"Shakuni" (Telugu) "Saguni" (Tamil) Movie Review

“Shakuni” is an interesting title of Karthi’s new film named after the most interesting character in Mahabharata. Despite being a dubbed film (“Saguni” in Tamil), it was  marketed well by Telugu producer Bellamkonda Suresh and generated quite a buzz before other big releases lined up like “Eega” and “Julai”. Its worth the excitement and hype – “Shakuni” played by Karthi, is quite a combination of a convincing political thriller and a light-hearted comedy with romance getting short shrift.

Director N Shankar Dayal creates a credible story that has many layers, backs it with a racy screenplay and great characterizations. Just like Shakuni who, after being wronged by Duryodhana befriends him and eventually brings him to a war that destroys him and his clan, Karthi plays the role of a modern Shakuni. He takes a different path to dethrone Prakash Raj. But why? His only asset is an ancestral home that is now under threat of getting demolished due to a metro rail project awarded to a protégé of Chief Minister Prakash Raj. Karthi seeks the help of the CM but gets shunted out. He then realizes like all voters who vote for cash/expectations that its time to change the king – he pushes one pawn after another, motivates an auto-rickshaw fleet owner (Radhika) to become a corporator and eventually a mayor, then moulds a roadside soothsayer (Nazar) into becoming a Billionaire Godman (he funds the elections) and finally, resurrects the fortunes of a jail inmate in Chenchalguda (rings a bell?) - the inmate (Kota Srinivasa Rao) builds new cadre, fights the elections to defeat Prakash Raj and becomes the new CM.

The transition from a helpless youth to a master strategist in the political affairs of a state is essayed brilliantly by Karthi. As a brother of Super Star Soorya, he hasn’t got much to prove so far with films smacking of off-beat love stories and tribal roles but this movie shows him in better light. He uses his confusingly crooked smile and  confident screen presence with great effect. A role to remember for Karthi; Telugu dubbing in his own voice will endear him more to the masses and classes. A role that runs parallel to him throughout the movie is that of popular Tamil Comedian Santhanam – he is so under-stated, mellowed, raunchy and yet classy – unlike what we associate with Tamil comedians. This must be his finest performance till date. Kota Srinivasa Rao outshines Prakash Raj, and similarly, Radhika outclasses Nazar. Praneetha has got good screen presence but has to improve her looks, heroines have got to reduce the glare of their eyes if they have to connect with the masses.

GV Prakash Kumar, surprise, surprise, creates pleasant music in the film as well as above-par BGM. If the movie becomes a hit, I am sure it will be remade in Hindi, the plot is so irresistible and contemporary with most of its punctuation playing out in our political circles. Dialogues are terrific commentary and have the sharpness expected of a political thriller without being over-the-top. Even though 158 minutes is unusually long, the momentum gathered after the first half do not make it seem arduously long. If at all, the first 30 minutes could have been trimmed; Director tried to create a thin romantic track that is almost invisible in the drama of the politics that engulfs the second half.

After “Rangam” last year, I was quite excited to go for this movie and feel it’s a fine effort worth the time. Such films come but rarely from Tollywood directors – they rarely make story the real hero. This is a wholesome family fare.

I want to be President of India, not Prime Minister!

When the country's next-deserving Prime Minister no longer aspires the job but instead goes for the post of President - it should tell you something about the risk-averseness setting in - even for politicians. An office of power (PM) is less attractive than an office of ornamental power (President), it seems.


An office like Presidency gets you the top perks (a plush residence built by Edward Lutyens and two terrific residences in Secunderabad and Shimla plus a salary of Rs.1.50 lacs p.m that hardly gets spent plus an upkeep cost within a budgeted Rs.22.5 crs.p.a. plus overseas junkets which was highest during the current president's rule) and is the best retirement plan for any politician. Pranab Mukherjee may have had it in him to seek active politics but this move hints that nobody is interested in becoming a PM anymore - it involves too many risks of decision-making, scams, reputational damages and thankless jobs and finally, you are not even in the driving seat. What the hell! Might as well enjoy getting chauffer-driven official state car of custom-built heavily armoured Mercedes Benz S600 (W221) Pullman Guard.

But this is a good sign - it means politicians are getting risk-averse and the bottom of the establishment cycle with multiple headwinds blowing in the corridors of business, society, economy, legislature, media and judiciary is somewhere visible. I am an optimist at heart, and feel this phase will pass soon - we will emerge stronger. Too much pessimism is also unsustainable.

"Corporate Karate" & "Building Brand You" Book Reviews

There have been an explosion of books written by Indians of late. While most of the works of fiction are turning out to be metro reads and portable imitations of best-sellers by authors like Chetan Bhagat, Amish Tripathi and Aswhin Sanghi, there is good output from less-renowned writers on non-fiction. Amongst the many books on corporate survival, there are two interesting books which help novices and sophamores.

"Corporate Karate: The Secret Art of Corporate Self-Defence" by Dwayne Lemos will pleasantly surprise you. The author uses plain, crisp copy-writing vocabulary to craft bite-sized paras on how to navigate your way through the corporate jungle. In all 250 tips on everything from freelancing to using a brief case vs.laptop or when to use leaves, how to greet and how avoid  a burnout, it has quite a bit of sagely wisdom thats surprisingly great copy to read and amazing fun to read. Even seasoned careerists will find more nuggets of wisdom in this book than atttending HRD network summits. Rupees Ninety Five is just and added inducement to lap this book in few tea breaks. What I like more about this book, is the no-nonsense approach while giving some insider tips on how to rise to the top navigating the jerks and sharks. He definitely seems to know what's happening in today's organisations  - a variety of them in fact. That should stand you well during crises. Published by BPI India.

Another book: "Building Brand You!" by Mamata R Talukdar and Sanjiv S Chaudhary gives you a more direct low-down on workstation management, social networking, boss handling, carrying yourselves in appearance/meetings/reviews/parties. There's lot of basic advice thats common-sensical and sometimes didactic. But as we say, such books are hard to come by  - the nearest equivalent of a bible for career-builders in the last few years is Subrato Bagchi's "The Professional" which gives as much lifetime wisdom as what any Indian professional can get to stay and thrive in a job. This book is not as much fun as the first book I referred to but still may be basic wisdom and should be reading for anyone getting into his or her first 90 days on the job. Priced at Rs.195.00 and published by Rupa Publications.

"Shanghai" Movie Review (Hindi)

“Shanghai” is the title of the latest movie directed by Dibakar Banerjee who made films like “Khosla ka Ghosla” and “Oye Lucky”. One of the true tests of finding new benefactors in film financing is to be able to continue to make films irrespective of box office success. If I remember well, DPB has found a PE firm focused on films – CinemaCapital for “Oye Lucky” and of late, it is PVR Pictures. The advantages are too many for a title like this, it will attract multiplex audiences in Mumbai as well as Shanghai, should the movie be released at all. But enough flossing, I think the title “Shanghai” is itself audacious at best. “Don’t imitate Shanghai’s success in India”, that’s the subtle message the director is trying to say.


Is he telling something original? No. As most would have covered, this movie is inspired by “Z”, made in 1969 which got the Best Picture nomination that year. Just to clarify, Costa Gavras directed the film and was made into many films before and after that.

Dibakar Banerjee ropes in the most unlikely cast who are different from each other like Idly and Pav Bhaji. Emraan Hashmi as a petty pornographer (might have been perfect except that the fellow hardly gets to kiss anybody in the film including the subjects of his video), Abhay Deol as a Tam-Brahm Investigating Officer, Farook Sheikh as his gluttony boss, Prosenjit Chatterjee as Prof.Ahmedi, a left-wing activist who is the crux character of the film and Kalki K as his lady-love and student. Then there are other characters - the lady minister who douses in gold ornaments, the two accomplices who abet arson and mindless run-overs on innocent men with a matador van and the cunning wife and widow of Prof.Ahmedi. The whole plot of the film moves on after Prof. Ahmedi gets killed by a group of right-wingers allegedly with the support of the police. And the plot thickens to reveal “fifty shades of darker grey” (pun intended) often seen in Indian corridors of power where politicians and their crony capitalists contrive to grab land masses of poor people as if they are improving their plight but actually, it’s the SEZ scam again and all that.

I can’t believe the story of “Z” fits so well into the current socio-econo-politcal scenario in India as brought out by Dibakar Banerjee. He has attempted a stunning canvass which shows things as they are without an iota of preachiness, letting the characters infuse fire into their actions and words. Each character is true to its core without creating any screen biases for the viewer to take sides thereby creating an unparalleled non-judgementality seldom achieved in our films – a pornographer wants to help the student who wants to uncover the truth, a police officer investigating the murder is upright but he gets influenced by wrong people at times and misreads the clues, a minister who clears all interfering influences on the officer becomes guilty of the crime and the wife of the activist who is killed doesn’t make efforts to nab the murderers but shamelessly stands for election on a sympathy wave. This kind of treatment and characterization is not obtained by close-up shots with latest cameras but by exuberant and skilful screenwriting – Dibakar seems to have a mastery of the medium. He gets superb performances from most people and the message at the end is both stirring and credible. There is almost a feeling that the audience knows who is right and who is wrong based on the camera evidence and the scripted lines each character speaks. I was reminded of the play of Ayn Rand – “The Night of 16th of January” where the audience becomes the jury to decide.



Dibakar Banerjee also gets extravagant and classy output from the technical departments of editing, cinematography and music by Vishal Shekar. A special mention, I feel, must be made of Michael Mcarthy ( I waited for end titles to note this name) who scored background music. It’s a great experiment I thought must be closer to what a Rasoolkutty and AR Rahman achieve together. The music is vibrant and apt and evocative like in Satyajit Ray films but the background sounds around the scene are also mercilessly captured – so you find the tindrum vibrations of the staircase leading to the living room where action is, or you find the near and far drumbeats of the next byelanes away from the scene or you find a literal pin-drop sound which doesn’t distract but adds a rare natural feel.


114 minutes of this film must be breezy viewing but there are occasional lags. Treat them like the occasional indulgences of a brilliant Bengali film-maker. This is good, realistic and entertaining too without any cinematic liberties. I can’t remember when NFDC last co-produced a film made for mainstream audiences. Performances-wise, Abhay Deol and Emraan Hashmi come out quite good. Farook Sheikh shows his shinier side of acting so well- why isn’t he seen as often as Naseeruddin Shah, I wonder? Prosenjit Chatterjee, the leading Bengali actor is the most memorable face in the film, not Kalki (she is forgettable). His intensity on the screen while he is going is hard to beat. On the whole, if you are in the mood for a good arty-realistic commercial cinema from a dapper film-maker DPB, its worth a while.

How To Talk like an Economist

This year's top-selling book on flipkart is not a NYT best-seller of fiction and non-fiction. Its the most unreadable and eminently erudite book written by a D.Lit professor. Yes, I am talking about Oxford University Press's "Indian Economic Survey 2011-2012." edited and written by Dr.Kaushik Basu, the famed economist and PMO's trusted lieutenant who waxes eloquent on various data points of the Indian Economy, invented a game called Dudoku (like Sudoku, with 2*2 matrix), written and edited more than 30 odd books on Economics and its multiple constituents.

This is the last Economic Survey, as the preface states penned by Dr Kaushik Basu and the book is a raging hit on the online book stores. Priced at Rs.450/- it has the last word on the macroeconomical foundations of Indian Economy from Banking to Forex Markets, from Agriculture to Education, from Balance of Payments to Direct Taxes, and gives you a fascinating peep into the Indian Economy. I would say, reading the ES is like doing a diploma in Indian Economics. Its that profund and intense. I wish this becomes compulsory reading for everybody who uses statistics on Indian economy at the drop of a hat- from journalists, editorial writers, bureaucrats, bankers and politicians. We don't know who will replace Kaushik Basu who has been writing the story post-liberalisation reforms for several decades last. But this swan song is worthy of your time and rewards you with counter-intuitive datapoints that may help you win a debate or score a point or two.

Another good addition to give a panoramic view of statistics on India on everything from economic issues to socio-demographic issues, from which industries allow automatic approval for FDI investments, how many times was the Constitution amended, which state in India sends the maximum emigration workers (Okay, Kerala but how many?) and how much increase happened to the Chief Justice of India since, say 2005? Questions like these sound like objective questions from Competition Success Review or a Civils Prelims exam but the codification of data in 1400 pages over 32 chapters is quite a task which requires attention to detail, cogency of information and authenticity  - something that Publications Division is believed for. In a way, the first book above complements this second book. Both the books are to be kept at arm's length  - and may help you whether or not you are an Economics forecaster, politician, journalist, investment professional or a Member of Parliament. These two are the fast-track routes to gaining economical proficiency.

"Endukante...Premante" Movie Review (Telugu)

“Endukante Premante” (Because it is Love) is the new film on the block. Stars a twinkling Diva Tamanna. And energetic star Ram – who carries himself like a miniature Pawan Kalyan cum Mahesh Babu cum Ravi Teja. Produced by his Chartered Accountant uncle “Sravanti” Ravi Kishore whose family consists of CPAs and CAs and Wall Street MBAs except this movie-crazy Ram who has been on a purple patch since “Kandireega”. Who is the Director? A.Karunakaran – a creative director and Ad-Maker who was pulled into films accidentally. After a decade plus and about half a dozen movies later, he is still remembered for films renowned for rich texture and neat family entertainment values – “Tholi Prema” (First Love), “Vasu”, “Happy”, “Ulhaasanga Utsaahanga” (which became a tagline for Red FM), “Darling”. Karunakaran has got a penchant for making different films with sonorous music and ROFL entertainment that never left the patronage of Balcony audiences. He lives up to that promise in most parts with this movie with about 165 minutes of rollercoaster ride of emotions using some bizarre twists that are sometimes inexplicable and mostly inexorable. Overall, it is quite watchable but for some lazy editing.

The film’s essential theme, sorry to poop the suspense, is about two estranged lovers in one lifetime and later how they re-unite in current lifetime where one lover (Tamanna) faces a near-death experience and the never-say-die spirit of her body guides the hero (Ram) through the maze of Interlaken, Zurich and Paris to set up a climax in Hyderabad where eventually she battles for her life and comes back to life. So, its all about that spirit and mortal combat but the journey evokes shades of every movie that tested these waters and scenes are almost cut-and-pasted. You get a feeling of seeing this movie before – in the scenes and the thread of the storyline – in “Avatar”, “Magadheera”, “Aatma Bandham” , “Ghost”. The climax even reminds you of the near-tragic twist in “Vasant Kokila” (“Sadma” in Hindi) where once the body wakes up to life and the spirit of Tamanna vanishes, the subject’s life protector Ram is forgotten by Tamanna. Like in “Black” movie. There is a sequence that reminds you of “3 Idiots” where the spirit guides the man how to resuscitate a person from cardiac arrest. Rings a bell?So, its quite a complicated plot made longer because comedy, action and entertainment is enmeshed into the story. Karunakaran has got the talent to extract uproarious comedy from his actors, he gets the laughs with super ease. Despite the plot sounding implausible and bizarre, the director knits it well and creates a ruckus pre-and-post-interval. Performances by both Ram and Tamanna are vibrant and competing in scale with each other. Tamanna is indeed the surprise package in the film and she delivers her finest performance – thoroughly enchanting and professional. It is not Ram’s film, it is Tamanna’s – credit uncle and nephew for that. Almost everybody else sizzles – old and new.

There are enough punchlines for every character and that makes this film the second-most exacting in terms of A-320 Airbus-filled starcast by the director after “Darling”. Bigger than “Darling” and more daring and audacious. Kona Venkat adds a weighty presence both as a dialogue-writer and villain. Rishi as the main villain is intense too. Music director, GV Prakash Kumar, nephew of A R Rahman, is becoming a source of worry. His output is getting inconsistent, he uses the wrong notes at the wrong time. While the songs are a bit too westernized to resonate well with all classes, his BGM score needs avuncular help from Rahaman. Just because he has talent, doesn’t mean you underscore or embellish when, frankly, the best way is to do the opposite. Composing BGMs is an art- let him learn from legends like Ilayaraja and Rahaman or guys like DSP and Mani Sharma.

To sum up, this may not be Karunakaran’s best film till date but it won’t disappoint you because it’s a new genre, a fresh starcast, neat family fare and a cracker of a comedy. You can watch it once. You can watch it more had the movie been shorter by 2 reels. Maybe the director who wears a cap, has felt a surge of creativity from too many movies but it is important for this director to thrive – he may falter on the execution side occasionally but never gives a crass output or one that makes the family audiences cringe.

Tollywood's "Gabbar Singh" is one of top five grossers!

According to `Business Standard’, as on June 1, `Gabbar Singh’ (Telugu remake of Dabangg) grossed Rs.128 crores in box office collections taking it closer to Dabangg’s Rs.173 crores. This makes the remake catapult into the all-time five grossers. That’s the power of mass-masala fares and box-office magic which eludes realistic cinema. I have always had a liking for this kind of escapist cinema despite my occasional tantrums. And it doesn’t matter whether we like the movie or not, the audience poll says it all. That seals it. So, it was with `Dookudu’ or `Raccha’ or movies like `Kick’.


I am ever curious about the commercial cinema fans who flock to such fare and how it translates economically. When I watch a movie, I keep my thinking hat aside, my `Satyajit Ray’ mind at home and enjoy the flow looking at the commercial sensibilities. Yes, there are occasions we love art cinema and good classy films like `Ala Modalaindi’ but cinema is a mass medium, not an art exhibition for connoisseurs.

Unlike any other art, cinema is the only medium that doesn’t require the patron to be literate. You don’t have to be a cinema-literate as in book-literate or an art-literate or a gold-literate to buy or consume cinema. You just need a funny bone and a pulse to enjoy. Those who criticise a movie is good or bad should do keeping in mind the mass-reach of this medium – every day, 3.2 crore Indians watch cinema, pay Rs.28 per ticket on an average, and forget their foibles and problems in the three hours of watching a movie. The only time they take a break is during the Intermission time – which was first introduced in the world in the 1920s and then after the movie ends. As long as the content is non-offensive, non-sectarian and non-preachy and off-beat, a movie should get most likes.

Why am I making a mountain of this molehill of a datapoint on `Gabbar Singh’? Because I am irked by Outlook magazine’s collector’s edition of 100 years of Indian Cinema. But for making a fleeting reference to Telugu movies, there is no special mention of Tollywood or its enterprising breed. For them, Telugus are also part of `Madrasis’. If Bollywood regained its lustre over the last few years at the BO, thank the Tollywood and the Kollywood filmmakers for lending their scripts and even talent for making blockbusters out of superhits in South Indian vernaculars. Salman Khan to Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar to John Abraham, everybody is borrowing brilliance from Tollywood or Kollywood (Tamil film industry). To under-recognise their contribution in commercial cinema is to do gross injustice to Tollywood’s contribution.

Earlier, I wrote a post on why Tollywood is better than Bollywood – I will expand on that a bit later. Right now, Telugu fans should rejoice that a regional movie has tasted resounding success crossing $22 Million at the Box Office. A guy like Salman Khan paid advance of Rs.50 lakhs for incorporating the famous `Anthakshari’ comedy sequence of `Gabbar Singh’ into `Dabangg-2. The power of ideas. The power of Tollywood. More power to you.

`Outlook’ should realise that watching a movie is not the same as going to Cannes film festival and get plaudits from pundits who make movies for themselves. Satyajit Ray films are a class apart always, no doubt, but let’s not forget that throughout his career, Ray didn’t get funding from anybody but the State Government. Cinema sense and sensibilities are two very different things. And movies like `Gabbar Singh’ have proved yet again what Box Office power can be unleashed by making sensible movies for the masses.

Here’s a toast to all those entertaining filmmakers of Tollywood – let your outlook not change even if mainstream media is not looking your way.