Terrible 'Dhada' and Karan Rastogi's futures win

Today's updates are dominated by the telugu movie "Dhada" I watched yesterday and anexcellent ITF futures win for Karan Rastogi in Kazhakisthan.

Watched Dhada yesterday and oh man, what a terrible movie it is! The director completely failed to emotionally charge up the audience and hence there was no connection with the feelings of both the lead actor and actress. Kudos to Naga Chaitanya for putting up such a great effort, he really worked hard towards his dance movements and fight sequences. His hard work paid off and as an actor he is pretty good now. He is looking a hero's material now. Kajal agarwal looked terrible, not sure who designed her clothes and hairstyle, it was utter s***t. Director should have noticed it right in the beginning and rectified her hairstyle, she really looked bad. If she continues to act in future with such a make up, Kajal Agarwal is bound to fall from the lofty heights she achieved after Mr. Perfect to the abysmal levels she never witnessed. I am really upset at the negligence towards her makeup. Songs were average, Devi Sri Prasad failed this time. Everyone else looked poor. Overall it was a very poor effect, no matter how much you spend on publicity the movie will sink.

Karan Rastogi won the futures title in Kazhakisthan. Though it is not updated on the ITF tennis website, I came to know about the result from a reliable source. He is slowly becoming the second best singles player for us after Somdev Varman. Nice to see his progress, he was once the most talented player in India before his injury. Good to see him regain his form back.

Then the terrible series for Indian in England continues. Hope they will put up a fight atleast today! I am still eagerly waiting for Sachin's 100th ton. That is the only thing we can cheer about in the entire series that too if it happens. The bowling department looked very poor. We have to drop and revamp our side drastically if we have to dominate the test cricket again.

Another gloomy news is the speculation about USA going back into the recession. I am still very hopeful that USA might avoid a double dip but for that they need to be very very careful and not fall in the debt trap. Very tough but if at all there is a country which can avoid it, it has to be USA. With a vast amount of data they have, I think they will analyze it well and avoid a recession. A long and tough work ahead for the USA. The most worrying factor is how the politics in USA has almost pushed the country into a debt default. This was never the case with USA, country was always placed ahead of the petty politics, but now things have changed. That is something which needs to be rectified immediately.

Some good news in the form of the resurgence of Zimbabwe. In the times of cricket losing its popularity in many countries, nice to see Zimbabwe getting back into the scheme of things for the test cricket. They have won the test played against Bangladesh and now has recorded a ODI win too. In a way it is good to see Zimbabwe being as good as what they were before the exile. But sadly the same can't be said about Bangaldesh, not sure where Bangladesh is heading? I don't see much hope for their cricket, after 15 years of international cricket they are still languishing at the bottom. I feel sorry for the cricket crazy people in Bangladesh.

Another sad news today, I know it has been too many disappointing news so far. Rohan/Qureshi had to withdraw midway when the set score was 3-3 against Bryan brothers. Rohan Bopanna twisted his ankle and couldn't continue. Sad to see such an interesting match go this way but I hope Bopanna's injury is not too serious and he will be fit for the US Open.

And we have Sania and Somdev playing at Cincinnati today. The match is scheduled at 7:30PM and 8:00PM IST respectively. Sania will be playing 83rd rank Vania King while Somdev is playing 104th ranked Marsel Ilhan. On the paper both are favorites to win this match, but the way Sania is playing I would give her only 40% chance to win. I think Vania King is the favorite to win. For Somdev it should be easy if he can play upto his potential, any miscalculation he might end up on the losing side, but yes I expect Somdev to win this match.

That's it for now, its time to decide whose picture should be on the top. The contenders for the day are Naga Chaitanya for his excellent work in Dhada and Karan Rastogi for an amazing title in Kazhakisthan. I will go with Karan Rastogi, he is a winner while Dhada is a flop. It would have been even if karan lost in the finals, but Karan Rastogi it is for the day.

Flop show by our batsmen....again

The updates for the day is dominated by the flop show by our batsmen against Northamptonshire. Apart from Mukund who has scored a century everyone else failed. We should be dominating these matches, nothing looks good with our Indian team in this trip. India finished the day on 327/7, the pressure is mounting on Dhoni to perform with the bat, hope he comes good in the next test. May be he should promote himself ahead of Raina or who ever is no.6!

The team selection news is out, Yuvi and Bhajji are set to miss the ODI series while Dravid is recalled after a two year gap. Dravid is in a sublime form and it is not a bad idea to bring him back into the team.

The other major headlines which hogged the limelight is the CAG report on the commonwealth games mess. Looks like the rot is deeper than what everyone else thought! Now Sheila Dixit also appears to be in the mess. I don't want to comment without reading the full report but it is equally wrong on the part of media to project the news as if Sheila Dixit is involved in the CWG mess. Many a times we listen to our subordinates and sanction certain things based on the trust we place on them. Unless until proven I am with Sheila Dixit on this. She is one lady who has taken the project as a prestige issue and strived to complete it on time.

And then we have Sania's match tonight against Heidi El Tabakh who is ranked in the 180s. Sania is going through a mini slump ans this easy match up should help us regain the confidence. Heidi El Tabakh is not even a regular on the WTA tour, she is more of an ITF futures player. Go Sania, get the job done with clinical precision. We will all be supporting you. The match is scheduled at around 11:30AM eastern time in Toronto.

We have AIFF arranging an emergency meeting to solve the issue with clubs refusing to release their players for the upcoming Indian caribbean tour in football. The tour is in jeopardy because of this. Hope AIFF solves the problem as early as possible.

Karan Rastogi and Ranjeet Virali Murugesan, both lost their semifinals matches in the Kazhakistan futures. Both have got very tough opponents. So the loss was more or less on the expected lines. They will be playing along with few other Indians in the same tournament again next week. All the best to our players in Kazhakistan.

In the honor of Dravid for being selected into the ODI team, today's picture is going to be Rahul Dravid.

Will Telangana leaders and people follow the Egypt upheavel?

I know that the conditions leading to agitations in both the regions are quite different, but something tells me that the Telangana leaders and people will take inspiration from the type of chaos that we are witnessing in Egypt and follow a similar suit here in Hyderabad. Of course the law and order is much more capable and stronger in the state of Andhra Pradesh than Egypt and they might not allow the agitation to gain momentum, but again it is a do or die situation for KCR and his TRS party. If they can'r carry this movement forward, they will be blown to smithereens by the new Jagan party and the Congress men in the next elections. I am expecting a huge agitation in the capital city for the Telangana state unless the police subdue the movement with Iron fists.

Liverpool's amazing comeback, Manchester United's first loss and Chiranjeevi's merger

The headlines indicate just the prominent news that has made it to the headlines. These were the topics I was thinking about and racking my brain yesterday.

I have to start with the fascinating tale of Liverpool slowly but steadily crawling back into the top 4. It is still a very difficult proposition with a 6 points difference between the 4th placed Chelsea and 5th Placed Tottenham and both the teams have a game in hand. But the upcoming fixtures are surely going to bolster their confidence, Liverpool's next two matches are against Wigan Athletic and West Ham United, 18th and 20th placed teams in the table. Chelsea will be playing Fulham(12th) and Manchester United (1st) while Tottenham will be playing Blackpool(15th) and Sunderland (7th). There is a good possibility that both Chelasea and Tottenham will lose points in the coming 3 weeks while Liverpool is in the best position to accumulate all 6 points.

Manchester United is sitting pretty at the top, but their next three matches are going to decide if they can maintain this healthy lead or not. The defeat against Wolves has come at a wrong time, they will next play Manchester City, Wigan, Chelsea and Liverpool! The worst part, 3 out of the 4 fixtures are away matches! Manchester City, one of the contenders for the title have to step up and win their 2 of the 3 fixtures, they should also make sure they don't lose to Manchester United. Arsenal will be playing Wolves, Stoke City, Sunderland and West Brom. Fairly easy matches for them. Going by the fixtures, by the end of March I guess Arsenal will be at the top followed by ManU and Manchester . Going to be a very exciting 6 weeks

My next favorite topic is Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam merger with the Congress. From the reactions across the state it looks like it is a shameful proposition for the fans of Chiranjeevi and people who voted for him but in all practicality, Chiru is in a much better position today (after the merger) than before. I think politically it is a strong message sent to Y.S.Jagan from the high command but again Sonia and company are committing the same mistake again and again and again. They got a much lesser charismatic leader to compensate Jagan. It is a pity that they couldn't reconcile with the young leader who would have been a much better person to lead Congress in the next elections. Chiru has lost his credibility with this move, it is only going to strengthen the new party Jagan is going to start.

Tevez to quit Manchester City

Just when I thought Tevez was making some sensible comments, here comes a bomb. Manchester City management has claimed that Tevez has submitted a transfer application which they rejected. And today Tevez came out firing stating that the differences between him and some of the members in the management team has soared so badly that it is now beyond repair.

I personally feel that when a player wants to leave the club so badly, he should be allowed. And for gods sake don't compare him with Rooney who is heads and shoulders above Tevez. I am a fan of Tevez, but what he is doing is too much. He should remember that he was not even a consistent starter in the MANU team, that is how good he is when compared against the games greats. Now he got a chance in a club where he is the best and has every chance to be a legend for that club! But he is wasting it. An ignorant fool he, he is not even realizing it.

If he is a responsible captain, he should wait for a proper recruitment in his place before leaving. It is not good to leave the club in a no man's land and get out. He lost all the respect I had for him.

Manchester City should now aim for a good striker who can do the job for the team. Even with Tevez, they lacked the power in striking department and they should at least buy two good ones with the money they get by selling Tevez.

May be Torres, this is the right time to get him. He is a glorious striker and just out of form, with the kind of mid fielders City has they should get him. He will be a great asset for the team.

A suit that costs 50 lakhs

The united kingdom based premiere fabric maker Dormeuil launched suits that cost Rs.50 lakhs and above!! I wonder if it is a marketing gimmick, otherwise I would be surprised if some one spends that kind of amount on a suit how much ever rich one might be. This is ridiculous pricing.

PS : Dormeuil has a record of making the most expensive suit!

Music of Manasara rocks

Songs of Manasara received positive response from all over Andhra Pradesh. The music is in the same lines of Nachavule, which was directed by Ravibabu and was released a couple of years back. For all the people who liked Nachavule, Manasara is a must in their music collection. Superb melody.

With positive vibe in the music department, we have to wait and watch if Ravibabu can hit the bullseye with this movies. Love stories are not his forte and have been major disasters in the past. Soggadu with Tarun, NAchavule with Tanish have all been flops. He moved back to suspense thrillers and created a brand image for himself. Only time will tell if Manasara will be a hit.

The chronicles of Narnia - The voyage of the dawn treader

Watched the movie yesterday night and felt it was ok. Definitely the 2nd part is the best so far. For the beginners, The chronicles of Narnia (book) is divided into seven parts, the voyage of the dawn treader is the third part both in the book and movie series. In this part, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their priggish cousin, Eustace Scrubb, to Narnia. Once there, they join Caspian's voyage on the ship Dawn Treader to find the seven lords who were banished when Miraz took over the throne. This perilous journey brings them face to face with many wonders and dangers as they sail toward Aslan's country at the end of the world.

The reasons I think why the movie is not good is

1) All the problems encountered by the the prince Caspian and his team are easily solved. There is no strong conflicting point!

2) Eustace Scrubb was funny but his accent is too difficult to follow for the Indians! What this means is all the funny scenes are not enjoyed by the audience. I wonder if the Americans can understand him.

3) Not many spectacular special effects as in part 2. Apart from the last scene where all of them reach Aslan's land, nothing much to rave about the special effects.

And many other points, but the above three I thought could have been done better. We should also not forget that this is only the 3rd part out of the 7 parts and could just be laying the platform for the spectacular finish of the movie series. I remember not liking LOR first part but then went on to like the entire series immensely.

Rating for the movie

-----------------------------

Actors (Top 6 in terms of the role length)

-----------------------------------------------------------

1) Ben Barnes - 6/10

He was the heart and soul of the second part and just couldn't continue his magic in this part. He looked pretty ordinary and no emotional or challenging scenes for him in this part

2) Skandar Keynes - 6/10

An ordinary performance from him too.

3) Georgie Henley - 6/10

4) Will Poulter - 7/10

Among several ordinary performances his was the only saving grace. A beautifully written character and at the end you would feel nice about him. Was funny and kept the audience engaging in spite of an insipid story line. Could have been awarded higher rating if not for his very very strong accent.

5) Gary Sweet - 7/10

Did his part well, though it was a short character.

6) Terry Norris - 7/10

Did his part well, it was a role which lasted for 5 minutes. Just shows that apart from the top 4, nothing much for others to do. Animated characters can't be rated for acting, otherwise there are couple of them who were present in the entire movie along with the top 4.

Dialogues - 7/10

Music+Background score - 3/10

Cinematography - 7/10

Editing - 5/10

Screenplay - 5/10

Direction - 6/10

Production values - 7/10

Choreography - 0/10

Entertainment Value - 6/10

Average rating considering all the departments

57%

NOTE : 10-20% (skip the movie)

21-40% (May watch if you are a fan)

41-60% (Watch it on DVD)

61-80% (Go to the theaters at your leisure)

81-100% (Must watch)

Sacking of Chris Hughton and Tevez's sensible comments

Two news which I thought were interesting for the day were the sacking of Chris Hughton and finally some sensible remarks from Carlos Tevez about his manager! The sacking of Chris Hughton was a real surprise especially after the manager has put his heart and soul into the team (Newcastle United) to bring it back into the premiere league by winning the championship. In my opinion he was doing reasonably well in the premiere league too. Before jumping into any conclusion about the owners of the New castle united, there could be some differences in the salary that the manager might be asking for. It could be Hughton's choice too, to move out of New Castle United. In any case, it will be a major disappointment for the team in the coming weeks. It will take some time for them to cope up with the new manager. The team was playing like a unit under Hughton, only time will tell if the New Castle United management has made a right decision or not.

As far as Tevez is concerned, after his disgusting behavior in the match against Bolton Wanderers when he was substituted, he came up with some sensible words that there is no rift between the manger and himself. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=849673&sec=england&cc=4716 . It looks more like a forcced interview with what is to be said written by the Manchester city bosses!

Aarya-2 DVD review

Finally watched Aarya-2 yesterday on the DVD. I thought the storyline was damn good and only if there was some clarity in Allu Arjun's character, the movie would have been a super hit. Too much emphasis was made on Arjun's psycho character and in the process the director has missed out on some points. For example, the phone breaking scene after Kajal (Geetha) records Allu Arjun's drinking habits (in the bathroom). Come on, even though the phone was broken, the memory card would be intact and the video could have been recovered. This is just one example of not so well thought of scenes. The entire movie was full off inconsistencies with a brilliant scene followed by a mediocre one!! However, it is definitely worth watching once.

Rating

-------

Actors (top 6 in terms of role strength)

1) Allu Arjun - 10/10

One word, Mr.Perfect. He was terrific in the role of a psycho and really did a superb job as Aarya.

2) Kajal Agarwal - 6/10

She some how is not able to create the magic of Magadheera again. She was just mediocre in terms of looks and nothing much to act. She is just plain average

3) Navdeep - 7/10

He was adequate. He has nothing much to do in the movie except to worry about Aarya. He is a tremendous actor and is wasted in this movie. A strong characterization would have elevated the role of Aarya even better.

4) Brahmanandam - 6/10

5) Mukesh Rishi - 8/10

6) Ajay - 9/10

Dialogues - 8/10

Music+Background score - 8/10

Cinematography - 8/10

Editing - 8/10

Screenplay - 8/10

Direction - 6/10

Production Values - 8/10

Choreography - 8/10

Entertainment Value - 7/10

Average rating considering all the departments

------------------------------------------------

77%

0-40% - Skip the movie

41-70% - Watch it when you are free

71-90% - Rent it immediately

91-100% - Buy the DVD

Memoirs of a Geisha - DVD review

Watched Memoirs of a Geisha yesterday and it is one of the most engrossing films I have seen for a long time now. I am in love with the movie.

Plotline : In 1929 an impoverished nine-year-old named Chiyo from a fishing village is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto's Gion district and subjected to cruel treatment from the owners and the head geisha Hatsumomo. Her stunning beauty attracts the vindictive jealousy of Hatsumomo, until she is rescued by and taken under the wing of Hatsumomo's bitter rival, Mameha. Under Mameha's mentorship, Chiyo climbs several steps to become a Geisha (Sayuri) and dominates her field like nobody else. There is also a parallel story running where Chiyo falls in love with the Chairman as a child and pursues her dream to be a danna to the chairman. In the mean time the world war erupts and the Geisha world is collapsed even before Chiyo realizes her love. They meet again, but will Choyi realize her dream? This has to be watched on the DVD.

Rating for the movie

----------------------

Actors (Top 6 in terms of role strength)

1) Ziyi Zhang - 10/10

She was stunning and beautiful. Suited for the role to the Tee. Very very impressive

2) Ken Watanabe - 9/10

3) Gong Li - 9/10

4) Michelle Yeoh - 8/10

5) Youki Kudoh - 6/10

6) Suzuka Ohgo - 10/10

Dialogues - 8/10

Music+Background score - 10/10

Cinematography - 9/10

Editing - 9/10

Screenplay - 10/10

Direction - 9/10

Production values - 10/10

Choreography - 6/10

Entertainment Value - 3/10

Average rating considering all the departments

------------------------------------------------

84%

Note : 0-40% (Skip the movie)

41-70% - Watch it when you are free

71-90% - Rent it immediately

91-100% - Buy the DVD

Katha Review

Watched Katha and thought of reviewing it. As you must be knowing by now, Genelia and Arun are the lead pairs in the movie and is produced by Gunnam Gangaraju who is known for offbeat movies. In the past he has produced movies like Little soldiers, Aithe, Anukokunda oka roju, Amma Cheppindi etc. He is a brand for multiplex audience and the movie Katha generated enough excitement because of this reason. However the marketing of the movie is not done well and it reflected in the initial collections and poor release of the movie.

The movie is about Chitra who is the only witness to a murder realizing if the murder actually happened or is it just her hallucination. Chitra has a complicated past, because of which she suffers with a mental problem. Now it is upto Chitra to decide if her mental problem is catching up with her again. Krishna is an aspiring director who helps Chitra in solving her problem.

Rating for the movie

---------------------

Actors (Top6 in terms of performance)

1) Genelia - 7/10

The movie is about her and she carried off her role well. She still requires some improvement in enacting emotional scenes and dances. Apart from these two departments she suited the role very well. Her cute looks cover up for the lapses in those departments.

2) Arun Adit - 6/10

It is his first film and he did ok. He is too thin to be a hero! Looks are good but he has to improve a good deal in acting. He is definitely not bad but not very convincing either in all the scenes. He is promising though. Some fine tuning (especially in terms of physique) is required and he should be a good actor.

3) Prakash Raj - 7/10

His role is etched poorly, he is the police officer who investigates the murder that Chitra witnessed. He was not convincing because of the poor characterization

4) Shafi - 8/10

He did the role of constable who will be with Prakash Raj investigating the murder case. He keeps a grudge on Genelia for defaming the police department, he believes it is just her hallucination and there has been no murder at all. Given his scope he has done well.

5)Raghubabu - 6/10

He acted as the executive producer of the movie which Krishna is directing. In few scenes he evoked laughter.

6) Tulasi - 3/10

Not much role for her except for the telephonic conversions. She acted as the mother of Hero. She looked fat and ugly.

Dialogues - 6/10

Music + Background score - 6/10

Cinematography - 6/10

Editing - 5/10

Screenplay - 7/10

Direction - 6/10

Production values - 5/10

Choreography - 5/10

Entertainment value - 7/10

Average rating considering all the departments

------------------------------------------------

60%

NOTE : 10-20% (skip the movie)

21-40% (May watch if you are a fan)

41-60% (Watch it on DVD)

61-80% (Go to the theaters at your leisure)

81-100% (Must watch)

Yes Man

I guess this is my first DVD review, which I have been thinking of doing for a long time now. Watched Yes Man starring Jim Carrey and it was an ok movie. The movie is about how a person who is just living his life for the sake of it changes his attitude and enjoys everybit of it after going through the "YES" course. Jim Carrey was pretty good as usual. Below are my ratings: -

Rating for the movie

---------------------

Actors (Top 6 in terms of role strength)

1) Jim Carrey - 9/10

Terrific as usual. He is an asset and without him the movie wouldn't have been the same. He seems to have mastered the roles of being some one which he is not comfortable with and then changes his life all of a sudden because of some god or philosophy or wish :) . He is nice and it reflects in his ratings.

2)Bradley Cooper - 9/10

He is equally good and it is not easy not to get overwhelmed by an actor like Jim Carrey. He acted as Jim Carrey's best friend in this movie who is desperate to bring back his best friend into full life (as he used to be). Terrific performance from an young and upcoming actor.

3)Zooey Deschanel - 8/10

Acted as the love interest of Jim Carrey. Looked beautiful and carried her role with elan

4) John Michael Higgins - 7/10

5) Rhys Darby - 8/10

6) Danny Masterson - 6/10

Dialogues - 7/10

Music+Background score - 6/10

Cinematography - 6/10

Editing - 7/10

Screenplay - 8/10

Direction - 7/10

Production Values - 7/10

Choreography - 0/10

Entertainment value - 7/10

Average Rating considering all the departments

-------------------------------------------------

68%

Note : 0-40% (Skip the movie)

41-70% - Watch it when you are free

71-90% - Rent it immediately

91-100% - Buy the DVD

Hail the people of Andhra Pradesh

What a response from the leaders of Andhra Pradesh who has put party aside to stand with the people. Sonia Gandhi should know that dictatorship will not be tolerated. She can't take decisions without considering the sentiments of people! Just because a political leader is fasting or some few students protest a state can't be separated without considering people. Shame Shame Sonia

Amaravathi review

Watched Amaravathi yesterday and I felt it was just an average movie. By now, most of you must have read the plot of the movie. I will not get into the details but will discuss where Ravibabu could have done better. First half of the movie is repetitive with the director showing again and again how the babies are stolen from the womb. He tried using loud noises to scare away audiences but after a while it didn't go well with me.

No.2, though I liked the concept of special task force with different clothing and vehicles (a much required addition to India in real world), I didn't find the logic in not involving regular police. Right from the first scene it is only special task force which we see in action!

No.3, casting is horrible. None of them were impressive except the old lady (I guess she is Rajyalakshmi)! I wonder why Sneha and Bhumika agreed to act in this movie. They have no roles whatsoever and are in the movie only for the publicity element. The worst part is the casting of Tarakaratna in the role of psycho. The character is eccentric in nature but Tarakaratna failed to impress in that role. He hasn't enough homework on how eccentric people behave. Poor performance. Anyways, below is my rating.

Rating for the movie

----------------------

Actors (Top 6 in terms of role strength)

1) Ravibabu - 6/10

2) Tarakaratna - 3/10

3) Sindhura Gadde - 6/10

4) Sneha - 8/10

5) Bhumika - 5/10

6) Top police officer - 2/10

Dialogues - 6/10

Music+Background Music - 8/10

Cinematography - 7/10

Editing - 8/10

Screenplay - 5/10

Direction - 5/10

Production values - 7/10

Choreography - 0/10

Entertainment value - 7/10

Average rating considering all the departments

-------------------------------------------------

55.33%

NOTE : 10-20% (skip the movie)

21-40% (May watch if you are a fan)

41-60% (Watch it on DVD)

61-80% (Go to the theaters at your leisure)

81-100% (Must watch)

A classic beauty - Radhika Apte

Just came to know that Radhika Apte is selected to act in RGV's Raktha Charitra to act as Paritala Suneeta. Man, what a classic beauty she is!!! She can look gorgeous in both western outfits as well as Indian traditional dresses. She can be a gift to Indian film industry as she can act very well too. A real future star in making. Hopefully she will occupy the No.1 spot which is vacant ever since Madhuri Dixit left the film industry

Bendu Appa Rao is an average affair

Bendu Appa Rao is a plain average movie. It definitely is not what the reviews suggest. The comedy is below par for me. The only saving grace is the mystery behind the 15 lakhs which Bendu Appa Rao gets from a dying man. The comdey is very insipid and old fashioned. EVV should come out of Jandhyala style comedies which are outdated now and the 90s style of songs picturization. Time has changed and EVV seems to have been stuck in 90s when he churned out hits after hits. Kamna is ok while Meghna Raj is awful. Ahuti Prasad is probably the best of the lot when it comes to making you laugh. The rest of them are ok.

Rating for the movie

---------------------

Actors (Top 6 in terms of role length)

1) Allari Naresh - 8/10

2) Kamna Jetmalani - 5/10

3) Meghana Raj - 2/10

4) Ahuti Prasad - 8/10

5) Raghu Babu - 7/10

6)Suman Shetty - 7/10

Dialogues - 3/10

Music - 5/10

Cinematography - 5/10

Editing - 6/10

Screenplay - 6/10

Direction - 5/10

Production values - 6/10

Choreography - 7/10

Entertainment value - 5/10

Average rating considering all the departments

------------------------------------------------

57%

NOTE : 10-20% (Skip the movie)

21-40% (May watch if you are a fan)

41-60% (Watch it on DVD)

61-80% (Go to the theaters at your leisure)

81-100% (Must watch)

Mahatma songs

Go for it. Really nice composition from Vijay Antony for whom Mahathma is the first movie in telugu. He is a very popular music director in Tamil. For me Em Jarugutondi and Neelapoori are the best in terms of melody. They are very nice. Ofcourse they are in traditional telugu style and not the modern melodies. Jajjanakka is very good mass song which is already very popular in radios. There are two motivational songs in the form of Indiramma and Tala Ethi.

Overall a nice music buy for hardcore telugu movie lovers. Others might find it a bit disappointing though

TV9 encashing on public relief too??

It can't get more shameful than this. The way TV9 is blatantly publicizing their relief efforts is loathsome. Yes, it is good to see them coming forward to help the flood victims but they should also realize that they are doing only the job of being a coordinator and nothing much. Even though it is their duty to do that, we should appreciate that effort as not many news channels have come forward with such a plea. But, after watching them beating their own drums it looks like they have done it to publicize their channel more than offering help.

TV9, instead please dedicate that time for some news rather than interviewing people who came to donate stuff at your office. Shame Shame TV9

Comment on "What if Jr NTR was drunk"

Please go through the article published on greatandhra.com

http://www.greatandhra.com/ganews/viewnews.php?id=15079&cat=15&scat=16

I don't know who wrote that article but it is such a shame to read something like: -

So what if he has the habit of consuming a peg or two? Was it a crime? Are all these people who trying to cash on this news not boozers? He is a young actor and he might have had this habit of partying? For that matter, can’t we find all these young actors going to pubs, boozing and dancing? If he was drunk at the time of driving, he paid the penalty for it in the form of accident. He was the one who suffered for drunken driving. In what way, does it affect others?” they question.

I am not against him drinking or partying but it is silly and stupid to say that he paid the penalty for drunken driving and so should be left free even if proven guilty (which in any case will not happen). Lucky that he rammed into a tree but what if he killed the people? What if he was involved in an accident with other vehicles? What if there was any loss of life? Drunken driving is a crime and nobody in their right senses should argue against it. Inspite of traffic police repeatedly mentioning liquor consumption as a single most reason for the majority of accidents, the stupid fellow on greatandhra.com justifies NTRs drunken driving (if at all he was drunk that day) and comes up with a useless argument!!!

Sooo nice to hear Chitra sing again

Just heard the title song of Kalavaramaye Madilo and it was sooo good to hear Chitra again who is not singing much in telugu these days. The song is also composed very well and I strongly recommend everyone to lisen to it.

Google Chrome OS explained - but is it ahead of its time?

Check out this link http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html . Google has taken pain to explain us what their new opereating system is all about. Sounds interesting, as I read I understood that the OS is going to work on internet and we should be connected all the time incase they don't give the offline option. Even if they do we need internet to upload the files and save it online. I just have a feeling that it might be a bit ahead of its time as apart from USA rest of the world is still struggling for good internet connection. Expecially, in poorer countries using a computer is going to be much more expensive as they need to buy an internet connection if they have to use chrome OS. Microsoft might score over chrome in this aspect.

The verdict of the tussle between Microsoft and Google will only come out next year when google is planning to release its OS in full scale compaticle with laptops and desktops also. Microsoft has time to analysze what chrome is all about in the mean time when it is released on netbooks. Let us see how it goes

Deepika Padokone in an item song in Telugu?

What is going on? It is a bit surprising that Deepika Padukone is doing an item song inspite of being a super star in Bollywood. Usually, lead actresses (Heroin) resort to south Indian movies when they don't get enough chances in Bollywood in order to be in the lime light. Their ultimate goal might still be to be very successful in Bollywood. For example Shriya, Genelia, Namitha, Bhumika, Simran, Jyotika, Nagma etc are all north Indian models who couldn't create chances in Bollywood and so created a career of their own down south. Ofcourse, Genelia and Shriya at the moment are enjoying decent success in Bollywood too.

For Deepika (hailing from Karnataka), though she started off with Kannada movie Ishwarya (Nuvvu naku Nacchav remake) she is highly successful in bollywood ad there is absolutely no need to act in telugu/tamil movies. But she is doing an Item song, not even a lead actree in Jayant's forthcoming movie Love 4 Ever!!! Is it hunger to be successful which is driving her down south or is it money? In any case, I am pleasently surprised to see her dancing in a telugu movie.

Audio of Magadheera is below average

It is a big disappointment that such a high budget film has such an average music. There are a lot of expectations on this movie as it is coming after almost 2.5 years after the release of Charan's first movie Chiruta and it is learnt that a telugu movie of such magnitude has never come on the screen. Above all it is the combination of Rajamouli, who has delivered hits after hits and Charan that has created considerable curiosity among movie lovers and fans.

Except for two songs (Panchadara and Dheera Dheera) every other sing is a let down. In fact it would have been a bad album with out those two songs. Even the Bagaru Kodipetta remix is done very badly. Ofcourse, it has been a while since Rajamouli and Keeravani has delivered a true musical hit. Yamadonga, Chatrapati, sye and now Magadheera, all have average or below average musics. If I remembere correctly Simhadri was the last musical hit for this pair. Hope the movie does well. Rajamouli though hasn't delivered a flop is losing his grip on story narration. If not for the NTR-Rajamouli factor and a story line which isnt repeated often in telugu, Yamadonga would have been a disaster.

Balakrishna Vs Bellamkonda Suresh

Both Balakrishna and Bellamkonda Suresh should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. Whatever happened to their rivalry, they are happily posing for pictures now. I am sure you all remember the shooting episode at Balakrishna's house where he shot Bellamkonda Suresh for the reaons known only to them!!! I still can't figure out how Balakrishna can celebrate his birthday with Bellamkonda. Crazy world

The transformation of Mandira Bedi

The picture says it all. At the bottom is the Mandira Bedi we know from the TV serial Shanti and the top is the Mandira Bedi today. The transformation is pretty amazing and praiseworthy. She is as successful today as she was in the era of conservative India. That makes her all the more special. Not many have achieved it. She has successfully managed the aging affect and all. Women doesn't have to look beyond Mandira for a role model in today's world. Hats off to her. 

Ofcourse, she has to be ever thankful of Sony Max for selecting her to comentate the 2003 world cup. 

Runway 9!!!

I have been to Runway 9 very recently and was pleasantly surprised by the magnitude of entertainment it can provide. It has the most popular go-karting track in Hyderabad and that is the only thing I thought it had! Only after reaching the place I came to now that there are host of other entertainment options alos. It had archery, shooting, bungy jumping for children, an indoor entertainment parlour which has a snooker table, table tennis, fusball table etc and a laser fighting game which is played outdoors. Ofcourse the quality of the snooker tables/cues and table tennis bats are not of good stabdards but who cares, they are good enough for a fun evening. A nice place to hangout on a weekend evening in Hyderabad. 

Ajay- Raviteja-II in the making

Ajay who has been doing sidekick roles all the while is going to come before us as a solo hero very soon. The film is title Aa Okkadu and has gorgeous Madhurima as lead actress. As we know he is a terrific actor and has been in the industry for a while without any major break ala Raviteja. He has done a superb job as a friend to Maheshbabu in Okkadu and did an outstanding job as the villian in Vikramarkudu. No doubt that he is a fine actor and hopefully AA Okkadu will help him prove his mettle as a hero. Actually he has signed Sarai Veeranna too (before Aa Okkadu), but not sure when is it going to release.  Go Ajay

Inflation dips to 8.98%

Wow, what a good news it is to see inflation back into single digits. We can now hope RBI to cut interest rates further and ease the cash flow by cutting down CRR. Hopefully this should ease the liquidity concerns India is facing at the moment. IMO any measure taken now will require atleast one or two months to show any effect. So it is better our government acts swiftly and decides on PLR and CRR numbers before businesses across the country have to deal with irreparable damage. Anyways in this connection I have added a poll on when you people think our economy will be back on track. You have one week time to vote. I am interested in seeing the results as this will reflect the sentiments of Indians. 

Are we "Indians" the real communists?

I have been to China(Shanghai) recently and was eagerly waiting to see how different the world ruled by communists would be? To my surprise, the communists in China appeared much more capitalists than any country except for may be USA. Seriously, may be India is the only country which still follows communism in the disguise of democracy. It was surprising to know how easy it is in China to set up a business or get your work done with government officials inspite of it being a communist ruled country. Even they have changed, modified communism according to modern needs and may be that is the secret of their huge success. But alas!! we Indians still fail to come out of Nehruism (Communism in the guise of Democracy :) ) which never helped us in become world power!! One has to be in China to see its development. Aha, what roads, buildings, airports in word the infrastructure over there is mind blowing. May be its time India needs to change its ways if we have to have any chance to be a super power along with China and USA 20 years from now. 

Sports updates - of Mumbai Indians, French open, test series in England and west Indies and the memorial tournament in golf

Quite a few sports to follow last week and this week. We had a very close finish to Mumbai Indians Vs Rajasthan Royals match and poor Mumbai can't help but sympathize with me. They have come tantalizingly close to clinching the semifinals spot in the last three matches against Punjab, Delhi and Rajasthan. Well, that is what makes cricket such a great spectacle. Anyways, now the fortunes of Sachin's sena depends on the outcome of Chennai Vs Deccan chargers matches. Hopefully Deccan chargers will come out strong today and give Mumbai one more richly deserved chance. Mumbai has to take care of Bangalore though. Go Deccan chargers, Go Sachin!!

In the test between West Indies and Australia, WI surrendered meekly!! Very disappointing as they had a real good chance to go 1 up in the series. Stuart Clarke continue to take wickets and Australia juggernaut never seems to stop except for a brief period whenever they play India :) . Chasing 292, barring some courageous resistance from Ramdin and Sammy WI never seemed to be in the match. Giving Australia the lead is as good as losing the test series.

There is another test match going in England between NZ and the home country. Leaving the result aside the two left arm spinners seemed to have gained the most. They shared 13 wickets (Vettori and Panesar) among themselves out of 34 that fell. Panesar is the man of the match for his brilliant 6/37 which has helped England go 1 up in the 3 match series.

In golf, the memorial tournament is going to start this Thursday. Tiger Woods is not playing it and we have to see who will win it. K.J.Choi is the defending champion.

French open has also started and hasn't gained much momentum as it is only into the second round. I am sure you are all going to see a lot more posts and updates on this as the week progresses.

Jannath and Chronicles of Narnia (prince Caspian) are strongly recommended

Watched both these movies this weekend and throughly enjoyed them. Especially Jannath, one of the very few Hindi movies I liked (released in the last 3 to 4 years). It is a typical Mahesh Bhatt movie but with match fixing background. It is a beautiful love story and would have been a hit with any background. It is about how a man in search of giving all the happiness in this world to his girl friend employs illegal means of making money and finally is caught in a web which he never intended to and can't coming out of it. The climax also is well shot which is the most difficult part of any movie.

Chronicles of Narnia delivers big time inspite of its pre release hype. It is about how prince Caspian regains his thrown from his evil uncle with the help of Narnians and gifts it back to them. He continues to be the king though. The war episodes are executed impeccably though it seems pale and childish in comparison to the Lord of the rings trilogy. I enjoyed the movie thoroughly with not even a single boring moment. Strongly recommended for all the english movie buffs. And, it is not necessary to watch the first part to understand the second. Go and watch it

Go Deccan Chargers!!

Well, the passion will not die till the team has absolutely zero chance to make it to the semifinals. I am still hoping that the chargers will fire and win all the 5 matches so that they will be in the semifinals. Ok, let us take it one by one. We are playing Delhi today and it is one of the weakest batting line ups in IPL. Hopefully our bowlers will encash on the bad form of Sehwag and poor batting line up of Delhi Daredevils to register their third win in the competetion. Go chargers, Go gilly!!!

Shame shame Aamir!!!

It is well know to everyone by now that Aamir's pet dog's name is Shahrukh. What a loser you are Aamir, if you can't take the competetion get lost. This is absolutely demeaning to name a dog Shahrukh and above all mention it in the blog. May be the dog is his caretaker's, may be it was named Shahrukh even before he bought his Panchgani house, may be it could be anything. But mentioning the same and referring Shahrukh licking feet and all is such a shame on Aamir. Get lost man, you have seriously degraded yourself in everyone's eyes. Shame Shame Aamir!!!

IPL updates

As expected it was a low scoring affair and congratulations to Kolkata who scored a much needed win to consolidate their position at No.4.

Amit Misra surprisingly looks like a very competent batsman. He was very good yesterday and he bowled well too. 3 to 4 years ago he was considered as Kumble's replacement but he lost the plot somewhere down the line. Thanks to IPL, he is back in the reckoning competing with Piyush Chawla (who has been outstanding through out the tournament) for a place in the Indian squad.

It is Mumbai Vs Chennai today and the whole world will be looking on how Sachin responds to 20-20 challenege. Go Sachin!!! It will be a treat to watch Sachin and Jayasuriya open togather. A nice article on his return

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1164273

ICC wants to save Tests from Twenty20 lure!!!!

It is so infuriating to read something like this!!! What is ICC thinking? Do they just want to preserve the tradition or also make the game popular? Isn't it pathetic that an extremely interesting game like cricket is not even played in 10% of the world nations? The major reason is the lack of innovation in the game over the years. T20 has done something to attract world's attention and these bunch of losers (ICC) want to spoil that. ICC needs to be clear on their agenda, whether to preserve cricket or make it popular. They can't play double games with the paying public. Come on ICC, wake up!!!! What are you upto?

Can Deccan Chargers do it?

It is almost a do or die match for Deccan Chargers today. Royal Challengers is one of the easiest teams to beat and I hope Chargers do record their second win today. I don't call it a do or die match, but a loss here means our chance to get into semifinals would seriously take a dent. Nothing can be predicted in IPL till each team play atleast 7 matches. A win here for Deccan chargers means they will be tied with Knight Riders with 4 points each and just a win or two away from the fourth spot. Go DC. Make us proud.

Parugu is no good!!

Well, I haven't watched the movie but for sure going by the reviews it looks like the movie has bombed. I have posted an article on Sheila's fate lying in the hands of this film a week ago and looks like with this result she has to head towards Kollywood forever.

There are quite a few rumours going on at the moment about this film. A section of crowd feels that Chiranjeevi has asked to direct this movie deliberately so that the crowd can empathize with him for all that he has undergone during his daughters fiasco. And then there is another section who feel that the movie was directed for doom so that Ram Charan Teja can be higlighted in the course. As of me I think they are just rumours and nothing to be seriously taken about.

Can Sheila win with Parugu

Sheila is a beautiful and talented tamil actress. In my opinion not many actresses today can match her in terms of acting. For some reason she never got a start in telugu industry justifying her talent though she acted in movies like Raju bhai, hello premincu, sitakokachiluka etc. Dil Raju who co produced hello preminchu along with Puri Jagaanath was so impressed with Sheila that he signed her as his hero in in the movie parugu. Hope the good luck of Allu Arjun will rub off to Sheila. An actress with substance is the need of the hour in telugu industry. All the best Sheila

Will the uppal stadium ever be completed?

I have been to Deccan chargers Vs Dare devils match the other day and to my surprise the Uppal stadium is still not completed!! Mr.Shivlal Yadav, nothing to be proud about the 6 flood lights you were talking about the other day in the media. First complete the stadium!! Pathetic administration. I think the stadium has run into problems over the name when Mr.Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy has proposed Rajiv gandhi's name to it. Actually the stadium was supposed to name after its promoters, but the givernment intervened and promised to refund the money to the promoters to change the name which I guess never happened and the stadium is stalled. Whatever it might be, it just highlights the pathetic state of affairs with HCA.