It’s Monday morning, but I’m still on a high from the weekend (and no, the Giants being clobbered by the Eagles hasn’t dampened my mood — well maybe a little). On Saturday Tanu and I got together with family to go watch ‘Rocket Singh, Salesman of the Year‘. We were all really excited to see my brother in his first big Bollywood movie role. And it was such a blast.

Naveen plays the character of Nitin Rathore, the sales manager for a successful computer assembly and servicing firm where the hero gets hired as a trainee. Nitin’s character is a shark, with a cut throat attitude and a tongue to match. He’s been in the business so long that his cynical view of the corrupt business world drives his entire approach to life. But through the course of the movie, he gets forced into a situation where he tastes what life would be like if he didn’t have to work that way, and grows to like it.

Naveen did an absolutely fantastic job in the movie. He really inhabited the role of the wise-ass sales guy who initially looks down on the hero’s idealism, but then gets pulled in. He had the hard task of playing the character that went through the biggest change during the course of the movie, going through a complete moral and ethical revamp. And he did it so naturally, that he made the complex change believable. Oh, and he totally rocked those awesome sideburns.

Of course, I may be biased here. But the comments that I have been receiving on my previous posts about this movie would say otherwise. Traffic on this blog has skyrocketed because people have been so impressed with my brothers work that they have been searching the web for information on who played the character of Nitin. Unfortunately, Naveen’s website (at www.naveenkaushik.com) and his Facebook fan page are pretty new. So people have not been able to find those through search engines yet. But they will eventually, judging from the comments, which have been full of praise.

I remember back in March when we went to Delhi, and Naveen came down from Mumbai to meet his nephew for the first time. He had just been offered the role, and actually had to fly back a few days early to sign the contract. We chatted about the opportunity, and he grilled me about my experience working with sales people, what they were like, how they worked and talked. He had an understated excitement there. Maybe he knew what was coming. But it is so gratifying to see all his hard work right there on the screen for everyone to see and appreciate. My feelings are all jumbled up together inside me – happy, nervous, excited, awed. But proud is definitely at the top of the list.

My kid brother. Wow!

It’s gonna be a big family outing tomorrow, as I have roped in a bunch of people to go watch ‘Rocket Singh, Salesman of the Year‘, the first big movie role for my brother, Naveen Kaushik. I’m really excited, and finding it very hard to wait. I noticed that my friend Raj had left a comment about some of the positive reviews my brothers act has received, so I decided to check out some of the reviews.

Overall, the movie itself is getting some really great reviews. Within those reviews, I am finding little nuggets about Naveen’s performance:

The Economic Times:

Navin Kaushik as Nitin, the senior sales manager reminds of Raghu from Roadies for his cheekiness and is brilliant.

Times of India:

…wily manager, Nitin-with-the-natty-sideburns (excellent act) during…

DNA India:

Naveen Kaushik, as Nitin, is very natural and almost takes you by surprise in what is probably his first mainstream film role

Mixxnews:

A number of new faces enact pivotal roles here, but the ones who stand out are Ranbir’s boss Puri and colleague Nitin. Both are fantastic.

This is just crazy. On Friday, the Bollywood movie ‘Rocket Singh, Salesman of the Year‘ is going to be released, and my brother Naveen Kaushik has a significant role in the movie. It’s a big release, coming out of one of the most prestigious production houses in India. As you can imagine, everyone in my family is pretty excited. Not only is the movie releasing all over India, but it will also be opening right here in the US, and I am hoping to get together a family outing to go watch the movie. I’ve been monitoring the Moviefone listing for the movie, and while showtimes are still not out, it was really cool to see my brothers name listed 5th in the cast.

It’s the first movie in which my brother has a major role (he had a bit part in the 2008 megahit ‘Dev D‘, playing the protagonists lawyer). I’ve heard his stories about bumming a smoke from Shah Rukh Khan, and meeting the megastars of Indian cinema in the commissary at Yashraj Films. But the reality of it never really sunk in. Now the movie is coming out, he’s visible in the promotional material for the film, and featured on the movie’s website. I have to say all this is kind of surreal. I’ll be seeing my kid brother on the silver screen (I saw Dev D on DVD, so it was not the same), fulfilling a dream he has been working hard towards for a number of years now.

For fun, I combined all the wallpapers you can find on the movie website into one that features Naveen exclusively. Check it out below (click for a larger version).

Words cannot describe the feelings of revulsion, anger and sheer disgust that I felt when I read this story of how 2 women doctors forced a 15 year old rape victim to give birth to a baby, and then killed it by letting it starve for 3 days. It is the kind of stomach-churning story that makes me, a strong opponent of capital punishment, want to bring back the days of public stoning and lynching. And to think that these are doctors, sworn to the Hippocratic oath, supposedly the most noble of people. And women on top of that.

What I find most disturbing is that this kind of crime happens enough that there is actually a section for “forcible delivery of a child with intent to kill” in the criminal code. India may be rising, but until this callous atttitude towards life and women is obliterated, it will never reach the standing it should.

It has been a long time since I posted any new photo albums to my website. Things have been just that crazy. But I finally managed to figure out how to host the albums on flickr and use them in my website, so that adding new albums will become easier in the future, thereby preventing these kind of delays again.

Anyway, I added 8 new albums to the ‘Life As We Know It‘ section: “Day at NY Aquarium”, “Barry-Tina Brunch”, “Hudson Waterfront Park”, “1 Day, 2 Parties”, “Day in the City”, “U2 Concert”, “2009 World Series” and “Halloween 2009″. I also added 2 new albums to the ‘Family Scrapbook‘ section: “Astha’s Wedding” and “Sonu-Manish Visit”. So check them out. Now I just need to add an album from our Vancouver trip and I’ll be all caught up.