Yoga's International Day!

Yoga is as old as the Adi Yogi - that Indian sage who designed a unique system of Sutras to streamline healthy and happy living  but the International Day of Yoga being celebrated on June 21 is a coup for the Indian Government when 175 sponsors supported the Indian Foreign Office’s proposal at the UN General Assembly through an acclamation. Instead of chiding the Indian Prime Minister for bull-dozing a blitzkreig of sorts - the sort that is matched only by Americans, Indians should feel elated that their gift to the world is being celebrated world-wide. As I was talking to Acharya Ram Vakkalanka, my batchmate and one of my closest buddies, he says there is a two-way shift towards Yoga and almost all countries have joined hands with Yoga practitioners to conduct camps this Sunday. The other push is coming from the Indian embassies worldwide to create awareness and practice or initiation sessions on Yoga Asans tomorrow at camps across. Either way, this is a welcome move. Dedicating a day to a thought about something is always a good idea. Talking about No-tobacco, or Anti-Cancer, or prevention of diabetes or breast cancer awareness - all these help kick up awareness and propel us towards taking counter-measures against illness or motivate us to become healthier. 

What I like about the world adopting today as “Yoga Day” is that a formal recognition that is overdue to one of the most beneficial systems of mind-body-spirit alignment known to mankind has come at last. It doesn’t take away any credit from the people who have pushed the frontiers of Yoga before and doesn’t entitle extra credit to the Man who used his machinery to get this status. It is just as symbolic as the other days that the world gave. The credit should come all the way down from Patanjali who created those 196 sutras but never once mentioned the world “Asana” to the great guru Krishnamacharya who taught over a 1000 Asanas and Kriyas to four disciples who winged out the technique of Yoga as the world practises today. Foremost among them are: BKS Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Smt.Indira Devi and his son himself - TKV Deskichar. The beneficial effects of Yoga are proven by the life-span of these gurus. Krishnamacharya lived to 100, BKS Iyengar lived upto almost 98, Indra Devi to 102 and Pattabhi Jois to 94. Today, Yoga in whichever form it is practised in the world is a formidable way of life cutting across religions and cultures. My friend Acharya Ram told me last night that besides the commonly known G7 countries, Yoga is practised in countries like Lebanon, China, Turkey, Sudan, Israel, Russia and even in Pakistan. It is well spread out to Africa, Australia and South America too with Yoga centers everywhere. According to the documentary program on Discovery channel yesterday, there are over 250 million Yoga practitioners on the planet. 

The total Yoga Industry is worth $6 Billion annually and people in the West take it more seriously than in the country of its origin. If you have a World Aerobics Day or a World Cycling Day, Yoga definitely deserves more than an annual reminder to make it an integral part of life. The beauty of Yoga is that it grows slowly and works at multiple levels of mind, body and soul and then restores harmony and tranquility, apart from de-stressing you. Like a book that one should read, it has many pages and chapters, but whether you give up after few pages or read the first chapter and move on, or take many months, if not many years to read it finally - it is all upto the beginner of Yoga. It gives the flexibility and is there to return to it again and again. It has many aspects of turning focus inward before turning the focus on overall mental and physical health. Unlike the staccato nature of isotonic and isometric exercises or aerobics, Yoga has flourished because of the flexibility it gives to each one according to his or her body condition. An Asana is not a ritual that has to be done exactly same by every student, it is a pose that can be done as much as your body allows you - no hard rules. This gives Yoga practitioners slow and steady results in an injury-free manner. Today, thanks to this flexibility in Yoga, there are as many variants in the schools of Yoga as the number of Asanas. BKS Iyengar gave illustration for 196 Asanas, Pattabhi Jois gave us about 800 Asanas. Nobody knows the exact number of Asanas which have been originally developed after observing various non-human species and the way they deal with physical stress and relaxation. But according to my friend, Acharya Ram, the reference can be found in a text called “Shiva Samhita” which details a total of 8.4 lakh Asanas coinciding with the total unique number of species on this planet. But that would be unthinkable to ingrain in our daily lifestyle for health and happiness. About a dozen Asanas and a few Pranayams are all that is needed to stay healthy. 

Despite that, unlike Aerobics, Yoga has matured and moved beyond the original forms. You have different improvisations and schools of Yoga based on the intent of the Yoga Guru who wanted to give it a signature spin and personal branding - Ashtanga Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Hot Yoga, Zen Yoga, Kriya Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Jewish Yoga, Pregnancy Yoga, Nada Yoga, Tantric Yoga, etc. Given so many forms, Yoga has already moved up in its evolution to take one of the top spots in the list of daily rituals that one must adopt. If you have ten minutes or two hours, you can flex your Yoga to fit the time available.  If you integrate all the spirit that is ordained in Patanjali aphorisms, it will work on your body and mind as mathematically as the law of gravity irrespective of whether you are a jew, a muslim, a christian or a Mongol. Those who see only the gross aspects of the origin of Yoga will shirk from it - but they cannot gainsay the benefits from Yoga. I feel sad for the narrow-minded people who denounce why there should be an International Yoga Day or whether one should do Yoga at all.  A few years back, the Pope made a sensational statement that “Yoga”  is the work of the devil , the Satan and should be discouraged. Some Muslims in India and liberals are objecting to Yoga as if it is a religious ritual. But broad-minded people from all regions in the world outside India are embracing Yoga like never before because of the overall beneficial effects it has on the cleansing of the internal organs of the body.  If there are limitations to Yoga, it is only in the limitations of your body not in the length and the “breath” of its practice.  Apart from modern gurus like Payal Gidwani Tiwari who trains Bollywood stars to Baba Ramdev, Yoga has some acclaimed Muslim-origin Gurus like Shameem Akhtar who has written many books on Yoga at workplace etc.

Having a day to Yoga also does many wonders  - like making the world realise where it all emanated from. In the drumbeats that followed to this day, there are reports, according to my friend Acharya Ram, that some sections of North America which lead the world in the regulation of Yoga by extensive licensing and enrolments have been talking of ways and means to “De-Indianise” the practice of Yoga, whatever that means-which goes beyond the three No’s : “No Sanskrit, No Chanting and NO Granola”. That has always been the case - take concepts from East and brand them as a Western Adaptation with a more fanciful re-introduction. A day like this gives India a cultural high to get the focus back to where it originated from - but doesn’t belong to. Once a science or a technique is gifted by a country or a religion, it becomes a universal tradition that is owned by the world. Yoga doesn't belong to Hinduism anymore than Vipassana Meditation belongs to Buddhism or Kung-Fu belongs to Shintoism.

I cannot end this piece on Yoga without a personal note - not that it lends some credence. I have taken to Yoga in my teens and left it in 1991 only to return to it again and again. I have dragged my father and mother to Yoga whenever I could and the little health we all have is because of Yoga. Over the years, I learnt Yoga from Gandhi Gyan Mandir, Krishnamacharya school, SSY,  and SVYASA, BengaluruDespite being over-weight, I could keep my body flexible thanks to Yoga, meditation and Kriya Yoga. Whenever I returned to Yoga, it gave me joy and happiness. I can still do 12 Surya Namaskars without a rant, arch my body perfectly in a Dhanurasana and strike a camel pose without discomfort. Yesterday, when I took my second Treadmill Test in a decade, I tested negative with all other parameters in control. The Cardiologist at Century Hospital told me,”Except for over-weight, whatever you are doing to keep your heart and body healthy is remarkable for a body frame that you have. What do you do - walk, cycle or swim?” I told the doctor, “I do Yoga whenever I can.” Of course, I will knock off these extra kids with a step up in metabolism and a step on the gas to rein in diets but Yoga kept me sane and happy for as long as I did it. My only regret is, despite the flexibility Yoga gave me, I have never been taught Yoga in School - we were trained in drills which were rigorous but less enjoyable. But thanks to initiatives like this, Yoga will now make entry into our lives much early where our bodies start malleable - in schools. As of now, 193 countries are celebrating Yoga today with spirited participation. Pakistan, as expectedly, chose not to practise Yoga. God save the world from such ostrich-headedness. Meanwhile, I have participated in Yoga today as a mark of appreciation for this endeavour. 

For those who like to know more about the depths of Yoga and the role it plays in overall mind-body development, look for lectures by my friend Acharya Ram who travels from Bermuda to Thailand, from Afghanistan to Mauritius at these links below. Ram stood first in Intermediate in MEC in our batch, finished his Chartered Accountancy in first attempt and his Cost Accountancy and Company Secretaryship examinations, became a top finance executive in North America before relinquishing all of it in pursuit of teaching Indian philosophy, culture and spirituality to the seekers worldwide. Yoga, he says has played a pivotal role in propelling him towards self-realisation and God-realisation. We need more such people to spread the message of salutary effects of Yoga and days like this really move the needle in that direction. Om Tat Sat!

www.aksharayoga.com

www.globalmindbody.org

#Yoga #InternationalYogaDay #UnitedNations #InternationalDays #WorldYogaDay #Patanjali #IndianPhilosophy #IndianYoga #India 

Lead By Maggi!

Lead was discovered by Humankind ages ago. But Indians discovered it only today in Maggi Noodles or what! Wow! If only the regulators woke up early and the consumers stand up, all the current and undiscovered elements of the periodical table may actually be found in abundance in food served outside home - restaurants, food courts, malls and marriage pandals. India is a foodie paradise, so as long as the GDP from food stuffs is high, all these clarion-calls and "march-against-Monsanto-and-Nestle" kind-of-movements that we saw today will remain a recurrent theme of the flash-in-the-pan kind. Raat Gayi to Baat Gayi! Until another discovery! Meanwhile, back to Bollywood stars endorsing toxins morphed as tasty foods. The only way to stop this menace of hazardous materials in food stuffs is to suspend eating of all processed foods and stick to food cooked at home. Or, incentivise Food Inspectors the way Excise and Customs Officers are - raid and raid till the rogues get straightened. And regulate the Food License Raj - from packaged water, paan, ghee and packaged milk to foods packed to kill. Sadly, there is no immediate solution in India for this phenomenon. We have to live with this because too much is at stake for the government that is more valuable than human lives.

Aarthi Agarwal - Another story of Expectations and Entrapment!

Aarthi Agarwal's death at age 31 is a tragic event for a heroine who had seen epic success and stardom in an industry which puts any premium for glamor in a heroine. I remember when her first film "Nuvu Naaku Nachaav" was released co-starred with Venkatesh, the press was gaga about the new glamor doll. Ironically, one of the reviewers mentioned, "Aarthi is the new Divyabharathi - the girl who died a mysterious death in the 90s." Those words sounded apocalyptic to me whenever Aarthi Agarwal's career graph peaked and dipped. For one of the longest periods since her first film became a cult romcom classic, Aarthi's career knew no bounds - she demanded star remuneration and was much sought-after glamor doll landing offers to play the leading lady paired with such stars like Venkatesh, Nagarjuna, Balakrishna, Udaykiran, Tarun, NTR Jr., Prabhas, Ravi Teja and Mahesh Babu. Her finest hour came when Megastar Chiranjeevi sought her as the lead heroine in "Indra". Tollywood fans rooted for this North-Indian girl with loose and lush black hair, pouting lips, outstanding screen presence and an over-cute plumpness. Fans did notice her BMI was on the heavier side but that didn't discourage them from watching her films umpteen times. Until the onset of girls like Trisha and Shriya at the cusp of the new millennium, Aarthi Agarwal ruled the tinsel town as the most famous heroine that the Post-liberalisation Telugu audience knew with co-stars like the who's who of Tollywood.

What is trend-setting about her is that she knew her limitations in acting but came to primarily ooze out glamor in a language hardly spoken at home, so her voice was dubbed by Savita Reddy, a convent-school-educated dubbing artiste who was to later dub her inimitable voice to several new girls on the block like Genelia, Asin, Trisha, Shriya and so on. Aarthi's success was well-handled by her father until some producers felt unease over her clash of dates and slippages in her screen magic - as slimmer and trendier females showed up on the horizon. In an industry that had narrow shelf-space for heroines, she couldn't step on the gas for selecting different scripts. One of the most famous rumors was she was dating co-star Tarun and was chasing him to marry her, something that never got established. As she slipped in ratings, she was acting with co-stars in the second rung of Tollywood, she was being asked for item songs - an area that bombed. Though some peppy numbers here and there kept her afloat, the era of rotund starlets doing item numbers was short-lived abridging her chances of success. She was soon paired with heroes as the second-lead heroine - a phase that most glamor girls went through at some time in their careers. Then came a spectacular launch of her younger sister Aditi Agarwal opposite Allu Arjun in the latter's mega debut "Gangotri". The timing of the film came when Aarthi's career was sliding and Aditi's was about to soar. But Alas! both tanked. Aarthi 's career had another sad twist - when she had to undergo a mysterious surgery that led to re-stitching her hair. Many thought she would not re-surface in Tollywood. Then came her last glorious shot - as a heroine to launch star comedian Sunil in "Andala Ramudu". The film was a raging hit that gave a new lease of life to Aarthi Agarwal. But the success was not repeated because there was no improvisation and age and competition was catching up.

With a realisation that Tollywood moved on to more options, Aarthi Agarwal settled down in life marrying a businessman in 2007 that didn't have a happy ending though. From the beginning, the public image of an actress who sees cult adulation could be dramatically different than what goes on in the mind. Very few heroines in modern era have successfully drawn the line with family members interfering in the career choices and personal choices whenever stress levels were unmanageable. The most successful examples in recent times are those of Jyothika Suriyaa, Kajal Devgn and Shalini Ajith. All of them quit careers when they either got married or got tired of acting and moved on in life with more fulfilling jobs of raising children or restoring domestic happiness. The trouble comes when even parents of heroines stop seeing their daughters as human beings but as golden-egg laying ducks. "Show me a hero and I will show you a tragedy" reads a famous line in Hollywood. It is so true of heroines driven by ambitious parents who neither dote on them nor nourish them but instead feed off them. What are the dining table conversations that parents have with children that makes them take such unnatural short-cuts to look good? If Aarthi Agarwal hadn't been forced to go in for liposuction, she would have still been alive, lived her own life to try something different in life. Those options are gone now! And another heroine's life leaves bare the cruel lessons from over-expectations. R.I.P Aarthi Agarwal. Your life took so many turns before life took you.

"Asura" (Telugu Movie Review)

"Asura" (Telugu)

Tollywood never tires of making cliched plots - each hero wants to prove he can dance, he can fight, he can romance and still look good in sentimental scenes while getting the laughs and the claps from audience for outrageous dialogues. But a door for bringing in fresh stories and credible treatment keeps getting pushed every now and then. Krishna Vijay is one such debut director who came up with a winning plot that has a slow pick up, a steady build-out, a dabanng of an interval block and a slithering climax that beats your imagination. Nara Rohit is the hero who at least tries something different in an industry where everybody wants to do formulaic action. "Asura" is a good story to begin with - about an honest and a large-hearted Jailor Dharma (Rohit) of Rajahmundry Central Jail whose job is to ensure the inmates spell no trouble in serving the sentence. He is a protege of a Superintendent who believes in the same sincerity and integrity. He is also in love with Priya Banerjee (a pretty faced debutante) and is about to marry her.

Life moves smoothly for the jailor until a notrious diamond smuggler Madhu enters Rajahmundry Jail as a convict who has to serve the last few days in prison before getting hanged. Dharma is wary of the criminal record of Madhu and allocates "D" block - the cell reserved for the most condemned criminals. Meanwhile, Madhu's petition to the President of India gets rejected and the day of hanging is round the corner. Three key personnel who have to oversee the operation goes right prepare for the D-day - the magistrate, the jailor and the hangman. The person to be hanged, Madhu, however is cool and jibes that he will go scot-free. Here comes a twist - where elements connected to the criminal outside of the prison cast their net on the three key personnel to ensure the hanging never takes place. And then the story, sorry will not give away anything, just builds up to an amazing crescendo and the climax that is a blinder. Will he get hanged? Will the jailor get suspended? Who has the last laugh? These questions linger on throughout the second half until the story comes to a smooth finish with a plot that is bigger than what is plotted inside the prison. 

At a time when the audience is getting vexed with boring plots and insipid story-telling, Krishna Vijay attempts something different that is going to be talked about for a while. How many heroes have the guts to play an unglamorous role of a Jailor? How many have the guts to cast a bevy of characters mostly from the TV Channel segment? And how many can finish off telling a good story with five songs and few stunts in all of 126 minutes? "Asura" needs to be applauded for making a good experiment decent enough to make it watchable except a bit of tardiness in the first half. The second half is racier than the first and all elements of screenplay, background score by Sai Karthik, and dialogues and editing uplift the experience to give us a new feel. If only more people think like the makers of this film, Tollywood's better days may not be far off.
The only thing that can be held against the director is the liberty taken in some procedures of hanging but in the spirit of the story that moves forward, they were quintessential for the main plot. Nara Rohit is getting fat but his brain is working smarter than most of the heroes in Tollywood who are herd-headed in the other direction. Sai Karthik scores good songs and impressive RR. Priya Banerjee is the new Bengali lass who does a good job. The villains look terrific and did a commendable job. 
It is the most thrilling film of the year and I recommend it whole-heartedly.

Rating: 3.5/5

"Dil Dhadakne Do" (Hindi Movie Review)

"Dil Dhadakne Do" is a non-tragic version of Titanic -  What happens when a dysfunctional family that never find time for each other land up in a cruise for ten days. And the problems that come from a lifetime of miscommunication and under-communication surface to the sea - until they get a life-saver, actuallly a life-boat to find happiness in a sea of unresolved puzzles. Zoya Akhtar weaves a story with too many characters and unwarranted adult scenes which make a not-so-perfect viewing in 165 minutes. Neither the audience nor the players in the movie have an escape route - because we are all at sea with a contrived tirade of pride and prejudice from a mechanical rich man's family led by Anil Kapoor. But for the stark message of the movie - Give love to your kids but also give them freedom to do what they want - and some remarkable performances by Anil Kapoor (father), Shefali Shah (mother), Priyanka Chopra (daughter) and Ranvir Singh (son), the movie crawls until a cameo performer Farhan Akhtar restores some sanity. 

Zoya's strength is her characterisation - each artist gets his or her arclight performance but her weakness in the movie is to get too many characters mess with the main storyline of the Mehra family, it dilutes the intensity of the story. By making the family pet-dog Pluto talk about the story and the stereotypes presented in it through the voice of Aamkir Khan, Zoya may have scored a self-goal because it makes the film a documentary with comments from Aamir's voice with the caustic pen of Javed Akhtar. For a long time, you feel you are watching another Raju Hiran's film where relentless commentary runs in the background with subtextual messages and chatty scenes. What redeems this monotony, occasionally, is the background score by Shankar Ehsaan Loy and associates - it is mostly chords, violin and piano. The songs are a saving grace but come few and far in between - it is either an aberration when you don't expect or a rarity when you desperately need it, spacing is bad. The Punjabi Song in the second half is the only song that stays despite another impressive album from the trio music direcors. Cinematography stands out because this is again a film that is promoting cruise tourism, sixteen years after the film "Titanic" swept the world. 

Despite a brutal portrayal of how the rich live, think and behave with one another, Zoya's characterisation shows gaps in understanding. Inconceivable that with so many friends invited on cruise, the son and daughter grow up with such emptiness and rudderlessness and without affection and understanding from parents. Neither do we find friends who can be sounding boards for each other. It is as if everybody is on their own trip of making it big and so full of themselves with never-ending vanity and disaffections. Whether such paradoxes in parenting exist in totality or is a figment of Zoya's fiction is unfathomable and surreal. Impossible that the mother loathes everything but has a stigma against divorce. Impractical for a rich kid to be forced into father's biusiness and not raise a moment of protest in so many years. Whether it resonates widely and whether it is credulous, one should ask the director and the story-writer - could there be greyness in some of the stereotypes that she typically shows as in her earlier films like ZNMD and LuckByChance. What she shows is a rich society that has taboos, doesn't talk turkey, traps their children in hopeless marriages and enslaves them in illiberal notions of misery while moving on in other aspects - that is the most incredulous aspect of the story - which is a surprise because Zoya invests well in her storylines with intelligence and plausible emotions. The fun part of the film is carried out by Ranvir Singh and Anushka Sharma in a sizzler of a romantic track that shows the chemistry between them. If only Zoya had a better editor and a story-writer with authentic sensibilities of the worlds being projected, and invested in entertainment, this film would have scored high. Now it is upto the audience to filter this low-emotion false imagery the way they want. Or, enjoy the beautiful visuals of Eurozone countries like Greece, Turkey and Spain on a cruise themselves - which is what the film anyway wants. Watchable but doesn't give you a high like "Zindagi Naa Milegi Doobaara". I would watch ZNMD or Titanic again anyday than this sober fare.

Rating: 3/5

#DilDhadakneDo #ZoyaAkhtar #RanvirSingh #PriyankaChopra #AnilKapoor  #ShefaliShaah #MovieReviews #FarhanAkhtar #ShankarEhsaanLoy #SridharSattirajuReviews

"Pandaga Chesko" (Telugu Movie Review)

The movies in 80s mostly are about hero dancing with the heroine on the slopes of Ooty or Kodaikanal and then wear a disguise and get into the dens of the villain and tame him. Hundreds of films are mostly about this theme which now seem ad nauseum. In the 90s, Tollywood followed the "Hum Aapke Hain Kaun" formula with films like "Ninne Pelladithaa" for many films until the audience clamored for new ways of story-telling. That came through Sreenu Vaitla's team with movies like "Dhee" in the 2000s and perfected with "Ready". The dizzy cinematic experience of watching a romantic couple unite two disjointed families and rekindling affections for each other has been primed to perfection with "Atharintiki Daaredi" - which crossed Rs.100 crores. That means the plot is beaten to death. But PK's protege on screen, a portly and smartphone version of Pawan Kalyan, Ravi Teja and Mahesh Babu - Ram continues the tedium of the plot mixed in all these movies aforesaid in "Pandaga Chesko" and gives us one of the most cliched and low-energy entertainers of the year. 

The story is exactly like "Atharintiki Daaredi". Ram is a multi-billion dollar scion of a family in Portugal about to marry a business partner Sonal Chauhan that will create a mega conglomerate. On the verge of marriage, his organisation gets slapped by a notice to cease the Indian factory on a PIL from GreenEnergy (Or Greenpeace?) headed by Rakul Preet Singh who cares for the environment more than Al Gore and Dalai Lama. Rakul Preet Singh, at home, gets divided between  a doting father Sampath  and an affectionate uncle SaiKumar who were once thick friends but we gather,  later, become estranged because of Sai's involvement in the elopement of Sampath's daughter with Rao Ramesh. Ram is born to that wedlock and hence has to come back to atone for the misunderstanding and re-unite the families sparring in hatred. How Ram tames the ugly side of his uncles and gets the family rooting for each other is the second half. 

The film runs to 162 minutes length enough to bore you out because neither the story-telling nor the jokes are anything new. Director Gopichand who made films like "Don Seenu" has shown his capability hasn't embraced higher levels of cinema despite the penmanship of Kona Venkat. Kona's dialogues hardly fire with a few pistol shots here and there. Performances by Sai Kumar, Sampath stand out. Brahmanandam clearly is struggling to fire up despite one of the longest roles in recent times - he shows right in the beginning and stays till the end. Brahmi's characterisation is a travesty of modern sensibilities of Tollywood. He is seen leching at heroine, happening more frequently in Telugu films. Can you ever imagine the greats like Padmanabham, Raja Babu, Relangi act voyeuristically and get laughs and respect. Film makers should note this approach is the beginning of the end of Brahmanandam. MS Narayana, lucky to see more of him but since he has passed out before dubbing his own trademark voice, the voiceover does only half justice to his impact. Yet, he has a key important role which gets few laughs. 

Music by Thaman sounds deja vu but somehow gives the sole energy that is lacking in a Ram film. His peppy music alongwith Sameer Reddy's cinematography are the two bright spots of the film. Sonal Chauhan actually outsizzles Rakul Preet Singh in the film with her looks, and glamor. Rakul cannot act beyond her pouts and angry looks and too much exposure with too many heroes is going to undermine her long-term sustainability. Ram  is a super-suave hero and metrosexual to the core but his energy levels have dropped in this film. He concentrated more on his looks and dances rather than performance which is usually in sync with his good looks. Except for one more climactic outburst, Ram the actor is invisible throughout but if you want to see what power-dressing is all about Ram's dress sense takes the cake.  Comedy is cliched and fails to create big impact moments despite a rich talent. On the whole, the movie is not novel, the treatment nothing new and the screenplay average - Tollywood will be better the sooner it comes out of this tried Mayabazar screenplay trappings.

Rating: 2.5/5

#PandagaChesko #MovieReviews #SridharSattirajuReviews #Ram #RakulPreetSingh #SSThaman #Tollywood #TelugufilmReviews

"Pataas" (Telugu Movie Review) for today's Premiere

I wrote this review after watching "Pataas". Realised I haven't posted it and today "pataas is getting aired on Gemini TV at 6 pm."Pataas" (Telugu) is entertaining film. A bit late I know but a short one from me. In a single para, as someone wanted. Good to see Kalyan Ram score a hit after ten long years. After "Athanokkade", this must be a standout film for him - less classy, but more masala-oriented and entertaining. What I like about Kalyan Ram is that he never allowed his family fortunes to build halo around him. He could have chosen to finance half the so-called hit directors, but instead he backed himself with different and at times risky scripts but gave breaks to a new director everytime. This time it is Anil Ravipudi - he will surely go places because he has the knack of packing energy and punch in every scene even if it appears often predictable. 141 minutes of relentless fun with loads of comedy from Srinivas Reddy, Asutosh Rana, Brahmanandam and of course, MS Narayana. MS Narayana signed off with a hurrah and can be seen until the last frame. Music by Sai Karthik is average; he is better at RR than song composing but passes off as okay. For the police force, the film is a morale-boosting film - lifts them into higher orbit with moral rebalancing at the end. Heroine Shruti Sodhi is thunderous but lacks cuteness. Saikumar carries off his role with all sobriety and grace. Kalyan Ram is the guy who worked hard on dancing, acting, dialogue delivery and dress sense in the film  - and comes out good in every frame. Hope he builds on the image from the  success  guaranteed from this film. With "Temper" and "Lion" set for release, looks like the Nandamuri family is on a leash after a long time. Patience is the virtue of Tollywood fans - they will reward you if you are from the film's royal family even if you deliver even after ten years (Kalyan Ram). It happens so often with superstars. Rating: 3.25/5

#Pataas #Patas #KalyanRam #MovieReviews #Tollywood #MSNarayana #Nandamuri #NandamuriKalyanRam 

"Lion" (Telugu)

Tollywood's longest running dual role matinee idol Balakrishna tries to roar back with a different plot and a new director Satya Deva. The film was expected to to do roaring business given this is Balayya's first film as an MLA. It was expected to be a hat-trick victory for all those blazing guns of Nandamuri who sighted victory on "Pataas" and "Temper". But Alas! bad screenplay and lousy narration alongwith zombie treatment have spoilt it. Trisha and Radhika Apte are roped in for glamor but both looked a leaf too familiar from old foliage. Mani Sharma, the music director who gave Balayya second lease of life from "Samarasimha Reddy" onwards scores just one melodious song and lackadaisical BGM for this film - it looks as if he was imitating DSP's "Legend" score. Very disappointing score except the first song with Siva Balaji, Balayya and Archana.

What went wrong in this 137 minute film without a marked-out sequence, if you count out the countless number of stunts and blood-dripping violent deaths and identified flying objects jumping off the earth's axis? Story is under-developed, promising but bizarre in the end. Bose (Balayya) is a tech-savvy CBI officer notorious for raiding the most powerful men amassing public loots and gawdily displaying their stealth. His eccentric ways frame many powerful leaders including CM Prakash Raj who became a CM by killing Vijay Kumar in a "twisted" way. (That is about the most unique point in the film that even channel programming can be hacked to manufacture news). 

Balayya                                                                                                                                                                        is the Joint Director of CBI who is about to crack the "cold-blooded murder". Here is where director Satya infuses a piece out of sci-fi movies. What happens if the CBI officer creates an unhackable firewall that self-reveals itself to the CBI head-quarters whether the officer dies or not? And how Prakash Raj reconstructs a bizarre world that never existed around Balayya while trying to annihilate him through medical, mortal and unthinkable ways of torture and harrassment. All of this masterminding memes are revealed to us in multiple flashbacks before and after interval, sometimes through other characters and sometimes through the hero and the villain. And then, wonder of wonders, after all this mixture of Robin Cook and Sidney Sheldon plot mixture, comes a James Bond twist where the CBI officer does spectacular stunts - with feats galore. 

In one scene, he detects an injectible that is injected into his body so he smashes a mirror in the washroom and thaws out the damn piece. In another scene, he is caught by a speeding chopper out of a bazooka van and then to save himself cuts the ropes that bind him with scissors beneath his shoes ripping open. In almost every scene, the CBI officer has not come for a raid or slapping charges after investigation but actually exchange fire like some battlefield generals across borders.It is encouraging to think that the director has some futuristic vision of our CBI officers - who combine the skills of a Navy Seal with that of a Computer Geek and spice it up with the chivalry of a Jam Bond. Because Satya Deva is a first-time director, the film suffers a lot of impressario stunts and special effects and high-decibel violence with a sense of intelligence that is actually illogical and absurd. Because of the fatal fault in this bizarre storyline, Balayya looks without makeup till interval and then runs like a Gazille without much romance and emotions in the second half. 

The romance remains a non-starter because of the amnesiac Balayya in the first half, and the couple of  songs here and there hardly give relief to the audience. Only those echo-sounding dialogues can uplift a film of this nature but the director has written them himself so he sprinkles just a few impactful dialogues - hardly enough in a Balayya film. My favorite dialogue: "Subash Chandra Bose has no death date, and this Bose has no death"). Comedy by Ali and MS Narayana (how many films has he done before passing out?) doesn't fire. Prakash Raj is the most insipid villain seen in a long time. Despite some dazzling stunts and visual effects, the movie wears you out and bakes your brain. Balayya fans will have to wait for his  98th film or 100th film (with Boyapati Srinu) to have a hurrah after "Legend". There are interesting obvious resemblances the CBI director Laxminarayana's raid on Gali Janardhan Reddy but instead of building it up with the seriousness of a super sleuth, the film loses its way in the middle. Skip it if you can't take mindless violence and senseless story. Satya Deva needs to regroup for better treatment, story, emotions and screenplay..

Rating: 2/5

#Lion #LionReview #Balakrishna #NandamuriBalakrishna #SatyaDeva #MovieReviews #Tollywood

"Piku" (Hindi Film Review)

Rarely comes a movie with a starcast, story and narration that draw you out of your zone of mind chatter and then makes a point or two in 125 minutes flat without any formulaic elements of story-telling or even statutory warnings. "Piku" has raised great expectations when Shoojit Sircar, the director of "Vicky Donor" and "Madras Cafe" cast Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan in an improbable combination. Surprise, he delivers with style and aesthetics. And engages you till the end with a screenplay that packs a million emotions, it has a storyline that resonates with most people.

Piku is Deepika Padukone who stays with her seventy-year old father Bhaskar Banerjee (Amitabh Bachchan). Piku is single and a key partner in an architecture firm who never takes a break even as she dates many men in the hope of marrying one day. Amitabh is a hypochondriac old man whose sole problem in life is constipation. He also worries about all the parameters that make old men make weekly trips to diagnostic centers - BP, Sugar, blood count and so on. Deepika and Amitabh argue about health issues and about that over-anxiety about   smoothness in bowel movements that eludes Amitabh till the very end. Piku has an obsession over her father's health habits, her father has a neurotic thing or two about his health and constipation. Both get worked up and miss out on the real fun in life - it takes a toll on Piku's work habits. She calls a regular taxi service to ferry her on work trips but almost always drives the car drivers to bump up.. Enter the owner of the fleet of cars - Irrfan. With the main characters built out like this, an idea comes to both father and daughter to head out for a holiday in homeland Kolkata by road. Irrfan is forced to drive the vehicle because none of the drivers turn up.

 For the next 1500 kilometers of road trip, Irrfan becomes a curious bystander to the intriguing fights, ego-trips, patch-ups and face-offs between the three of them.  Irrfan is a stranger to the family yet he becomes an intruder who negotiates emotions and drives home a perspective or two on what is bugging the twosome. At times, Irrfan also throws tantrums or tramples upon the ego of Amitabh or  holds a mirror to Deepika on the way she has been dealing with her father all these years. Most of the times, the exchange of words between Irrfan and Amitabh is fiery but what Amitabh realises is that Irrfan is dry-cleaning his funeral clothes and making him see ways of getting out of a lot of self-created mess -  mostly in the mind. Shoojit Sircar gives us an unhurried and dispassionate overview of the emotions of millions of Indians as we deal with health issues of aging parents and clueless youth who have their head in the sand on matters of balancing affections with personal goals. Will Amitabh solve his health issues thanks to Irrfan? Does Deepika find a man finally? What is Irrfan's role in both of their lives? Is there a twist in climax? (Hint: There is...) "Piku" takes you on an exhilarating ride of emotions and treatment like never seen before. It is difficult to give a three-act structure to a story that moves out of your living room and back but Sircar pulls it off with  memorable story-telling.

What makes the film stand out is not just the brilliance of all the technical masters - in photography and in music by Anupam Roy but in the aspects of direction and narration and finer subtleties and sensibilities of Bengali households. If you have been closer to a Bengali, you will realise the DNA in their social intercourse - everybody loves good food and roots for their culture but they also have intellectual candour and the abrasiveness of behavior towards each other. Daughter corrects the GK of father, sister-in-law gives it back to her sister's husband, a family tenant talks turkey with her avuncular "owner". In such a "Didi-style" war of words, one wonders why Bengalis rarely inter-marry, keep fighting with each other but bond better overall than many other regions. Sircar captures the essence of an ordinary story and constructs a mesmerising mosaic of human emotions - there are dollops of humor that bring the roof down in almost every scene with every character - sometimes insinuative and mostly  explicit about the motions of the human digestion. For this film, Shoojit farts all his way with the ultimate compilation of jokes and trivia about constipation and all that - that  regales us despite being predictable. Messages that come out of the film are purely accidental, not intentional so Sircar ensures the movie is never preachy and boring. That shot of Deepika Padukone playing  Shuttle Badminton is a paisa-vasool scene.

 Performances by all the three stand out - Amitabh, you don't see him, you only see a Bengali babu who is finicky about his health and self-righteous about everything else. This film is the finest for AB in years  - better than  the flippant experiments of recent years - people will enshrine AB for this role forever for he has truly imbibed the core of a Bengali patriarch. Deepika gives an impressive performance that dovetails her hiterto unexplored dimensions of acting into a complex role. Hiding her emotions, guarding her vulnerability, and hardlining a tough father while letting go when needed - whoa, what a role! Irrfan essays another effortless role as an owner who is at more than one receiving end. He has mastered the art of input-output ratio for an actor - just knows what dosage to give for each scene and yet leave the audience gasping for what is not expressed. His school of acting is quite different from the montony of a Naseerudin Shah or an Anupam Kher. It spawned the likes of Nawazuddinn Siddiqi but Irrfan is a malleable actor who stumps you with new tricks each time. A surprise packet has been Moushimi  Chatterjee - so full of energy and live-wire Bengali goodness and outspoken-ness. She makes her entry in both the halves with  good impact. Raghubeer Yadav as the doctor is also good. Musical output by Roy takes the cinematic experience to new highs. Also the role by the cinematographer - he shows great visuals of the Ganges and the multi-faceted personality of Kolkata but you still cannot miss the sponsor names like Amul milk more than once. But how did he shoot those moving pictures of a car in motion? Haven't seen that in many films and considering the lengthy footage of the travel, it looked authentic - the visuals of the roads. 

Sircar's strength seems  to turn an ordinary story into a fireball that keeps snowballing until you get the main points, in crisp format. No pretensions, no flashbacks, no mundane stuff but taut editing. No wonder, he is done with in 125 minutes. If only the jokes were not just about the stools all the time, this could have been a five-star movie but who cares? This is one of the cleanest movies in recent times and deserves a universal view (Can't understand why a U/A rating was given). If you have parents or not, this film is sure to move you. Most watchable and entertaining.

Rating: 4.5/5

#Piku #PikuReview #AmitabhBachchan #DeepikaPadukone #Irrfan #ShoojitSircar #AnupamRoy #MovieReviews #Bollywood #Bengali #MoushimiChatterjee #Sony #RaghhubirYadav

Parag Parikh - The Doyen of Value Investing In India

Parag Parikh, 61 passed away today after attending the Annual Shareholders' Meeting at Berkshire Hathway. Ironic and tragic. Tragic because he was about to board a plane waiting for him in Nebraska, missed a signal and got hit by a Chevy pick-up van running in the right direction from the opposite side. Ironic, because from the age of 25, Parag Parikh became addicted to the world of Value Investing, then groomed himself in the style of Buffett and Graham and followed their approaches rigorously. The adrenalin from following the world's greatest investor kept driving him all his life - and in the end the same high got him knocked dead in the morning, after waking to hear the Sage of Omaha the previous evening. 

I met Parag too in one of those years between the Harshad Mehta scam and the time that Templeton launched its first (and India's first) mutual fund based on the contrarian investing philosophy of Sir John Templeton. He was a stock-broker then and was rattling away the virtues of picking stocks at a fraction of their book value. He used to say the Indian Stock Market is going to reward the value investor just as any other market in developed markets if one pays heed to the legends of value investing. He was devouring books by Charlie Munger, David Dreyman, Christopher Browne, Bill Nygren and Howard Marks. His interest in picking stocks with a huge margin of safety got ignited after meeting his father's friend - the legendary investor Chandrakant Sampat who was the original big bull who had an unblemished record in the Indian Stock Markets. Groomed by Sampat, Parikh picked up as a stock-broker and started doing original research. As an ardent student of Buffett, he chose Indian Shaving Products (Gillette India) which saw huge unlocking of value before the Malhotras sold out. Since literature in the space of Investing was booming, Parikh derived "Ekalavya" wisdom from partaking in many books on Investing with a value bias. There was only one other erudite scholar who could vie for the top place as a pioneer in value investing - Chetan Parikh - who wrote extensively about the first generation of India's most famous stock-pickers in a book which is still a non-pareil "India's Money Monarchs". ( I only have a photocopy edition) but Chetan Parikh never ran a scheme or advised clients on money-matters. Parag Parikh, on the other hand, put his money where his mouth was. He wrote a book "Stocks to Riches - Insights on Investor Behavior" which set his ambitions high to be recognised as a thought-leader in Indian investing. 

"Stocks to Riches" was a seminal book on giving more than orderly interpretation on how stocks should be only invested for the long run. This Jeremy Siegal-like approach was backed by a serious plan to walk the talk. He started giving lectures on Value Investing with plenty of Indian examples from VST Ltd. to HPCL and BPCL, Engineers India and L&T against conventional growth stocks like ITC and HUL. He formed Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services (PPFAS) and started a Portfolio Management Services for investors with concepts baked from Behavioral Finance and cemented in the core of Value and Contrarian Investing - quality of management, track record, corporate governance, treatment of minority shareholders, public behavior, margin of safety, business models, and value drivers. In the late nineties and early 2000s, he built his brand equity with a regular appearance in all business channels as an expert with a behavioral finance touch. In 2009, he published his second book to accomodate more insights into Indian stock market. It was aptly called "Value Investing and Behavioral Finance" but the timing coincided with a juncture that saw most investors losing faith in Indian equities or even world equities. The book didn't fly off the shelves as anticipated but it became a much-cited book in the chronicles of the Indian Stock Market. Undeterrred, Parag Parikh continued his evangelism of the Holy Grails - Value Investing, Buffetism and Behavioral finance. His PMS now stands at around Rs.300 crores and sought out those who chase value and who understand greed and fear.

Parag's finest moment came with his decision to enter Asset Management Industry as a house without sales teams with himself and his team as the talking heads. He zeroed in on only one scheme with a tax-bias in favor of equity which commingled  equity investments in India and overseas equities like Google and IBM and some debt and arbitrage exposure. It seemed to have run better than PMS and now counts a little under Rs.600 crores - still a far cry from the behemothic assets managed by fund managers who have outgrown Buffetisms like Prashant Jain and Sankaren Naren. The fund also advertises that the "insiders" (or promoters and fund managers) have invested into ten per cent of the corpus of the scheme. This is hardly disclosed by most  houses. Parag Parikh's fund has delivered in the last one year an alpha of over 11 per cent over Sensex and over 7 per cent over the CNX 500. It is following a no-marketing approach to a fund that believes in buying fans on a cold day, ie. buying into stocks when the lemmings are headed the other way. Parag Parikh, in recent years, found company amongst many legendary investors in India who love the Value theme - Ramdeo Agarwal, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Ramesh Damani. Few of them make an annual trip to the living God of Value Investing. It was like making a trip to Tirupati to make a Darshan of your Lord but alas! the devotee got killed after the special darshan. Some day, when Indian Stock Market grows from its $2 Trillion Market-cap to a level that the world notices, remember this Ayn Rand fan who talked about Investing without behavioral traps and gaps and pushed the tradition of Value Investing into wider currency. May his soul R.I.P. 

#Parag Parikh #ValueInvesting #BehavioralFinance #ValueInvestinginIndia #ThoughtleadersinIndianStockMarket #IndianStockMarket 

"Uthama Villain" (Telugu/Tamil) Movie Review

Kamal Hassan’s most-awaited movie already raised huge expectations with a five-star trailer and a once-in-a-lifetime starcast - of Nazar, Pooja Kumar, Jayaram, Urbashi, Andrea Jermea, Parvati Menon and the legendary directors K Balachander and K Vishwanath - two directors who gave the actor his coveted cult status and critical acclaim. It is quite an eponymous moment for Kamal Hassan to see such an ensemble fire as a film unit. But does it have anything to fire? Thats the question that haunts you throughout the 172 minute extravaganza. 

The story doesn’t add up to the standards of a Kamal film. Manoranjan is a superstar with a midas touch and a madcap following who is still remote-controlled by his father-in-law K Vishwanath. But Mano wants to do one last film with his mentor and director Margadarsi (K Balachander). He convinces his mentor to direct him with lot of emotional blackmail which turns out to be for a bona fide reason as we later understand. But Balachander doesn’t direct without a good story - that story is a leaf out of history, it resembles a routine Chandamama tale of a king treacherously murdered by his minister (Nazar) who becomes a king and wants to ensnare the king’s daughter Pooja Kumar. Somehow Kamal fakes a fatal illness with the help of his lady doctor in front of Balachander  and manages to convince him to wield the megaphone. Thats just one half of the story, the other half of the story is about Kamal’s aborted love affair before marriage and the love-child  born out of that relationship - which comes back to move him. There is another side of Kamal’s story - his official family of wife and son who are living their own lives of desperation without staying connected to Kamal. The story telling moves in tandem with these two characters  - of Kamal as a cine-star and Kamal as a historical character  who gets famous for coming out alive each time flirting with death. He becomes an instrument for Pooja Kumar to avenge the death of her father by killing Nazar. The story despite its dual time settings doesn’t have the depth and variety to sustain your attention even as the director Ramesh Arvind gives a visual feast with great music  by Ghibran.

Story and screenplay by Kamal himself hands it on a platter for Ramesh Arvind but the overall output is not entertaining for a biopic hyped beyond expectations. The treatment is casual, lacks the seriousness, entertainment, twists  and the methodicity associated with Kamal’s films with grip on story-telling, pace, and multi-dimensions of his own characters. Twenty minutes into the film which is but a film in an actual film (because Balachander’s film within the film itself is titled “Uthama Villain”) the narrative fizzles out- it is either Kamal the star doting on his children drifting away or in making it out with his doctor friend in a drunken state or it is back to Kamal the ballad artiste  egged on by a princess to checkmate Nazar. The ballads are the soul of the film, no doubt, giving a rich lift to the Thaiyam dance form. Ghibran’s  music is a highlight of the musical numbers sought in the song-and-dance format of the embedded film with mesmerising makeup of both Kamal, Pooja and Nazar. It has been axiomatic for Kamal to create a deviant spectrum of characterisation far-removed from a real-life character  played with  aplomb and the deviant spark  - in this case, Uthama character - wins the acclaim. 

Sure, it could have happened again but Kamal didn’t get it right this time in UV- it is either deadpan humour or a character which insinuates the dramatic personal life of Kamal Hassan  - the flip side of being known as a catnip among women. It is this autobiographical insinuation which fails to take us on an excursion that disconnects us from reality into a world of surreal histrionics. While the character of Uthama tugs at your heart, the Superstar character gets you uncomfortably close to the inner thoughts and feelings that could be troubling Kamal the Superstar in real life with a string of  failed marriages to a series of much-publicised affairs beginning with Sripriya and so on. Did Kamal who penned the dialogues for the film too anticipate an emotional upheaval with his audience - these thoughts distract your attention in an otherwise passable fare but requiring lots of patience and veneration-filled optimism for the consummate actor and his masterly mentors - K Balachander and K Vishwanath. While K Vishwanath peters out in his performance, Balachaner stands out in one last hurrah of a performance. Director Ramesh Arvind and Kamal make Balachander hog all the screen with a fiery performance and impressive lines. Whoever dubbed for Balachander in Telugu deserves kudos. There is a deliberate intent to show Balachander in leniency with Kamal throughout the film except the first shot when the latter approaches him for a film collaboration. What surprises us is that Balachander would have thoroughly disapproved of the plot within the main film - Uthama Villain because he likes arts and folk arts but not so much as to make a film out of a fairy tale. Balachander’s films were steeped in reality and middle-class values - this one had neither realism nor morals that the middle classes keep up with. But the most delectable part of the film is the precious relationship between KB and Kamal and the climax scene does bring out tears. If the film deserves a watch, it is for Balachander’s performance alone and not Kamal’s for a change. K Vishwanath on the other hand, gives a lackadaisical performance. He is unconvincing as a tough father-in-law who is a control freak with an overarching influence on Kamal. Both KB and KV scenes are rich with nostalgic photo frames showcasing some great moments with Kamal, Rajini, Sivaji, and even Vani Ganapathy with Kamal on their wedding day. 

What bores us, though,  is the mutual admiration society formed between the trio of Kamal, KB and KV. The moment sympathy for Kamal grows, the movie becomes a celebration of the legend that is Kamal as everybody bends over forwards to make him feel good and blessed. That part, this celebratory part is a botched opportunity for Ramesh Arvind - if only he could have used the presence of two national-award winning directors to give their two cents on the craft of film-making or the nuances of finer acting through Kamal, it  would have made for different viewing. But Alas, the movie continues in its one-dimensional tirade of father-children-wife affections and the ballads galore. Performances-wise Parvati Menon, Pooja Kumar and Andrea get their share of sizzle - for Andrea it is the last intimate scene in the car with three men travelling together including Kamal. For Parvati, atleast two scenes stand out. And for Pooja, it is the song “Kanuke Bondumalli/Kaadalaaan…” where she essays a well-rehearsed dancing performance. Urmila gives her melancholic best in the hospital scene. Nazar gives an off-beat performance as a scheming minister who is both stupid and wicked at times. He produces some unconventional comedy with Kamal - a feat that never happened in his previous films. 

Kamal does his best to best the film with his histrionics but a lot of scenes look contrived - including his opening duet with Pooja and the scenes with children. One scene with his son stands out as well as one or two comedy scenes with Nazar as an imbecile Minister. Technically, the film resonates with grandeur in music thanks to Ghibran, in cinematography and in set design and artworks. Despite all that, film doesn’t score high as an output that should be one of Kamal’s most-watched films. This is because of the fatal flaw in story selection, as already pointed, with a bias for autobiography and the deja vu characterisation of the superstar - nothing new and fresh in Kamal’s portrayal as a father who errs and repents (“Indrudu Chandrudu”), alcoholic (“Sagara Sangamam”), romantic (“Panchatantram” and “Sati Leelavati”). He didn’t push new boundaries in acting with this film in both the characters except in the make-up department (which has always been the brightest spots in his films). In this film, he has also attempted a lot of singing which might not have registered well with the audience - used to leading singers like SPB or Hariharan as playbacks. In the Telugu version, Kamal dubbed in  his own voice instead of SPB which shows that he is passionate and experimental - but this could have been done when he had seen better days not when the payoffs are huge now. It appears Kamal has stopped investing in stories that pulsate with scope for performance. Instead, he is choosing stories with flimsy characters and somehow fit like a larger china box in a smaller china box - this kind of approach has outlived its utility because the audience are tiring of Kamal’s antics moving on predictable grooves. For almost a decade now, Kamal did films in the genre of comedy  - effectively limiting his own charishma, making him a puppet with many other puppets on screen. Then he realised he should fire on all cylinders with roles like dime a dozen as in “Dashavataram”. It met with limited success but not the levels that shake the box office. In between, he picked successful remakes of Hindi or Malayalam films or acted in crime stories that made his producers reimburse fatter bills. But the soul of his performance is yet to return in more than a decade - and we are still awaiting that perfect moment. Instead, Kamal is seeking more pleasures in selecting unimaginative plots with devious digs at Vaishnavism, brahminism, terrorism and so on. Time for a refreshed study  of one’s potential and what one is actually  doing. Kamal Hassan’s latest film proves that having charisma, superstar persona, raising controversies  and hyping it up with a five-star trailer are not enough to deliver a wholesome visual extravaganza. “Uthama Villain”is not that Utham. But for Balachander’s arresting presence and performance, this film, despite the highs in art department and choreography and music slips into an average category of 2.5. KB gives it a notch better rating. Barely watchable otherwise.

Rating: 2.75/5

#UthamaVillain #KamalHassan #KBalachandar #UthamaVillainTamil #UthamaVillainTelugu #Eros #Ghibran #KVishwanath #Kollywood #Tollywood #MovieReviews #UthamaVillainReview

Sri - Music Director with energy and audacity. R.I.P.

Music Director Srinivas Chakravarty’s death due to renal failure is eerily similar to his father’s death for the same reason in 2002. Sri, as he was popularly known is the son of the most prolific music director of Telugu Film Industry in the 70s and 80s - Chakravarty. His name meant he was the Emperor and indeed Chakravarty was the go-to music director for all the commercial film-makers at one time whenever dates were difficult to get for the older generation of KV Mahadevan, MSV, Satyam and so on. Chakravarty composed music for 959 films - a feat that has been surpassed only by Ilayaraja. But Chakravarty was adamant his sons had to earn their spurs by themselves. That was how Srinivas Chakravarty and Ramakrishna Prasad came to the industry. Ironically, even between themselves, the two brothers couldn’t even compose music for even five per cent of the number of films their dad composed. But Sri, the elder of the two, made a mark for himself and earned a good name as a composer who can energise the film and uplift the moods to a new high. But in the years that he composed music growing out of the shadows of his dad (“Ammoru” was unofficially his first because he stepped in when his father was ailing and ready to pass out almost in the same style as RD Burman took over the reins from SD Burman in “Aaradhana”), Sri scored some peppy tunes which are still hummed in bachelor parties and chirpy get-to-togethers - “Bhadram Be Careful Brotheru” and “Chakravarty ki Veedhi Bicchagathiki” and so on. With movies like "Gaayam", “Money”, “Money Money” and “Anukokunda Oka Roju” with RGV and movies like “Sindhooram”, “Little Soldiers” and “Sahasam”, Sri proved he is a versatile composer with a sense of modern sounds and orchestration along with musical arrangements that differentiate the new generation of composers from the old. But it remains an enigma why he got so fewer chances despite huge talent and untapped reservoir of musical abilities - he can sing better than many modern music directors in a rich voice that doesn’t need track singers’ support, he can play guitar and violin better, he can create good background scores (although the earlier part of his career was marred by childish imitations of western composers like John Williams from “Jurassic Park”) and he can also give accomplished dubbing support to heroes. Some say, he was whimsical and critical of film producers and directors who were unappreciative of his genius. Some used to say, his ways of working were lazy and wishy-washy, there was no way to trap the tunes that he would think up one fine day. Whereas,  he used to say he didn’t feel like working after becoming embittered after his mother’s death. But his mother passed away atleast five years before his father passed away in 2002.  His elder brother passed away in a bike accident and Sri named his son after him - as Rajesh Chakravarty. Then he came across many times saying the film industry which extracted blood out of his father in over thousand films never came in droves to give his father a fitting final salute - which he truly deserved. In his interviews, he used to be very outspoken about why selection of tunes or the choice of music was beyond the comprehension of the producers and directors who approached him. The industry labelled “Sri” for many years as a composer with loads of attitude problems - but all directors who worked with Sri vouch for his versatility and sincerity in output. Whatever reasons lie in the realms of truth, Sri moved out of limelight into years of wilderness until he re-surfaced a few years back - with “Sahasam” and “Aadu Magadraa Bujji”. Only few stars like Nagarjuna and directors like Krishna Vamsee, RGV, Gunnam Gangaraju and Chandrasekhar Yeleti gave Sri the real breaks - the rest of the heroes hardly engaged with him. Chiranjeevi who has given a chance to RP Patnaik to compose a song in “Indra”  promised a song, if not an album,  to Sri  in “Anji”. But we never heard anything come out in the album.

For Sri, success came whenever he released an album but he was upset with the success-chasing addiction of the Telugu film industry. He wanted to show he was as much a volcano of talent as neighbourhood Rahmans and Jayarajs. But alas, the same directors who gave him an early break - RGV and Krishna Vamsee passed him in later years by recruiting composers like Raj Koti and Mani Sharma who had less qualms and no airs. They had hunger and thirst to be adaptive. But Sri had talent but wanted work on his terms. Unfortunately, thats not how the creative industries work. If you browbeat me today, I will survive for another day and scout for a better guy than you. Despite the nonchalance of Sri, he could have channelised his anger and frustrations into the albums -like what he did with Singer Smitha. Or, he could have taken up the magnum opus work-in-progress of father Chakravarty  - to create a body of compositions based on the 72 Melakartha Ragas of which he recorded about eight cassettes with Veturi Sundara Rama Murthy. Sri’s music has the hallmarks of a great composition - modern orchestration, rhythmic sounds, and an energy to sound different with a western beat. The last famous song he sung himself in “Chakram” was a soulful number written by Sirivennela and composed by late Chakri. But the melody songs never came back in his score after “Little Soldiers” - an album that is still a classic among the school-goers of the nineties. “Little Soldiers” put him in the dazzle of the great composers of the decade but sadly, it created a vacuum after that for a long, long time. Chakravarty, his father also grew lonely after his wife’s death and adopted a girl child (Chakravarty had four sons of whom, one died, and Sri was the second son, followed by two more sons, one in music and another in medicine). Sri’s father gave away half his estate of huge legacy of music rights and royalties to his adopted daughter who is now happily married and settled in life. We still cannot think Chakravarty’s musical legacy has created so many hits and songs that still play in the half dozen radio channels and many other channels worldwide to get huge royalties - because 959 films multiplied by six songs on an average means  5754 songs. That legacy split into two halves, if public domain speculation is to be believed is what could have easily settled the brothers. But bad health has snatched a gifted director who is one of the most intelligent and improvising composers that Tollywood failed to use better. If only the fickle-minded Tollywood had listened to this composer’s tunes more or made Sri experiment more, we would have had atleast fifteen percent of Chakravarty’s musical output in the name of Sri.  But the impact on sounds, musical arrangements, BGM scores and tunes created by Sri will be remembered forever. He will be more than just a footnote in the long tradition of successful music directors in Tollywood. God give him peace tonight as he meets with his prolific dad. His father was popular but not widely respected. Sri, was never popular but widely respected for his candidness. Today, he belongs to the ages. R.I.P.

My favourite top five tunes composed by Sri:

1.“Vaarevva Emi Face” (Money)
2.“Aayilaaa Aayilaaa Aiyilaaayeeee…Lechinde Lediki Parugu” (Money)
3.“Chakravarti Ki Veedhi Bichchagathiki” (Money)
4.“Adagalani Undi Oka Doubtu ni” (Little Soldiers)
5.“Alupannadi Undaa” (Gaayam)

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"Sakhi" Review - Back to Nostalgia after "OK Bangaram"

Fifteen Years back, I wrote this film review after watching Mani Ratnam's movie"Sakhi" ("Alaipayuthey" in Tamil and "Saathiya" in Hindi) on April 14, 2000. Yes, it is edit-worthy but I wouldn't change one word. If a reviewer has mellowed, I am sure Mani Ratnam has too - waiting for a perfect reprise of another love story in "Ok Bangaram" ("O Kaadal Kanmani" in Tamil). Soundtrack by AR Rahman got released yesterday. Sounds promising. As I said here, welcome back Mani! My review of "Ok Bangaram" below in previous post.

"Ok Bangaram" (Telugu)/ "O Kadal Kanmani" (Tamil) Movie Review

When it comes to romance, Mani Ratnam has an uneven advantage in making even the mundane plots dance on screen with unblemished technical brilliance and undiminished attention to the nuances of love. “Ok Bangaram” passes the test for Mani Ratnam  and it is no mean feat for one of the finest masters of Indian Cinema. He has made a memorable romantic movie in every decade since the 80s that gets burnt in our psyche. “Mouna Raagam”, “Gitanjali”, “Sakhi” and now “Ok Bangaram” joins that league. Even if the plot is not something unfamiliar and the treatment lacks wow factor at few places, the finesse of the film with all the visuals, the rich music of AR Rahman and the tracks between the lead pairs (there are two pairs in fact) transport you into trance. Roping in such technical stalwarts like PC Sreeram, Sharmistha Roy, Sreekar Prasad and Rahman, Mani can heave a sigh of relief that his product, after a long gap, will taste some success at the box office. 

Indeed the plot is mundane and much cited on silver screens - a live-in relationship between two mature professionals - Aadi  (Dulquar Salmaan) and Tara (Nitya Menen) who are spectacularly in love with each other while keeping an eye on their fledgling careers. Dulquar is a gaming guru who conceptualises  imaginative online games that rake in the millions and Nitya is an architect who is seeking her Masters in Paris. Dulquar stays as a PG with an elderly couple  - Prakash Raj and Leela Samson. Love grows between the two young pros with faultiness often arising from live-in expectations. It goes through a roller-coaster ride before a familiar climax with many moments of truth inspired by the geriatric couple of Mrs and Mr Ganapathy (played by Prakash Raj and Leela Samson). But Mani Ratnam doesn’t believe in a riot of love without a cause, so you see a romantic track with the duress of a success-seeking professional and the affections of your immediate family, however dysfunctional or the care of those who need. In 138 minutes or so, Mani Ratnam’s old magic of story-telling returns without any temptations of narcissism of the craft or visuals that rush up your adrenaline. With good screenplay, stunning visuals and a commendable starcast, the movie deserves a once-watch even if some familiarity with his treatment creeps in at many points. In many ways, the old film “Sakhi” still remains unsurpassed because of the beauty of a sober plot that has many uncharacteristic twists and pathos moments. 

Yet, “OK Bangaram” scores high because of the freshness of the pair. Nitya Menen takes the cake in the movie with an effortless performance that will win hearts, she is at once vulnerable yet measured, cute yet cold-blooded with her mother, innocent but also volatile in moods. Wearing dresses that she might wear on a day of no-shooting, Nitya strikes a delicate balance with versatility and grace unbelievable for a South heroine. The only thing that takes away marks in her performance is the  inconsistency in her characterisation; she first turns down a lover who is interested in her estate but with Aadi, she gets distracted all the time falling for the same tricks that she believes boys play before getting fresh with girls. Aadi, played by Dulquar Salmaan is exciting. The boy who won all the hearts in “Bangalore Days” is the most promising youngster that Mani Ratnam has re-launched for an audience far removed from Mollywood (Malayalam movies). Whether in control of emotions in love or losing it, in anger and poise, camaraderie at work or sympathy for an elderly landlady, Dulquer smarts ahead with a great show of talent - something that comes easily to him from father and superstar Mammooty. His characterisation is the most consistent and worthy of a protagonist coming of age. Kudos to Actor Nani for lending his inimitable voice to Dulquer in the  Telugu version. Nani’s voice has amplified Dulquer’s character for the masses - it is a great idea and a good sporting gesture. Normally, Aalap Raju or Srinivas Murty are the only voices you hear for all Tamil heroes in Telugu versions but this is a delectable experiment - must be at Dil Raju’s bidding who produced the movie in Telugu. Prakash Raj gets such a meaty role in this film, after “Iruvar”that he should thank his stars for a spotless role which will re-ignite his career in that space where he was virtually unchallenged. If Jayasudha stole the show in “Sakhi”, Prakash Raj did it in “Ok Bangaram” with shades of “SVSC” performance. Leela Samson gives a soulful performance as a lady losing her way in life with Alzeimer’s. Her lines linger on and give the depth to an otherwise elementary story. 

What endears the film is Mani Ratnam’s mature handling of the themes and visuals he wants us to go home with. He could have been tempted to show cliched scenes of fights to elevate heroism or sympathy to pad up the love story etc.but he shows great restraint by sticking to responsible and refined cinema. In the film, for example, the heroine’s mother uses her influence to subject the hero to police torture. Any other director would have shown the scene  - right from Shankar to Rajamouli but Mani dismisses it as an aside plainly told by the hero to the heroine, matter-of-factly. Similarly, a love story doesn’t fire up without a customary item song or a drunken scene or fights. Cleverly, quite deftly, Mani shows none of these banalities - instead, he uses the montage of the gaming animation to show stunts and other chutzpah - skip it or snooze, the story doesn’t jar you. Heroism for the heroes and glamor for the heroines - both these get redefined by Mani in the film, a lesson somewhere for master manipulators of emotions in Tollywood. It is good that successive failures and biting criticisms of Mani’s previous films have made him mellow in his love with the craft versus attempt to tell a good story. 

Mani has told a good story with a familiar message though - with conventional trappings and some deja vu moments of bitterness and celebration in love and life. But the effort shows and leaves you with a nice aftertaste unlike some of his forgettable films in the last decade. Helping him to get a breather again are technicians who worked closely with him in several films. PC Sreeram, that ace cinematographer proves  a nonpareil when it comes to catching fire with screenshots. This time, he choses Mumbai’s lesser-highlighted imagery - torrential rains, jerky rides  on bike, high seas of the Arabian Sea with up-close shots of the ships that keep a vigil on the coast at night and many other shots like that. Sreeram’s work is itself paisa vasool for the film and makes it above-average viewing. Of course, his lighting is legendary - and while he makes the lead pair sizzle in their chemistry and screen presence, he has highlighted the old pair in the moods that Mani wanted them to be in, Leela Samson’s shrinkage from a carnatic musician to a forlorn patient is captured well by Sreeram as also the shots in the trains in which lot of Mani’s films revel. AR Rahman’s music has been a chart-buster before the film released, now it will egg you on more since the film is a treat to watch. With nine songs rich in variety and orchestration, Rahman has given the season’s best songs and BGM. And Mani hasn’t fully done justice to their picturisation;  he hasn’t subtracted though from the music with his visual output. Visually, the song on the gaming concepts that greets you on titles has the raciest groove in the score. The carnatic  number sung by Chitra is the only song abruptly cut short by Mani. Otherwise, almost three or four songs which are good audio tracks are extended in the second half which increase the hummability of the songs. Songs by Rahmanand the music co-scored by Rahman and another troupe take the experience to a new high. Mani’s imagination is not commensurate with Rahman’s perceptible instrumentation reserved for “Mani Sir’s films”. The only song that stands out is the duet in the lodge in Ahmedabad where the young lovers feel the physical temptations of love but don’t give in yet. Dubbing-wise, you don’t feel this is coming from Tamil, the quality and the Telugu diction  is so good. Also, references to local towns and a couple of politicians make it credible. Sirivennala’s lyrics make the Telugu songs enchanting and classy compared to some of the hopelessly inapt lyrics penned in Mani’s previous films dubbed from Tamil. Instead of using words like “Gunde Kinda Needocche” and “Kuriseti Gadiyaaram”, Sirivennala uses lilting words which are also sensible. Dialogues by Kiran are in the same metric length of Mani Ratnam - crisp and business-like. Despite many moments where you feel the lag of a director who is not able to outgrow his favourite love scenes and hurrah moments, “Ok Bangaram” will get Mani’s fans happy again. Here’s a master who gets his mojo back. It is not brilliant and not the best of his movies - but he re-presents the timeless paradigms of skin-deep love for another generation confused in online chats and careerist obsessions with reinvigorated craft and squeaky clean touch of class. Watchable, for sure.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

#ManiRatnam #OkBangaram #OKadalKanmani #NityaMenen #DulquerSalmaan #ARRahman #PCSreeram #Tollywood #Kollywood #MovieReviews #DilRaju #PrakashRaj #Nani #OKBangaramReview