Hyderabad Literary Festival ends, Literally!

Last week's Th Hindu carried a cover story on the Jaipur Literary Festival - making it out to be the biggest in Asia-Pacific of its kind. I was contented enough to just be at Hyderabad Literary Festival just for a day. The setting was impressive and Taramati Baradari was the perfect venue - quite and picturesque with vast spaces full of greenery and hillocks and tombs to comb. What was missing? Probably the buzz and the energy levels. JLF sees a galaxy of star writers and super-star agents but HLF is just beginning and you dont expect first year to be a tour de force. And in Hyderabad - you don't expect book-hungry loves to turn up like eager-beaver birds and hunt for autographs  or surround a much-published author giving tips on overcoming the writer's block. I was lucky to spend a few meaningful moments with long-time friends and better-published writers than me. We chatted up on books galore and publishing trends across the world in that brief session over a mild coffee. I figured out that most of those who turned out as audiences were retired teachers, literature students and academicians. Writers of reckoning were few to be spotted - the ones who came and went were Indraganti Mohana Krishna (director of "Ashta Chemma"- quite a reader and a sensible film-maker ), Saed Mirza, Vidya Rao, Gulzar Sahib and Pavan K Verma ("The Great Indian Middle Class"). I met an interesting lady who is a big gun at  one of the leading publishing houses of an MNC in India. We discussed the best books to read in 2011 and seemed to agree on the increasing trend of seeing Indians writing more about stuff that Indians love to read. We hit off a common note on quite a few trends shaping the Rs.10,000 crore big Indian Publishing Industry. My  acquaintance gave some dope on what are the new themes to work on in Indian Publishing. I mentioned that I anticipated this trend five years back - like in MTV, Indians want to see more of Indians. No wonder, you have more Indians writing on everything from business biographies, health mattes, spirituality, fiction and other matters of nonfiction that have a general appeal. Out of 80,000 titles published in India, the trend is still not reached a stage where Indian books outnumber foreign books - but it is desirably on the upswing. I was nevertheless happy to interact with some friends and new contacts to discuss bibliophilia - amongst other things why and where a mafia works in some capitals of the country, why Ayn Rand still sells more books than any living author today, how to write e-books that can be sold as downloads for the 50 million Amazon Kindle users worldwide. HLF, was not that bad and if only the venue was in the heart of the city, the turnout would have been impressive. I hope this is just the right beginning that will get Hyderabad literal, literally!

"Businessman" is indeed a hit!

Its now final - "Businessman" is a hit amongst the movies released for Sankranti in Tollywood.  ("Bodyguard" is also an average hit and has its supoort and patronage but thats not sufficient to upstage "Businessman"). And Mahesh Babu seems to be the New No.1 in Tollywood. Collections don't lie - from Rs.13 crs. gross +satellite rights of Rs.7.27 crs. It has already made money for the distributors and producers. Credit goes to both Mahesh and Puri for snatching a quick and cool hit - with tight schedule and tighter control on costs. If the trend continues this year, looks like Tollywood will be on a song because of more multli-starrers planned and faster rotation of reels between Superstars and technicians. If heroes like NTR, Mahesh, Prabhas act in 4-5 films per year and compete with the likes of Ravi Teja and Allari Naresh in more productions per annum - it is the best thing to happen for Tollywood desperate for more churnouts and more hits and more employability for its crew and cast. Last year, Tollywood saw a unique statistics. The no. of dubbed films in Telugu was 120 in 2011 whereas the no.of straight films in Tollywood were 118. That should tell how the technicians of Tollywood would have fared. Well begun is half the victory..So the tidings will be glad for another busy movie season coming up in February where many Star films are expected to release. Cheers Tollywood and Telugu Cinema.

"Fountain Ink" Magazine

My part-time interest in journalism leaves no stone unturned in ferreting out new magazines on stands. I have seen magazines come and go since the years I started identifying with print journalism. I remember "Illustrated Weekly of India", "Sunday", "Imprint", "Civil Lines", "Junior Statesman" (Jug Suraiya), "Target", "Quest" (the magazine brought out by Nissim Ezekiel before it bowed out during the Emergency days), "Mainstream" (by the late Nikhil Chakravarti - back now), "Caravan" (Vishwanath- again back) etc...Its sad to see a magazine close down for unviable reasons. I remember subscribing to a magazine published from Chennai - "Indian Review of Books". I even have some of my letters published in that respected monthly-IRB. It used to scour the Indian Book Market for the best reads. Sadly, it closed down too after a few years. It is difficult to find courageous publishers, publishers with a literary backbone to back new writers and exciting fiction and nonfiction these days in the age of e-books and online buzz.

Inspite of the heavy odds agaisnt niche literary magazines in terms of declining readership (Or is it?), there are people coming out with with highly readable prose and poetry - in magazines like "Open" (Manu Joseph), "Caravan" (the NRI son of the legendary Vishwanath). I am delighted to introduce a new literary magazine - "Fountain Ink" again brought out by Chennai. This is in the tradition of those high-quality magazines which cover narrative fiction, NewYorker-type of reportage and visual aesthetics. First three issues beginning November 2011 have been good reading material - and I have kept up with them in the car by buying two copies each. I like the format - it has about 120 pages each issue, good fonts, high GSM paper, and energetic and engaging fiction and nonfiction and mixed up well with high quality photographs and graphic novels that will appeal to the newgen. Their cover stories are good - the first cover story was on "Telangana", the second on "How today's facebook and twitter-crazy crowd live their daily lives" and the third on "How vernacular writers are finding it hard to make both ends meet." The January 2012 issue is a collector's special - rare art collection of Mario Miranda's best and some good graphic novels again.

I am shocked by the price Rs.20/-per issue - that is less than the parking fees you pay at GVK Mall or Big Cinemas. And they are offering the whole year's subscription of 12 issues at Rs.60/- in an obscenely tempting innaugural offer. Why are they under-selling themselves? Is this a bottom-of-the-pyramid pricing? You have "Forbes Life" which charges Rs.150/- per quarterly issue for maybe slightly better literary stuff...I really hope this monthly will succeed. Read it - and subscribe for a good cause - of reading quality writing. Let the folks survive. The magazine is aiming in that niche where an exciting thread of commentary is made on the media, socio-economic-political scenarios as well as the vernacular worlds  - the many microcosms that abound in India. I love the vast canvass "Fountain Ink" has attempted and wish and pray it succeeds. Hope springs eternal for things literary, to survive.

Makara Sankranti and its Significance in India

Happy Makara Sankranti to all my Telugu friends, Happy Pongal to my Tamil friends. May you all have the best of the harvest in the coming year - of meeting your personal and family goals, and successes and joys. Even though all in my family get our status and livelihood from service economy activities - Sankranti is one festival we treasure coming together. There is something of this agricultura...l festival thats pure joy and bliss to us - something thats closer to our family roots and rich heritage and culture. Love the Rangoli, the kites, the sonorous sounds of Haridasu, the salutation to the only God who goes "live" - Sun God - for a bountiful year of crops, the assortment of dishes for Sankranti, the sweet dishes, the Bommala Koluvu, the Kanuma and the Bhogi festivals, the usage of cowdung with both hands as an anti-pollutant, the reverberations on top of the terraces with mike boxes and latest songs amidst "Kaate" and "other sirens", the new clothes, the exhibition or fairs and site seeing with the biggest gang of cousins and elders and brothers-in-law, the new movies, the works... Except for the last two generations, my family has always been agrarian in its pursuit of economic activities - but Sankranti is an annual reminder of where we come from and where we finally belong to. We may be a remittance economy and a tertiary superpower, but Sankranti is a pure lifestyle-charging festival thats a package of many worlds in three days. No wonder, Andhra Pradesh which comes alphabetically first in every listing - never mind the boos for the time being- sees a bird-migration of sorts where folks everywhere go back to their villages for 3 days. In Hyderabad alone, it is rare to see a "bird migration" of almost a crore. I hope and pray nothing in the world can take away the pleasures of celebrating this unique lifestyle festival with a God that we see everyday - Sun. And to top it all with the movies. The Sun transits every month into a new Zodiac sign but its transit into the Northern hemisphere is always an auspicious beginning and a special moment in a year - a sign of things waiting to get into momentum mode, to get serious, to wake up and smell the coffee. I hope the same momentum is gathered and seen by everybody who believes in this festival and even by those who do not believe in this festival.

"Sherlock Holmes: The Game of Shadows" Movie Review

"Sherlock Holmes: The Game of Shadows". Rarely do you find an English film running in metros in 3rd or 4th week. Mind-blowing film about the ace detective and his famed Dr Watson by Guy Ritchie. Director must be someone who has soaked up on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works and he shows his knack and craft in bringing the story set in 1891 when France and Germany go to Wa...r and one of the fiercest adversaries of Sherlock Holmes - Professor Moriarty - is nailed and polished off. The film has got impeccable performances by the Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes), Jude Law (Dr Watson), Jared Harris (Prof.Moriarty) and others and probably the best mind-blowing action sequences with a new edge. I am sure these will be the new norm to copy by Indian film-makers. There must be about six or seven of them - and those sequences will make movies like "Matrix" look amateurish. 129 minutes of high-octane action adventures and mind-blowing mind antics by Holmes and his Doctor. Excellent BGM and period costumes and some of othe best one-liners written in proper old-world British style. You get the laughs heartily. Even if you are not a detective film buff, one or two viewings of this film will take you closer to Mensa IQ Club memberships. How I wonder these Warner Brothers continue to get scripts out of the closet into pulsating movies!

"Bodyguard" Telugu Movie Review

“Bodyguard” is the last of the films made under the same title in every language in South India and also in Hindi. Venkatesh plays the role of “Bodyguard” in Telugu – bodyguard to Trisha Krishnan. The movie’s main weakness is lack of depth in the storyline itself – not much romance can spring up between a bodyguard and his subject, so a romance gets built up out of thin air – Trisha (Her name is “Keerthi” for the third time in this Venky-Trisha combo) keeps calling Venky as a mystery caller and makes him pine for her. The story then goes through the twist in the last half-hour which is the most convincing part of the film. Venky seems to have changed the rules of bodyguard a bit - to induct more of his brand of humor and get more sympathy which is commonplace. I have watched both Hindi and Telugu versions now and can say but for some more humor introduced through Venumadhav, the Hindi version was better because of Salman Khan’s diginified performance – he had the body and the stoic stature. Even Kareena’s characterization was more consistent and justified. In the Telugu version, Trisha’s character is weakly etched and lacks justification at the point where she falls in love with her bodyguard. Venkatesh, is no doubt, a fine performer always but this role doesn’t suit him and however much he tried with his tired looks and trite melodrama, he looks more like a homeguard than bodyguard. Somewhere, he has failed to improvise on his performance over the last several years – goes for minimum risk family fare. He should take more risks at this stage of career or invest heavily into better storylines which families will anyway come to watch because he has the niche – in that sense, the movie’s cleanliness and family-friendliness is intact. (Unlike the other movie “Businessman” which caters to the under-30 segment with its adult fare).


There is a scene after interval where Venky and Ali sneek into the ladies ‘ hostel with lady attires. Only difference, unlike Ali (who can dress to kill like a lady), Venky doesn’t take his moustache off but still creates a laugh riot with a “Dookudu” number. The impact would have been magnified if he has taken off his moustache. That’s what I call risk-appetite - which is missing. Nag, Balakrishna, Pawan, Mahesh, NTR, even Chiranjeevi experimented with their face and removed moustache even if for one scene but not Venkatesh. Not that it would make a difference but I feel its high time for Venkatesh to think of something dramatic to re-invent himself. If he is doing “Swami Vivekananda” role, why couldn’t he be clean-shaven for a fleeting pause?



Forget this excursion, but back to the movie, “Bodyguard” is barely watchable because the story lacks depth and variety without a scope for getting more bang for bucks –and appears long because you can feel some sequences were inserted only for Venky flavor. But it will get the votes for better songs (atleast three melody numbers), clean family fare, and some good laughs. There are some needless stunts which drag on with excessive slow-motion and threading work – the make the movie that bit unbearably long. The pace and the plot was such that I went snoozing a couple of times. I may have missed Nagarjuna movies often in the last five years, but family always insist we watch a Venky film – afterall Venky gave so many Sankranti hits in his career except some famous duds like “Devi Puthrudu”. My family said they felt they have seen this movie before – it was that old, not that it is a remake of Hindi film but a rehash of Venky films itself. Venky has more potential and talent and a better personaility than plots like this. Even if the movie makes money - which I am sure it will because of the mutual exclusivity of the audience it caters to than the other Sankranti blockbuster "Businessman" - I hope Venky takes bold steps to re-launch himself and take more risks.

"Businessman" Movie Review

“Businessman” has opened to unprecedented fanfare and release with some 1600 prints and 134 theatres in Hyderabad alone. Being a Mahesh Babu-Puri Jagannath combination, its naturally on the cusp of heightened expectations. To a very large extent, the movie delivers with extra-ordinary entertainment in the first half and almost into the second half just on the basis of terrific screenplay, dialogues and maverick story-telling ability of Puri Jagannath with the magical screen presence of Mahesh Babu shows his natural knack of being an angry young man under tight leash and delivers a stylish performance with uninhibited looks, surprising close chemistry with Kajal (heroine) and dances that show him in better light than in recent times.


Most of the improved trappings of “Dookudu” in terms of better eye-contact, body language and finesse are what makes this movie mostly watchable except some portions of the second half which drag and sometimes bore. Fans will be delighted to hear so many mouthful and height-of-manhood dialogues in one movie – if there’s a soundtrack of dialogues – I probably will buy one – Puri’s pen shows sharpness and wit – this movie will probably have more one-liners than all his previous movies and don’t get misled by the cheesy advertorials of the hero vowing to make Mumbai piss in its pants – there are much more. Kajal is perhaps shown in more skimpy clothing and this is her boldest look after “Dhada” (Nag Chaitanya). Atleast two songs are well-choreographed and well worth – “Saarosthara” and “Chaavve”.

Even though the first half is under-fed on graphic violence, Puri compensates well in second half – the violence of “Pokiri” fame and even a liplock with Kajal. What mars the movie is this violence in the second half and the flimsy grounds on which the hero justifies it saying that since we kill so many mammals and amphibians daily - even this is justifiable - is ridiculous. Mahesh has shown so much restraint and responsibility in filtering out violence in “Dookudu” embraces it with both hands and plenty of guns in this movie – this can put anybody out of mind. The other bane in the movie is lack of a single-card Villain of the piece. Who is it? Not Prakash Raj. Not Nazar. Not Shinde. Not Subbaraju.

Nobody successfully contests Mahesh as a villain for too long – and nobody gets the lines or attention that’s worth their salt. And comedy – none of it in the second half. Most of the comedy, if you notice it, is in the first half and comes as fleeting in bits during the way the romance gets built up between the hero and his muse. Story-wise, there are many shades that resemble most of Puri’s films even though he gives a new extra-constitutional, legalistic license to create arson and loot by the hero who acts like a Robinhood- a law unto himself – in a bid to correct corrupt politicians and ill-bred criminal elements in the system. No Brahmanandam, No Ali (surprise) and No Jeeva – no comedy track at all but still the movie sustains very well until the 9th reel *(out of the 14 reels). With so much analysis for and against the movie, is the movie good to watch? It is mostly watchable– because of the narrative speed and story-telling of Puri Jagannath and Mahesh’s magical presence. Music by Thaman is good in BGM and atleast three songs. Some experiments in the movie are breaking a pattern – like no song till 30 minutes of the movie, no formal comedian, no villain of identifiable length – will have to see whether the fans lap it.