CORPORATE - Politics Personified

My blog features very few movies. One of the first movies to get featured here was Rang De Basanti which I felt was class apart when compared to the other movies releasing every day.

Another movie which I saw while in Chennai on one of the weekends was CORPORATE. As the title suggests the movie tries to portray the corporate world which is non IT in nature and shows two rival groups trying to counter for each other's share in the market.

Madhur Bhandarkar has done a great job, must say that. The movie was well made which each part of the movie representing the problems which the people face at the top. There were two groups in the movie by name Marwa and Sehgals. The competition between them exists in every field with one trying to outcast the other with an acquisition or new product launch.

The movie portrays many problems which probably the corporate India faces today. The resignations of senior people in the company, unethical means which end up closing the company, corruption and the most important one the effect of politics on the functioning of a business house.

One of the incidents which I liked in the second half of the movie was the episode of pesticide in cold drinks. This episode happened in reality a few days ago when people in some western states literally break tons of cold drink bottles on the roads. In the movie the FDA people determine that the drink which the company is planning to launch contains pesticides and hence informs the manufacturers to close the shop. But the launch of cold drink was connected with the IPO of the company, the company officials bribe the FDA officials and get the clearance for it. But soon the rival company who has a close link to the CM informs about the pesticides story and the CM orders to close down the shop. The manufacturers lose pride, prestige and positioning in the market. Their FIIs start leaving the company. The share prices come down heavily and it becomes an acquisition target. Soon the FII who had invested in India goes and meets the FM and tells him that he is going to leave the country on account of bad reputation to his partnership and loss of shareholder value. FM now targets the CM and asks him to get the FDA clearance threatening him that not doing so can lead his party to lose the elections. Manufacturers get the FDA clearance, both the Sehgals and Marwas club hand together. CM wins the elections and FII stay in the country. On top of it the pesticide ladden drink also sells briskly in the market. Sehgals gain their position in the market and Everything comes back to normal.

The story described above is somewhat the reality today. Most of the issues in our country and either in the hands of most corrupt individuals or they just die the natural death. For example the OBC quota bill. There was so much hue and cry over it but finally the Govt passed it and now its going to be implemented in phases. Today when I was watching the news, I heard Ram Bilas Paaswan asking for more reservations for the SC/STs in the country. The case of pesticides came in front of Govt many times but nothing happened. Most of the time the problems and issues get entangled in the politics of our country without getting resolved. Yesterday while I was watching the news I could still see some new case of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy which happened close to 22 years back. In the above story Politicians have the entire say. They control the entire functioning of the business. If its in their interest, they would go to any extent and get the wrong thing done.

God knows, in which world we are actually living ?????