Variety is the spice of life

As mentioned prior, junior is very fond of funny stories. Even those stories where he is aware of the characters, would always insist that the stories should be funny, setting the terms clearly while requesting for one. He has a decent collection of Amar Chitra Katha stories where he reads about the original version of the mythologies and before going to sleep, the last action item for the day would be a retell of those tales in a funny format. Junior being my only and most vociferous audience, who applauds and laughs out loud for any and every silliest mokkai of mine, I used to mash up the known tales with a bit of spoof element. The Bheeman character in my stories is an amalgam of Kaalia and Mayabazaar Ranga rao. For familiarity sake that character is addressed as Bheem (minus the “chota”). He is always fond of food and eats continuously right from the time he wakes up till he goes to sleep. More than Ramayana, Junior is very fond of Mahabharatha. Possibly because it has truck load o

Many a time, when you read a good book, you are tempted to think about its screen adaptation. Especially those genres that set your imagination on fire like LOTR or Harry Potter series. Thriller genres that kindle your intellectual curiosity and are really tricky to make it suitable for large screen audience. Especially murder mystery stories set in the template of Agatha christie, where most of the action happens over conversations, the facts that are available with the detective being presented to the reader as well. In such a cramped environment, where the only thrill for the reader being, are they able to out think the lead detective in breaking the case, making it into a 2+ hour long movie and still managing to keep the audience engaged is a skill in itself. Cinema being a visual medium primarily, makes it more challenging to engage the visual senses along with your aural and mental faculties and is a real test for the director/screenplay writer’s skill, in ensuring such genres/be

If given sufficient time to speak on any topic, I would end up contradicting the same point with which I might’ve started the speech. It doesn’t always come with the territory of being unprepared and being extempore, but more of not having a sense of absoluteness about anything. In this very space I had mentioned some of the highlights of OTT providers and how they bring variety content to your living room from across the world. In fact, some of the big shot directors, who were silently plagiarizing content from other languages are now hard pressed for good stories as most of their sources stand revealed. The translation activity has become an industry of its own with sub title, audio (dubbing) being most needed skill in a fast paced OTT  setup.  All said and done, there are some obvious “evils” that have come along with OTT – profanity being the topmost along with vulgarity and obscenity. The kind of languages that are spoken on OTT platform would put a sailor to shame. And these are

I am a big time fan of Kishore kumar like zillion other people. As much as his songs, his acting skills are something I am very fond of, which I believe not many give him due credit. The way in which he dances for “Bindu re Bindu” song in Padosan movie is a good example. He effortlessly performs those steps which, I would be really surprised, if they were choreographed. Being the playback singer for that song, the way he sways to the tune is pure fun. His antics often remind me of Chandrababu, great comedian of tamil cinema, who also was a decent singer and superb dancer who did his own steps. This movie had been on my watchlist for a long while and finally managed to see it last week. The other reason for watching the movie being Madhubala(Venus, she is). She looks divine and all those praises of her beauty are well justified. Wouldn’t quite say about the performance though. But if you are so good looking, enough to set the screen on fire, what else is needed. I read in the trivia sec

At times I feel the universe conspires to set me up for things that are coming up, which could be as simple as a movie watch. Few days back, saw a movie called “Rocky” (tamil). It was praised sky high by fellow mates and they were calling it a noire film, appreciating the visual impact of each scenes and how they’ve been picturized. Nammaku therinja oray nair, Palakkattu Madhavan nair from Andha ezhu naatkal movie, apdingarappo enna panirukanum? Idhu malayala filma? Illa director malayalia nu theera visarichitu pathirukanum. Evano sonnanna unakkenga poachu buddhi? Apdinulam hindsight, hind leg vachu pin mandaila udhaichalum, what was done was done. The only genre that Rocky would’ve fit in was revenge po**. The movie was so violent, for such a routine story of revenge, that in every alternate scene someone got killed, maimed, beaten and dead – not necessarily in that order. All characters were playing holi with blood only difference being, instead of water pistons it was sickle/knife/m

Whenever I watch action movies, I often wonder, why so many henchmen of the villain rushes to the hero, wanting to hurt/kill him, just because their boss ordered them. Was it loyalty? Or fear of the repercussions of disobedience? Or belief in the power of mob? Whatever the case may be, just on the order of their boss, fully knowing what they are doing would be absolute crime from every angle, they never hesitate to pick weapon to fight. They may even get killed, wounded, lose their near and dear, at times arrested (sic) as well. Somehow they are convinced that they do the right thing for themselves or for their dependents, if at all they have any, by resorting to violence. Are they brainwashed into believing that they need to put their life before their leader’s or merely being paid for violence makes them do such heinous things? Whatever may be the reason, organized crime, sponsored violence are something that I detest to the core irrespective of the reason and especially when they ar