Mind u Read

In this age of short attention spans Sandeep Reddy Vanga has done the unthinkable with his latest film Animal—he has not only managed to hold our attention in the theatres with a film that’s three hours twenty one minutes long, but also managed to sustain that attention by turning the movie into a topic of intense debate that’s still going on.   Like everyone else I have an opinion too, rather opinions, and have been tweeting intermittently about them, but the film’s success as well as the criticism it has been receiving calls for deeper introspection.   Through this post I hope to touch upon some of the aspects that I found interesting about the film; both good and bad.   In the process I’ll also try and explain why I feel Ranbir Kapoor’s character in the film Ranvijay Singh Balbir is a feminist and not a misogynist. I suspect many others feel that way too but don’t realise it yet or are able to say it out loudly. Hear me out and then you can either agree or disagree wit...

#Pathaan Kiss karne nahi….Kick karne aaya hai…. That was Shahrukh Khan’s response to a silly question on Twitter during one of his many #AskSRK sessions before the release of Pathaan. However, what he said is just the partial truth and he did KISS. Before you jump to other conclusions— KISS means Keep it simple, stupid! The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated. That’s exactly what Shahrukh Khan did to set up the stage for Pathaan’s blockbuster success. The same principle is also used to structure and mount the film too. Let me elaborate with a similar KISS approach. I’ll pick 5 areas to focus on. At places I’ll use Shahrukh Khan’s tweets to help with the story. Here it goes…

When an event in the real world is inspired by a creative work, they say—life imitates art. It’s most often used in the context of movies influencing life. Have you ever heard of a movie influencing itself through its own art? The obvious thing to say would be—if the movie is good, then more people will watch it, and then it makes more money. That’s how a movie influences its own destiny. But…there’s a higher order ‘life imitating art’ event that I noticed recently. It’s with the Naatu Naatu song from RRR; thanks to its recent Golden Globe Awards win for best original song. I see that song as an extraordinary self-fulfilling prophecy which I am sure even the filmmakers did not see coming. Here’s my theory:

If ever there is a competition to determine who is the biggest fan of K.G.F Chapter 1, I would either win that contest hands down or end up as one of the strongest contenders.   I lost count of the number of times I watched that film, but I am sure it will be over 100 times. As a keen observer of films, and how they work on our psyche, I’ve been fascinated by the appeal of this film. So much so that I’ve started writing a book about it. It’s the second book in my upcoming book series ‘Movies Beyond Stars’ .   As a natural outcome of my fascination for K.G.F Chapter 1, I turned into the unofficial cheerleader of K.G.F Chapter 2 on Twitter.  For a few years now I have been repeatedly saying that Chapter 2 had the best chances of success as a pan-India film compared to all other films, even above RRR.   So, when the big day arrived, I was not surprised to see the outcome - the record breaking collections of Chapter 2.   I went ahead and watched the film too.  ...

In early 2021 I wrote a blogpost called “The Age of Bhakti” . The summary or core theme of the post was this: When society and its institutions fail...we have no other option but to depend on the divine.   The recent Telugu blockbuster ‘Akhanda’ is a manifestation of the same concept in an over-the-top commercial format.   Most movies operate in the first part of the summary I shared — where society’s institutions fail and a do-gooder hero who is usually above the law of the land comes in to fix things.   In the process our heroes even break the laws of physics as if it is their birthright, and we accept it without questioning or wondering how such things are possible. The whole act of watching movies is a process of suspension of disbelief.   The legendary actor Balakrishna is known to do these gravity and logic defying acts in the most convincing manner and his two previous collaborations with the director Boyapati Srinu have been huge blockbusters at the box offic...

What's that One Secret Ingredient that separates great movies from the ordinary ones? I've been mulling about this idea for a long time and the recent Telugu film Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo was the trigger that made me post this video. It's not a film review; you don't need one at this stage :) I instead focus on the structure of film making and see what great movies have in common. Do watch the video and let me know what you think; also tell me what other movies do you think fall under the categories that I mention here.

It’s a little over two weeks since Saaho released. I already watched the film twice in the theatres and I plan to watch it at least one more time on the big screen. I thought it was a kickass thriller, with a screenplay unlike anything we’ve seen so far in Indian cinema. The critics had something else to say though. They all hated it. I suspect that they haven't grasped anything about the movie at all. This blogpost is actually a lament about them and not a movie review in the conventional sense. I speak about the film, but more to set a context as to how the critics went horribly wrong this time. I just couldn’t resist the urge to write about this topic. Here it goes...

"Oh no…one more Padmaavat article. That too so many days after the movie’s release" - I can practically hear you say that aloud. Maybe I am crazy, but I have no option other than to share my story with you before I go completely mad. I might also end up driving you crazy in the last section of this post. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. My story involves a bizarre paradox - a moral dilemma of sorts. It all started when I watched the film Padmaavat on the second day of its release. I loved the film. The climax choked me emotionally and this was the only time in my life where I wished I had seen a movie in 3D because those glasses could’ve hidden my tears at the end. That’s how much I loved the film. Putting aside the discussions about gender politics, Jauhar or the Hindu VS Muslim trope that’s been doing the rounds, the film and the climax appealed to me at a very basic level as a triumph in tragedy – where you feel sad that the good guys die at the end but als...

I have a confession to make. This is not the Baahubali blog post I originally planned to write. The real one is still lying in my drafts folder...since July 2015. It still remains there because of a strange phenomenon with the first Baahubali movie. After every viewing of ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ it seemed exponentially better than the previous viewing (yes, I watched the movie a lot of times). By the sixth viewing or so I started feeling like  Neo from the Matrix – seeing details, patterns and threads that weren’t easily visible earlier. At one point of time I started maintaining an excel sheet to capture the complexity and intensity of thoughts that started hitting my mind. My blog post started looking like a PhD thesis, and I somehow never managed to publish it till date. Fast forward to 2017 and we already have the second part ‘Baahubali: The Conclusion’ out. Things are a bit different this time though. I don’t intend to write a thesis on the secon...

I watched the much talked about Malayalam movie Premam earlier this year, almost a year after its theatrical release. Though I didn’t understand a word of the language, I instantly fell in love with the film. Maybe it was the music, the locations, visuals, acting, chemistry, love, pimples, Java, or god knows what… the film was pure magic! Later, I came to know it was being remade in Telugu, my native language. I felt it was a bold move, maybe a stupid one too...Premam is a piece of ART, and ART is sacrosanct, not to be tampered with. Were the makers committing blasphemy? To find the answers, I waited with bated breath for the Telugu release. Caught the film during the first weekend, and then the unexpected happened. I walked in expecting to see a ‘copy paste remake’ but what I instead got was an ‘upgraded version’ of the original. It felt as if the original Premam was put on a treadmill and made to lose all the flab, in place of which it grew muscles – muscles calle...

What is this Dancing Car? That was one question my son was repeatedly asking while we were watching the movie ‘PK’.  Though old enough to grasp basics of the world around him, the concept of a dancing car in ‘PK’ was alien to him. No wonder, the child’s curiosity kicked in and the above question followed. There was no convincing answer to give him. Similar is the state of PK, our alien from outer space. His childlike curiosity constantly questioning the world around him; learning answers the hard way – much to his bewilderment and our amusement. PK questions many aspects of our world, but there is one thing I am particularly keen to explore further - the conclusions he arrives at during his quest to reach god. God exists, but a medium (religion & rituals) and messenger (god men) to reach god are unnecessary. Is PK right in saying so? Maybe…but his childlike innocence can’t be a good enough reason to completely believe him. How can ...

Kids laugh 300 times a day. Adults laugh only 5 times a day! There is no scientific data to prove it, but everyone seems to believe the above numbers. Kids indeed laugh a lot, are happier and seem to have more fun than us adults. Thanks to the pressures of growing up, we often end up losing the kid inside us. The reason I speak about kids and adults in this post is because I find it very amusing to see the extreme reactions to the latest Farah Khan movie Happy New Year. Happy New Year seems to invoke a strange phenomenon - a battle between the kid and the adult within us. By now, I am assuming you already know who you are – the one who laughed out loud while enjoying the movie, or the one who laughed reading the spoofs and reviews of critics who trashed this movie. One is the kid inside you reacting, and the other is the adult. Through this post I would like to explore this phenomenon further. It will probably help explain why I like this film and why you mi...

He won’t stop – that’s the literal translation of ’Aagadu’, the title of a Telugu movie that released last weekend. True to its name, the movie was unstoppable at the box office, netting close to a million dollars on the day of its release in the US. An unprecedented number for an Indian film, leave alone a Telugu film. I was constantly bombarded by Whatsapp updates from my friends in the US who flocked to the screens in droves as if their lives depended on this movie. Closer home, the story was no different - despite negative reviews from critics and 140 character experts on Twitter, the film marched on triumphantly. I watched the movie in a Delhi NCR multiplex which was packed to the brim - a rarity in this part of the country. Craze for the movie wasn’t surprising. Aagadu is after-all a big budget movie made by a popular director with a successful track record starring one of the most charismatic heroes of South India - Mahesh Babu - the central reason for the...

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Ernest Hemingway While I punch the keys on my laptop to write about the Telugu film Manam, my feelings are similar - instead of blood, I have tears in my eyes. Tears that refuse to stop long after the show got over. Tears that seem to emanate from a complex set of emotions triggered by nostalgia, sadness and joy - all at the same time. It is as if the movie has done some kind of black magic on me. The only way for me to make sense of all those tears is to write this blog post. Who knows, you might be feeling the same way too after watching the film. One basic assumption before watching Manam is that this is a film about glorifying the decades old ANR legacy which starts with Akkineni Nageswara Rao in the 1940s to his son Nagarjuna starting in the 80s and then onto his grandson Naga Chaitanya starting in the new millennium – all of whom star in this film. It is an easy temptation fo...

People laughed when I said I loved Krrish 3. They laughed even harder when I said Krrish 3 should break all box office records. But they laughed the loudest when I said Krrish 3’s success is as important to us as the success of Mangalyaan, India’s Mars Mission. Everyone thought I was joking. They still think so. Now that I am writing this blog post, I hope all doubts will be laid to rest. I will start by first speaking about the movie and then go on to Mangalyaan. Krrish 3 To be honest, I wasn't too enthusiastic to watch Krrish 3 despite all the pre release hype about the VFX and other stuff. Dhoom 3 which is to release in December seemed far more exciting. In 2006, Dhoom 2 overshadowed the hysteria around Krrish, and it seemed like a case of advanced deja vu already. However I was really curious to see how Rakesh Roshan strung the movie together. I think he has a terrific sense of screenplay and there is a certain rhythm and mathematical precession in the way...

Life in space is impossible! The movie ’Gravity’ begins with this ominous line, and for the next 100 odd minutes  it is an immersive roller-coaster ride following astronauts marooned in space. As the tag line of the movie  ‘Don't let go’  suggests, survival of the characters in the film depends on - holding on to things, letting go off things and reaching out for the right things at the right time. This in essence is the simple storyline of the film. The above scenario reminded me of how similar life on earth is to the one the movie showed us. For survival, we all do the same three things - hold on, let go and reach out; though not literally like in space but in a very metaphorical and invisible way. This is the secret sauce that I am going to speak about in this post.  If you were expecting a review of the movie Gravity, I am sorry to disappoint you. So here it goes...

 “I am normal, naam toh suna hi hoga” In one of the many goofy scenes from Chennai Express, Shahrukh Khan (SRK) rattles his trademark dialogue but mistakenly uses the word ‘Normal’ in place of ‘Rahul’. It was intended to be a pun but it aptly sums up the box office phenomenon of Chennai Express and how Shahrukh Khan finally after a long hiatus gets back to being normal - which is - being the king of the box office. His last normal movie was Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi way back in 2008. A lot has happened since then and Chennai Express arrives like all Indian trains, late by at least 4 odd years but is a wait well worth it for die hard SRK fans. What happened inbetween both these movies is what forms the bulk of this post and then I will go on to speak a little more about Chennai Express and a little more about SRK. If you are not a Shahrukh Khan fan, than this post is probably not for you, don't say I didn't warn you! Ok, I am kidding, I want you to read it too. Let’s no...

It is a little over a week since Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's ’Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ released to packed houses everywhere. Volumes have been written about the film already. Lots of people have called it an inspiring movie about the life of Milkha Singh while some have complained about the length, while everyone unanimously hails the performance of Farhan Akhtar as Milkha. Now that we are almost done with talking about the movie, let me tell you a secret... Bhaag Milkha Bhaag isn't a movie about Milkha Singh!   It is a movie about Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and Farhan Akhtar having sex with each other! No, I am not trying to grab your attention by making bizarre statements. I have good reason to say that and here is why...

As you can notice from the title this isn't just my take on the Ram Gopal Varma movie 'The Attacks of 26/11’ but also my take on a trend that I have been noticing for a long time on Twitter. If you are only interested in reading about the movie you can skip the second part of this post and if you want to read only about the other burning issue that I speak about in this post ‘The Kasabs of Twitter’ you can skip the first part but I would suggest you read it in entirety so that it makes better sense. I will leave the choice to you. I shall first start with the movie.

There is a bizarre truth about RGV's films!  I have written twice about Ram Gopal Varma on my blog, the first one I called ' The truth about the man ' , and the second 'The De-Evolution of Ram Gopal Varma' . However, the reason why I am writing this mini post today is to share with you a bizarre observation that struck me after the bomb blasts in Hyderabad a week before the release of his next film 'The Attacks of 26/11”.