Tamasoma Post-Mortem & CutMirchi Future

It's been a week since we released Tamasoma to YouTube audience and since then it has been a roller-coaster ride with mixed feelings. I find this phase very entertaining, enlightening and worth sharing. Here's my account.

When I embarked on this journey, I had 3 story points to turn into films and took the most simple and straightforward script for Tamasoma because I knew the first attempt would be a learning curve. Hence the story had only 4-5 characters, limited locations and duration. I didn't intend to create any ripples nor submit my work to sundance film festival. I basically wanted to learn how to present an idea in a cinematic way in the most engaging way possible without boring the audience.

The Good

I read many books and watched videos about film making where gurus advised not to introduce the major plot incident right in the first scene because that would require a director to engage the audience continuously thereafter without tiring them. But with Tamasoma,  I deliberately defied that rule and tested myself if I could deliver a 40 minute saga without losing audience's interest despite a major incident right in the opening scene.

I heard many accounts of feedback - both positive and negative from people I know and others too. The criticism was majorly around bad dubbing and audio quality or screenplay of the last 10 minutes but almost everybody agreed that the story, concept engaged them and they enjoyed the unpredictable twists. Everybody unanimously agreed that I could hook them up for 40 minutes without distraction. THAT'S MY SUCCESS.

After I took up this journey, at least 50 people told me that they always wanted to make short films, skits or feature films but they could never begin due to whatever reasons they had. I had my own reasons too, but I broke through the barriers, wrote, narrated, directed, produced and promoted a product which was born out of my mind. THAT'S MY SUCCESS.

We are glad that we could stand up to our first marketing slogan that this was the story never been told in world cinema and we are proud of it.

The Bad

When I saw the aggressive tirade by makers of  "ee nagaraniki emaindi", "veera bhoga vasantha rayalu" against reviewers, I was amused. If a person delivered a creative product for public consumption in a public domain, they should be ready to accept any criticism. Hence I was more than willing to listen to constructive criticism about my first attempt.

Also I don't understand filmmakers who get annoyed by criticism and reviews by those who never held a camera nor shot a home video. Talking of analogies, when we go to a restaurant we would review the taste of food even if we can't cook. Same logic applies here. Those who critique films don't need to be knowledgeable about film making. For me, criticism is not bad. Actually that's more important than praises because that's how I can think from audience's perspective and learn what not to repeat in the future.

But yeah, those critics can't make even a fraction of what film makers do is a different afterthought though. Nevertheless there are always few negative people who want to humiliate and slander and I refuse to acknowledge their existence.

Bad Dubbing:

The unanimously raised point was the bad audio quality and poor dubbing. I totally agree with everybody. Here is what happened: We initially thought sync sound would be too difficult logistically and went ahead with an idea of ADR (dubbing). Since it was a 40 minute movie and we had only a handful of characters, we borrowed a radio station for 4 hours thinking we could finish the dubbing off. But for our surprise, it took around 4-5 hours for each actor. That was harrowing. The studio team would have agreed if it was a couple of more hours but 30 hours against 4 hours of earlier approved time was way out of line and I didn't want to trouble them because the inconvenience was evident.

The biggest mistake at that point was not to hire a professional studio for the remainder of dubbing because I thought we could do the rest at home with a microphone and a voice recording software set. Then I started traveling to all actors' houses to get their dubbing done. While the actors did their best, I was a novice in sound management and didn't realize that microphone also captured AC, furnace motor and other unwanted ambiance sounds as well and the end audio had a disturbing hush along with their voices. I asked my BGM director to remove the hush and he warned me about implications. I insisted and he did something and in the process lost some voice textures too, in addition to losing BGM effects as well. It was 40 hours of recording, traveling, post production sound design (more than shooting time) which went into a monumental waste. I was dejected but could do very less because it was too late to re-dub and I didn't want to trouble actors who already worked for free. Then there was a huge issue of lip sync and getting the right emotions while dubbing.

The final nail on the coffin was that iDream guys compressed the 41 minute movie to 39 minute video including their own animations thus compressing the entire audio and video quality making the negative feedback inevitable.

Bad Screenplay:

While many lauded our product and were lenient because it was my first attempt, few correctly pointed at the incoherent screenplay and fast flowing scenes especially towards climax. I identified that in rushes and hence posted a poll on my FB if I should release or not. I was in two minds but then released it because the output involved hard work of other people involved.

I earlier wrote my story and dialogues and started filming some scenes with just those dialogues without proper screenplay. Towards the end, I learnt screenplay techniques and reshot many scenes and hence you might find few scenes came out well while few others came and went in a flicker before you could register what's going on. That's a notebook case study for bad screenplay.

Behind every 1 minute of film you watch on screen, there were 2 hours of shooting and 2 more hours of pre-production and post production. Unfortunately, thanks to my inexperience, I could realize mistakes committed during shooting only at the editing stage when my editor asked if I had some important extra footage and b-roll...and I didn't have any. So the editor had to mix and match the available footage and deliver the product. Earlier I edited music video reprisals but working with him taught me many intricacies of editing.

Performances:

Debutante actors performed better than their best and got overwhelming appreciation from all corners. If there was any such scene where the audience felt actors could have performed differently, the onus lies upon me because I should have asked them for a retake if I was not satisfied. They performed as many times and in as many variations as I requested from them.

Others:

Few friends advised me to employ multi camera setup, dolly movements, drone sequences in the movie. The camera angles and techniques employed during Tamasoma were deliberate. If you notice, I used all the aforementioned techniques in my other music video reprisals and also tried here but felt not suitable for the screenplay and dialogue narrative. Yet, your feedback is valued and will make sure you will enjoy my next output.

The Future

I took up camera and film making as an active hobby and a borderline passion and not as a career. I would continue to make more movies, videos as long as I get ideas that blow my mind, as long as my wife and friends who share my passion are willing to collaborate and as long as my parents and family join me through the process.

Few well wishers warned me that film industry is not known to "give chances" to outsiders and I should make more love stories or comedy to get more chances. I seldom ask for chances from anybody and I would only collaborate with those who want to join aboard my vision. I don't find love stories and boy meets girl kind of sagas interesting and don't intend to be a drop in the flood of short films and movies that pass us everyday. I would initiate something only when the plot blows my mind. And I found two such plots.

While I would want to reserve the best plot I devised for a theatrical release feature film sometime in the near future, there is another interesting plot which I'll roll-out soon as my second short film. The story will have more characters, longer duration, more action visuals, less conversations and I promise to overcome blunders I committed in Tamasoma. The title would be "Asatoma" and is not related to "Tamasoma" in any way.

Those who watched Tamasoma would know that I left all characters as open ended and nobody was shown as dead (may be except one). All the loose ends would be connected in a more unthinkable way in Tamasoma-2 which will be a limited and private release to those who enjoyed Tamasoma-1.

In addition, we are planning to roll-out three different weekly talk shows about three completely unrelated topics. My wife will helm two of those and I would take up the third one. Will begin those too as limited releases to gauge the reaction before releasing it on YouTube. Interested people can join our private audience list.

The Conclusion

I wholeheartedly thank everybody who took time to watch Tamasoma and acknowledge the beginning of my new journey. Thanks and love to those who liked it and to those who had all kind words for me and the team. Thanks a ton to everybody in cast and crew who believed in my vision. Thanks to everybody in and beyond the team who have been promoting the movie to help me expand my horizons. Thank you so much to all those who gave me honest reviews and areas of improvement. You took time to analyze and tell me those points proving that you care.

To those who haven't caught up with the movie, you are welcome to check it out on my facebook timeline or search for tamasoma+cutmirchi on youtube. Those who ignored it, I'll try harder next time to gain your attention. And to all those who don't intend to watch (or pretending not to) - wishing you peace !

Shalom until 'Asatoma' !

My Journey through Filmmaking !

It's good to be back to the wordplay mode after a hiatus of almost 8 months. I certainly missed interacting with many friends on social media, but the break from all the scrolling through senseless forwards and shares on FB and Whatapp has been refreshing and revitalizing. Also the social media detox after 10 years was much needed for me not to potentially fall into the narcissistic trap which comes with the virtual interactions that can't always be construed on face value.

Once I deactivated by fb, whatsapp, insta and twitter, I had all the time in the world to retrospect my work life,  rediscover my business ambitions and reigniting latent possibilities. I would like to believe that the time was utilized well and hope the awaiting results coincide with my belief.  Another boost came in the way of expansion of The Saharsh Project and our family just breached the 100 mark.

But in years to come, I would remember 2018 for another development. Last year I could juggle between work, education, travel and many more avocations in addition to the social media obsession. This year was relatively calm and despite work assignments, I had a lot of time to cultivate and inculcate myself with a new hobby. I have been camera crazy since forever but I hit a moment of reckoning when I started self-learning camera to it's full potential. Earlier I was brandishing my DSLR at family vacations and thought I was good at photography but only after I learnt a bit of camera did I realize that not everybody who owned a DSLR was a photographer the way everybody who owned a pen wouldn't be an author.

My perennial passion has been writing and was writing more of non-fiction through this very blog till recently because that was my way of expression, an outlet. For the first time I gave a thought of expressing through camera and the In the Feelings - Kiki Challenge happened. I don't know what prompted the ladies in the video to trust my sensibilities sans any experience but they obliged to perform. While it's not the best of creative works, we all were happy with what came out considering the impulsive, inexperienced effort. I can't thank my friends enough for keeping up with my supposedly creative demands. But the more rewarding and enriching experience than the filming was editing. Learning the craft was an uphill ordeal but once I got the elements, I realized it could be quite an hobby in itself. To keep the fire going, I also edited the video clips we took in Greece last year and produced Em Sandeham Ledu - Reprisal.

In between all these, some other development occurred. Few months back, I was browsing through some news article and stumbled into a very interesting, unimaginable article which blew my mind into pieces. My first response was to write a story based on that, my first attempt at fiction. Halfway through, I felt I could convey it to larger audience if I translate that into a visual medium. First thought of a docudrama and then graduated the idea to make a short-film. My family heard the story and were more intrigued than I was which lent me a kind of reinforcement. But they believed I could do a better job with proper planning and execution than a half baked one. So they gave me the actual impetus to sign up Tamasoma. And a journey thus began.

The journey started with story writing, then moved to screenplay writing, character arc development and other pre-production work. The day came when we handpicked actors to play certain roles and picked up courage to ask them if they could act in my 'directorial'. Except one, all characters were written with certain people in mind and when I narrated the story to them, they kindly obliged, albeit with some reservations, I suppose. The people I wanted to work were those whom I knew personally and thought they would fit the bill to the T and whom I know I could get along well because that was more crucial for me. Building that team was easier than I thought. Like-minded people joined the crew and before I could realize, we were a 15 people team (production and post-production combined).

On the parallel track, I was learning crafts of film making, camera movements, cranes, gimbals, lighting equipment, sound, dialogue writing etc. Everything for the first time and I can't express how exhilarating and exhausting each phase was. My cast and crew were rock-solid beside me and I'm sure they did everything not to let me down despite noticing my amateurism. Every single person delivered everything I wanted and required on and off screen. They also came to terms with my re-shooting entire sequences 3-4 times without rolling their eyes. I still wonder what made them oblige to so many of my silly antics and tantrums. Thank you guys and love you all for your support and I apologize in advance if I won't be able to translate your hard work and conviction onscreen.

The production of the movie was fun and more like a picnic barring production design where I and the team had to run pillar to post to get logistics arranged. The movie making experience was diagonally different from music video reprisals or travelogue videos because there was screenplay, dialogues involved and we had to make sure every scene conveys the story to audiences in the way I imagined. After a month of shooting, post-production began which was another uphill task, more exhausting than the shooting itself. My editor (a professional guy who worked with teams of RGV etc) has been extremely patient, knowledgeable and is doing an able job. I'm waiting to witness his skill on the final product. Background music and foley is underway and is helmed by another old acquaintance who worked with teams of AR Rahman and Hiphop Thamizha.

As mentioned earlier, my conviction was that I could convey the story better as a movie than a blog article but I'm not sure how successful am I (or would I be) because I could see how unfledged, raw and callow my work as a director was and how I can do a better job now after going through the end to end movie making life cycle. I might have been haughty and cocky for believing that I could deliver magic without any training but without that presumptuousness and arrogance, I would not even have ventured anything into these waters and I'm glad I did it.

I hope the audience would watch the movie through my eyes and enjoy the story and the experience because as we began our marketing, this is one story which wasn't told in world cinema as yet. Our creative naivete may get under criticism (which we welcome wholeheartedly) but the story line won't. I promise the audience won't be disappointed about the story if they could be a bit lenient on our inexperience.

For those who asked me why did I only address intense subjects (like in In the Feelings - Kiki Challenge and now with Tamasoma), watch out for my take on love and romance in a video to be uploaded tomorrow at CutMirchi Media. Oh, by the way, we rebranded the channel from Myriad Tales to CutMirchi Media in an anticipation to indulge ourselves in serious visual media experiments.

So you will see more of my work and possibly myself on screen soon (but not acting or running around trees..). Watch out, Dear Friends !

Top 15 Film Directors I Love to Watch

Being a self-proclaimed movie-buff, I took a long time to write a movie based post. Here is the one where I tried to list down my top 15 film directors who (almost) consistently impressed me with their craft and captivated my senses through tightly scripted, content oriented movies.

While I loved some masterpieces by directors like Guru Dutt, Satyajit Ray, Akira Kurosawa, Al Hitchcock, Roman Polaski, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Stanley Kubrick, Client Eastwood, Ang Lee, Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, Ben Affleck, Vishal Bhardwaj, I don't see their work as consistently engaging.

Though I'm a fan of international cinema, especially European, Iranian, Brazilian, Korean stuff and immensely admired single pieces of work of Majid Majidi, Alejandro Inarritu, Fernando Meirelles, I haven't seen their whole body of work to list them under my favorites either.

I couldn't care less about hero-elevation and mass elements which I never identified myself with and so the list is irrespective of their box office exploits or fan-base and hence could look skewed and stupid to few. Take it in your stride, guys :)

COUNTDOWN

(15) SS.Rajamouli: I hated all his movies from Student No 1 to Maryada Ramanna and yet he is in the list because of his ability and sheer brilliance in translating a script into visual drama on screen. He could dramatize even a gait or stare with aplomb, which sometimes goes overboard though. While many sequences in Bahubali were copied (err...adapted) from Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur and GOT, he is an undisputed craftsman who delivers visual opulence in constrained budget vis-a-vis his hollywood counterparts. You may as well peek into my earlier post about him at A Brand called Rajamouli

(14) AR Muragadoss: Yes, 'SYPder' was a dud and so was 'Stalin'. But a man who could captivate audiences through edge-of-the-seat screenplay and provide vicarious pleasure to star-fans through 'Thupakki', 'Kaththi', '7am arivu', 'Ghajini', 'Ramana' deserves a mention here.

(13) Imtiaz Ali: While his last couple of films were tedious to watch, he introduced a style of film-making which showed love-stories in a different light. Raw, intense and authentic. His debut 'Socha Na Tha' was a surprise for me but 'Jab We Met', 'Love Aajkal' and 'Rockstar' cemented my loyalty in his brand of film-making. 

(12) S. Shankar: When his films were dubbed into Telugu as 'Gentleman', 'Premikudu', 'Bharateeyudu',  'Oke Okkadu', many believed he could do no wrong and would be an unprecendented hit-machine. He showed what grandeur was much before Rajamouli did and could be deservedly called 'James Cemeron' of India. But later movies were huge let-down. Hoping to see the vintage Shankar with that vintage Rahman musicals soon.

(11) Woody Allen: The master of romantic comedies and God of conversation based movies (which I crave). 'Annie Hall' and 'Manhattan' stand tall as his outstanding artistry and inspiration for scores of film-makers since then. Most of the new-age directors copy (intentionally or unintentionally) or follow Woody Allen who could be credited for inventing a new genre of movies.

(10) Trivikram-Vijaya Bhaskar: A legendary dialogue-writer whose movies run in my car's rear entertainment system all through the year. His movies have repeat value and though he worked with star heroes, he successfully steered across insipid scenes and predictable conversations unlike his other more successful contemporaries. But must also say that movies he ghost-directed with Vijayabhasker at helm ('Nuvvu Naaku Nachav', 'Manmadhudu', 'Swayamvaram') were much more entertaining than the ones he directed to credit himself. 

(9) Farhan Akhtar: If Hindi movie history can be classified into two eras, it should be definitely before and after 'Dil Chahta Hai'. DCH released in 2001 along with more successful 'Lagaan' and 'Gadar' but the impact it made changed the dynamics and ecosystem of Bollywood. 'Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara' which he wrote and allegedly directed for his sister should be made a case-study not only in film institutes but in every personality development institute.

(8) James Cameron: The magician himself for whom sky is the limit. When top 2 biggest worldwide grocers of all time happen to be his movies, he doesn't need any further paeans or tributes. Another thing which puts him head and shoulders above other greats is his unique ability to balance visual grandeur and emotional connect which would make spectators oblivious of the fact they were watching a piece of fiction on screen.

(7) Hrishikesh Mukherjee / Jandhyala Subramanya Sastry: Legends who created a whole middle path between brainless, slapstick commercials on one side and lackluster, painfully tedious art cinema on the other during 70's-90's. Their boy and girl next door plots revolving around middle class families and day to day issues were refreshingly identifiable and heart warming. Jandhyala of Telugu film industry adapted Hrishida' style and revolutionized Telugu movies and carved a whole sub-industry in the otherwise loud era marked by mediocrity of Dasari Narayana Rao, Kodandarami Reddy, Raghavendra Rao.  

(6) Quentin Tarantino: Who else could glorify violence and bloodshed like THE Tarantino. I once randomly ran into 'Pulp Fiction' and was so stupefied by his style of creativity that I spent the next week watching all his remaining filmography. While 'Kill Bill' is the most loved among his works, 'Inglorious Basterds' was not too far behind. Tarantino revolutionized and redefined the words style, violence, gangsters, guns and background music. A certain 'Ram Gopal Varma' can copy and aspire to be Tarantino all he wants, but he must realize there's only one original.

(5) Rajkumar Hirani: I can't think of any other film director who can have such profound impact on the masses' behavior as Raju Hirani. And he nails it without getting into preaching mode. Be it education system in '3 Idiots', hospital ecosystem in 'Munnabhai MBBS', superstitions and Gandhian values in 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' or religious stupidity in 'PK' - Hirani drives his points with crisp conversations, captivating sequences and razor sharp screenplay. Aspiring film makers can study his style of film making to learn how to write, shoot, edit sequences which enthrall audiences throughout the film watching experience. The best contemporary film maker in India, period

(4) Martin Scorsese: Any legendary film director would be usually known by his one best movie which defines him/her. But Martin Scorsese churned out such landmark movies which each could easily be the best movie of the respective decade. Isn't Goodfellas the best gangster movie ever made ? Taxi Driver, Shutter Island, The Departed, The Gangs of New York, Raging Bull are such unforgettable classics that Hollywood should be renamed as "Scorsese Film Industry". 

(3) K. Viswanath: If there's anybody who's all time best film director India has ever produced, that would be none other than Viswanath. Especially his movies of early 80's like sagara sangamam, swathi mutyam, sitara, sirivennela, shrutilayalu, swayam krushi, swarna kamalam show how one visionary rose amidst a plethora of substandard film makers to confer certain respect to vernacular music, performing arts, linguistic aesthetics while addressing social evils when he could have easily chosen the regular run-of-the-mill formulae of the industry. And masses who were accused to be enjoying mediocrity rose along and gave their stamp of approval.

(2) Christopher Nolan: When I first watched 'Memento' (way before Ghajini), I was so lost and confused with two interspersing stories which was too taxing on my mind. When I watched it for the second time, it looked like a whole new movie altogether. Making a film like a puzzle and giving audiences some clues to figure out the plot was sheer brilliance of a certain Chris Nolan. Nolan is not just a film maker but a bonafide genius, a savant per se. His Batman series was a bit let-down but The Prestige, Inception and Interstellar too test audiences' mind more than visual senses. He is one of a kind.

(1) David Fincher: All the above mentioned film makers were genii in their own right but if there is one creative genius who made me sit on the edge of the seat without blinking in almost 10 movies, that's David Fincher. Each one of his movies got me intensely intrigued, gave me adrenaline rush and palpable heart beat. Being a massive fan of all kinds of thrillers (psychological, crime, plain old), I don't think there's any number 2 in the genre miles behind David Fincher. If you haven't watched his work, its time you get your ass down to watch 'panic room', 'zodiac', 'gone girl', 'the girl with the dragon tattoo', 'se7en' etc

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Special Mention:

Ram Gopal Varma: How I was an avid fan of RGV once and how I gradually got disillusioned by him at The Curious Case of Ram Gopal Varma

The so called acclaimed film directors I love to hate - Mani Ratnam, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Karan Johar, George Lucas, Peter Jackson,

A Brand called SS Rajamouli

Let me put a foreword at the outset that this is not a review of Rajamouli's magnum opus Bahubali, neither do I intend to watch it anytime sooner nor was I ever a fan of his work. What fascinates me is his journey from movie to movie and building a formidable brand which could resonate across every Telugu speaking belt in the world (and now across Indian diaspora, hopefully). More than his cinematic genius, I'm awestruck by the way he planned and executed his success story in his own terms.

Though I'm nobody to comment or criticize Rajamouli's talent and body of work because the world had already put him on pedestal showing his near universal acceptance, his style of films are not my cup of tea. He seemingly pushed forward the Raghavendra Rao or B.Gopal schools of hero oriented, grand visuals based movies which drove me off Telugu movies in early 90's. I always enjoyed more subtle, light hearted, dialogue driven movies of K.Viswananth, Vijayabhaskar, Sekhar Kammula, Imtiaz Ali, Raju Hirani on one extreme and more gritty, hard hitting crime thrillers of Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Madhur Bhandarkar on the other. Rajamouli falls somewhere in between and I personally felt dialogues or conversations in his movies always have been his achilles heel.

But as agreed earlier, my opinion won't take away anything from him as his fans would vouch for (and some may even bay for my blood) and this article is not about merits and demerits of his movies but his entrepreneurial skills and his ability to convert his passion into a strong brand which is a case study for even IIM or Harvard students.


His first few movies, though absolute money spinners were more pandering his heroes and their maniac fanbase. Those flicks helped those lead actors expand their demigod status. Though skeptics might not have liked those movies, he became an household name by then.

But magadheera changed the entire canvass. Though the second half period drama and visuals were epic, the contemporary setting was quite ordinary. But the movie showcased how effective a showman can be he. The movie rampaged all box office records, well galvanized by chiranjeevi's fans. Till Magadheera, Rajamouli was only a creative master and a visual epic story teller but he did not make any conscious effort to build brand Rajamouli.

His next movie was a textbook guide for brand building. By making maryada ramanna with a relatively smaller budget and smaller starcast, he'd hit the bulls eye. He successfully toned down expectations after the mega hit which many other talented filmmakers like Ashutosh Gowariker miserably failed at. With maryada ramanna, Rajamouli made a glaring statement that he could still be a showman with smaller starcast - first departure from his hero orientation obsession. By then, he was already a brand which was proven by the success of son of sardar, a poorly made remake of supposedly second league movie by Rajamouli. That along with success of Rowdy Rathore, another remake of his work, paved the way to his recognition nationwide.

Subsequently, Eega made his invincible. The movie showcased his technical finesse and ability to plunder box office with no star power. Nationwide audiences again approved of notwithstanding poor collections in the northern belt. But Rajamouli made right noises across trade pundits all over the world.

Making of Bahubali is more epic than the movie itself. Rajamouli knew it would take a couple of years but he began the PR blitz right after inception of the movie. He made people anticipate, film industry wait, ensured everybody knew about the movie. Even Amitabh, Rajnikanth couldn't wait and made favorable statements. Icing on the cake was to rope in Karan Johar to present the Hindi version. Already planned as a multi lingual, Karan Johar's brand association made the movie much bigger across not just India but also among diaspora.

The movie will be a sure shot earth shattering, thundering blockbuster. No second thoughts about that. The movie will be review-proof, critic-proof, piracy-proof, negativity-proof because he was successful in bringing his spectators and audiences aboard the journey of making that they started feeling Bahubali is their own product. Most sensible and movie loving audiences will voluntarily avoid piracy, spread positive talk regardless of the content. THAT IS SUCCESS. And that is BRAND RAJAMOULI.

As a telugu speaking person, I'm proud of the scale, podium and canvass Bahubali will be released and hopefully accepted across. Wish the movie rings the Telugu movie bell across worldwide movie fans.

My List of Top 25 Thriller Movies

Time for another movie based blog post this holiday season. Here's a list of my favorite movies in my favorite genre - crime thrillers which encompass heist movies, cop capers, gangster movies, horror sub-genre et-al. I'm sure those who like movies made by Scorsese, Tarantino, Fincher, RGV, Abbas Mustan would agree with the below list. Sorry for those who like superhero based or animation or gory or hard core action movies. Unfortunately those are not my cups of tea. The list comprises of English, Hindi movies, a Telugu, a Kannada and a Tamil movie.

25.Race (Hindi): Though it's not a superbly directed movie or sport a tremendous plot, this is one of those movies which completely sprung me off my seat in the theatre with unexpected twists sprinkled with bollywood dramebazi when I was least expecting. Trailers showing lead actors and actresses swapping also added to curiosity. Abbas-Mustan is undeniably one of the best Indian directors in the thriller genre

24. Pulp Fiction: I'm a big fan of Tarantino and I even liked his relatively unknown movies like Jackie Brown. Pulp Fiction doesn't come exactly under thriller flicks by the definition of it, it's a directorial trendsetter sorts of movie which directors worldwide like to copy (read RGV).

23.No Country for Old Men: It's more brutal than thrilling. I'm sure Bardem might've caused sleepless nights to many

22.Lucia (Kannada): I watched this movie after my wife's incessant awe and hard selling. This is one of those superb small budget movies from a relatively silent industries and hence couldn't have reached many from non-Kannada speaking moviegoers but the tight screenplay was an absolute delight. But a small thorn in the flesh is that the movie is eerily (!!!) similar to another favorite movie of mine which is in this list. Go find it !

21.Fast & Furious series: I started watching and liking the series since its 5th instalment and was awed by Paul Walker's presence. A typical no-brainer entertaining franchise with abundant melodrama and high adrenalin

20.The Silence of the Lambs: Again a fabulous movie where a girl deals with an intellectual cannibal to capture a maniac transgender serial killer. I would've enjoyed it more if I hadn't watched an inferior Sangharsh earlier

19.Pizza (Tamil): Superb movie displaying unflinching story-telling prowess. Not a horror movie but the director made sure the audiences clasped their seats hard throughout the movie. But alas ! what a shitty sequel called Villa

18.The Exorcist: The only horror movie in the list not because it scared the hell out of me but for being an inspiration for all other horror movies which were churned out in last few decades. Haven't watched much of Hitchcock including his much spoken about Psycho but 'The Exorcist' reminds of every other horror movie ever made (or ahem may be the other way round).

17.Company (Hindi): RGV's finest movie till date and I'm sure he can't better that anymore. One of the most hard hitting and detailed screenplays ever in the Indian movie history. Thankfully RGV refrained from showing his eccentricities and over-confidence to salvage the flick

16.A Wednesday (Hindi): Mind Blowing direction and screenplay by a relatively unknown director but Naseeruddin Shah just nailed it the hardest way possible. But the director disappointed with his next movie Special 26. Hoping for him to recreate the magic in his upcoming "baby"

15.Shawshank Redemption: One of the best movies showcasing an emotion called "hope". The movie was not just a masterpiece but also grows on the audiences. Only Morgan Freeman could've done that role.

14.Goodfellas: Now I don't want to state the obvious that Martin Scorsese is God. He's one director who created lifetime marvel in each decade. Goodfellas is my favorite among his older movies. Robert De Niro proved why he was a legend.

13.The Godfather trilogy: I know most of the lists put 'The Godfather' right on the top but may be I was way too immuned to the magnificent plot which was sadly made a run of the mill story by those innumerable copies. I watched at least 10 movies with the same plot before watching the original. But I should admit that Al Pacino was head and shoulders above all those copycats. So were Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro. These stalwarts gave me the impetus to watch many other classics like Scarface, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver and relatively more recent Heat.

12.Ocean's Eleven: Why would anybody care the plot when George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon make audiences drool like never before. Though the movie is not an all time classic, it's for sure the best heist movies ever made. Dhoom series makers could've learnt a lesson or two from Danny Ocean and gang.

11.Drushyam (Telugu): A malayalam remake but I watched telugu version. One of the recent movies which hooked me well till end credits. Venkatesh must be lauded for coming out of his stupid fan-based predictable movies cocoon and trying this one.

10.Argo: Ben Affleck hit raw nerves in this Iran-set terrorist saga. Though many other middle east violence based movies hit the light, Argo was one which kept the adrenalin rush pumped up.

9.Gone Girl: When terrific director and actor like David Fincher and Ben Affleck come together, a thriller like Gone Girl happens. Unexpected twists and commendable performances make this movie a good one to watch

8.Se7en: David Fincher proved why he's in the big league. When tamil director Shankar too ripped off the movie to create a main plot of his movie Aparichitudu / Anniyan, it speaks a lot. Also when Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey share screen, it's sheer delight and thrilling.

7.Italian Job: What a heist, what a chase and what a plot ! Mark Wahlberg and co nail it down and how ! Must watch for all thriller, action, heist and caper fans

6.Omkara (Hindi): Nobody can judge Shakespeare's plotline but Vishal Bharadwaj created what according to me is one of the best movies Hindi movie industry has ever delivered. A casting coup aside, it's adaption to suit Hindi hinterland, the accent, canvass, duels can't be repeated. Omkara has been VB's best movie miles ahead of his much acclaimed Kaminey or Haider etc

5.Kill Bill: Quentin Tarantino's movies are gory, stylish and comical in equal proportions. A maverick trendsetting movie (again an original source for many RGV's movies) which experimented with musicals, animated subplots, two-volume series has to be the best revenge drama ever made. Though Uma Thurman ate the movie, it was Oren Ishi's one minute walk with background music of "Battle without Honor or Humanity" which stole the show :)

4.Shutter Island: Another of Scorsese who found his muse in Leonardo Dicaprio after Robert De Niro. Shutter Island is more of a psychological thriller than an action or a regular thriller. A must watch

3.The Departed: When Martin Scorsese wields the megaphone and Jack Nicholson, Leo Dicaprio, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg compete to steal the show in a mole-undercover cat and mouse cop drama, there's no looking back. Though itself a remake of a chinese movie, 'The Departed' is an absolute casting coup and riveting drama. Could never get over it

2.Inglorious Basterds: Tarantino's best so far is only 1/3rd English and the rest was in French, German and a bit of Italian which I had to comprehend by reading subtitles more than watching the visuals and yet I felt it was splendid. A fictional tale based on Hitler's regime was too good to miss

1.Training Day: A mother of all gritty gangster-cop-drug war dramas has to be on top. Denzel Washington flick was directed by an ex-gangster who could pull off the stunt of recreating crime ridden LA shot in real notorious neighborhoods. One of a kind movie with tangential references to major organized gangs of LA never fails to raise goosebumps

These are the movies which I've seen but I'm sure they could be many more which I'm yet to watch. Couple of flicks on my immediate watch list are Mean Streets, The girl with dragon Tattoo.

Also some of the brilliant thrillers I could not accommodate in the list include Dev Anand-Vijay Anand's "Jewel Thief", Quentin's "Reservoir Dogs", Clint Eastwood's "The good, the bad and the ugly", Rob De Niro - Sean Connery - Kevin Costner's "The untouchables", Scorsese's "Gangs of new York", Tom Cruise's "mission Impossible" series, Valkyrie and the list goes on.

Awesome life of Shahrukh Khan

Those who know a bit of human psychology (or project management) know something called Maslow's hierarchy of needs which defines what people need to be happy or successful. And by the look of it, Shahrukh Khan has been one of the most successful people around in the era (at least in Indian context)

This article is not about deifying or eulogizing his acting prowess. Honestly I'm not a big fan of his work and liked only 2 movies from his repertoire till date, i.e., Swades and Chak De and believed all other movies of his were pretty mediocre if not painful.

Money:

Let us start with his success in terms of purely material achievements like money he made. His net worth is over $600 Million which is equal to Rs 3700 crores. Now compare with that of other celebrities whom we know are successful

Amitabh Bachchan - $400 Million
Rajnikanth - $40 Million
Sachin Tendulkar - $115 Million
Tiger Woods - $550 Million
Roger Federer - $300 Million
Tom Cruise - $450 Million
Justin Bieber - $200 Million
Lady Gaga - $230 Million
Barack Obama - $12 Million

So SRK made more money than almost all well-known celebrities in this world barring monarchs, scamsters, business tycoons or those who inherited fortunes from dads and grand-dads. Though fiscal empire should not be the only criteria to define success or happiness, one can't take away from him the tremendous grit, passion aided by supreme confidence, hard work and money management skills which catapulted him to this position from times where he had to work for a salary of Rs.50, slept on railway platforms and was paid only few thousand rupees for first few movies. So obviously there's something more to just plain numbers.

Love & Popularity:

More important than money for anybody to feel content and happy is the outpouring of love and emotional connect with people who love us. And there's no denying of his unparalleled fanbase across the globe. When DDLJ released he swept a generation of young girls off their feet and instantly became an ideal boyfriend and a prince charming for every girl who wanted their Mr.Right to come, capture their senses, convince their parents and take them off to another world full of bliss. And guys experienced some vicarious escapist pleasure looking at his onscreen persona. And the trend didn't die down even today.

NRI's adore him like none other and it's evident in any overseas show he performs or attends. I've been a witness to the mad rush once at IIFA,Toronto. Though SRK never used his religious identity to expand his fanbase, thanks to that identity, he is adored across the Muslim world ranging from Pakistan, Middle-East to Southeast Asia because the masses there identify themselves in his success and onscreen escapades. His worldwide fanbase (among other entertainers) in terms of number comfortably surpasses that of Justin Bieber, Amitabh Bachchan or Rajinikanth.

If even after so many people loving him is not success, read along

Business Acumen:

The difference in fortunes made between him and other successful movie stars was his business acumen. He is an astute businessman who knew when, where and how to invest. He's been one of the foremost celebrities to venture into IPL when it was only the area of seasoned businessmen.

For those who believe he just makes money from advertisements, think about this. He owns a company called Red Chillies TVC which produces those commercials. So he's making money with both hands. He ventured into Red Chillies Entertainment (movie production), Red Chillies VFX (special effects company), Red Chillies Idiot Box (TV content production). Together he manages around 200 employees and gets richer by Rs 5 crore everyday. Just Whoa !

With real-estate investments across the globe and minting money through stage performances, constant business expansion along with his regular movie acting and production, he can give a run for any trained, educated IIM-MBA's money. Did I mention he was invited by NASDAQ to ring their bell (usually businesses honchos are the privileged lot) ?

Off-screen personality:

I must confess that while I'm not a fan of his movies, I'm pretty impressed by his wit, humor he presents in his off screen conversations, interviews and the kind of spontaneity he presents off-screen. Very few can carry off the sense of humor on the sleeve as he does and that doesn't exclude lampooning himself at time.

If you ever watched his views or opinions of serious subjects including terrorism, religion, corporate sector- he's more than articulate and more than often makes sense. He's intelligent !

Family:

The man who wooed and married his sweetheart and doesn't mind blushing and doting on his kids, takes care of his elder sister, doesn't miss an opportunity to express how much he misses his parents can always be an ideal family man.

Lifestyle:

All money minting tycoons are not lifestyle conscious and we can't generalize that everybody who is rich knows how to carry himself / herself. It's not about the brands or labels he wears but he is one of the best dressed people in the Indian page 3 circuit. Famous for smelling good and his fetish for well fitted clothing, he's a dream showstopper for any designer.

When he moved from an independent house in Delhi to Mumbai which boasts of apartment culture, he aimed at buying a plush independent house in Mumbai against the norms and now he owns one of the most majestic heritage buildings which is exempt from demolition and happens to be tourist spot too. With offices, theatres, library and many more amenities in his home, he knows how to live life King Size

So a person who amassed countless fans, immeasurable love, maintained normal family life, turned his dreams into reality, built an empire around himself with grit and intelligence has to be successful and his life has to be content and just awesome !

The Curious Case of Ram Gopal Varma

It's been 25 years since Ram Gopal Varma's Shiva released. Incidentally I just watched (quite unfortunately) his short movie on Lakshmi Manchu's legs. RGV came a long way or rather stooped a long way from his dream big bang debut to his sad state now. During late 80's "Shiva" came like a breath of fresh air for me. At the age of 9, I so loved the slick, subtle way, novel camera movements, lack of any unnecessary dramatics or larger than life characters.

Then came a splurge of movies with his distinct mark like Kshana Kshanam, Rathri, Gayam in Telugu and Rangeela, Satya, Company in Hindi which are all examples of his true brilliance and genius. I later understood the strong inspiration he'd drawn from The Godfather trilogy, Martin Scorsese and Alfred Hitchcock movies but he blended their finesse with his own vision resulting in such epics. I believe his best times ended during the phase when he turned a bad emulator of Quentin Taratino, a genius himself but was junior to RGV in the world of cinema.There started his curious case..exactly like that of Benjamin Button

The man who showed the country what underworld was, directed nonsensical crime thrillers like Contract, D, James, Shiva 2006, Satya 2, Department which have no hangover of his previous masterpieces whatsoever. Other forgettable movies like Jungle, Daud, Mast, Naach, Nishabd, Darling, Agyaat, RGV ki Aag, Ice Cream blah, blah and blah made his case even more curious. His horror movies like Kaun, Vasthu Shastra, Phoonk, Phoonk-2 are at best badly made b grade remakes of The Exorcist and Hitchcock flicks.

Sarkar and Rann were kind of saving grace but again Sarkar Raj, Rakhta Charitra were marred by his eccentric camera angles (which were more irritating than novel), unnecessary decibels in background and not to mention bad screenplay. But as an erstwhile fan I watched all the above mentioned movies just in anticipation of good movies, Each time he announced a film, I hoped it was his comeback only to get convinced that his era ended but..this Manchu lady's feet shortie is a culmination.

While he can be tolerated for his bad movies, he started his moribund interviews, irreverent tweets, arrogant blasphemy and PR minded controversies with certain shock value. He famously declared that no director can predict the outcome of their vision and audiences who don't know movie-direction shouldn't criticize. It's similar to saying that people who eat at restaurant shouldn't criticize the chef for bad food if they themselves can't cook.

I read somewhere that he's buried in a mire of debts running to several crores and his desperate compulsion to stay afloat in news by making some stupid comments on twitter only to provide some visibility to his films reflects a very sad and sorry state he is now in for the kind of visionary he once was. A man revered on a pedestal along with Maniratnam, Shekhar Kapoor and dubbed Scorsese, Hitchcock or Taratino of India is now at best, a history.

Regardless of his current box office stamina, creative vision or execution, one can't take away from him the credit of establishing a parallel genre of cinema which shook the entire generation and produced a school of directors, actors most of whom are currently raising the flag of RGV brand high. Hope that'd be his legacy.

My tales about Aashiqui & Aashiqui 2

I know a lot of people who claim Aashiqui to be their favorite music album. For me, it goes much beyond that. I was 10 when the movie released and till then I had no particular favorites among movies, songs, actors etc.

One fine day in a song program chitrahar, I saw this song "Nazar ke saamne" which stuck my ears and I got unusually addicted to that. Next few days, I got my parents buy me a music system and I purchased my first ever audio cassette "Aashiqui" with my pocket money for Rs.16.

The kind of words used in those lyrics were part urdu and part poetic hindi which I hadn't come across earlier in my bookish hindi references, I didn't know who the actors were, forget about the music director or singers. But those songs stirred my tender soul in a very big way. Such a big way that from that day till date I've been listening to those songs continually at least once a month...yes, for the last 23 years.

Aashiqui's album has a song for every emotion. If you ever fell in love, ever heartbroken, ever in awe, ever in anticipation, ever in romance - you would know what I meant. It was a collection of anthems. It was sheer poetic, romantic, soul-stirring and EPIC.

Thus Aashiqui's music opened floodgates to my music sense, but also more notably transitioned me from childhood to adolescence and further to adulthood. I enjoyed melody, music through those haunting renditions and understood the essence of the word "favorite". Nadeem Shravan became my default favorite musician duo and Kumar Sanu, the GOD.

The hangover spilled over to similar instrument and rhythm driven melodies of Saajan, Sadak, Deewana, Phool Aur Kaante, Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin, Sapne Saajan Ke, Dil ka Kya Kasoor, Dilwale, Jaan Tere Naam and many more till 1995. My wife often says that I got stuck in early 90's which in a way is true. No music genre did that magic to me later on. Close on the heels come Ilayaraja and RD Burman-Kishoreda immortal classics.

Even today, Aashiqui's album is formidably placed as the most number of music units sold in the history of Bollywood at 1,50,000. Only 3 other movie albums could cross 1,00,000. This proves I'm not the only crazy fellow around :)

Fast forward to 2013: When Mahesh Bhatt announced the making of Aashiqui 2, I got terribly disappointed and felt somebody was ripping off a part of my heart. Moreover am not a big fan of Bhatt camp's steamy flicks genre which was at its nadir with Sunny Leone's jism sequel or whatever. Aashiqui music was so close to my heart that I deliberately avoided the music album of the sequel. Didn't even heed to the noise created among chartbuster arena. But yesterday I reluctantly bought the DVD and watched the movie today.

Honestly (and surprisingly) I liked the movie, narrative and the interwoven music. Or maybe I liked it because I saw it with rock bottom expectations with a huge grudge and ego. Though there are some technical glitches like immature acting, ametuer taking etc, I felt this is one of the honest and intense love stories of recent times. A true romance, a melodramatic love which takes viewers to peaks of emotion, which melts hearts, which chokes throats and which stirs souls; or maybe it's just I who felt that; or maybe you must watch it with heart !

And something I hate to admit is that I loved the music too. 'Tum hi ho' is hopelessly addictive and so is "sun raha hai na tu" (especially female version sung by Shreya is matchless). Since history can't be repeated, the magic of Aashiqui can never be recreated, but Aashiqui 2 with it's intense love story and haunting music stands firmly.

Bollywood's Invasion of Toronto - IIFA Weekend

Celebrities, especially movie-stars are demigods in most of the cases and gods in the remaining. When these demigods come down to entertain their fans live or just give a glimpse, there is no stopping for adrenalin rush, high octane energy, deafening screams, fits of ecstasy. The trend is universal - be it Kodak theater of LA during Oscars or Cannes Festival. But what we have witnessed this weekend was Baap of all festivals, not just because of stars but because of fans and audience who painted the city red with their passion towards showbiz.

Toronto which is the home for Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is known to be a hub for movies, showbiz and has a dedicated "entertainment district" in the heart of downtown. When the city roped in IIFA after a bid of some $12 million, nobody expected that the returns would be in the tune of almost $100 million and 30,000 tickets will be sold out in 10 freaking minutes, thanks to movie-crazy city (obviously due to people like me ;))

The events started a week ago and culminated in the awards show on Saturday night and believe me it was Bollywood's invasion of Toronto. Downtown was gripped in high fever with flash mobs performing in major intersections, tourists pouring in from US, UK and other countries, banners, advertisements flashing all over, black market heating up, media erupting with columns about bollywood stars and their comparison to American counterparts. The hype and hullabaloo surpassed biggest events which were held with biggest Hollywood stars and rockstars. Reason: Shahrukh Khan was coming too.

As mentioned earlier, more than stars themselves, the festive aura created by fans, general public, PR and marketing machinery was breathtaking which premier (equivalent to chief minister) of Ontario could not resist but to receive almost all stars personally at the airport and arrange their comforts in and around Royal York Hotel, which became another hotspot for the week.

The next week was abuzz with fashion shows, music shows, tribute to MJ, tribute to Raj Kapoor, chat shows, premieres, stars' parties and more. All stars repeatedly showered flowery praises on audience and people of Toronto (which I'm sure they do everywhere they go :D)), but the kind of attention they received here was phenomenal which was infectious and they reciprocated with equal warmth, interest and made the event, a blitzkrieg.

My wife was proactive enough to grab two tickets as soon as the sale proceeds started in January 2011, but I thought it would be any other event, especially because AR Rahman's show we attended last year was lacklustre and bland. I was in my own sweet little world away from the hype and hence was in a kind of shock to see so much India in Toronto when I visited the core area two days before the main event. I'm sure local Caucasians and non-desis would have felt a bit confused, insecure and invaded with the kind of bolly-onslaught :D

Something About the Stars:

The day before the main event was a limited invitee party organized on behalf of Shahrukh Khan and Vivek Oberoi in Sheraton Center - ironically attended by 2000 people. Or may be the word limited was used to distinguish from the main event where many more were expected :D..Okay..the party was held in a ballroom and after some wait, Vivek Oberoi flashed in white jodhpuri and spent an hour exchanging pleasantries and trying to be a good boy, which was kinda boring.

SRK made people wait for a while before arriving in his black DON types suit only to make the audiences hysterical who screamed for 20 mins straight before he could talk a word. Yeah, feminine lungpower ruled the roost :)..I've never been a great fan of SRK movies, though I like his offscreen persona, charm, spontaneity, wit and humor which he showcased again proving why he is a darling of masses.

Shahrukh Khan @ Sheraton Center, Toronto
Photo Courtesy: Wifey

He clearly made it an interactive session and made his audience feel important and special. Maybe he knows that's how he could retain and make fans, but the precision of his people management skills is par excellent. I was one of the few selected by his security personnel to ask him a question but I didn't have any in my mind as there was nothing I wanted to know about him which he didn't tell in his televised interviews by then.

But since the opportunity beckoned I asked him whens the next movie he would be shooting in Toronto. He answered that he shot most of "Kal Ho Na Ho" in Toronto except landmarks of NYC (Brooklyn bridge, Times Square, Central Park etc) and was working on some script which would be shot in the city again. Then the next question, I asked about his confidants out of the industry to which he answered something but I could not concentrate. But the humility and importance with which he answered my questions in that 5 minute one-to-one conversation made me feel very important. Liked it. I also mentioned to him that my mom is his fan and then my wife screamed aloud that she loves him which he reciprocated with a gentle bow and a smile :)

Towards the end, he approached all his fans who wanted to take his autographs and my wife was one of them and a luckier one perhaps to get much more attention that just an autograph. She liked it :)

All these stars whom we always read about in print, electronic and web media, magazines, tabloids, see on silver screens, small screens seemed so approachable and normal that the halo created by the media seemed so affected and projected.

IIFA Awards Nite

IIFA Awards Stage @ Rogers Center, Toronto
Photo Courtesy: Wifey

The next day evening was the mega event at Rogers Center, the local baseball team's adda. When we reached the place, we were shocked to see people thronging in tens of thousands to have a glimpse of stars on the red carpet (called green carpet in IIFA's context). We were bowled by the spectacular colors, projections and arrangements on the stage and were pleasantly surprised that our seats were close enough to the main stage.

The event started at 9 pm and ended at 2:30 am but there was never a dull moment, thanks to fantastic hosting by Shahrukh Khan, Anil Kapoor, Boman Irani, Ritesh Deshmukh, Karan Johar. It was good to see legendary stars like Asha Bhonsle, Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Rishi Kapoor, Sridevi; colorful performances by Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu, Kangna Ranaut.

Seeing Hillary Swank, Brett Lee, Cuba Gooding (Show me the money-guy) was a big surprise for me. Sonu Nigam, Shankar Mahadevan never took the stage.

Others who were on stage to the delight of boisterous audience were actresses Anushka Sharma, Genelia, Mallika Sherawat, Sonakshi Sinha, Shilpa Shetty, Dia Mirza, Malaika Arora, Esha Deol, Amisha Patel, Lisa Ray; Studs like Arjun Rampal, Rahul Khanna, Dino Morea, Ranveer Singh, Deols (Sunny, Bobby), Khans (Arbaaz, Sohail, Fardeen, Zayed etc), Sonu Sood, Ardhad Warsi, Javed Jaffery, Irfan Khan and others

After Shahrukh, if there was any other rockstar who amused the crowd by his very appearance on stage, it was Ranveer Singh who got unprecedented response from the audience. If the public mood is any gauge, he can be the next superstar, provided he selects good flicks. The highlight of the show was a much awaited grand finale by Shahrukh who started his dance but soon made the whole audience dance to his tunes. Witty one liners by hosts were cracking ;)

Though A-listers Bachchans, Hrithik, Salman, Katrina, Kareena etc didn't show up, audience didn't seem to complain but were certainly disappointed with absence of their very own fellow Canadian citizen Akshay Kumar, who usually spends a hell lot of a time here.

Coming to the recipients of awards, like any other award there is a high probability of fixing those because movies like My Name is Khan and Dabangg swept almost all awards to the delight of NRI fans who predominantly are devoted to Shahrukh and Salman. Organizers seemed to play to the galleries. I thought SRK was not worth a "Best Actor Award" for MNIK but I forgot that when he said "My Name is Khan, and I'm a Torontonian" in his winning speech :)

Fans & Fanaticism - Movies & Politics

Some people take pride in claiming themselves to be "fans" of a certain politician or a movie star. The term fan is not seen as a negative connotation but as most people don't realize, it is derived from the word "Fanatic". For all practical purposes words like fanatic and fanaticism are taken in a negative sense which mean excessive, out-of-limits and prejudiced liking of somebody regardless of logic, merit and sense.

Politicians, movie stars and celebs generally suffer from an incorrigible disease called nepotism which they display by transferring their public image to their children or relatives. Politicians make their son / daughter / spouse as their successors as if political power given by voters is their private property. Useless and worthless heir apparents take on the mantle and plunge into the field of politics directly becoming an MLA or an MP. Sometimes even worse, they dream of becoming prime minister / chief minister just because they were born in a particular family.

We can't blame only the parent or the child who does this. Everybody wants to see their children or loved ones in a powerful and successful position. Rather its their so called "FANS" who should be blamed for this unfortunate situation. Without their knowledge, these bigots are rotting the society by accepting and helping worthless, ineligible, selfish successors to adorn the throne just because of their partisan favoritism.

Indira Gandhi became PM just because her father was an ex-PM. Rajiv Gandhi, who didn't know basic demographics about India, became PM out of the blue because of his lineage. Then the power automatically passed on to Sonia Gandhi and now to Rahul Gandhi. Its not limited to one political party. TDP, DMK, Shivsena, BJD, TRS, JD, SP, NC, now YSR Congress and every other party runs family show, thanks to naive fans and cadre. All these so called dynasties were established by able leaders. And his fans (and their generations) have automatically ended up becoming devotees of not only their idol but also his next few generations. So illogical !!!

If there is another angle for this senseless fanaticism, that's "CASTE". We are in a society where exit polls and opinion polls forecast the winner based on number of voters belonging to the candidate's community. Shame. Political parties field candidates based on caste dynamics and voters flock like herd of sheep to blindly vote for their "representative" without realizing what kind of benefit they reap just by seeing a person of their community winning. Weird and sad.

Today we have political parties unofficially affiliated to castes and religions. A Hindu party, a Muslim party, a Dalit party, a Yadav party, a Kamma party, a Kapu / Reddy party, a Brahmin party, a Velama party, a Gowda party, an OBC party, an Atheist party and so on. But the interesting part is that no such caste affiliated party has done remarkable service to the caste they represent. Its senseless fans and their bigotry which propels these polarization of the society, which is dangerous to the very secular fabric of the country.

Thus fans who get blind-folded by their prejudiced and uncritical devotion to their caste and favorite dynasty rot the society by disallowing worthy and sensible leaders.

Movie and entertainment industry is another area where fans give undue and inappropriate worth to people who belong to a certain lineage or a certain caste.

Bollywood, Tollywood, Sandalwood or take any wood, 90% of current lead actors are sons of yesteryear actors. Same is the case with directors, music directors, villains and even vamps. Again, we can't blame those successful stars for passing on the mantle to their children, but how can a movie goer so easily like or blindly worship somebody appearing on screen just because he is a brother or son of some icon. I can never understand this kind of devotion.

I don't really know if caste forms an important factor of liking a movie star in other parts of the country, but Andhra Pradesh suffers from this unfortunate tendency. And the worst part is that fans of those caste based icons spread venom against actors of other castes and this phenomenon has created a polarization which is directly transported to politics too as every caste based matinee idol is associated with some political party (due to fans pressure, they say), again unfortunately.

Younger generation stars of these idols become a massive election rally crowd pullers or are given a honorary title even before their first movie is released. And yeah, fans, fans associations, youth associations clamor at the very sight of their favorite hero irrespective of whether the piece of art is worth a clap or not.

Politics and Movies - These two fields are rotten big-time by self proclaimed fans who are nothing but a confused lot who get carried away by unwarranted bias for caste, lineage and such irrelevant affiliations. May they all get well soon !

Music Masti Zindabad !!!

I have never come across any person with their head on shoulders who doesn't like music. If there is anything that can be declared as a universal hobby, thats listening to music, hands down.

Till I was 10, I didn't have any particular favorites and was randomly enjoying all songs played in radio. Those days, my mom was a Ghantasala fanatic and I always tried to decipher why she likes his songs so much. I was not a huge fan of him or any old Telugu songs.

The first time I seriously liked a song and yearned to listen repeatedly was SPB's "Ye Divilo Virisina Paarijathamo" which is a cult classic; and the first song I tried to (unsuccessfully) croon was "Vedam la Ghoshinche Godavari" :). I rate these two timeless songs as two of my first and also all-time favorite Telugu songs.

But if there is any album which took my feet off the ground and made me crazy about music and songs, it was "Aashiqui". The songs in that movie made me feel that Kumar Sanu and Nadeem Shravan were born only to make me realize that listening to music is the best thing to happen on earth. It won't be exaggerating if I say I listen to these songs atleast once a week even today. Yes, I've been listening to these songs continuously for last 21 years. That was the impact Aashiqui had on me. And I remember Aashiqui audio cassette was the first cassette I bought with my pocket money and thats my valued possession till date.

From then, I became a devotee of all Nadeem Shravan songs in general and their songs sung by Kumar Sanu in particular. Their albums that released between 1990 and 1995 are my die hard favorites which I saved in cassettes, then in CD's, then Mobile phone and now in iPhone. Those songs make me nostalgic and take me back to those adolescent years when I related these melodies with love, emotion, romance. My wife always says I got struck in 90's and she never understands why I get so crazy with those songs :)

Nadeem Shravan - Kumar Sanu albums which I can never forget: Aashiqui, Dil Hai ki Maanta Nahi, Saajan, Phool aur Kaante, Sadak, Dil Ka kya Kasoor, Sapne Saajan Ke, Jaan Tere Naam, Deewana, Hum Hai Raahi Pyaar Ke, Rang, Sainik, Dilwale, Salaami. Albums which were released post 1995 missed that touch and I somehow could not believe it was the same Nadeem Shravan of previous years.

AR Rahman: If anybody doesn't like ARR's music, there is something seriously wrong with them. Lot of critics flay his music as westernized which lacks melody. But I'm a bigger fan of his slow melodies rather than his fast beats. Melodies of his earliest movies like Roja, Padmavyuham (Vishwa Vidhatha in Hindi), Duet literally were breath of fresh air for me who was immersed in Kumar Sanu fever. I liked Rahman as a music director who made slow melodies in the era of nonsensical nuisance from his other contemporaries.

Maniratnam brought the best in him with Bombay, Dil Se whereas Shankar elicited fast beats from Rahman which are equally hysterical. The list goes on and on if I write my favorite Rahman albums. But for me Roja, Bharatheeyudu, Bombay, Prema Desam, Premikula Roju, Vishwa Vidhatha, Dil Se, Vande Mataram, Doli Sajaake Rakhna, Sakhi, Thakshak, Swades, YMC stand out. His music is the slowest poison and the irreparable addiction. Period !

I somehow feel his latest obsession with sufi music and fusion has diluted his awe inspiring music and I'm not his big fan of most of his recent works.

Kishore Kumar: If God exists, that must be Kishore Kumar. He triggered a tsunami in me when I discovered the genius in him, albeit very late. That happened during my engineering when I accidentally listened to some of his songs and without my own knowledge, I immersed myself in a whirlpool of Kishoreda mania. I so abused myself for having wasted my earlier years without listening to this person who is a vocal magician. The best thing is he didn't learn or intended to learn classical music. It came naturally to him.

"O mere dil ke chain", "Meri Bheegi Bheegi Si", "Mere Mehboob Qayamat Hogi", "Tere Bina Zindagi se Koi", "Chookar mere man ko", "Diye Jalte Hain", "Agar Tum na Hote", "Chalte Chalte", "Kuch tho Log Kahenge", "Mera Jeevan Kora Kagaz", "Mere Sapno ki Rani", "Raat Khali ek Quab", "Pyar Maanga Hai".....I can go on and on till I mention all 250 Kishore's songs which I have handpicked from various sources.

He is the only singer who can bring life to happy, sad, emotional, romantic moods with equal elan. Salute to him and RD Burman who gave him so many memories. Mukesh, Mohd Rafi, Manna Day, Mahendra Kapoor are more classical, but not as versatile as Kishore Kumar.

Lata Mangeshkar, aptly called as Nightingale of India, is a voice of Indian women. Her voice made heroines look good. Enough said ! Alka Yagnik and Shreya Ghoshal have heavenly voices who are taking Lata's legacy forward.

Ilayaraja is another late realization for me. I didn't know why was I so stupid to bypass the haunting melodies created by the one and only Maestro. Ilayaraja's music is the care of address for vocal melody. Instruments only enhanced his songs. Abhinandana is one of my all-time Telugu albums. There is no other album which is more versatile, more melodious and more heart-wrenching in the history of Telugu music..and I don't think any other album can surpass this in future as well. Abhinandana has been, is and will be the best.

1983-89 formed the golden era of Telugu music with Seethakoka Chiluka, Abhilasha, Saagara Sangamam, Sitaara, Anweshana, Swarna Kamalam, Geethanjali. Ilayaraaja's music was the perfect sync for K.Vishwanath's eternal classics.

Many older songs I liked in Telugu were coincidentally composed by KV Mahadevan: Muthyala Muggu ( my mom sings the title song better than anybody. I love the song), Sirivennela, Sruthilayalu are other feathers in his cap.

Fast forward to Indipop era, I so much liked Bally Sagoo's Bhangra Rap ( I didn't know what rap was at that time). Laung Gawacha, Gor Nal Ishq, Nain tere Jeha Hor Disda play in my iPhone very often :D. Liked Lucky Ali's Sifar and other albums, Adnan Sami's series of hits. Gagjit singh's ghazals are my tranquilizers :)

Speaking about singers, I somehow like almost all singers. Sonu Nigam's melodious ghazalized songs (especially in Papa Kehte Hai, Sangharsh), Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Shaukhat Ali Khan's sufi-ish songs, Devisri Prasad's beats, KK's high pitch renditions - can never get over them.

Though a lot of people don't appreciate, I am a big fan of Himesh Reshammiya and his kind of high pitch nasals too. I never felt those to be annoying.

English music is something I could not immerse completely into. May be due to my inability to comprehend lyrics in my childhood and that carried forward till late teens and by then I missed the chord to get rapt. But among the popular styles, I prefer Hip-Hop, Rap, R&B to traditional Rock, Jazz or Country. Though I love some rock songs like Final Countdown, Battle Without Honor & Humanity and also love guitar and drums, I could not relate much to rock or heavy metal music. And I feel jazz is way too boring for my liking; I don't even wanna talk about Opera. Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Akon, Dr.Dre, JLo are rapper/ musicians I heard and enjoyed.

People can disagree about the kind of music they like, but nobody can disagree with the fact that music is the ultimate sedative, addiction, time-pass, company, friend, filler and hobby one can ever have. So

MUSIC....MASTI....ZINDABAD

Pakka Filmi

Before you think this is another boring post about my favorite movies, actors and actress, Hold On ! It may be boring but not about actors and actresses :D; Few days back, one of my friends accused me of being an acute movie buff (I'm just a movie buff, btw :P). He doesn't like the idea of living on movies and strongly feels movies and entertainment industry diminish productivity of any individual.

I can't agree more but was thinking what would we be without movies and television. Just thought to account all that I learnt from or all that I would have missed if movies were not there in my life.

• I would never have built my english, hindi and in a way my telugu speaking skills if I was not exposed to movies of those respective languages. Even if I wanna learn a new language now, I'd start watching movies of that language first :)
• I would never have laughed so much in my life without watching comic scenes in the movies.
• I would not have known about the concepts of love and romance at right age if I hadn't watched all those love stories and scenes in movies :)
• I would not have known how to communicate, impress, flirt, talk, convey, express my mind eloquently if I hadn't imbibed so many witty lines I heard in movies.
• I would never have known the beauty of poetry, asthetic values, richness, creativity hadn't I seen these in movies
• I would never have listened to any kind of music, if filmi music, songs and singers didn't attract me with their haunting melodies, soulful renditions and foot tapping numbers.
• I would never have imagined the beauty of Swiss alps, American skyscrappers, Niagara, Eiffel Tower and other exotic locations if I didn't see those in movies.
• I would not have known most of the socially and culturally sensitive issues, if those were not portrayed in the movies I watched.
• I would never have understood the way things work in various businesses, communities, societies and industries, if they were not shown the way they were in hard hitting movies
• I would never have seen all those beautiful women, handsome hunks, cherubic children in awe if I didn't have chance to see them in movies.
• I would never have known what spoilt lifestyle was if I hadn't watched those movies filled with opulence and elitism.
• I would never have known that dirty under-bellies, underworld ever existed if I hadn't watched all those gansgter and crime related movies.
• I would never have become matured if exposed just to my circle without knowing how world functions which I understood from movies.
• I would never have known the intensity and magnitude of negative feelings like anger, revenge, frustration if I hadn't watched those revenge dramas.
• I would never have known the history, heritage, religion and culture better just by reading, if they were not depicted by mega TV soaps or period movies.
• I would never have learnt that world is full of good, bad and ugly people if I hadn't watched heroes, villains, heroines, vamps in movies.
• I would have remained naive if I hadn't seen scheming, conspriring thrillers.
• I would never have understood what fashion, trend and vogue were if thats not portrayed in movies I watched.
• I would not have dreamt of a luxurious and successful life if I didn't watch movies because I saw luxury and success in viual media before aiming for that.
• I would not have written this blog-post if there was no topic such as movies :)

As said in Telugu there are 9 emotions; haasyam (humor), roudram (anger), srunagaram (romance), bheebhatsam (disgust). bhayankaram (terror), karunyam (mercy), veeram (heroic), adbhutham (wonderful) and one more which I don't remember. All these emotions and reactions to these emotions are built in any human with the kind of expereinces he witnesses, watches or faces.

Movies or any visual media are so popular because they inject one of these navarasas in the person watching something on the screen. Most of the audiences identify themselves with the situations they are in or they would (or would not) like to be in and if that identification clicks bigtime, the movie will be a blockbuster and the actor will become a superstar.

It goes without saying that movies form a very big influence in everybody's life (with or without knowledge or acknowledgement). Life is all about being PAKKA FILMI !!!!

26 years of movie watching :)

Somebody was asking me what favorite movie was and I couldn't pick one as I like so many movies, genres in 3 languages. Then I got an idea of capsuling my movie watching history of 26 years :) My tryst with Telugu, Hindi and English movies in a nutshell :)

Telugu Movies

Telugu movies have been staple diet for my family like most others in AP. I tried really hard to recollect which was my first Telugu movie in a theater. The earliest I can remember was "Swathi Muthyam" (1985). Its been 26 years that movie released and hence the title of this blog-post. I vaguely remember watching that movie and my aunts say I used to imitate Kamal Haasan's eccentric dance steps of "suvvi suvvi" song at home after the show. Thanks to such silly steps, I'm such hopeless dancer today :(

I also clearly remember watching other K.Viswanath movies like Sirivennela, Swayamkrushi, Swarnakamalam in the following years. Yes, my parents used to be K.Viswanath's devotees and I grew up to become one too.

The first time I went to movie without parents was in 1991 when Chiranjeevi's gangleader released. That was with my sister who has since been my movie-watching partner for the next 10 years. During that era, RGV movies brought in new flavor and I got hugely attracted to his Kshana Kshanam, Rathri etc.

Slowly my interest in Telugu movies subsided as most of the star studded movies of Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna etc were catered to masses, galleries, song and fight routine, over-heroism or in rural backdrop which I could not relate at all. Many telugu movies could not attract my sensibilities as I got more addicted to Hindi cinema by then. Raghavender Rao, B. Gopal and co ruined my appetite for Telugu movies and I didn't remember watching many Telugu movies until Tholi prema, Nuvve Kavali era.

I don't have favorite actors except that I like Brahmanandam, Prakash Raj.

Favorite movies: All movies of K.Viswanath, Sekhar Kammula, Chandrasekhar Yeleti, Vijayabhaskar and few movies of Ramgopal Varma.

Hindi Movies

I think I started watching Hindi movies and Telugu movies almost at the same time. In mid 80's I just knew a couple of names Anitabachan (Read: Amitabh bachchan) and Mithuchakravarty (Mithun Chakraborty). 1988 witnessed the birth of a soft looking actor by name Aamir Khan through QSQT; my friends at school went gaga over him and Juhi Chawla and I loved Madhuri Dixit in Tezaab which was released during the same time. That was my first brush with Hindi movies. So Aamir and I debuted in Hindi movies at a same time (he started acting and I started watching).

The first few Hindi movies I watched in theater were Tridev followed by Ram Lakhan, Maine Pyar Kiya etc. In the following couple of years stars like Shahrukh Khan, Ajay Devgan, Akshay Kumar debuted; a different era started and I got drifted away with those waves. Simultaneously I watched many older blockbusters of Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan.

In 90's and 2000's I watched all those popcorn movies of SRK -YRF / KJ, action and comedy movies of Akshay and other well-received movies but liked more intense dramas mostly starring Ajay Devgan and Aamir Khan. Among actresses, I was crazy about Raveena Tandon (my first crush in early 90's) succeeded by Manisha Koirala and Sonali Bendre. Kareena and Katrina among the current lot.

All time favorite movies: Mera Naam Joker, Jewel Thief, Abhimaan, Deewar, Sarfarosh, Border, Dil Chahta Hai, Company, Rang De Basanti, Omkara, Gangajal, Rajneeti

English Movies:

During my mid school-days, I often used to come across C grade porn movie posters near my school and associated English movies with such movies and was ashamed of talking about English movies in general :) There were only few theaters in Hyderabad like Sangeet, Kumar, Anand which used to play blockbuster English movies and I had very meager exposure or access to English Movies until the advent of Cable TV.

I remember watching very few movies in theaters in 90's like Jurassic Park, Anaconda, Titanic etc and I just knew Sylvester Stallone and Jackie Chan till then. 2000's saw my exposure to the world of English cinema and thats when I brushed up with most of the good movies which I missed in the previous years / decades.

I was blown away by Godfather series and contemporary heist and crime dramas of Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino. Till date, I'm trying to collect DVDs of all the classics made by these directors. I realized that am liking chick flicks too; but I'm not a huge fan of Steven Spielberg or James Cameron kinda movies or any animation, fantasy, saving-the-humanity kind and action movies (with an exception of few) which lack some plot or drama.

George Clooney has been my favorite since I saw him in some TV series even before I started watching English movies. He is THE handsome man. Acting-wise, I like movies of Leonardo DiCaprio, Denzel Washington, Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks and after watching older classics, went on to become a devotee of Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson.

Don't know much about yesteryear actresses, but among the contemporaries I like Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Alba and among the senior lot: Anne Hathaway, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Connelly, Kate Winslet, JLo. .

All time favorite movies: Godfather trilogy, Goodfellas, Shawshank Redemption, Ocean's Eleven, Training Day, Italian Job, The pursuit of Happyness, The Departed, Inglorious Basterds, Inception.

PS: Next post would be about my history of music listening. Stay tuned :)

Invincible Heroes

Few days back, I've posted a comment on my Facebook wondering why do I see circulated jokes only about Balakrishna (one of the tollywood actors) and why not about others though everybody does the same kind of insane acts.

I didn't get a lot of response there but there were scores of people who told me offline that they got offended as I "dared" to compare Balayya with their Gods. Though I care a shit if they took me in wrong sense, I tried to understand what made them feel so strong about a person whom they have seen just on-screen.

I agree that movie is a great medium of entertainment and we like the piece of art if it moves us in any way and we definitely appreciate the person who performed to make us feel happy, sad or experience a kinda adrenalin rush or whatever. But how can an intelligent person drag the same image off-screen and start adulating him/her. Or am I too naive or an idiot to understand the underlying Gyaan behind the phenomena.

How many heroes who kick 20 goons at a time swirling in the air in movies are fit enough to face one average built 20 year old guy off-screen ? More entertaining than these stupid stunts are the interviews with those stars who claim that no graphics or body-doubles have been used in their stunts :)

Thanks to these kind of blind hero-worship, the actors started taking themselves rather too seriously and began their new innings in politics and few also enjoyed power. MGR, NTR (and family), Jayalalitha, Chiranjeevi, Vijaykanth, Jaya Bachchan, Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, Govinda are the jokers of the same pack. Its not limited to India. Americans are equally crazy (read Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood). What did these guys do to earn the power or votes is still a mystery to me ?

During my engineering days in Kurnool, I saw two guys who fought bitterly on roads and came to blows because they couldn't agree on who is better among Chiranjeevi or Balakrishna. I heard about such fan wars which turned into ugly caste wars in coastal Andhra Pradesh. Heights of insanity and idiosyncrasy !

In the day to day parlance, the word "Hero" lost its meaning and is synonymously used for actors and fans can go really crazy about their favorite stars and can also wage a war against anybody who reportedly "belittles" their demigods. Yeah baby, "Heroes" are invincible, both on-screen and off-screen.