The Politics of the Hindi Language

The Politics of the Hindi language must never be extended beyond paying just lip-service. And there are many reasons for this even if you are tempted by the shenanigans of "national language", "national integration" and all that jazz. Nonsense.

To begin with, you cannot impose Hindi language as if it is a god-send or it has to be spoken by all of India's population. There are as many national languages in India as Hindi which are as beautiful, lyrical and classical, infact, more classical than Hindi. It is not heaven's exclusive license to Hindi to be spoken of highly and get multiplied manifold times. Down South, Tamil is one of the world's oldest languages and beats the pulp out of many others in the sheer volume of literature. Infact, it is more than 2000 years old language with wide variety and cultural richness. Telugu is equally old, dating back to atleast a thousand years of rich lineage. In a survey of the world's most beautiful languages done in 2011, judged primarily by three reasons - lyrical beauty, elegance of letters as they are written/printed and the richness of the alphabet, Telugu came second only to Korean language beating most languages in the world including Modiji's second-favorite language, Hindi (the first one must be his mother-tongue, I am just guessing). The Telugu film industry is India's largest segment in the number of films made per annum. Malayalam is another mesmerising language that has a cult followership across and outside India, aided by a race who have been migrant yet proud of its heritage. Malayalam's movies, warts and all, continue to dominate the film industry in India on matters of story-telling essentials. Malayalam's language itself resonates with most of the words derived from Sanskrit. Kannada, considered a mirror language to Telugu has a history that is co-terminous with that of Telugu. Scratch the surface and you will find many other languages in South India which are vibrant, exciting and alive - Konkani, Tulu are few examples of tongues which are equally vibrant and celebratory of the richness of life and language albeit without formal written scripts. Then you have the languages of the west and east - from Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bhojpuri, Bihari, Bengali and Assamese - all have their own niche.

At the height of the Mauryan empire which ruled for three generations the whole of the Indian subcontinent from the edge of eastern Iran to today's Bangladesh, portions of South would remain outside its direct control. For most of the Mughal rule and the British rule, the Southern peninsula always enjoyed a halo of respect, identity and privilege to thrive in its atypical avatars and myriad hues. When the British ruled India, they understood that South cannot be reined in by imposing HIndi, so they indoctrinated English into the veins of trade and employment, creating a class of administrative army that kept their linguistic identities yet breathed fire into English. The intercourse with English created a renaissance but Hindi's rise was slow but not uniform. Given a choice of three languages, many South Indians still prefer to learn English rather than Hindi and there are historical reasons for that which have to be understood and empathised with. Even a docile prime minister Nehru understood the language divide that exists between North and South India. He created a Deputy Prime Minister post exclusively for catering to the interests of South - a tradition that continued until Shastri's rise.

Experts who do not understand this divide jump to conclusions that South is anti-nationalistic or anti-patriotic. Nonsense. It is just that language has always given a rare indemnity from colonial invasions and tortures to the South Indians; on some occasions it provided them quasi-independence or even satellite status while allowing a socio-economic resurgence on a scale that seldom was surpassed. Traditionally, it was the South that opened to the sea routes, developed maritime trade and allowed comprehensive mapping of the Indian Oceans between the Arabs and the Portugese, and later the next European powers that came calling to India - the Dutch, the French and the British. The South also adapted easily to Western influences faster than the North. When Vasco Da Gama came to India and hit the coast of Kerala first in 1498, he thought the people of Kerala were closer to Christianity than Hinduism because he felt the buildings looked like Christian churches rather than Hindu temples. Infact, the "Hindu" itself was a word the Europeans coined to describe the race from the valley of Indus. So much on the South-Indians.

PM Modi should realilse that Hindi has earned its spurs more from the proliferation of Hindi-speaking people who permeate the country and the world and the cultural exports of Hindi into Bollywood, the cuisine and the television. But it hasn't grown to become the language of the country in totality. Hence, that cannot be the reason to impose Hindi on the rest of the country. Hindi is a pulsating and lively language that is beautiful and simple but imposing it as a mandatory language has its down-syndrome. Yes we all love Hindi films and Hindi actors and Hindi writers and Hindi singers but know that no Indian language can be singled out as the lingua franca. For good or bad, the jury is out on which language is the best. Again, for good or bad, English has become the language of convenience and the language of business which cannot be replaced in many lifetimes. It is unwise to thrust your limitations of language on everybody else and re-invent the wheel. There is no long-term good now in learning a language at the cost of development and growth. Sooner or later, the French, the Germans, the Japanese, the Russians and the Chinese will realise that winning the battle against English is not the same as winning the war. It feels great to know that Spanish is the fastest growing language in the Americas, thanks to centuries of spanish invasions. But who cares for Spanish unless the world switches to Spanish. Ditto for the Mandarin. You may speak in Hindi addressing the Bhutanese and the Americans but the impact will never be the same as speaking in the language that rules the air waves.

Talk about language chauvinism, you must know this, DW - Deutsche World and RT - Russia Today, two of the state channels of German and Russian governments broadcast in English language are growing faster than the English channels of CNN and BBC - proof that language chauvinism serves little purpose in a world that almost became a global village with English. Also proof that the Germans and the Russians are eager to playing English. Play to your strengths but don't let language be a barrier to communication. The best way to build national pride is through building up levels of literacy, build up self-reliant people who are productive, skilful, employable or entrepreneurial and get global recognition not by getting chauvinistic about languages. The politics of Hindi language has always proved costly for a Union Government committed to restoring federal balance in India. I fail to understand why this time has to be different.

The Story of the Mouse-Merchant - and Lessons for Telangana and Seemandhra/Andhra Pradesh

I am sure you all read the famous tale of the mouse merchant from Amar Chitra Katha series. In case you like me to retell, here goes:

Seeing a dead mouse on the floor, a merchant Vishakila says angrily to his son: "See that dead mouse? A clever man would be able to use even that as a means to increase his wealth. I gave a stupid fellow like you so many dinars, and far from multiplying that money, you have not even been able to keep what you had!". 

An enterprising onlooker asks Vishakila: "Sir, Can I take this dead mouse from you as the capital investment for my business?"

"Of course!"

Vishakila gives the onlooker, Gunadhya, the mouse, wrote him a receipt for it and left. 

Gunadhya sold the mouse as cat food to another merchant for two handfuls of gram. He ground up the gram and took a pot of water and sat under a shady tree at the crossroads outside the city. He offered the gram and the water humbly to a group of tired wood-carriers. Each of them gave him two pieces of wood. Gunadhya then took the wood to the market and sold it. He used part of the money form the sale to buy some more gram, and in the same way, the next day. He got some more wood from the carriers. He did this every day, and soon had enough capital to buy all of the wood-carriers' wood for three days. Suddenly, there was a great shortage of wood for a lot of money. He opened a shop with that money and became a merchant. He soon became a rich man through his own ability and business acumen. 

A few years later, Gunadhya ordered a mouse of gold to be made and returned it to Vishakila who gave his daughter in marriage. He became famous as the Mouse-Merchant because of this story. He became a rich man without having had no money at all.

                                                                                                           

Moral of the story? If you are enterprising and resourceful, you will convert a dead mouse into a golden mouse. If you are not and instead mess around, you can convert a golden mouse into a dead mouse. Wake up and smell the coffee!

#Telangana #AndhraPradesh #Seemandhra #KCR #Naidu #Entrepreneurship

"Ulavacharu Biryani" (Telugu)

Prakash Raj has a knack of picking off-beat stories and backing them all the way if there is striking point in them. Almost all his films produced by him in the past carry a subtle message with clean entertainment - "Movi"(Tamil) is about coping with challenges of mute and deaf people, "Aakasamantha" (Telugu/Tamil) is about the pleasures and pains of parenting and "Dhoni" (Telugu) captured the mood of today's  young who get sandwiched between parent pulls and youthful aspirations. "Ulavacharu Biriyani"(UB) his latest is a remake of Malayalam "Salt n Pepper". This is a film about lonely hearts and late-marrying men and women who delude themselves into false cocoons of achievement and inferiority complex at the same time while keeping good things waiting. I neither knew about nor saw the original film before watching UB. I watched UB for only one reason: Ilayaraja's music which already became a hit, I wanted to see if his BGM outscored his music in the film. I was not disappointed. More of that later, but short view first - it is a decent film with feel-good factor and terrific performances by the short cast - Prakash Raj, Sneha, Samyukta Hornad, MS Narayana, Tejus and Brahmaji. Worth watching once.

The story is about a foodie called Kalidasu (Prakash Raj) who at age 45 hasn't yet found a companion yet. His main interests are purely epicurean but for earning daily bread he works in the State Department of Archaeology where he works with a team in excavating relics of past and rehabilitating the tribals who live in forests. At home, he is helped by a cook MS Narayana who persuades him to get married. In one such meeting for a marriage alliance, Prakash Raj bumps into an old-time chef Brahmaji who makes delicious "vada"s for the bride. Prakash Raj dumps the prospect bride and returns home with his prized catch - cook Brahmaji. At work, his desire to do good to tribals makes him shelter an old tribal who makes herbal medicines - sought to be exploited by a mercenary businessman. So, it is now four males at Prakash Raj household. In fact, it soon becomes five people with the joining of Prakash Raj's nephew Tejus who comes looking for a job in the city of Prakash Raj. On the other side of the same city, a beautiful-but-aging lady Gowri (Sneha) lives with her sister Urmila and her gang comprising of her transvestite helper and niece (Urmila's daughter) Samyukta Hornad. Sneha is a successful dubbing artiste for film heroines but she is still struggling to find her soul mate. Pressure mounts on both of them to find a suitable match. Call it syncrocity or coincidence, a wrong number dialling by Sneha seeking an order for Kutti Dosa lands on Prakash Raj's mobile. First fire, and then roses all over, sweet small talk leads to mature blossoming friendship. Will it convert to love and marriage? How do two successful professionals who are in their late 30s/40s find their mojo in life - in the sweet companionship of a soul-mate? Are there any hilarious twists? Or a twist in the tail? Watch UB for all of that. In 126 minutes, Prakash Raj has given a watchable narrative thats remarkably clean, straight and fresh. 

The only incomplete chapter is  the troubled lives of Adivasis which are exploited by profiteers in the name of development. Despite an intense-looking characterisation of an old tribal, Prakash Raj lets go a great opportunity to create some drama or infuse more perspective on their plight. All we see is a fierce-looking old man who squats or stands for hours vehemently defended by Prakash Raj but meekly surrendered by him when confronted by human right activists and policemen. If this sequence couldn't be climaxed well, the film's length could have been 15 minutes shorter and that could have been another miracle for an otherwise good film - it could have breached the 2-hour limit for a feature film - a feat that is now regularly being attempted by film-makes in Kollywood, not Tollywood.

Technically, the film stands out in cinematography and music. For a film of this kind emblazoned by the orchestral magic of Ilayaraja, Prakash Raj uses safe distance picture shots avoiding any close-ups even during the most intense moments of the film. That is a rarity these days, when cinematography doesn't dominate direction but rather the eloquence of the music director and the minimalistic intentions of a director call the shots. The titles of the movie scroll in the backdrop of a Kailash Kher song with great original shots of the best street--side food and restaurant food available in India. There is another song shot on the youthful pair of Tejus and Samyukta which show them at their vivacious best using a mixture of natural and golden glow color frames. The cinematography's work aces up in one of the most memorable reels of the film - where Prakash Raj gives out a recipe on phone to Sneha. The recipe called Joanne's Rainbow Cake has been well-shot with Ilayaraja scoring classical music - a slurrpppingly delicious cake with layers of strawberry, pista and orane, made simultaneously by both the narrator and the listener on phone and then the first bite into the cake by both the creators at their respeective ends - it will give any foodie a melting memory. Dialogues are also crisp and urban-cool -wonder why we can't have more of these in our films rather than those elephant-and-mice-and-tiger-likening one-liners.

If the film is enjoyable despite some lazy editing and laid-back screenplay by Prakash Raj, two-thirds credit must sit on the shoulders of Maestro Ilayaraja. Apart from original compositions for the soundtrack of the film which bought him as much fame as "Yeto Vellipoyindi Manasu" in recent times, Ilayaraja has given a great BGM score that will flood the youtube channel soon after the prints get released. Obviously, it is the luck of Prakash  Raj for roping in a heavy-weight name like Ilayaraja. Until "Dhoni", Prakash Raj always had Vidya Sagar score music for his films. Vidya Sagar is himself a gifted composer trained with IlayaRaja. In this film, Prakash Raj must  have given a free hand to IlayaRaja and it shows in the soulful re-recording. The entire film is masterfully punctuated by Ilayaraja and he uses different variety of instruments including vocal support to give one of his best shots. Except for Sneha and Prakash Raj, Ilaya Raja uses BGM for introducing the second youthful romantic pair as they appear and also when they meet for the first time. Then at every crucial juncture, he uses pulsating instrumentation. His music reaches a crescendo in one of the climactic points of the film where all the four lead characters travel in the same car - Ilayaraja uses high notes using extensive violin orchestration, something that would have required a huge budget. Ilayaraja fans will remember that there were few times in his career where he used elaborate multi-crew orchestra for composing music when it demanded - one was for "Dalapathi" and the other for "Yeto Vellipoyyindi Manasu". This must ave beeen the third occasion. Not surprisingly, I checked up with "Salt n Pepper" music director Bijlibal. Ilayaraja didn't even see the original film once to get inspiration for composing the songs and the BGM. Imagine the outpourings that come from ordinary souls when they see a scene of 4-5 minutes, bland without music. Now imagine Ilayaraja looking at a scene only once, making some notes in mind, going to his music room, dictating the musical notations  to the crew for what to play in the background and creating the magic that we aall see. This is exactly the process that Baradwaj Rangan described in his book of interviews with Mani Ratnam as to how Ilayaraja composes music. I am not surprised by the high-octane quality of his BGM in this film. Ilayaraja must have composed around 5 songs per film in a career composing 900 films plus - including original and dubbed films. But he has never relegated the job of re-recording to lackeys or assistants except on few instances. Now imagine the sheer magnitude of the output with the BGM output that comes with equal combinations of energy, velocity and melody - at an average of 900 films multiplied by 10-20 orchestration pieces. Lets settle at 15 pieces per film. Thats a staggering 13500 pieces of original, song-ready musical pieces  that may never be surpassed in quality and the language of film grammar, mastered by few other Western Masters. Hat-tip to you, Ilayaraja Sir for all that and for this film's output.

Finally, back to the film UB after that lengthy excursion on Ilayaraja (I owe myself a lengthy dissertation on his music one day). Good performances by MS Narayana, Prakash Raj and the newcomers. Sneha is good but sulky throughout. UB is a worthy watch even if you are not a foodie or a culinary expert or an expert on marriage- it connects with a lot of people on the planet who live lives of solitude or eke out their existence desperately seeking soulmates at work or neighbourhoods. Despite the few flaws of an elementary story and a slow narration,  the film doesn't bore.  If you do not like it well enough, blame it on the zombie films that are deadening your sense of good  and meaningful cinema. This one is definitely good and meaningful. More power to them. 

My rating: 3.25/5

Raghav Bahl - the original media baron!

Sad to see Raghav Bahl sign off from the group he built from scratch. While Prannoy Roy was part of our growing interest in media, Raghav Bahl made the progressive jumps in media's leaps in technology. He was a chatty host for a programme called "Newstrack" produced by India Today magazine. My parents and I used to wait for editions of "Newstrack" every fortnight - it had the most comprehensive coverage of the newsmakers of that time and of course, the most candid interviews. I still remember Amitabh Bachchan's best interview till date was from "Newstrack".

As a lead anchor, Raghav Bahl was an original - chatty, witty, intelligent and full of beaming smiles - always talking in an accent that even Chaiwaalahs and butlers will understand. The program was such a smash hit that video parlours were ordering multiple copies and there used to be commotion to watch it first in households. It was a watch-per-your-convenience alternative to the other interesting programme of the 1980s - "The World this Week". Raghav Bahl then ventured into TV 18 - that made history by tying up with CNBC.

Those were the days of only three pink papers and one white paper -and the idea of a business channel itself was revolutionary. Raghav Bahl did it again with unconventional guys leading the commentaries and anchorage - Paronjoy Guha Thakurta and Senthil Chengalvaranarayan were the prime poster-boys. Paronjoy still asks questions longer than what anybody can give answers to and Senthil - he still looks like a boy who just topped the IIT entrance but stammering to speak fluent English. Over the years, the network grew. I still remember the wealth-creation opportunity Raghav Bahl gave us in 1999-2000. I was working in HDFC Bank heading the Loans Against Securities division. TV18 came out with an IPO and I had a brief to do IPO-financing to investors. The IPO season itself was getting dizzy with the successes of Polaris, Glenmark and Hughes Software. It was the middle of the dotcom era where TMT (Technology, Media and Telecom)  stocks were the darlings of the market. Previously, Polaris Software created a record for post-listing performance. But TV18  - how do you value it? How can you be so sure? I put my my money where my mouth is - I beseeched my parents also to put multiple applications. I persuaded all my customers at HDFC Bank to plonk their savings into TV18 IPO. Total applications  collected 2150 from Hyderabad. The IPO listed like a Godzilla - it soared 700 per cent upwards. Raghav Bahl created a jackpot for investors. Very few could retain the shares even for few years after the IPO because it was running up and away, defying gravity. The dotcom burst finally, stock tumbled but the group still bludgeoned in its many manifestations and forays into new businesses - moneycontrol.com, film distribution, financial literacy books, etc.

Nobody in contemporary Indian mediascape has harnessed the power of media in all its unleashing of the many Avatars - Raghav Bahl rode all of them. He was there in every wave of the media business from VHS cassettes to Digitalisation of cables. He  created a great team, led from the front, raised equity from the market,  shared his wealth with the public and the employees and always happy to step back (even giving up controlling stake) when a stronger partner stepped in - like Viacom. Network18 hit the lows too - when credibility suffered as the CNBC channel in India nose-dived, the ownership of the channel fell into the cartels of stock brokers, and now lies in the hands of India's most hated businessman. Whatever Raghav Bahl achieved so far, warts and all, he deserves a special mention in the history of Indian media. He proved again and again with his foresight and enterprise that he can bounce back.  Raghav Bahl, in my mind, is the holy trinity of Indian media that every student of its history will admire - the other two being, Prannoy Roy and Ronnie Screwala.

Amway CEO arrest again!

I wrote this longer piece almost an year and a half ago on the arrest of Amway's CEO then. And it happens again. The shorter version of this blog post got published in Businessline too: "The Bane of Multi-Level Marketing". (http://tinyurl.com/lpq5bsu)

Amway's CEO got arrested for financial irregularities. I am so glad this happened in my lifetime and not during my kid's retirement years. Amway is just one of the several MLM schemes that have got the better of many intelligent people. I know of most sober and savvy people working in companies like Google, Microsoft, SBI, SBH, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank guard the Amway products and schemes like a fanatical zealot. I had always resisted the advances of such people and wondered what is it with lovely people who will turn mercenaries overnight and begin to talk like vacuum-cleaner salesmen. Daniel Pink has just written a book "Its Human to Sell." I beg to differ. It is not human to sell always, especially when the audience is captive and they are your best buddies, teachers, students, co-workers, pen pals, boss's wife or husband, twitter followers, facebook friends, landlords, tenants, co-travellers, gas suppliers, meter readers, you name it. I have gone through the embarrassments of being at the receiving end of atleast few of my relatives and friends and closer kin. I was devastated whenever I went through the experience, I couldn't say No because they are so close to me, I couldn't buy the products, and I wouldn't "recruit" more. The chain invariably broke with me and I could never, never again resume a normal conversation with any friend or a relative or an acquaintance who sold me vague concepts of "time", "annuity", "financial freedom" and other fuzzy financial management concepts steamrolled into emotional packages.

At the core of such schemes of Amway or any such MLM scheme lie three principles: 1. They play on your insecurities of life - inadequate money, passionless job and rising expenditure to match aspirational levels.
2. They indoctrinate you with fancy "recruiting" functions that have the feel of an Evangelist session where many newcomers like you are greeted by older "recruits" breaking out into ecstatic shouts and shrieks, even getting footloose from where they are standing, talking about "How I raised myself from failure to success in selling Amway/Tupperware/Japanlife/Saradha/MihiraMagic/Landmark/whatever, how everything in life is achievable and all prosperity is sitting in the bank balance and how you can too". You have to attend atleast five such functions before you get into the jingoism that is smeared into the experienced elite who are singing hosannahs now.
3. Then having got you, your "converted" zeal, you will have to get into a producing mode of recruiting other people into your network, or become a huge consumer or even a pro-sumer  - a combination of both. This is where, very few make it. And those who make it, may have succeeded against all odds - of embarrassments, of ostracisation, of hard-selling their own friends and colleagues and relatives.

I have seen a few cycles of such principle-centered selling of these schemes and have been a victim of atleast one bad experience where I was conned into a Questnet MLM scheme in the hope of owning a rare coin, an insignia of a FIFA World Cup, which will become so rare that it will cost more than the gold and the silver blended into the coin. Finally, the Questnet scheme owner got arrested and the scheme was abandoned. Having paid Rs.45000 in those days for a puny coin which has a Mexico World Cup signage on it. I got a mere Rs.9000 when I gave it to my mother a few years back because there was less silver than gold and even less gold than the powder used as letters on the coin! For all the love of soccer, my savings became a succor for someone's greed. I never invested in any Ponzi scheme after that because I now firmly believe P.T.Barnum, America's greatest showman salesman who said: A sucker is born every minute.

Many years back, when I was a banker at BNP Paribas, I spotted atleast two such Ponzi schemes  - Mihira Magic, which made stuff that are flying off the shelves just as Amway products today  and a call-centre which operated like a Ponzi scheme, which I will not name. Mihira Magic also finally folded up but I tried to outstmart the owners by making every chain subscriber open a salary account with the bank. It won me lot of plaudits and helped me register a fine performance at work. But the tragedy struck elsewhere, BNP Paribas, the retail bank folded up in India before Mihira Magic pulled down the curtains many years later. Moral of the story here: One swallow doesn't make a summer for a bank.

At a basic level, at a very conceptual level, one can argue that all schemes are Ponzi Schemes, whether it is about products or product managers or product consumers - its all about recruitment. But the ones that stand out are usually having the flavor that marks all the others which eventually collapsed, sooner or later. Having been in sales and relationship-building for many years now, I like to conclude this autobiographical excursion on Amway-like schemes with a few strong learnings which I learnt after many fifty-hour work-weeks during my career.
One, whether you are an employee or a business owner, your biggest asset is your career (in case of a working professional) or your business (in case of an owner or an entrepreneur).
Two, Invest in your career or business most because they have the best payoffs. Do not fall for schemes which promise you the moon and the six pence - they cannot succeed like the way you can.
Three, Stop burning your inner and outer circle of contacts with bummer proposals and schemes which take you nowhere and what more, ostracise you forever. Build your skills, spend all your energies into making yourself relevant, employable and precious till your last day. There is no financial freedom that comes without blood, sweat, tears and hardships. DeVos is the richest man in Michigan. Okay, he is the co-founder of Amway, is worth $5.1 Billion but that is the worth of all his factory assets and stocks traded. The rest of the MLM subscribers are not worth as much.
Four, in a day of 24 hours, you work for 8 hours whichever way and sleep for 8 hours.  The remaining 8 hours is for relaxation, recreation, renewal or capacity-building. Not for selling a pipe-dream, somebody else's dream.
Five, repeat of point no.three. Do not run the risk of becoming a social outlaw - "Here comes the Amway man or woman". Get the boot or Re-boot your thinking about MLMs. Build businesses or Invest in businesses or become a careerist. Don't be a MLM evangelist.

"Vikramasimha" (Telugu)/"Kochadiyaan"(Tamil) Film Review

This is one Rajanikanth film that is made for the family and it doesn't deserve the adulation and the anticipation built into it. A colossal waste of money and effort, in short. Made with lot of passion and talent and money riding on it - screenplay by KS Ravi Kumar, cinematography by Rajeev Menon, music by AR Rahman and of course, direction by Rajani's daughter Soundarya Aswin, the film is an animation film shot in 3D with motion capture technology - similar to what is used by James Cameroon in "Avatar". The only difference is despite having the money to spend in making a great film sound on technicalities, Rajani's team cut corners in editing, lighting, landscaping and set design and in the execution itself - resulting in a shoddy output that is below world-class.

The story is itself is nothing new - another fable from Chandamama folklore without drama and twist which straight-lifts scenes from some of the famous films that capture the cult of the colossal hero like "Braveheart", "Gladiator", "Ben Hur" and "Robin Hood". The story by KS Ravi Kumar, the most successful director for both Rajani and Kamal is a simple tale of rivalry, love, betrayal and revenge. The rivalry is between two ancient kingdoms - Kotapatnam and Kalingapuram. A commoner Vikramasimha (Rajani) rises from the ranks to command respect from Kotapatnam that armies cannot get. He becomes the most trusted and powerful man until one day he foregoes his army with Kalingapuram in a trade-off between their fight for survival and their slavery. Blamed for treason, the King of Kalingapuram (Nazar) orders Vikramasimha's beheading in the presence of his family and the people. Vikramasimha's son Ranadheera watches that and vows to get back the enslaved people of Kotapatnam. He achieves that and much more including the love of Deepika and the love of the people. This is the story but the screenplay, to be fair, runs in reverse to the order in which I have narrated. That is the most interesting part. The dullness is in the narrative and picturisation.

Director has failed in embellishing the story with the right visuals and richness. In every scene of the animation you see on screen, there are huge gaps - the battlefield sequences look unimpressive, the king's court assembly look like an Amar Chitra Katha cardboard illustration, the shots are mostly either dark or under-lit, and the animations of characters and objects outside of the screen characters are lazy and imperfect. With such a vast canvass of two mighty kingdoms and huge stadia fights, one expected better ouput on screen but the quality of visuals is a big let-down. Except for Rajanikanth as Ranadheera and Nazar as the arch-villain, the motion capture technology has failed to capture the right facial expressions of most characters. Yes, the famous legendary comedian Nagesh finds a reboot in the film but after initial promise, the characterisation fizzles out. Even for Deepika Padukone, this is a forgettable film, her portrayal shows her lacking in feminine grace, bewitching beauty and dancing grace - all of which made her famous in the first place. Characterisation apart, the film's biggest weakness is lack of entertainment and emotional connect with the audience.

The team should have consulted better screenwriters who worked on the best animation projects in studios like Pixar (more now part of Disney's) and Disney's. Today, an animation film in the West is made with a budget of $40 million which  is still more than what a "Robot" or "Enthiran" can collect in a first-run. Except for the pirates scene in the beginning and the bamboo sticks fight before the interval with Deepika Padukone, there is no wow factor in the film. Talk about music by AR Rahman, despite an energetic and exceptionally wide-ranging musical score by the Indian Mozart, the songs do not lift you much out of the dark monotony of the film. The dance movements by Deepika Padukone or second heroine Shobhana are in a world of themselves, out of sync with Superstar or too fast for the music. I wonder if thats a chronic problem with motion capture/performance capture technology. It is unwise to compare with "Avatar" alright but why attempt something with imperfections and expect a blockbuster out of it? If you look at Pixar, they made one smash hit after another from "Toy Story" to "A Bug's life" to "Monsters" to "Finding Nemo" to "Cars" to "Ratatouille" to "Wall-E" to "Brave" and their movies are becoming more Indian, more poetic, more emotional and less prosaic. Prosaic, thats the word that sums up "Vikramasimha" because it lacks that x-factor to make you want to go that extra mile to see and come back for more.

Are there any other redeeming factors from music? It is Rajanikanth who looks like a 21-year old Samurai - nimble, large-hearted, charishmatic and metrosexual. Like in "Basha", Rajani sprinkles aphorisms and pearls of wisdom in the opening song with Ranadheera and the song that comes after interval with the real hero in flashback - Vikramasimha or Kochadiyaan. Lovely references to Kriya Yoga, difference between ownership and leadership,  living long by waking up before sun-rise, the transcience of the world, the fate of being born to parents and the will of choosing right friends. Those pearls embody the personality and principles lived out by Rajanikanth - and find a place in the soundtrack too. On the whole, a film with mammoth effort but minimum impact. If you are a Rajani fan, you will anyway skip this review and go for the film. If not, you may suffer one anyways.  Is the film unwatchable? No, but it is not remarkable either.
My Rating: 2/5.

"Manam" (Telugu) Film Review

"Manam" is a beautiful film -  a flowing tribute to ANR and his lasting legacy. In the works for over two years, the film was making news for many happy reasons until it became clear that this will be ANR's last screen appearance. Directed by Vikram K Kumar ( "Ishq" fame) and produced by Reliance Entertainment, the film has all the elements of a sugar-syrup family comedy with minimum distractions. No villain, no side-tracking comedy and no vulgarity - it has a stamp of class and well-directed sweetness all-round. There are not many families in the Indian film history which had the luxury of appearing on screen in all the 3-G glory. The last time such an act was performed, according to me, was "Kal Aaj Kal" (starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor and Ranadhir Kapoor). Now, it is the turn of ANR, Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya to give us a magical story of improbable origins.

The improbability is the only weakness in the plot - where Nagarjuna is the son of Naga Chaitanya and Samantha and ANR is the son of Nagarjuna and Shriya Saran. How these five people you will not otherwise meet in heaven actually get enmeshed with each other's lives in a cute inter-mixing of two love stories spread over two generations is the bone of the matter. Beyond this, it would be puerile to elaborate the story as it may snatch the thrills of watching a clean film not seen since  the likes of SVSC. The implausibility of the plot is tolerable as today's films have more illogicalities than the subtle cinematic liberty taken by the story-writer of this plot. So the illogicality is passable in the name of delectable entertainment that the film offers.

What are the highlights of the film? Undoubtedly, the scenes between Nagarjuna and Samantha as some of the best supermom moments get unfolded on screen in a rarely seen combination. Then the scenes between ANR, Naga Chaitanya and Nagarjuna - the drinking scene, even if slightly overdone. Then the delicate scenes between Nagarjuna and Shriya in the rural backdrop where bucholic charms haven't erased the purity of some souls. Finally, the roaring screen chemistry between Naga Chaitanya and Samantha for the nth time which makes the film youthful. Performance-wise, Naga Chaitanya gives the best shot amongst everybody as he shares screen space with Nagarjuna and ANR for the first and last time. This is his film, not really Nagarjuna's or ANR's. Samantha and Shriya get their sunshine moments and naturally have a blast. Nagarjuna looks old but carries himself better than some of the commercial roles we are used to seeing him. He should quickly migrate to being part of more such meaningful cinema such as "Manam". ANR is seen for less than ten minutes but by making a delayed entry minutes before the interval and staying the course right till the end, he gives out a dignified performance before he bowed out. Director Vikram used the limited availability of ANR's footage deftly by spacing him to re-surface again and again until that last shot of his where he smiles and waves you goodbye.

Whichever way you look at, "Manam" is a terrific film to watch that doesn't bore you despite the over-extended goodwill messages and sweetness. Infact, the emotions in the film choke you at times and remind you of the beauty of life and the miracles that pour out of love of all kinds. Vikram Kumar is quite a talent in the way he used a venerable starcast including Brahmanandam and MS Narayana. After a long time you get a feeling of confidence of a director in showcasing his mastery with a clean narration, good performances and messages that won't embarrass you in front of your mom. Except that little cheeky jingle of why we say "ladies first", nothing is offensive in the film. What makes the film different is the treatment of the story playing out between different generations of characters and the quality of output. Music by Anup Rubens, his 25th musical score deserves a high five. All the songs are exceptionally peppy and melodious. By using three different scores for each generation of Akkineni family, Anup Rubens has shown he has a talent for matching  song composition skills with a standout BGM. The director's class also shows in his selection of team in dialogues, cinematography. Vikram Kumar sure has a fresh mind that needs more backers  - how he thinks in telling a good story better is a case study. One example, in the song "Ta...Taaa....Tatta Tattaa...." which has Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya shake a leg with the old clippings of ANR song, any other director could have used an item girl to add to the stomping on the floor. But by not going for the predictable, Vikram proves he is different. More power to such directors and cinema. In many ways, Vikram's style of commercial cinema reminds me of the class of Radha Mohan, the Tamil director who made many successful films for Prakash Raj.

You wished the film's length of 163 minutes were cut down but I sense some scenes of ANR were not possible because of his passing out so they had filled in with other stuff. Good to see Amala and Akhil get roped in this family drama for the records. Akhil's entry in the end gives an inkling he will also join the family business soon. No less a person than Amitabh Bachchan did a 45 second cameo as a tribute to ANR. What a way to finish off a glorious career! In as much one feels compel to judge a film, "Manam" has surprisingly few shortcomings - which I have already qualified. You will walk away with many good feelings after watching it.

My rating: 3.5/5.