Bapu's "Seetha Kalyanam"

Watching ETV on Sundays post-lunch is getting quite nostalgic for Bapu film fans. Last Sunday, they aired "Radha Kalyanam". Today, we watched "Seetha Kalyanam". This film, despite the extravagant efforts in trick photography by Ravikant Nagaich and a poetic treatment of Ramayana story from birth of Rama to Seetha Swayamvar turned out to be a damp squib at the box office. 

Made in 1976 at a cost of Rs.14 lacs, it was made in just 14 reels but it created history of all kinds for Bapu-Ramana. Before its release, noted maker B.NagiReddi was shown the first copy. Obviously taken in by the visual treat, and buoyed by the stupendous success of the earlier classic "Sampoorna Ramayanam", Nagi Reddy is said to have remarked: "This should run atleast for an year." It probably ran for as much time - but not in the theatres but at major film festivals around the world - London, Chicago, Berlin, Denver. The producer lost his shirt in the making - his name Pinjala Ananda Rao. What made the Indian audiences walk out of this lyrical beauty and made the Western audiences croon over this film is a mystery. Perhaps, the absence of too many dialogues and too many songs spoiled it. Mullapoodi Venkata Ramana in his autobiography says the film has been the most relaxing for him as a writer because all he had to pen was ten pages of dialogues in the film  - the rest was all Bapu's hardwork and the work of the cinematographers, artists, music director KV Mahadevan and Ravi Nagaich. Audiences in AP however didn't receive the film well - when the movie started playing and the songs wouldn't end - they were clamoring: "Sound! Sound! Can't hear the dialogues." Obviously it bombed and after soaking up earlier to the complete six-course menu meal in "Sampoorna Ramayanam", the visuals didn't strike gold at the Box Office. But it became a milestone for Indian films in special effects and cinematography used in mythologicals. Before Bapu-Ramana stepped into the arena making mythologicals, the benchmark was Kamalakara Kameshwar Rao who was called Mythological Brahma. After the duo stepped in, there was only one way to make Ramayana and that is the Bapu-Ramana way. 

After the film's release, one film critic who wrote for "The Guardian", Derek Malcolm actually sang hosannahs to the team that made "Seetha Kalyanam". And I quote Derek Malcolm: 

"It is one of the most extravagantly beautiful films I have seen...It was really made by a team who have worked together often before. Mullapudi Venkata Ramana (writer), KV Mahadevan (the superb carnatic music), KS Prasad (Cinematography) and Ravee Nagaich (the Ray Harryhausen of Indian Special effects) have combined with Bapu to illustrate part of the Ramayana. The result is like a Hollywood Bible Epic done with real taste - an amalgam of lyricism, poetry and spectacle achieved with rare authenticity (everything is as accurate as possible to the legend and to the centuries-old paintings and decorations that embellish it). All is done with a gravita and dignity that is ultimately very moving. I have seen nothing like it before and can't help thinking that its popularity in the West is assured."

This film review ensured Bapu and producer get the passport to London film festival and get accolades galore. Later, the BBC released an English version of the film as "Seetha's wedding" in four episodes. Most of the world fame attributed to Bapu Ramana came with this film itself - despite the film losing the plot for the audience and the money for the producers. A few years back, one of my close friends gave me a contrarian viewpoint on "Seetha Kalyanam" written by none other than the legendary Satyajit Ray. It pained to read Ray's opinion on the film and here I quote again Ray:

"The chorus of praise showered on the south Indian mythological film "Seetha Kalyanamm" launched it on an invitation tour of the international film festival circuit where it won more praise. And yet, in fifty years of film-going, I have not come across a more flagrant exhibition of unmitigated kitsch. As a cultural hybrid which takes an episode from one of the two great Hindu epics, swamps the interiors with Persian carpets, Mughal chandeliers and comic-strip wall paintings; floods the soundtrack with what is claimed to be classical Carnatic music, but it turns out mostly to be high-decibel film songs a la Bombay; punctuates the story with camera tricks that were already cliches in the early days of the talkies; and wraps the whole thing up in the colours of a chocolate box, "Seetha Kalyanam" is a concoction par excellence. One could see it as being mildly enjoyable as camp, though that is not how the critics saw it.. They took it seriously." Those were the words of Satyajit Ray - one of the all-time Asian legends of film-making who thrived on making films for the western audiences. Phew! I was devastated that a film like this which is an outrighht mythological could be received so differently from a man who was an atheist and whose father Sukumar Ray, another multi-faceted legend wrote stories and spoofs on the Ramayana. One cannot judge Ray for what he said nor take what he said as the measure of what Bapu created iin "Seetha Kalyanam" because Ramayana and Rama-essence was what Bapu breathed all his life. So you cannot fault Bapu for failing to portray a mythological (which by its very nature cannot have historical angles and authenticities of settings) in the myriadness with which he endeavored to.

In his own version of what Satyajit Ray commented on the film, Bapu wrote in one of his last pieces that instead of commenting on whether he liked the film or not, Ray had made just two points on the film. "The carpet on which Seetha sat is of Arabic design. There were no crotons in those times." Bapu was sportive enough to take it on his chin on what the Oscar-winner felt honestly about the film. Then he asked for a snap with Ray which is stuck in his library with a caption: "The Long and short of Indian Cinema." So much for the criticism and its reception - Bapu style. But let me make out another inference: it is after watching Jayaprada play Seetha in the film did Satyajit Ray make the famous statement: "Jayaprada is the most beautiful Indian actress." Even the great director K Balachander once put his hand on Bapu's shoulder and said: "I don't go to temple or do pooja, being an atheist. But after watching "Seetha Kalyanam", my mind was reeling with visuals of your film for one week."

Back to the film SK. Not content with the film's poor reception, producer Ananda Rao went ahead post-film to make another two films with the same starcast of Jayaprada and Ravi who fit so well as Seetha and Rama. They were directed not by Bapu but by Kamalakara Kameswar Rao - "Seetha Rama Vana Vaasam" and "Sri Rama Pattabhishekam" but both bombed at the box office. Large-hearted Bapu Ramana who were paid Rupees Sixty thousand as remuneration for SK returned fifty thousand to the producer who was struggling to make both ends meet. 

Those were some of the tit bits I remembered after seeing the film "Seetha Kalyanam" (even as I am still at a loss of words to pay a fitting tribute to the great Bapu uncle). Most people rate the scene which shows the river Ganga's descent to earth as the best SFX scene which was created by Ravikant Nagaich using loads of chalk powder in gunny bags poured from atop the mendicant hoods of Lord Shiva. Yes that was something ingenious in those days. But my favorite scene is the climax where Parasurama comes after Rama breaks the Shiva's bow at Swayamvar.  It is a fantastic interpretation of what happens when one incarnation makes way for another and there's subtle psychology at work in all the characters in limelight for the scene - Parasuram who feels like a spent force after Rama takes the Vishnu's bow as a test of greatness and breaks with equal elan, and then Vishwamitra who is witness to a new history in making -  he divines that Rama is indeed Vishnu's incarnation and then magically moves his hands - first as an acknowledgement of divine blessings and then waves them back at the Lord as if all that comes to us should go back to Him only. One of the most subtle scenes that tells a lot. 

Those were the times when movies were made with purity of heart and without an expectation of rewards or awards. 'Seetha Kalyanam' will stand the test of time as long as Ramayana stands.

#SeethaKalyanam

“Dharam Sankat Mein” (Hindi Film Review)

From the makers of “Oh My God” proclaimed the trailer of the movie under review. It promised a whole new way of looking at religion - the favourite theme of this particular franchise. The length of the film also gave ample scope for sizing up another aspect that director Fowad Khan highlights. In 129 minutes, “Dharam Sankat men” looked like a fresh fare but half-way loses the essence of explaining beyond symbols and religious rituals despite a swashbuckling starkest - Paresh Racal, Naseeruddin Shah, Anu Kapoor and Murli Sharma. 

The story is credible though. DharampalTrivedi (Paresh Rawal) is a devoted Hindu without the devoutness, he questions rituals and dogmas of every religion but harbours ill-will against muslims. “You muslims are responsible for…” that kind of stuff. His family, on the other hand, follows Neelanand Swami (Naseeruddin Shah) and his cult religion. Charm’s son is in love with the daughter of one of Neelanand’s ardent followers. The deal is that Dharam should become more religious and fall in line with the family’s veneration of the Swami’s Satsangs and paraphernalia so that his son’s marriage with that girl can happen, with the blessings of the Swami. But a life-altering dilemma strikes Dharampal as he goes to the bank to open the locker of his deceased mother as a nominee - an earth-shattering news awaits him in an adoption certificate there which says he is first born a muslim. He finds his biological father’s name is Mir Shoukat Ali, he goes to the orphanage and confirms that and goes to the Imam (Murali Sharma) to request a meeting with his real father. The Imam says that is possible only if he shows up as a “true” muslim in attire and spirit - he wants to convert him, in fact. Only one man helps Dharampal in his endeavours to learn the muslim culture, the tehzeeb and the rich Urdu and the fundamentals of religion - Sheikh….Ahsaan…Bahadur (the full name reads like an address, says Dharampal on his first meeting over a tiff). Played brilliantly by Anu Kapoor, he is Dharam’s neighbour and a lawyer driving vintage car. He becomes a close confidante and a friend to Dharampal and eventually moves a petition against Imam to allow Dharam to meet his biological father. Will he meet him? Will his son eventually marry the girl of his choice? What happens to Naseeruddin Shah - Neelanand Swami? Is there a happy ending? Find out.

Despite a treatment that is light on content but deeply contemplative, Fowad Khan pulls off a decent attempt at showcasing some of the core issues of religion and the ways in which we process it in our lives. Dharam gives a damn about religion whether his adopted one or the one followed by his biological father but makes a quantum shift in paradigm once he finds he is not in majority but in minority. And he cares a damn about the rituals forced upon him by a stubborn Imam. Anu Kapoor is a liberal at heart - he understands the pangs of being singled out for all the troubles caused by the terrorists - but he confronts an Imam who is denying Dharam his most basic legal and fundamental right to meet his real father. Imam played with precision and dignity by Murali Sharma is one who never questions religion but loves to convert  - a banality poignantly highlighted. Naseeruddin Shah, plays the most frivolous character of a Swami out to parley in worldly pleasures by enacting the blind faith of a mass followership. Parish Rawal’s family shows a modern generation that is trapped sometimes in devoutness without reasons to question the status quo or the not-so-inscrutable Swamis. In as many characters as above, director Fowad Khan shows balance, dexterity and restraint in highlighting issues which are gaining more importance than primary issues of humanitarianism and broad-mindedness among India’s teeming multi-religious society. From Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians, Muslims and Hindus, there are thousands of symbols across India’s billions. No doubt, this movie is a move in the right direction - attempting a broader understanding of religion amidst growing skepticism and uneasiness with each other. But the movie meanders after the search for the real father ends. And then it becomes an exercise in symbols and rituals. 

Fowad loses a great opportunity to explain the singularity of all religions by explaining the rationale for rituals - there are enough films that explain the scientific logic behind Hindu symbols but he could have explained  how sitting in the Namaz postures is helping millions of Muslims to be free from Arthritis - a fact based on new studies. Things like that are missed opportunities but you rarely get a subject as engrossing and intelligent as this. In throwing new searchlights on the psyche of some Hindus and Muslims, director has shown great sense of taste and some humour in highlighting starkness of contrast but he could have used to increase the similarity too. Coming back to the Namaz and the serene recitals, he could have explained the tenets and the logic behind some of the rituals. And the singularity with say a Namaz and a Surya Namaskar. That would have been a game-changer. By over-stressing on the restless imperative of the hero Paresh Rawal keen to meet his biological father, a lot of meat has been given up. The produce, Viacom, however must be congratulated for selecting a good story with ample scope for imaginative screenplay and deepening our understanding of one of the most mystical religions in the world. It has opened a big door in building brotherhood between Hindus and Muslims but the door is still half-open because the director skirted many issues which require exposition beyond symbols and rituals. In that sense, “Oh My God” was more broad-based and philosophically satisfying because it goes beyond one or two religions. Another limitation of the film is the desperation of Paresh to meet his father -  the justification to see him was neither amplified nor shared with his family. Why bother so much, one wonders - Steve Jobs never went back to his biological parents and so are millions of babies who grow up to be fine men and women in neighbourhoods far removed from the roots of the original religion. People just move on in life, in case Fowad Khan doesn’t know. The subject of this film is narrow in its coverage and hence interpretations had to be narrower but the treatment is something that could have been far more satisfying. Music by a team of four composers has a soulful appeal. Production values look great and dialogues are both hard-hitting and evocative they are, thankfully not provocative which is a great achievement for a film of this dimension. The movie deserves an above-average rating for the efforts to open a big door. Hopefully, this will not be the last film on such themes because as a society, as a multi-cultural society, we need more such film-makers to talk turkey about issues that must pave way for conflict-resolution and broader understanding. Parish Rawal is outstanding yet again in a role carried consummate ease - he shows his wry sense of humor, his caliber and he carries the film on his shoulders. Anu Kapoor, the most-knowledgeable Anthyakshari anchor in Indian Television history uplifts an ordinary role into an extra-ordinary performance. The way he pronounces the multi-nuanced language of Urdu will make even Urdu University professors fall of their chairs. Those two scenes of verbal judo between him and Paresh Racal are worth it all. Mural Sharma, finally gets a role that will win many hearts. As an Imam with an attitude of a Madarassa out to convert the first man in, he pulls off an impactful role that delivers. Naseeruddin Shah is a character that is frivolous but not endearing in the way he is portrayed - as a clown, nothing more, nothing less. It is good that his autobiography which came last year will never make a mention of such roles, even in future editions - it is a forgettable role and unbefitting of his stature. The movie is watchable once but the last twenty minutes bore you with an over-kill. But the title is a killer - the dilemma of "Dharam".

Rating: 3/5

#Bollywood #DharamSankatMein #PareshRawal #AnuKapoor #MurliSharma #FowadKhan #Viacom #OhMyGod #MovieReviews

"S/o Satyamurty" (Telugu Film Review)

The much-awaited film from ace director Trivikram starts out with an ominous censor certificate that puts the movie length at 162 minutes. You expect plenty of fireworks because the starcast itself calls for a Tollywood party - Stylish star Allu Arjun, Kannada Superstar Upendra, Mollywood cutie Nitya Menen, Samantha, Rajendra Prasad, Sampath, Rao Ramesh, Ada Sharma, Sneha, Sindhu Tholani, Vennela Kishore,  Kota, Brahmanandam and of course, late MS Narayan. With that kind of a starburst and the scale of budgets of a generous producer like Radhakrishna, one would expect Trivikram to deliver a blistering output that will glow on screen. Instead, what you get is a not so entertaining stuff and despite a lavish extravaganza and touchpad characterisation - the persona of the film slips and something  pulls down the rating of the film in the wake  of Trivikram’s celluloid capabilities.

Get it straight, there is nothing wrong with the film or the plot or the characterisation. The story itself is narrated first like a trailer of thirty seconds with visuals cut and pasted across the length of the film and then winds its way back to the inception. Anand (Allu Arjun) is the son of Satyamurty (Prakash Raj) with a networth of Rs.300 crores. Prakash Raj dies in a car accident and the world of Anand and his family of brother, his mother and himself is turned upside down. They lose the crores because half the net worth is leveraged or no, half the networth is in equity shares or wait, there is a land parcel. Whatever the rigmarole, Anand sells the assets and pays the dues disregarding the advice of Rajendra Prasad (friend of Prakash Raj) to dupe the public and make away with the debts. Because of the values that Prakash Raj instilled in Anand and because of the goodwill of his father, Anand takes the onus of repaying all the debts by fair means. And he embarks on a journey - first to earn something to pay off his niece’s school fees. This journey takes him on voyage of self-confidence as he gains good name wherever he goes - Rao Ramesh who breaks the marriage of Allu with his daughter Ada Sharma, Samantha who gets smitten by his level-headedness in giving up three hundred crores. Destiny takes him to Rajendra Prasad again because his daughter Samantha  is in love with Allu (Anand). Anand now enters into a bet with Rajendra Prasad to get original title deeds of a property in the custody of a quasi-government authority Upendra who heads dozens of villages and maintains an army of 600 (Looks like double the number of “300”) and marry his daughter. Upendra has another daughter Nitya Menen - and there is a twist in the tale but that comes after  a lengthy characterisation. On the whole, the story despite a complicated structure is not inexplicable. It is just about a young man who is determined to keep the reputation of his dead father high long after he’s gone  and how he succeeds thanks to a strong set of values imparted by his father.

What helps the film is the framework of story-telling with utmost dignity and class. Performance by Allu Arjun breathes life into many listless moments of canned jokes and quotations and the pet peeves of Trivikram on middle class moralities and values. His dancing skills are outshined by his emoting this time - using variety of accents and impressive one-liners, Allu Arjun packs quite a punch. Upendra with a baritone voiceover by Ravi Shankar makes his formal screen appearance after interval and gives an electrifying performance - something steals the thunder from everybody including Allu Arjun. His character has the X factor that elevates the second half despite everything else coming unstuck. Rajendra Prasad whose chemistry with Allu Arjun worked in “Julayi” extends that in this film with greater length and impact. He gets many genuine laughs especially the scene where Ravi gets killed while eating lunch with Upendra. Rajendra Prasad gets the best one-liners in the film. Samantha doesn’t have the depth in her acting to supplement the over-dosage of giggly vivacity she gave us since her first film. Nitya Menen has been grossly under-utilized and she gets short shrift in every frame  - at the cost of Samantha. Since Nitya’s next film is a Mani Ratnam release, this role is neither fulfilling nor memorable. Prakash Raj - whose character is the reference point for the entire movie and climax hardly gets to speak. His dialogues must be about half a page, Trivikram could have highlighted more instances of what made Prakash Raj such a principled man - you could have built a few scenes highlighting him because the message kept ringing that he was a man who stood for public good through Anand but not from Satyamurty himself. Others like Kota Srinivas Rao and MS Narayan have a handful of impactful dialogues. MS Narayana, especially brings out tears with his hug with Rao Ramesh - it’s a pity he died while shooting for this film. The result: dubbing for MSR is done by- someone else. Brahmanandam’s character has become ad nauseum - again, demand for a “Bakra” and all that. There has to be a saner way to bring Brahmanandam to life. If one has laughed heartily in the film  - and that happens in 3-4 scenes, it is not always with Brahmi on screen.Sampath is wasted. Fights by Peter Heins are well-composed: the fight with water hosesand the one in Upendra’s house stand out for their variety. Music by DSP is not in the same league of Trivikram’s or Allu Arjun’s earlier films. All songs are mass beats or fast beats. 

What undermines the film is the length - you could knock off forty minutes and still convey the kernel of the message. Trivikram has, for the first time faltered in this film. IN his bid to make an intelligent film, he lost his sharpness and clarity of thought. It is not clear how the Rs.300 crores networth ended up, how  it shrunk the lifestyle of the hero, what the company’s business is that suddenly skyrockets the valuation to ten crores, what is the connection of property papers lying with Prakash Raj and the business he is in. There is title justification but if only Satyamurty’s character is illustrated well, more key messages of relevance to today’s youth would have registered; it is important to inherit the values more than the assets of your elders. For a long time, Allu keeps mouthing clever aphorisms from Ramayana and Mahabharata which bore you like a vegetarian meal without salt and sambar. In spite of the load taken by the hero in preserving his dead father’s goodwill, there are inconsistencies in Anand’s character. He uses a short cut to fabricate stamp papers at the behest of his friend, he doesn’t reveal to Upendra first that he is not in love with his daughter but with someone else. There are inconsistencies with Upendra too - for twenty years, everybody except his wife knows his super-violent streak - that is highly implausible. Treatment-wise, the film is burdened with the same  genres that Trivikram likes to deal with. If you take “Julai and “Atharintiki Daaredi”, and mix them up with a bigger starcast, you get the experience of “S/o…”. Trivikram has mellowed in his aggression in violence and his story-telling is still a pretty above-average throwback to the old movies of B&W era where producers and directors collaborated with a mission to deliver quality films  - high in production values and high in morality. In fact, if you take many of Trivikram’s dialogues which have received dizzy heights of popularity, there is an undercurrent of old movies’ one-liners which are repackaged with modern makeup. For example, “Luck has come to give you a shake hand but Misfortune has jumped the gun to give you a lip-lock kiss.” Or something to that effect. These kind of dialogues were dime a dozen in old Tollywood films but Trivikram’s copywriting approach has sharpened the wordiness - despite sounding repetitive. He will also use one or two Telugu words which are incomprehensible to the current generation who ceased to have Telugu as their third or even optional language in curriculum. For example, in this film just like “Ayimoolagaa (Or Diagonally)” used in “Jalsa”, he uses “Manovarthi” or “Manovyatha” in the context of divorce. He creates that spark of curiosity to learn a word or two in Telugu which is lost on today’s generation. But if he has to take his story-telling to the next level, he has to prove his mettle lies beyond assembling an army of artistes, giving stars a good push, and trying genres different from each other. Otherwise, the dangers of familiarity will breed contempt. This film is alright in frames and conveys a compact story but there is no extra factor or layering in the screenplay or characterisation that makes you watch his movies again and again  - hoping to catch a new glimpse every time. He has the spark to move out of comfort zone - this movie should be a wakeup call to move out of that comfort zone in making films that test new genres and content delivery; he has the grip on narration, sense of good cinema with appeal for family audiences - even if he forgot to entertain much in this film - but he has to concentrate on more aspects than verbosity that got him massive fan base. “S/o…” finally ends in a climax that surprises you and despite a rocking first half, it leaves many things unanswered and a big void in entertainment that he forgot to fill. You can watch it once with many lags and drags but don’t bet on this film becoming a blockbuster.

Rating; 3/5

#S/oSatyamurty #AlluArjun #Trivikram #Tollywood #MovieReviews #Upendra #MSNarayana

"Uthama Villain" - the magic of music in Kamal Hassan's films continues!

Kamal Hassan’s “Uthama Villain” raised sky-high expectations as the Telugu audio got launched last Sunday. It was entertainment to see Kamal Hassan’s spectacular entry splitting at the centre of curtains after amplifying late K Balachander’s memorable tribute to the great actor. SPB’s lyrical affections on Kamal elevated the mood to infinite nostalgia. I had followed Kamal Hassan’s films since childhood and despite the fact that he didn’t have the mass-hysterical following of Rajinikanth, he had his own indomitable footprint in South and North Cinema (the few Hindi films he starred in). But this is not the subject today. I wanted to write about  the audio of “Uthama Villain” and make a fleeting mention of Kamal’s taste for high-caliber, different sounding music.

“Uthama Villain” has music by Ghibran, the most happening music composer in Tamil and Telugu cinema today. Not the first time he scored music for Kamal - he did for “Vishwaroopam-2” and “Paapanashanam” earlier. Before that Kamal rotated many music directors  - DeviSriPrasad, Himesh Reshmiya, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Jayachandran, Ramesh Vinayakam and even his daughter Shruti Hassan for one of the films which came in Telugu (“Eenadu”). What I find intriguing is that but for the great Ilaiyaraja and the inimitable MS Vishwanathan, Kamal never really settled with any music composer throughout his career post that phase of MSV-IR. If you take out MSV and Ilaiyaraja’s overarching influence on his films, his sense of sound and music scores that provided such rich variety for the maestro to compose for almost 130 films or more, Kamal remained restless for the last decade hunting for the perfect composer after Raja. He tried AR Rahman twice (“Indian” and “Tenali”), Shankar Ehsan Loy twice, Deva twice, Vidyasagar and Harris Jayaraj once (or twice) but never repeated them afterwards. I read in some of his interviews too that he never liked the approaches of some of the gifted composers like Rahman or Vidyasagar despite getting good output from them. He was the only one who never got carried away by the Oscar-wins and the global adulations greeting Rahman; Rajinikanth on the other hand continues to enlist ARR for taking bigger bites into overseas distribution markets - having Rahman on your side as music composer is a sure-fire passport to box-office success and global appeal. The only person from Tollywood who got calls from Kamal for OST few times has been DSP - but that maybe more than just because DSP is an open admirer of Ilaiyaraja. DSP’s remixing and rerecording  stood out in most of his movies thanks to his energy and relentless handwork. Surprisingly, Mani Sharma - the best RR specialist in Tollywood never got a call from Kamal. Kamal Hassan movies, if one observes, never needed an over-melodious music director like Vidyasagar or Harris Jayaraj to imaging things that were never intended as per  the actor-director's film grammar. You just had to score one or two melody songs and some minimalistic but thoroughly realistic portrayal. But that one song is remembered forever in his films. This was the easy part that most of his music composers missed except Ilaiyaraja - thats how their chemistry endured for film-buffs because it left a rich legacy that will be studied by musicologists and music fans for many decades. 

With Ilaiyaraja, Kamal’s last film was “Mumbai Express” that was in 2005. In ten years, Kamal never worked with the Maestro and fans are waiting when the two will create magic again. Over the last decade, Ilaiyaraja has matured beyond what Kamal Hassan may have expected - Raja worked with almost all the new kids on the block who are directing Tamil films with dangerous themes and vivacious outputs - Bala, Myskin, Balki (in Hindi) ,Gautham Menon and many others who are hailed as the new trailblazers leaving the likes of ManiRatnam and old stalwarts to bite dust. Of course, Mani Ratnam himself never worked with Ilaiyaraja after parting ways bitterly before Rahman burst at the world stage. But that’s another matter. In the last ten years, there was no dearth of new music composers in Tamil and Kamal tried most of them while Ilaiyaraja exerted himself with different genre films ranging from biopics like “Bharati” to “Pandavas” to “Ajanthaa”. I sense somewhere we are about to see the coming together of the original Maestro and the actor extraordinaire in the coming years because the old wine has matured to give us richer, orchestral music and Kamal’s plots are becoming more complicated and multi-dimensional - even if they appear highly contrived. The budgets have also gone up for Ilaiyaraja, I am told, making it easy to assemble a 400 member orchestra from London or Budapest to configure a particular symphony.

With that background, I am relieved that Gibran’s latest composition for UV is spectacular and worthy of the high standards set by Kamal’s films. The original Tamil score has 17 numbers with elaborate interludes, situations and symphonies as if you are listening to a Hollywood musical OST. The Telugu version is cut down to 9 numbers and as expected the audiences on the day of the audio release lapped up the two songs  - “Kaanuke Bondu Malli” and “Lovee Lovee Single KissKe Lovaa” for the outrageous melody and the stretch in the songs. “Kaanuke..” has an extra lilt and a sensuousness that is rarely captured in today’s songs where the male singer and the female singer sing in their own time and the original purpose of duet is lost in remixing. You can hear the O-shouts and murmers of the male singer and the seducing spell of the heroine Puja Kumar in the song very well. Ghibran gave a completely different score in UV compared to the techno-thrills and fast-tempos seen in some of his latest films like “Jil” or “Run Raja Run”. Obviously, Kamal’s kitaab for Gibran both before and during the audio launch settles it that he is the right choice for the film which has a 7th Century theatrical plot intermixed with contemporary settings. I always love the background scores segued with the songs in the audio because it is such a treat for music lovers  - don’t we miss all of that for Ilaiyaraja whose BGMs float on the youtube channel with an ever-swelling following. If only music directors take note of this, they can raise the standards for audio and make the audiences stand up to rich music -of which many are capable of. The last time, a catalogue of this length - which includes songs and instrumental versions of the various scenes - came was for “Mask”(“Mugamoodi” in Tamil). Music by K  -that was from a different planet. And this album “Uthama Villain” belongs to the same class - Ghibran must take a bow. Can’t wait for the movie.

#UthamaVillain #Ghibran #KamalHassan #Ilaiyaraja #ARRahman #Vidyasagar #TamilMusic #TamilMusicComposers #TamilFilmComposers #HarrisJayaraj #Kollywood

Kiwis - Still under the shade of large tree called Australia

Few things in life can make your blood boil for no reason. One of them is seeing Australia baying for blood in a tournament, even when India is not playing. It is final, and New Zealand have won the toss but once again choking has become a way of life for them. At the current run rate, with a loss of three wickets, New Zealand are crawling even by Test Match standards of 3.5 runs per over. Nothing disappoints us more than potential remaining unfulfilled - New Zealand is a shining example of great cricketing nation living under the shadows of neighbour and big-brother Australia. They lost the world cup final last Sunday once again losing the war in spite of winning the battles. But do you know, they lost a fantastic opportunity of  paying back Australlia for all the years of stepmotherly treatment. Here's why:

New Zealand has been playing cricket for 160 years but it took them 110 years to get Test Status. (Thanks to Australia. India, on the other hand, pushed for Test Status for most neighbouring countries much before Australia did for NZ).

New Zealand won its first Test Victory in 1956 but defeated Australia first in a Test 18 years after its first Test victory. This kind of performance came in late because Australian Board remained negligent towards New Zealand, they ensured that New Zealand got less chances to play international cricket. After the two wars, the first Australian team toured New Zealand with a team called "Board XI" not "Australian XiI" whereas England started sending A-teams much before Australia - even during the World Wars. England also started sending strong teams to New Zealand and on its way to India and Pakistan, they started stopping en route to play minor series in New Zealand. It was England which started playing five-match series first with New Zealand before West Indies and others joined the fray.

The Australian Cricket Board was not only negligent but also illiberal in picking members from New Zealand during the wars. It was only MCC - Melbourne Cricket Club which is hosting the finals today - that was supportive and liberal towards NZ, they toured New Zealand. Gradually, the NZ cricket administration began to take shape and cricket became more organized after the Board of Control got formed. Once a dynamic leadership got formed in NZ, the Aussies also had to reform. The Board in Australia started replacing those who were negligent towards New Zealand by liberal, sports loving persons. And the cricketing relations between the two countries improved.

The only edge Australia is its experience as a 4-time World Champion but if the tables are to turn against them, it has to start from a neighbour held in tight leash by them for too long. If New Zealand also can't reclaim their potential from their bully neighbours, there is no need to jump in the Pacific Ocean, as famous Bishan Singh Bedi once told his Indian boys. New Zealand will get its chances sooner or later. The world of cricket certainly needs and welcomes New Champion but for that the Yellow Fellows have to be tamed first. New Zealand has given us great cricketers - Richard Hadlee, John Wright, Geoff Howarth, Martin Crowe, Chris Cairns and McCullum. They gave some of the toughest semi-final chases to teams like India and Sri Lanka. Now is their best chance. Hope they stay competitive in the final till the last. But at some point, they need to surcharge themselves emotionally, had we had enough of Australia?

#‎AusVsNZ #‎WorldCup2015 #‎CWC2015 #‎MelbourneFinal #‎AustraliaVsNewZealand #‎2015World

India is the lone Challenger on the horizon to Australia in World Cricket Today

In my view, India Vs.Australia has already overtaken the craze and palpitations seen in India Vs.Pakistan matches. And as a cricket lover, it is not difficult to fathom beyond the obvious reasons. In the world of ever-evolving fortunes in cricket, it was India which changed the rules of the game and pushed for many of the stuff that gets higher and higher TRPs. Yes, it was Kerry Packer who made modern cricket more exciting with Pyjamas, aerial overviews and fabulous commentaries but nothing once India was drawn into these series and started showing form with better consistency since those dark years between 1987 - 2000 when inconsistency and confabulations defined Indian Cricket, India rose like a meteor and over-shadowed every other country in sponsorships, in TRPs, and everything else that we know of in cricket. 

The momentum that was with West Indies, South Africa, England, Sri Lanka and sometimes Pakistan moved away to India over the years - India pushed for reforms in umpiring leading to a more error-free umpiring especially when it comes to LBW or Run-out decisions. India pushed for more consistent pitches - and you can see that in Australia in this world cup as we saw even the minnows adding 250 plus runs and the stats point towards closer to 275 plus runs or so in each innings. This was unheard of on Australian pitches even an year or so before when wickets tumbled fast and the batsmen looked into dark tunnels. Obviously, Superpower India with billions of dollars riding on the advertisers' bucks must have prevailed over the ICC to make batsman-friendly pitches. India also pushed hard with a relentless presence in experimenting different versions and the effect is what you see in IPL matches today which created another war-chest for the ever-bulging reserves of the BCCI - considered one of the richest sports bodies in the world. Not just that, Jagmohan Dalmiya, considered the machiavelli of modern cricket, has been the treasurer of the BCCI when India lifted the World Cup in 1983 and is now back at the helm, but he resurrected the fortunes of ICC - Cricket's apex body in the three years he headed it. India has systematically built equity and enormous influence in world cricket through multi-pronged efforts - Indian Cricket becoming more consistent, Indian Cricket Body becoming a force to reckon with in international tours and voting decisions that impact cricket, Indian Cricket turning up top-notch superstars with wider appeal and fighting regularity from Gavaskar and Kapil Dev to Sachin and Dhoni and even Indian Cricket writers and commentators and not forget, Indian Cricket Fans. All these forces have helped India to call the shots in cricket - with money, muscle and a benign superpower image, better than what Australia aspires to.

Looking at the craze for cricket in India, it is only going to grow much to the chagrin of the minority who think Indian Cricket is hurting other sports in India. But we will rest that debate for another day - and continue with the original point. India has clearly tested Australia in ways that make it a contest among equals. India's GDP is about $2 Trillion, Australia - $1.55 Trillion. India has almost $340 Billion forex reserves, Australia less than $60 Billion. India, in demographic terms, is estimated to populate an Australia every year according to one of the most colorful expressions I heard for long. India has shown the way that cricket domination should come not from sledging and mindless ridicule of the opposition but from playing good cricket with as much gentlemanly manners as possible. But Indian Cricket evolved to become sterner and tough on the field - where losing is not an easily digestible option. Since 2001, India has made it on Australian tours almost every year and has become sun-burned in Australian Cricket Fan's mind too. We don't know how many billionaires are in Australia but Indian billionaires are growing and so are India's millionaires and the middle-classes - this year, Indian fans outnumber Australians in today's semifinal clash, more Indians have travelled to Australia-New Zealand to routinely watch the matches. 

Indian Cricket has shown remarkable resilience over the last 100 years since the time Sir Ranjit Singhji represented India via England. For me, India playing Australia used to be a nightmare in early days when things were a lot more unpredictable. But all that has passed: India plays better cricket and with mental toughness when playing Australia. So I expect a goood match and a worthy adversatorial fight. If India wins this, it will be an icing on the cake to a dream run in this world cup seldom exhibited by any cricket team in world cup tournaments (like New Zealand). As I said losing is not an option Indians think of. I remember an old quote about a legend called W.G.Grace in one of Sir Neville Cardus, cricket's famous writer's famous essays about the master batsman. When W.G.Grace gets bowled out by a bowler, he walks upto the bowler and asks him to bowl again and adds: "Dear bowler, the spectators have come to see me bat not to see you bowl." In many words, Australia will sense that as Sydney ground becomes a blue-ocean with Indian fans blazing trumphets and shrieks. I guess India has a lot going for it and will come out trumps. All the Best India!

#‎IndiaVsAustralia #‎WorldCup2015 #‎CWC2015 #‎WC2015 #‎SemifinalClash #‎IndVsAus wontgiveitba

India loses in SemiFinals but wins the hearts - Better Luck Next Time

In my lifetime, I have seen one Halley's Comet in 1986 (not sure I will see another because the next one comes in 2062 ) and two ODI World Cups lifted by India. But I am sure I will see more WC wins from India with the way they train and shaped up. Its a good transformation from the days of Gavaskar batting for 60 overs in World Cup and Kapil Dev taking on all the bowling attack by himself. The Future is always brighter and I am ever hopeful. Losing to a better team is not disgraceful. To that extent, I am more loyal than MS Dhoni's dog to Indian Cricket because he said,"Even after a series loss, my dog still loves me." Those days of glory in only victory are over, dear Men in Blue. We will always be with you as long as we are Indians and you are playing good cricket.

Many thanks for a wonderful season!

#‎WorldCup #‎IndVsAus #‎Semifinal #‎MSDhoni #‎MeninBlue

"Jil" (Telugu Movie Review)

After an entertaining "Loukyam", Gopichand returns in 2015 with a metrosexual film that casts him in different light - trimmed hair and moustache, toned body and suave looks. Directed by Radha Krishna Kumar, "Jil" is a two line story. First line: Gopichand is a fire-officer in a family who is full of fire-brigade men who falls in love with a girl who he rescues atop a multi-storeyed building. Second line: Gopichand confronts a gang of underworld don when they are chasing down Brahmaji who runs away from the gang with a Rs.1000 crore. His confrontation gains momentum at inteval block. Ideally, the movie should have ended at interval but being Tollywood and FDC rules of above two hours and above, the movie agonisingly drags with slower narration and amateur comedy and love songs between Raashi Khanna and Gopichand.

What mars the film is the violence and the monotony of the villain with a beard shorter than Rabindranath Tagore and a voice that is more powerful than Amrish Puri. We have seen that kind of villain many times before in Tollywood where slaying of men is common and one loses count of the people chopped. The justification for such violence was never clear in the movie. "A" certificate was given because of that I assume. Generally, Gopichand has picked up good subjects with variety but this film produced by the brother of Superstar Prabhas beats imagination and logic. Because the hero is a fire-officer, we see atleast four or five fire accidents in the film, some he saves and some he doesn't. What is ridiculous is that the entire family runs the fire brigade like a Hindu Undivided Family - father, friends and the hero all are on standby for a fire-alarm. I never knew that fire-brigades are run like family businesses and that smoke signals can set the cash registers ringing. 

Let that be, the good part of the film is Gopichand's new looks and his cute romance with Raashi Khanna which lifts the film out of normal college romances. Both exude good screen chemistry and look both dignified and colorful in costumes. Raashi Khanna has urban appeal but can't act beyond a gentle gaze and cherubic face. Gopichand maintains a cool look and an under-stated termper - something we are not used to seeing him. Every Star experiments with versatility but that can only go well when the story is unique or rich. This film doesn't give scope to much of Gopichand's histrionics or loud-mouthed dialogues. The only dialogue that stands out is "I get calls when everybody's on fire. But you called me when I am on fire." Or something to that effect. Stunts despite their elaborateness don't sizzle, and humor is either bland or missing in action. Ghibran's music tries to elevate the film's moods better and the songs sparkle in general with rich picturisation and different sounds. You can't stop Ghibran from enjoying himself with experimentation of music with different scripts - he is on a new high and is flavor of the season. Production values are good - with some songs shot in Spain etc.

On the whole, a pale film with a weak story and low-energy narration.. Good in parts but wait for a better Gopichand film.

Rating : 2/5

#‎Jil #‎MovieReviews #‎Gopichand #‎UVCreations.

"Evade Subramanyam" (Telugu Movie Review)

Nani's new film releases had seen so much drama amidst the confusion created by release of two films of the same hero on the same day. The last time this happened was for Balakrishna's film which saw release of two films "Nippu Ravva'' and "Bangaru  Bullodu" on the same day. "Nippu Ravva" was released in 12 out of 25 main theatres in Hyderabad and both became hits. Nani is not so lucky, he has no Godfathers, he was a Radio Jockey and married his beau some time back - the girl is the grand daughter of legendary journalist Khasa Subba Rau, thats all. In the morning, when I went to "Jenda Pai Kapi Raju" first, the multiplex returned my money saying the show was cancelled because the producer didn't release the print yet. Then we booked for ES movie.

ES turned out to be one of the most soul-stirring,  beautiful films ever made in Tollywood - and the experience of watching a director Nag Ashwin tell a story of friendship, romance and adventure of finding out one's true purpose in life has been rewarding. In 145 minutes, the director takes us on a magical tale of self-discovery that connects to most human beings who mistake their jobs for life, chase materialistic dreams and neglect the self within that never stops asking searching questions. The story is unusual for a commercial film especially in the way nutty delights churned out in crass and zombie plots of Tollywood: Nani is an IIM graduate who is a fast-rising corporate executive, a cerebral and cut-throat investment banker who is baited by Nazar, owner of a growing seeds company to buy out all the shareholders of a rival Seeds company run by a man with unimpeachable morality - Krishnam Raju. Nazar tempts Nani with even an offer to give his daughter Ritu Varma in marriage to him if he succeeds. Nani almost succeeds but the sellers do a U-turn. Nani finally approaches Krishnam Raju to cash out of the company with loads of money but being a man of principles he disagrees. Back to square one, Nani has a final warning from Nazar - either get the company shares back or both  the carrot and the sweetner of his daughter are off. At this juncture, Nani's childhood best friend Vijay Devarakonda enters the scene  - he has been an adventure-seeker and an iconoclast all through the growing years - he sees life as job and doesn't see through the paradigms of a 9 to 5 career-seeker, he takes risks every second and goes out of way to help people in distress. The two long-time friends bump into a third party who is just like Vijay - bindaas and backpacking good-samaritan. They make an odd three-ball but soon there is a twist in the film  - the girl is someone who can bail out Nani out of his current dilemma - she holds a lakh shares of the most crucial "Class-A" shareholders of the Seed Company. Vijay rekindles an old dream of making a trek to Doodh Kashi, high up in the Himalayas. Will Nani make it ? Who make it finally? Does Nani change? What happens to the Krishnam Raju's company finally? Does he lose out his company? Who will Nani marry finally? Questions galore - and a riveting narrration albeit  a bit slow scores convincing answers to all the Qs.

Tollywood should salute the film for the breadth of the canvass covered in this visual treat covering a story that gives you goosebumps at many places. It is a spiritual film finally as it connects with the concepts of what determines our career choices, our values, our financial goals decoupled with notions of enjoyment and coupled with delayed gratification. This is not for the faint-hearted in the sense those who believe in structured ways of building wealth that covers the Templeton Plan of building retirement nest egg. The director speaks innately to voices that brew in most people who live pipe-dreams and stop living in the moment. Nani gives a fluent performance that shows the cascade of a memorable character from a "caterpillar" to a "butterfly". After "Pilla Zamindar", this is the movie that delivers for Nani. It's a pity that none of the ruling big producers and distributors picked the tab for the film. Malavika Nair who debuts in the film  shows promise of a new star  - she has glamor and sparkle to ooze intelligence and class with her looks. Vijay Devarakonda essays the most memorable role in the film as the starry-eyed youth who breathes fire into his one-liners and lives life like a child - his character sashays  the crux of the message that the director wants us to take home. Krishnam Raju gives a neat performance, his lines and character stand out after a long time - infact, his dialogues haunt you for whatever they are worth. All others who do a cameo including Prathap Pothan and Sowcar Janaki come out good. The freshness of the starcast  is a new high for Tollywood - you don't see this happening often - right from the child artistes to the adults who played the weighty roles, you can see the spark. One wonders why the directors and the casting directors don't think so fresh instead of typecasting the same people again and again like over-used balls in death overs. Music by Radhan is not spectacular but every song gives you new sounds. By borrowing one of Ilaiyaraja's most famous songs as the romance track between Nani and Malavika without remixing much, Radhan shows class and creativity. Even the BGM is above-par for a fresh composer. Cinematography and other technical crew's output give the film a backpush into higher orbit. The film has humor hidden in almost every scene without the director making efforts; because of the narrative, the audience may miss it here and there. Producer Priyanka Dutt deserves appreciation for backing a film that is not a leaf out of regular films which her dad Aswini Dutt produced. How often do you get a Clean U Certificate Telugu film that too on a Ugadi?  You miss this movie, you miss a part of yourself and history in the making. Watching this film will make you wince at all the regular greats you greet in Tollywood with epithets like "creative director", "magician of words" and feel sympathies for the superstars of Tollywood who can't risk their careers on scripts like this.  Although this is the first film, director Nag Ashwin shows class and caliber  in making a film that doesn't bore you but leaves you happy and fulfilled with remarkable clarity. "Evade Subramanyam" is Tollywood's answer to critics of zombie movies. Hope it heralds a new era of hope and promise.

Rating: 4.25/5

#MovieReviews #EvadeSubramanyam #Nani #ActorNani #Tollywood #NagAshwin #Radhan #MalvikaNair #Vijaydevarakonda

"Focus" (English) Movie Review

The plot starts with the beautiful Margot Robbie getting trained by ace conman Wil Smith as a hooker who can pick pockets. Margot soon realises Wil Smith is not just the best conman or pick-up artiste in town but also the smoothest operator whose game sucks the wildest wits out of anybody. From running an empire of slick and artful pick-pockets who take the most prized possessions however skin-tightly worn, Margot Robbie is ensnared into the world of Wil Smith and his proteges all of whom interned in the art of subtle influence and subterfuge. The apprentice that Margot is, she falls into the honey trap laid out by Wil Smith as she falls in love with him. The feelings get mutual before Wil dumps her at New Orleans. Wil Smith's masterly art of deception plays out in the second half with a man who bets big on race cars but his self-forsaken love returns as an important lady in the overall scheme of things. Will will become Old Wily? Can he prime the pump yet again? Can he win it bigger than the last time he separated a Chinese millionaire off his millions  when betting changed from a superbowl game to predicting a section of the audience watching the game? 

As an action genre film enmeshed with a wacky plot of second-guessing and some maudlin Bollywood-style romance, "Focus" packs a punch in most of the 116 minutes with some good thrills of watching a trained persuader who makes gainful usage of everything that evolved influence into a science. Wil Smith is the self-trained Pro who uses subliminal subconscious programming, NLP, emotional "Atyachar" and ancient techniques of deception, auto-suggestions and reframing. The film seems predictable at times but surprises you on more than a couple of occasions in creating engima about what the schemer is out to achieve - you sometimes get tricked into believing that the memes are muted but the director gets you now, and lets you have your guess another time. The plot is a simple three-act story - romance, two episodes that get the hero's focus on parting fools of their monies, one of them at interval block and the other in the climax - and narrates itself easy. Though a notch below the stuff Wil Smith brings to the table, "Focus" brings old-fashioned tell-tale kind of screenplays back into focus. To appeal better with a story that can't be dumbed down for the discerning audience who love intelligent cinema, the film gives spectacular footage to Margot Robbie as the muse who moves the cheese for Wil Smith - they got some of the hottest scenes together on the same lines as "The Wolff of Wall Street" stuff that gets it an A-rating but the fun is not vulgar as in the former. While Margot looks stunning and adds much spice and substance to her role, Wil Smith takes backstage with a sloppy makeup and a terrible look - he seems to have pumped too much iron in the last few movies so looks tired. Hasn't lost his sense of humor and winky looks though. 

The film is shot in India, Russia, Japan, Argentina and of course parts of America and Europe. Watching the film however gets you a quaint feeling that directors in Bollywood, Tollywood or Kollywood are going to remake this interesting film into more dumbed-down version with massive doses of Masala. It has all the ingredients to make enough song and dance about it in Indian films. Though not compulsively engrossing, the opening sequence, interval block and the climax make it all worth it. 

Rating: 3.25/5

#Focus #WilSmith #MargotRobbie #Hollywood #MovieReviews

Dr D Ramanaidu - A legend among producers

D.Ramanaidu’s contribution to Indian Cinema in general and Telugu Film Industry in particular doesn’t end with his cremation. The man has played a major part in the evolution of films as a mass medium to growing their appeal and even profiting from their continuing appeal. On face value, the statistics of his achievements as a film producer are staggering: over 150 films in 15 languages including English, debut chances for 21 directors and a few music directors and several technicians. His life is an outstandanding example of how to choose a field you love and then grow in that field to dizzy heights and more importantly, stay relevant and be in the thick of action till the very end.  At the time of his passing, “Gopala Gopala” produced by his son is still running in theatres and a blockbuster called “Bahubali” is in production stages in which his grandson plays a pivotal role.The legacy created by Dr.D Ramanaidu is not just the negatives of those films or the studio but the values which are continuing with his sons Suresh and Venkatesh and his grandsons. His contribution and overall impact on the film industry is a nonpareil in the world of cinema.

He made epic films with superstars of the day, cast them in dual roles (“Ramudu Bheemudu”), made scripts out of top-notch novelists of the day (“Premnagar”, “Secretary”,”Jeevana Tarangalu”, “Agnipoolu”), created modern-day multi-starters with both heroes (Krishna, Sobhanbabu) and heroines (Jayaprada, Sridevi) and also several low-budget films once the budgets started soaring because of hero remunerations. He started productions in the name of his eldest son Suresh and created a decent-scale studio which allows film producers to walk out with the first copy of the film if they have a script in hand - it used to be the tagline in nineties itself before Ramoji Rao came and changed the mindset of thinking from small to big. Dr.Ramanaidu also remade his films into Hindi and created big hits which helped launch stars like Jitendra and gave a second lease to actors like Rajesh Khanna and Anil Kapoor. His model of film production is that he treated it like a sacred business where all the team members are treated well but expected to be professional. There were reports in trade weeklies of how Dr Ramanaidu used to return extra copies of video cassettes or prints to some distributors in north who didn’t budget correctly. Coming from agricultural background in Karamcheedu helped Naidu to count the pennies so that he won’t become a pound-foolish producer.

If you study the careers of the people who preceded Dr Ramannaidu, it appears Naidu learnt his lessons from them too. The most famous example is Dr Raghupati Venkayya - in whose name the most famous and prestigious award for contribution to Telugu Film Industry is given - an equivalent to Dada Saheb Phalke Award. Dr Raghupati Venkayya made the first talkie in Telugu and started a production company with his son R.Prakash. But where Dr Venkayya erred was in not entrusting the financial affairs of the studio to his son. Subsequently, Dr Venkayya’s company was mishandled due to staff ineptitude and financial mismanagement. His company ran into debt and Dr Venkayya became bankrupt. In many ways, Dr Ramanaidu’s life is a mirror reflection of the very opposite of what Dr Venkayya did; Dr Naidu gave his first son free rein in running the production house and the staff were treated well but with rewards for performance and stick for slippages. Which is why, when a few years back one of the foreign production houses came to Hyderabad to buy out Ramanaidu Studios, lock stock and barrel, the offer came to a staggering Rs.1400 crores. Dr Naidu shot down any proposal to sell the studios while he is still alive.

Dr Naidu may have well had a point in holding out. He has little reasons to sell - unlike Padmalaya Studios which had elephantine debt before selling to Zee or Annapurna Studios which had been constructed on land pre-leased from Government. Dr Naidu’s family has ensured that they are a formidable force not only in film production and post-production but also in distribution. Towards the end of the last decade before 2000, they have started cornering the exhibition trade after tasting blood in distribution and production. Lease Rentals were hiked by 200 per cent which allowed several hundreds of theatre-owners to become part of the distribution chain of Suresh Productions - this was soon to become a trend that made many distributors lament but it created an apple-pie of a fabulous business model that dictated the content that is exhibited for the last decade. Even the most talented film-makers had to seek the powerhouse distribution chain controlled by Dr Naidu’s family whether it is “Eega”, “Ashta Chamma”, “Uyyala Jhampala” or the upcoming “Bahubali”. Very few production houses in the country wield so much influence at the box-office as D.Ramanaidu’s family did. Which is why, offers will never cease to pour in. Ramanaidu’s son Suresh has not only consolidated the family business towards safety but also towards a stronghold status in the way the rentals prop up a revenue model which was not even funded by banks until a decade back. Today, even working capital finance is given to his company and a few other companies. Venkatesh, his second son, went on to become the producer’s son who remains always a producer’s hero - he belted many hits in his career, became a safe hero, helped deliver one-sixth of his career hits in his father’s production banner and helped create many multi-starrer movies. Venkatesh and Suresh together held the flag aloft and created the most successful film business family in South or North India. Only Yash Chopra films comes close to what Ramanaidu’s family achieves but Yash Chopra hardly made films in South.

Despite a cult status and a towering influence, Ramanaidu never shied from public service and his recognition as a TDP MLA is proof of his love for politics and achievements as the best Parliamentarian in 2003. Many swear by the support and moral strength given by Ramanaidu in their personal struggles and careers, for many Ramanaidus’ business acumen and discipline in fiscal affairs was a guide and pathfinder. Producers like VB Rajendra Prasad, Murali Mohan, Achi Reddy, KS Rama Rao, MS Raju, Dil Raju and now Bandla Ganesh sought his advice on making successful films and staying solvent - many listened but few benefited from Naidu’s sage counsel. But despite the many highs of Ramanaidu’s career and filmography, if one must objectively assess the man’s impact on Indian Cinema, there are few facets that glare out. By treating film business as much like any other business of trading/speculation/profiteering etc, Ramanaidu has been an exemplar of seeking risk-adjusted returns. So, we find that except for a few at the initial phase, mid-phase and some in the last decade of 90s, most of his films were forgettable hits which didn’t have the class appeal of some of the other producers and makers who made fewer than one tenth of the films that Ramanaidu made - like Murari, Krishnamraju, Krishna Reddy, Aswini Dutt, ANR, NTR, Bapu-Ramana, Edida Nageswara Rao, etc.). His films had the most formulaic content and represented a hackneyed mishmash of the hollowest content which also had the stigma of obscenity, truth be told. Except in occasional films when a classy actor like Kamal Hassan starred in “Indrudu Chandrudu” or a Suresh Krishna directed “Prema”, Naidu’s films after ANR and NTR era were lackadaisical and hardly classics. Loud dialogues, crazy stunts, socialistic and anachronistic themes and puerile songs with belly-dancing and hip-shaking item songs were the mainstay of his films - until son Suresh and Venkatesh changed most of that since they took centrestage. The films he re-made in Hindi with Jitendra, Rajesh Khanna and Anil Kapoor and even those with Venkatesh were intensely feudal and mascochist which merely perpetuated the male chauvinist appeal of the audiences. Towards the last decade, he virtually moved out of production scene and tried to salvage the catalogue value with arty films and message-oriented films. The last good film from his involvement was “Madhumaasam”. 

Despite the flaws which are natural in any film personality’s colossal career, Ramanaidu is a life that will be revered and respected as long as indian Cinema stands. The man gave us a volume of output that will remain forever unsurpassed; he made films as a career and as a business more lucrative than any other film-maker. He had a well-lived life, long enough to deeply impact Telugu film industry as it stands in Hyderabad today with wings spread strategically to wherever it can next re-locate or consolidate itself. Yes, there are regrets too - that he never bought more land than the sprawling acreage of Ramanaidu Studios where you get the best vantage view of the city, that he never directed a film, that he never made a multi-starrer with Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan, that he never got a superstar after Chiranjeevi to act, that he couldn’t make a remake of “Ramudu Bheemudu” with NTR Jr. The list may go on like a litany but the legacy he left is richer than what the unfinished business could have achieved. Respect, for Dr.Ramanaidu always. R.I.P

#Ramanaidu #SureshProductions #DRamanaidu #DrRamanaidu #Tollywood #FilmIndustry #Bollywood #Indianfilmindustry #MovieReviews

Vinod Mehta - Always had a Bone to pick with.

At 72, The Lucknow Boy, Vinod Mehta, is no more. Can’t believe this larconic editor will not write again. I am sure a lot of us have reverence for his irreverence. I am not the one who will not break the rule of irreverence on his obituary because even Vinod Mehta may not like a panegyric in his memorium. If thou shalt not talk ill of the dead after they’re gone, thou shalt never get another opportunity. What is the legacy of this memorable editor to Indian Journalism?

To begin with, he spotted trends and swung to wherever momentum lie - whether it was the Congress-I for the most part, clinging to the Red Sari for as long as he could, later turning the javelins at BJP and paying left-handed compliments to them. Then endorsing AAP. He had his political leanings but never suppressed ideologies that questioned the ruling establishments. So he broke many taboos on whistle-blowing the mighty, taking on pan-Americana, backed the most candid surveys on sex that India has never done before (not even during the days of The Illustrated Weekly), explored the schisms and the patios separating and joining the business and polity. 

He had his muses, mostly women, thankfully. And he backed them  - Saba Naqvi, Neerja Choudhary, N Mahalaxmi, Shobhaa De and Arundhati Roy, considered the apple of his eye, churning out mammoth cover stories in Outlook Magazine on themes which had the most diabological feedback. Quite poetic, the most-loved and hated Indian Editor of recent times passed away on the day feminism is celebrated world-wide.

The publications he started, abandoned and got thrown out are all some of the greatest experiments in Indian English journalism. Debonair used to titiliate males before imports from America downed the market. Pioneer became a fierce voice in daily newspapers for as long as he served as editor. Sunday Observer became the most-awaited weekend newspaper for  even lovers of good prose flung far out of Mumbai and Delhi. Then came the paper that created a great tradition of pointy and pithy journalism - The Independent, modelled on the lines of the famous British newspaper - it had epic articles and opinions (many of them still preserved by me) elegantly laid out on Surf Excel white paper. The paper’s death in the 90s became a much talked about chapter for students of Indian journalism. One of my closest friends who inspired me to write - Marcellus D Souza used to write for this paper. It was later that Outlook India was born. Even before Vinod took over the reins of the magazine and instilled his core team, epitaphs were written about his “short” tenure - people rubbished that this pesky and idiosyncratic editor will desert the Rahejas soon like other publications and vanish to his villa with his whiskey. The ask was also tough because Vinod Mehta and the publisher Raheja were taking on the No.1 weekly of the times -India Today and the formidable Aroon Purie. But Vinod Mehta played to his strengths in dishing out fearless, sensational and panoramic cover stories and articles giving a distinct flavour and taste of the finest writing to the Indian urban readers. Some of the world’s greatest living writers from Naipaul and Rushdie to Garcia and Gawande, from Ruskin Bond to Khushwant Singh were writing routine short stories, memoirs and opinions for the magazine. The success of Outlook changed the condescension of Aroon Purie forever and humbled his fledging print empire at New Delhi. For the next ten or fifteen years, Outlook India became the new new thing that was avidly read, collected and preserved - even if readers not always agreed with its choices of reading material. The centrepiece of the magazine is the most widely read reader’s mail acerbically aimed at the Editor - who took everything with characeristic poise and disdain, even celebration that readers were calling him so many names. Though the comments were edited, the original diatribes with the most vitriolic, vandalist vocabulary ever written were most eagerly read. You need a different gall to take comments like that on your chin - and Vinod Mehta was a master at it.

The success of Outlook made him take so many sister publications - Outlook Money (which absorbed “The Intelligent Investor” publication into itself), Outlook Business, Outlook Profit (now defunct) and Indian editions of popular foreign magazines like “MarieClaire” and “People”). Outlook Money, despite fall in standards is the superstar of personal finance magazines beating the pulp out of “Moneylife”, “MoneyToday” and “DalalStreet Journal”. What it has achieved is an unprecedented jump in financial literacy of millions of men and women in India used to administered savings rates on one side and snake-oil selling commission agents on the other side wayfaring them into dangerous territories of risk. Many of the scribes on Outlook Money have gone to set up desks in ET and other Personal Finance websites. 

Then the many books Vinod Mehta wrote that stood the test of time - the most damning and revealing account of Sanjay Gandhi called ‘The Sanjay Story” and his own memoirs called “The Lucknow Boy” and more recently a collection of his reminiscences called “Editor Unplugged”. Vinod Mehta writes without apology or a missing apostrophe - his writing is so squeaky clean, racy, witty, crisp and refreshing. He mastered the art of story-telling, knew how to give every devil his due. His writings were read by all the Prime Ministers because it was irreverent yet professional prose. At the same time, his writing informs, entertains and regales us with the rarest of candour. We never know who really influenced his style of writing- is it Malcom Muggeridge or Henry Luce but whoever set his writing up, the literary trails left by Vinod Mehta will stand forever. Yes, he strode like a colossus in journalism and also plundered the riches that came with writing that got greased by the high and mighty. He had his loves, his loose ends and his moral strands plucked and tugged at will by the powers but he never bored us. He may have betrayed at times with his brand of journalism but he dared to do something different each time he manned a publication. And he opened the door for so many creatives in penmanship to flourish, without fear but lot of favour. We will miss Vinod Mehta as surely as the greats in Indian Journalism. For students and practitioners of it, his loss is irreparable. Can we bury his dogs with him so he can be as playful as ever?

#VinodMehta #OutlookMagazine #IndianJournalism #OutlookMoney #Pioneer #Independent #Debonair #VinodMehtabooks #LucknowBoy #EditorUnplugged

"Anekudu" (Telugu)/"Anegan"(Tamil) Film Review

This looks like the season of paper-tiger Tamil flicks dubbed into Telugu which are misfiring  - either under the weight of their own expectations or faulty execution. It happened with “Linga”, “I” and now it is the turn of “Anegan”, sorry, “Anekudu” starring Dhanush. The title itself sounded too highfalutin for even Telugu language and drove eyeballs. But in the Inox screen number four we went to, there were twenty people in all including the eight of us. We thought more would troop in as it was a long weekend. That never happened. The censor certificate put the length of the film as 159 minutes enough to doze you off when the show starts at 10 pm. 

KV Anand, the ace cinematographer directed this film starring Dhanush, Amyra Dastur, Karthik (remember “Gharshana” and “Mounaragam”) and Ashish Vidyarthi. Anand is hailed as one of the trailblazers in Kollywood after films like “Koh” and “Maatraan”(“Rangam and “Brothers” respectively in Telugu). He packs a lot into his films - eye-popping visuals, stunning climax, characters oozing out intelligence of the highest order, super speciality effects, melodious music by Harris Jayaraj and an undercurrent of a theme seldom highlighted in the media. Of course, his first film “Rangam” (“Ko” in Tamil) is still talked about as one of the best films in the last five years to hit South screens. “Anekudu” takes a familiar story but gives an unusual twist in the undercurrent to the main plot of a romantic pair - Dhanush and Amyra. Both of them are born and re-born again and again, first in Myanmar (Burma), then in Tamil Nadu and then again in Vizag and finally in one of the modern metropolises in India - call it Chennai or Hyderabad, who cares? Each time before the current avatar, Dhanush and Amyra get separated by death due to somebody’s villainy. Finding it out is the mission of current Dhanush and Amyra in the movie. Is it Ashish Vidyarthi? Is it Karthik? Or is it the lady who loved Dhanush in Burma? This is the story without tadka. Add to this, the jazz of lavish landscapes from Burma, Pallavas and the mass moods kicked up by Dhanush and flashbacks to the past lives through regression theraphy of a cleverly planted hypnotist, the story is talking masala sense. What is the sci-fi twist that KV Anand can add here? It is the villainy of a head-honcho at an IT gaming company who wants to count billions of dollars by making his employees hallucinate over past lives, imagine demons that can get a spectacular finish to the games they conjure up and finally ruin them with memes that maim the mind. One girl even feels she has to escape a demon molesting her and so she jumps off the high floor and commits suicide. 

The end comes agonisingly after many births and re-births of the hero, the heroine and the villains who keep re-surface. The dateline of the last story is about 25 years back - when Doordarshan ruled the airwaves and mobiles were yet to appear but the consistency checks were missing by an over-careful director. How come the girl only remembers her past lives as well as the characters she loves or hates but nobody else recalls any connection with her. The opening sequence, set in Burma, for example, shows the recent turmoil of the Military Juntas taking over Myanmar but oust only the Indians - was that really the case? Then the police cop’s role lacks depth and characterisation - even after the film, you don’t know if he was supporting the hero or the villain. Ditto for the lady who betrays Dhanush as the estranged lover, after first agreeing to protect him and his lover in a chase of their life on a steamship about to leave the shore of Burma. These inconsistencies mar the impressions you gather even if the overall effect is mixed. KV Anand’s efforts have always been this way - too many shades of grey and too many subtexts to interpret for each character except the lead pair. And a glaring irony in his story-telling. Is re-incarnation for real? Good, then why all the manipulation by the villain in the name of spurring his team to get hyper-creative? If the hallucinations are for real via regression theraphy, where is the need to show so many cycles of births? Yes, there are gripping sequences of action and revenge and mesmerising visuals on the life in Myanmar which actually houses a lot of Telugu immigrants but lack of clarity and consistency once again takes a toll on KV Anand’s biopic. On most other fronts, he scores high - flawless screenplay, effortless narration, gripping action, intelligence dripping in every frame untypical of commercial cinema. 

Dhanush’s performance sizzles again. He is better as the Vizag underbelly and as the chivalrous male in an IT company. Karthik looks fighting fit as a business leader, but his swagger is sometimes too much to digest, he needs to rough up more to become a baddy than use MC English for style. He has no need for props as decades after those memorable hits in the 80s, his screen presence is arresting enough. Amyra Dastur gets a range of costumes to show her lissome body and lovely face - she can be the next Amy Jackson to burn the screen. Harris Jayaraj’s music is the real treat in the film. All the songs set in varying tempos are well-shot and picturised thanks to KV Anand’s flair for panoramic scenery. Burma is my next destination and yours too, if you glimpse the first twenty minutes of the film - the rest is routine crime thriller jazzed up with theories of Karma. Must add that the title credits show Harris Jayaraj’s music effort with a spectacular fifty-plus member orchestra, manning music arrangements in Bazooka, Harmonies, Violin and Mandolin- he seems to have aced up for this movie and his soundtracks look particularly fetching for lovers of the Russo-Oriental music. Cheers to Harris Jayaraj, one of the most under-appreciated composers in Telugu and Tamil films. On the whole, the film is watchable once for the visuals and action scenes, some of them picked from “Titanic”. Despite flaws, movie-makers like KV Anand are needed to break the mould of formula fare in commercial cinema.

Rating: 2.75/5

#MovieReviews #Anekudu #Dhanush #KVAnand #AmyraDastur #Karthik #HarrisJayaraj #Tollywood #Tamilfilms #Anegan #Kollywood