CRUNCH - All things crunched.

Ganesh the Instant God – the real Change Agent Mumbai celebrates many Gods in a calendar year. Some with intensity, some with fervor and few amidst the frenzy of colour, light and sound. Most religions have their favourite Gods/Godesses/Scriptures & Prophets & cities tend to be a high point of cultural velocity. Mumbai has an array of reigions and Gods to choose from,godess Durga during – Navratri, Allah during Ramzan & Jesus during the week of Christmas. Ganesh Chaturthi is one such festival, omnipresent and enormous than any other. Ganesh chaturthi, is integral to the city of Mumbai and its belief system. Ganesh is in many ways is the presiding deity of Mumbai. The Mumbaikar’s love for Ganesh God spills outdoors. People in Mumbai wear him around their necks, carry him in their wallets and install him on their car dashboards (fashionably ornamented & garlanded). Ganesh is the closest to the idea of a carnival if Mumbai was to have one. What makes Ganesh accessible to

A lot was said & heard of Love Aaj Kal (LAK) since its release … from Imtiaz Ali of Jab We Met fame to Saif Ali’s illuminati productions (a dichotomy – a secret society for a production house), LAK promised to be bold & ambitious. The plot deserved the attention of the Change Agent, for it throws up an interesting set of questions - Is this an attempt to find similarities through the lens of modernity, is it possible to create change by blurring the lines between the old & the new – is this film a change point at all? This is a story within a story, the plot is loaded with symbols of love, rituals of people in love and Bollywood’s favourite – the locations. Shot across three bridges… London, San Francisco & Calcutta (Delhi seemed like a flyover), the bridge is the device used to time-code the idea of LOVE. The older and modern versions of it (please do not miss the bridge on the poster) seem to exist on the two opposite banks. Does this film preach any one idea is a qu