Dookudu

Been to Dookudu last night for the third time. Loved it more each time I saw it. Finally thought that my blog deserves some space for it. While I admit that I don’t have anything different or new to say about the movie, I feel the urge to express a few of my thoughts on it at this juncture.

Dookudu is a wholesome entertainer with action, comedy, sentiment, and of course romance/love. Mahesh Babu fills the movie and he is never been more handsome or more charming. Despite his smile being a bit awkward – just shrinking the eyes and extending the mouth – he manages to look cute.  I felt like there has never been a Tollywood hero who has as killing looks as Mahesh. It’s not fair. I’m no fan of him, but still I couldn’t take my eyes off him during the whole movie.

Samantha looked beautiful, lot better than in her earlier movies. But one gets tired of the peculiar  husky voice of the dubbing artist. Been good in the first movie – Em maaya Chesaave.It was refreshing at that time. But using it every time, gives the heroine an unnecessary attitude. I hated to listen to her voice even for Trisha in Teenmaar.

The music is awesome. Can’t get enough of it. Thaman just rocks! The songs are picturesque. Very appealing. Must mention the superb costumes, especially Mahesh’s.  The story is crafted well. Mahesh is absolutely bewitching as a bold and efficient IPS officer. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I look forward to watch it again and again. In fact my first thought as soon as I was into the movie (the first time) for only about half-an-hour had been – “I must own the DVD as soon as it comes out.”

Urumi

Been to this historical fantasy movie last weekend. Liked it very much. It was so picturesque and beautiful. Of course, what else can we expect from the acclaimed cinematographer cum filmmaker Santosh Sivan?

This is the story of a little known hero from Kerala (Chirakkal Kelu Nayanar  – Prithvi Raj)whose mission is to kill Vasco De Gama, who did atrocious things to its citizens and had been a threat to its wealth and future. The way Santosh drew analogies between the history and the present was good. At the time of watching the movie, I thought it depicted the history accurately but a superficial search on Net revealed that much of it is fiction.

The narration in the first half, especially the first 45 minutes or so, had been so fast, as the director tried to acquaint the historic backdrop and significance of the story/events to come, that the audience were really kept on toes. But the pace dropped down alarmingly to match that of snail’s in the second half and it’s only the chemistry between Genelia and Prithvi , which attempted to hold the audience’s attention at that point – with marginal success.

The performances were good. Prithvi was awesome – elegant and macho. He is such a looker. I was practically drooling over him. Nitya, Prabhu Deva and Arya did well. Arakkal Ayesha is a very remarkable character and Genelia was adequate in it.

The backdrop chosen by Santosh Sivan was so novel and fresh that the movie acquired a unique appeal.

By the way, to those who are wondering what Urumi means – it’s a long sword made of flexible steel. It’s the hero’s weapon in the movie. Innovative, isn’t it?

Teen Maar

Teen Maar is a decent attempt at remaking a Bollywood flick. But there surely are certain glitches. The biggest drawback, in my opinion, is that it failed to recreate the magic of the original Love Aaj Kal.

I personally feel that the kind of hip-hop, modern, metro lifestyle shown in the movie hasn’t really gotten itself infiltrated  into the Telugu society. While it was easy to watch Deepika and Saif do all sorts of things, I can’t say the same about their counterparts in Teen Maar. Both Michael (hero) and Meera (heroine) are so unconventional with respect to Tollywood that I feel there had been a certain mental block to accept them right away.

I am still baffled by the inconsistency between my own reactions to the two versions. The reason might be that by Bollywood standards, the lead characters aren’t atypical at all. Surely, I loved Love Aaj Kal and was awed by the characters. I enjoyed myself a lot. I don’t remember contemplating on the virtues or otherwise of the characters at that time, as I’m doing now in the case of Teen Maar. I don’t say that Teen Maar has been a complete shocker for me but I felt that it somehow seemed unreal, close to fantasy.

At some point in the movie, Michael wonders before Paresh Rawal/Sirji (any idea why Pavan choses to address him as “Sirji” instead of just “Sir” or something else? [Updated much later: "Sir Ji is a colloquial word used in North India. It is ascribed to a person who is enterprising, resourceful, seminal, approachable, respected and above all a Realist. " Source: E-PAO. So it was just my ignorance. ]) on the relevancy of the marriage in current times. According to him, marriage is just a fad which appears to be out of fashion these days.

This monologue struck me as odd and absurd. Nothing can be farther from truth than his statement. Marriage is still very much relevant, at least in my society.  Attitudes like these were what gave the characters the fictitious touch and made everything seem far-fetching.

Coming to the other drawback which spoiled the show was the first half hour (I missed the credits and hence anything that came before them). The chemistry between Pavan and Trisha wasn’t established well and the scenes looked like something badly put together in a hurry. (I’m not sure, but I might be talking about Editing too). The whole episode until their breakup was so pale and bland. The sizzling chemistry and the comfort levels between Saif and Deepika couldn’t be replicated for Pavan and Trisha. What a let down!

However, the movie on the whole gets better in the second-half. I noticed that Trisha’s character has been changed minutely in that she seemed reluctant towards the break-up and the director projected as if the whole thing happened only because of Michael’s confusion. I don’t know whether I can trust my memory, but I remember that Deepika too was keen on the break-up and in fact it was she who blurts out the words. If I’m right in my observation, I can only attribute this discrepancy to the distinct Tollywood touch.

I really liked the performances of the lead characters. Trisha looked very pretty and stylish. She carried herself very well. Pavan Kalyan was too good. As Arjun Palvai, he was mind-blowing. I liked the whole flashback episode. I liked it better than that of Love Aaj Kal’s. Kirti looked well as Vasumathi though I must admit that she wasn’t any special. I didn’t like her close-up shots.

The background music was lovely, especially during the flashback. I liked only two songs – Aley Baley (which has been inspired by LAK’s Chor Baazari) and the love song that comes in the flashback (I forgot the lyrics).

While the whole episode of the street fight, rescuing the girl and throwing curse words at the boss by the hero seemed a bit absurd to me, I (as a devout follower of Telugu movies) would rather ignore the illogicality of it all and prefer to just grasp the underlying message the director is trying to convey out of it. Consequently, I’m not so appalled by the failure of the NYPD to appear at the crime scene in time (as some of my friends living in US reacted). Things like this are happening since time immemorial in Telugu cinema. Aren’t they?

The movie is undoubtedly a visual feast and what it’s missing is just the “oooh” factor, which LAK successfully managed to generate. The strongest plus point is Pavan Kalyan. It’s his show all through the movie. On a side note, I certainly think that Teen Maar is a lot better than Pavan’s previous hit Jalsa.

My reading in 2010

The count this year is a modest 60. Not much change in the statistics. The same <20% still holds good for non-fiction. But, to my satisfaction, I’ve tried various subjects – from self-help (Nine Rooms of Happiness) to travelogues (The Lost Continent); memoirs (Angela’s Ashes) to pure technical stuff (Business Intelligence) and more.

I read more number of Telugu books this year compared to the previous one. I tried a few authors for the first time this year – Mohammad Khadeerbabu (Poleramma Banda Kathalu), Chilikamarti Lakshminarasimham (Ganapathi) and Bhanumathi Ramakrishna (Athagari Kathalu). I loved them all.

If I have to name a book from this year’s list, which I’ve liked the most, it would undoubtedly be The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It touched me, surprised me, and above all shook me. I read only a few mysteries (by James Hadley Chase) but more than a few  thrillers, which include The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson and techno-thrillers (Timeline, The Terminal Man, Pirate Latitudes) by my favorite Michael Crichton. I felt that the Millennium trilogy was ok – new and interesting.

I also covered a few family dramas and those, which I guess cannot be called pure chick-lit – Amy and Isabelle by Olive Kitteridge fame Elizabeth Strout, Letter from Peking by Pearl S Buck, Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan and a few by Maile Meloy. Each and every one of them left me thinking more about the lively characters.

I tried horror (Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein) for the first time and I have to admit that the experience was far from being pleasant. I deliberately avoided reading it during the nights and had to gather my courage many a times in order to continue with the book.

Another heart-felt book I was fortunate to read this year is The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk. It was simply amazing. The author had left me awestruck. Looking forward to read more of him. In fact, I just started his My Name is Red.

Coming to the Short Stories, I had better luck in Telugu compared to English. While Alice Munro’s (Too Much Happiness) and Maile Meloy’s (Both Ways is the Only Way I want) were just fine, it was Tagore’s collection of stories, which cast a deep impression on me. They were just brilliant.

Other books, which I cherished this year include – The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, The Secret of Laughter by Susha Guppy (Magical Tales from Classical Persia), Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt (Non-fiction), and Kane & Abel by Jeffrey Archer.

I feel blessed and I hope to read better, if not more, books next year.

Orange

“Love is good only for sometime” – interesting but not so novel/radical an idea.  This is the concept on which the recent star-studded movie “Orange” has been about. Sprang from the direction of the famous Bommarillu Bhaskar, everyone had lots of expectations from this movie but it clearly disappointed. I must say it’s a badly made movie. May be something got lost along the line – since the time the idea was conceived to the moment when it finally came out as a movie.

The protagonist believes that Love is good for only sometime. He thinks that with time, the sweetness of love vanishes and leaves one only in the midst of never-ending lies, which in turn lead to suffocation and frustration. The director took his sweet time (around 3/4th of the movie) to drive the point of the protagonist into the minds of the audience, which kind of felt too much. Consequently, he couldn’t spare much time for proving the flaw in the protagonist’s philosophy of love/life.

It is obvious that his philosophy has a flaw because, people don’t live like that – in a series of brief love affairs. There is solid case for a life long love relationship and that is the reason why everyone crave for it.  It’s agreed that the romance and excitement of the initial days don’t last long but it’s natural. Love takes different forms as the relationship progresses and it’s foolish not to adapt to it. At the same time, everyone will do with keeping the fire of their initial romance blazing up even after years together and this is what all self-evaluating couples strive to do. The secret is to realize that one needs to nurture love. This challenge doesn’t mean that you need to end the current relationship and enter a new one to experience the romance again. It is just an easy way out but almost always not a rewarding experience in the end.

I feel that sticking to one relationship (as much as one can) is important not only for the sake of the society  but also for satisfying our natural instincts. If it’s not so, it wouldn’t have become such an acceptable and widely popular practice.

While there were a few enlightening moments where the hero was made to evaluate his conviction, the case wasn’t built strongly as it deserved. The movie lacked clarity and the whole point of it seemed to only glorify the hero and his skewed beliefs more than anything else. As a bonus, the movie has the effect of making your head spin in confusion by the time you are finished with it.

In the end, I was left clueless as to the reason behind naming the movie “Orange”. The caption – “Love in Fall” didn’t help me much either. Did anyone get it? If so, can you please enlighten this ignorant being?

Sweet stories

This week I had the pleasure of reading my first Telugu book of this year  – Poleramma Banda Kathalu by Mohammad Khadeer Babu. And God, what a book it is! It is a collection of 25 stories about 4 friends(boys) in their high school. The stories certainly make one nostalgic about one’s childhood and school days. And they are so hilarious. I usually read most of my books straight-faced, but I couldn’t stop chuckling to myself and often times laughed aloud while reading these awesome sweet stories.

These stories are in fact taken from the author’s life and can be considered as autobiographical.  All the stories take place in Kavali town of Nellore District and the title of the collection alludes to a landmark in the town.

The author has written the book in his native slang of Telugu (Nellore slang) and that makes the stories and also the characters all the more real (of course they are real, but what I meant to say is that the writing makes you connect to them more). Reading the book made me feel like I was watching the scenes from my window. My association with Nellore might also have helped. (Nellore has been my home town since I was in 9th grade.)

It was very aptly compared to the modern Indian classic Swami and Friends by R K Narayan by one lady in the preface of the book.

I recommend this book to all Telugu readers. This one is not to be missed! And kudos to the author. He used to work for Andhra Jyothi (Newspaper & Weekly Magazine) at the time of writing these stories. I think he has also written another series of stories for the magazine, called Dargamitta Kathalu. I vaguely remember reading one of them long time back. Even though I don’t remember anything about it, I’m sure that series rocks too.

Music musings

Note: This post makes more sense to Telugu-speaking people and/or Telugu movie buffs

It is very true that light without darkness or happiness without occasional sorrow cannot be appreciated much. Also, the worthiness or value of any object or person can be perceived well only when it is compared with something or someone else. It sometimes happens that we don’t appreciate a trait or talent in any person if there is not much scope for comparison.

The same thing happened to me about the singing talent of S.P. Balu and Chitra. If anyone of you remember, some 15 years ago or more (definitely well before the Rahman’s entry), most of the songs in most of the films were sung by this duo. There used to be little variety. I used to wonder why these guys monopolized telugu film music! Apparently, I took their talent for granted and refused to believe that they have far superior talent than most. But not these days, after listening to so many new singers. I don’t mean to say that others aren’t talented enough, but definitely Balu and Chitra outshine most of the present singers.

It is obvious in some cases like the beautiful song in Tulasi movie, “Nee Kalla thoti” which was sang by Chitra and Sagar. The difference between the singing can be easily perceived. Whenever I listen to that song, I feel that Sagar has spoiled it. He doesn’t deserve to sing with Chitra. However much, I love that song and Chitra’s singing in it, I fail to enjoy the track completely because of him.

Listen to it here: [I know the video is distracting but try to concentrate on the audio ]

Also by Chitra is the most recent one in Kalavaramaaye Madilo, wow… she was awesome:

And there is a song in Athadu movie – “Neetho cheppana” sang by Balu and Chitra. In my opinion, it’s not by far the best track of the album, but I’m convinced that the singers made it very special (at least to me). Every time I listen to it, I can’t help making a tribute to both of them. I like to believe that the only reason I like to listen to that song is its singers. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the sweetness of their voices in this song melts my heart.

Here it is for you:

A couple of more examples, where I really stop while listening and take time to appreciate the singing:

• Aakasham in Nuvvostaanante Nenoddantaana 
• Ekaadunnavamma in Okariki Okaru