.

Guaranteed employment a myth?

It is not the case with only BMM or BMS or even BAF etc. It is with every field. Tell me one field which confirms employment? Students will have to start from junior roles and learn the tricks of the trade by being in an area of interest. Where money is riding high, not every individual gets prime responsibility immediately. There are jobs available both in print and electronic media, one has to get in spend years and then apply what they have learned at the courses. I did it it the same way. Learned the hard way. I know my friends who took jobs as PR, copy writers, creative associates, short-film-makers, assistant directors, content writers, digital strategists, communication managers, copy-editors, proof-readers etc. Everything that is taught at the course in 3 years is a window to the big professional set-up. You will have to be a jack of all trades and (unlike the complete proverb) eventually you will end up becoming a master of something. What is important is each step you take and the experiences you gain from it.

Remember, while you are learning these subjects in an academic set-up, add value to your over-all personality by learning, graphic designing, movie-editing, nuances of English language, MS Office, a bit of accounting and commerce. All these soft-skills will somewhere help you in securing a much lucrative job. You never know you may start your own editing or graphic designing studio. So get ready to explore while you take a deep plunge into the world of Mass Media.

A Little Bit of Slope Makes Up for a Lot of Y-Intercept

From a lecture by Professor John Ousterhout.

Here's today's thought for the weekend.  A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of Y-intercept.

[Laughter]

So at a mathematical level this is an obvious truism.  You know if you have two lines, the red line and the blue line and the red line has a lower Y-intercept but a greater slope then eventually the red line will cross the blue line.

And if the Y-axis is something good, depending on your definition of something good, then I think most people would pick the red trajectory over the blue trajectory (..unless you think you're going to die before you get to the crossing point).

[Laughter]

So in a mathematical sense it's kind of obvious.  But I didn't really mean in a mathematical sense, I think this is a pretty good guideline for life also.  What I mean is that how fast you learn is a lot more important than how much you know to begin with.  So in general I say that people emphasize too much how much they know and not how fast they're learning.

That's good news for all of you people because you're in Stanford and that means you learn really, really fast.  This is a great advantage for you.  Now let me give you some examples.  The first example is: you shouldn't be afraid to try new things even if you're completely clueless about the area you're going into.  No need to be afraid about that.  As long as you learn fast you'll catch up and you'll be fine.

For example I often hear conversations the first week of class where somebody will be bemoaning, "Oh so-and-so knows blah-blah-blah, how am I ever going to catch up to them?"  Well, if you're one of the people who knows blah-blah-blah it's bad news for you because honestly everyone is going to catch up really quickly.  Before you know it that advantage is going to be gone and if you aren't learning too you're going to be behind.

Another example is that a lot of people get stuck in ruts in their lives.  They realize they're in the wrong job for them.  I have the wrong job or the wrong spouse or whatever…

[Laughter]

And they're afraid to go off and try something new.  Often they're worried, I'm going to really look bad if I go..

[Laughter]

I'm kidding about the spouse.  But, seriously people will be afraid to try some new thing because they're worried they'll look bad or will make a lot of rookie mistakes.  But, I say, just go do it and focus on learning.

[Laughter]

Let me take the spouse out of the equation for now.

[Laughter]

Focus on the job.

Another example is hiring.  Before I came back to academia a couple of years ago I was out doing startups.  What I noticed is that when people hire they are almost always hire based on experience.  They're looking for somebody's resume trying to find the person who has already done the job they want them to do three times over.  That's basically hiring based on Y-intercept.

Personally I don't think that's a very good way to hire.  The people who are doing the same thing over and over again often get burnt out and typically the reason they're doing the same thing over and over again is they've maxed out.  They can't do anything more than that.  And, in fact, typically what happens when you level off is you level off slightly above your level of competence.  So in fact you're not actually doing the current job all that well.

So what I would always hire on is based on aptitude, not on experience.  You know, is this person ready to do the job?  They may never have done it before and have no experience in this area, but are they a smart person who can figure things out?  Are they a quick learner?  And I've found that's a much better way to get really effective people.

So I think this is a really interesting concept you can apply in a lot of different ways.  And the key thing here I think is that slow and steady is great.  You don't have to do anything heroic.  You know the difference in slopes doesn't have to be that great if you just every day think about learning a little bit more and getting a little bit better, lots of small steps, its amazing how quickly you can catch up and become a real expert in the field.

I often ask myself: have I learned one new thing today?  Now you guys are younger and, you know, your slope is a little bit higher than mine and so you can learn 2 or 3 or 4 new things a day.  But if you just think about your slope and don't worry about where you start out you'll end up some place nice.

Ok, that's my weekend thought.

[Applause]