Nobody like Mandolin Srinivas

 Most musical geniuses peak at age 44 and with the exception of Mozart and a few others, many go on to cut more discs in their fifties. It is therefore shocking to hear U.Srinivas pass out at the peak of his prowess. I know of few other instrumentalists in the world whose surname is synonymous with the instrument they play with. You won't call Sax KennyG or Tabla Hussain or Violin Subramanyam or even Shehnai Khan or Piano Beethoven. But you will always know this prodigy as Mandolin Srinivas. He brought so much joy and veneer to an instrument which was actually shunned by both Hindustani and Karnatik musicians simply because it was either too simple or too complex - until you heard Mandolin being played by the butter-fingers of U.Srinivas. For those who had the luxury of watching him play the instrument, he released rare joy and energy into the ether when he played the Hamsadhwani or any other Karnatik raga.   

Mandolin was thought of as a western musical instrument such that the instrument was brought into the Karnatik fold only in the 1980s. This is because the bare instrument was beyond the scope of those who tried to navigate the strings for melodic movement. Before U.Srinivas, there was a film composer Sajid Hussain who tried to bring the magic of Mandolin into films. The great Blapu who died recently, used fifteen minutes of one of his compositions in the film "Muthyala Muggu" as a BGM for showing the consummation of a newly wed couple. He tried to use another piece in "Gorintha Deepam" by which Sajid Hussain became famously known in Tollywood too. 

However, the instrument required huge maneuvrability to produce the sounds that come easily in other stringed instruments like the violin or the Sitar - the most mellifluous of classical musical instruments where the semitones (the inter-frequency between each sound) are quick and continuous which expand the range of output. Mandolin had its limitations that got tweaked when it became an electric mandolin similar to an electric guitar - that was the stage on which U.Srinivas launched himself giving one performance after another performance winning plaudits and patronage from kingly sponsors. 

Though he started off with classical concerts playing at every world stage from Berlin to NY to the Asia-Pacific, Mandolin became renowned as an instrument that deserves attention and glory amidst the paraphernalia that musicians and orchestras carry. It was embraced in Karnatik music because of the electric mandolin's ability to create and sustain continuity of sounds  - like the violin or the sitar. Indians have finally thrown up another great instrumentalist - in the same tradition of world-renown as that of a Sarod, Veena, Violin, Sitar or Santoor. Mandolin Srinivas has given scores of concerts in his career, giving many jugalbandis with the other legends. One of his moments of crowning glory came not with a Padma Shri or a doctorate but an invitation to be part of "Shakti" band - which is the gold standard for fusion music combining the reigning greats of the day  - John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussian, L Shankar, Vikku Vinaykram. Mandolin proved to be a good addition to the ensemble of the best percussionists and stringed instrument players of the day. The brand "Shakti" created some electrifying music but later diluted itself further by calling a vocalist called Shankar Mahadevan. Shankar Mahadevan's addition proved inimical to the purity maintained by the Shakti group. But that's besides the matter.

Mandolin Srinivas played with his younger brother U.Rajesh and gave him good recognition and respected the Karnatik music traditions. It is both stress-busting and mesmerising to listen to U.Srinivas. He composed many different versions of the leading ragas and also tried to re-emphasize the versatility of Mandolin to play film tunes. One of the albums that I have is a rendition of Ilayaraja music on Mandolin, an absolute treat. Except for Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and AR Rahman in Bollywood, haven't heard many music directors use Mandolin in their BGMs or songs. But in South, KV Mahadevan, MS Vishwanathan, Vidyasagar, Mani Sharma, Mickey J Meyer and SS Thamman have embellished their sounds with strategic and selective use of Mandolin. The key to getting Mandolin enhance the feel and tonality of your music is to use it a pre-note or in the interlude - and you can see why all the music directors I referred to have used it as aptly. Where does Mandolin Srinivas's legacy go? As long as Mandolin is played, U.Srinivas will live on. It is fitting that the instrument lends its name to a legend who made it world-famous. Or poetic that Srinivas got his name surnamed as Mandolin because that is what gave him identity and immortality. All Maestros have expiry date but Mandolin Srinivas lives on.

#Mandolin #MandolinSrinivas #USrinivas #Shakti #ClassicalMusic

"Aagadu" (Telugu) Film Review

"Aagadu" is an alround entertainer starring Mahesh Babu which tries to erase some of the bitterneess tasted at the Box Office by the same producer trio who gave us "1-Nenokkadine". With Sreenu Vaitla, MS Guhan in cinematography and Thaman's techno-trance music on the technicals, the team cast fair and lissome Tamannah, ruling Diva Shruti Hassan in a club song and comedians Brahmanandam, MS Narayana, Vennela Kishore. Apart from a familiiar comic villain Sonu Sood who is a regular fixture in Mahesh Babu films, they cast three musketeers Prabhas Seenu, Raghu Babu and Posani in their career-best performances. The movie sizzles mostly in the 165 minutes of ubiquitous entertainment that moves at lightning speed. The audiences also laugh at all the right places. Yet, something has gone wrong in the film. Is it the story?  Characterisation? Treatment? Heroine? Over-confidence? Dialogue modulation? Lack of novelty? Lack of sentiment? Burden of expectations?

All of that and the fatigue that comes with the familiarity associated with all of Sreenu Vaitla's films. As a director, Sreenu Vaitla seems flawless because he moulds his films in the KV Reddy style of film-making that moves a story forward with all the elements of entertainment that family audiences lap up. But if you see the discography of Sreenu Vaitla after the first five films and compare them with the output of the last four - "Badshah", "Dookudu","Ready", "Dhee" they are the same - a light-hearted romance, a gang of villains, sentiment of family renuion or father-son-brother, hero using Brahmanandam to infiltrate the villain gang and tomfooling them with a fairy-tale ending. That is precisely the story in Sreenu Vaitla's films.

In "Aagadu", Mahesh Babu (Shankar) is a cop who takes revenge on the gang of villains led by Sonu Sood for separating him from his father (Rajendra Prasad) and brother and a lot that follows after that. And then eliminates each one of them in novel ways  - thats the good part of Sreenu Vaitla's screenplay. The story has a picture-perfect ending but takes you through a roller-coaster of entertainment and great comedy that ranges from top-class (like the MEK-inspired quiz show) and sub-standard (the teleshopping ad-inspired advert on Saroja Sweets).

Despite choosing some great jokes (which spare no one from Balakrishna to Chiranjeevi family  to Botsa to politicians and sportspersons) the film lacks freshness in content and treatment. This is where I doubt if the film will have the stamina at box office to beat previous records because as I reiterated in the past, Telugu audience is the smartest when it comes to detecting movies with a deja vu flavor or plot or treatment. While Tollywood doesn't make different films each time, the audience doesn't blindly consume films similar in content. This is the greatest irony of the industry which over-invests in stars and star music directors but under-invests in story-writers. Even if this film is made for the fans of Mahesh Babu, they will be the first to desert the movie after the holiday season ends - thats the cold truth which superstars and mega power stars must realise.

Over 165 minutes, the director goes down the beaten path of entertainment pursued in "Dookudu" - the same childhood days during titles, the romance in pre-interval, heights of comedy, fights galore and the square-off with villain in interval, the item song post-interval and then Brahmanandam's key entry at climax time. Punctuation followed with boring predictability and resemblance to so many films like "Yamudu", "Singham", "Gabbar Singh" and of course, "Dookudu". Sreenu Vaitla's obsession with television shows in igniting comedy out of everything needs to end. He has the commercial sensibilities to take entertainment to the next level without diluting family-wide viewing needs. Unfortunately, he has fallen out on ego issues with writers who supported him till "Badshah" - Kona Venkat and Gopi Mohan. With a new bench of writers, what stands out is the dialogues but not the story outline.

To be fair, there are some highlights in the film. Undoubtedly, there are actors who stand out - MS Narayana (he has the best self-edited lines in the film) who steals the thunder without moving an inch from his seat except in the last scene. And then the three musketeers - Seenu, RaghuBabu and Posani. Rajendra Prasad is under-utilised; a weighty actor like him is reduced to be a poster boy father to Mahesh Babu. The scenes where Mahesh Babu remixes and tells the storylines from his previous films are hilarious and different. The best scene of comedy is the Quiz Show spoof on MEK. All the three musketeers and Mahesh Babu and Vennela Kishore outshine each other with comic voice modulations mimicking TV hosts. It runs for almost nineteen minutes and can get repeat audiences. Sonu Sood, Mumtaz and Ashish Vidyarthi fail to create impact in the film - Sonu Sood salvages a bit in the climax with his own retelling of a Panchtantra story that sort of summarises the story itself. (Maybe thats the source of inspiration for Sreenu Vaitla's creative team). Tamannah seems a misfit in the film despite her bare-all attitude. Shruti Hassan outsizzles Tamannah in one song even if they don't share screen together. One is tempted to think the pairing would have been perfect if Tamannah was restricted to an item song and Shruti was the main lead.

Mahesh Babu, despite all the limitations and fatigue in content, carries the film entirely on his shoulders. He spares no effort in taking charge of every scene where he is either leading the show or insinuating an outcome. His voice modulation is seeing an unprecedented transformation. In "Dookudu" he tries two modulations (Telangana and Andhra accents). In "Aagadu", he tries too many to remember and register. Thats a fatal flaw because the audience need time to process so many modulations and in the end you may remember only few dialogues but fail to acknowledge the effort. In an attempt to make himself a Superman in all departments, his efforts may go waste unless audience repeats to this film. It may well be a costly lesson for all heroes - don't over-invest yourself in one movie unless you plan to retire with this one. Dance movements have been more graceful for Mahesh in the film. Prem Rakshit seems to have done his job well in the three songs that had some choreography to note. Stunts have been many but only one stunt pre-interval has been good - that should have been all there is in stunts thanks to Vijayan. The rest of the stunts actually suck including the costly one shot at Bellary in the opening sequence. With all the modern technology available, today's stunt masters don't seem to get the emotion that accompanied the "dishum dishum" sounding stunts of old times - today's heroes are better at bending limbs and breaking bones but not at getting whistles. Mahesh Babu has already made a statement in "Dookudu" that he is the best in the current crop of actors in range and repertoire of acting and screen-sharing with seniors. In this film he may have overdone his bit that borders on over-confidence. What undermines his efforts is the choice of the plot and the absence of connect with the audience in the form of sentiment. It was sentiment and comedy that made "Dookudu" a blockbuster. By firing on all engines of comedy, director overlooked the role of sentiment in this film.

Thaman's music in his fiftieth film is good in parts but not in the same league. One finds the BGM score reminiscent of "Dookudu" re-recording. While two or three songs stand out for the beat, the picturisation lets the output down. Sreenu Vaitla chooses outdoor setting for both the fast songs in the film which makes it monotonous to watch. Atleast the last song should have got done in a lavish indoor setting or in Chiraan Fort  (his lucky setting for scoring a hit). On the whole, you can watch it once for Mahesh, comedy but the length and the fatigue wear you out in the second half. First half by itself should have been the length in this 165 minutes of reptitive fare. For that it doesn't deserve the top-notch rating.

My Rating: 2.75/5

#Aagadu #Tollywood #filmreviews #MovieReviews #MaheshBabu #TeluguFilms

"Sikindar" (Telugu)/ "Anjaan' (Tamil) Film Review

"Sikindar" had raised unprecedented expectations and got bid for a whopping crore count in Tollywood with Lagadapati Sridhar buying it wholly. The film has Superstar Suriya, reigning Diva Samantha, Yuvan Shankar Raja as music director and a director N Linguswamy who made some of the coolest movies in South. Not any more. "Sikandar" sucks and proves the biggest I-day bore of all movies.

Set in Mumbai with gang-wars as backdrop, the story opens well with a studious Suriya getting out of a train in search of his brother Raju. His enquiries take him to all the folks who are suspected to be involved with his missing brother. It brings him eventually in contact with the right and wrong people who entered Raju's life. Some say he got murdered by rivals, some say he has gone missing. Most people believe Raju Bhai was a do-gooder with a large heart who put his life before buddy Chandu (played by Vidyut Jammwala). Plenty of flashbacks later, the truth comes out - Who is Raju? Where is Raju? Why is his brother Krishna seeking him out? Is it dual role? Or are they the same? The flashback also throws in the glamor of Samantha who exposes herself like never before, more desperate than an item girl. Samantha is the original lover of Raju bhai in the film. We got to infer that since there is no other title justification - "Sikindar" is a sobriquet for Raju Bhai. The saga moves briskly in the first 20 minutes and then halfway in the first half loses the fizz with one of the most hackneyed plots and lazy treatment. The end is in sight  - the unravelling of the villain gang starting from Dileep Tahil, Manoj Bajpai and others - but not before an agonising 170 minutes. It appears director Linguswamy has lost his marbles in presenting a superstar at the peak of his career in different moods and styles. Generally, Linguswamy has created stars out of characters that are rustic at heart and unchiselled bag of surprises. In "Run" he unleashed Madhavan. In "Pandem Kodi" he gave the solitary superhit for Vishal. In "Awara", he gave Suriya's brother Karthi his best shot as a cool dude. But in "Sikindar", he gets carried away by the persona of Suriya and wastes many characters and technical talents in giving one of Suriya's lackadaisical films. Imagine when you had Santosh Sivan, Yuvan Sankar Raja and a starcast like this, you got to over-invest in better storyline and depth in narration.

All we  see is mindless violence, and frames that show Suriya as stylish as ever. He comes out good because he is a natural good-looker. Samantha also carries off her girlish demeanor with ease. Brahmanandam has an act as an unmelodious vocalist but doesn't fire with full impact. Infact, the artist who gets more laughs is the guy who drives Suriya all around Mumbai in his search for his brother. The day the stars realise that it is not important to have gang-wars and item girls like Chitrangada Singh to look heroic, directors have half a chance to make meaningful cinema. But one senses that after the mixed success of "Singham part two" and  experimental debacles like "Maatraan" and "7 Ariyu", Suriya is desperately seeking success. In the march to superstardom and the pointless struggle to retain it, superstars eventually go from hubris to debris. Suriya hoped to see a luck-turn by changing release of his movies from Diwali weekend to I-day weekend. Too bad, this won't work out again. But he has the range of acting, the talent and the patience to re-invent himself better than many other Superstars in Kollywood. At quite a few places, worn out scenes and fatigue in presenting sequences dullen your senses. Otherwise this could have been atleast averagely watchable film. Yuvan Shankar Raja needs to reduce his techno mixes and concentrate on straightening his tunes alone. He has the talent and the gene pool to give great music. Why doesn't he get it? On the whole, a film that tests your patience despite all the respect and admiration we may have for the team that has given us great films.

My rating: 2.25/5.

"Run Raja Run" (Telugu Film Review)

RRR is a classy and crisp film, perhaps the best Telugu film of 2014 so far and must be a trophy film for all the talents associated with it. Sharwanand, the boy next door who debuted as a drug addict in "Vennela" and later starred as a rocket scientist in "Amma Cheppindi" and lastly as a don in "Prasthanam" has hit bull's eye with a winning script and an affable story - a story that combines the genres of action, romedy and revenge drama in a commercial format that will turn many heads in Tollywood. Sujith, a new director, makes a stylish debut inter-mixing many elements of story-telling borrowed from short films, joke books, novellas of crime fiction and action films. But he makes a grand entree' with story-dialogues-screenplay and directing skills.Two gutsy producers offer this film under the banner of UV creations; they literally bankroll the film to emit production values usually reserved for superstars - so rich is the film that also casts a motley gang of artists oozing out talent - Sampath as a maverick cop, Adivi Sesh as an out-of-box-thinking cop, Jayaprakash as a delectable dad with uncharacteristic affection for son Sharwanand and a petite new starlet Seerat Kapoor with cute demeanor but not beautiful by convention. The director wastes little time in introducing characters and establishing their quirks while moving the story at a frequency that oscillates between two parallel narratives - one is a saga of a kidnapping spree in the city by groups wearing masks of the ruling superstars of Tollywood, the other narrative is the lighter, fun-filled version of a romantic track between Sharwanand and Seerat with a track that has an under-current of police machinations and tensions.

These two stories move in enchanting ways giving us a run a minute in unchartered territory - a breakup with a cute girl, a situational comedy with unsuspecting artists, flashbacks that clarify the motives and the messages and a game of Russian Roulette between the hero , the anti-hero and the heroine that goes right down to the wire. The only thing that distracts is the occasional attempts to humorise a situation when actually tensing the scene might have been better. But you realise the director has a funny bone in presenting the story - he digs out wit, romanticises little and weeds out any scene that smacks of cliched treatment. Because of this thinking, concise and no-lazy-thinking, Sujith infiltrates your viewing experience with images and expressions that can make you watch many times over without fatigue. The movie's content appears fresh and yet larger-than-life  - a combination that even ace directors can match upto. In 138 minutes, Sujith showed us that Telugu Cinema can surprise you, entertain you without making a PG version and wow you.

Technically, the film is brilliant in cinematography - most shots are picture-perfect, show the artists especially Sharwanand in fine fettle, do not strain your eyes with awkward movements and angles and leave a lasting impressions. Great work by Madhie in the visual department. The film's alluring appeal, rests largely on the shoulders of music director Ghibran - familiar to Tamil audiences. Ghibran's sound of music certainly has range, class in arrangement, melody and presentation. Though his music seems inspired by the Western influences, there is huge promise and excitement in his output. All the songs elevate it to a status of hummability - and his repertoire of songs with varying lengths and rhythms must get him new fans in Tollywood. "Bujjimaa... is a rarity that haunts you because of the beats and the timbre in a new singer's voice. Ghibran's background score is  uplifting - it doesn't have orchestral brilliance like that of K or Ilayaraja but enhances the  crux of a sequence. Over-instrumentation can be a temptation but it doesn't jar.  Almost all songs are preceded by the instrumental version of the song precursing it - a technique to burn your music deeper into the audience's minds. Ghibran, dear Tollywood fan, remember this name and you  will fall in love with the music more after watching the film's mesmerising song picturisation. What is different about his music is also that the songs do not always follow a typical format - and use instrumentation that sounds novel. That makes the unpredictability more welcome  - in music as well as in the frames back-ended with the music.

The film makes use of in-film advertising subtly with Naturo foods and studio settings provided by Ramoji Film City and Golconda Fort effectively. Quite a few scenes are shot in Golconda Fort, I wonder how the authorities have allowed even the room where Sriramadasu was imprisoned. The climax has a dramatic twist that must not be missed. For Sharwanand, Adivi Sesh and Sampath this film will be a harbinger of new offers. Sampath is intense and comical at times - sure, it will usher in many roles in comic villainy a'la Prakash Raj and Sonu Sood. Sharwanand is in his element and deserves a pat, he improved his screen presence. Content like this is hard to back up on first instincts, so the entire team has to be patted for an effort like this; it energises the audiences who lap it up, gets the cash registers ringing for the producers and equalises the arena for artists and technicians for a while. Sujith must take a bow for redefining how clean, entertaining films can be made, hope he gets a long haul. That he can write dialogues that pack a punch is a bonus.

My rating: 4/5

"Kick" (Hindi Film Review)

Salman Khan returns again in 2014 with a swashbuckler of a film "Kick". The last one "Jai Ho" was a great story remade from Chiranjeevi's "Stalin" about a Good Samaritan who starts a chain reaction of good actions. "Kick" has been in the works for a long time and easily the most awaited film for Salman Khan fans and Eid weekend entertainment-seekers. Remade from a blockbuster Telugu film "Kick" released in 2009, the film was a sensation earlier which created stardom for atleast four people - Ileana D'Cruz who never looked better since, Music Director Thaman who got offers for atleast 30 films after that, director Surinder Reddy who is hailed as the new Red-Bull action film-writer-director and hero Ravi Teja who is the raunchiest, naughtiest star in Indian films - a deadly combo of Dada Kondke and Amitabh Bachchan. Given that background and record, "Kick" had to deliver for Salman Khan who is waiting for a hit after his last film got washed out under fatwas of all kinds. It delivers on many counts.

"Kick" (Hindi) faithfully builds on the original plot of the Telugu film and then alters a few angles here and there - a medico/psychiatrist Jacqeline Fernandez bumps into an aimless prankster Devi Lal Singh (Salman Khan) who loves her. Devi is driven by adrenalin and loves the "kick" of things - he joins and chucks jobs, dates and breaks up and seeks adventures of the kind that even blissed out creatures under the sea don't venture into. Jacqueline loves him and loathes him and soon dates Randeep Hooda, a police officer at her father's behest. She narrates her story to Randeep to pass time. Randeep, in turn, tells his story of a fugitive who is still at large - a "Devil" who hoodwinks him all the time while decamping with ship loads of money. Who is the man in Randeep's life? Is he the same as in Jacqueline's ? The twists in the film take you far from Delhi to Poland and back with hyper-action sequence after hyper-action sequence - that remind you of the dare-devilry of a "Krish" or a "Dhoom" franchise.

What makes the film mostly watchable is the tempo of the plot which is essentially two flashbacks and one forward-moving story. In 148 minutes, the film starts as a fun film, just like the original and gets into top gear around interval time with a dramatic bang. To adapt the original nativity to the Hindi sensibilities, three people worked  on the screenplay including Rajat Aroraa and then Chetan Bhagat was asked to chip in. Atleast twice, Salman Khan asked Chetan to rewrite a better screenplay. His effort to nativise can be seen in few places - one in the interplay between the characters of the heroine's family and second in the treatment of the gang of villains and creation of a few more plot points which give depth to an otherwise frivolous fun film. The raw appeal gets short-changed with deja vu motifs borrowed from "Dabbaang". Comic scenes like the police station where father-son collide  (which could have been over-extended) or the hero reprise as a memory-loss patient would have created a cloudburst of uproarious laughter. There are few sentimental scenes with the kids which is the crux of plot. Instead, we see many scenes which make way for  in-film advertisements for Mother Dairy and NISE Gel - wonder why UTV had to resort to such, not seen this kind of stuff in a long time.

Performances-wise, Jacqueline paired well with Salman although she lacks emotional play. Randeep Hooda gets a meaty role against Salman Khan and remains in the zone throughout. But the surprise packet of the film is Nawazuddin Siddiqi. He gets the loudest snares and the best lines in the film. His swagger, his dangerous giggle preceded by a tongue-lashing sound and his menacing looks leave a lasting impression. Salman's generosity in sharing screen space with one of the iconic actors of our times is rare. Music by Himesh Reshmiya is average, wonder whatever happened to his melodies. Even a song with Nargis Fakshri is wasted in mindless gyrations and noisy rhythms. What elevates the movie though is the exceptional background score by Julius Packam - and one number by Yo YO Honey Singh which comes in the second half. Dialogues are racy and crisp - and many had the original touch, if not better impact thanks to the collaboration of the team which usually writes for Milan Luthria movies. Hyderabadi fans will rejoice that their most-favorite Hindi superstar utters three dialogues in pure Telugu - as a tribute to the Telugu original. Mithun Chakraborty as Salman's father shines yet again - wonder why we are not having enough of him in the role of a hero's father. The original disco dancer shakes a leg with a crow-feet superstar and the screen outcome is hilarious. A welcome trend in Salman's films is the absence of statutory warning for cigarette smoking - it saves three minutes of a grotesque warning and saves millions from undue influence. But why, I wonder was a warning for booze was not given when Mithunda and Sallu drink like fish at a party?

On the whole, a clean and watchable film with paisa vasool action and entertainment built on the bedrock of a blockbuster plot. The originals can't be compared here as both Tollywood and Bollywood have learnt to adapt winner scripts better to native sensibilities. For example, "Dabbanng" the original was remade into "Gabbar Singh" with better comic sensibilities to deliver the biggest blockbuster in Tollywood at that time. "Kick" (Hindi) is fully adapted to the HIndi audience with sentiment, action and comedy. With over 4000 screens, and a long weekend till Tuesday, "Kick" may rake in like never before.

My Rating: 3.5/5

"Drusyam" (Telugu) Film Review

"Drusyam" is an ambitious remake of the original Malayalam film by the same title - which hit national headlines with simultaneous bidding by leading film industries to reckon with - Bollywood, Tollywood, Sandalwood and Kollywood. With Ravi Chandran playing the role of Mohanlal in Kannada, Kamal Hasan in Tamil and Venkatesh in Telugu, expectations soared before the release. As usual, Telugu producers rushed to the fence in releasing the film. D.Suresh Babu backed Sripriya to direct the remake originally made by Jitu Joseph. Sripriya is that sizzling actress who starred in some unforgettable films of the 70s and 80s - "Anthuleni Katha" and "Vayasu Pilichindi".

The starcast is impressive - Venkatesh, Meena, Saptagiri, Kruttika, Ravi Kale, Nadiya and Naresh - and all of them have given great performances except Nadiya and Kruttika who were inconsistent in their performances and sometimes unconvincing. The story has been sensational and revolves around a six-sigma event - a highly improbable event in the way the ending goes.  According to what I read, the story is an autobiographical adaptation by the original director Jitu Josph; it happened to him and his family and hence he approached a producer. After shooting for the first thirty minutes, the producer threw in the towel and in stepped Superstar Mohanlal who backed it to the hilt. "Drusyam" in Malayalam collected over Rs.50 crores and became the first film to cross that kind of a milestone reserved for big-brother film industries of erstwhile AP and Tamil Nadu. The original film runs for two hours and forty five minutes with minimum props and gripping intensity. The current remake runs for almost two hours and fifty minutes. The original film shows Mohanlal in a status of humble economic conditions. The remake shows Venky as a serial entrepreneur and  reasonably affluent farmer-entrepreneur.

To tell the story will be to give away the plot. And to analyse the treatment and faultlines in the story will also unveil the storyline. But we have to make a beginning somewhere and talk turkey. So the story begins with Venkatesh and Meena and their two lovely daughters, one a teenager Kruttika and the other a pre-teenager. Venkatesh runs a cable TV business which goes well into the graveyard shift. His world at work revolves around movies - and he watches them every waking minute at work which starts around noon and stretches till the morning dawn. His assistant Saptagiri helps him out at work and they take the calls from customers at whim. At home, Meena is the boss and runs the household with the daughters and her indulgences in shopping. Its a happy world for Venkatesh and family even if they quibble and crib about the world until one fine day an intruder disrupts the  peace. The intruder who takes lewd video of the teenaged daughter gets tackled in the most appropriate manner when he comes to Venky's home and makes fresh advances against Kruttika.

The crux of the film revolves around how Venky rallies behind his family. What really happened to the boy? Is he dead? Missing? Killed? Action speeds up with the boy's parents, Nadiya and Naresh stepping in. Nadiya is IGP and uses her full force to investigate the matter. Naresh is a doubting Thomas who always feared his wayward son was spoilt and had to end in a mess like this. The biggest support for Nadiya comes from a vengeaful constable of the local police station - Ravi Kale who    was rubbed on the wrong side by Venky. The film goes in a different direction of suspicion, witness-examination and probe into the antecedents of the boy's travel to the village. This part, the cross-examination part and the preparation by Venky in psychologically steeling his family's nerves is the most exciting part of the film. The treatment is more nuanced and works on aspects seldom highlighted in films about the elements of criminality - mind-body coordination, body-language, evidence and its destruction and reconstruction, the art of dodging cross-examination, and the psychology of a crime-implicated person. The ending of the film takes one or two extra turns before it leaves you with lots of food for thought - on how the justice system works in India and what happens when someone were to subvert it.

Surely, the second half throws in a basketful of surprises but the first half lags because the director takes a lazy approach to establishing the characters and their idiosyncracies. Despite a valiant attempt to remake the film, the film's original script seems to have some flaws which can't be overlooked. But if you see the film in its flow, these faults may not be relevant because the treatment of the story takes a different direction but still they are plausible. For instance, on one hand, Venky works in the night shift as a cable TV owner but there is no reason to stay out of home when the whole world is sleeping when you have an Assistant and customer calls are few. If Venky really loves his family so much, as they show later in the film, why does a father of two girls and a loving wife spend his nights out watching silly movies? Not once do they show either Venky or Saptagiri, his assistant taking customer care calls seriously. Secondly, in Malayalam film, Mohanlal has a pitiable economic background but here, Venky has a five-acre plot with a lovely pathway and an opulent house but still cribs when his wife shops or demands an extra ice cream? Third, the police who beckon his family for interrogation do not  check out his vast plotted house even once with sniffer dogs to find out if something's fishy. Fourth, almost every other character in the film uses a mobile phone including the delinquent boy but Venky doesn't use - which world is the director thinking of? If it is cable TV business, why do they show Venky all the time watching latest movies with channel logos shown once or twice? Does it mean that the customers also spend the night out watching the films all night? And not once do we see Venky using a remote while his assistant is shown photoshopping lovely females. Fifthly, the clues and alibis used by Venky during the interrogation - they don't really add up  on closer watch - which is what Nadiya alleges. (For example, no bus ticket  is issued without a date printed). Sixth, the interrogations done in a guest house are unlawful - they even interrogate a child and manhandle the womenfolk. And not once does a lawyer show up anytime during the in-camera interrogations. If watching films like "Ankuram" gives one knowledge about such subtle legal aspects as "habeus corpus", pray, why such a slip up? Seventh, in the Malayalam film, even the cable films watched by Mohanlal are intelligently assembled to stay relevant to the basic plot of the film. But here, they show films for populism - a Pawan Kalyan film here, a Mahesh Babu or a Sobhan Babu film there. But the beauty is why, the hero doesn't know that a naked SIM Card is less dangerous than a SIM inserted into a carbonn mobile phone. Lastly, since the film's perspectives are entirely shown from Venky's angle, enough care hasn't been taken in the characterisation of Nadiya - the mother in her dominates the policewoman in her way beyond the endurance levels of the audience. Which is why, she misuses the system of interrogation blatantly until she pays a price with her post. The ending is quick and brilliant as you leave the hall with a mixed feeling - Can everything be manipulated in the name of love and selfishness?

Performances-wise, Venky and Ravi Kale stand out with contrasting beauty. Venky is shown glamorously even if it is a dull character. The last several films of Venky have been forgettable flops and everytime he experimented in the last decade - "Nagavalli" or "Eenaadu" the audience rejected him. Despite the flaws, this is his best comeback film. It is not perfect film but it is watchable and draws you in despite inconsistencies. There are not many films that Tollywood can boast of in this genre. I didn't get goosebumps watching this film. But I didn't feel bored either. Music by Sharath is good in atleast the two songs. Cinematography by S.Gopal Reddy looks good. Comedy by Saptagiri alone is good the rest do not just fire up. Yes, visuals can be deceiving but to take a tongue-in-cheek approach to the film's title, it should not have been named "Drusyam". "Adrusyam" is better!

My Rating: 3/5.

"Bobby Jasoos" (Hindi) Movie Review

You are Vidya Balan, lovingly called Bobby. You live in Moghalpura, Hyderabad, a pincode that has a density of over 100 people per sq.meter. Narrow lanes, dingy corners, claustrophic separator roads and noisy people. You have a doting mother and two younger sisters but your dad has an eerie coldness to you and doesn't treat you like the eldest child in the family - that regrettable male fixation thing. Still you pick a reputation as a quick-fix spy - someone who noses in on neighbourhood girls with "excusable" traits to help out reluctant bridegrooms or help aunties with "reliable" information. One thing leads to another and you soon become a sleuth to reckon with your own "adda" and assistants. One of them, played by the charming Ali Fazal becomes your unwilling lover and eventual supporter of all risky undertakings. One such undertaking, the riskiest one, comes calling in metastazing instalments from one Anees Khan, played with uneasy grit and intensity by Kiran Kapoor who comes in limousines and oozes out royalty unlimited. What does Anees Khan want? He comes and goes in a jiffy everytime but leaves Bobby with two brown envelopes, one gives cryptic details of the girls he wants Bobby to track down and the other envelope gives a hefty advance sum. The pattern repeats, Bobby succeeds in getting to the "X" or "Y" and the stakes get bigger. Then, at interval time, Bobby gets a doubt. What is happening to the girls she is ferreting out for Anees Khan? What if there is a twist in the tail, for the girls? What follows is a different drama with hugely unintended consequences and a cool ending.

Made by a debutant director Samar Shaikh, "Bobby Jasoos" is not a regular spy-thriller fare. It is a quirky, raw attempt at blending the genres of thriller with emotional drama and desi humour from the street corners of the bustling old city of Hyderabad. If you want to savor the charms of Charminar with a candid camera  that peeks into what a half of Hyderabad are all about - stuck in simple ways, hard living and countless paradigms of male stereotypes and "chalta hai" attitudes while eking out a honest day's labor, "Bobby Jasoos" serves you right. Vidya Balan is one woman too many in the film as she straddles many roles and costumes to come up trumps on her assignments - using innovative and sometimes bizarre ways of ensnaring her "target". There are emotional angles - the father-daughter angle between Rajendra Gupta and Vidya Balan and the romantic angle between Ali Fazal and Vidya Balan which make the film evocative amidst the distractions of a boisterous i-spy game played by Vidya throughout. The film's weaknesses lie in its treatment by Samar Shaikh. Director takes a flippant route to the protagonist's job description and makes mockery of how many folks get fooled by the maverick methods of Bobby Jasoos in getting to her targets - even as she covers humongous ground in uncovering them. She covers her constituency of Moghalpura better than what the local MLA does - covering the range of her target universe with her own sampling techniques - doing a census of an audition for a serial her aunts watch for smoking out the girls of the desired age-group or making elbow room in Spoken English tutorial classrooms to figure out the right birth marks of the girl. All that gets sometimes trite and outrageously irritating - because not a voice is raised in the neighbourhood against such antics.

Be that as it may, the redemption of the film lies in its many strengths - its starcast that is too perfect from Supriya Pathak, Tanvie Azmi, Kiran Kapoor, Vinay Varma (what a cameo by Suthradhar Agency's Vinay!) and the lovely pairing of Ali Fazal with Vidya Balan. Music, especially the BGM and the two cute songs uplift the film's dull moments. One of the songs, composed like a ghazal duet with an unusual rhythm stands out. Dialogues liberally sprinkle the notorious "Hurdu" slang of Hyderabadis with killer effect - "Hau", "Nakkho" abound enough to tickle you. Undoubtedly, Vidya Balan is the greatest strength of "Bobby Jasoos" as she effortlessly delivers a range of emotions with her spontaneity and charm. Neither obesity, marriage nor recent flops deters her confidence as she exudes perfection in her roles of a focused spy or as a misunderstood daughter or as a paradoxical lover. This may be an imperfect spy thriller by Samar Shaikh but "Bobby Jasoos" wins your hearts with positivity and sincerity to the plot. At 121 minutes, "Bobby Jasoos" is a family entertainer that deserves cosmopolitan adulation.
My rating: 3.25/5

Indian Railways - Why the Passenger fare hike was necessary

The Passenger Far hike is a bold decision by the NDA government that remained a work-in-progress by itself in its previous innings from 1998-2004. While the communists have already taken to the roads against the Railways decision (pun intended), the truth must be told.

What is the truth? Except for 2012, there has been no hike in passenger fare since 2002. India's largest employer - the Indian Railways - faces many battles even as it is constrained in capacity and resources. Expenditure on Railways as a share of transport expenditure has dipped from 56 per cent to 30 per cent by the Eleventh Plan. Share of railways in freight transport is down to 36 per cent from 89 per cent in 1961. Despite the highly subsidized passenger fares, passenger transport is losing out to alternative modes of transport - low cost airlilnes and road transport. Traffic is clearly moving away from Indian Railways due to poor quality of service already made worse by capacity congestion and extremely high rail freight tariffs. India's rail freight tariffs are among the highest in the world - perhaps the result of intense lobbying by the road and cargo transport operators. And how did we get there? Because freight revenue is used to cross-subsidize sub-inflationary and politically driven passenger rail fares. Indian passenger fares are 1/4th of those in China, 1/9th of those in Russia, and nearly 1/20th of those in Japan. Adjusted for purchasing power parity, they are at only 37 per cent of tariffs in China, 15 per cent of those in Russia, and 11 per cent of those in Japan. Whereas freight tariffs in China are only 72 per cent of the tariffs in India in nominal terms and 58 per cent when adjusted for purchasing power parity.

Now look at the other travesty. Because Indian Railways struggles to generate surpluses, coupled with the government's fiscal constraints, there has been significant under-investment in rail. Passenger trains, and more of them keep getting added in budget after budget use up nearly 65 per cent of network capacity (rail network that is) but contribute less than 30 per cent of the revenue. Every year, more and more unremunerative routes of passenger trains are added for various political appeasements. All this ensures IR keeps getting sicker by the day. And we now want bullet trains too at subsidized prices. According to Businessworld magazine article, I read a few years back, at current costs, a bullet-train ticket from Mumbai to Delhi will cost anywhere from $1450-1680 per head or thereabouts. And talk about so much pain with a passenger fare hike of 14.5 per cent, literally after a decade. There are more issues at hand that need redressal before Indian Railways gets up and going  - get freight traffic back, stop subsidizing passenger fares, use the network to atleast 40 per cent (we are using less than 15 per cent) and have a collaborative approach to address intermodal transport issues and connectivity. According to one estimate, countries like Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan, Russia and the US which collectively carry more than 90 per cent of the world's rail freight outside India, all now have unitary transport ministries. China too has consolidated all transport ministries except railways. But for now, the free lunch on passenger fares has thankfully stopped. This is one of the best key messages that the NDA government has given out - something that it has ducked itself from taking in 2002.

#Indian Railways #Passenger Fares #Railways #Fare Hike #Bullet Trains

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.

Farewell Dr Manmohan Singh, history will be kinder to you tomorrow.

"Get me the number of Prof. Manmohan Singh", PV Narasimha Rao ordered his PA. His PA didn't know the number. Rao said,"I want him to be called in 10 minutes. Find out from wherever, he teaches at Delhi University." PA found his number by dialling some contacts and connected Dr Singh to Narasimha Rao.

It was 6 am. And Rao came on line to speak to Dr Singh. "Kya Professor Saheb. Bacchon ko Padhaare kyaa? Can you meet me at 9am today?" Dr Singh spoke in monosyllables of "yes" or "no" right from then. He said "yes" to Narasimha Rao's request. The meeting turned into one of India's most dramatic inflection points. For the first time, an RBI Governor whose signature appears on a one rupee note becomes India's new Finance Minister  - and the rest has earned both Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh a place in history books. The duo alongwith a few other hand-picked talents took decisions that transformed the economic landscape of India forever.

Dr Singh credited most of his success and boldness of decision-making to Rao's unflinching support. But when the time came for Rao to bid a goodbye to this world amidst unprecedented machiavellian drama and back-stabbing, Dr Singh, as per reliable sources did not even visit the hospital ward of Narasimha Rao before he passed out. For all the talk of "structural adjustments with a human face", Dr Singh didn't have the courage to bypass Sonia to even call on a person who he always called as his mentor.

Twenty years after Narasimha Rao cherry-picked Singh to India's most prestigious Ministerial portfolio, Dr Singh did a similar gesture in beckoning Dr.Raghuram Rajan to India, to test his erudition, prescience and academic brilliance in the laboratory of the Monetary Policy at RBI. History will judge Dr Singh in different light than the judgements passing on him now in the heat of the bittermost election just as history now sheds kinder light on Narasimha Rao's Prime Ministership long after the suitcase scams and JMIM bribery cases faded into oblivion.

While individual achievements in academics, intellectual prowess and the body of contribution to Economic thought-leadership besides the economic reforms unleashed as FM will take many more years to deep-mine, his ascent to Prime Ministership  has been his finest hour and most fallible moment. If you take the history of most Congress Prime Ministers outside of Gandhi dynasty annointed by a demagogic group of politicians, then Manmohan Singh has taken the brunt of brinksmanship and blindmanships all on himself unlike the rest. Guljarilal Nanda was always a standby PM. Whereas Lal Bahadur Shastri actually broke the back of Indira Ganshi to the point of almost driving her out of India to London because he took no nonsense from anyone, least of all encourage the nepotistic ways of Indira Gandhi.  That leaves Narasimha Rao alone who took on the most umbrageous steps of taming the Gandhi parivar, taking baby steps and later giant strides to thwart the dynastic rule in its shameless march. He was checkmated by a confederacy of dunces and a conspiracy of sycophants. That must have played out heavily in the mind of Dr Singh as he took on the role of 'The Accidental Prime Minister'. He became silent and abrogated the responsibility of the chair of Prime Ministership by being blind to all that is happening under his ecosystem.

He may have avoided the wrath of Sonia and the party colleagues but by becoming a Bakra for someone else's surreptious ways and ruthless pursuit of power without accountability, Dr Singh has earned only shame and sympathy in his last few years. It could be a "Saturn" dasa but his redemption in history can only come after time obliterates his scam-ridden second innings from public memory. If the price of silence to unbridled corruption and loot of national wealth is a tenure to India's third longest-serving Prime Ministership, Dr Singh has earned his place too in history books in more roles than what any son of a humble upbringing could have got. For that, Manmohan Singh gets my toast tonight. If only his personal integrity and scholarship and his crisis-management during the tumult of 1991 and again in 2008 had got a better say than his conscience which remained a mute spectator to the misdeeds of Congress, he would have slept better tonight.

Dr Singh's story reminds me of the quote which sums up what happens when you don't speak your mind:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

A sad story. But as I said, history will judge Dr Singh better than what clouds our recent memory of his achievements.

"Anamika" (Telugu Film Review) /"Nee Enge En Anbe" (Tamil Film Review)

In times of male-chauvinist cinema plots in Telugu and Tamil film industries with kinky moustaches and thigh-slapping bravado, "Anamika" is Viacom's (Network 18) proud entry into the South bastions with a rivetting story based on "Kahaani" that shows Vidya Balan in totally different light after "The Dirty Picture". They picked Sekhar Kammula who has evolved cinematic sensibilities to direct the film and a bankable female star Nayanataara to play the title role of "Anamika". Despite the story's original contours being intact, some axis-shifting changes have been made to nativise the original story.

The original story is of a woman, in her late-pregnancy visiting Kolkata in search of her missing husband. The plot thickens with a stunning, unthinkable climax. It was too sophisticated but the film did phenomenally well bringing laurels to both Vidya, Viacom and Sujoy Ghosh; it particularly did well in markets like China and Hong Kong as these markets welcome unconventional subjects. Given this background, Viacom's choice of Nayanataara in a normal role sucks out the sympathetic chord that enhanced the emotional quotient of the original for reasons best known to the director, the producer and the star heroine. It seems Sekhar wanted bigger challenges for the film. So, the story is straightened a bit, dumbed down for the South audiences with impressive twists and a unique ending that is still unconventional for a vernacular film. Don't want to break the suspense over this thriller of 139 minutes - a unique feat for Sekhar Kammula with a starcast that did a consistently good job throughout except Naresh.

It is Sekhar's luck that such an immaculate team of technicians and crew got roped in for this bi-lingual project and he does a reasonably good job of turning in a watchable thriller with a finish that breaks the female stereotypes. His choice of the Old city of Hyderabad in a cute setting of the microcosm of life amidst rhythmic pandemonium is evocative. Despite a tight script that leaves little room for indulging in Sekhar's famously subtle potshots on current paradigms about life through common people's portrayal, Sekhar registers one or two signature scenes - especially the one in the police station where she is at the receiving end of a callous constable along with others who are used to it. And then, at the kitchen of the hotel where she is staying - where the people are out to help her unlike government servants who are paid to help but won't. Sekhar's strength lies in telling a good story without a rush to impress or embellish - to that extent this is a fine film even if you have or haven't seen the original film. He is also terrific at characterisation, each role is essayed with a precision and nuanced acting that makes the duration of the character's screentime irrelevant. This is Sekhar's greatest under-stated strength which few directors can match.

Vaibhav Reddy, son of director A.Kodandarami Reddy gets a meaty role as the helper policeman who escorts Anamkia in her search for truth. The irreverent hotel manager, the callous constable, and the curious minister Naresh  - all of them are utilised well except that the role of Naresh lacked killer instinct and the justification it needed in the end. Too many questions about his role in the plot were left unanswered. Among the roles that stand out in the film  - the role of renowned theatre actor Vinay Varma as the lusting SI who makes an indecent proposal to find Anamika's husband is intense but short-lived. It is difficult to finess a stage actor to the nuanced performance  packed in by Vinay buyt Sekhar pulls it off. Vinay gives the film's most dramatic "villain" moment and makes an oh-so-soon exit before interval. After him, Pasupathi as Mr Khan gives a standout performance with a variation that may be a few notches below what Nawazuddin Siddiqi achieved in the original. You cannot compare Pasupathi's role with Nawazuddin but he carried the role with all seriousness and intensity that captures the essence of a righteous officer with shades of grey that finally deliver justice. Nayanataara as the silent sufferer who takes on a system steeped in disempowering  the womenfolk is the perfect character played by her in a long time since "SriRama Rajyam". By choosing a role that shows her  deglamourised yet unapologetic for smoking out what she wants in her quest for her husband, she proved her talent goes beyond cherubic smiles and curvaceous dressing.

A word about the technical talents in the film before a word or two about Sekhar. Good to see MM Keeravani haunt you with one helluva song "Kshana Kshanam" that grooves in and out throughout the film's narration. He also composed an arresting BGM for the film with a contemporary appeal that is uncharcteristic of him. This is one of the rare films where his musical arrangements in RR kept pace with his inimitable talent for song-and-dance melodies. Having composed for quite a few films in Bollywood in the past like "Criminal", "Sur" and "Jism",  MM Keeravani  is one of the most under-rated composers in the country, who sadly announced his retirement after "Bahubali" in December 2015. The film's other hero is Marthand K Venkatesh, the editor who shortened the film in Sekhar's format to fit the bill in 138 minutes or so. If the film has defects despite Marthand Venkatesh's editing, they must sit on Sekhar's report card. And these are: Why Sekhar left a few gaps in the plot? Like, who was the guy with a devilish smile and a shooting revolver and why was he killed? What was Naresh's role in the killings? Who was Milan Damji really? Why is Anamika made to look like Bengali houswife in the backdrop of a Dussehra pandal erected by Bangalee Samithi rather than our own "Ammoru"? Questions that were better answered in the original. But if you pass these up as minor flaws in a genre that Sekhar Kammula is not used to handling regularly, then "Anamika" is quite an engrossing thriller to watch. It takes Tollywood to a new high in standards of film-making and investment by studios of repute. "Anamika" deserves to be more widely watched for the effort and class it exudes.
My rating: 3.5/5