"Om" 3-D (Telugu) Movie Review

This year's much-advertised 3-D film begins and ends with a sordid stunt, several false starts and a bizarre climax that might give you a headache. There is neither "Om" chant in the beginning nor a "Shanti" at interval or at "The End". It is quite a twisted plot with a lot of twists throughout the film which make it quite taxable viewing.  

Story is deceptively simple: Kalyan Ram is a business tycoon's son  - his father Karthik (Remember "Mouna Raagam" and "Gharshana"?) and his uncles Suresh and Aahuti Prasad run the show. There is a pack of villains  - Rao Ramesh and another toughie who want to eliminate Karthik. Enter Kriti Karbanda, first heroine who entraps Kalyan in love. Enter Nikesha ("Komarum Puli" fame) who wants to marry Kalyan as well. But it turns out Nikesha is out to eliminate Kalyan Ram because he is one amongst villains. Even the first heroine is another cat set among the pigeons - the pigeon being Kalyan and family. Interval block shows Kalyan shooting Nikesha point-blank range. The second half has greater unravelling of dramatic fiction: the toughie who is a cohort of Rao Ramesh is the real father of Kalyan Ram and not Karthik as believed. Karthik is the original villain who kills Kalyan Ram's grandfather, usurps his wealth and brings up Kalyan Ram while making the toughie go to jail for his wages of sin. Quite a dazzle of a story with unprecedented twists and turns but what's the point of all this? Has it justified the title - Om? No. Has it developed the romantic track? No. Has it enough material to entertain and sustain the zig-zagging screenplay's running time of 125 minutes? Partially yes. Does it catapult Kalyan Ram to the next level? Hardly so. 

Kalyan Ram produced this film again directed by a newcomer Sunil Reddy.That seems to be his business model throughout his inconsistent career-graph so far. He introduced many newcomers which includes technicians and always has a first-time director and makes a film with good production values and a well-heeled budget. Some of his directors like Surinder Reddy have become star directors. With this film, he has introduced 3-D technology  - which makes it the first action 3-D film in Telugu. The total 3-D footage is commensurate with the action sequences of the film which is about half-hour - but the sequences don't thrill you with emotions, they merely explode on the screen  - tyres tumbling out in your direction, synthetic fires engulfing the villains,SUVs flying like amoeba particles, and the occasional side bars and pillars making way to the characters you see on screen. Is this what 3-D film all about? It's not worth all the buzz. No wonder, there are more 2-D films than 3-D films and there are more pirated films than there are 3-D versions in Indian Cinema. 3-D makes sense if there's more depth in the storyline than a mere revenge story with a love triangle as this. 

Production values, however, stand out. Cinematography by Vincent Ajay and music by two -  A Rajamani and Sai Karthik - uplift the film in both the songs and the BGM. Glamour is in ample measure - both Kritti and Nikesha look good. Comedy is weakest and that can undermine the film's mass appeal. Rao Ramesh gets the only chance to play a comic villain like his father. Karthik as the father and the villain is thorough and impactful - he maybe the only reason to watch the film despite special attractions, Ghantasala Ratnakumar who synced his voice for Karthik for so many years returns to uplift Karthik. Kalyan Ram should learn that time is running out for him to re-establish his stardom; his films are different but not very different from one another - at the core, they are turning out to be tales of revenge, graphic violence, modest romance and negligible comedy. He needs to try out different roles, stylise his looks, and try different commercial formats. Otherwise, the man who made "Om" and "Hare Ram" will become "Hari Om". Rating 2.5/5.

"Saahasam" (Telugu) Movie Review

"Saahasam" is a pure action adventure film in the traditions of Hollywood films which combine action and sci-fi directed by Chandrasekhar Yeleti - a Tollywood Pro who has his own raving-fan club for making slick, intelligent and gripping films. In an earlier film interview,  he said that anybody who misses the first frame in his film will not get the big picture. Films like "Aithe", "Anukodunda Oka Roju", "Prayaanam", "Okkadunnadu" established Chandu as a director who can handle diverse subjects. In "Saahasam", he repeats one of his heroes Gopichand in a maverick role of an ATM Security Guard who is out to unearth the treasures left by his grandfather Suman in a place  close to Peshawar in Pakistan. How does Gopichand stumble upon this treasure? What connects him to get onto the expedition to Pakistan with a gang of villains led by veteran Shakti Kapoor (yes, the Bollywood baddie)? How does he connect the dots and fill the missing pieces of the original magical key which fell off the rooftop of his ancestral home before the treasure unfolds?  The entire half grapples with these questions in a film that finishes in less than three hours. 

Chandrasekhar Yeleti, for sure, borrows the story-telling techniques from the action classics of treasure-hunt right from "Mackanna's Gold" to "Indiana Jones" but he is adept at blending the entertainment with plenty of nativity and local flavor and roots.  Dialogues are crisp and uproarious, narration pacy and hardly lags except when the hunt gets into a familiiar loop in the last half hour. For a director to master the medium of Cinema, two things are quintessential - imagery and story-telling. In both, Chandu excels as he unfolds an ordinary boyhood adventure into an adventurous pursuit filled with fun and emotions. Suman as the grand-father who leaves the legacy of a humungous treasure fits well in the only flashback of the movie. A handful of irregulars fill the comedy part convincingly. Tapsi, last seen in "Shadow", seems to relish the kind of cinema that can carve out a space for her - what she lacks in glamor she is trying to make up being  the brainy male escort, no offence meant.  Gopichand, the hero, capitalises on a good story with huge scope for action sequences, he is an unusual mixture of confidence that doesn't seem like arrogance, intensity that doesn't seem like an effort, and  heroism that doesn't sound incredulous.  Gopichand has the credentials that can sustain him in the genre of action plus entertainment and this film showcases him well in that direction.

An ATM Security Guard counting hundreds of crores in a month, later transferred to the Waste-Incinerating lands at Bibinagar near Hyderabad, stumbles upon a magical key and a letter from his grandfather urging whoever reads the letter to develop the clues to get to the bottom of the treasure - the storyline is quite perceptible in today's world and credit to Reliance Entertainment and BVSN Prasad for backing a story like this which sounds off-beat in a long time.  Chandrasekhar's direction is nuanced in all other aspects except emotions. It's a pity  directors like him don't get the call sheets from heroes who are more bankable. There are two surprise packets in this watchable film - one, Shakti Kapoor - he is striking and menacing in every frame. It's a good comeback film for him. The other guy who never blinked but got ignored for almost a decade is Music Director Sri, son of veteran Music Director Chakravarti. Last heard his music for "Ammoru", Sri has composed an elegant catalogue of songs and scored exquisite BGM for a film which spans a wide canvass of action, adventure, romance. I  liked Sri for his uncompromising style of music in "Little Soldiers", "Anukokunda Oka Roju", "Gaayam" "Aavade..Maa Aavidee". His music had promising streaks and he had the nonchalance of a modern-day composer with the casualness and innocence of his late father Chakravarti. That makes Sri's music unpretentious. Welcome back Sri. Hope to see  you more. Before "Saahasam" makes way for the heavy-duty Monsoon blockbusters, take a trip down a gripping adventure of sorts without the tedious masala. Rating: 3.5/5

Telegrams Fully Stopped Full Stop

Telegrams - while they lasted - must have meant some memories, good, bad and neutral for those who grew up without a mobile phone, a laptop and an IPad. So, when everybody is lamenting on the social media  that Telegrams will be shelved forever, I want to rewind some of my memories of Telegrams and share some of the most memorable telegrams in our lives.

Telegrams in those days were the most perfect means of communicating asyncronously - you will receive a telegram when you least expect one and you didn't have to be there to receive it - it will come when it is telegraphed in speed but you may have just stepped out or travelling but the receiver's address will collect it. I had filled out atleast two or three telegrams - it used to be like a Railway Reservation form and had clearly three components - Sender, Receiver and the Body of the text message usually filled out in boxes. Every character would take a box, including punctuation marks like a full top (.) and a hyphen (-). When I used to send telegrams at the instruction of my father for audit communications, I used to take a minimum of three to five iterations because I couldn't edit well and within the space and financial constraints. (My father used to give me only finite amount and the clerk at the post office warned me: "This will take one hundred and eight rupees, hai kya?")

In many ways, telegrams were similar to twitter messages- 140 characters were what it takes to deliver one tweet whether you use hashtag or tagline. Only difference is telegrams were never serialised like tweets nowadays - it was prohibitive to send out telegrams in quick succession like, say,"Baby boy born Full Stop Mother and baby safe." and again,"Gandam for father Full Stop don't come immediately."  Telegrams were inevitably followed up with costs for further communication via trunk calls and reciprocal telegrams. For my entire life, I remember telegrams only in CAPITAL LETTERS. In chatting forums, this sort of messaging is considered offensive and called as "Shouting". I still find many old-timers who "SHOUT" in their text messages. They tell me they are used to sending many telegrams in their life and hence the habit has caught on.

By nature, telegrams served immeasurable good to rural India and most of urbanites who didn't have a telephone connection until the 90s. They arrived with a sense of urgency, emphasis and unalloyed suspense. When the postman knocked on the door and said you received a telegram, he didn't reveal anything until he took the receiver's signature and then with a straight face pulled out the masterly message. If it was a happy message, he asked for  sweets or money. Never took money if the announcement was of grave consequences. Until even 2000, I used to see most Invitation Cards for weddings, etc. carry a code for GRAMs: XXXX which meant that if you wanted to send telegrams to the newly wed couple, you will save a few hundred rupees because the message would be that much shorter (to the extent of the recepient's address) and the venue is geared up to receive messages in absentia. There were also standard messages for telegrams like in Trunk Calls - so you had a number to refer to ready-made message for Telegram on congratulating, celebrating, getting married, births and deaths, successes and promotions, examinations etc. 

Majority of telegrams were used for breaking the bad news or when Trunk Calls were too costly or failed to connect with the intended recepient. But they used to co-exist and it felt good to send genuinely happy messages in bulk.  Equally imperative to send out the grave messages. Trunk Calls were quite different those days and I never enjoyed the presence of an eavesdropper from the Telephone Exchange who used to call twice, first time to connect us to the caller and the second time to remind us when to hang up, sometimes thrice to extend it. Most times, I was uncomfortable that some employee of BSNL was keenly listening to our conversation. Depending on the mood and tone of the communication, I could sense  the employee responded with a tone affirming as if she knew all about what we talked even if she used a simple "Ohkaay Saar!" or "Okay!"

What were some of the most memorable telegrams my family received? Very few I remember. One telegram  my father recalls came from the CA Institute (ICAI) saying,"Congratulations for passing CA Intermediate". It brought enormous joy to my father and my Baamma. In those days, the Institute used to send telegrams only to successful students who passed CA exam in first attempt. It discontinued the practice shortly. After that, he never received any telegram from the Institute even after he passed the Final examination and annexed about half a dozen degrees which look longer than his name. When I recollect those moments, I guess thats an incredible feeling for a student to get an emphatic word of confirmation from the horse's mouth - from the Professional Institutes. Gone are the telegram days for CA Results which migrated from telegrams to being published in the pink papers to being put up on the board of the local chapters (That used to be another kind of drama which was nail-biting; it used to be worse than being shepherded to the Kabath). 

After that, he was never at the receiving end of telegrams. Being a CA in practice meant audits galore. So, he sent out a telegram about the commencement and completion of audits whenever. This applied to bank audits, insurance audits and routine business matters. Because the outbound traffic increased tremendously, he ordered for concessional facility which came with a code for grams. It sounded something like RUBICON. So, I crossed the rubicon whenever he sent telegrams! Most messages were routine and boring: "Audit Commenced", or "Cash Verification done" and so on.  My father was on seventh heaven the day the communication came from the Post Office that his CA firm was awarded GRAMS. In those days, it was a status symbol and my father was as elated as one would get today on getting a 41 pixel camera smartphone.

I received less than five telegrams all my life. One of them was from the American Embassy. During my early career, I was referred by my mother's friend to apply for US Embassy position of an Economic Analyst. The position was based in Chennai and meant a simple analysis of all English and vernacular newspapers on a daily basis for the American intelligence. I found the job profile exciting; it meant more reading and more writing. The telegram communicated me the date of the interview and where I should attend. Its another story that after attending the interview, I was never selected as they thought I was too young. The second telegram I received was happier but the ball was in my court this time. I completed a round of written test and interview for TCS and I was informed via telegram "You are selected for the position of "Business Analyst" Full Stop Join on or before XX.XX.XX". It meant a lot at that time when I was already at cross-roads of journalism and banking. I chose banking instead of writing and this position at TCS would have taken me into a different direction. I still wonder, had I taken the TCS offer, as some of my friends have taken, I would have been counting both rupees and dollars in my account and crores worth of ESOPs! But never regretted my career decisions - I am happy then and I am happier now, more than ever. But those two telegrams changed my destiny in a way.

That is, to cut a long story short, a nostalgic trip down the telegram path. The curtains are down on the 163-year old telegram service; it happened to the hand-written letter, inland letter, trunk call, and so on. The news of  Abraham Lincoln's assassination took almost three weeks to reach the other side of the Atlantic. Telegrams filled a big void that even ships couldn't for a long time. Neither I nor my father ever stored even one telegram that made our moments memorable but I do store an equivalent of a telegram  today in my comfort zone. I favorite the tweets I like, I like the facebook posts and pages I like to reference back, and I copy the best sms messages on my mobile phone to the memory card. Telegrams are dead, long live happy telegraphic messages!

"Bhaag Milka Bhaag" Hindi Movie Review

India's most famous athlete Milka Singh has never won a Gold medal at the Olympics. But when he sprinted those tracks be it in Berlin, Tokyo, Rome, Melbourne or Paris, he created a flutter and an epic wave of adulation that knew no language barriers in a newly-independent India - an India where Cricket is yet to scale feverish fervor, where Hockey ruled the roost and where sportsman had to struggle for grants to wear basic paraphernalia like spike shoes and wrist bands. Milka Singh, therefore, fired a nation's imagination when he ran like a Cheetah in races upto 400 metres and won many national and Asian awards. He also broke the World Record for 400 metres acing up the previous record of 45.9 seconds with 45.8 seconds. He achieves iconic fame that makes people like PM Jawaharlal Nehru fete him and appoint him as Goodwill Ambassador for Indo-Pak Games. Even "Padmashri" is conferred on him. In those days, one "Padmashri" is worth a hundred "Padma Bhushan"s because it is given to those who achieved outlier milestones in their chosen calling. How did Milka Singh win so many laurels? What drove him to run the most improbable races of his life - a race to qualify for the national team where he has to beat an athlete Sher Singh who broke his bones and blistered his foot, a race against an arch rival from Pakistan which took Milka Singh's parents in post-partition riots? What were the chief motivations of Milka Singh? Was it an escape from hunger, rewards of money,  pride of representing India or an unflinching and almost neurotic obsession with breaking records? What was his love life? What about the allegations on his brief affair with an Australian girl or the swimming athlete from India? Was he really guilty of stealing at the Asian Games or the National Games? Answers to these and many more will find a mesmerising cinematic take by Director Raykesh Omprakash Mehra (you can enter the Spellbee contest if you get his name right). Title role is played by Farhan Akhtar who proves why he is one of the most intense and professional actors wearing a director's cap. In a running time of little over three hours, Mehra has re-created the magical odyessey of Milka Singh from origins as a toddler to his finest hour of annointment as a "Flying Sikh" by Pakistan Premier Ayub Khan. 

It seems Milka Singh himself has chiselled portions of the script to render authenticity to the film with a terrific starcast - Pawan Malhotra as the coach and many other famous "art movement" film personalities. Prasoon Joshi does a triple-hat with story, screenplay and dialogues. Most dialogues are in Punjabi but the vocabulary used sprinkles operative Hindi  to connect with the masses. PrakashRaj gets a different role that gives him scope to emote rather than utter spitefully. Sonam Kapoor looks the same smiley, shy girl in "Delhi-6" but her role is limited and her disappearance from Milka's (Farhan) life in second half is surprising. Choreography by Ganesh Acharya and two others is catchy and pleasantly different. The steps are matching the energy and sparkle of the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. They return with a bang - they breathe fire into every song and rev up the overall mood of the film. Surprised to find that one of the producers P.S.Bharathi is also cited as Editor - that has slipped a bit. An illustrious bio-data of 20 years needn't run to 10 pages. Similarly, a career of an iconic Milka Singh needn't be biopicised in three hours. Some scenes should have been cut, even some songs. Director, and by inaction, the Editor have shown many scenes from the childhood as well as the training period to show how Milka Singh became a hardened youth with a fire-in-the belly. Mehra uses the flashback technique to narrate the story of the Flying Sikh but a number of scenes appear repetitive and sometimes slow. The wounds of Partition which scarred Milka's psyche are a recurring theme. The races, even if exciting, are too numerous which sometimes give a documentary-feel.

What endears the film, despite its minor flaws, is the imagery of the rural landscape and a brutally honest portrayal of Milka's trials and triumphs, fetishes and failures. In the annals of world athletics, there may be many superstars who sprinted their way to Olympic glory like Jesse Owens, Ben Johnson but very few have stumbled upon athletics  from a background as strange as that of Milka Singh. He joins the Army first, then joins athletics because he will diet will get richer by a glass of milk and two eggs. In all his races, he sprints them first in the mind and then completes it physically almost like a Covey habit of highly effective people. He uses a combination of hardwork, willpower and dedication,as admitted in the film to raise the bar everytime. Today's media show the likes of Gavaskar, Rathod, Sethi and Anand give us that one secret to excel in sports and games. But for so many years Milka Singh has done the talking with his relentless sprinting at a time when Radio carried the waves of commentary, GDP growth was a Hindu rate of growth, and Indians barely began to believe in themselves. Milka Singh opened the first door of liberalisation in sports. For many years, it was half-open and waited for someone to push it wide open and explain the secret of his success. This is the film - inspiring but with some flaws and hot scenes. For all those who only know the famous joke on him ("Are you Relaxing?". "No, I am Milka Singh") "Bhaag Milka Bhaag" will throw better light on the man. New India deserves to know. Rating 4 on 5.

"Singam 2" ("Yamudu 2") Telugu/Tamil Movie Review

I watched "Singham" in one of the 2355 screens world-wide.  Thats a staggering number indeed - something that no Tollywood hero has ever achieved so far. Speaks of the all-pervasive appeal of Superstar Suryaa and Kollywood across global audiences.  His films combine action, intelligence, entertainment and a dominant theme that usually make a mark - something that interests film-makers outside Kollywood attracting the likes of Aamir Khan and Ajay Devgn. Given the high bar of expectations, therefore, "Singham" created an unprecedented buzz. The buzz started off with an early warning that seemed a little ominous: the length of the film. That's killing: 2 hours 46 minutes 13 seconds. You expected better stuff from the makers of "Singam": because it is a sequel in the most authentic manner - it starts off chronologically at the same point where Prakash Raj gets killed by Inspector Narasimham (Suryaa) in the last plot. 

Inspector Narasimham is under-cover this time to detect why stuff is getting imported via Kakinada port. He is appointed by Vijay Kumar in a top-secret operation that even the top cops do not know. Narasimham works unbeknownst to all including his parents, his girl friend Anushka as an NCC guard and gathers details about two gangs operated by Mukesh Rushi and Rahman who peddle drugs via Danny, an International Drug Cartel Ganglord. The first half is all about establishing the links to this deadly nexus between criminals, romantic tracks between Suryaa and Anushka (two-sided) and between Suryaa and Hansika (one-sided from the girl). Santhaanam sprinkles his sparkling comic sense throughout the film, especially enriching the entertainment value in the first half. The block on interval comes with Narasimham deciding to take charge as DSP of Kakinada as criminals run amok and the gang-leaders tighten their grip. Until this point, the film is gripping and intense, intelligent and entertaining. The gradient of entertainment drops off after that and never returns to give you that wow factor which you need in the climax to make a film a blockbuster. 

What are the highlights of the film? Undoubtedly, performance by Suryaa - he looks the most complete cop ever - suave, stern and gentle at the same time and a body that today's policemen in higher rungs don't have - abdomen made of concrete and an exterior that even Hollywood Superheroes can't fake. Next, Santhanam's comedy which has now reached a colossal status - he seems such a vast improvement over the loud Tamil comedians that were never a match for the iconic Comedian galaxy of Tollywood films. What is helping Santhanam who seems to be born with a poker face all the time is the lines that his writers write for him - they are worth a million buck. Vennelakanti has written solid lines for both Santhanam and Suryaa. "Vayasu lo figuru, Vayasayaaka Shugaru.." is just one of the many fabulous mouthfuls that Santhanam gets to speak with uproarious laughter. You don't really need a Vivek in a film that has Santhanam tickling you. Infact, this film shows Santhanam better utilised than any Comedian used by a Tamil Superstar so much in recent times. It seems a tactic borrowed from Tollywood's heroes. DSP's music is just apt for the moods and oompish songs of Singham brand. Director Hari's team has created a good dancing groove that may become as famous as Gangnam style - thats Singam style. Anushka  and Hansika look good in their roles - Anushka should switch from her brand of Yoga to Pilates and Aerobics in order to look slimmer in future. 

What mars the film is the length, as mentioned earlier. You don't need to establish the sincerity of an upright police officer in a sequel but Director wastes some footage in creating scenes that re-establish the character of Singam. Stunts could have been more intense and less frequent. Dubbing care has gone for a six in the film which was better handled in recent years thanks to Producers who have their ears to the ground.  Most of the film is short in a coastal town which is supposed to be Kakinada in Telugu but the editor's slip shows it as Tuticorin, most street shots still show Tamil signages. Chennai Airport is shown as Rajahmundry Airport, Kochi Airport is shown as Hyderabad Airport, pincodes of Kakinada don't add up at all and the sea coast of Kakinada can't hold a candle to the magnificent beaches of Tuticorin. Even the police station of which Suryaa is the  lion-king loosely shows the portraits of Sardar Patel and Netaji  - it looks more of a deliberate intent than a best practice amongst police stations in India. Chief Minister's Peshi shows Anna Durai, Kamaraj and others of a state from where it is dubbed from. Loose ends like this haven't been seen in a long time  - with some careful makers who eye Tollywood as much as Kollywood market. While the plot builds up to an intense crescendo at interval time, it fails to register a good finish in the second half with a dragging story and a weak climax. But the first half alone is enough for a watch-once recommendation, embellished by the performances of Suryaa and Santhaanam and glamor quotients of Anushka and Hansika. Rating: 3 on 5.