Movie drought ends today

Finally, "Marocharitra" releases today ending the drought of big banner movies for the summer after the intermediate exams ended recently. Would be watching shortly to update on the review...And then over to "Varudu"! Talking about "Varudu", the audio has few great numbers but generally retains a repetitive tonality of Mani Sharma's earlier output.  "Aidu Rojula Pelli" may become popular but looks dangerously close to that School prayer song composed by AR Rehman in "Merupu Kalalu".  But Mani's music grows on you after the movie's release.

Book review: “Don’t sprint the Marathon” by V Raghunathan

This is one breeze of a book – in just under 170 pages, V Raghunathan, author of Games Indian Play has written a timely book for everybody wagging about reforming Indian Educational System. This one is a delightful read which exhorts parents to let children be childlike, creative, spontaneous and happily wanton in their pursuit of things in the years of growing up because V Raghunathan says life is not a sprint, a hundred meters race but a marathon with lots of ups and downs, curves and alleys and zig-zagging turns which require stamina, patience, hardwork, understanding  and passion rather than short-termism, strength, roteful understanding, and exam-oriented competitiveness. He says children must be allowed to discover themselves  and be intrinsically curious, follow their passions and follow their mojo  - this alone makes them grow up as adults with dynamism, interesting personality and sure-fire accomplishments. Parenting geared toward sprint coaching will be dangerous and short-term because in the long-run, life is a great leveller. In driving home these points, he underlines many inter-related concepts which beautifully summarise the wisdom of approaching life like a marathon indeed instead of  as a sprint. He draws many examples to illustrate how late-starters and not-so-lucky nor prodigious nor even smart alecks have made it big in the world of business, or any other field of endeavor. Examples include N R Narayana Murthy, Dr K Anji Reddy,  G M Rao, Ila Bhatt, Ashwini Nachappa and others. What I like about the book is that enormous lifetime wisdom of the author has been capsuled in concise chapters, each well-illustrated and leading to the next chapter with a thought-provoking missive. The language is also amply elegant while accessible to anybody with a 2000 word vocabulary, probably less.

The book should be compulsory reading for all educators, parents and pupils and seriously anyone who thinks that the passport to sprinting ahead is to  grab admissions into the best school, college or job as starters. In reading the book, the style of the author works to your advantage; its interesting, anecdotal and not really didactic, but  drawing plenty from personal experience and knowledge. Having read the author’s previous books and also well acquainted with his own career – which has many interesting twists  - Graduate at 17, Professor at IIM-A,  Multiple stints in corporate world in  Asset Management, Banking, and now  with GMR, besides hectic lecturing, authorship, Masterly Writer on Financial Literacy, and one of the country’s biggest collector of locks, I can safely say Raghu is well qualified to talk about Outliers who make it in life never mind, lack of pedigree, initial push, luck or precocious academic dazzle. I have  met him a couple of times in the last two decades, every time, I crossed his path, he went in a different direction creating a blaze, whether it is in First India Mutual Fund, ING Bank, IIM-A or CSR.  In this smashing book which will  not leave you untouched or uninspired, Raghu has delivered greatest value  - if only that can be perceived by today’s generation and all those who believe in life after a rat-race.  Read and Get Inspired! 

For more about Raghu, visit : www.vraghunathan.com

Why do they increase the costs of Film?

A bird tells me that the collections of Leader have dwindled after the release of  Yeh Maaya Chesaave. And producers are worried about the chances of recovery of more than Rs.18 crores gone in the film. One basic thumb rule that smart investors in films make is:  What's the ratio of film exposed (negative)  to the final reel output? It should be 1: 6 and exceptionally, 1:4.  Sekhar has made Leader  using 450,000 feet of negatives which means it has costed about Rs.1.125 crores for the film print itself. That's a humungous waste and probably exceeds all the unfinished output of Sekhar's previous and future films. When such a high fixed cost is incurred (film negative is paid for upfront), it badly affects the economics of the film for the producer. A frugal and well-planned director doesn't consume more than 1/4th of the film output by way of negatives. This is becoming the bane of modern film-makers and a nightmare for film producers. Bapu's Sundarakanda used up 87000 feet, Vara Mullapudi shot Vishaka Express with 67000 feet, and Krishna Vamsee used up more than a lakh feet just to give an idea of what some of the sensible directors do. This cost is virtually irrecoverable for AVM. We'll look at more such dynamics of film-making in days to come... 

Businessworld's The Marketing Whitebook 2010-2011

This is a book you can't finish, like a dictionary, but need it at arm's length if you are in the business of getting a portion of somebody's wallet share. The Marketing Whitebook 2010-2011 from the Businessworld magazine is here, anchored by some insightful essays by leading lights on de-mystifying the macrocosm called India in all its segments, layers and spending patterns. The only disappointment for me has been the thinning of section on Banking & Financial Services including Mutual Funds which is usually quite detailed. This time, the recession seems to have made the publishers pull the section out. Insurance, that darling of commissions industry, is there tucked away safely.

IPL Vs. Films in Tollywood

If you can't beat' em, join them! An old adage seems to drive a change that seemed impossible before - multiplexes screening ultra-limited-overs cricket. But for Varudu and a few other non-descript movies, Tollywood is bracing for an over-crowded summer while leaving the next few weeks over for IPL - 3 cricket. This means more trouble for Tollywood movies which are reeling under hopeless losses despite heightened creativity. Last year, out of 121 or so movies made, less than a dozen are acclaimed hits. The entire film industry seems to grope around at crawling pace - no multi-starrers, herd-like mentality in coming up with themes (One Ready movie will lead to ten Namo Venkatesa's), burgeoning budgets, astronomical film footage exposed before screening, inability to diversify and build studio films (like Navatha Arts, Bhargav Art productions, Vijaya Productions), and whimsical heroes (Mahesh Babu), heroines (Charmi?) and comedians who quote a third of the movie's budgets besides general all-round apathy for small film producers. Tollywood is at an inflection point (which we will discuss later) and the IPL season is just an excuse for Tollywood to mull over where its going.

Finally, an E-Book Reader which works in India

I am not a big fan of Kindle or E-Books for reasons we'll know later, but over the last three days, I am smitten by this reading device called "Pi"  - India's first reading device with a battery life of 30 hours, which can download over a lakh books in pdf format. Ordered for just Rs.10,000, Pi is light and eminently readable, with USB port for importing files with even .jpeg, .doc, .txt extension as well as mp3 files (with earphones). As I begun downloading files and started my first E-Book experience, my Geek brother promptly pinpointed the gaps in Pi which a technologically-challenged person like me couldn't notice - no back-light, night-light, only B & W colors, were some of the drawbacks. But for now, this is just fine - the memory card also has 1 GB+ capacity. So, now I am one of the few (or am I the first) Hyderabadis to have an E-Book Reader. More later as I explore further...Right now, its E-books and in a few hours whether Oscars night belongs to Avatar movie or not.

Who are the 3 Idiots? Not Chetan Bhagat!

After the infamous run-in with the producers of the movie 3 Idiots, many would have written off Chetan Bhagat - the writer of the story that inspired the movie ("Five Point Someone")... Not only is Chetan Bhagat bracing himself for the next novel after "The 2 States of My Marriage" but he is laughing all the way to the bank. Sources from his publishers tell that after the successful release of 3 Idiots, Chetan Bhagat's books are in terrific demand, more than they can cope with. Already, he is the undisputed paperback king of India, but after this movie's release, even in Hyderabad, there's demand for 22000 copies  of Five Point Someone against 5000 copies available in various bookshops. The shortfall continues across pan-India. Whatever happened to the short-selling    by the author, Chetan (www.chetanbhagat.com) also made  neat capital out of the movie.