Magadheera

The Disclaimer:

Ohk this would not be called a review because to me it is more of a BTMWA(Boy! the movie was auh-sum!)Many might find my opinion a bit biased!And this also happens to be the first telugu movie I felt like writing about,also because the number of telugu movies that feature in my annual movie calender would be less than five!



The opening scene was so superbly crafted that it swept me off!The movie streched a bit in the beginning but picked up as it went along till the interval so much so that those ten minutes seemed like ages to me.Kajal looked fantabulously gorgeous.

Revenge and reincarnation are the leitmotifs of this movie.It is about this intrepid security chief Kalabhairava who loves a Princess, Mitra Vinda,the Princess loves him aswell but there is a villian RanaDev Billa who is defeated by Bhairava in a contest and is banned from the kingdom.He proves to be a renegade and joins hands with an invader Sher Khan and conspires against the kingdom.What follows is an intense battle between KalaBhairava and the opposition army.Kalabhairava is shown scything through their forces and the invader is so overwhelmed by this act of his that he offers Bhairava his friendship.But fate had a different story for the lovers.The recidivistic Billa in a fit of rage tries to kill Mitra and injures her fatally.The Princess lies at the corner of the hill,breathing her last.She asks Bhairava to confess to his love for her atleast at this last moment.KalaBhairava is also fatally wounded,he tears apart his armour and falls on his knees to tell Mitra Vinda how much he loves her,but she's already dead by then.The scene in which his hand falls on the ground close to her and precisely then Mitra slips into the deep canyon is fantastically done.



Highlights:

* 'Magadheera' was released in 48 theatres and six multiplexes in Hyderabad on 31st July, with a staggering 241 shows everyday. Yes, 241 !! The number was mind-boggling, even if you factor that this is Telugu cinema's costliest film and stars Chiranjeevi's son, Ram Charan.
* The battle between KalaBhairava and the opposition's army.
* The Sound and SFX were clean
* Kajal looked stunning like a princess.
* The new villian did a good job.
* Casting:for once a telugu flick did not rely on the regular actors,the story demanded new faces;any regular characters would never have given you the feel it does now.

Letdowns:

* The movie resorted to some usual cliches but that is acceptable given the fact that it is a regional movie and is meant also for the masses,front-row-ers,people in small towns and cities.The producer has to get this money back.And,looks like it did the same ; it reportedly grossed close to 20Cr INR in the first week.Ghajini and now Magadheera, looks like whatever Allu Aravind is touching is turning into gold.
* Charan has to polish his acting even more.He looks pretty cold at times.More so for the family he hails from.
* I personally feel Charan's hair could have been styled better.Something to suit his jawline and complexion.
* The song which was supoosed to be the biggest crowd puller proved to score tad lesser than others.It was poorly mixed.But,it was compensated for by the dance.

Verdict:

4.5/5

A must watch,in a good theatre.Can be watched with the family,kids will like it even more.U/A might have been for the fight sequences which were violent in parts



* Current Mood: blank
* Current Music: Pehli baar

We Indians And Optimism!

Indians are the most optimistic people you would ever come across.We are taught to be illogically optimistic right from ourchildhood and we even outgrow that as the number of candles on our cake increases.A mom tells her 3yr old kid stories ofhow he'll grow up and rule the country as she makes some dinner in her makeshift hut from whatever little she could forageall day.Optimist.A child prays that his test on the next day be postponed because he has not prepared well.Optimist.Youassume that there won't be a traffic jam today when you drive to the office.An Optimist again.A group of people sit down todiscuss about the new government and hope that the new government brings in some real good reforms and they'll do yougood.A bunch of Optimists.Someone in some distant town has gone to the nearby temple to pray that it may not rain on the final day of the test match because India is in a winning position.Optimist.An old man hopes that his alone sugar levels will hit normal and he will get to eat his favourite sweetmeat.An Optimist and veteren at it.The list goes on,well you may ask what is wrong in optimism?Well nothing,but for optimism we would all be living in acynical,depressing world.Some may even argue that it has got this placebo effect on our lives,because but for it the oldman in the tests lab might not find enough reasons to live n cheer about nor the mother in the hut.But what could be morally and mentally damaging could be the being optimistic and doing nothing about it,like the kidpraying that the exam be postponed,the prayer per se is harmless but what would damage would be the fact that he will growup to be an adult who wants something and does nothing about it,just hopes or prays.You want to crack that managemententrance every year,but you just hope that the project that you get at the end of the year would be pretty easy and you cando away without slogging more than 9.5hrs a day.This is a dangerous corollary of the optimism theory,that leaves everythingon your disaster management skills,which are good but might not save something as important and improbable as your career.This is how we operate.No,am not drawing parallels with our financially better off counterparts but a bit of logic mixed with this can take us a long way.

Love Aaj Kal-Dissection

LAK is about Jai(Saif) who is like any other guy you meet,chilled out, anti-commitment,you IM him Love and he would reply with a suprised smiley.Jai ,as in any other lovestory, meets a girl Meera.Meera Pundit(Deepika) is again the usual girl who her own set of ideals and is pretty cool about this love stuff herself.The story is about how these people who seem all so 'practical' fall for each other.All along Imtiaz tried explaining the audience that no matter how casual you are about relationships and people,there would be this one person you would fall in love with.This one person understands you and knows you inside out and is your 'soulmate'.
Imtiaz starts with his trademark guy meets gal,they are not quite keen(read sure) about each other but eventually destiny has it that they meet.'Socha na tha' started similar;but again it doesnot leave you with a deja vu as many critics put it; neither do I see the director being overtly cautious.It is plain his-own-style.Romance, we understand is his forte,his real test now would be coming out of his comfort mush zone.
Story:
The story quite interestingly starts with the lead pair calling their relationship quits!Talking always about being 'practical' and how long distance relationships don't take off;given the fact that Meera had to fly to India for work.Both wanted to grow professionally and so they part ways but they decide on not to sob their way out of this but celebrate with a party,a 'break-up party'.It was at the end of this party that Veer Singh(Rishi Kapoor),a cafe owner bumps into him,telling Jai how he resembled him in is youth.
Veer Singh had dated a beautiful young punjabi girl Harleen(Giselle Montero) who lived in Delhi,when he was young(played by Saif with a turban).Harleen and family relocated to Calcutta,but Veer Singh is so smitten by this girl that he travels to Calcutta just to catch a glimpse of her.The next time they meet is at a wedding in Delhi,when she tells Veer that she is getting engaged the day after and has no say in this.He eventually wins her home,despite opposition from her family.
Screenplay and good slick Editing are the stars of the film.The movie darts smoothly between Veer Singh's past and Jai's present drawing parallels between eveverything in their lives.
Saif plays Jai,he has done similar roles in Salaam Namaste and Hum Tum before, so pulls it off pretty effortlessly.This might go down as one of the better performances by Deepika,who I felt showed us that she too can act, for the first time esp. the last scene where she proved that she can cry.She has miles to go in terms of acting still and is wooden at times,particularly. the dance sequences.Deepika again has usually been potrayed in roles like these,which are by and large similar to how she is in real life aswell.Her character and 'practical' approach to life remind you of Bachna Ae Haseeno.
Rip Masand:
"The screenplay, for one, is far from foolproof."
I feel it was one of the best narrations of 2009.For example,one of the last scenes in which the love-lost Jai finally goes to Meera.The shots move quickly between Veer Singh going to get Harleen and Jai going to Meera's house.The parallelism has been smoothly crafted.

"The incident that drives Jai to realise where his heart lies is ridiculous"
It is funny how Masand expects everything to be senselessly scientic.This is how life is and this also precisely the charater that Jai and Meera play.They have no idea that he/she is the one for each other.And that is also what Meera tells Rahul Khanna,"Jai does not know this yet.And if he does anytime,he will come back to me". The one good thing that I observed in this is how she doesnot forecast that Jai 'will be back' .Quite unlike "Woh zaroor ayega,mera dil kehta hai"or "Agar mera pyaar sachcha hai toh woh zaroor ayega" cliches.

"The young Veer and Harleen track is wrapped up with a convenient culmination that isn't even dramatic enough to justify how much time has been spent establishing these characters."
What more does anyone want?Any more frames into their story and people might have started getting bored,given the fact that Veer is not the lead protagonist.

" Deepika Padukone lacks the maturity or the skill to make up for the lapses in the writing and to construct a credible character out of Meera. "
I could not figure out any lapses as such but Deepika did a commendable job as discussed before.

Verdict:
The film is a fitting next to the director's previous "Socha Na Tha" and "Jab We Met" and if we talk about the storyline and the depth,I personally found it to be tad better than JWM.You can watch it anytime with anyone.

I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

Worked Out!

One of the most common excuses that people give for not hitting the gym is "am not interested","it is not good,it strains your muscles/bones" and the lame-est of all "I don't get time".No, working out does not strain your bones,it strains your muscles only to the extent that is required,well that is what 'working out' means.You are not interested or pretend not to be for the sole reason that that you are lethargic,this can be attributed to the i-don't-find-time category above aswell.Who does not want a good body,none of us likes chiding remarks on our body,our on our increasing waist-line.

How long does a fifteen minute cardio take?fifteen minutes;3 sets of 8 reps each of crunches 15 minutes.That would be enough to just tone down the excess fat and burn down those needless calories. Again there is this category that drools over a toned body but has some dumb myths on weight training,this is the category that comes feels your biceps,slaps your abs,gives you a lame I-can-have-'em-too look and says,"Am not too much into bodybuilding n all,it's just that my clothes should look good on me".Well none of us are into 'bodybuilding' unless we aim to and when we say bodybuilding the image that flashes in our mind is of dark(no!I wasn't being racist) men on a stage with oiled up bodies,trying to flex every single muscle in their body,standing in a minimalist costume that has a huge white circular cardboard piece with some number on it.Another popular fad is that,I am thin and so will not workout.Eat lots of of protein,that should suffice!

Some chest and lats(latissimus dorsi) or shoulder or triceps-biceps reps will do you a world of good apart from the regular cardio.

It is not against people who can-not do it ,it is against people who do-not-do-it or do-not-want-to-do-it.We do not have the right to stay unfit/unhealthy and comment on how the other person is looking.People who are not working out are slowly killing themselves.And among these ,majority are boys,and in this there is a subset of boys who register for the gym on the first day of the month,come all geared up,want to hit the machines and weights on the first day itself,but the instructor wants them to do a mix.Eventually, after a week they get pissed and stop coming to the gym.Working out is an essential part of our lives and not just going to the gym.

For all those of you ,who are seriously into this,There are a couple of fundas that I follow:

1)Against the Gravity; Slow(when ever you are lifting your body/part thereof up(against the Gravity)take your body up ,as slow as possible.

2)When working out concentrate/try-visualising that particular muscle.

3)Never concentrate on girls dance-practising in the activity room beside the gym.You could end up with an injured neck!

4)If your instructor says that he was drunk all night yesterday,has a hangover and so he cannot give you support while you are doing weights.Trust Him! Else you might end up with a muscle tear or something even serious and might have to stay away from all this for a good part of your life!

I know that this post ain't going to change nothing,but this was what I've felt always.We take our bodies for granted. humph!
Hit da Gym!

Second Class Luxury

There is something about travelling sleeper class in the trains in India.I know there are hundreds of people who hate it for all the hygiene and other high funda factors.I have been one HUGE sleeper class lover.The wind in your face,your co-passengers staring down your luggage as soon as you unzip your bag, trying to get a sight of what all you are carrying,people sneaking inside the bathroom to smoke,people throwing coins in a river and praying,people joining hands and praying at the sight of a famous place of worship,guys sitting at the door even if they have a reserved berth in the coach,someone playing music on their mobile,hawkers selling stuff.Everything!The list is endless.
There is some rustic-purity in the way people see,talk,behave and react that you will never find in another class of the train.

There are many amongst us who prefer not to travel in the second class sleeper and there are people like one of my ex-girlfriends who didn't even know how the interiors of this coach looks like.Not that the people in the other 'higher' classes are not interested in the stuff their co-passengers are carrying or that they don't feel like throwing coins in the river and praying or that they actually don't,it's not even that they don't feel like sitting at the gate of the coach with breeze in their face;it is only that they feel they are too refined to show that they like or do such stuff.
The second class is sheer luxury to many in our country at the same time a last resort to another set of people and a no-go to many others.Well this is how most of our India is,this is how many countries are.Second class is the majority,the bourgeois.People come in without reservation sometimes with heavy luggage and without reservation with the hope that there will be someone who'll let him sit,if he is lucky some might even let him share their berth for the night.Things like these are pretty ubiquitous in the second class and pretty rare in the 'higher' classes.
The choice of travelling in the class of their liking is purely dependent on that person but this was something pretty generic that I observed.

P.S.Hope I didn't sound like one NRI who returned to India after twenty years :P

Home:Rains

Home!:Rains



Nothing like coming home.It washes all the murk in your head!My every trip to vizag is such a trip down the memory lane.It gives me loads of stuff to sit and ruminate and calories that take me a lifetime to burn.

Sh*T Happens

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