It wasn’t daybreak yet.

I wasn’t man yet. I desperately wanted to be a man. I hated being a boy. I was still two years from that glorious Adult mark. I hated the wait.

My elder sister loved my agony. She was all of eighteen. She could vote in the assembly elections. The day she came back home after exercising her voting right, I didn’t talk to her. That black mark on her index finger was constantly ripping me apart. She could contribute her two cents to the country. I, on the other hand did absolutely nothing to change anything.

I stepped up the speed. The bicycle responded beautifully. It was an age old Herculus bicycle. My grandfather bought it in 1932 from his friend. Even after sixty years of relentless usage, the bicycle had shown no signs of giving up.

The cool breeze was refreshing. It was the river’s way of welcoming me everyday. She wanted to talk to me always. In fact she did. However I rarely listened to her. The ripples carried messages. I never looked at them. In all probability she was in love with me.

But I didn’t want to love rivers. I wanted to love Sandhya. So I didn’t pay much attention to the river’s advances. Nowadays she was not so friendly. Perhaps she had understood where my heart was.

Sandhya was swallowed by the river a month ago. I blamed it on jealousy. My friends said it was an accident.

I didn’t care. I knew the river could do anything. She was like a majestic Queen. She wanted all the villagers to be on Her Majesty’s Royal Service. If anyone went against the tide, he or she would be punished by the river.

The river thought I would start loving her if Sandhya was removed from the picture. Poor little river! It didn’t know that I wouldn’t even look at her. So what if Sandhya wasn’t alive any more. Her image was still afresh in my memory. From my point of view, she was still in front of me. I could see her image clearly. I knew it was all my imagination. However I didn’t consider reality and imagination to be mutually exclusive. At the grassroots level, it was just information sent to our brain. Shouldn’t matter if it was the eye that sent her image or the mind! In my reference frame Sandhya was alive.

She smiled, “What? The boundaries between logic and desire disappearing?”

Sandhya in fact was not a very sharp girl. I knew it was part of my mind talking like Sandhya. But I liked it. I wanted her to be intelligent. I knew my mind wanted me to have a conversation with Sandhya.

“Not exactly. For me, you are real. As real as our villain here – the river.”

The river swirled in protest. I didn’t care.

Sandhya laughed. “Oh my! You are going mad.”

I nodded. Yes madam. Mad about you.

“Why not look at something more real? Like for instance, Nivedita from B-section?” She asked me.

Nivedita was the uncrowned Miss Universe as per the youngsters of my village. However she never even looked at me. I hated her arrogance. So what if she looked like Aishwarya Rai, she could never be Sandhya.

“Why is this fascination? You should move on Yaji.” Sandhya told me gently.

I shook my head.

“You can’t marry me. What is the point then?”

I stared at her. I would have married her if I were not fifteen. I wanted to wait till I became a Man. The wretched river spoiled all my plans. The river would surely propose on the very day of my eighteenth birthday. I would bet my life on it.

“Yaji, What are you doing here? Amma would be searching for you. Go home.”

I looked up in disbelief. This couldn’t be Sandhya talking.

My sister was looking at me seriously. Sandhya had disappeared.

“What are YOU doing here?” I asked her. It was too early to go to college.

“None of your business honey!” She smiled, “But I will tell you anyway. I am going away. I am eloping with my boyfriend. I will see you later.”

I was aghast. From the clearing mist I could see the silhouette of a man. “Nagarajam?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. Or was it my mind playing games with me?

“Yes honey. It is Nagarajam – Karanam’s eldest son.” She confirmed the reality.

I didn’t understand. Why should they elope? They could get married here itself.

“You are still a kid Yaji. He is not a Brahmin. Our folks will never agree to this match.”

She hugged me and kissed me on my forehead. “Study well and get out of this frog’s well. Sandhya is history Yaji. She is not coming back. You have to cross the river and explore the world. God willing, I will see you again.”

She left amidst tears. I waved them off. The river took complete control of them. I knew it wouldn’t harm them. It had this animosity only with me.

“Let us do it.” Sandhya appeared from nowhere. “Let us also run away.”

“What? Hello! I am fifteen.” I was angry with myself for being a kid.

“That is enough for me Yaji. You are cute and clever. You are witty and intelligent. We can survive. Let us cross over Yaji. Let us just cross over.”

I shook my head violently. I was hearing voices. My head was splitting. And suddenly it all subsided. I opened my eyes. The river smiled at me. Sandhya was expecting me to say something. The ripples came till the shore hoping to get some ear on our conversation and went back disappointed because we talked through our mind. And our mind was just one mind. My mind.

Sandhya walked towards my bicycle. “Give me a ride. Will ya?”

I nodded. She hopped onto the bicycle. I started pedaling. We came to a bridge. I had never seen it before.

“How come I never saw this bridge before?” I asked Sandhya.

She laughed, “Because you are a kid Yaji. Kids don’t know many things.”

“You are also not an adult. You are just a year older than me.” I reminded her.

“The scale is different for girls Yaji. Don’t worry about it.” She said.

We both stared at the bridge for a very long time. The sun was witnessing all these – crimson red in color… not because of the romance involved.

She got off the bicycle and ran towards the bridge. “Careful” I shouted.

She stopped and blew me a kiss. “Come to me Yaji. I will show you the heaven.”

She looked absolutely stunning in her dazzling white salwar kameez. I could see an open invitation in her beautiful eyes. I forgot everything.

“Wait. I am coming” I said and steered my bicycle onto the bridge.

The river smiled. First gently and then victoriously.

The End.

Pokiri

Before I start my review I would like to thank GL mama for getting me a ticket.

Jayaprada theatre in Chennai was a sight to behold today. The crowd was simply unstoppable with fans dancing on the seats – well for exactly the first five minutes. Then they went relatively silent unsure of whether the fight they were watching would get over before the interval break or not.

Let us leave such unending fights aside for a moment. I would like talk about the Devuda song. It has been quite some time since I watched anything of such quality. Cinematography at its best – excellent camera movements and some nice steps by the leading man. This song stands apart from the rest of the songs – save the last song.

I wanted to write about the songs too. But alas! I don’t remember any of them now. I don’t even remember the leading scenes for most of those songs. The film has at least two songs that can be cut easily.

Mahesh had the best lines and the best character sketch in the movie. Poori Jagannath obviously spent quite a gazillion years working on Mahesh Babu’s role. It is a pity then that he didn’t spend an iota of that effort in sketching the other characters which pass off as merely one dimensional and in some cases – like Venu Madhav and Ali – zero dimensional.

Poori Jagannath’s fascination with totally unnecessary villains continue in this movie too. Like songs, two villain roles can be safely cut. Prakash Raj need not be living outside the country. He can very well be in India for this story. And that would have made things simpler for the viewers.

A few years back, there was a Tamil movie called Run. It holds a record of sorts in the tinsel world. The comedy track in that movie had absolutely no connection with the main thread. The characters did not overlap. There were no common scenes. It was just a digital switch between the highway and the parallel dust track.

The comedy track in this movie comes very close to that. The sad part is that it falls flat. There is something called the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility which the director was perhaps unaware of. He kept on barking on the same concept again and again and again and again. By the time the comedy track entered its climax – viewers in the movie hall were actually groaning in frustration.

Ileana – the hourglass lady – A future bollywood prospect – With a figure like that she is not gonna be with Tollywood for long. One of the reasons I was so looking forward to this movie was Ileana. I missed her in Devdas. One of my friends then sent me her photos through email. (He incidentally liked this movie very much.) I was stumped. I was floored. I scolded myself for not watching Devdas. When I found that Pokiri had Ileana, I was determined to see it at least twice.

Oh but what a disappointment it has been! Ileana sure was gorgeous. In fact I am all for awarding her the second place after Sonali Bendre. However the director failed to capitalize on her craze. She has not been presented properly in this movie. I don’t mean that she should expose. There are ways to show a lady beautifully. Take Sneha in Radha Gopalam or Bhoomika in Missamma. Those characters stay etched in memory forever. Poori Jagannath had the best looking girl in the industry at his disposal. What does he do? He resorts to rapid fire editing in duets! Give me a break man. I want to properly ogle at Ileana. You take her off the scene in like 0.02 nano seconds.

Let me come back to the fights, the fights that never end. If trimmed properly, these are really comparable to Hollywood stunts. Breathtaking visualization, cinematography, smooth transition between scenes – all wasted because all these keep on happening for an eternity.

This movie has all the ingredients to satisfy the fans. However it has a serious problem. There is absolutely nothing in the movie for the family audience. There is no romance worth speaking of, no sentiment at all and the action scenes are extremely gory. We have knifes protruding from human heads. In my opinion this can be a potential threat to the movie after the first two weeks. (That’s when the normal audience start coming to the theatres)

Poori Jagannath should seriously think about where he wants to place his loyalties. If he wants a slick Hollywood action thriller, he should do away with two songs, trim the fights and cut the comedy track entirely. If he is also looking to satisfy family audience, he should reduce the violence and build the relationship between Mahesh and Ileana on a deeper scale with a sustained focus on romance.

As it stands out, cardboard characters are aplenty in the movie with just one well rounded personality – Mahesh Babu. Fans will be happy. Action movie fans will relish this. But then, does it have a future after the third week? Remains to be seen!

Platy.

Veerabhadra

Disclaimer: This is not a review of the movie. This is just what I personally feel about the movie. Since it is a personal opinion, the write up will definitely be pretentious and condescending at places. Please note that it is better to go with real reviews and not personal opinions like this - if you are trying to judge if this is a movie really worth watching.

Strange are the preconceived notions of human beings. Not even once in the last one month have I thought that I would find myself watching Veerabhadra on the very first day of its release. The possibility itself did not cross my mind at all. However four days back, when I saw that it was on the marquee in the best theatre of Chennai, I decided to book the ticket.

Veerabhadra works. It may not be the best movie around these days. However it is honest to itself, has a tight script, a gripping screenplay and zero boring moments. The story is not anything remotely new. However the treatment is pretty good. All the actors did justice to their roles. To my surprise even the songs which normally take a backseat in any Balakrishna movie are refreshingly good except for the last song. Yedukondalu song is the pick of the lot. There are a couple of melodious numbers which are shot very well and recorded nicely. Rerecording by Mani is pretty good.

The story has a little bit of everything. However the director takes care of the emotions very well. An emotionally charged scene is immediately followed by a wisecrack remark by M S Narayana and the tension is eased up.

A special mention should go to Peter Haynes. The fights till the climax are extraordinary. There is some thread work but it was minimal. The power conveyed by the choreography of these fights tells us that given proper direction, Peter Haynes could work miracles. In stark contrast the climax reminds one of the Samara Sinha Reddy or Narasimha Naidu fights. I am not exactly aware of the reason why PH had been replaced by the other stunts man for the climax fight. The difference shows pretty clearly on the screen.

That brings us to Balakrishna, the man who single handedly drives the show right from the very innovative and enjoyable title entry. It is clear that he has put in more than 100% into this movie. At times I really felt pity on him - especially during the songs. He tried hard to manage some really difficult steps - like the one where he has to lie on the floor and make a 360 degree sweep. I really don't think Balakrishna should attempt such steps at this juncture of his career. It really really looked awkward. He doesn't need to prove that he is good at dancing. He should stick to what he is really good at.

And he excels in his forte. Take for instance the much talked about and sometimes laughed about dialogue: \i{"Rakhtam lo uDakapeDutha"} and \i{"Narikaanante, mukkalu erukodaaniki rendu rojulu paDuthundi"} (Not the exact words). When delivered by Balakrishna in the context of the scene, they are really powerful and do not seem out of place at all.

That is one of the plus points of the movie. At no place you'll feel that the dialogues were written keeping Balakrishna in mind. It all blends quite nicely into the screenplay. Balakrishna's histrionics and voice modulation then take them to the next level.

First half of the movie is immensely enjoyable. My opinion on the second half is that the sentiment factor has gone overboard. However it may click with the family audience. A little bit of trimming here and there would have definitely helped the movie.

The movie falls well short of expectations in the department of editing. That is putting it mildly. In the first half Editing is really awful. The transition between scenes is almost always very abrupt. I had to actually put 2 and 2 together to understand what was happening on the screen.

Prakash Raj is the surprise packet. These days I see him only as a larger than life villain. In this movie, he has a three dimensional role and gets a chance to act - instead of shouting dialogues. He essays all the emotions quite nicely and underplays his character to perfection.

Shayaji Shinde on the other hand is unbearably loud - always shouting at 130 decibels. Someone needs to tell this guy that it is getting repetitive these days.

On the whole, Veerabhadra is a nice movie - worth watching once at least. The way the story unfolds at breakneck speed and the high number of non overlapping incidents give this movie some repeat value.

Balakrishna delivers a better movie this time. Whether it becomes a decent hit or not - Only time will tell.