For a Better Governance, a Better Democracy

A democracy can work if every citizen posesses a perfect information.

Here are few of the tools that I would like to share, which I believe if everyone starts using - this democracy will move from being a group of several anarches headed by MPs to a real democracy:

# Know your MLAs and MPs, and communicate with them:
http://www.mpmla.in/

This website is an unbiased effort to facilitate communication between people and their respective MPs/MLAs in India. The people can put across their grievance/appreciation to their MP/MLA and the MP/MLA can choose to respond and address the issue. We hold no bias and no political affiliation what so ever.

#Information about the Educational qualifications, Assets/Liabilities, Criminal Cases for MPs in LS & RS:
http://myneta.info/

This is basically digitized data from affidavits submitted by candidates in Parliamentary and State Assembly elections.

#http://adrindia.org/About-Us/Content/about-adr.html

Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) was established in August 1999 by a group of Professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. It started working on building fair and transparent electoral and political processes in the country by filing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in August 1999 in the Delhi High Court asking for mandatory disclosure of criminal, financial and educational background of candidates contesting elections to the Parliament and State Legislatures, prior to the polls. In November 2000, ADR got its first achievement when the Delhi High Court gave its judgment in favor of ADR.

# Election Results, Candidate lists, Cabinet of Ministers List, Information on General & Assembly Elections:

http://www.indian-elections.com/

Bol.. (Speak Out)

Bol, meaning Speak Out.. express yourself.. don't be silent. And, that's what this film is all about.

I have not seen anything like this before, anything! It's brave, intelligent and progressive Cinema with contemporary make believe treatment. The subject is bold and intense, and not everyone is going to like everything about this film.

#What I did not like is the acting in the opening sequence, the opening sequence required flawless, very mature acting but it looked far from convincing, however from thereon the film grows on you and you forget about the not so good acting by the actress in first sequence.

# One of the many things that I liked about the film is the way the director puts into the *right perspective* some of the Old World Wisdom. The lead actress keeps on correcting her father by putting the old world wisdom quotes into correct perspective, whenever her father tries to escape a difficult situation in life by quoting those. One of the exaple is "Nothing happens without the will of the God", which is so often mis-used to justify wrong doings. You have to see the film to find out how the Father uses this wisomd quote to escape difficult situations in life and how his daughter trieds to put some sense in him by putting things in correct perspective.

#Also, it was intelligent to not make the film an out an out weepie stuff and eye some awards. The film is witty and humourous in places, though it's humour only for the audience and not for the characters. But, one just can not help laughing at the misery of the characters - mostly sarcasm, but it comes as a good relief. One of the great comic moments is when one of the daughter (Pakistani Family) prays for Tendulkar's century and her father gets to know about it.

#Although the film is based in Pakistan and talks about the family that moved from Lucknow to Lahore, the film's wisdom holds good for all the conservative and poor families that live in this continent, the rural India and Pakistan.

#The film ends at a rather positive note by showing how the family prospers when all the women of the family start working and earning. It shows a ray of hope and it's a good contrast made by the director to convey his point.

#There's a question that the protagonist asks at the end of the film. However, more important is the question that will this movie be watched by the people who matter? The people who are sought to be changed.. the vast majority of rual India and Pakistan? The multiplex audience will throng to catch a glimpse, no doubt.

Some Text from reviews:
"After Khuda Ke Liye, Bol is Shoaib Mansoor`s second dramatic breakthrough of revealing life with its complexities. The web of relationships within a family that barely makes ends meet. On top of the poverty, the father subscribes to a set of values many would relate to…values that we inherit and tightly hold on to, values that embody contradictions, and values that have not been questioned." - Book My Show

"It is strident, melodramatic and unmistakably out for the jugular. But in the end, it drives home its point in a manner that is compelling enough for all the effort not to be dismissed as much ado about nothing.

Mansoor sets the tone and tenor at the very outset. A young Lahore woman, having defiantly refrained from defending herself in court, is sentenced to death. The President of Pakistan summarily rejects her mercy plea. The convict is, however, granted a last wish: she is allowed to tell her side of the story to the media before she is led to the gallows." - - NDTV Movies

"The story focuses on Zainab, a daughter who always feels compelled by her logical reasoning and sense of justice to challenge the values her father holds dear. It’s an emotional film, which looks at some serious issues through the experiences of its characters.

The real two stars of the film were Zainab (Humaima Malick) and her father Hakim Saab (Manzar Sehbai). A particular mention of the father, as he chronicled the emotions of a religiously timid character, to regressively patriarchal father and finally a menacing and hypocritical tyrant, convincingly and whilst making you loath him throughout the film." - Bollyspice/Indiatimes

Youtube video of the Making of Bol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdA_lzDyR2s