Is China on the down?

The topics most discussed about these days among business circles are, American recession, shift in economic power to China and India. Many have predicted that China would be 1.3 times of American economy by 2050 (though this alone shouldn't make it economically stronger than USA!) but the country truly seems to be on the down in terms of economic progress. Chinese government has stopped supporting their industries and left them on their own as many of the capilistic countries do, and the worst policy that is going to effect Chinese industries are that government has decided to allow their currency to apreciate and are not controling it. This is making their products more expensive and already industries started moving out of China. China's real challenge lies in sustaining their economy after the olympics when the demand for all the goods would come down drastically.

Cracker of a start to IPL

What a great start it was to IPL? Brendon Mccullum probably played the best he could ever!! What an innings. I feel sorry for Royal Challengers who had to take this pasting on the opening day of IPL on their home ground! Anyways, it has provided a royal start to what could be the greatest carnival in the world over the next decade. Go cricket, go IPL!!!

Earlier Vijay Mallya along with BCCI has ensured that the opening ceremony would be one spectacular affair that will be remembered for a long time. The tournament can only improve from here.

Chiranjeevi ki bhajana cheyyala?

Aa prasna adigindi evaro kaadu, okappudu telugu tera pai eduruleni nati ga nilichina vijayasanthi!! NTV ki ichina oka interview lo, Chiru party pai abhipraayam adiginappudu Vijayasanthi ichina pogaru samaadhaanam adhi. Amma Santhi, Chiranjeevi gurinchi ane mundu, janaalu neeku enduku bhajan cheyyalo cheppuntey baagundedi. Asalu Andhra raasthranikey chendani neeku janaalu enduku paggalu pattalo alochistey sababu ga untundemo! Why should people vote for you? Nee sontha prayojanaalakosam Andhra raashtranni vidadeeyalanukovadam siggu chetu. Adi mundu thelusuko. Telangana biddalu Chiru ki enduku vote vestaaru ani adigaavu choodu, asalu telugu daanive kaani neeku Andhra prajalu enduku neerajalu palakaali? Neeku unna gowravanni, BJP cheti lo cheppu debbalu thini pogottukunnavu, aa koncham migilinadaanni unchukuni telugu prajalu ninnu tarimi kottakamundey nee raashtraniki velthey baavuntundemo.

Super Sunday!!!

We are extremely lucky to be living in the era of legends where some of the finest aspects of sports have been exploited. We have seen the peak of Sachin, Schumi and this Sunday was absolutely breathtaking with two gentlemen, the best in their sports achieving what many thought was impossibe before these two started their march towards glory. Yes, I am talking about Roger Federer and Tiger Woods, Federer winning his 4th consecutive US Open, the first person to do so in the open era and Tiger extending his record to 6-0 in the PGA playoffs which are introduced this year. Spectacular achievements!! Federer is just two slams away from equalling Sampras's 14 grand slams record, which many are expecting him to do by Wimbledon 2008. Salute to the two masters.

Munna is just an average flick

By now we all know that the reviews for Munna aren't all that great. I usually look at all the sites before going for a movie and was a bit disappointed to see that Munna hasn't received many favourable reviews. But somewhere down the line I had a feeling that this movie might be a good hit like Bhadra which also didn't get good reviews. The connection between these two is that both the movies are produced by Dil Raju.

Anyways, coming to the movie. It was a disappointment to say the least. The movie doesn't have strong story line and the screen play is hackeneyed and jaded which is the main culprit for the movie to be such a disaster in terms of entertainment. First half is good and I am sure most of them would enjoy it but too much action sequences and same old story in the second half spoiled the movie completely. I am expecting the movie to be an average flick for distributors. It will definitely not go down as a disaster in terms of collection. Prabhas is good but he has to tremendously improve his dialogue delivery to carry the character like Munna with him. And also my suggestion to him is to stick to clothes as in Chatrapati and Eeshwar. Too much style didn't suit him. Ileana is losing popularity by loads every other day. She looks awful in Munna and has to seriouslyt think of putting on some weight. Maaaaaaaaaaaan, she is too thin to be a lead actress!!! Comedy in the first half is good. Second half lacks any entertainment value. Music is average. 'Manasa' song is the best among the lot both in terms of picturization and melody.

We have to wait and see if this would be the first flop for Dil Raju though it is unlikely to be one.

Happy Birthday Sachin!!!!!!!!!

A very very very happy birthday to Sachin. He turns 34 today. I hope this year would be the best for him and his cricketing career. Sachin so far is going to be different from Sachin hereon. Fingers were never raised against him, his place was never in jeopardy and there was a degree of certainity in his inclusion. For the first time he has to fight these demons and prove that he is still good for 2011 world cup. Go Sachin. We are with you. prove to the world that you are still the best bastman.

Films and sports

Well, anyone reading my blogs would tell that I am crazy anout Films and Sports. This weekend has plenty of entertainement in these two aspects and I thoroughly enjoyed it. First if talking about movies I watched 'Dhee' this weekend. Hmm, had lot of expectations on it going by the reviews but the movie was plain ok. It has the same old storyline though the screenplay is good in parts. Surprisingly music was good. Chakri has been churning out good music but for some reason isn't getting the recognition he deserves. Go for the Audio CD, you will enjoy the songs surely though may not drool over it. Actors in Dhee except for Srihari are terrible. Looks like Genelia can never learn how to act. She has to get roles which suit her to impress upon us. Otherwise she can't carry a character/story with her which many top actresses do. Vishnu was never a hero material. He has to seriously consider shedding some weight. Needs some grace and screen presence. He has no style at all and his dressing sense in Dhee was awful to say the least.

Coming to sports Federer Vs Nadal matches always excited me and this weekend both of them showcased there skills in the finals. Nadal blew Federer away again on the red claycourts. Man, Nadal is truly invincible on these courts. What, is this his 67 or 68th consecutive win on clay. That is amazing to say the least. Going by the result looks like Federer stands no chance even this year to win the french open unless the organizers make the courts faster. Anyways all the best Roger, it would be some sight to watch a player of my generation to win all 4 grandslams. I will root for you (ofcourse, Roddick comes first) in the coming French open.

Sainikudu : A Big Disappointment

What a disappointment Sainikudu is! Maheshbabu is a gift to have as a hero especially after the mega success of Pokiri but director/producer combo failed to encash his mega brand image. Gunasekhar now for a while has been concentrating on unnecessary things leaving vital aspects of film making in the soup. Technically he is brilliant, but high techincal aspects alone will never help a movie. There are other imnportant things like story, characterizations, screenplay, editing etc. Sainikudu is high on technical aspects while completely lacks and is boring to the core in other departments. As individual scenes it scores higher than any mother movie released in recent times and hence the scenes if viewed individually are excellent, but when are gelled togather to form a movie it falters big time. Villian is a joke and is a major drawback. A hero should always have an opposite with equal might for viewers to have any interest in the dual. This is lacking in Sainikudu. Anyways, coming to the trade report, the movie opened with breathtaking collections which was expected but how well the movie holds up after the first week has to be seen. As of now according to pundits and my own observation the downfall is inevitable but to what range has to be seen. Check out this website again for the trade report in the second week. A flop for Mahesh only ensures that Chiru will continue as the undisputed king of telugu cinema.

Maharadi Audio Review (6.4/10)

After the disaster of Veerabhadra, NBK is coming again as Maharadi. Let us discuss a brief preview of this movie before getting into music review. Maharadi has NBK who should be the main crowd puller and Sneha in the leading roles. Jayaprada after a long gap is coming back into tollywood with an important role in this movie. Meera Jasmine plays the other hero in. The film is being directed by P.Vasu and has music by Gurukiran.

As a common movie goer I would be least bothered about the director, producer, music director etc. All I would be concerned about is the Lead actor and actress. I would be happy to see Sneha pairing with Balakrishna here. On that front the movie sports a decent look. The problem comes when I am a movie buff or an ardent NBK fan. I want everything to be perfect atleast upto my expectations to have any excitement about this project. P. Vasu is fresh from delivering a block buster in the form of Chandramukhi, but can he deliver another one with NBK in the lead. Only time will tell!! P.Vasu is weak at elevating hero's image which is very important while dealing with someone with huge on screen charisma. And also the guy is known for freemakes. God knows what Maharadi is! The terrible disappointment comes in the form of music director Gurukiran. Why do we have to ignore telugu music directors? Is it for something fresh? For starters Gurukiran is a popular Kannada music director. Let us get into muscic review considering the above given background.

Ottu petti chepputhanu (7/10)
This one sounds like a hero introduction song. The music is more like the opening song in the movie 'Upendra' with the background of "Tha Thakita" . The song has a catchy tune and should be an instant hit with the first listening itself. This song gives some hope about the album after a disappointing background of having Gurukiran as a music director. A satisfactory one. Let us get into the next song

Ningi Nela Kalisina E Vela (6.5/10)
The best part about this song is the "suprabatham" background with rapping effect that comes inbetween the song. But the song has some strage lyrics like "Teenage is one when we want to have some fun!!!" . Hope they are not referring to NBK as teenager. That would be a disaster. The music is dominated with heavy western beats and even the accent with which the singer sings is very americanish.

Mangamma Mangamma Mandara Mogga Laga (7.5/10)
Easily the best song of the album. It will strike a chord with the very first listening. A racy melody sure to become a hit with both mass and family audiences. Mass lyrics add some more glamor. Whoever sang the song did a good job. A nice song with good beats.

Uppu Chepa Pappu Chaaru (6.5/10)
Another mass song. If I am allowed to guess, this song should be with Navneet Kaur. The song doesn't really start well but the stanza part picks up a bit. This one is just a mass number with plenty of Drums without much melody. Manisharma is sorely missed in the songs like this.

Emo Emo Emma....Maja Maja (5/10)
Another racy number without any melody with some rapping in between. Bad song and needs no review. Looks like Udit Narayan got to sing this song. Nothing to rave about him wither. All in all a bad song

Veechey Gaalulalo (6/10)
Finally a slow number! Again, nothing much to talk about this song. This is how most of the album is. The song is neither bad nor good. It lies in between which is very tough to explain or write a review of. You can always criticize somthing which you don't like or praise endlessly when you like something, but what can you do for an average thing?

Overall a big disappointment for Balakrishna fans and music lovers as a whole. If you are an NBK fan go for it, you will atleast appreciate few songs. Otherwise just skip it and listen to whatever you can on FM radios. The trend of average music in tollywood continues

A post for Harsh Mankad

Not many would have heard this name. Ofcourse it is not your fault as long as the media focusses on Prakash Amritraj and Bopanna ignoring the former Indian No.1 for the reasons known to them only. Harsh has been our No.1 and is easily the best among the trio of Prakash Amritraj, Bopanna and himself. But often his achievements go unnnoticed. Inspite of being India's No.1 he hasn't recieved a single wildcard for the Chennai ATP tournament. He has been all by himself and the great person he is he never complained about it. He was in slump for past 6 to 7 months but is back with a bang registering upsets over upsets. Only recently he won the graa challenger in England, the only person since Ramesh krishnan to do that. And he is the only person besides Leander Paes since 1992 to win a challenger

A post for Harsh Mankad

Not many would have heard this name. Ofcourse it is not your fault as long as the media focusses on Prakash Amritraj and Bopanna ignoring the former Indian No.1 for the reasons known to them only. Harsh has been our No.1 and is easily the best among the trio of Prakash Amritraj, Bopanna and himself. But often his achievements go unnnoticed. Inspite of being India's No.1 he hasn't recieved a single wildcard for the Chennai ATP tournament. He has been all by himself and the great person he is he never complained about it. He was in slump for past 6 to 7 months but is back with a bang registering upsets over upsets. Only recently he won the graa challenger in England, the only person since Ramesh krishnan to do that. And he is the only person besides Leander Paes since 1992 to win a challenger

Indiafm.com and its reviews

I always wondered how these guys review movies? To be blunt and honest they are pretty pathetic at reviewing a movie. They hit the bulls wye may be 20% of the times. What infuriates me is the way they hype up the movies with big banners with their crappy reviews. Sometimes it makes me feel if they take money and write the reviews. KANK is a fresh example. Agreed that Indiafm.com (Taran Adarsh to be specific) is invited to its premiere, does that mean he misguides people by using all flowery words for a crappy movie? I can't believe he gave 4.5/5 for KANK. And ofcourse this is not the only incidence. Lakshya, LOC, Paheli, Mangal Pandey, Fanaa and so on. Honestly tell me how many of the above mentioned movies deserve high ratings? He keeps giving excellent reviews for big banners. Sad state of affairs. Rediff reviews are much better than Taran Adarsh's. His reviews these days are getting onto me. So stereotypical in praising movies.

Bommarillu success meet was held at Sri Venkateshwara creations office and every one in the unit seemed to be very happy with the result (who would not when a movie shaped up so well. Just wanted to update you guys with the news from Pressmeet. Anyways, very happy that a talented guy like Siddarth is being embraced very well by telugu people inspite of him being not from this region (he is a Tamilian who is from Delhi). He has struck gold with this picture. Here is another example of how the combination of talent and hardwork can achieve anything. Atleast now I hope our cliched newspapers and websites stop whining about only actor's sons becoming heroes! Here is a link to Idlebrain.

http://www.idlebrain.com/news/functions/successmeet-bommarillu.html

"Bommarillu" rocks bigtime

Hmm, just got the wonderful news that Siddarth starrer Bommarillu is super duper hit. The most encouraging news is that the movie unanimously is like by every single person and not even a single negative remark has come out so far. The movie is sure shot money spinner in cities and towns while it could be an above average grosser in villages (I hate to use the words 'A', 'B' and 'C' centers). The movie is released with 77 prints and could very well go up to 120-130 in next 2 weeks. Such is the craze for this movie. From initial reports the movie is expected to collect around 10 to 15 crores while running for 100 days in 20 to 25 centers.

'Dil' Raju surely has the taste and this is his 4th consecutive blockbuster with 4 different directors and heroes. Amazing achievement for a producer. Genelia rocked in her role while Siddarth is good as usual. What a talented artiste he is! Prakash Raj's role is a cakewalk for the veteran while Jayasudha exceled in the climax. Sunil after a long time has come up with excellent comedy. Though the direction department has to be extravagantly parised for the deft handling of the subject, but I am restraining from doing so as I am not sure how much of inputs did 'Dil' Raju give. The talent of director is only known if he is succesful with variety of producers. So, I will deal this with caution. Music of the film is better on screen than on Audio. The picturization is perfect. Devisriprasad has good skills when it comes to background music and he has done a terrific job there. Nice work Devi.

Well, Siddarth and Genelia struck it. Sure to bag some more roles of this genre. Devisriprasad will be back after a brief hiatus. Dil Raju will continue his march towards achieving the impossible of having a 100% hot record. Telugu industry has got a new talent in Bhaskar (director). The movie is simply perfect for everyone including family audience. A must watch.

Sania fails to clear "Jankovic" hurdle yet again

Sania lost 2-6, 6-7 to Jankovic at the JP Morgan Chase WTA tournament in Los Angeles. This is the third consecutive time Sania is losing to the Serbian when ever these two women faced each other. There is nothing much to rave about a match where an Indian lost in the first round. First set was a cake walk for Jankovic with Sania facing problem with almost every department of her game. Second set was a different story though. Sania infact broke back Jankovic at a crucial time when Jankovic was serving for the match at 5-4. Sania also squandered four set points and the set moved into a tie breaker (or shall I call it a heart breaker!). Jankovic easily won the tie break, the set and the match. Sania's weak first serve is significantly hampering her progress. She has to do something about it. But as we know. serve is the most difficult part of the tennis game and can't be changed overnight. In the mean time as sinciere fans let us cheer and hope for Saniamaking waves again. Go Sania

Reliance is facing the heat with growing world wide oil prices touching new highs. With our government subsidising the rates, it is becoming virtually impossible for Reliance to maintain such low prices and still earn profits. After investing 10,000 crores on the so called Reliance network of petrol pumps, the rising oil prices is a big blow for the ambitious business plan. Reliance Industries reportedly are incurring a 10 crore loss every day. Most of the 1500 Reliance pumps are running just 2 hours a day and the dealers are not able to repay the loans. With oil prices expected to reach 100 dollars a barrel expect the Reliance share prices to go down in the next quarter. All Stock holders beware of the results. It is not just Reliance but Essar oil company is also facing a crisis situation.

Vs

Sania is going to play Jelena Jankovic tonight at JP Morgan Chase in Los Angeles. The picture says it all. Sania played Jankovic twice and both the times she lost very easily. Once in Dubai (when Sania was on high after beating Kuznetsova) and the other time in Brimingham. But both the matches were played a year ago and both the players have changed their games a little bit in the mean time. Sania though is improving day by day is on a low this year due to her lacklusture performances in some of the tournaments. While Jankovic beat the then Wimbledon Champion Venus williams at Wimbledon and is on high. A very tough match but as we know WTA tour is brutal and Sania has to overcome it. I am not very positive about the matchup but hopefully Sania will be lucky third time and will beat Jankovic tonight. Go Sania, the whole India is with you.

Looks like Jayawardene has finally decided to showcase his talent to the world. What a magical innings he played today. His 123 against SA in the second test on a deteriorating Sri Lankan pitch has to be recorded among the best innings in the anals of cricket books. Captaincy has definitely brought the best out of the Sri Lankan. If you notice he is averaging well over 60 in tests and close to 50 in ODIs as captain. Ofcourse his terrific effort includes the mammoth 374, highest score ever by an Asian. Sri Lanka is proving to be a much stronger opposition under Mahela and his form is an ominous sign for India touring SL next week. We have to device a plan for Mahela's downfall otherwise which we are bound to lose the series. A confident captain can make an average team deadly, ala Ganguly in the series against AUS or Vaughan in the Ashes. Beware India, Mahela has arrived

What a great start for Maria before the U.S.Open to win the Acura Classic beating current world No.2 Kim Clijsters 7-5 7-5. The talented girl from Russia has finally got rid of the monkey from her back of not beating a top 5 player for a long long time! Maria for some reason has the mental block against the Belgians (Justin Henin and Clijsters) and it is good to see her overcome that just before the U.S.Open which should do wonders to her budding career. Very impressive win. Watch out for her at the U.S.Open. She is definitely going to be a hot hot favourite there if she continues to play the way she did on sunday night

Sania is slowly coming back to form. After a bad first half, she is all set to amend things in the coming tournaments. Reaching the third round of Acura classic confirms that. As you must be knowing Sania lost to Dementieva in three close sets. Ofcourse lot of people are upset about her loosing, but we need to understand that Dementieva has been on tour now for almost 5 to 6 years and is a very ecperienced player. She has twice reached the finals of grandslams (US Open and French Open) and is a top 10 player. Sania player her thrice this year and she gave her a tough fight all the three times.
Sania infact, changed some of the people associated with her. Employing Narendranath as her new travelling coach/hitting partner is a welcome move. It just shows that Sania wants to be the boss. She wants to get the things done in her own way. Ofcourse, this attitude of hers took her to top 50 in WTA tour and helped her scale those peaks which oher Indian women can only dream of (as of now). In future, I am sure we will produce better champions. Many try to find reasons why Sania is not opting for a top class coach? One needs to understand that Sania indeed tried stint at Tony Roche (Federer's coach), and also employed an American travelling coach. Things didn't workout and she steadily slipped through the ranking ladder.
Anyways, too much analysis is also not good. For starters, I am a very big fan of Sania and has been following her career from the time she was 11 years old. Hard courts season is back and so is Sania. Let us hope for a bright second half (2006) and may god bless her.