Gabbar Singh Director Harish Shankar Interview

In Search of Myself: Why I didnt like Nagavalli?- My Analysis

In Search of Myself: Why I didnt like Nagavalli?- My Analysis: "Chandramukhi is one of the movies that really took me by surprise and it has become one movie I never miss whenever telecasted on Televisi..."

Why I didnt like Nagavalli?- My Analysis

Chandramukhi is one of the movies that really took me by surprise and it has become one movie I never miss whenever telecasted on Television. I watched Aptamitra (Kannada version) and liked it a lot. In fact Chandramukhi has increased my respect for P.Vasu as a master story teller. In the background of all this, Watching Nagavalli on first day was always a first choice. I still had my doubts if Vasu can weave the same magic again and If Venkatesh could make us forget Rajni. This is one movie where I didn’t even hear music before watching the film and I didn’t look at any reviews before entering the auditorium. With all the expectations I carried with me, I am disappointed with the film and would take you thru why I didn’t like it.

The movie is publicized as a sequel to Chandramukhi but it isn’t. The film starts as a continuation of Chandramukhi but it ends there. This is supposed to be a story of Nagavalli but directed preferred to continue the same old Chandramukhi story. The entire problem of the movie lies here. The title of the movie is ‘Nagavalli’ but you will hardly hear that name in the movie. We keep hearing Chandramukhi. The film started with Chandramukhi’s picture floating in the air and travelling in various directions over the titles. The start is good and I thought my decision to watch the flick isn’t wrong. Here comes the first song- Omkaaram with Kamalini. This is the best song in the film and I thought the director should have taken someone who knows dance as she is expected to dance well and dance is passion for gayatri. I took back my words towards the end of the movie as Kamalini did better job than Anushka. The story then shifts to the household of Sharathbabu where they are facing problems. Director takes us thru lots of incidents which make them worried and finally contacts Ramachandra Siddhanthi. The Scene of Sharath Babu meeting Ramachandra Siddhanthi was designed well but Siddhanthi was reduced to a joker later.  Director tried to use the age old ideas of B Grade suspense flicks to create doubt on Shraddha das as she tries to emote with her eyes.  The tempo picks up once Venky entering with a song which is specially designed on the occasion of Venky’s Silver Jubilee. The song and dance was almost similar to what Rajni did in Chandramukhi. It was as if the song was designed for Rajni and Venky acted in it. Venky tried couple of antics of Rajni and then takes off to Tirupati where the story is supposed to happen along with Brahmanandam. An ace comedian himself, Brahmanandam tried to copy Vadivelu and failed. I didn’t understand why he should copy someone rather than being himself.  Venky’s entry into the house was good and he settles down well.  From then onwards he is shown as someone who spends the day with family members.read woman and nights in investigating to find who is Chandramukhi. He travels to the library to find a book about the King and there he finds that the evil King Naga Bhairava Rajasekhara used to look like him.

This takes story into the flashback where Anushka played Nagavalli. At the outset Anushka looked good despite gaining some weight. But the biggest disappointment and negative point of the movie is Anushka who failed to dance to Ghirani Ghirani and earlier dance. Chandramukhi did well just because of the dance and failure to do the same costs the film. The main protagonist Nagavalli has a very small role in the film. Venky did well as the evil king in bits and pieces. The story comes back to the present where the doctor treats his first and the only case of Kamalini well and the film then proceeds to find who is affected by Chandramukhi. Richa did well in scenes before climax in bits and pieces. Repetition of Red lens on Richa was silly and she failed when she twisted her lips. But she did adequately well. The biggest surprise package came here in terms of 130 year old evil king. His makeup is awful with long nails and the face didn’t grow old for the old man. He jumps and dances like a young boy and this bit changed the film into total comedy. Forgot to tell you about another guest character played by a 30 ft graphic snake. Chandramukhi was a psychological thriller where Rajni cures Jyothika’s problem. Even in Nagavalli he tried to tell us that it’s a psychological problem as Richa read the book and empathized with Nagavalli but by showing snake and indicating that Nagavalli’s soul possessed her, the director got himself into confusion and confused all.

Shyam K Naidu did a decent job with camera but could see a lot of shaky shots. Paruchuri Brothers didn’t have much job except for couple of lines the evil king said. Another big blunder the film makers did is roping in Gurukiran as the music director. Though he did decent job for back ground score, the songs are a letdown. It looked like we are hearing to the songs of 1980s. Picturization also is bad.

P. Vasu couldn’t live up to the expectations and failed in his second attempt to keep the interest of the audience alive. As a senior director he is expected to know that the audience would expect better fare from him and he has to surprise them to win.  Scenes like blood oozing out of instrument when MS Narayana died are impressive but the main scenes disappoint. Venkatesh in his silver jubilee year is expected to deliver better performance. Shraddha Das and Richa are better in this movie. Dharmavarapu’s comedy failed and Brahmanandam disappointed. At the end, I returned disappointed.

P.S: Please note that these are my personal feelings when I watched the movie and I wouldn’t suggest any of you to go to the movie with the opinions voiced out by me.

Orange- My Take

First things first. This is not a review. This is my take on Orange starring Ram Charan and Genelia and directed by Bhaskar. This moment also warrants me to appreciate Ram Charan who instead of getting overpowered by the stardom brought by his mega success Magadheera and drawn into the vicious circle of fans and stardom took up a different and sensitive love story which will no way boost his mega image and stardom. I should appreciate Bhaskar for taking up a subject which will rarely be taken by a successful director. The best part of the film is absence of dream sequences and item numbers and depending mostly on situational songs that elevate the plot. Let me get into the plot and concept now.




Do you believe in love forever?

Do you think love wades with time?

Is true love possible?



I am sure these are some questions that haunt most of us at some point of time or other. These are very complex questions which sometimes question the existence of relationships and of course the same questions bother Ram, the protagonist in the movie. Result of which he believes in short term love. He believes that love is longterm fades away and if you want to relish true love, it can happen only in short term. His belief is based on his past experiences and the hero has already broken up with 9 girls and meets his 10th girl Janu, played by chirpy Genelia who believes in life time love. Its the usual boy meets girl and Ram who believes in giving unlimited love and surprises make Janu propose to him and ask for the unlimited love for the lifetime and Janu is in for a surprise when Ram says he cant love her for lifetime and can love for short time as he doesn't believe in longterm love. The rest of the story is all about who convinces whom.



The film starts slowly and the first 15 minutes is a let down. While Director tried to establish Ram and Genelia's character,the introduction scenes are Genelia's character is a total let down as she irritates with her giggles to the core. I didn't see anyone in the packed theater to her histrionics while proposing to the three guys. No one understood why she is so desperate and at this point, director missed to establish her character. After she proposes and Ram disposes, she desperately tries to get rid of Ram but couldn't as she is drawn towards him by his charm. She realizes that she has to find her love for life and her transformation from a girl who wants to select love by way of chits to try and find love for life is not really convincing and there is nothing much she has done except realizing from one lecture of Ram that she doesn't know what type of person she wants to love her. She in bits gets convinced with her mother and others that there is no love or true love left in all those so called love stories and Ram is the guy whom she wants to love. But again her condition is life long love. In fact the entire story hits dead end once she realizes that she wants Ram. By then even Ram realizes that separation is not the only solution and he needs to keep loving to understand love. I suppose the director didn't understand how to take the plot forward at this point and Ram keeps asking Janu what she wants and she doesn't answer. According to me,the first 15 minutes and the last 15 minutes is the problem in the story and if you leave that, the rest is absolutely a pleasure.



The Flashback episode of Ram is done very well with Shahzahn Padamsee as his lover. Though this is targeted to convince us what made Ram change himself, the scenes are truly out of the real life. The possessiveness shown in Shahzahn's eyes truly represents the adolescent love. Ram did well when realizes that he has started loosing his identity and lying for the sake of love and his expressions of disappointment and getting something he didn't want when her parents approve of their love is too good. I am sure during this episode most of the viewers would have seen themselves on the screen.



How many times would you have felt that you are loving the feeling of falling in love than truly falling in love?



How many times would you have lied or done something that you never wanted to do just to keep your lover happy?



How many times would you have been uncomfortable leaving your mobile with your girlfriend without fearing that she could peep in?



How many times would you have not felt happy when you achieved your goal?



Ram's quest for true love where you need not lie, compromise or fear is truly understandable but it should not have been confused with short term or long term love. In my opinion, the director should have focused himself on true love than short term love because the logic of short term love is not really convincing.



Ram Charan did his part extremely well and he is full of love in this film. He is seen in bits and pieces in various shades and various ages and I think he did well. His eyes in some scenes are really amazing and it expresses love he wants to. He did his dances well and none of the dances have any heavy steps that his fans expect him to do. The fights are good and the skydiving scene is done well. For Genelia, its an extension from what she has played in bommarillu but the bubbliness ends once she proposes to Ram. Genelia looks good in bits and pieces and she looks old in few shots. He looks in those shots are negative for this film and even her costumes in those shots didn't elevate her character. Brahmanadam did well as Puppy and avasarala is decent. Praneeth did well and Kishore is OK. Special mention to real life couple manjula( Superstar Krishna's daughter and Mahesh babu's sister) and sanjay who acted as Ram's sister and brother in law. We could see chemistry between them. Nagababu did well.



The canvas is beautiful and the cinematographers Rajasekhar and Kiran pictured beautiful Sydney very well. The music from Harris Jayaraj is good but the background score is just decent. In Love stories, the BGM plays a very vital role but in this movie, its just subtle. On the whole Bhaskar did a decent attempt to try a difficult subject and we would need more directors who could try and attempt such complex subjects.

Guzaarish- Love for Life Vs No Life

The much awaited Guzaarish by Sanjay Leela Bhansali is released today and the film lovers were looking forward for the magic by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and the chemistry between Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. Does the movie live up to the expectations? Is Mr. Bhansali able to weave his magic wand this time? Let’s see.

First things first- If you are looking for a movie to have fun this weekend, If you are looking for rib tickling comedy or romance please don’t venture out into the theatre. You will for sure not like it. If you are a lover of cinema and want to see good cinema devoid of all formula, welcome to the world of Ethan Masceranhas built by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. At least the best thing about this movie is that they don’t try to create comic moments at the cost of a differently abled person.

This is the story of Ethan Masceranhas India’s No.1 Magician who is injured and turned quadriplegic turned to an RJ now running a program called Radio Zindagi and helping others live. The story is about his petition for euthanasia- mercy killing unable to bear his pain. The story line is as simple as the two lines I wrote above but if you ask is that all, I would say NO. That’s where the work of master story teller comes into place.  I would like to deviate from revealing the spoilers about what the story is and how it progresses.

The story in one line is LIFE Vs NO LIFE. Hrithik Roshan is amazing wonderful as the protagonist Ethan Masceranhas who is Quadriplegic for 14 years. He smiles, He lives, He emotes, He expresses his pain and he takes the movies over his shoulders which are paralyzed. All his emotions are limited to his face and you would not see any impact on his body below the neck and that’s fantastic for an actor like hrithik.

Aishwarya Rai Bachhan as Sophie for once after long time lived in the role. Sophie is the caretaker cum nurse of Ethan who is serving him devotedly ignoring her life, her marital life and everything. She rubs his nose, brushes him, feeds him and in way has more rights over his life than himself.

Ethan takes help of his friend Devyani, played by Shernaz Patel to fight his case for Euthanasia and she fights for her friend irrespective of her wish. Suhel Seth Played Dr. Nayak who loves Ethan and doesn’t like his decision of euthanasia. We have Aditya Roy Kapoor, a brilliant actor playing Omar Siddhiqui a man who comes to learn magic from Ethan. Not to forget Monikangana Dutta who sparkles in a small role as Ethan’s Ex Girlfriend and the first person to support his decision.

The narration is not regressive. You will feel love for life in the protagonist. You will start living and loving life from his eyes and wonder why he wants to die. The only negative point as I see is lack of clarity as to why exactly Ethan wants to die and the director didn’t explain it well.

 The Photography is world class and every frame in the villa where you see most of the movie running is like a painting and Sanjay Leela Bhansali lived up to his expectations as a director of grandeur from his devdas days. The narration picks up when Ethan steps out of his house to fight his case. The drive between his house and court is beautifully picturized where he sees world again after 12 years. You will feel the waves touching you, the kids playing waving at you and the breeze flowing thru your hair. When the tears flow down the corners of Ethan’s eyes you are forced to feel his pain. When the court is set up in his house and his mother nafisa talks about her willingness of helping his son, it touches not just our hearts but the cocky public prosecutor’s too. The next scene where the helpless quadriplegic fights with rain drops and loses the battle convinces us of his helplessness and don’t blame if you too wish that his wish of euthanasia is granted. The helplessness in his eyes when Sophia’s husband come and beats her up and the anger when he knows that his case is dismissed proves us yet again that hrithik is definitely one of the finest actors of the generation.

Aishwarya on her side plays a helpless nurse who doesn’t like Ethan’s wish of euthanasia but couldn’t deny his right for the most part of the film. You can feel her overpossesiveness, her love and care in every act of hers. She has proven as a brilliant dancer yet again in the pub song and the ease with which she plays air guitar is watchable.

Music by Sanjay Leela Bhansali doesn’t really add magic to the movie. Aditya Roy Kapoor adds few funny moments thru his demeanor and few dialogues Ethan has with the father brings forgotten smile back on the lips, though for a while.   

All the actors played their characters wonderfully and they ensure that you come out with a heavy heart when you come out of theatre after watching the movie. On the whole this is the Hrithik movie where the wonderful actor has done absolute justice to the sensitive character and makes us feel the pain of Ethan Masceranhas.

bathakadam nerchuko...

చస్తూనే బతకడం...చస్తూనే చావడం...

చావులోనే బతకడం...

ఇదే మనిషి జీవితం..

పుట్టుక ఒక సంబరం..

బతుకు బండి గమనానికి శ్రీకారం...

బతకమని పంపిస్తే...

బతకడం మరచిపోయి...

చస్తూ బతికే ఓ మనిషి...

ముందు బతకడం నేర్చుకో..

Digital Revolution could be a true messiah to the Indian film Industry

Film Industry probably is one of the top industries in the country both on revenue and number of people employed but at the same time very volatile and most unorganized. FICCI-KPMG study puts Indian industry at $2.2 bn and it is probably the No.1 Film Industry in the world churning out more than 800 films per year most made in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam.

 The Industry is very unique in its own way as it was not even considered as an  industry till late 90s and the way Film Industry works is different from many organized sectors. The success rate is very low making films the risky business and though we saw corporate and studios entering the fray, most couldn’t sustain. Today the number of films being made has come down and reports show that the revenues have become stagnant while the cost of making films have gone up. We have seen films like Blue, Endhiran, Chandni Chowk to China and Magadheera being made at huge costs and the biggest problem the producer faces today is to recover costs and make money. With Piracy and Internet downloads threatening the inflow of people into the theatres and the reviews on internet and newspapers influencing the decision of the filmgoer, the job of film maker has become even tougher to grab maximum eyeballs in the first few days and recover the cost at the earliest.

A film maker recovers his cost thru selling the theatrical rights to his distributors in India and abroad, music rights and satellite rights. Though there is trail income that comes by way of exhibition of film for years, the biggest focus of any film maker today is to get big openings to recover his costs. In this Industry fortunes are made or broken over a weekend and with films releasing every weekend and with limited theatres at stake, the first week becomes very critical. The trend thus far has been to ensure release with maximum number of prints, create pre release hype and ensure collections. These days the marketing of the films has been slick and hype to create good openings has been at peak but finally if the script is not good enough, nothing works.

In any other industry the premium product commands premium price and an economy product gets lesser price and the costing of the product is also in direct correlation of the product type. You will rarely find that the ticket price of a budget film being priced low while a high budget flick being priced high. The only differentiator here is number of prints and there are times when we find that the small film makers seldom don’t get proper theatres and hence the flick suffers. I think its time the Industry innovates to ensure that the costs are recovered better which can obviously improve the health of the Industry.

One argument that seldom comes in this context is that film industry should reduce the costs to ensure better returns. While I agree on the same, a look at the costing clearly throws the fact that 50-60% of the cost of making a film goes towards remuneration of the stars and it is not really controllable as the remunerations are market dependent and also depends on the success of the stars. The producers should definitely look at other options to reduce costs and digital production and exhibition is one area which definitely could be a game changer. Digital production would definitely reduce the wastage in making a film and also save time. With advanced cameras like RED in vogue, the quality of the cinema will also improve along with cost, if digital production is adopted. Digital Projection or Digital exhibition can definitely reduce the cost of making multiple prints and save on film quality. Digital exhibition, though is now pretty popular hasn’t caught up the way it is supposed to be. Pyramid Saimira has decided to close shop and UFO is a big player on the same. I see that Bollywood is more active on digital cinema and other industries are yet to catch up. Digital exhibition not just gives an opportunity for wide release of the film but also security against piracy. Digital content protection software can resist piracy.

Theatre is the prime medium thru which films are being exhibited and spiraling multiplex and theatre rents are squeezing the margins for the Producers and Distributors. Internet as a medium is not embraced by film Industry as much as it is embraced by others. Internet could be the right answer for the film piracy if used well. We have seen some bollywood films getting into streaming medium like YOUTUBE and the producers of 3 IDIOTS have agreed for download from You Tube against a price 12 weeks after theatrical release. Telugu film Prasthanam was allowed on Internet on pay per view basis. This could be a game changer if used well. The Producers and Directors might be wondering if embracing internet could destroy the quality of film viewing as films projected in theatres give an exemplary experience with right sound. While it is true that films can be best experienced in theatres, the number of downloads over internet are spiraling and there are good number of people across the world who are downloading pirated prints and the move to market the product over internet could certainly reduce the risk of pirated prints. This could only add as an additional income and also can give an experience better than pirated prints. While music, TV and book publishing industry has used internet to the greatest advantage, film industry is still in the initial stages and the biggest medium according to me is being left out.

The next biggest medium that could change the future of the film viewing could be mobile phones. With 3G all set to invade the Indian telecom space, the opportunities are enormous. The medium can be used to promote and exhibit films on pay per view and can give flexibility to the viewer to watch whenever he wants. Streaming of music and downloads can boast revenue of producers as well as telecom companies.

DTH is another medium according to me which could help producers grab more and more eyeballs. There were few small budget flicks that saw release on TV but this could be a big medium which can take films to millions of homes India and abroad. Agreed that this could pose direct competition to theatres but the producers can consider a staggered release of a week on DTH on pay per view.  I think this could almost put an end to the rising pirated DVD market and considering the reach the Industry has, this could turnout to be a good revenue model for the films.

With Globalization of Indian films and with new markets opening up ( Telugu movies doing well in Kerala and the most popular movies in Poland are Indian and Telugu flicks), If the Industry could open itself up and embrace new technologies, medium and distribution channels we can see more successful movies and happy producers which in turn can give us varied cinema of different genre.

Villians make the most of the heroes

Sholay...Mr.India...Karma....Ram Lakhan..Shiva...

When you hear the names of the movies mentioned above, most of the faces would attract smile as these are few of the films that made us happy. When you hear sholay, you remember gabbar singh as much as jay and veeru and most of us may not be able to tell the name of the character Anil Kapoor played in Mr. India but we remember Mogambo. Loin makes people excited even today and the people of the present generation who havent even seen him loves him. Thats the power of the villian. A strong villian makes the hero even more stronger and hence the strong villian becomes as important if not more than a hero in a movie. Can you imagine the above movies without a strong villian? No ways. Isnt it?

Do I mean that the movie without a strong villian wont work? I dont mean a physical villian when I say so. Take the case of Anand. The disease that Rajesh Khanna battles is the villian in this movie and it could be the struggle the hero undergoes thats a villian in some cases. Ultimately unless the hero has a strong hero or a strong opposition, his character cannot be elevated.

This brings me back to the real life from reel life. How many times do we feel bad that we are facing difficulties in our lives? How many times do we blame god for the failures in our lives? How many times do we blame fate for things not happening the way it has to be? People who pass thru thr situations successfully vouch to the fact that the adverse situations and failure made them more stronger. Most of the successful people would definetely credit the failures they faced in the past for the present success. Failures,difficulties and obstacles are part and parcel of our lives and they come to us only to ensure that we emerge stronger. Like the way a strong villian makes a stronger hero, the tough situations makes a person even more stronger and successful.

So dont blame the failures and obstacles and rather learn from them to grow stronger.