To Sai Baba with Love

Puttaparthi Sai Baba's distinction is unique in the annals of World Spirituality and manifold. I visited him only once in 1999 at Puttaparthi and never was driven to his "ism" or any "ism" as Gurudom of any any kind is anathema to me. But what distinguishes H.H from others is that the meteoric rise of his devotees including Sachin and Laxman and PN Bhagawati and Abdul Kalaam and his flagship activities in Healthcare, Education, Irrigation, Research and Development are worth emulation -may not be rivalled by many religious bodies in the world. No wonder, His teachings primarily based on love and service to mankind find devout followers in Chrisitianity-laden Italy, Buddhist Lanka, Communist China and Agnostic Russia, Islamist Egypt and Saudi Arabia and his works of wisdom are translated into more languages than you can relate to - Lilthuanian, Mandarin - and they are not exactly Greek and Latin to many.
I know many families who named their sons and daughters not after Gods's names but after Sai - and it could be middle name, first name or named after Prashanthi Nilayam. I always believed that the glory of Shirdi Sai Baba rose after his samadhi, but the glory of Puttaparthi Sai Baba rose during his own lifetime - its too magnificent by God's own standards. Yes, there may be many conspiracy theories about Sai Baba about paedophilia and homosexuality but these smear campaigns are outweighed by the legacy of his broader work and the continued inspiration he provided to many modern-day Scientific paragons and Cricket Geniuses and Judges and heads of state, many of them attribute their late turnaround to the blessings of Baba. The real tribute to this Sai Baba is if governments and devotees don't run the spirt of developmental and uplifting activities to the ground. But expect a groundswell of faith.
Rationalists will find it hard to believe some Godmen like Puttaparthi Sai Baba or Godwomen like Mother Theresa because the latter's sleight of hand miracles out-attracts their vast body of works in service for humanity - but there where there is creation, there is a creator and where there is a creator there are many of His creations. This Sai Baba too had justified and embellished the holy name of Shirdi Sai Baba by his rich legacy of mottos he lived by. Its difficult to expect a third Sai Baba in this age of delusion and disbelief who can surface again to hold a candle to that kind of God-stardom and Divinity

"Mr Perfect" - Movie Review

Mr Perfect - is a light-hearted family entertainer starring Prabhas, Kajal Agarwal and Tapsi from the makers of "Bommarillu". Director Dasarath gives a delicately-poised and cute love story on today's love dilemmas of the young on what is compatibility and all that. It reminds you of the earlier film - "Santosham" and the plot carries you to the end in a breezy fashion. Dil Raju ensures that Prabhas - the action hero - plays second fiddle to Prabhas - the romantic, do-gooder, endearing hero loved by masses and classes. Kajal gets better scope for performance and stands out. Dialogues by Abburi Ravi are effective and classy - and go straight to the heart. Music by Devi Sri Prasad is average but not outstanding. Great film to watch with family.

"Dum Maaro Dum" Movie Review

The beauty with Ramesh Sippy Entertainment - who gave us hits like "Sholay" and "Bluffmaster" is they turn in quite an effort from storyline to dialogues to immaculate execution which lights up the screen. Screenplay to action scenes, characterisation to BGM  score, "Dum Maaro Dum" deserves hurray for Rohan Sippy whose passion for everything filmy outmatches that of his father. He ropes in Shridhar Raghavan for a plausible Goa-drug-mafia story and crispy dialogues, Preetam for music, whoever for brilliant camerawork and a brilliant starcast - Abhishek Bachan, Aditya Pancholi, Bipasha, Prateik Babbar,  and Rana Daggubati. All of them sizzle except item girl Deepika Padukone- you can catch her better in Kingfisher calendar. And just when you think this Adults movie ends where it should end - there's a twist. Rana D gets meaty role and can eke out more roles in Bollywood while Prateik is the soul of the film. Watchable.

"Teen Maar" Movie Review

A film by Remake Guru - Jayant Paranjape to resurrect another hit for Pawan Kalyan after "Jalsa". This time he remakes "Love Aaj Kal" gets in the peppy Trisha and makes Pawan give a wow performance in dual role - one as Michael Velayudham and Arjun Palai. Pawan gives a blistering performance and gets a chance to showcase his individualistic acting which may sound blasphemous to Acting Coaches. Mani Sharma scores good music while it is Trivikram who steals the thunder with some of the most touching and beautiful lines written in Telugu Cinema for long - he may have broken his own record in having most memorable lines in one movie. Watchable for Pawan maybe many times. 

"Shakti" Movie Review

"Sakti" is a complicated storyline from an ambitious director Meher Ramesh and an extravagant producer Aswini Dutt - who believe that blockbusters need to have killer app special effects, monstrous settings amidst exotic locations. Its about a prodical warrior who has a calling to protect the ancient Hindu shrines and a royal family heiress from some weird Pharoah-like Atavistic herds from Egypt who are seeking a talismanic gem that's in possession of Saktimaan NTR. Some story that!
The movie is already convoluted with complicated subplots liberally borrowed from Hindu Mythology, Mummy fables, and half a dozen socio-fantasty thrillers pre-released like "Anaga Anaga Oka Dheerudu", :"Mahesh Khaleja", "MagaDheera" and so on. What's bizarre is that the movie lacks entertainment and fails to grip you to seats - not even the parade of locations from Kashmir to Haridwar, Cairo to Columbo and Rajasthan to Rayalaseema will redeem this misdirected movie which is already bearing the weight of colossal budgets, bizarre storyline and bad casting. A song or two gives the relief. But broadly, the movie doesn't connect with the audience. NTR Jr. is too talented star to bank on bad storied-directors, he can carry a film on his shoulders but there should be a story to do that - which is missing in the movie.

World Cup 2011 victory for Incredible India!

India 2.0 finally gets to see India 2.0 lift the World Cup in 2011 after 28 years of wait...It was the best of  times - when India already holds centrestage to the game of cricket  straddling the best of Advertising Monies, Cash-rich cricketing body, eyeball for popping out eyeball attention, passions for a whole nation...Now it will the rule the world as a Benign superpower, already known for sportsmanship, non-controversial play, and spectacular passion. Now, I can tell that I have watched India's greatest cricketing victory in color and HDTV screens befitting the new resurgent India  - not on Dyanora B&W TV. Its a sign of how a nation of 1.21 Billion people are taking on the world  - and this world cup win is going to make India shift the earth's axis by a few more degrees  - and that will stay for many more decades to come.