"Love Story 2050"-A Sci Fi from Bollywood ,India

This Bollywood romance movie is based on the fictitious device of time machine for lengthening the plot and is being seen all over India.It recreates a futuristic Mumbai city of 2050 complete with flying cars, androids and breathtaking airborne fight sequences. Appealing special effects entail a robot teddy bear that runs errands for the heroine.
We already had some very really entertaining and so called sf movies like 'Krrish' and 'Koi Mil Gaya' having the elements of sci-fi.Even earlier we had Mr.India which unexploited the fantasy of invisibility to woo audience to cinema halls.It was a box office hit film .

But initial response from film goers is not encouraging .Though I have not seen movie myself but the comments which are incessantly pouring in discourage me to see the movie.

According to some it is a ridiculous and childish effort to ape the Hollywood's sci fi movies .

If interested you could access the following link.

http://in.reuters.com/article/bollywoodNews/idINIndia-34377220080704

'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' arrives in India

This film by Steven Spielberg is attracting student audience in Varanasi-a city of huge tourist attraction in India.In midst of their summer vacation the college film goers are thronging to enjoy the mega visual effects of the film and satiating their taste buds with Macdonald's cosmopolitan burgers during interval just to find if they really taste different.Spielberg and Macdonald's products both at one place and simultaneously -a synergistic bonanza indeed ! Isn't it ?
The film which I saw today is a real 'chu chu kaa murabaa' [an amalgam of the sort]with horror,adventure,mythology and toppings of a bit of sf of course at last .
Some scenes are really superb-a mushroom cloud for example and the grandiose take off of an alien ship.

The story is about some knowledge hungry aliens who in their thirst of never satiating newer knowledge arrive in the prehistory of earth.

And then there follows a lot of dhoom dhadakaa , hullabaloo while a team of Russian eccentrics led by a psychic lady and an equally crazy Americans arrives on the scene and play hide and seek to amuse the audience.
Moral of the story:
An age old adage,lust for knowledge is sin and lust for more knowledge is
even a greater sin.
Recommended,for college goers.

Those 'first ' Indian SF stories !

Do you know for certain which is the first Indian sf story ?
Confused ? Quite genuinely so !Because the question is not put here in right perspetive,it would have been more precise to add 'in which language' too to help out retrieving some immediate answers.
The first Indian sf -'the westerns style-modern' one was written in Hindi as a serial during 1884-88 by Ambika Dutt Vyas entitled 'the starnge tale-[Aaschary Vrittant] ,published in a magazine -'Peeyush Pravah' from Madhy Pradesh.Influenced perhaps by the Jules Verne's story ,'Journey to the center of the earth' it presented a very interesting,captivating saga of a Gopinath,the main protagonist who took the breathtaking adventurous journey underneath the earth.
Though influenced seemingly by a western stuff the story was an original effort in style and presentation vis a vis to contemporary short story writings in Hindi .
Another story which caught attention of the genre connoisseur's was written by an icon in Indian scientific world -J.C Bose -a Bengali jentleman and scientist of repute and was entitled 'Absconded Tempest'[Palatak toofan'-1896]which narrates a captivating story how a turbulent sea was calmed with even a minuscule thing- as ordinary as a drop of oil.The story bears a strange semblance with the 'chaos theory' propounded much later.A discussion on this strange semblance has already appeared on 'Science Fiction in India' .
SF writing in many other Indian languages seems to have been initiated much later.In Malayalam for instance sf writing appears to have been initiated since 1950,with the initiative taken by Keral Sastra Sahity Parishad-a most respected autonomous body of science popularization in India.
Similarly,Assamese language with its very laudable role and history in science writings stepped into the arena of sf writing in the late 1930's.
Kannada follows almost similar suite which is stated to be in sf writing since 1940's with the advent of Dr.Sadanand Nayak with his famous sf love story employing a plot on heart transplant.

In Marathi too though SF writing started late around 1910 with the publication of a translation of Verne's 'Men in the Moon' serialized in a magazine named 'Kerala Kokil' printed and published in Cochin,it enjoys a coveted -very rich contemporary status in sf writings in India.

In yet another prominent Indian Language ,Tamil the history of sf writing could be traced back to 1959,of course a very late beginning, in writings of a great poet[Mhakavi],C.Subramania Bhartiya whose story entitled ,'Kakkai Parliament[Parliament of the crows] has some sf elements.

It now appears that Hindi serial sf ,'The Aaschrya Vrittant -'A Strange Tale'[1884] definitely enjoys the status of first Indian sf story .
Having presented this account I am tempted to conclude that Hindi ,the lingua franca of India evidently took a leading role in sf writing but what is it's present scenario is altogether a different story -to be narrated at some other opportune time and space.

Proceedings of ‘Eighth national conference for science fiction writers '

The proceedings of ‘Eighth national conference for science fiction writers' held in Aurangabad in November, 2006, Maharastra, India is now available. Thanks to the efforts of Marathi Vidyan Parshad team that the initiatives of IASFS [INDAIN ASSOCIATION OF SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES] people to popularize science through sf is now bearing fruit. I have finished reading of the above mentioned proceedings sent to me by Marathi Vidhyan Parishad-[courtesy:Shri Anant Deshpande]about a month ago. I have already discussed it on my Yahoo Forum on sf. Below is some excerpts from there only.

The way I feel about the literary compilation is expressed in the following lines. You may call it a review [for all practical purposes] if you so wish .Shri Devendra Mewari , a noted Hindi sf writer observes that the present scenario of Hindi sf writing can not be stated to be an exiting and productive activity. Although I do not fully agree to the statement I submit that there are really certain conflicts and constraints which are of course hampering the natural development of the genre in India. Being a multilingual country with almost two dozen languages India stands divided in its efforts towards the enrichment of sf at the global level. Our whole energy seems to be exhausted in promoting and boasting our own regional achievements all the time -scattered and sporadic efforts like that may be a cause why Indian sf is not coming up to terms with contemporary world sf .We have perhaps not identified ourselves as one and unified entity / force so far in focusing our attention to promote the Indian brand sf at global levels. Still divided in factions our contributions do not seem to be perceptible

.In an another scholarly write-up entitled , 'sf in Kannad '[the state language of KARNATAKA state] an eminent sf writer Mr.Rajshekhar Bhoosnurmath has rightly stated that he does not like the idea of branding and highlighting Indian sf categorized and compartmentalized in many languages. He clarifies that he has never isolated /identified himself as a Kannad writer only. The central thought behind this blog also echoes the stand of Mr.Bhooshnurmath that we are Indian sf writer first and then whatever else .There must be a unified approach to promote Indian sf and the beginning has already been made.

The proceedings in question cover a scholarly article by Dr.Devendra Pal Singh on the status of Punjabi sf . Punjabi being an Indo-Aryan language is spoken by the Punjabi people in India as well as abroad.
Dr.Singh admits that sf in Punjabi is a recent phenomenon though with its beginning sometime in second half of the last century. Presently about a dozen writers are actively contributing to the genre on themes related to interstellar travels ,alien life ,AI, space opera etc.
The author of the article strongly feels that there is a dire need of more writers and publishers who could enrich the genre and Panjabi language as well.
A few names who have gained prominence so far include Amandeep Singh,Suresh Rattan ,Jasbir Bhullar,Sukhwant Kaur Maan ,Hardev Chauhan,Vidwan Singh Soni,Ajmer Sidhu and of course Devendr Pal Singh the author himself.
I did not know myself the status of Panjabi sf writing and by the account given by the author in proceedings I feel now that the status of Pnjabi sf is quite optimistic.....it’s already on the take off stage like any other prominent Indian languages.

I have often wondered if sf has some sort of regionalism/cultural factions incorporated in its nature in addition to its universal common elements familiar to most of us.
And I was impressed by the discussion on the topic in between Prof. James Gunn,USA and Dr.Bal Phondke,Prof.Yashvant Deshpande and Shri A.P.Deshpande all Indian sf luminaries, published in the said proceedings.
When asked whether sf writers could be classified as Indian sf writers,American sf writers ,European sf writers,James Gunn replied that categorizations like these seemed justifiable as culture also plays an important role in shaping the ideas of sf writers.He said ,"...every writer is a composite of kind of genetic inheritance that he/she gets from the parents and grand parents modified by the kind of culture that teaches him what is important in life....... I certainly noticed cultural differences in the stories of the authors while selecting the stories from 15 countries for 6th volume of 'the road to sf’..There were commonality but in certain countries authors were far more influenced by fantasy elements....".I quite agree to Prof.Gunn and often notice that Indian sf too incorporates relatively more fantasy elements and comparatively large number of sf writers are tempted to include fantasy in their works.
But the point which worries me is the tendency of relegation of sf literature further down to even the levels of small geographical and cultural entities like states and vernaculars.
If this goes unabated I am afraid sf may loose its universal identity and may plunge into the state of an 'identity crisis ' as a genre.
Can’t it be recommended that authors of sf worldwide must adhere to certain features of sf by which it is easily recognizable internationally?
And what are these features?....any true sf buff is already familiar with but in case there remains some doubts the same could be addressed in meetings ,gatherings on sf and even on forums like this one from time to time. This is in fact a continuing process and not like something akin to any dogmas and fatwas of religious world-once established never changed.
To be concluded.....

Who Propounded Chaos Theory ?Lorenz or Bose ?

Many of us now know that a 'chaos theory' was propounded by Professor Edward Lorenz who died at the aged of 90 on April 16th 2008 . Born on May 23rd 1917 in West Hartford, Connecticut and educated at Dartmouth College and Harvard University he proposed ' chaos theory' which caused an impact worldwide. Father of modern chaos theory he became a mid night celebrity with his talk entitled, “Predictability: Does the Flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?”But quite amazingly much before to it Jagdish Chandra Bose , Indian scientist wrote a story on a similar theme which is credited to be the first true science fiction story written in Bengali. Published in 1896 and entitled, “Palatak Toofan” [absconded tempest] the story described how a severe surge of the sea could be appeased by even a drop of oil and could save a ship.

In this backdrop if we look for Lorenz's thesis on how small actions could lead to major changes, what is now usually referred to as the "butterfly effect"it sounds almost similar to what was already proposed by J.C.Bose in his sf story in1986 . Much later , in the 1960s Lorenz mathematically derived the conclusion as that of Bose that small differences in a dynamic system such as the atmosphere could set off enormous changes.
If you are aware of J.C.Bose's contributions to the world of knowledge you could easily spot one sad aspect that he discovered wireless communication first but for the reasons not clear at least to me Marconi was credited for the epoch making invention.

Now it is the 'chaos theory' which is again going to be a sad saga for this Indian Scientist as the world knows today that it was propounded by Lorenz .Did Lorenz get clues from the work of J.C Bose ?Or might be that they both got inspiration from some other source not known to us till date.A deeper quest is still required to finally reach to any conclusion.Had I not read the contents of Bose's sf story and then the Lorenz's contributions in his obituary postings on the net almost simultaneously the strange semblances could have never dawn on me.

I am posting this to attract the attention of world intelligentsia to thrash out the matter to do justice albeit posthumously to a Great Indian scientist.