Talent Management -Bollywood Style

The HR guru's amongst my readers would agree that Talent Identification and Assessment are two critical pillars of Talent management . Simply put Talent Management facilities a process and culture which ensures that the best and brightest automatically bubble to the top . If we were to believe that an organization is a microcosm of a larger society then what we are witnessing today in most Indian organizations is also indeed true for Bollywood .

Many years ago Anu Kapoor ran a show called "Meri Awaaz Suno" - to me it was a Talent Management intervention .A little girl from Bhilai won the hearts and imagination of India. That little girl was Sunidhi Chauhan , the program was a process and a platform which allowed a top talent like her to get pan India exposure . Programs such as Meri Awaaz Suno heralded the beginning of Talent Management revolution in playback singing @ Bollywood . Along the journey were many such shows , and the latest one is the Sangeet Ka Vishwa Yudh . We are now in the final stages of the program with Amanat , Raja and Aneek . These three singing sensations have come a long way displacing people like Poonam Yadav, Sumdeha and my heartthrob Mouli. While all the singers were undoubtedly brilliant , but without a process like the Vishwa Yudh , these people would not have got an opportunity or an exposure that they well deserve . To put this in context , in the good old days at Bollywood incumbency was a big factor , Lata Mangeshkar remained the playback Queen for decades without any noticeable threat to her position . Was there a talent shortage in the country...???? , were there no Mouli's, Poonam's or Sumedha's during her time ....I don't think so , what was probably lacking was platforms like the ones that we are discussing . The power of these platforms are immense and the outcomes that they can create for an industry is what we are experiencing first hand now.

I would like to highlight two key learning's from Bollywood which could be of use to HR professionals who engage in the process of Talent Management .

Let the Soul of the Process Flourish

What happens in the name of Talent Management are generally elaborate paper exercises and assessments which kill the soul of the process . By killing the soul of the process I am hinting at the complex psychometric tools often used to identify talent (however valid the consultants who peddle them claim to be ) are fraught with errors and to put undue emphasis on the tools only is disastrous .

Use Professional Talent Spotters and Talent Managers

Spotting Talent is not necessarily a function of competency frameworks or psycometry . The Aussie Cricket Board has talent scouts who scan the country and select young players with promise. A similar process happens thought he regional and city rounds of these Bollywood programs . In India however I have not heard of Talent Scouts in organizations . An individuals potential is often assessed in the context of his current and future roles . While I do not have a conceptual quarrel with this process , however happens that the potential assessment is left a bit too late for any meaningful development to happen , which leads to a situation wherein either the top talent is frustrated and leaves the organization or even worse stays back and becomes a cynic. While timing of assessment is important , the other critical issues is that potential assessment happens in the context of a set of Role Based Competencies and rarely on well grounded Generic Competencies . The challenge is of course to maintain a balance between the competencies required to deliver the current role and or future roles as also the ability to manage organizations and add stakeholder value . Often the second objective take a backseat

To conclude , I believe that Indian organizations and HR processes should be capable of identifying the Poonam Yadav's , Sunidhi Chauhan's , Shreya Ghosal's and Mouli's of the world so that there is some real competition to incumbements like Lata or Asha . "Lata tai , Asha tai no disrespect meant ...you probably had it a bit easy , but Sunidhi will face far more competition as the Talent Processes of Bollywood and getting stronger and stronger ..."

Tribute to Saurav Ganguly (DADA)

Gandhi-My Father -Film Review and More

This is not a mere film review . I would like to forewarn the readers that this post of mine contains content which can potential hurt the sensitivities of large number of Indian's who worship Mohandas Gandhi . If you are a Gandhian , this post is blasphemy...so beware

I would like to begin by an interesting comment made by a representative of the South African Government on the occasion of Gandhi's farewell from South Africa , he said " Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would like to believe that he is a saint who has wandered into politics , ...on the contrary he is a politician who belives that he is a saint..." . This quote in many ways epitomises the diabolical side of Gandhi which has rarely been touched upon by historians and the media . I would like to share some of my perspectives on Gandhi , in the context of Indian independence and also share my thoughts on the movie. Since the trigger of this post was the movie, I would like to start with the movie first ........ The movie is ordinary in terms of cinematography and content , it did explore the tumultuous relationship between Hiralal (his son) and Gandhi , and the struggle that Hiralal had to go through being the son of a famous father ....."To people he was a father, To his son he was a father he never had".....Hiralal rebelled against his father principles , embraced Islam in protest , was a compulsive drinker and a cheat. Some of the scenes in the movie catch your attention , particularly Hiralal's relationship with Kasturba . From the perspective of content , the movie disappoints .

However what the movie brings to fore is the darker side of the man Gandhi , he is no saint.... , he is dogmatic about his views of what India should be or should not be . He aims for a secular , inclusive Indian society but in his own way responsible for the riots that happened in the Eastern part of this country . His need to pussyfoot Islamic fundamentalists , lead to abandoning the Hindu's of the country ....... his dogma did not let him recognize a simple fact that partition of India was inevitable and it would only be fair that India be partitioned on the grounds of religion so that a reasonable transfer of population and property would have possibly happened without the extent of bloodshed that the country witnessed . While Muslims could chose to stay back in Bengal , the Hindus of erstwhile East Bengal were thrown out of the country . I come from a family who has been a victim of the politics of religion of Mohandas and so were many other families who lived in refugee camps in Kolkata and Delhi . Mr Gandhi's ridiculous obsession for misplaced secularism ensured that Hindus like us were murdered and looted in East Bengal and Punjab and left our land and lived in penury for many decades in the shanties in West Bengal and Delhi. My grandmother would often narrate the stories of woe that she had faced when she had virtually walked barefoot with her children in the cover of darkness from Pabna to Kolkata . I am sure this is true for many Muslim families , but the point is ,if Gandhi had clarity like Jinnah , the transfer of population would have be far better than it was and the loss of property could have been minimised by enforcing a Transfer of Property legislation . Mr Gandhi , the apostle of peace am sure was too preoccupied in Sabarmati (in God knows what..) to be able to think about the sufferings of millions of families ...........surely the father had left his children to fend from themselves .......

The politics of Mohandas ensured that he sidelined people like Subhas Bose , Sadar Patel and propped Nehru . Nehru and his party contributed brilliantly to ensure that the politics of division be played subtly in public life and judiciary ...it continues even today unabated . It is Gandhi's legacy that promotes disruptive politics in the form of reservations in almost all walks of life ....and here we are as a nation still celebrating "Bapu" and condemning Nathuram Ghodse...

The Saint is dead and thank god for that , but his shadow remains ....... I would like to know if India would be better off without its father ...what do u think

Jai Hind

Cash-Movie Review

I went to see "Cash" with my family yesterday . Over the last 6 months , thanks to my wife , I had developed some respect for Bollywood films ,........ but my experience with Cash has disillusioned me once again on the quality of content that Bollywood dishes out on the a not so discerning audience .

To me Cash is an example of great editing , cinematography and music , but lacks the most important criteria for a good film....a gripping story and an engrossing script .

Anubhav Sinha's caste includes a bunch of thieves like Karan ( Ajay Devgan) , Danny ( Zayed Khan ), Lucky (Ritesh Deshmukh), Pooja (Esha Deol) , who are aligned to a common motive of stealing priceless diamonds in South Africa. As one could imagine each of these thieves have their own speciality , like Danny can walk on water , Lucky is an ace skate border etc etc .

The movie has great music and some exotic women , I particularly liked the dances of Samita Shetty (playing Shanaya from the Indian High Commission), but beyond that there is nothing to write about .....

An entertainer if you can leave your brains at home , if you cant , its better you stay far away from the movie

Bheja Fry-Movie Review

Bheja fry literally means the “racking brains” which aptly describes the state of arrogant businessman Ranjeet Thadani (Rajat Kapoor) when he met wannabe singer Bharat Bhusan (Vinay Pathak) .

Bheja Fry is a story of a group of high society men who organize talent dinners every Friday night. In these dinners, the rich men get idiots whose naiveté is in display , the group of men derive joy from the performances of these idiots and the best of the lot (most idiotic performer wins)

Bharat Bhusan is one such idiot who Ranjeet Thadani discovers and wants to bring to the Friday party . He invites Bharat to his house for a sampler of his talents and is adequately amused by his (Bharat’s) antics. Ranjeet’s wife Sheetal (Sharika) detest her husbands nasty ways of deriving fun and leaves the house in disgust and protest . Further to complicate matters Bhusan has to manage complicated human processes when a lot of unexpected guests drop by. The guest list included Ranjeet’s girlfriend (Bhairavi Goswami) , Sheetal’s former lover (Milind Soman ) ….and the drama that unfolds is fascinating and humorous .

Overall Bheja Fry does not impress by its technical finesse , the screenplay is reasonably shoddy and the work of all the actors is pretty pedestrian . The entire essence of the film lies in its well thought out script, this film is a great example of how a well conceived script and wittily penned dialogues can make an average film look good

For me , Bheja Fry belongs to Vinay Pathak (Bharat Bhusan) . In this film he emerges as one of the finest comic talents of the country . His demeanor , vocabulary, dialogue delivery and his goof ups make up for uninspiring performances of his co-actors . Overall an average "time pass" film

Spider-Man 3 Earns $622 Million In First 10 Days

Spider-Man 3 took in another $60 million domestically (4,252 theaters), for a worldwide total of 145.5 million. That’s a lot of cash, not enough to break the record, but instead coming in at the fourth biggest biggest second weekend and fourth fastest movie to hit $200 million in the States.



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Life in a Metro-Film Review

"Life in a metro” is a conglomerate film , it is an amalgamation of 4 distinct love stories put into one , integrated by love , lust , sensitivity and deceit which runs as common themes in all 4 sub-stories

Director Anurag Basu proves for the third time (after Murder and Gangster) that he's an extremely engaging storyteller. The complexities in relationships, the shortcuts one adopts in life to attain the goals and the decadence of ethics and values have been portrayed lucidly

In spite of the drama, the concept and the music, Metro falls short of being what I call a best selling movie (if there was a phrase like that) , thanks to the choice of Dharmendra and Nafisa Ali as one of the couples in the love quadrangle.

Neha (Kangana Ranaut) and Ranjeet (Kay Kay Menon)

Ranjeet is a typical upwardly mobile Mumbaikar who is in this unending quest for money and success .He has forgotten his loving wife Shikha (Shilpa Shetty) and has found solace and physical gratification in his colleague Neha .Neha uses Ranjeet to scale the corporate ladder in a very short time and, using his lust for her as a lever . The physicality of the relationship and the commercialization of values stand out as an important lesson for the viewers, and conclusively prove that success can be achieved through short cuts.

Shikha (Shilpa Shetty) and Akash (Shiney Ahuja)

Akash a struggling theatre actor, chances upon Shikha and they bond very soon. Shikha neglected by an indifferent husband Ranjeet and bogged down by the drudgery of household chores finds a soul mate in Akash . There love story is one of sensitivity, caring, mutual respect and understanding, and when Shikha almost crosses the limit, her values pull her back……..


Shruti (Konkona Sen Sharma) and Debu (Irrfan Khan)

Shruti, in her early 30s and still a virgin, she's desperate to get married. She is dreamy eyed about her RJ, Wishy K [Gautam Kapoor]. She meets Debu through a matrimonial site. Debu is a typical wannabe, unsophisticated, loud, vernacular male who is best described with his crassy jokes and lecherous glances …..Shruti hates Debu and as the drama unfolds gets to know him better and finally falls in love with him

Amol (Dharmendra) and Vaijanti (Nafisa Ali)

Frankly had it not been for Dharm paji , this film would have made it …… I fault Anurag for his choice of actors like Dharmendra for complex roles like these, after all the great Jat is not exactly cut out for sophisticated acting that the role demanded.


METRO is boosted with the brilliant performances of Shilpa, Kay Kay, Irrfan and Konkona vying for top honors. According to me this is the best of Shilpa that I have experienced. Kay Kay is exceptional. You hate him; detest his very sight, all thanks to a terrific portrayal. Konkona’s brilliance is never in doubt and Irrfan is the livewire of the movie. He appeals to a large spectrum of the audience and I could watch the film only for Irrfan.

Spiderman 3 -Movie Review

I went to see Spiderman -3 , in the sparking new Palm Beach Galleria today morning . My five year old Neelabjo is a crazy Spiderman fan , we have DVD's of both the movies, innumerable CD's of the cartoon version and often watch them to kill boredom.

As one would expect , there are digital effects galore to remind us that Sony is a high-tech company and getting better in what it does everyday. The three hours was full of interesting digital effects particularly when the new villain the Sandman is transformed into a sandstorm and pulverizes half of Manhattan . Sandman provides more than a serious challenge to Spiderman and in course of the movie learns of a connection with the murder of his Uncle Ben with the Sandman . To make matters worse a mysterious black alien substance turns his Spiderman costume black . This black thing is an alien parasite which feeds on a host body and brings out the darker side of Spidey that nobody has seen before. The central theme of the movie is how Parker deals with the darker side of him when he was actually enjoying it and manages to overcome it .

However if I were to critique the movie , I would say the "evil" side of Spiderman is hopelessly mild mannered . The audience is exposed to a tableau of his Mr Hyde exploits. His hair droops over his eye , he flirts with the women in Queens and Manhattan , he is rude to his girl , dances like a Travolta in a night club before making an ass of himself ......not exactly a horrifying sneak preview into the nadir of the human soul . Spider manages the struggle with his evil self well and soon comes out of it and in the end copes with Sandman .......in the process he loses his childhood friend Harry Osborne.

In conclusion a well thought through story line , very well executed digital effects contribute to make it a great viewing experience .

Khosla ka Ghosla-The Indian Middle Class Strikes back

Readers of my blog and my close friends would find it surprising that I am writing a film review . People close to me know that I am not a film buff ......and my wife is quite an opposite , she loves Hindi films , is a die-hard Amitabh fan and I am exactly the opposite....(though I like to dance to the tunes of filmi music with pretty women...) Hindi films are at times the cause of matrimonial stress....but more on that some other day .

A couple of weeks ago my dear wife got me tickets for a film called "Kholsa ka Ghosla" ....and my first reaction was "Oh my God , not another one"....I was sure that this was one of the variants of "Mehne...XYZ...Kiya", while I have nothing against such kind of films but neither do they particularly excite me ....but I decided to go along to the theater with an open mind...as open as I could keep it ....... It was a three hour film and I must say it was an amazing experience . Kudos to Director Dibakar Banerjee, who in his first outing presented a social problem with a delectable blend of comedy.

As one would easily guess the setting of the film is in New Delhi (Khosla being a common Punjabi name).......it's about a middle class government employee who wants to build his dream house (ghosla) . He lifetime savings went into buying a piece of land for a princely sum of Rs 30 lakhs. The members of Mr Khosla's household view this piece of land acquisition through their own filters -his younger son is indifferent, he wants to go to the US and already has a job in NY , so he doesn't care for dad's ghosla , the elder good- for -nothing son is amused ...Ms Khosla supports her husband in his Taj Mahal dream .....and finally on one Sunday when the family goes to do the Bhumi Pujan...they realize that their plot has been captured by land shark Khurana (played by Bomman Irani). His dream shattered ,Mr Khosla ,goes to meet Khurana who demands a hefty ransom to release the plot that was rightfully his . Mr Khosla approaches the police , the local politician and an NGO , all of them have a standard response , "we will negotiate with Khurana and bring down the ransom amount , you pay us our fees..." in this day and age , you would expect the police and the politicians to do this to you , but not NGO's......... a dejected Khurana loses all hope of getting back his land.......while the drama of deceit was unfolding , there was a transformation happening parallely........Khosla's second son (the one who wanted to settle down in NY) was silently feeling his father's pain and was plotting to pay back Khurana....he and his friends duped Khurana to buy a plot of land which belonged to the fisheries department and with the proceeds of the sale to paid back Khurana his ransom and releasde his father's plot .

The issue of land grabbing and harassment is quite common in India . My father was harassed by local CPI(M) and Congress goons when we decided to build a house in Kolkata in 1986 , and a middle class family like ours had no recourse ....it's been two decades after that and still today the social evil not only exists but has been compounded , at least twenty years ago there were some checks and balances in society , there were avenues for the "aam admi" to be heard ....not any longer , the film brings out how the situation has become worse with the NGO's also doing their fair share to complicate matters ( I am not at all suggesting that all NGO's do it , but I am personally aware of many who claim to be NGO's but their objectives are not exactly what their MOA claim to be...).

This film shows the middle class how to survive , and if it means to pay back these corrupt elements in the same coin...so be it ....how long can we the Indian middle class be harassed by our polity , our police ...

This brilliant theme and the script was brought to life by versatile actors like Bomman Irani , Anupam Kher , others like Tara Sharma , Ravin Shorey and Parvin Dabas form a perfect caste for a near perfect film......