Yet Another Take on 3 Idiots story credit

I read the book Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat long time back and I liked it a lot. I have also watched the movie 3 Idiots and have to accept the movie was way better than my expectations. Even with some very filmy scenes, I think Raju Hirani has come up with a wonderful script and a movie in the same league as MunnaBhai series.

Movie is indeed different from the book although theme remains the same and is really a must watch, controversy or no controversy.

I was expecting to see Chetan Bhagat's name in the opening credit, but it wasn't there. I couldn't spot his name even in the closing/rolling credits. I will be lying if I say I didn't find it strange. I was surprised why Bhagat doesn't have anything to say about it. Finally he spoke after a few days and controversy erupted.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Hirani and Aamir slammed Bhagat in various press conferances terming him as publicity hungry etc. etc. Bhagat himself on his part did various TV interviews and wrote blog posts, 4 to be precise. Vinod Chopra decided to make the contract with Bhagat public at his site and also listed 30 reasons why movie is not same as the book. Media went ga-ga with the controversy, everybody wrote about it. Vir Sanghvi's take on the whole issue is available on his website and I really like what he has written and agree with all of it.

Latest is a video from Raju Hirani himself which many say proves all the allegations by Bhagat wrong. Well I don't agree and really don't understand why they don't see, what I see.

Here are my 2 cents on all the 3 allegations which Hirani seems to have successfully proved wrong:

1. Video shows what Chetan wrote on the blog about story being copied and then Raju interprets it in the video as the allegation of story being stolen. Chetan wrote what he wrote because he was not given credit for the story. People should understand that this is a different issue than the 'Based on Novel' credit issue and two should not be confused with each other.

This issue occurred because Hirani and VVC simply gave no credit to Chetan for the story. Instead they went on to prove that movie is different from the book and thus implying that Bhagat deserves no credit for the story.

I fully agree that movie is different from the book and 3i teams has done a fab job with the plot modification and screenplay, however it still has FPS connection and hence Bhagat's name should be there as Story Writer. Bhagat is not asking for exclusive story writing credit. He clearly mentions on the blog that he is happy to share the credit with other 2 story writers viz Hirani and Abhijat Joshi.

Chetan accepts selling rights to VVC and co so I think Hirani's comment are totally out of context.

2. Video then shows Chetan writing that he was denied due credit and Hirani shows the contract where it's clearly written that he will be given credit in the rolling credits. I can't agree or disagree with that statement but when Hirani goes on to say that they honored the contract to the T, I have strong objection to that statement.

I will first request you to check out the page 4 of 9 page long agreement between Bhagat and VVC films and then compare it with the actual 'Based on Novel' credit in the movie.

I have them both side by side here for you:


3. Finally Hirani says that Chetan alleges that he was not shown the script and he says that he narrated the script to himself personally and got an NDA signed. Now Chetan himself has already clarified on the blog that he was not shown the script, he never denied hearing narration. He himself says that hearing a narration is different from having a script in your hand and reading it fully so again I think Hirani is just confusing it.

So here is my final take on this whole issue:

I think VVC and Hirani just thought that Bhagat is a small writer and they can just ignore him and also probably they believed that since they have modified the story, no credit should be given to original author. I am not saying that such things don't happen ever and VVC and Hirani committed a big crime or something, but ya they probably in the excitement and enthusiasm of creating a great movie, which 3I really is, forgot to be ethical and as Vir Sanghvi says graceful.

Having said that this does not change my admiration and liking of anybody involved in the controversy. I love movies from Hirani and Aamir, they sure have a strong message and I will look forward to more such movies from them in future and I love Chetan Bhagat's writing so will keep looking forward to more books from him as well :-)

Mobile Software Development Spectrum

Mobile Software Development Spectrum from Sachin Palewar on Vimeo.

A seminar by Sachin Palewar (www.palewar.com) on various mobile software platforms and development choices for them. This seminar was held in Raisoni Engineering College Nagpur in Sept 2009.

Wi-Fi enabled, Mobile Ready, Solar Tent

I really struggled to think of a suitable title for this post. There are so many things about this innovative tent concept that you just can't describe it with a few words.

Anyway let's get started:

1. Do you notice that the tent is glowing in night as shown in the image to left? Now isn't that cool. Here is how exactly it works. You send a SMS to your tent and it starts glowing to tell you its location, so that you don't loose it :-)

2. This tent uses a special fabric to capture solar energy which can then further be used in many ways in your tent.

3. Wi-Fi and Mobile Charging - Yes true you have wi-fi inside this tent to use internet and you have a charging facility to charge mobiles or any portable device. Charging is done by using magnetic induction so no wires are required.

4. Internal Heating - Now the energy generated by the tent can also be used to automatically heat tent's groundsheet once the interior temperature falls below a set level.

This tent concept is a vision by Orange and has been designed in association with Kaleidoscope. For official Press Release click here.

Now I don't know how many people will actually like to use wi-fi or charge their mobiles while camping but I think automatic heating, night glow will definitely be handy and charging can be used to charge cameras as well. So let me know what do you think about this tent concept? Thanks for reading :-)

Here comes Google OS for your computer

Google has just announced Google Chrome OS on its official blog. It promises to be simple, fast and secure like all the other Google products like search, mail and Gtalk.

Chrome OS will actually be Chrome browser running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. Also since this will be an Open-Source OS, anybody will be able to download and play with the sourcecode of the OS.

Initially Google OS will only be available for netbooks but I guess later it will be made available for PCs as well. Netbooks running Google OS are expected to hit the market in second half of 2010.

Google also promises that its OS will boot faster, will be free from viruses, won't require you to spend time configuring hardwares or downloading updates. Your data will always be backed up automatically so you don't loose your data ever.

All the web-based applications will automatically work on Google OS, so you just need to write a web application in your favourite web-technology and it will run on Google OS.

Clarification: Image used in this post is not official release from Google, its sourced from maximumpc.com.

World's Toughest Phone from Land Rover

@angsuman just tweeted this. I followed the link and googled about it, what I found was VERY VERY IMPRESSIVE.

Ok so this phone is called S1 and is a result of collaboration between Land Rover and Sonim. During testing they ran over it with a Land Rover, submerged it in mud and had an elephant stand on it to test its durability. S1 also survived being roasted in an oven at 150 degrees centigrade, soaked in a pint of lager and tossed from the second floor of a building. No wonder they call it the ‘indestructible’ mobile device, which may sound very appealing to builders, workmen, adventure/outdoors enthusiasts and other people working in tough conditions.

Sonim manufactures ruggedized phones and have also launched a phone in collaboration with JCB earlier, its called JCB Tough Phone.

Some of the features of S1 are:
1. 1,500 hours of battery life.
2. 2.0 megapixel camera.
3. An extra loud ringtone to be heard overy sound of heavy machinery.
4. IP-67 International Protection certificate
5. GPS, Bluetooth, WAP, Opera Mini Browser
6. Torch
7. Extra-wide buttons, can be used wearing gloves.

Telegraph reports that - Tesco, who launch the phone today at a retail price of £249.99, are so confident it can't be broken that it comes with an unconditional 3 years guarantee. The S1 is available for £25 a month on a contract with Orange and is being sold exclusively by Tesco.

If you are a mobile developer like me, then you can take heart from the fact that Sonim has a Developer Portal as well, which enables you to register with them and download Java SDK complete with emulations tool to develop J2ME applications for their ruggedized phones.

Included below is a video featuring Land Rover S1 from TimesOnline.