Continuing from my previous post, I heard that one of my acquiantances in Hyderabad threw a going away party for their son who was traveling to the US to do some course in some university in the US. The kid had finally arrived :-).

Hyderabad & Me

I had a very interesting weekend. My brother visited me after his recent trip to the US. His "pilgrimage" to the "chosen country" certainly lived up to my expectations. He had a lot of comments to make on everything including the research system, which I personally, think is superior to the Indian system.

The "pilgrimage" however brought back a lot of memories of the time that I lived in Hyderabad. I was working in Satyam at that time and used to live on my own. At that none of my immediate family lived there and I was dependent on second cousins and a whole lot of distant relatives for "home" comfort. My family is distinctly middle class with its own concerns about education, software job and the dream was of course the "holy pilgrimage" to the US. Just as in the previous days, places like Varanasi and Rajahmundry were aspirational cities, so was the US. Everywhere that I went, I used to be asked sympathetic questions if I were unsuccessful in getting admission to graduate studies in the US (never mind that the university/course was not my aspiration) or I was unsuccessful in getting a job in the US via a good consultant or I was unable to snag a groom settled in the US.

It seemed odd that I was continuously defending my choice to remain in the country of my birth. I felt battered every time I attended any social event. I never understood the obsession with "settling in the US" with "US returned" being a distant second choice.
There were however other things that more than compensated for my relatives.
I worked with an amazing team in Satyam and made some very good friends. I found common friends who agreed with me that "gult" guys from Andhra ought to be the last choice for husbands. They helped me discover amazing restaurants and movies. Till date I believe that Hyderabad has the best "value for money" restaurants for all kinds of cuisines. I can still remember the taste of the biryani in "Persis", the dhabas after Bowenpally, the shopping in Paradise, Sultan Bazaar and Ameerpet, the movie theaters in Abids, RTC X roads, Sangeet and the Sunday second hand books market opposite Santosh.

I am planning to go to Hyderabad this coming weekend to meet a few of my cousins. I do hope I will have some time to rediscover my old haunts, but I am almost scared to go back and discover that all these have changed.

Parugu

I read "My family and other Animals" a long time back and the first thing that struck me was the aptness of the title. I and my brother have very diverse opinions among others about Telugu cinema. He is the true "mass follower" of Telugu movies. It is my personal opinion that he and Raju sustained the commercial viability of all Telugu theaters in RTC cross road between 1999 and 2001. His endorsement of Bhadra type movies further alienated his taste of Telugu movies from mine. I started an internal ranking of his reviews.



My brother first recommend the songs of Parugu, which I did not find too appealing. Later, when I saw Parugu, I was struck by the songs and Allu Arjun's dances. I enjoyed most of the songs except "Parugulu". I also liked the village sets and the comedy track in the movie. It became my movie of choice to watch while I stood in pasport renewal queues.

As I watched Parugu multiple times, I was struck by a few things. One of the major "revolutions" brought out by Chiranjeevi in telugu films is gendar role reversal. In older movies, heroines were asked to dress down (literally) and given complicated dance steps for song sequences to cover up "obese" heroes. Chiranjeevi changed this aspect completely. Now heroes perform all the complicated dance steps and the heroines are further marginalised to just shedding their clothes.
The other point that struck me was that the heroine in "Parugu" did not have a voice at all. She kept following the lead of the hero and her father at all times without developing her own opinion. The one time that she expresses an opinion and shows the spunk to follow through with her actions, she is over-ridden by the hero. Infact there is just one song in the entire movie to express the heroine's thoughts. It looks like she is continuously in need of an overwhelming force in her life. This characterisation is so unlike the director's first film heroine - "Hasini in Bommarillu". Wonder if this change is due to the story line or the fact that he was working with a hero like Allu Arjun and interference from the first family of Tollywood.

The story was run of the mill - girl eloping with her lover in the face of family opposition. A tried and trusted hackeneyed plot, it also opened interesting threads due to the excellent interpretation from the director. There was one thread of the consequences of elopement on the couple, weakening of caste rigidities due to education and urbanisation (not explored at all). Instead the focus was on the impact on the family due to elopement ( a la Chiranjeevi's daughter). The director could have done away with the entire second half and still made a good movie. movie.

I am now looking forward to see Bhaskar's next movie without the first family's influence.

Ashta Chamma Review

There have been some terrific movies adapted from novels. Classics in English like Gone with the Wind and the Lord of the Rings series demonstrated how an excellent novel can be adapted into equally smashing movies. Hindi novels like Suraj ka Satwaan Ghoda and Shakesperean plays MacBeth and Othello have been successfully translated into the big screen. Movies adapted from classical Telugu literature like Kanyasulkam also proved equally adept at the translation from literature to the big screen. However, my personal favourite is Ashta Chamma. Directed by Krishna Mohan Indraganti, this movie is a faithful adaptation of the Oscar Wilde play "The Importance of being Earnest".

Although the movie follows the plot of the Oscar Wilde play to the "T", it also updates the props and the context of the play to modern times. Where the movie adaptation scores is in introducing the various characters and providing the background to the plot. "Colours" Swati plays the role of Lavanya a young girl madly in love with Mahesh Babu. The director was spot on in the characterization of Lavanya. The one scene of young Lavanya in school providing the inspiration for Puri Jagannth punch dialogues in Pokiri is brilliant. Similarly, the insistence of Lavanya to marry a person whose name is Mahesh is perfectly understandable to an ardent fan of Mahesh Babu. I could completely empathize with the character. In fact, the movie has inspired me to insist on this condition in my personal life as well. My life partner will have to change his name to Mahesh if he already has another name.

With this background, the rest of the twists and turns that the movie takes following the plot of the Oscar Wilde play faithfully are understandable and do not seem out of place or ridiculous. In fact the satire on Telugu film industry's "faction" inspired movies to set the background for the double-life of the hero is outstanding. The attention paid to the details especially support characters sets this movie apart from other regular Telugu movies. The chronology of Mahesh Babu movies however does not seem correct and the movie seems to have conveniently forgotten Mahesh Babu duds like Sainikudu. The songs especially the title song is beautiful to listen to. The cinematography could be better. The editing is good except in one of the songs where it is extremely jumpy - quite needlessly so. The supporting cast of Srinivasa Avasarla and the late Bhargavi is very good, with Srinivasa Avasarla standing out heads above the rest of the cast both in terms of height and acting skills.

This movie also continues the tradition of movies like "Guddi" in highlighting the impact that movies and especially popular romantic heroes can have on the lives of young women. The point where this movie differs substantially is in not trying to recommend a cure or sitting judgment on the women's choices but empathize with the character. This ends up as a feminist movie without being preachy or boring.

The Zoya Factor

This year has been unusually kind to me. For the first time in ages I have time and an internet connection at hand. I have been able to experience the magic of blogs for the first time. The reading rather than the writing that is. I think I should thank the IPL season 2 for this than anything else. The earlier matches were slow and watching them was a tedium that only the “fakeiplplayer” could alleviate. One thing led to the other and here I am posting my first blog.

Well with my blog's name it is only fair that I start with a review of the novel "The Zoya Factor". I had read the review of this novel in Indian Express a year back but never managed to read it. Recently my friend Somya recommended this novel again and I felt I had to read this novel. The premise of the novel is very simple. It is the love story of an advertising exec and the India cricket captain. The twist in the tale is that due to the heroine "Zoya" being born precisely at the moment that India won the 1983 World Cup, she is extremely lucky for any cricket team that has breakfast with her on match day which the India captain "Khoda" does not believe in. After all the usual M&B twists in the story and the misunderstandings, the hero and heroine live happily ever after.

The novel by Anuja Chauhan has an authentic flavor due to the author herself coming from an advertising background. The novel gives an insider's peek to the relationship between cricketers, agents, marketing companies, brands and advertising agencies. Although, the novel sometimes reads like a massive product placement, there is enough humor and "cute moments" to make the novel a page turner. I liked the fact that the protagonist had no illusions about her looks, had unruly curly hair and was extremely impulsive. If she had been chubby, my cup of happiness must have runneth over, but then the success of the novel would have been short-lived.

The novel would have been even better if some obvious bloomers had been taken care of. In the final over of the World Cup, newcomer "Vikram Solanki" comes in with 3 balls to spare. He hits a six off the 3 rd ball. With 2 balls to go, suddenly "Khoda" is on strike without the two batsmen going for a run or change in over. Wish this were true each time Munaf Patel came to bat. Again Zoya goes to the India dressing room during the semifinals match without meeting a single member of the ubiquitous ICC security staff. Gigantic achievement! All the betting agents would be gunning for that kind of access.

Another major issue I have with the novel is the "luck" factor. Many people I see around me are superstitious despite being highly educated and having a science background. I have also seen a spate of Telugu movies recently that emphasized on "luck", horoscope and other such factors. Although one cannot and should not discount the luck factor, emphasizing it over other aspects of the game would undermine the person's skills. I was hence uncomfortable reading about these aspects in a novel although the author tried to balance it with the political party thread (which again looked like a points scoring session). However, the description of the interactions with the political leaders, agents, and the board president were entirely hilarious and often bubbling enough to be close to reality.

All in all a good page turner and recommended for any Sunday afternoon with time on hand.