An Open Letter to RIM (BlackBerry) CEO Thorsten Heins

Dear Mr. Thorsten Heins,

Congratulations on successfully running the Research in Motion (RIM) Corp for the past six months. I am not too sure whether you have found out what is ruining RIM, but I sure do know that almost every employee at RIM is working towards making sure that you are still in business next year, this time around. I am sure you must have been reading the latest media news about RIM going kaput over the next couple of years. If there is any truth in those news then, I, as a loyal customer of RIM have some tips, which I am ready to share, free of cost, just to make sure that RIM is still in business over the next few years.

Reasons Why I love my BlackBerry Bold Phone:

• Ease of use: I bought my Bold 9780 over a year ago, and I absolutely loved the way it functioned! I had never used a BlackBerry (BB) phone before and I was quite amazed to see that it was so easy to use, set-up and carry around!
• Easy email access: This has to be the best feature ever! Any Android, Symbian or iOS phone cannot beat it. I can easily access all my personal and official emails at a single click! Drafting and sending an email is so easy when compared to the other OS enabled phones.
• Amazing Qwerty Keypad. Period.
• Powerful Camera: One of the best camera I have seen in a smart phone. The only one better than this might be either iPhone or the phones from Sony.
• BBM: The BlackBerry Messenger is one of the most powerful and awesome messenger around. I don’t need to pay any money or install a third-party app to talk to a friend who is in the US, UK or even Africa! A simple BBM Pin would do and it keeps me connected with everyone I know, who owns a BB phone!

 

Why I don’t want RIM to shut shop:

• No QWERTY: Have you noticed? There are very few smartphones which have the qwerty type feature available? Almost all mobile phones have got big screens with similar touchscreens and qwerty touch screens. There are probably millions of customers like me who hate touchscreens, simply because they are made for the content consumers and not content creators! It is extremely difficult to type on touchscreens unless you get used to them!
• Email trouble: One of the prime reasons why BB rules is because of the amazing ease with which I can access my emails.
• No BBM!: What will I do?
• Secure Emails: Once RIM is out of business, I know my emails, chats, and browsing won’t be secure (as there will be no more BB phones or BB services!). The government agencies have been trying hard to bring RIM to its knees and share encrypted user data from a long time!

 

What can RIM do to avoid a shut-shop situation?

I have seen and used android phones owned by my friends, and I can completely vouch for the fact that all of them look almost the same! The only thing differentiating them are the featured apps and customized look. I sometimes feel that the Android operating system has been borrowed heavily from the iOS. So how can RIM create a powerful value proposition in the smart phone market to propel its sales northwards?

• Bigger screens: Have you checked the screens on most BB phones? They have got the smallest screens in the smart phone market! One of the major reasons, I feel, people are shying away from BB phones is because of the screen size! Everyone loves to watch a video or a movie on the move nowadays and the restrictive screen size doesn’t really help. Increase the screen size by 30% and see the wonders!
• Cut down the internet rates: Here in India, the internet access rates for BB phones are exorbitantly high! I pay INR 599 for unlimited internet access which includes browsing, emails and chat. And, these are the rates for a 2G internet service with my carrier. The rates for 3G are even higher. Compare this with Apple or other Android enabled phones, which have internet plans starting for as low as INR 99 per month with more than 1 GB download free of cost and includes browsing, emails and chat. Same feature, different phones, different prices. Partner with cellphone carrier networks, reduce the access costs and just see how many youngsters buy a BB phone and sign up for the internet services!
• Stop re-bundling the OS versions: Come on, you have to agree. There are no significant changes between the BB OS 6 and OS7. If you build a hype around an OS, please make sure to stand up to it! I could hardly notice any difference between the OS 6 and OS7! The same goes with phone models as well. Within two moths of purchase of the Bold 3, I was shocked to see that there was a Bold 4 and a Bold 5 available in the market with almost no significant improvement in features, except for a touch screen! Seriously? Is this how innovation is happening in RIM nowadays? It looks more of Research in Loose Motion rather than Research in Motion! There are HUGE expectations from OS10, please do not ruin it!
• Introduce low-cost phones: Even the most basic model of BB in India costs INR 8,500 or more (and there are only two models available in this segment). And, this is one of your biggest market these days! Haven’t you learnt anything from the success of the BB Curve? If you want to increase your customer base, then re-brand and launch four phones each, in the range of INR 6k to 10k and watch the wonders. Gone are the days, when BB phones were exclusively meant for enterprise and corporate customers. If you do not target the youth and provide value, you might as well not enter the market! Similarly, try to have at least four phone models in every cost segment.
• Where are the touch screen phones?: I have heard a lot of people complain that BB does not have a good touch screen model. You might say there is BB Torch or something, but you have to agree, that they are not even half as good as a BB Bold or a BB Curve! A good BB touchscreen phone will set the smart phone market on fire!
• Limited Edition phones, Really?: Stop this right away! The latest BB Porsche Edition is a complete eyesore. And, I am not the only one who feels this. At a whopping INR 1.5 Lakhs for a cellphone, it does look retarded. Spending so much in partnering and coming out with a useless phone won’t do any good. Instead, a better looking cellphone which is appropriately priced is something that we can do with!

These small tweaks will really help you, trust me, for I am a customer! your marketing and research team might give you a different opinion, but for emerging markets like India, this is what will work.

Yours Sincerely,

Shriharsha Bhat

A BlackBerry Fanatic!

Images: GUIM.co.uk, GForGames.com and GizmoCrave.com

Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 1 – Movie Review

I was warned that Gangs of Wasseypur (GoW), is not your average run of the mill movie by the numerous reviews published online. The reviews explicitly mentioned that it is a strict no-no for women and family. But I beg to differ. This movie is nothing short of cinematic brilliance by Anurag Kashyap. For people who truly appreciate beautiful story telling and better direction; sex, creed and caste should not matter.

Image: BolegaIndia.com

The movie is not about coal mafia as everyone thinks. It rather borrows the storyline from the coal mafia of the colonial rule in India and picks up the pace. The first 20-25 mins are a bit confusing for people who cannot keep up with the narrator’s pace. This is partly because of the language used by the narrator which is a mix of Hindi and Urdu. It starts with the story of  the dreaded bandit Sultana in the village of Wasseypur and Dhanbad, which once belonged to the state of Bengal, then to Bihar and finally Jharkhand in independent India. It goes on to narrate the way in which a resident of the same village, Shahid Khan (portrayed brilliantly by Jaideep Ahlawat) impersonates Sultana, robs colonial trains and makes away with the loot. Sultana finds out about Shahid and after a bloody battle of power banishes the latter out of the village with the help of the village elders. Shahid, fuming with revenge becomes a worker at the colliery of Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia). One incident triggers a chain of events and Shahid Khan is killed by Ramadhir’s hired goons. This eventually starts off a battle for revenge between Ramadhir, Sardar Khan (son of Shahid Khan, played most brilliantly by Manoj Bajpai) and Sultan (son of Sultana).

The movie spans across almost four decades, right from the 1950’s to 1990’s, which witness the rise of Sardar Khan and how he seeks revenge with Sultan and Ramadhir through all these years. ‘Keh ke loonga’, is one of the memorable dialogues in the movie which never leaves you till the end. The story of how Sardar starts off his empire, gets married twice and becomes a pain in the A$$ for Ramadhir and Sultan is worth watching. The movie has heavy explicit language but I felt that it was the essence of the movie. The violence and the aggressiveness with which Sardar Khan seeks to reclaim his honour reminded me of the movie Kill Bill, in which Uma Thurman goes to all extents to destroy her ex-flame. The chemistry between Sardar and his first wife Nagma (Richa Chaddha) is enamouring. It is filled with love, need (for sex) and dependance. The chemistry between Sardar and his second wife “from Asansol”, Durga (played by Reemma Sen) is filled with love, lust, intimacy, humour and finally hatred. You have to marvel at the way in which Sardar tries to woo Durga and how they end up bedding each other!

The first part of the almost three hour long movie witnesses Sardar’s relations with his wives, how he tries to extract revenge and how he carves a name for himself in the hinterlands of Wasseypur and Dhanbad. The latter part of the movie focuses more on the consequences of the revengeful war between Sardar and the others, the rise of Sardar’s sons and how each of the warring gangs try to re-claim what is rightfully theirs. Faizal Khan (son of Sardar Khan, played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui) comes out as a very endearing yet cold-blooded character. He is short, lanky and does not seem like a person who would terrify you. But the cold-blooded effectiveness with which he seeks revenge reminds you that he is indeed the son of Sardar Khan. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the same actor who was recently seen playing the character of ‘deputy of the Intelligence Bureau of India’ in the movie ‘Kahani’. He is such a treat to watch that you almost forget that Faizal was mentally traumatized in his childhood because of his fathers transgressions and his mothers needs to (almost) fulfill her physical needs.

Throughout the movie, you will be treated with murder, bombshells, gun fire, expletives, crude humour etc. However, to be honest, the movie would have been half-baked if these elements would not have been a part of it. These things really bring the movie to life and three hours does not seem so long. In fact, I could have watched both GoW Part 1 and GoW Part 2 for five hours straight and not blinked an eye!

If you love movies by Qunetin Tarantino, then you are in for a visual treat! Never before have the characters been so effectively rolled out in Indian cinema. Each and every character has been written and portrayed brilliantly.

• Jaideep Ahlawat as Shahid Khan exudes command and raw power.
• Manoj Bajpai as Sardar Khan brilliantly portrays wittiness, awesome comic sense, lust, love and revenge
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Faizal Khan steals the show in the later part of the movie as the withdrawn yet courageous son of Sardar Khan.
• Tigmanshu Dhulia portrays the scheming and wily Ramadhir Singh
• Reemma Sen portrays the sensual and shy Durga
• Richa Chaddha portrays the boisterous, forgiving wife Nagma who loves her husband Sardar with a tongue-in-cheek role (don’t miss it!)
• Huma Qureshi plays Mohsina, the love interest of Faizal. Watch out for the courtship between them! You will fall off laughing from your seats!
• Piyush Mishra plays Farhan who is the ever supportive mentor and father figure to Sardar.

What did I miss out? Ah, yes, the songs and the background music! Sneha Khanwalkar (soundtrack) and G.V. Prakash Kumar (score) have done a brilliant job in capturing the essence of the warring ganglords. For me, the songs were what made the movie much more interesting and the delight it is! Songs to watch out for:

• ‘Jiya Tu’ by Bhojpuri superstar Manoj Tiwari is hummable all day long!
• ‘Keh ke Loonga’ by Amit Trivedi packs a lot of punch.
• ‘Hunter’ by Vedesh Sokoo, Rajneesh, Munna and Shyamoo literally had me ROFLing! Amazing double entendre song!
• ‘Womaniya’ literally oozes with raw desi language about sex and lust. Hear the song play in the background during some of the courting scenes and you won’t stop laughing!

Surprisingly, you do not feel bad for the characters even though they are brutually murdered, killed, shot and blown by bombs! The scenes are rather hilarious, captivating and you feel indifferent, except for one murder (SPOILER ALERT!) which occurs towards the fag end of the movie.

Two scenes which have not left my mind are:

• the “Permission Lijiye na” scene between Faizal and Mohsina and
• the “Pata karo kya khaaya hai” scene between Ramadhir, Sardar Khan and his men.  These two scenes are simply hilarious and provide the much needed respite from the violence and expletives.

You have to give the director Anurag Kashyap credit for creating such an excellent movie! The writers Zeishan Quadri, Akhilesh, Sachin Ladia and Anurag Kashyap have captured every scene effortlessly. the entire team of GoW needs be congratulated for churning out such a awesome movie which, seriously, is too good!

I watched this movie with my wife, a bunch of friends and their wives. Even the women enjoyed the movie so much that they did not feel out of place. So if you really enjoy cinema and story-telling and don’t mind the language or violence, then go for it. It’s a movie which cannot be missed!

Movie Rating – 4.5/5

P.S. Stay till the credits end and you will get a sneak peek into what to expect from Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 2! Do not miss it!

What are your views on the movie?