Apocryphal Stories !!!

Ravi Teja must be in a huge quandary right now. Once acclaimed as a minimum guarantee hero, he is craving for a minimum guarantee movie now. With Mirpakaya it seemed as if he had reached a level of stardom. Pity then, it has been all downhill after the hit of Mirpakaya The movie in question, Devudu Chesina Manushulu, has nothing to satiate an average viewer. Nothing at all. For a Ravi Teja fan like me, it is a different matter altogether. I can watch the crappiest of films that he has a role in and not complain. So looking for complaints from me on this movie would be futile. *This is a rant, you can progress to the next Para and wouldn’t have missed anything* In December 2008, Neninthe released and was blasted back from the screens because it criticised certain sections of media crudely. There wasn’t a single review that had good words for the movie. Today, as I couldn’t see the movie FDFS, I did check in to find a few reviews. I wasn’t surprised by what Deepa Garimella...

Till lunch the match seemed evenly poised. The introduction of the captain, AJ Ball, into the attack eased the pressure on the Australian batsmen. The pull shot by Head off Ball had resounding effect. Twice, Australia tried to mount a counter-attack and both the times the batsman trying to do it was dismissed. Jamie Overton, exchanged a few words with Patterson after being swatted for a boundary and delivered the perfect riposte- an away swinger pitching just outside the off stump. That was the last wicket that England got. Australia got away on account of a tactical blunder by England. England did not bowl Jamie Overton immediately after lunch, thus allowing Bosisto to secure up one end. In the morning session, both Paris and Steketee got their first wickets with deceptive inswingers. While Paris foxed Drummond with a fuller delivery, Steketee disturbed the woodwork as Foakes left it alone thinking it would swing away. Sandhu offered no respite with his height. He bowled shor...

There are directors who know the mass pulse and can set the cash registers ringing. There are directors who can make the best of wooden faces act. There are directors who feel that it’s their job to make movies and make it the way they like it, regardless of the mass sensibilities. There are directors who mould their working style to the strengths of the actor, thereby bringing the latent talents to the fore. Trivikram Srinivas belongs to the last class of the directors Allu Arjun, for most of us, is known as an actor whose strength doesn’t lie in reciting pages of dialogues. It still isn’t. Trivikram comes into the picture here, as he doesn’t expose this particular weakness by giving him short dialogues and crispy one’s at that. Trivikram’s movies have all got similar ingredients- dialogues, romantic track of the hero with a weak female protagonist and a patriarchal character. From Jalsa on, he has had one more thing added to the list- comical performances by the protagon...

In the making for nearly two and a half years, Eega has a lot of box office hopes riding on it. Not because of the subject, not because of the script, not because of the actors, not because of the producers, but for the fact that it is directed by SS Rajamouli. It is because of his track record that there are a lot of expectations of riding on it. With not a star in the cast, it was a huge gamble to invest 30 crores on the movie. The money invested shows, as the CG work in the movie is something that has never been seen in a Telugu movie. What keeps the audience glued to the movie? They lay in wait for the housefly, and when it does come they want to see what made Rajamouli believe in this all through. The thing that made him postpone the release a few times. The effort is there for all to see. It is said that the barometer of a good actor is his/her performance in the close-up shots. The protagonist in the movie, Eega, has only close-up shots and the credit for it...

Bereft of choices, through injuries and resting players, New Zealand is actually making West Indies look like a force to reckon with. With the win in the first ODI, West Indies have now won three matches on trot. This win would be more satisfactory than the wins they registered in the two T20 games in Florida. Everything came together for them in Kingston. The bowling by the new-ball bowlers, Narine containing the batsmen, and finally the firepower in the batting coming good. Everything that the West Indies wanted to happen in the match, happened. If one has to be picky, then the fielding needs improvement. Though they held all their catches, it was the ground fielding that left a lot to be desired. Man of the match, Andre Russell, combined swing with intelligence to take three wickets in his first spell. He removed Guptill with a ball that moved away late. Guptill edged it to Sammy at second slip. It was his bowling to Flynn that made the spectators sit up. He beat him ...

Are you a person who likes to go back into the past, to know why the present is so? Are you a person who wants to know how Bollywood movies are inspired from the one’s made in the southern part of India? Anurag Kashyap, in an interview mentioned that the genesis for ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ lay in a few Tamil movies he saw when he was in Chennai, the reason for him crediting the ‘Madurai Triumvirate’ of Bala, Ameer, and Sasikumar. The movie set in Wasseypur, talks about the rise of a selfish capitalist, and the exploitation of workers. The movie also talks about the Qureishi-Pathan clash in the town and how the capitalist uses the situation to his advantage. The magic of the movie is in the characterisation, rather than the story line. For instance, Richa Chaddha needn’t have such a lengthy role, but portraying her as a strong and a forgiving lady adds to the character of Manoj Bajpayee The movie, undoubtedly, belongs to Manoj Bajpayee. Every single scene that he is in, is...

When I heard the songs of Yendukante Premanta, I wanted to see the movie for one song- Nee Choopule. I learned later that it was a source of huge relief to see it in the initial frames itself. Job done, I sat through the movie and couldn’t find a single thing I would remember after two days, bar the song The initial scenes set the tone for the narrative. A narrative that refuses to move, and be linear. Karunakaran has a set pattern for his narrative. A motherless heroine, good in character, focussed, and morally on a higher plane. The goalless hero, whose life takes a turn after he meets the heroine and pining with unrequited love. And before we forget, the hero has a strict father (not in darling) who is made to look comical So the story has nothing new to offer, but for a twist(!) in the tale. The twist here is, that everything is going to be good at the end and that’s announced about fifty minutes into the movie. Well, it is that sort of a movie. Every movie, especially...

The first movie of Ravi Teja that I was impressed by was Avunnu Vallu iddaru Ishtapadaru. This was one of the first movies that I saw in my graduation days at Vizag. Strolling close to Jyothi theatre, in pursuit of Indra’s tickets, my eye chanced upon a poster of the movie ‘Idiot’. My brain registered it as a movie that would be adulterous. The poster was such that it created intrigue in many minds. It had the protagonist digging his head into the bosom of the heroine. I decided that I wouldn’t watch the movie, not that I was decent or anything, but I didn’t have enough money to splurge. I was also of the opinion that bar that scene, there wouldn’t be anything to look forward to in the movie. When I returned home for vacations, my father said that Idiot had the protagonist in a ‘different’ role. Still sceptical, I bought home a CD and admired the acting of the protagonist. I saw a few weeks ago in a diametrically opposite role and admired the acting potential. Little did I i...

On a sweltering July afternoon, while playing cricket, was the first time that I set my eyes on him. Leaning on the lone tree on the playing field with his hands folded across his chest, it all seemed odd to me. Here he was, intensely looking on at the game, but not venturing to ask, if he could be a part of us. Going by the initial reports we got of the new kid on the block, it seemed even weirder. On the very first day itself, he had characterised himself as someone who is fluid with the girls, and questioned the lecturers incessantly What followed the very next day was funny. He had the gall to call the most argumentative guy of our batch, a monkey. That man went to the lengths of entire Vizag to find out why he was called ‘a monkey’. What shocked us all was, he was the only guy with an entire month’s supply of tokens to the canteen, and was quite careless about the way he got rid of those tokens. My relationship with him grew in bits. We went to a movie, Jayam, where...

Harish Shankar has delivered what he promised. He promised a movie, made for Pawan Kalyan, by a Pawan Kalyan fan. And delivered a hit. A hit that had Pawan Kalyan fans waiting for a generation. It might break the existing records, or may not. What matters is, that the fans hunger for a hit has been satiated The thing with the movie is, you know what’s coming yet you find yourself drawn to the narrative. Case in point being Pawan Kalyan’s introduction. After the kid’s roles are done with, you are left in no suspense as the screen flashes ‘After some years …. The kid grows up to be Pawan Kalyan’ I always felt that the true potential of Pawan Kalyan was yet to be tapped. He has always been offered roles that are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. Either underplay them, or indulge in overacting (Yes, Jalsa was an exception). I would rate this performance of his as his second best. This is Pawan Kalyan seldom seen, a version which sent his fans crazy. He sends the fans...