Bahubali - the beginning

Telugu is the third largest language in the country in terms of native speakers. But how famous is it? How many Telugu movies/directors have become famous all across the country when people belonging to the Tamil industry like Manirathnam and Rahman have carried their works to Hindi too. When was a Telugu movie discussed even in states like Punjab as the movie 'Robot' was? There probably was never such a Telugu movie. But now there is. Bahubali is the movie that is hot favourite of even the North Indians.

I watched the movie in Delhi to see how the response was for the movie.
It was excellent. Obviously, the huge promotions of the movie led to the large response it got across the country. I was convinced that this movie is a marketing genius. Be it roping in Karan Johar to present the film in Hindi or taking into the audience the fact that the movie is the costliest and the largest Indian motion picture worked wonders for the movie makers. The response was tremendous and of course the movie did not disappoint. Not a bad movie despite a sorrowful story and indecency on part of the protagonist!

Rana Daggupati as Bhallaladeva was brilliant in the movie

This is a special cinema especially when Telugu movies are increasingly depending on comedy for success. The movie only works on its taking. There is absolutely nothing new in terms of the story. It is that most common folklore story where two princely brothers fight for the throne. But that is the last thing one has to worry about. Apart from an unnecessary molestation of a warrior lady by the hero, the movie had nothing new in terms of scenes. It is the production value of the movie that impresses the most. The carefulness with which the movie is made is great. It is clear that neither the producers nor the director or the entire cast were in a hurry to complete the movie. It took them two years to complete the movie. This coolness in shaping up the movie is seen in the smooth flow of the scenes. The actors were all good and it is not the first time in a Rajamouli movie that the antagonist has impressed much more than the hero! The picturisation of the Chalakudy falls was beautiful!

The movie is not a trend setter like Magadheera was. One should watch it without comparing it to any other movie. This actually followed the new trend of creating complete new language. The sets which took 200 days for construction will probably be used better in the next part of the movie. But kudos to the producers of the movie. They are the highlight of the film. I have not known a producer who kept a careful ledger of the happenings of a movie. probably for Sholay? We all can look forward for a nice book on the 'Making of Bahubali.' The producers are keen on getting back the money spent. They have earned it well.

This movie can be a nice research project for management students. And Kamal Hasan can take a leaf or two out of their books for promoting Viswaroopam 2.
Bahubali is a movie which can be watched for all the hype built around it. Do not try to search for logic. One will need an atomic force microscope for that! Just marvel at what Indian film has achieved! This is an indigenous marketing and graphical genius! 

ICC could actually offer something to Greece

Well, that was one hell of a shockingly sarcastic article. The timing is either extremely hilarious or extremely rude. Whatever it is, it was fun. James Marsh brought out some light humour from the dire situation that Greece is presently in. A one and a half billion euro debt to the International Monetary Fund(IMF)!! Apparently, Greece needs 50 billion euros to get out of the sticky situation its political leaders have landed t in. If anyone is ready to come forward like the ICC is, I would want to request you to consider dropping 0.1% of that amount for me. I would rename myself after you if you want!

Greece and cricket have had historic ties. For instance, the rain rule is Greek to most cricket fans

On the human side of the situation, the Greeks have put majority of their faith in Syriza, the radical leftist party and gotten themselves a prime minister in Tsipras, who have not for one day thought of what the economic situation of Greece was when he gave all those promises to his people. He cannot go back on his promises nor can he not repay the debt. It is not a small amount too. So naturally, a blame game starts. In the end, everyone seems to have forgotten what would happen to those thousands of lives. The politicians are only interested in staying n power, the creditors in getting back their money.

A referendum in this matter is a very very bad move, a cowardly one.

On top of all this, the person sitting in the hot seat, the man who is responsible to take the most responsible decision for his country has lifted his hands in despair and 'left' it to those who put faith in him. The most important thing for the country is now left in the hands of 'majority.' Just imagine if the decision to revamp reservations in our country is left to the people to decide and a referendum is set up! I wonder what Arvind Kejrwal would have done if he is the prime minister of Greece! What if the majority decides that they have to  stay with the Eurozone? What if the majority decides that the old people do not need any assistance and can be neglected? The prime minister can still stick to his seat and go back on his promises!

Even though I am not even a speck before Paul Krugman, I disagree with him that Euro has been a mistake. It has been a boon in disguise for the entire continent of Europe. I feel a common currency s what is really keeping the entire region together. It should continue to do so. Even though it is written in a jovial fashion, it can actually be true. Top companies and organisations can come forward and invest n the country. That would in practical mean taking a loan to repay another but there should always be a way. A way to make sure humanity and the human nature survives rather than sticking to power and running away from responsibility. There is always a way to avoid that "Grexit."

I miss you!

A wise man once said, you don't realise that you love someone until 'you let her go'! Very poetic, nothing more was the first thought. But turns out that it is absolutely true. Or maybe the both of us were so together that I did not for 'two minutes' think that we would be separated. Anywhere I went, I knew I could be with you. Anytime in the day or night I was sure you were there for me. But now its all gone!!

Sad part is I could not even say a goodbye. Fate has taken you away so fast. But wherever you are, please do not forget that I am waiting for you. And I promise that when you get back, I am not letting you go. I don't care if you have one bad quality. I only see all those other wonderful things you possess. Its okay if you wear a lot of make up or if you don't at all, it is what that is inside that interest me. You are like a diamond for me. Yes, unless a diamond is polished a lot, it has no value. You are likewise. Who ever said you are bad? And why could I not say all this to you before? I feel bad for not confessing my love to you when you were with me. Now you are gone. Will you ever come back? I have no count of those difficult times you got me through. Please come back so I can at least thank you.

I would give anything for you to come back. And when you do come back,I am not letting you go. I do know that there are many others who like you and who would want to confess their love for you. Some might already have told out their love to you. But trust me, no body loves you like I do. There might so many others out there. But somehow I feel I cannot love someone like I loved you. You are the best. I am so desperate for you that soon, if you don't come to me, I might come in search of you. Wherever you are, any state or country, I will find you. Mumbai or Milan, Delhi or Dallas, I will come!

I am sure you like me too. Why else would you be with me on those wonderful trips to Ponmudi in Kerala and Mussorie in Uttharakhand! Now, if I go to those places, your memories are definitely going to haunt me. Don't do this to me and lakhs of other people. The empty shelves in supermarkets are also waiting for you. They are reluctant to let any others to take your place too.
Miss you maggi. We all know you'll come back strong.

--
A college hostler

One of the worst things!

Mahati went about her daily chores. Wake up an hour after the alarm ring, get ready to slog for ten hours in a crammed cubicle in a centrally air conditioned building which largely smelled of coffee from the cafeteria. She made sure she got her lunch box, lest she has to spend seventy rupees on a muffin. She also made sure she wore the right shoes so that she would not slip on the highly polished floor in her office.

In the quarter hour she managed to get to grab a bite, she finished her lunch. She had no option to sit down and relish the taste of every morsel of food. She, however made sure she did not waste any food. She ate to the last piece carefully. "There are millions of people who don't get this one tiny box of food for an entire day," she thought. "Every farmer when he gets the harvest to his hand, feels one thing more than anything else. He is not worried about how much profit he gets. All he is worried is whether his hard work would be useful for some purpose or will it go waste? Profit, he might get a lot sometimes. Sometimes, he might not. He just have to understand the demand of the market. But will his sweat-child feed people? Or will the harvest lay wasted in those useless go-downs? Will it be enjoyed by those disease infecting rodents?" Mahati felt an increased respect for farmers in the country. Their love for the land and its gift to humankind. "This is definitely the mindset of an average farmer. His hardship should never go wasted. We should consume only how much ever we need. Not a bit more, not necessarily a bit less!"

She looked around in the dining area. People got food from the cafeteria in trays, filling them with a plethora of the non-local food they could find. Mahati observed that nobody ate fully. A farmer's heart is welling up somewhere in this world, she thought. Wasting food is one of the worst things man can ever do. It should be considered a sin. Maybe, wastage should be made a part of gluttony as the seventh deadly sin. It should be propagated well by the world leaders. Every religious and scientific text talks about the importance of food. Why don't people see the greatness and the difficulty in germination, in growth? It is very easy to throw away food. You need not check the soil condition, need not worry about manure, rain, irrigation, pests. You need not constantly monitor the food when you throw it away. You just drop your food in the bin with no second thoughts. "Well, yeah India now has the highest number of hungry people. They could be fed if the food is not wasted in such huge amounts. If the wastage in a small cafeteria itself is so huge, what about big restaurants, marriage ceremonies and even those silly birthdays which are celebrated as grandly as the independence day celebrations! There is enough to feed everyone in the world. Only that everybody does not get the access! There is one password. Money!," thought Mahati and left the place furiously.

"On the top of all this, the most disgusting thing is that, those who waste food do so in the confidence that there is always somebody or the other who will accept those leftovers. That is pathetic. That kind of thinking should definitely change" concluded Mahati as she traveled to her flat. She saw her roommate and asked what they should do for dinner. She got one immediate reply.
"First, throw the leftovers in the rice cooker from lunch to some dog!!"

The Super-rich telugu movies

There is a flurry of new trailers in Tollywood, the telugu film industry. All the major movies look very rich or have a lot of graphics.All the 'big' actors seem to be acting in very high budget movies. Also any role involving those actors come with rich, with brand new bikes, cars, high-end restaurants and shopping places. Probably doing a movie involving the common man is out of their league and new, small actors seem to have shouldered that responsibility. If this is the trend, it is sad and bad.

A latest movie involving the superstar of the industry is titled, "Wealthy Man." According to the trailer at least, the protagonist seems to be a super rich guy who is bored of all the material pleasures and goes to some village. There he is seen in v-necks, riding a bicycle, again a very expensive one. Just the location changed. Not the richness. Not only this movie, for quite a long time, almost every movie involving 'big' heroes have shown them as a billionaire philanthropist type guys. Even if the story needed a middle class set up, it was only the creamy layer of the middle class. Probably the hero would be a software engineer or an architect which are the 'rich-middle class jobs.'

None of the present generation heroes appear as auto-rickshaw drivers or daily wage laborers or even as bank clerks unlike their previous generation which entered the film industry with practically no background. In fact, today's heroes cannot play any role which is not rich because they do not know how it is not to be rich. They were born with a silver spoon if not with a golden or platinum one. All the acting experience they acquire is from those acting schools which charge a lot of money and employ well known actors to teach acting. It is however, impossible to teach things like poverty, hunger and employment. They are to be experienced. No other way.

Of course, one cannot blame the film makers for showing what the majority audiences really want. The larger portion of the audience is the middle class. No middle class person would want to see their lives again on the screen. They want to see what they want to be. Living in huge flats, driving sedans and dining in five star restaurants. Even the 'poor' audience are not interested to see what the real society is. Everybody seems to be longing to be how their favorite hero/heroine is: rich, fair and beautiful. No body is interested to see their most revered hero to be like how they are: poor and routine looking. 

There is no movie which makes people feel that the lead role is from their neighborhood. People are living in a virtual reality. The definition of reality itself is a tough and complicated one. There is no explanation for a virtual reality!

Mother and Motherland...always lovable!

A short story. A boy of about ten, probably the son of a fisherman was weeping near the sea. He was weeping so badly that the sea goddess felt very sorry for him and went to him and asked what the matter was.
He told her, "I can't find my mother."
The goddess asked him to describe his mother.
He stopped crying. "Can you get her to me??" he asked.
"Why not, definitely I will find her for you. Just tell me how your mother looks like," the goddess replied. "Well, she is the most beautiful woman." said the boy.
The goddess summoned the newly elected Miss World. The boy started crying again. The goddess asked why he was crying even after she got the most beautiful woman on the planet.
"She is not at all as beautiful as my mother." replied the boy.
She got the Miss Universe. Same crying. Same reply. Miss Africa...same thing! Miss Angola, princess Kate, Jennifer Anniston, Julia Roberts, all were summoned. None were as beautiful as his mother!!

Then she came. His mother. He stopped crying, smiling as wide as his ears, he ran to her and hugged her. The goddess looked at her. She was carrying fish, had a stink on her. She was limping a bit, was very dark and had a squint in her eye. Not even one who would be allowed to house keep the beauty pageant arena! Yet the boy found his mother the most beautiful person in the world. There is much more than looks alone, something that cannot be explained in a sentence/paragraph, realised the goddess and went away.

We all love our mother and motherland irrespective of what kind of idiots her sons have become, irrespective of how much we all fight against each other, all of us love our motherland. We were never and are never ashamed of it! We do not need some one to come and change our lives, get money pumped into the country and thus make us lift our heads in pride. I don't want India to be a powerful economy. I want India to be a happy nation" said a great frenchman. He is a true Indian.

I don't believe the Prime Minister too being a nationalist would say something like that. Thank you media. Anyway, stop criticising your own people abroad Mr. Prime Minister.   

Just Justice!

Mahati's friend came to her for a help. He wanted her to accompany him to the prison as he wanted to meet his jailed father. He wanted some mental support too. Mahati gladly agreed to help her friend. Also, she has never been to a prison before. So, she wanted to check it out too. It wasn't exactly cinematic. It was so informal. There was no bullet proof glass, no telephones, barricades. It was normal. A little stricter than a hostel visit. They waited while his father was called for.

He was arrested for a bank fraud. A relative of his took a loan of ten lakhs from the bank in which he was working as a clerk. Since it was a relative, he himself gave assurance and granted him the loan with a gentle warning to not mess the money and his name. That was it. He never again heard from the relative again. The routine Indian drama where everybody knows who the gentleman is. Well, on the outer side, the richer guy is always the gentleman. He can buy things. He is smart. The sincere man got arrested, sentenced for seven years in jail, his house seized and felicitated with the name 'gadar.' No bail. He had no money, how would he get bail?

Mahati friend's father entered the place slowly. He lost all energy. Most importantly lost hope!! He was carrying newspapers of three different days. As the father-son duo were exchanging niceties, Mahati looked at the papers. They read,

News 1
A "celebrity" actor was granted bail not two days after he got arrested in hit and run case. Well, there are thousands dying daily. Is a bus driver or conductor arrested if the bus runs over a bike? The biker has to be careful. What if the "celebrity" hunts down a black buck? Was a train driver ever arrested for the hundreds of elephants that died by getting hit by trains? The elephants got in the way of the train. The black buck got in the way of the bullet! The case was under litigation for 13 years.

News 2
This "celebrity" actor turned chief minister was acquitted from an disproportionate assets case. All she had were ten thousand sarees, 25 Kg gold, 750 Kg silver among many other valuables, farm houses, lands and buildings. She only drew a salary of Re.1 as chief minister. After a litigation of 18 years, she was convicted for seven months and then acquitted. Her supporters are jubiliant. They all cannot wait to fall on her feet, stand behind her with their head bowed in reverence to the great warrior lady. She is the 'mother' after all.

News 3
Another "celebrity" who has been praised as the 'Bill Gates of India' by many, who even sat along side Mr. Gates in a function was granted bail finally, after a struggle for 33 months, hundreds of 'poojas,' 'yajnas' and donations on his name! The person and his brother were involved in the biggest accounting scandal the country has ever seen. Beat that Harshad!! In the scandal which shook the country and put the future of IT in India in jeopardy, there was a manipulation of accounts by $1.47 billion. Start counting!

Mahati then put down the newspapers. She then looked at the title of the newspaper. "Witness," it plainly translated into English. 'The money invested into running this newspaper itself is manipulated money, darker than black and the owner of the paper is leading the opposition of a state while on bail and all the innocent and powerless people can do is read in his paper about those who could "buy" things and only blabber about bad things going on in the country, have food, watch cricket and go to offices, accepting that the country will never change. If the leader of the opposition is out on bail and running one of the largest circulated newspapers in the world, what about those sitting in the all powerful seats? And those who supported those in power?' Mahati wondered while the poor man and his son talked as much as they could in the little time they had together.
The police sentry blew a whistle indicating that the visiting hours were done for the day.