Cine Cynic

New Blog URL

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:30:00 +0000

Cine Cynic has moved to a new domain and a new blogging software. Please visit www.cinecynic.com.

Can we all please go to the toilet?

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 03:30:00 +0000

"Where is the restroom?" asked someone during my visit to IIMB in early 2007. That may have been my first encounter of "restroom" usage in the Indian English vernacular. While I honsestly am not a sexuality-ist, my instant reaction had been, "Gay," though I wish it were, "Lame."

That day, I heard several people jumping on the restroom usage reminding me of the "Chamberlain" episode in Seinfeld. That gem of a scene would've played like this.

George: Where is the restroom?
Jerry: What do you need a restroom for?
George: Restroom is now the number one destination in metropolitan India.
Jerry: You know why? Because people like to say "restroom." "Excuse me, do you know where the restroom is?" "I need to go to the restroom." "Where is the restroom? No restroom?"
George: You know it must be impossible for an Indian metropolitan to go to the toilet without asking for the restroom.

The thing is, neither are restrooms yet common nor are the people looking for a place to powder their noses. I don't understand why "toilet" and "bathroom" suddenly lost their servicability.

"Teacher, may I go to toilet?" "Teacher. Bathroom," were such wonderful excuses that I had learnt in school, and I thought they would serve me for the rest of my life. One of the reasons why they lost their sheen might be that groups with both men and women in them have become more common. They are conscious to mention a nature call in the presence of a representative of the opposie sex. But why? Sure, it is understandable when people don't want to excuse themselves for a moment citing a bowel movement, but in the days when the whole gamut of four-letter words are accepted among public coversations of grown-up groups, I don't see why "toilet" should make me self-conscious. Neither calling toilet a restroom nor sugarcoating it are going to change its odour.

Once again, having corrected myself, "restroom" sounds "lame". I pray to the Lord to bless me with enough strength to carry on the tradition of toilet along public coversations.

Harry Potter In The Woods

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:58:00 +0000

"There is a difference between intriguing and fucked-up."

When the body of Katy Devlin is discovered in the woods, Detective Robert Ryan and his partner Detective Cassie Maddox get the case by accident. Rob happens to be the only known survivor of a traumatic mystery that took place twenty years ago in the same woods in Knocknaree. The obvious possibility that the two cases may be connected can not be ruled out.

Every lead leads to a dead end. As they try to dig deeper, long lost memories start haunting Rob. Consequentially, his relationship with Cassie, the one friend that can make his life worth living, strains to breaking point. Detective Sam O'Neill who gets roped in for help is affected in his own way. No life that comes in close contact with the Devlins will ever be the same again. Rob tells us the story because he knows more about both the cases than anybody else and because he by the end that get the most fucked-up.

Ryan has a detached dry humor and little self-worth, and Cassie is the instantly lovable little tough girl next door with her share of secrets. All the main characters remain intriguing even after the novel ends. There are a number of sub-plots and some of them like in life do not reach their end within the novel and we are aware that they won't end well when they do. While the protagonists are warm, the cold ways in which they end up treating each other left me deeply hurt by the end of the novel. So much so that I didn't want the novel to end, in a hope to avoid the impending tragedy, even though it is already a very long novel.

Tana French makes a very impressive debut with In The Woods. The first person narration isn't always enchanting, but Ms. French holds it together for a complex character slowly disintegrating. Her second novel, The Likeness, in which Cassie gives the first person narrative now tops my to-buy list.

A very long time after finishing the novel, I had this sudden silly thought that is not so silly. There are a few parallels between Rob, Cassie and Sam, and Harry, Hermione and Ron. It may or may not be a coincidence, but that doesn't take away any sheen off the story.

Image Source: Tana French Official Website. Buy it on Amazon.

My Last Words For Now

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:43:00 +0000

I can't immediately recollect the last time I wrote something in such a hurry. The current reaction time is nineteen milliseconds less than the last time I had been pinged by a girl on Gtalk. You must understand this desperation to say my last words and more importantly forgive me for its unintelligibility if I am still alive tomorrow.

You see I avoid reading newspapers and watching news as much as I can. Not just because they are depressing but because they make me supercilious about my nonexistent writing skills. But with the Indian media telling the Indian masses that India is considering last week's Mumbai attacks as Indian 9/11 two things are happening. Everybody is blabbering non-stop about war during eating and smoking breaks without eating nor smoking so much so that I'm putting on pounds and breathing tobacco-free air that smells dsgusting. And every Indian friend living outside India is irresponsibly sharing testaments about terror on Google Reader so much so that I'm afraid I'll be fired if not laid off because I read every item in my Reader even though I don't read every mail in my office inbox.

I have never paid much attention to politics and foreign policies and superpowers and followed my mother's advise to stay away from the Police. Suddenly I'm hearing that 1 country is threatening to nuke 2 country and that 2 country is all ready to pre-emptively nuke anyone. This is news because neither 1 nor 2 is USA and is bad because nuking apparently is not the anglicization of Telugu's nUkaDam but something to do with nuclear bombs and it makes me sad because I have watched some documentaries in the past that showed that nuclear bombs can clear new cities better than Clinic All Clear can clear dandruff.

But why are they doing this? Apparently Pakistan bred terrorists to send them to India and India trained terrorists to help LTTE and LTTE wants Sri Lanka to lift some ban. Don't ask me why because I too read it somewhere. These new recruitments and training sessions went on in some state of peace until recently. With the current economic slowdown, they worried about cutting costs and decided that unloading their ammunition and curbing new recruitments by cutting down global population would be the right idea.

Forget all this. I've never considered myself a patriot and felt certain that I would rather risk a flight to a foreign country than a fight for funny causes that didn't fit my fettle. Now suddenly I feel too paralysed to even take a piss. Either terrorists who are in their cost-cutting phase or the countries which are gearing up for war or the masses who are following the media which is reporting strenuously about the other two are going to get me. Or something like that.

So what I can think of as my last words for now are these:

ఒకప్పుడు గాంధీ, తరువాత గాన్దీయులు, తరువాత గాంధీగిరి మీద సినిమా. ఇప్పుడు గూండాలు, గాడిద కొడుకులు, గన్లు, గందరగోళం.

Once Gandhi, then Gandhians, then a movie on Gandhigiri. Now gondas, sons of donkeys, guns, chaos.

An Explanation to Impersonal Hatred

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:30:00 +0000

We have seen the above photo in various resolutions so many times over the last few days that it looks familiar by now. Is there a deeper reason that explains the familiarity?

I may be dumb or my bum may have become numb having sat in front of the TV motionlessly for days, but I read too much from the photo to my comfort. Medium height, dishevelled hair, boyish face, tee shirt with VERSACE printed across, a large knapsack, a wrist-watch on the left and some sacred threads on the right, six-pocket trousers, light sneakers. Are the terrorists sending us a message? Erase the gun and that could have been any of my friends.

The thought is scary and... sane? Half the story.

Before you write me off, visit any of the recent news sites where readers are allowed to comment and return back. You'll have seen a number of comments blaming all muslims, demanding their extermination, and other horrifying thoughts. They complete the story.

Who are these readers? People that we daily come across, meet, know. Again, one among us. In a fit of blinding rage, their minds find solace in an unreasonable thought that is by no means a solution. Some even write the thought in their minds in permanent marker. The man in the photo may have been one such. Thy myriad ways in which minds react to trauma is a mystery.

I will venture into one explanation. Problems make people restless and we would rather have a convenient solution, call it an approximate solution and deceive ourselves that it fits, than try harder for the right one. Consider how most investigations are done. Gather the clues, round up the usual suspects and zero in on the most probable. They work because the judgements are handled by an impartial entity. Contrarily, extremist activities capture the culprits and execute them, both faultily and mindlessly.

When I come across a problem, what do I do? Take the known parameters, construct a set, and then? Is it rational to call the set as the solution set while it still is a superset of the solution set? Let us not forget the quantifiers.

The terrorist believes that his kith and kin and ancestors have been destroyed by someone from this region, kills everyone from this region. The angry reader knows the terrorist is a muslim, so demands killing all muslims. Both are in a limbo of ignorance about the other and identify each other with a larger group that they misrepresent. A blurred image is better than a blank image and an answer sheet with a hundred misspelt words are better than a blank answer sheet mentality. Any half-witted smug sumbitch would have called both "lame".

The sadder side of the story is man's obsession with what he thinks is the solution. That mis-solution is so intoxicating that the problem no longer means anything. How many who are convinced with the solution think about its side-effects or even understand the problem?

Lesson to software developers: If the latest release of your application is bug-ridden, you better delay and ship the solution only after it has become bug-free.

Movie Review: Der Untergang

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Traudl Junge of Munich became the secretary of Adolf Hitler in 1942. She recounts the Führer's final days (20th April to 30th April of 1945) in his Berlin bunker at the end of World War Two.

The Führer is shown as a man close (or beyond) to breakdown. Blinded by his passions and his beliefs, he chooses to abandon reason after hope has abandoned him.

Bruno Ganz, the legendary Swiss actor, becomes Adolf Hitler. He gives a virtuoso performance, pushing his Himmel über Berlin, Der high along my must-watch pipeline. Alexandra Maria Lara is very believable as the young secretary trapped by her curiosity and inability to return to her hometown and confused about where fate will take her. She's very well-cast. There are several other memorable characters... Eva Braun, Mrs. Goebbels, Prof. Dr. Werner Haase and Peter Kranz. A good ensemble cast. Nervousness, helplessness, hopelessness, desperation... you can find these in each of the characters.

Rather than using the demoniacal image that Hitler will continue to enjoy forever, Oliver Hirschbieger attempts to portray him as a failed inhuman human.

Based on Traudl Junge's own book and other historical facts, Untergang, Der remains dispassionate throughout. Watch the movie for a more human perspective of the Führer and the Nazis.

This movie review has been moved from my old archives elsewhere.

The Joke Books Called Indian Newspapers

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:15:00 +0000

Indian newspapers have been around for a very long time. Some of them are even older than the Banyan tree behind your grandmother's house in the village. While the tree gives shelter and reduce pollution, what worth do the newspapers have? When I read a forwarded article from The Newyorker or The Guardian, I wonder when one of our own could get there.

Consider the example of the Times of India, for once without rolling your eyes that another fellow takes a cheap shot at them. On the 6th of Nov, the front page covered the results of the historic US Elections. "Rosa Parks had to sit for Martin Luther King to March. King had to march for Barach Obama to run. Obama had to run for our children to fly." Forget understanding its significance, but how many of the newspaper readers may have even heard of Rosa Parks? Now that could have been pasted from an article on the web.

Below the headline was a photograph of Barack Obama kissing his wife, Michelle! I'm not some moral Police to cut the word 'shit' from the subtitles or say 'no' to a photograph of a couple kissing. But when the headline talks about "our children" (which is actually American children), you would think that it has more to do with nurturing children than making them. The photograph on the top-right corner with Barack Obama hugging his daughter should have been picked.

Before we even raise the bar too high and complain about the minimal traces of critical essays, the usual news reports, their content and their presentation are to be seriously questioned. The current scenario centres around sensationalism, entertainment and enticement. In the above example, the third factor must have been what the newspaper counted on. This is definitely a working model considering that the media industry in India is thriving while most newspapers in the rest of the world are laying off a large percentage of their employees. But our newspapers are also rapidly losing credibility.

Half the content is from various credited and uncredited sources. Half the content is loquacious bawdry yarned around either a Bollywood star's slim legs or a Hollywood starlet's unbridled bosom, both flicked and uncredited. On a related note, why is the 'Entertainment' section called so, even on the Internet? Minissha Lamba sharing her most embarrassing moment or Tara Reid caught on candid camera with a wardrobe malfunction may be entertaining, but have we dug ourself deep into the trench of atrocity to be entertained by the undeworld extorting money from Shah Rukh Khan and the slayings of Jennifer Hudson's immediate family? How many readers may have even heard of these names? I bet that a majority of the urbanites, for whom these are 'covered', are too preoccupied with the cleavage to notice the name of the person under discussion.

An old teacher of mine used to tell us that he bought newspaper to use it when his grandchildren soil the flooring. Cheaper than other paper.

These are not the kind of articles that I would want my kids to read. These are not the kind of articles that I would want any kid to read. A valuable suggestion is to segment the market and target various sections of the readers separately. A newspaper only for kids is a wonderful idea that has every reason to succeed.

What a newspaper needs is lofty ideals and a good Chief Editor with a vision and a holistic view about what his or her newspaper represents. It is not just the state of newspapers but that of news itself. With the proliferation of 24x7 news channels and bulkier newspapers, some British analyst conducted a survey and concluded that there are only three C's in Indian News: Crime, Cinema and Cricket. I'm digressing.

Image Source: The Times of India, 6th Nov, 2008.

Movie Review: Flavors

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Mr. are Mrs. Gopalkrishna come to USA for their son's marriage with a white woman. They are strangers on a missoin here, making a whole-hearted attempt to welcome the new culture that their son has decided to marry. Mr. Gopalkrishna believes in his son; he only wants to hand over a parcel to his superintendent's son and to read a newspaper. Mrs. Gopalkrishna is anxious; that her bahu might divorce her son like her (bahu's) mother.

Radhakrishna (Rad) and Jenni (bahu) are getting married. Rad is busy with the last days of his job (before honeymoon), helping his newly-fired friend, and seeing to it that his parents and Jenni get along well. Jenni is busy with her marriage preparations and trying to assure her in-laws.

Nikhil Sastry and Sangita are a newly married couple. Nikhil just got fired and he knows people will respect only those who have a job. Sangita flew to USA after marriage; all her days here are alike.

Kartik and Rachna live together virtually. He lives on the East Coast; she on the West. To add to their distance, she just got introduced to Ramana Dasarakottapalli through official channels.

Vivek, Ashok Mittal and Jas are on the bench. Vivek is infatuated by his once classmate in India. Ashok and Jas are waiting for that one brilliant idea which will make them millionaires. Chandramukhi aka Candy is their man of the house.

The whole cast performs a great job. Veterans Ranjan Srivatsav and Bharti Achrekar (especially in the saas-bahu conversations) steal the show with their brilliant portrayal of a happily-married-forever Indian couple.

Flavors is a heartwarming movie, the best crossover movie I've watched till date. All the characters are very believable and easy to identify with. The observation of the director is evident across all the minute moments and the carefully-crafted dialogues that make the movie a treat to watch. Screenplay and editing are commendable.

If you're looking for an interesting story, go elsewhere. If you want to see real Indian (not filmi) characters in a short (less than two hours) feelgood movie, see this. Again and again. There is not a single dull moment here.

This movie review has been moved from my old archives elsewhere.

Movie Review: State Rowdy

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000

What begins as a case against Phanindra Bhupati accused of murdering a Vice-chancellor (SP Nagamani Devi's husband) and a student, soon turns out into a war against powerful evil forces.

Inspector Prudhviraj dons the get-up of State Rowdy Kalicharan in his attempt to checkmate Narendra Bhupati (a business tycoon) and Bankamatti Bhaskara Rao (a wannabe Chief Minister).

The movie is primarily driven by its intricate plot. However it's one of the most 'complete' (masala) movies to have ever come out of the Telugu film industry, replete with action, comedy, romance and sentiment. A notable achievement is that both the heroines and all supporting characters (including comedians Satyanarayana and Sudhakar) have a vital role to play, or are at least used as props (in the case of Jyothi Lakshmi, Jaya Malini and Allu Ramalingaiah).

After Khaidi (1983) brought Chiranjeevi an action-hero image, State Rowdy (1989) established his mass image he still has to this day. His style (pAta rojulu marchipoyArrA?) and charisma brought him closer to many more millions. While the movie moves on his shoulders throughout, the remaining star-studded cast does an adequate job.

B Gopal's direction is far more impressive than in his later faction movies. So are Paruchuris' dialogues despite some clichés like, "nuvvu Inspector Prudhvi lAgAkAdu, State Rowdy lAgA rAvAli."

While songs in B Gopal's movies have always been more like speed-breakers of the plot, they are a treat to watch in this movie. Chiranjeevi and Radha were a rage for their steps in those days, which many times bore an inevitable influence of Michael Jackson's break-dance.

Tunes ranging from "arere yamuDikine moguDinirA...", "One two three...", "rAdha rAdha..." to "chukkala pallakilo..." are still refreshing to hear. While the lyricists (some songs have the unmistakable signature of Veturi all over them) have done a good job, the credit goes to Bappi Lahari for letting them remain meaningful unlike today's celebrity non-Telugu speaking music directors.

The movie is a complete and yet a no-nonsense movie. I recommend it to everybody. It has a very high "repeat value".

This movie review has been moved from my old archives elsewhere.

Raghavan: Not Quite the Police Procedural

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:30:00 +0000

There are a couple of good things about Gautham Menon's Raghavan, that Telugu dubbed version of Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu.

One. When Kamal Haasan makes a movie about psychopathic serial killers, the subject, hopefully, gets more attention than when Simbu (Manmadhan) does. There are so few movies about serial killers, not psychos, it makes me wonder what the one-billion strong population is up to if not able to produce even a few a year. I feel that Shankar's Anniyan doesn't strongly qualify as a movie about a serial killer.

Two. Unlike Gharshanaa (Telugu version of Kaaka Kaaka), this was dubbed and not remade. Though Gharshanaa itself is a well-made movie, I often hear that Gautham and Surya had done a much better job. In Raghavan's case, thanks to Dasarath's dialogues, not a lot is expected to have been lost in translation.

I knew nothing about the movie and had few expectations. Though it sounds morbid, I was pleased to find that the movie is about serial killings. I was again pleased to find that a large part of the movie was to take place in NY. Apart from these, the movie falls short of all the hype. I thought Raghavan could've been that nice Police procedural, but I'll have to wait longer.

The first thing that struck me was the cruelty of oldage. No doubt Kamal Haasan has grown old. But when you see those sagging bags below the eyes, you realize that facelifts and botox injections can't perhaps help even the rich people in hiding their age. So unfair.

The introduction of Raghavan (the titular character) is lacklustre. For a DCP (Crime Branch), establishing his courage is far less interesting than establishing his shrewdness and his wisdom acquired over years. On the other hand, the murder of Anand Raj's daughter that forms the crux of the movie is aptly shocking. It is quickly impressed upon the audience about Raghavan's solitary life, his instinct for smelling buried bodies, and his past. In a way, it felt as if Raghavan takes off where Gharshanaa ends (in the Tamil version). You get the revelation about his past now? But Gowtham failed in exploring Raghavan's solitude unlike in the "prequel", surprisingly, when Kamal Haasan is the kind of actor you would want to pull off such stuff.

While the similarities between the murder of Anand Raj's daughter and those of various women in NY are clear, the quintessential link between them, namely the murders of Anand Raj and his wife, are vague and desperate. The investigation leads Raghavan in the right path, of course, but sadly not all evidences obtained from the crime scenes nor the victims are utilized for corroboration.

The self-proclaimed intelligence of the serial killer is highly questionable, and what is with him swaying like that during his first encounter with Raghavan? A serious parody of Anniyan? The latter half of the movie, after the crimes have been solved, is more of a drag to bring the hero and heroine closer. Instead, the first part should have been stretched further, and the investigation tenser.

Blame it on all the SPB's music shows I've watched, but he now sounds very repetitive while dubbing for Kamal Haasan. The social consciousness that so often bursts out of his dialogues appears to be more of his own than the dubbed character's.

Movie Review: Happy Days - Romanticizing College Life

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:45:00 +0000

First posted on Desicritics on 12th October, 2008.

Happy Days is the only Telugu hit in over a year. The people involved with the movie are still basking in its success, giving interviews and appearing in various TV shows. In an interview before the release of Happy Days, its director Sekhar Kammula said that he was struck by the absence of a genuine Telugu college film in the last decade. Surprise, because for over eight years all the South Indian film industries have been churning out teenage love stories, usually set against a college backdrop. It all started with Teja's Chitram and K Vijaya Bhaskar's Nuvve Kavali becoming trend-setters in 2000.

People hoped that Sekhar meant something more than a love story by a college film. More so because he decided to "romanticize college life" according to that interview. Though mistaken as a classic director, Sekhar is laudable for the sensitivity with which he handles his characters. Only four movies old, he has carved for himself a distinct name especially among film critics.

Sadly, his attempt to romanticize resulted in romance almost exclusively. The only major differences are that most of the scenes of the movie are set in an engineering college and instead of one pair there are four pairs here. Those who've embraced the movie have argued over and again about the inevitability. "Do you want to simply see students attending classes or fighting over college politics?" they asked.

Do they have a point? Are romance and politics the only noteworthy features of college life?

I tried to look back into my own college life. Unless one counted discussing the tumultous love lives of friends of friends and giving word of mouth publicity to acquaintances who contested in elections, there was neither romance nor politics in my college life. What else then?

Freedom. To many if not most students, freedom is the condition that intoxicates them time after time. Depending on the oft-changing priorities, the young minds indulge in various activities. This, in fact, continues long after college days until people somehow "settle down".

Some try out a wide range of hobbies, zero in on one of them, and pursue it with a rejuvenated passion. Some network incredibly and devote a major part of their time to arranging college festivals. Some get addicted, say to the Internet, and play truant stretching the rope till it snaps. Some, to their own surprise, discover a love for their career paths which had been initially chosen under parental and/or peer pressure. Some do a little of everything. Everybody invariably spends time in what are called "fart sessions" to varying degrees. The pleasurable activity not only binds new bonds, but also shapes perceptions about topics which otherwise would have not occupied any space in their minds.

Underlying these umpteen activities is a gestalt of confusion and uncertainity that resurfaces every now and then and sharply towards the end of the phase. Have I wasted all these years? Should I have done it differently? Am I good enough to survive the harsh future? Will I make it? It may take years for them to appreciate that they've come out wiser, having unconsciously learnt lessons that serve a lifetime.

These are all aspects of college life which it is possible to sketch using stereotypical characters. And they are as interesting as romance or politics for a movie to be made about.

Sekhar too in this movie used stereotypes: the confused boy, the studious boy, the nerd, the playboy, the tomboy. It is just that all of them had their first loves as their major complications. Another great opportunity wasted.

To Leave or Not To Leave

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:30:00 +0000

First posted on Desicritics on 7th October, 2008.

A year and a half ago, particularly inauspicious planetary positions conflicting with my time of birth have made me blurt out "Pune", in a choice of destination between Chennai and Pune. I should have stuck with my old and old-fashioned Tamil da's and dei's. Today, when a PMC bus conductor gives me a ticket, it becomes all the more painfully clear.

My grandma used to tell me in my childhood that nobody can cheat an educated man. She remains unhappy of not having "higher education", and I figure she will be unhappier if I told her that it didn't matter. I have what she considers "higher education" and am cheated daily by those who don't have them.

I fell in love with Pune when I reached here: the slightly sweet cuisine in the over-crowded restaurants, the vibrant art scene reverberating in the newspaper supplements, the trekking destinations all of which seem the same, the coldness of winters that forced new jerkins against my body, and the mysterious women wearing colorful masks outdoors.

I forgave the auto-driver who threatened me with dire consequences, the Pune drivers who have what is called "traffic nonsense", the pothole-ridden road which gave me my worst accident making me bed-ridden for months, and started calling the apartment I live in "home".

When I see the bus-ticket with Marathi letters and numerals, I'm reminded of my foreignness. The conductor doesn't reply to my enquiry about the ticket's cost, nor does he return change. I love the auto-drivers now, especially the eight-seater guys. Not only do I get a seat, free banter in Marathi or Hindi, and preferential stops, I also have an idea how much the journey is going to cost.

Not so with the buses. Yesterday it was six rupees, the day before only three. On most days, it is five. Today was a particularly bad day, so ten. I once asked a conductor about these rates, and he assured me that the rates were changed only that morning and suggested I walk towards the front, because my journey is only two bus-stops long. Who am I to argue that? He is in that line of business and is the most-informed.

You might wonder whether I don't have problems worse than PMC buses. Until recently, PMC harrassed residents in my area in the name of laying roads for the Commonwealth Youth Games. This lasted nine months. All they did was dig them, let people fall in this pothole and that, and finally fill them up with cement or tar, whatever they could lay their hands on. I hope they didn't bury anybody in the potholes.

Then there is MSEB. We have no power for hours, sometimes half-days at a stretch. First, they blamed rains. Then, the roads. Now, it varies from the price of the power to the absence of engineers. However, we now have power failures only for a couple of hours a day. Thank you, MSEB.

Had this been any other city, I would have filed complaints in the respective departments and written publishable rubbish to the newspaper editors. I know that might not be of much use, but it has the advantage of assuring me that I've done my duty. In Pune, thanks to a gentleman called Raj Thackeray, I keep mum and inaudibly mumble desperate nothings. It has been
months since he and his sena have chased out thousands of blue-collared workers from the city. But I'm constantly reminded that I could be next, along with the other south Indian "immigrants" making a living here.

I am thankful for the feeling of a second-class citizen; there is a chance I might not have experienced that feeling in any other Indian city. The new city commissioner is especially strict, what with his first priority being to remove the masks off the women's faces. He wants as uniform tans as possible.

Now I must think if I should shift to Chennai, or even better, Hyderabad.

Crappy Days

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:30:00 +0000

... crappy days... crappy days...

That is how I would describe my college days when compared to Sekhar Kammula's Happy Days. Not just me, many of my friends who've had very eventful lives might describe them that way.

None of us got to sit beside a beautiful girl on the day of our counselling, perhaps because there weren't name tags to the chairs which we could've rearranged. Our auditoriums were larger, counselling sessions spanned over four days, and parents sat beside us. Come to think about it, we were all so immature we might've hid our palms between our legs (pun unintended) if not inside our pants, rather than place one of them assuringly on a girl's shaking palm. On second thought, change the tense to present.

We had very mild ragging sessions, and our seniors, like us, were too diffident to rag girls, forget boys and girls together. Even when they did, they weren't daring enough to cut anybody's hair or throw them in a pothole filled with muddy water. They would apologize profusely if they ever made accidental physical contact. Well, they were the law-abiding kind without much concern for higher moralities nor future friendship bonds. That also ruled out going around beating boys with hockey-sticks. Freshers were also law-abiding. We didn't go to bars nor drove cars. Not yet.

There were so few girls, some of us later feared that the movie Matrubhoomi was about our college. Those too were far from the dazzling kind. I'm sure all of them together might have received fewer compliments of the, "nuvvu ivALLa chAla andangA vunnAvu," or any of its umpteen variations less times than Madhu in the movie got from Chandu.

One of the English professors was young and beautiful, more beautiful than Kamalinee Mukherjee. She was married. Not to someone who looked like Mahesh Babu, but to someone who looked like Superstar Krishna after getting old and bald. Still, she never left her pallu flying all over the front-benches, nor was she heard to be liberal with flirts, forget über-liberal.

Students were known to sweat blood, despite having long lists of accomplishments, but few ever became secretaries. And our college wasn't flush with funds to give any secretary stylish buggy-like cars. Seniority often implied losing or renouncing bicycles and thumbing rides to college.

Even after growing into smart, sensible and rich men, none of the students I know ever grew the balls to say, "nenu chiTikeste e ammAyainA paDAlsinde" (or whatever). Even when drunk. The college stars were often overheard bemoaning, "What is the use of being a (Quidditch) star when all the nice girls are taken?"

Our days were filled with going to classes, doing assignments, preparing and writing quizzes. Even when we get nostalgic and drunk, those are still not times we could sweep away in a two-line verse of a montage song. That formed the majority of the time of the majority of our college days.

On second thought, change the tense to perfect. Throughout.

One more thing. Though their vocabulary has significantly shrunk, even those with the most stylish accents (learnt over years in foreign lands) still speak Telugu like Telugu.

One more. Heck! there are many more. I can't relive all those crappy moments again.

DVD Review: Remember the Titans

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0000

First posted on Desicritics on 28th September, 2008.

"Based on a true story" is one note that tunes our minds to suspend disbelief more willingly than we normally would. We have come to accept that truth is stranger than fiction, at least when books are written or movies made about them. As an outsider from a different place and time, I have no idea how true Boaz Yakin's Remember the Titans remains to the original events. The reality may have been harsher, definitely less cheesier.

In 1971, Alexandria, Virginia, blacks and whites still referred each other as "they" in public and worse indoors. It was easy to distrust a fellow human based on his or her appearance. A new court order, to everybody's dislike, forcefully desegregates the T.C. Williams High School. I like the movie already. There are wonderful movies like Paul Haggis' Crash, but they are set in a period where racism has already been acknowledged as incorrect, at least politically, unlike here.
Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), a black, is hired as head coach for the school's football team to replace Bill Yoast (Will Patton). The onus is on him to show what a coach, black or white, is to his team and the town. One "mistake" might get him fired; it had happened before. Yoast doesn't want to play second fiddle, but reluctantly complies to overlook the future of the white football team that was under him. Two football coaches and two teams. One black, one white each. To win as one team is their goal. The team comes together by the end of the camp, but there are more conflicts, some of them appearing only after a previous one had been overcome and with a potential to erase their previous achievements.

What is fascinating to see is not how Boone inspires and bonds the team, nor how Yoast sacrifices his cherished dream for the sake of the greater good. The young, adrenaline-filled players quickly realize that they are on the brink of changing history. They learn what it is to be human, "to trust the soul of a man rather than the looks of him." Here is where Remember the Titans succeeds in giving us hope. Gerry Bertier, the captain of the team, e.g., willingly loses his girlfriend, his old best friend, his mom, and his community to stand up for his newly-learnt principles. He wins them all back again, and it is not very surprising.

People distrust another race only because of a misplaced fear of the unknown, because of how they have been brought up. Another wonderful example is Sheryl Yoast, the assistant coach's nine and a half years old daughter. She is the first to change, from telling Boone that "the coach is busy" to telling the players, "Y'all are acting like a bunch of sissies!" She does what the adults she looks up to do. Hayden Panettiere steals every scene she is in with this character.

At the end of the movie, I am the little man jumping out of his seat clapping. I rate it above Shimit Amin's Chak De! India. With very well-crafted characters in a formulaic genre, this movie deals with a greater issue that cripples mankind to this day.

Remember the Titans was released eight years before today.

Taare Zameen Par - Is Every Child Special?

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0000

First posted on Desicritics on 31st August, 2008.

Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par is a wonderful movie, but for its tagline. "Every child is special," has now become part of the Used-Taglines-List which has been growing with each movie. I will wait for the day when our film-makers no longer feel compelled to contribute to the list.

If you think about it, Taare Zamee Par is about a special child in various senses of the term. Dyslexia is Ishaan Awasthi's curse and also his gift (if we go by the Davis Dyslexia Association International). Ishaan's gift, in a more direct sense, is painting. That gift makes him prodigious, not just special. The movie proves the specialty of that child to the rest of the world, not just to his parents.

A movie that fits this movie's tagline is yet to be made. That movie would be about a normal child without disabilities nor special talents, a child who is not specially abled either in the literal or in the euphemistic sense, and if things need to be made worse, is plain mediocre. But then, how will it really work? It perhaps won't.

"Every child is special," is a trite remark that we are all obliged to believe. It has been so often used, without meaning it, that we don't stop to think if it's true, nor to think if we believe in it. Even if someone stops to think, they are haunted by guilt and fear that proving it, justifying it, rationalizing it, or even questioning it may be heretic.

There is a proverb in Telugu: kAki pilla kAkiki muddu. A baby crow is special to the crow. Not to every or most or many crows, but to the parent crow. Children are special to their parents. To the rest of the world in most cases, especially to the parents of other children, they are simply other children.

That's alright. Every child need not be special to everybody; adults are not. Though it would be nice to have more, any person needs just one other person to make them feel special.

DVD Review: Taare Zameen Par

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:30:00 +0000

First posted on Desicritics on 9th Aug, 2008.

The DVD of Aamir Khan's Taare Zamee Par hit the Indian stores recently. Aamir wrote in his blog that Walt Disney, which bought the distribution rights in U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Canada, will however take another three more months to release in these countries.

In school, I had a classmate who could never read without making funny mistakes. He drew pencil sketches and painted better than anybody else in the class. None of the students and teachers were mean to him. I confess, however, to have laughed at him during most reading sessions along with other students. I now wonder whether he was dyslexic. Dyslexia, the inability to learn to read, is surprisingly common and does often go undiagnosed.

Ishaan Awasthi is an eight-year-old boy with a vivid and peculiar imagination, and with a "crippling" disability to learn in the traditional manner. This disability—which some of the audience might guess as a textbook case of dyslexia—alienates, torments, punishes, frustrates and ultimately pushes the young soul towards suicide.

This takes place in a gradual progression over a period of 150 minutes and is something that we won't complain about. How the boy gets rescued and his happiness restored forms the rest of the story. Filled with vibrant colors and well-used CGI, Taare Zameen Par is a movie that keeps our hearts heavy even days after watching it.

Darsheel Safary has a potential to become a great actor. Apart from pulling off difficult scenes like holding back tears from spilling out of his brimming eyes, it is his understanding of Ishaan's character that is most commendable. Sachet Engineer as Dada is good too. A big brother who is protective, supportive, but mostly helpless owing to his own young age is a very realistic and well-played character.

Personally, having a soft corner for mother-child relationships, Tisca Chopra made a special impression. She provides solid support to the movie as Maya, Ishaan's mother, making us feel the plight of every loving but concerned mother, without going overboard. Darsheel and Tisca were able to extract copious amounts of water from my eyes in every scene they missed each other (which is the entire second half).

Aamir Khan donned the hats of director and Ishaan's god-sent teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh. While directing, he was able to use his own experience as an actor to milk out memorable performances from the cast. I only wish that someone else played Nikumbh. However well Aamir might have acted, I could sense the undeniable presence of a star power, especially glaring itself through the hip costumes. An actor without such star presence, who could look more like a teacher, would have filled us with hope that there are teachers in our schools who care.

Full credit goes to Amol Gupte and Deepa Bhatia. It is their brainchild, their labor of love. The couple shared the roles of writer, creative director, researcher and editor.

The movie has its cheesy elements but is still very original, starting with its theme concerning a dyslexic child. It succeeds on a very important level in that it makes us think, not just feel nostalgic. My only complaint is the movie's tagline, but let us take that next week.

Very Much Without Verisimilitude

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:30:00 +0000

First posted on Desicritics.

Last week, I pondered about the director's need to research about a subject that is an important aspect of his or her movie. Extending that thought process, I feel that verisimilitude is a quality that lacks in most of our movies.

Everyone is doing a good job with railway stations. But take a police station, for example. I have only had the opportunity to see them from outside so far, but the friends who have been inside assure me that they are nothing like what they show in our movies. Walls are not painted in red on the lower half, and white/off-white above. Cells are not always visible from the first room where most of the cops sit.

This was perhaps true about stations in the olden days (pre-Independence?). The sets in our studios erected decades back may have been renovated and repainted but not rethought about. Today's stations are usually dilapidated independent houses which have been furnished to suit a work environment for cops. I must say that Bollywood is doing a good job here, considering the sets in the multitude of cop tales being produced. Telugu film industry remains far behind and blissfully ignorant.

And what about the jobs? Novelists and short-story writers take pains to glean tidbits and jargon about various jobs, especially the jobs of their protagonists. Arthur Hailey was hailed for taking years for each novel, and oft-quoted as an epitome for researching.

Film makers, however, are exploiting the 20% rule to satisfy themselves and the audience. The 20% rule, say in animation, suggests developers to ignore 80% of a fast-paced action and to concentrate on the take off and landing of the animation. Like in a sequence where Tom chases Jerry. The chase itself is shown as a blur but the initial and final microseconds are crystal clear.

I recently watched a nondescript movie where the hero repairs a car that broke down. We have all seen it a number of times. The camera shows a closeup of the hands, then a closeup of the heroine waiting, then a longer shot of the sweaty hero collapsing the bonnet, and finally a closeup of getting some water to wash his greasy hands. The entire activity is not glossed over because it is a trivial issue; it is glossed over because our film makers aren't patient enough to clearly define that car problem and find out (theoretically) its solution.

When I learned driving, my driving school skipped the theory class where I was to have learned changing tires, pouring water in the carburetor, and making minor repairs. I always wish one of our movies imparted a little such knowledge.

Showing details about the above activity would make a greater impact when the character has a job of a car mechanic or, umph, engineer. People among the audience who really have that job feel proud and thankful for showing a snippet of their everyday lives, and the remaining who are in obscurity have an 'aha' moment.

Today we take for granted the omniscience of our protagonists whether in driving and fixing vehicles, or wielding and defusing weapons. The conflict, if any, faced by the protagonist no longer carries that high tension among us had we known that the protagonist is like one of us, without all the knowledge about the universe.

Verisimilitude is not an end in itself, rather a means to increase our belief and tension in the story.

A Director's Limited Knowledge

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:00:00 +0000

Unlike in the Indian film industries, many famous novelists of today had been working in a day job, and started writing in their free time. With growing success and interest, they changed lanes. John Grisham, e.g., had been practicing law when he started with law thrillers, and is now slowly dabbling with other kinds.

Moreover, the settings, characters and incidents tend to be heavily borrowed from their real lives. This is how it understandably continues to be, because people with a day job can't afford a lot of time researching about things that they are not already aware of.

Selvaraghavan, who goes by the name Sri Raghava in AP, shows a similar body of work. I haven't watched Thuluvatho Illamai, but both Kadhal Kondein and 7/G Brindavan Colony seemed very realistic, especially in portraying the lives of teenagers and lower middle class families. Later interviews revealed that 7/G was based on a true story, and there has also been speculation that it is partly based on Selva's own experiences. (Apologize me, for I shall call him Selva from here on.)

Whether or not these movies are auto-biographical, we can perceive that Selva does have a good knowledge and understanding of these subjects. But that is where a line needs to be drawn. He is no longer a new struggling director. Having proved himself as a good and successful writer, he should afford to research more in his stories and settings. Yes, I'm talking about ADuvAri mATalaku ardhAlu verule.

The movie was at best a joke. The storyline is very similar to the previous two movies. The protagonist personifying failure is rescued from distress by a damsel, knowingly or unknowingly. La Belle Dame sans Merci, so she is engaged to be married soon and can't break it off because she can't say 'no' to her elders though she may be progressive enough for premarital sex. Ha! One more thing, the protagonist's father is as uncouth as the protagonist, especially in words.

Well, there is nothing wrong with the story. Selva being a new director can yarn another cloth with the same rotten cotton, especially because that is what even veteran directors have been doing.

My complaint however is concentrated on a different aspect: the understanding of "software engineers". With software companies and call centers now grabbing the limelight from banks, we see more and more characters who work in them. Unfortunately, these two are very different from banks, and it takes efforts to know what goes inside them. Unlike banks, not everybody has a reason to enter these places. And so everybody has misconceptions about them.

Selva, being the amateur and unresearching writer, portrayed software engineers very similar to college students and lecturers, thereby losing the realism that his previous movies have been lauded for. No doubt, his observant eyes caught the formal wear and company tags hanging around people's necks, but their actions and dictions are still what the director seems to imagine as universal.

A manager grossly shouting and name calling a couple of engineers under him, e.g., is close to impossible, what with everybody's education and strongly implemented laws. Men bidding among themselves for a seat beside a female colleague, again, is unthinkable, especially when they are not old buddies. Let me not even get started about the long leaves that hordes of people take to attend a marriage, nor the visas that seem to be gotten within half a day.

I was extremely disappointed by this movie, and pitied the narrow horizons of knowledge of Selva. He may understand uncouth-type characters inside-out, but a writer should learn about other kinds as well, should attempt to research more. Or it would become such a waste of talent!

Telugu Cinema in the 70's - 4

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:30:00 +0000

Continued from Telugu Cinema in the 70's - 3.

Heroes. It is no exaggeration that they rule film industries across the world, more so in India, even more so in Andhra Pradesh. Their involvement in shaping characters, casting, and encouraging new talent is prominent. During the 60's, Kanta Rao began fading, and ANR and NTR were the only two heroes that anybody could think of. New talent thus became a necessity.

Krishna and Sobhan Babu steadily laid down their foundations during the late 60's, as actors more than heroes, and started getting their share of limelight by the dawn of 70's and played significant roles since then. Krishnam Raju began acting in the late 60's, as a villain, and then slowly transitioned to other roles and then heroes by mid 70's.

People might be surprised to see this name aside major heroes': Chandra Mohan. Though rangula rATnam came in the 60's itself, and he acted in a number of movies in various kinds of roles, he had some of his best movies during the 70's, especially with Viswanath. Several actors of his generation have quoted that he would've become a great hero had it not been for his "small personality". I believe that it was his personality that allowed him to play such varied roles, without being limited to a hero's. He is known to have given several ladies great luck in their cinema careers.

Chiranjeevi: The legend began in 1978 with Kranti Kumar's prANam kharEdu. His place in the history of Telugu Cinema is preserved thanks to his perserverance with which he literally redefined the definition of a hero, whether in acting, dances, or stunts. Chiranjeevi is probably also the one reason behind a concept called "Number One Star". It might have existed before, but with never a competition more than a namesake in the minds of audiences. He certainly was (is?) the last number one star.

Kamal Haasan: Considered the most versatile Indian actor ever, though he started acting at six, it wasn't until Balachander's antuleni katha that he acted in Telugu movies. His association with the Telugu film industry will remain an honour.

Mohan Babu: Though he has been around the industry for a while, it was only with Dasari's swargam narakam that he began his career as an actor. Considered to be constantly controversial (for insignificant reasons?), he has however acted in a number of movies as a hero, villain, supporting character, and comedian. His dialogue delivery (and dialogues written for him) distinguish him from everybody else, except when he mimics Naga Bhushanam while playing a villain or a comedian.

Murali Mohan: He didn't have a great range as an actor, especially as a hero, having often played a soft husband in middle class husband-wife dramas. That said, he was a success, and later went on to become a big producer.

Rajnikanth: He started in Telugu movies alongside Kamal Haasan with Balachander's antuleni katha. And has remained the one Tamil hero whose dubbed movies can scare other producers releasing big movies. Though he mostly plays too-good-to-believe characters with extremely positive traits, audiences throng the theatres to watch them especially for the new style that he would bring.

Stories Without Scripts

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Nearly a year ago, I had the unbelievable luck of holding a screenplay written by Satyajit Ray. The pages, dusty and dry like leaves in autumn, were filled with dialogue, setting details, costume details, camera angles, and at times drawings. I was impressed that the director had prepared some level of storyboarding, that he used his analytical skills to enhance art, and trusted the written word over his memory.

I also realized why many films today are what they are. The famous joke in Nagesh Kukunoor's Bollywood Calling about the absence of a script, or rather its existence only after a movie has been made, has some truth to it.

I feel that neither storyboarding nor scripting happens most of the time during Indian film-making. Credits in Indian movies often separate story, screenplay and dialogues. Now who is the writer? Does each person playing each of the three roles become a one-third writer? How is it even possible to separate these three essential elements that form a compound called "script"? Compare interviews of Indian directors, or actors with their Hollywood counterparts. The latter mention "reading the script", while the former only mention "hearing the story". Don't these suggest that a script isn't written until after the movie has been made (to submit it to the National Film Archive of India)?

It is possible that this may have been inherited from our ancestors. India has proudly held the heritage of oral storytelling. Storytelling is a fascinating art, but it can have undesirable effects when used during development of a story. A story is lost not just in translation, but in recitation.

It is against business sense to start making a movie without at least a draft of the script. It is like a group of developers working on a product without a design, without knowing what all features are there and how they fall in place. How does one know where a bug may be lurking? I guess there aren't even a QA team to test a movie pre-release. At a time when moves are being made to commercialize movies further, this is an aspect which works against such moves.

Today, it is encouraging to hear news about scriptwriting workshops in Mumbai, or by Bollywood writers, that there is homework being done in this area. I am waiting to hear such news in the Telugu film industry.

Das Kahaaniyan: The Nearly-baked Roti Basket

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Ever since I missed Das Kahaaniyan in the theatres, I've been anxiously (well, not very) waiting to watch it on TV. I did, last Saturday on Set Max. It is probably the first time a non-English prime time weekend movie ended in just over two hours.

I enjoyed the experience, and appreciate the attempt.

Like always, I also have cribs/comments/suggestions that could improve each of the stories, at least for me. My biggest crib is that it is not an anthology with an underlying theme. A common theme not only allows us to compare the stories against each other, but can also allow us to remember them all with a greater ease. (I accept the possibility of mixing up one with another as well.) In that way Darna Mana Hain works better.

Despite all analysis, anthologies are welcome especially for prime time TV.

Spoiler Warning: Spoilers ahead.

1. Matrimony: A wife concocts a simple scheme to wear her paramour's gift — a necklace — with permission from her husband. This is the best story in terms of the twist in the tail end. But Mandira Bedi's clichéd narrative slightly screwed up the show. I blame the writer, not the narrator. Narration in movies should seem original, if it is to be there at all. "Beautiful, bored, lonely wife of a rich husband..." is a stereotype that can be understood without a voice over. I firmly believe that had Sanjay Gupta turned off the narration, it would have been a better story.

2. High on the Highway: A non-story about a hip couple on a high. I felt that the non-linear narrative was a desperate attempt to heighten the audience's interest in this pointless piece. The best non-part is the title.

3. Pooranmasi: Not just non-metro, this is the only rural story in the basket. Forbidden and hitherto restrained thoughts unleash when a widowed(?) mother wears her daughter's colorful dupatta(?). Throughout, I sensed a lingering mystery, a fantasy that we often associate with folktales. Had the mysterious lover not been shown during the climax, the story would still have had that mysterious aura.

4. Strangers in the Night: All points to Neha Dhupia. This story works only because she has now become a stereotype for a perpetually horny woman. There is a surprising twist at the end. As a ten-minute story, it is interesting. But if you look back into the nitty-gritties long after you've watched it, you might notice the implausibility of the woman's actions or worse the artificiality in the narration through intentional misdirection.

5. Zahir: A "struggling writer" is smitten by his neighbour whose work involves "taking inernational calls". On discovering that the neighbour is not a call centre girl but a call girl, his wrathful passionate actions doom him. I have two complaints: the setting and the rape scene. A struggling writer and a call girl living on the eighteenth floor of a posh society in well-furnished apartments is unrealistic, especially when the latter is shown dancing in Chandni Bar, not escorting rich men. And, though I am only guessing, rape scenes aren't so (f)rigid.

6. Lovedale: The story of a young bride who upon encouragement from her lovelorn father — which seemed a little over-enthusiastic — and a few signals goes after her true (impulsive?) love a day before her marriage. Very predictable, I couldn't help thinking that the fantasy element overshadowed the impending conflict in the relation. People might not notice that the girl and her dad fell for the boy and his mom respectively. A Balachander movie would've been in the making had that mom stayed alive!

7. Sex on the Beach: When opened, a mysterious book on the beach traps a reader in the form of a hottie who lures him into her lair. Tareena Patel looks genuinely alluring while looking scary. Dino More was perhaps made to look the way he did only for the female viewers not to feel left out. I wonder what happens when the book is opened by a straight girl. The only memorable thing about the story is the golden bikini that brings back memories of Princess Leia.

8. Rice Plate: A staunch anti-muslim Hindu Tamilian learns a lesson of religious equality in her journey to a railway station in this sweet story. Konkana Sen was better as Mrs. Iyer than Shabana Azmi here. And Naseeruddin Shah had little to do. Warm, but I felt something amiss.

9. Gubbare: A young wife learns about a happy married life from another old husband while they travel as strangers in a bus. Again, good though predictable. My main complaint is that writers — including yours truly — don't reach for the full-stop quickly enough. We know about the devoted husband and his marital life by his talkativeness. There was, thus, no need for his gibberish to be shown in the cemetry even after we've discovered the truth about his wife.

10. Rise & Fall: The title hints an epic, doesn't it? That is the reason why this story doesn't work. It shows the rise of two lads who become blood brothers and rise to rule the Mumbai crime world, in parallel with their fall as one betrays the other. The moments that presage the rise/fall, in my opinion, are not as momentous as the actual rise/fall that happen over years. The stunts in heavy rain reminded me of the new Haywards advertisement with Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty. The background score at times makes it harder to hear Suniel's low voice.

mana Mallikarjuna Rao

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Comedian Mallikarjuna Rao, 56, passed away this Tuesday fighting leukemia. Apart from his movie roles, he was also the general secretary of the Telugu Movie Artists Association and the cultural wing secretary of Telugu Desam Party.

As TV channels paid tributes to him, they all mentioned his career of about 375 films that came into limelight with "baTTala koTTu" Satyam in Vamsy's Ladies Tailor. Ever since, I have been thinking about some of his characters. Unsuprisingly, most that I could remember were in combination with Rajendra Prasad. Here are a few that I found the most entertaining.

Chinna Rao: In Vamsy's April 1 viDudala, he plays a lustful man eying Bhagyam (Vijaya Lalitha), a woman married to a muscular man, while already being married to two women. The scene with an electrical wire in his mouth cracks me up every time I watch it.

Chitti: In EVV's Hello Brother, he excels as the more intelligent and more knowledgeable constable to Kota Srinivasa Rao's Tadi Mattayya (SI). As he acts in every scene beside Kota Srinivasa Roa, he proves that he is no less as a comedian in this restrained role. "idi lAThi kAdu, gUTi biLLa."

Heroine's Brother: In kobbaribonDam, he plays the heroine's brother, the husband suffering from his wife's (Sri Lakshmi's) penchant for advertisements. I find the concerned brother's role more touching.

Heroine's Father: In Relangi Narasimha Rao's? iddaru peLLAla muddula Police, he plays a heroine's father, a hero's uncle, a village president, and most unforgettably a husband suffering from his wife's (Sri Lakshmi's) patibhakti. "antA brama brAnti."

Penukonda Abbulu: In Vamsy's SrE kanakamAlakShmi Dancing Troupe, he is Relangi's dupe in the troupe. "EviDa, Ayanaki, stepney lAnTidi."

Yesupadam: In Vamsy's cheTTu kinda Pleader, he plays an ardent cricket fan, an employee working in the Marriage Registration Office. (He also dubbed voice for Gopalam's driver, another tiny role.) "abbA. Two much."

Telugu Cinema in the 70's - 3

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Continued from Telugu Cinema in the 70's - 2.

A director is the most important person behind a movie. It is a director's judgement and taste that reflects on the screen. A successful director's choice of actors, writers, musicians, and many other roles can become a trend for the future. During the 70's a few directors left their indelible impressions on Telugu Cinema.

Bapu (1967): Bapu-Ramana would be more appropriate. The duo are the masters of mythology. In stark contrast, the realism and our nativity portrayed in their social movies is striking. Understandably, they often drew analogies from mythology in real life and dabbled with magic realism.

Dasari Narayana Rao (1972): Dasari's movies are possibly filled with more words than movies of any other filmmaker. His background in journalism is perceptible in most of his movies: sensationalism, verbosity, and a lack of subtlety especially in his dialogues. These are also the traits that have garnered all the attention from the masses in his message-oriented movies. He frequently took several social and political issues with gusto.

Kailasam Balachander (196?): Characterization is Balachander's strength. In his movies, (female) protagonists often land in extraordinary situations that seem to challenge the norms of society. He also introduced a number of talented actors: Jayaprada, Jayasudha, Kamal Hasan, Madhavi, Prakash Raj, Rajnikanth, Sarita, Srividya. A movie that might not be easily identified with him is the classic Bomma Borusa.

K Raghavendra Rao (1975): KRR will be remembered as one of our most successful directors in terms of number of movies, box office returns, and boosting careers. He is one of the earliest to have commercialized movies to the greatest extent possible, to have made "formula-based" movies, to have extensively used props in his songs. He may also be credited for thriving the fruit industry, if not held responsible for fruit shortage. IIRC, he is also the first to have appended his degree to his name.

Kasinadhuni Viswanath (1965): Though Viswanath started directing movies in the previous decade itself, it took him over ten years to have become the director he will be remembered and respected as. During his earlier movies too, his taste for themes and arts is noteworthy. By the late 70's, he seemed to have learnt his craft and established his relations (KV Mahadevan and later Illayaraja, Veturi, SPB) enough to start churning out classics one after another.

Where are all the men?

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Last week, I was still listening to SPB-Illayaraja songs. Songs in A. Kodandarami Reddy's abhilASha were among them. The movie has some wonderful songs, but that is not my point. There are three wonderful male characters in abhilASha — CKP Chiranjeevi, sentry Sarma, and the great criminal lawyer Sarvottama Rao. In fact, there are three other smaller yet memorable characters — Obulesu, "Dhara Singh", and the creepy servant. I have made my point.

Let me elucidate.

I haven't watched abhilASha in years. Nevertheless, the well-etched characters have written themselves in the "Cinema" folder in my mind, forever. The protagonists and antagonists, especially, need solid characterizations. You can't write a story without them, much less imagine shelling out crores to bring them onto the celluloid. But we do not find such characters anymore.

When I see today's movies — mind you, my focus is on the more popular ones — I miss the old villains the most. A character like the great criminal lawyer Sarvottama Rao demands everybody's respect. They seem to have an implicit perception of their limitations, and an unquenchable desire for power. While this may be an underlying attribute among many of yesteryears' villains, they still remained unique.

Gone are such white-collared criminals. Today's villains are mostly rowdy-sheeters, mafia dons, or factionist leaders. People only fear, and not respect, such fellows. They are such guileless fools full of themselves, it's a surprise that their hyper-myopia goes undiagnosed. Their downfall is nobody's surprise — they would have boastfully banged their heads against rocks and died anyway.

The heroes are no better. Their unrealistic strength can shudder Hercules. No matter how many rowdies are running with butcher knives towards the unarmed hero, the fearless bloke never doubts his capabilities. Whether he too, like the villain, is myopic or is terrible at counting numbers or is just brain dead remains vague.

These characterizations can be characterized as a trend of retro-film-making. Please don't fool yourselves and blame me for over-simplifying or stripping off all other characteristics of these characters. This is how pathetically plain they are.

Illayaraja - SPB Jukebox

cinecynic@gmail.com (Cine Cynic) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Last week music fans like me celebrated the birthdays of these two giants by listening to their songs.

"Maestro" Illayaraja turned 65 on 2nd June. Happy birthday, Sir.

"Balu" turned 62 on 4th June. Happy birthday, Balu.

Much has been said about their greatness and influence on Indian cinema music, especially South Indian. Here I list a few movies made in their combination, shut my trap, and let them enslave our souls.

I selected the movies covering all major directors and based on: overall ensemble, Balu as the main male singer, lyrical richness, unobviousness.

1. Aditya 369: Mohini, Balakrishna; Singeetam Srinivasa Rao.
Listen - Raaga. Listen - Dishant.

2. AlApana: Bhanu Priya, Mohan; Vamsy?
Listen - Raaga. Listen - Dishant.

3. ArAdhana: Radhika, Suhasini, Chiranjeevi, Rajasekhar; Bharatiraja.
Listen - Raaga. Listen - Dishant.

4. daLapati: Bhanu Priya, Sobhana, Aravinda Swamy, Mammooty, Rajnikanth; Maniratnam.
Listen - Raaga. Listen - Dishant.

5. jagadeka vEruDu atiloka sundari: Sridevi, Chiranjeevi; K Raghavendra Rao
Listen - Raaga. Listen - Dishant.

6. Ladies Tailor: Archana, Rajendra Prasad; Vamsy.
Listen - Raaga. Listen - Dishant.

7. rudravENa: Sobhana, Chiranjeevi; K Balachander.
Listen - Raaga. Listen - Dishant.

8. Siva: Amala, Nagarjuna; Ramgopal Verma.
Listen - Raaga. Listen - Dishant.

9. sUrya IPS: Vijaya Santi, Venkatesh; Kodi Ramakrishna
Listen - Raaga. Listen - Dishant.

10. svAti mutyam: Radhika, Kamal Hasan; K Viswanath
Listen - Raaga. Listen - Dishant.

P.S. I apologize for not knowing the director a couple of times. If any of you do, drop in a comment and I shall edit the post.