Morgan Stanley's loss is HDFC's gain - An analysis of the MF deal

Morgan Stanley AMC's takeover by HDFC AMC reminds me of the famous quote by T.Rowe Price: "Change is the investor's only certainty." Here's a fund house which came to India way back in 1994 which collected for their maiden NFO (it was sold as an IPO) Morgan Stanley Growth Fund more money in that year than what Sri Lankan Government budget counted. Of course, it took several years of bad decision-making, lazy fund management and investor apathy before Morgan Stanley resurrected it's dented image in Mutual Funds by re-launching several new schemes and new fund management that's almost the talk of the town in atleast fixed-income investing. In all these years since 1994, Morgan Stanley's assets have touched a little short of Rs.3300 crores which includes it's legacy fund - the infamous Morgan Stanley Growth Fund which has a size of Rs.1300 crores apprx. Just when the fortunes of the fund house are about to look up, HDFC AMC has picked it up for a whopping Rs.170 crores almost paying half of whatever PAT it earned this year about Rs.328 crore - which is the highest in the industry. The nearest competitor to HDFC - Reliance AMC is sitting on a profit of around Rs.194 crores. Considering that, one wonders why HDFC bid in a hurry to stay at the top of the race. It could have easily pulled in some of the star fund managers like Ritesh Jain to garner a handsome lead in debt assets. 

What is curious is why Morgan Stanley exited the business after getting just 5 per cent for its equity assets. This year, Morgan Stanley is the second MNC after Fidelity to exit the fund management business and it could once again point to the disruptions in the business models thrown up by regulatory winds of change. The Indian Mutual Fund industry despite having a total fund base of  Rs.8.9 trillion or more (that's about Rs.9 lakh crores or roughly 9 per cent of India's GDP) is becoming a joke of sorts with no sense of direction. Of the 44 AMCs, less than 17 are making profits and most of them are to the tune of  Rs.50 crores or less and if you count the profit of all the AMCs this year including the likes of HDFC, Reliance, UTI and so on, it roughly comes to a total profit of Rs.750 crores. That is 0.08 per cent of the total AUM - no wonder, the industry is sinking despite projecting a brave face. Scratch the surface of the AUM and you will find most of the funds are in fixed-income or mostly liquid and ultra-short-term. If you start counting the treasury surpluses of the top corporations in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi and Chennai, you can comfortably knock off almost 35 per cent of the total AUM - which may have already moved under the direct code - the new manna from heaven that SEBI has offered investors without realising how under-penetrated the MF industry is despite the industry struggling to re-invent itself well with the advent of new technologies and platforms. The MF Industry is offering the best of choices to the investors to minimise costs but struggling to attract the right kind of investors to meet the long-term financial planning goals. 

Look at Templeton Bluechip Fund which completed 20 years early this month. Since its inception in 1994, the fund has given a return of 53 times on its original investment but there are only 9000 folios which are staying invested since the fund was launched - of which more than 50 per cent are supposed to be inactive! Take HDFC Children's Gift Fund - it returned over 22 per cent compounded return since inception and could have been the perfect vehicle for planning for kid's education, it's corpus is still at Rs.320 crores. Take another plan aimed at Pension  - Templeton India Pension Builder Plan. Even though it returned a handsome 18 per cent plus return, not many investors nor advisors even know it exists in the fact sheet. On the contrary, hefty commissions and mighty incentives offered on Insurance Plans have made Unit-linked Insurance Plans much more lucrative to sell than the plans as mentioned above - despite having significantly lower expense ratios. More people are still sold insurance products but few come forward to buy mutual funds despite a stark need for sound investing in a country which boasts of 22 per cent plus savings rates. 

While the regulator has been blamed enough for the ills of the industry, one cannot blame them forever if the industry is not self-introspecting. I still fail to understand why the Industry's apex body is a self-regulator where a group of biggies decide what the rest of the industry should follow. I still do not understand whether there is uniformity in the alignment  of interests - of the twin goals of growth and profitability of the AUMs across the board. I still do not understand whether the mandatory spending requirement of minimum percentage on Investor Education is going towards the intended purpose. I still do not know whether funds are investing in talent in research, sales and product innovation in the requisite manner. I do not know whether the ecosystem of advisor-distributor-manufacturer is developing harmoniously and whether there's something amiss there. I do not know whether new entrants to MF Industry feel welcomed or threatened by the oligopolistic nature. I do not know whether Morgan Stanley will be the last to exit the MF Industry in India - at a time when other key markets like China and Brazil are seeing expansion in MF activity. 

As far as HDFC is concerned, it's a revival of the "Economic Moat" concept as it rakes in the Morgan Stanley assets to increase it's monopoly on the leading market share. It always had sticky asset managers on the equity front even if they are perennially optimistic about the market irrespective of the cycle performance. Now this will add to its dominant position by being able to hike its investment in technology (hiking its custody fees), reward its long-standing managers with higher carry (they will now get another scheme which will carry assets upwards of Rs.1000 crores) and increase its economies of scale in debt funds. Being an unequal merger (HDFC paid less to Morgan Stanley than what L&T Finance paid Fidelity on a comparable metric of % on equity assets), the benefits are more for HDFC than MS. And that's how realising early in Asset Management helps that some assets are more unequal than others. As for Morgan Stanley, and the guys like Fidelity, exit could have been less painful at a different time. Which again proves a costly rule in Private Equity - it is easier to sell a business than run it. 

Views are personal.

"Uyyaala Jampaala" Movie Review (Telugu)

Over 70 per cent of our population lives in rural India. In AP, we are more agrarian than many states. Proof:  take the massive human migration that happens around Sankranti season in AP: the cities look more deserted and the villages  mill with millions of city-dwellers binging on village talk, cock fights and family get-to-gethers. Isn't it ironical that Tollywood makes less than 10 per cent or even 5 per cent of the films based on village themes? For many years now, Telugu films are getting made only for the multiplexes. Last year, we made 256 films -  58 more films than in 2011 (and  35 films more than Hindi film industry) and yet  fewer than 13 films based on rural India. This year, SVSC came in Sankranti and then there was a vacuum until one or two small films came and went, hardly noticed. Until now, when "Uyyaala Jampaala" came. 

Produced by Ram Mohan Paruvu, UJ is refreshing, entertaining and evocative. Ram Mohan is an IIM grad and a sensible producer who is building a catalogue of memorable films irrespective of when they are released, even if in between star releases. "Ashta Chamma" and "Golconda    High School" were two of his acclaimed films which proved  families will flock if you offer a message with  a youthful flavor. "Uyyaala Jampaala", his latest breaks the mould and it is not a novel story. It has a classic three-act story of a boy and a girl born into relation, grow up fighting each other and eventually unite in happy ending after late realisation and triggers from a forced arranged marriage. What can possibly be ingenuine in this plot? The treatment, the straight narration with a momentary flashback, a mint-fresh starcast thats neither theatrical nor super-articulate giving them an unmatched natural advantage, motifs from rural backdrop that underpin the roots of our culture - simple friendships, grand-parent wisdom, village naivette, unalloyed emotions, sylvan scenery and bucholic charms. In less than two hours (I couldn't believe this included the interval), director Virinchi Varma takes us through a roller-coaster of emotions of what we go through on a daily basis with far greater impact than what some of the surreal madcap movies we see  with akimbo dances and adipose dialogues that only create noise pollution. 

Virinchi has used the dialect  closest to Bhimavaram-Kakinada belt in most of the characters including the hero who is at stellar ease with the slant. Avika Gour is the heroine who is well known to audiences as the cute girl in "Baalika Vadhu" dubbed in Telugu as "Chinnari Pelli Kooturu". She  is sharp and bright in the film even if she lacks the glamor rampant in commercial films. Raj Tarun is the hero who looks an underdog but walks away with most of the honours despite having an unusual and almost unremarkable personality. Its a credit to the director that if you infuse the right characterisation with the right lines, it doesn't require brute stardom to burn the screen with memories, you can create a stir with basic sensibilities and sincere emoting. Thats exactly what Raj Tarun achieved in UJ. Among others who created impact were Anita Choudhary and Ravi Varma, both playing powerful characters on opposite sides. They show that talent in serials is in huge supply that is untapped. Music by Sunny is impressive. Last heard in "Swaami Ra Ra", Sunny scored some soulful melodies with distinct instrumentation and vocal rhythms. Again hard to believe that a movie this short has just four songs. Virinchi uses the classic director's lag - the first song always starts late and the last song always finishes early - that's the only way to avoid the audiences getting restive. Seeing the film in good old Shanti theatre, I noticed that neither the smokers nor the leakers left their seats during even one song. The title song transports us to a magical world of romantic dreams minus the dirty drills and the foreign frills that today's movies mandate.

Cinematography by Vishwa has its highs and  lows - it captures the essence of village life, at times, it dullens the frames. Still, it delivers. Dialogues are apt and raise many laughs. After a long time, entertainment and comedy is enmeshed with the storyline - most of the funny one-liners come from the hero and his gang. There is subtle and refined humor lurking at every dialogue if you catch the lingo and the local idioms. In a film of this variety where the story draws you intensely with its rustic charm, the only weaknesses are those you didn't notice and they may be impertinent to the overall feel of the film. What is cliched is the use of stereotypes typical of patriarchial society that defines villages - too many symbols of even children playing wife and husband games etc. are bad examples in a society thats outgrowing those qualms. This is in bad taste and must be shunned in films even if it evokes sick laughter. There are also more examples of how the heroine feels disempowered till the end on asserting her love or her independence as a grown-up, such stereotyping does more harm than good to the society because in cinema, the medium is the message and we must be careful in projecting the right messages. It's the same stereotype that Srikant Addala used in SVSC - where a girl grows up in household with the sole objective of marrying the eldest son. Here, Avika is culturally weak and traditional and closer to her regressive picturisation in the mega TV serial that propelled her to stardom. Despite these blemishes, the director and the producer pull off a surprise family-clean entertainer that will rake it in well till the big releases. It may even be a giant-killer if the audiences bless it. It certainly has a repeat viewing quotient because of arresting simplicity despite state-of-the-art references to skype and facebook etc. We need more of such films to resonate with what majority Indians live like. Good returns for co-producers D Suresh and Nagarjuna Akkineni for partaking in the sweat equity of Ram Mohan Paruvu. 

My rating: 4 out of 5 for a clean fare that lingers on with freshness.

How Tollywood fared in 2013 - An analysis by Sriram Karri

Your intrepid film critic has been quoted in the New York Times for views on how Tollywood is faring. Written by Sriram Karri. Of course, much has been said but only few quotes taken. Good analysis and interesting views on the shifts happening in the Telugu film industry.

Please read the article from the link below:

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/

"Dhoom-3" Movie Review (Hindi)

If I tell you that the first shot of the film is a young boy helping his father resusciate the Great Indian Circus facing liquidation from a banker who has invoked the equivalent of Sarfesi Act and that young boy grows up to restore the pride of his father in making the Great Indian Circus a must-go in Chicago, does it tell you where it all leads up? The young boy becomes Aamir Khan who targets the bank - Western Bank of Chicago - the bank that made his father Jackie Shroff bow out with his life and commits heist whenever he wants. Thats the bone of "Dhoom-3" for you - a kind of Dr Jekyll and Hyde in Aamir Khan - who just exchanged one kind of stardom with another for this role of double shades, in more ways than one, which you will realise as you watch. 

Shot entirely in Chicago, the film revolves around Aamir Khan from the start to finish in all the 172 minutes of sometimes breezy and sometimes agonising frames of stylish stunts on BMW motor bikes that vroom ahead with 360 degree turns, over-turns and even amphibian dexterity like the cars in James Bond films. The franchisee stamina is tested to a point of some fatigue which doesn't find much relief in most characters including the so-called-hero Abhishek Bachchan and his flunkie Uday Chopra. Infact, Abhishek should try to relinquish his second-most well-known job as a hapless cop (after baby-sitting) for someone else to add verve and vigor. He looks singularly boring and needs to move on as much as the predictable Uday Chopra who could have been booked under Nirbhaya Act routinely for the number of women he leches on as a cop in this film.

Katrina Kaif is the romantic centrepiece of this testerone-filled story who performs stunning acrobatics in her role as a circus troupe artist. She sustains the lightest and the emotional scenes of the film well with Aamir Khan. Aamir Khan is the deserving reason to watch the film but most of the time you feel you are being taken for a ride because of the ludicrous plot with gaping holes in the script and the storyline. This is where I like to ask Vijay Prakash Acharya what he had in mind when he narrated the story to YRF films or Aamir Saheb. When a banker comes knocking on the doors of the Great Indian Circus because of payment default, what is wrong with it? Is asking for your loan back an act of cruelty that makes you turn so spiteful that you hit on my bank anytime and run with the heist? What were Abhishek and Uday - cops in India doing in Chicago? Why were they called when there is abundant local talent? With so many heists happening on just one bank, why are so many people clueless about the modus operandi and the man behind the act when he leaves so many clues? Is the 27 minute flashback at the outset required to justify the villainy of Aamir Khan? If so, will all villains get so much footage to explain their motives ? Why does every heist of Aamir Khan end with dollar notes falling  on the street people of Chicago like autumn leaves? Why doesn't he just take that money and run? Or, why doesn't it add up to the per capita income of Chicago? 

When you walk out of the film, you realise this is a film where everyone is reverential about Aamir Khan playing a villain and one must project him in as much good light as possible because the character he is playing can otherwise do no wrong under normal circumstances. This is an opportunity lost for Aamir Khan, methinks because thats not how the legends of Hollywood think or down south, some of the hero villains like NTR, Rajkumar, Rajnikanth did? If you are playing a villain, make even the best villains feel sorry by the menace in your character, don't pussy-foot around and don't think of your star image. While Aamir excels in his role, he could have outshined more than just giving a sheepish smile and a cunning eye to outwit police. The film could have also been shorter sans some repetitive stunts, most of whom are clearly graphics. The warning at the outset could have been aptly worded: Please do not try these stunts at home as they are unreal and designed by graphics. In the second half, there is an extended chase between Aamir and Abhishek where both of them hurl weapons and counter-weapons at each other on speeding bikes. It was hilarious and reminds one of the Astras and counter-astras used in mythological films on chariots. If every successive villain in the next editon of "Dhoom" thinks like Aamir Khan in giving a justification to character, the franchise will become an innocent version of Amul Dairy. Music by Pritham lacks melody and background score by somebody else heightens the drama. Unless you are a vroom Dhoom fan and do not enjoy speeds which optimise the fuel, this film lacks in substance and variety but delivers in style, speed and thrills and yes, the surprise that Aamir Khan throws at you at the beginning, the interval and the end. I would still rate it 2.5 out of 5 for the effort and Aamir. 

"Venkatadri Express" Telugu film Review

There are not many films in Tollywood which build muscle in storyline but "Venkatadri Express" is a novel attempt in that direction. Directed by a debutant Merlapati Gandhi, the film had created some buzz in trade circles because Gandhi has some award-winning short films to his credit. "Venkatadri Express" is the name of the train that leaves Hyderabad for Tirupati. Gandhi who is the all-in-one for story-screenplay-dialogues-director has selected that train as the backdrop and the entire story is weaved into one incredible train journey of a family who alight from Hyderabad for a journey that is supposed to be a joy ride and a happy one.

It becomes a happy one for all the family members - a father Nagineedu, his wife, sons and their families including the bridegroom Brahmaji who is about to tie the knot. Except for one of the sons Sandeep (Sandeep Kishan) who misses the train because of an errand run by his mother (to get the "thaali bottu") and some silly diversions at the station. These diversions, these "Rudraveena" type distractions are what enrages Sandeep's Father time and again. Sandeep's father, Nagineedu, is one of those modern-day curiosities who keeps a statistical count of such "mistakes" committed by everyone in the family - from toddlers to wife to sons and their spouses. Before embarking on the marriage party on Venkatadri Express, Sandeep is at 99 not out in terms of number of mistakes, so all he has to do to be kicked out of his house is one more. Be that as it may, and back to the story, Sandeep misses the train but somehow makes it in time to catch the train just before Tirupati in one of the incredible chases with some remote help (and pose as if he is sleep-walking from another compartment where he his berth lies). What really happened in the time since he missed the train? Why were there blood stains on his shirt? Who is the guy in the family compartment who is joined at the hip with Sandeep? How did he make it back just in time? Will Brahmaji's marriage happen? 

These are the questions that must egg you on to watch this reasonably engrossing movie made with a bevy of characters of low-key fame but thoroughly entertertaining except in the second half when it becomes predictable. Merlapati Gandhi has roped in a good starcast that pull off fireworks all except one - Nagineedu who gave the most unconvincing characterisation yet seen in his career as a father who is stuck on old-world discipline in new blood - he appears a cross between a "Bommarillu" Prakash Raj and an ancient Gummadi and has been quite a bore. Even in the end, his characterisation lacks the consistency check and closure in climax. Sandeep Kishan pulls his role with ease and style, he is lucky to have got a script that could have pulled in more eyeballs with a bigger star. A new girl Ratul Priti looks cute and over-exposed at the same time. Brahmaji gets an important role after a long time that registers good votes at places. The real draw of the film is the under-appreciated comedy tracks that are enmeshed with the main storyline of a moving train, mainly highlighted by Sudhir ("Oye" fame) and Taagubotu Ramesh. Sudhir will get accolades for a role of a lifetime while Ramesh gets the giggles with his trademark acting. A few others, kid and MS Narayana too get the occasional laughs. Undoubtedly, getting a script like this to deliver so much on entertainment and comedy is a coup because the storyline walks on a razor edge between a running story and the heart of the flashback of how the hero and the heroine get into an incredible chase. 

Music by Ramana Gogula is good not great. His BGM seems to enthrall more than his songs. As a music director, he had given some good hits in his checkered career but in this film, coming after a gap, one can feel something amiss in his disctinct style.  Chota K Naidu, the cinematographer has given a fantastic feel to the whole experience of a moving train and the images that move the narrative. A few songs have been shot with great passion and creativity which leave haunting imagery in primary colors. Without Naidu's support for a film which has untested director, the film might have slipped into shoddiness. Duration wise, I still felt that its a miracle to pack so much into one film in 127 minutes and yet achieve a poetic end in climax (I am not giving away much nowadays you see). While the director tied most of the scenes with logic, he slipped on the side of taking short-cuts to exalt comedy. There are scenes where a ticket collector loses his marbles in throwing out freeboarders; instead of throwing them out, he discusses Telugu literature. There are only two chains in a compartment to stop a train for the hero to hop into it but both are used creatively - preventing its real use; one is used to cradle a baby  and the other like a gym rope. Also, the film despite an original story and treatment resembles loosely many plots of films like "Jab We Met", "Bommarillu", "Ala Modalaindi" in terms of twists and hairpin bending twists. But it is definitely worth a watch, whatever be the shortcomings. It gives clean, family-clean entertainment and some uproarious laughter and delivers on most counts for a debutant director. My rating: 3.5./5.

US-Iran Deal- when foes become friends

Having worked in a few multinational banks since 2002, and being at the receiving end of being forced to cut short business wherever "sanction" countries like Iran and Iraq and Syria are involved, I am delighted at the announcement of the deal between Iran and a group of international powers to freeze important parts of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for a temporary relaxation of sanctions.

The US-Iranian deal on allowing Iran to continue with its nuclear ambitions on a limited scale is one of the most epochal moments in world history and it must be lauded for what it entails - it ends Iran's international isolation, its alienation from the international banking  and will restart commercial transactions between American companies and Iranian entities. The landmark deal has raised eyebrows even in Israel because for decades, Israel and Iran were bitter foes because of irreconcilable differences in culture, religion and identity. 

This is surprising because, way back in 1943, President Roosevelt told a British Ambassador: "Persian Oil is yours; we share the oil of Iraq and Kuwait. As for Saudi Arabian oil, it's ours.". Historically, Iran was always a beligerant nation and fiercely independent in asserting itself as a regional hegemon, creating a bipolarity and sometimes tripolarity with Saudi Arabia and Iraq. I read a book by Robert Keacy in 2010 about "Iran: The Devil we know" which outlines how the country has become more liberal, less Islamist (by way of endorsing Shia regime) and built the largest ballistic missile inventory in the region. It naturally had clear ambitions to build nuclear weapons, which the US tried to thwart firing all the salvos in its range of socio-politico-economic foreign policy to check Iran. 

But nothing worked. On the contrary, instability in the region grew even as Iran, despite the international ostracisation welded itself into one voice as a nation. Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya,Syria, Egypt, some say, the Arab Spring that led rebellions against extreme Islamic fundamentalism could have been a hotbed of religious and political uprisings of the Shia. Clearly, the Iranian model of re-asserting cultural supremacy and neo-liberal religious reforms have definitely dented the gambit played by US interests in middleeast region. US tried to sell more arms to the Arab countries, orient all nations ex-Iran into a powerful force called Gulf-Cooperation-Council (GCC) to become a powerful deterrant against Iran. In turn, Iran has always criticised the GCC for its pro-US slant, had territorial disputes with UAE over three islands in the Persian Gulf and even laid claim over Bahrain that it was once part of the Persian empire. 

The US had built more bridges with the GCC countries ostracising Iran  with all the sanctions possible which intensified in 2012. The alignment of interests between the US and GCC were quite understandable: the GCC countries and Iran control over 55 per cent of the world's total oil production and 41 per cent of the world's total gas reserves. US has a lot to gain being an ally to GCC than Iran. Moreover, the Arab economies are a major buyer of arms from US. All the ruling regimes of the GCC countries, to add further, were all Sunni  - and the Shia Iran had to be checked so that its influence among the region's Shia minorities doesn't grow.

To a large extent, the ostracisation had an impact on Iran's economy - its currency fell and because of the steep sanctions  - which bar banking transactions - Iran suffered. But Iran retaliated. In 2012, there was another move by the cartographers in US to even re-name the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf, that didn't work. Iran was happy that didn't name (there are few countries in the world which have seas, gulfs and oceans named after them). US intensified the sanctions impact by freezing all Iranian government assets in US territories. Iran retaliated again, this time threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz  - the little "mouth" of the Persian Gulf through which 85 per cent of all the oil the world consumes passes through. It has never carried out the threat. 

As this intensified, and Iran's oil exports faltered - the main stay of their economy, Iran never cowed down on the military front and diversified its efforts to reach out to others including BRIC nations like India and China. Iran is alleged to have continued supplying WMD and even biological weapons to countries like Syria and threatened to use them in any conflicts escalated by Israel. What must have changed US views towards adopting a lenient stance against Iran is the new-found love of China towards Iran and old-world love of India, which always had historic ties with Iran, from the times of the Persian empire.

China, while engaging with the Arab world, deepened its ties with Iran, Syria and Turkey. China is now Iran's biggest trading partner and has been supplying arms, including missiles and aircraft, to Iran since 1981. It is also important that for China, Iran is the only energy supplier in the Gulf  for its gargantuan economy that it can reach through pipelines as well as sea routes, ensuring a diversification of supply lines in the even of a blockade or disruption in its energy supplies. Besides, in the strategic rivalry with the US, Iran is a potential ally. Which is why, China, while supporting the sanctions on Iran, it is unlikely to stop dealings with Iran. Given this and the fact that India and Russia have also been continuing trade with Iran for oil supplies (there was a window of exports and imports carried on via a select conduit offered by Indian oil companies and to some extent, by State Bank of India). 

Besides, after the march of democratic movements which are eroding the bastions of conservative Islamist traditoins in many countries across the GCC and MENA regions, it appears that this move to cosy up to Iran is driven by compulsions of foreign policy to move from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific Ocean regions. Because thats where the action is. It proves one thing though: In politics increasingly dictated by economics and win-win foreign policy, there are no permanent enemies and no permanent friends either. The event is still a small leap of faith in taming a country that has a civilzation older than the most-powerful country in the world today but it will have benign consequences going forward for the region (in cooling off oil prices) and the world. 

India, for its part played with lot of caution on Iranian front even though culturally it is closest to the Persian Empire with links dating back thousands of years. Persian was a language spoken at Moghul Courts, trade ties were always on, and were normal since 1950 but fully formalised under PV Narasimha Rao's regime  since 1993 and strengthened under the Vajpayee regime . India has done  two joint naval exercises  with Iran in 2003 and 2006, trained their army personal in combat aircraft etc. and offered to build ports for them. Both of us dread the radical regimes of Talibans calling the shots in Pakistan and elsewhere. Both are aspiring nuclear powers although differences remain in being the signatory to NPT. With the clouds eased out on sanctions, India should revive the $7 billion gas pipeline that got stalled due to US opposition, distrust of Pakistan and doubts on viability. If US and Iran could bury their differences and move on, India and Pakistan can also move on in life. I am not an expert in foreign policy but thought this little piece will drive home again why the world is going to only get better and better with countries softening their stance against each other.

“Varna” (Telugu) Dubbed from “Irandam Ulagam” (Tamil)

“Varna” is one of the most hyped films with visual effects created by the same team that worked for “Avatar”. It had everything going for it – a producer with deep-pockets (PVP) who is on a cyclical high, a director Sri Raghava (Selvaraghavan in Tamil) who gave great family entertainers like “Aadavariki Maatalu Ardhaale Vere” and “7/G Brindavan Colony” and a great looking pair- the blue-eyed Arya and the sweet-and-sensuous Anushka Shetty. Harris Jayaraj scores music and the lad who created “Kolaveridi” composed the BGM score for the film. With that kind of a team, there were huge expectations and even the trailer kissed a surge of optimism. Is the film worth the hype? Alas, No. Then what went wrong? It’s the script and the characterization again, stupid. Basics of entertainment were missing – no comedy, no romance that sticks and no entertainment value despite an extra-ordinary theme of love and other human emotions having inter-galactic appeal. Director has combined atleast two fairy tales with one half-hearted romance in modern times and then connects the two stories towards the later half.  The duration – 160 minutes – made it hard to concentrate a story involving two planets and the same lead pair – Arya and Anushka.

The story is all a flashback narration by the earthly hero Arya who is sinking in an ocean. He is a good Samaritan who falls in love with Anushka, a doctor. On the other planet, many light years away, a Goddess of love rules and is worshipped by all but the planet is effectively resident evil – wrong doers seized control of the planet where love is absent, women are ill-treated and shephearded as slaves and none of the human emotions abound. The goddess there sows the seeds of embryonic love between another Anushka and another Arya who is the son of the king. A few twists later, the earthly Arya is transposed to the other world where he eventually plays cupid between the two, culminating the wish of the Goddess of love. The  narration moves in tandem, and toggles between earth and the other planet – which looks like a supernova in color scheming but exotic and splendid in landscape and sky. Visually, the director transports us into a surreal planet full of mythical birds and beasts and flora that captures all the colors your eyeballs can absorb. A few fights here and there but most of the film moves slower than Telangana bill, the first half takes you to wit’s end to elaborate the love track between the lead pair in both the planets and only the three songs by Harris Jayaraj spruce it up.

Post-interval, the movie picks up  tempo but fails to elevate the characters or add to the story that was revealed at the outset in the form of a short animation film about the fight between evil and good. However, there are some beautiful moments in the film which leave you dazed and tranced – the snowy surroundings on the other planet where love and sometimes hate envelops the three characters on a mission ( shot in Georgia), the serene characterization of the Goddess of love, and the transformative powers of human emotions on machine-like men. All the best scenes get amply highlighted by the mesmerizing background music of Aniruddh. He will be a sought-after BGM composer after this film.  There are  big takeaways – how love drives a man to superior machismo than even a thousand military training camps and the emotions of kindness and human affections  are what makes our planet so unique in the universe. I do not know whether the message in all its subtlety will reach a wider audience because the multiplex I went to on day one was half-empty so do not know whether there is that much of nerve and verve to attract bigger audiences. It is slow, smooth but lacking in intensity of emotions – the very emotions humans can teach other beings. For most part, Anushka is shown as the one who sulks but in varied costumes. She gets a meaty role in two characters but it could have been etched better to make her characters evocative. She still carries the film on her shoulder, her costumes, her Xena-like warrior movements and swordly fights and her feminine grace light the screen. Arya as the earthly lover did better justice than the other-worldly warrior. Technically, the film looks stylish and defining in VFX for Indian Cinema. It might have cost more dollars than the marketing budget of a Hollywood animation film but if only some entertainment, comedy and ripened romance be uploaded into  this mix, “Varna” would have been a different tale. Audiences will forget a movie’s furniture pieces fast- the VFX, et al but never forget the lines, the chemistry of the love pair and the entertainment quotient. For that let down alone, and not for anything else, the film’s rating deserves 2.5/5 but not more.

Post-script: The themes of inter-planetary movement of human beings is explored by Indians also as much as Hollywood directors. Imagination must run wild to explore a start-trek kind of experience because thought can travel faster than light. There is nothing wrong with that because Hindu Astronomy recognizes that there are 24 earths in the universe which are similar to our own. Recently, we read somewhere that Russians have researched a possibility of the netherworlds lying under the earth’s crust which leads  to the worlds like Naga loka etc. talked about by fiction writers like Amish Tripathi. There are also ways and means defined in our own ancient books about many worlds that can be experienced once human beings go outside their sensory range – like experiencing the body in several realms, travelling in astral light etc. Cinema lends itself perfectly to such possibilities being explored. But where movies like “Avatar” click and movies like “Baba” and “Varna” fail is in deliverance on emotions and mass value. Hopefully, these lessons will be learnt well before deep-pocketed producers look for the exit door of the film industry.