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Kalki 2898 AD

June 29, 2024 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Fresh from watching the latest pan – India movie on the horizon, Kalki 2898 A.D. here are my thoughts. (It is a review, actually!)

Kalki 2898 AD

Directed by : Nag Ashwin

Released on : 27 June 2024

Starring : Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Kamal Hasan, Shobana and many more!

The movie starts with the final glimpses of the battle of Mahabharata. Aswathama, the only son of Acharya Drona, who was born with a diamond on his forehead, is cursed by Lord Krishna to lead a long life of immortality, to pay for his crime, of shooting a Brahmastra, onto the belly of a heavily pregnant Uttara, (wife of Veera Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna)

Lord Krishna removes his omnipotent diamond on the forehead and he has to live on, in exile, waiting for the last and final avatar of Krishna, Kalki to take birth. (I have little to no claim on the rumour, but it is said that Aswathama is still alive somewhere in the Himalayas, along with many sages and Rishis, Hanuman and the God of future, Kalki Bhagwan) As everyone knows it, Aswathama is played by thespian Amitabh Bachchan (probably his best role yet, after Piku!)

After more than 6000 years since Mahabharata, in a depleted and dry holy city of Varanasi, the story progresses. It is a general knowledge in Hindu culture, that once the Dharma is overtaken by Adharma, Kalki Bhagwan will take birth and lead the humanity. So, in 2898 A.D, the people are selfish, lazy, money minded and can kill each other for petty reasons. There is little to no good in the world.

There is a divide among the people, the ones who get to stay at the complex and the others who live outside it. The complex is under the rule of Supreme (Kamal Hasan). I loveeeeed the look of Kamal Hasan. Just when I thought he couldn’t surprise me, he did! Even with his limited screen time in the first part, we can sense that he is a really powerful villain. I am happy for him. Getting a juicy role is any actors dream come true and watching great actors is an audience’s dream! Although, his faithful servant is the villain in this movie, played by Saswata Chatterjee.

Apparently, a pilot (Dulqeer Salman), who fostered Bhairava (Prabhas) as a child and taught him everything, like a teacher, sells him off for a better life at the complex. Interestingly, Bhairava, manages to one – up him and beat him at his own game, by handing pilot away to bounty hunters, for some units, which is their currency. (That is how the director wishes to show us that it is indeed the time for Kalki to appear, adharma is on the rise!)

The complex mainly works to get fertile women and girls, to use them for their experiments in collecting fetal serum! I liked how a scientist, who knows about the misdeeds of Supreme, tried to kill him off, to save the test subjects. (A little Dharma still exists in the world.)

Deepika Padukone, as Amma / Sumathi, one of the test subjects, is 5 month pregnant, apparently, with Kalki Bhagwan. She is not a fierce warrior or a great fighter. She can hardly kill someone. She is patient and loving, may be that is the reason, she was chosen by the God Himself, to be His mother. (I was expecting her to be like Lara Croft, but that wouldn’t have made sense.) She is meant to give life, not take from anyone, as per the words of Aswathama!

Once the fetus is 5 month old, Aswathama starts sensing It. The fight sequence between the 8 foot tall, over 6000 year old Aswathama and the lazy 6 foot bounty hunter Bhairava, is to be watched on the screen to enjoy. It was fun. I loved to see a very angry Amitabh, protecting Amma from a goofy Prabhas.

The first half was a bit of a drag at some places. There were cameos by Ram Gopal Varma, Rajamouli, Avasarala Srinivas, Brahmanandam, Disha Patani which were totally unnecessary, but were fun to watch. (It was like a guessing game, who will appear next kind.)

The second half is about how Amma is taken into a secret location , Shambala among the mountains, apparently, it was the location where the battle of Kurukshetra had been fought, during Mahabharata.

Once again there is a fight sequence of Aswathama and Bhairava and it is later revealed that Bhairava is indeed the reincarnation of Karna, the eldest son of Kunti, with Vijay Deverakonda as Arjuna.

Finally, Sumathi is captured by Bhairava, who is on the run and Aswathama is helpless(He is surprised that Karna had reincarnated).

The movie ends with Supreme, who decides to pursue Sumathi, himself, to abort Kalki Bhagwan, before He is born. Let’s see how the sequel holds up. Fingers crossed for a Kamal and Amitabh fight sequence!

P.S:

I loved how the director portrayed the diverse cast. You can find foreigners, people from all corners of India, everyone, gathered on both sides, the good and the evil. It shows, in the future, the geographical differences mean nothing, on the face of destruction. It may also imply that, every other place had been destroyed on the earth, except the holiest of the holy place, Kasi. So the surviving man-kind had gathered at Kasi. (That is my interpretation)
The director has played to his strengths. If you look closely at all his films, he has a strong sense of selecting star cast for his roles. He doesn’t slip in that area. If it is Amitabh as Aswathama or Deepika as Sumitra or Kamal Hasan as Supreme or Prabhas as Bhairava / Karna, he aces it. (He proved it through Mahanati, by selecting lesser known Keerthy Suresh for Savithri and Dulqeer Salman as Gemini Ganesan.) All the actors have done justice to their roles, which is most important for the success of a movie. Half the battle is won if the star cast is perfect.
I was sure that no one can show Lord Krishna on-screen, better than the one done in Karthikeya 2. But, the director Nag Ashwin showed us Lord Krishna not in the human form, but as a dark aura in the shape of a human. (It would have been better if the aura had been Blue or Purple, indicating the Neela Megha Syama.) Like they say, humans can not see the God with their eyes, they can only perceive His aura.
Lord Krishna and the white horse in the background is the precursor for the Kalki Bhagwan
I enjoyed the fight sequences between Aswathama and Bhairava a lot. (I was once told that, Aswathama was indeed a cyborg, since Indians were technically advanced in those days. The diamond on the forehead is apparently which brings power to Aswathama.) This little detail had been used, unsurprisingly by Marvel in creating their own super hero, VISION! Apparently, there is a temple for Aswathama in Kerala, to be exact, the famous Ananthapadmanabha Swamy temple. If you happen to go to Kerala, do visit it and see for yourself.
It is interesting to see people from all industries work for this movie and they dubbed for their own roles. This is a subtle hint to show people from different locations have migrated to Kasi and its surroundings and have all begun to talk the same language, albeit with their own accents!
In the movie of Avatar by James Cameroon, the Na’avi people were indeed designed after the Indian mythological creatures of Vanara or monkey people! May be we should just ask James Cameroon about it, to confirm this particular rumour.
The movie looks like it is heavily inspired by Star Wars franchise. The personnel of Supreme look similar to the army of Darth Vader!
There is the introduction scene of Aswathama in a Shiva temple. I thought it was the clever idea of the CGI team to have only the temple gopuram visible and the temple buried deep under sand, because there is a ban on Gods in 2898 AD! But turns out, it is true and not fiction. The said temple indeed exists as Perumallapadu Temple in Nellore which was buried by the flood waters of River Penna, approximately 80 years ago and came to light, in the recent years, during the period of Corona!
Encouraging tourism, the Kalki 2898 AD way (Featuring real life historic sites in the movie!)
The only drawback that was apparent is the CGI of a young Amitabh Bachchan as Aswathama. It could have been better.

As I mentioned earlier, all the opinions in the post are my own and are as per my perception. The images have been freely copied from the internet and I take no credit for the same.

Till the next post, cheerio, dearies!

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The Devil in the Empty Classroom!

June 18, 2024 / queenbee / 0 Comments

An idle brain is a devil’s workshop. My dad had written me an essay once, with the same opening line, during my school days and I even won the elocution. (He would write me beautiful essays to read and I would learn them to win elocution competitions. What a happy memory.) The particular competition I am talking about is when I had to talk about T.V.

Before I begin to tell why I started the post talking about the devil, let us get into flashback mode, with me as your guide.

I was a student of GSHS, a popular school in those days and later has changed its name to NHS.

Like in all schools, we had to elect our first languages. The whole class was divided into Telugu and Hindi sections only during our language period. I was part of the Hindi gang and that’s where this particular story starts.

Since our school was in a predominantly Telugu locality in Telugu state, there were less number of students in our Hindi class. Most of my fellow Hindi students were Muslims, so the Hindi I would talk in those days was a mix of Urdu and Hindi.

If you ever read the Harry Potter books, you would know that the Slytherins had their common room in the dungeons. Similarly, most of our primary classes were held underground, in the cellar! (If you ever wonder why some people have nightmares, this may be one of the reasons!)

Anyway, if you are in a Hindi class, then lucky you, you get the last classroom at the end of the cellar, the very dead end and the darkest room as your classroom. (We only move to the Hindi class during Hindi period.)

Even with lights on, I guess most army people would feel safe in it, since it resembled a bunker than a classroom! On top of the darkness and the silence, we even had rows and rows of iron benches topped with wood, piled on top of each other in the corner of the said classroom and we Hindi class kids felt their ominous presence!

While the ‘grade 1’ me was getting used to this weird classroom, one fine morning there was a rumour in our school. The assembly was buzz with students talking in whispers, that there was a devil in the empty Hindi classroom, hiding behind the , you guessed it right, the benches!

YIKES!

Suddenly some of my friends even went as far as to testify that they had seen blood red eyes looking back at them from among the piled up benches! (I have always been a scaredy cat, so that scared the hell out of me.)

An idle brain is a devil’s workshop. (Turns out that even an idle classroom is a devil’s workshop!)

Empty Classroom = Devil’s workshop! (pic courtesy : Google)

As the day progressed, the afternoon was given a holiday and we were all sent home! (I don’t know if it was a coincidence or it was to get to the bottom of the rumours, but we had an afternoon off!)

While I was coming out of the cellar, from our classroom, I heard the general chatter about how the devil had scratched the P.T. sir and how his face is now disfigured and that is the reason for the day off! Even the next day had been declared a holiday!

Even though we had an unexpected holiday, I met my friends at their house, only to gossip again about how the school watchman had seen the ghost at night and how students are scared of going to the restrooms….

Once the school re-opened, we began moving about in groups. I dreaded going to the Hindi class and I bet others were scared too. Luckily, the Hindi students had some good news. We were designated a new classroom, with good lighting etc and we soon forgot the damn rumours.

Even now when I think back about the incident, I wonder if that is the real reason the Hindi classroom was changed!

Do you believe a devil or ghost can stay in an empty classroom?

P.S:

This incident happened in my primary school days when I was in Grade 1. I remember it distinctly because I was so scared at that time. I remember talking about it to my friends and family too.
I am not disclosing the name of the school because, even if our school was best at studies, who even has classes in the cellar, which is dimly lit? I even remember my first Hindi teacher, Ms. Shiva Parvathi mam.
Couple of years later, the school had been moved into its own 6 floored building. I moved to a new school after Grade 3, it was a life changing move, because I made friends for life and also met Mr.Bee.

Till the next post, cheerio!

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Laapataa Ladies!

May 18, 2024 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Although most people these days crave for ‘zara hatke‘ movies, the important criteria which clinches the deal is the title of the movie. Once I heard the title Laapaata Ladies, I wanted to watch it. Kiran Rao has always been the director who interested me, but I never got to watching her other movie. Interestingly, now is the time for the woman directors to shine.

So, lets see how Laapataa Ladies fares! (Laapataa loosely translates to Missing)

Released on : March 2024

Watched on : May 2024

Directed by : Kiran Rao

Starring : Mostly new faces…. except for Bhojpuri star Ravi Kishan. (He also acted in Telugu movie Race Gurram)

Review:

The movie starts with Deepak Kumar (Sparsh Srivastav) and Phool Kumari (Nitanshi Goel)’s bidaai. They board a train to the grooms village in the fictional Nirmal Pradesh. Incidentally, the train is filled with other newly married couples, where all the brides are in bridal finery, wearing the customary blood red saree with ghoonghat, covering up their faces from any prying eyes.

There is also a small scene here, where the grooms compare how much dowry they have been given and how rich the bride’s family is. They also judge that something must be wrong with Deepak because he got the least out of all the grooms in the compartment!

When the train reaches the main leads’ destination, Deepak Kumar inadvertently picks up another bride, one Mrs. Pushpa Rani, w/o Pankaj. They only find out the error, on reaching the far away village! Deepak is devastated. (The drawbacks of ghoonghat is apparent. The husband can’t recognise his wife, if there are many ladies in similar dress. Even the wife can’t see the husband clearly, to confirm that she really is following her husband around!)

Meanwhile Pushpa Kumari has a cell phone; sim card included, in her possession. But why is she not reaching out to either her parents or her rich husband? Is Pushpa her real name and is she really married to Pankaj as she claims?

Deepak Kumar visits the Police Station to file a complaint about the missing Phool Kumari and the arrival of Pushpa Rani in her place. But turns out the paan chewing, money minded SI Shyam Manohar (Ravi Kishan) is cleverer than he looks. He begins to doubt Pushpa Rani, may in-fact be Jaya w/o Pradeep Singh. (Pradeep Singh has already filed a complaint that his wife Jaya is missing at another Police Station.)

On the other end of the story is our soft spoken, baby faced, innocent, uneducated young bride Phool Kumari. She doesn’t remember the name of the village her new home is in! (Though she knows her own village, she doesn’t want to reach out to her parents. She fears that, her reaching out to her parents will shame them in the society! Society may taunt them for marrying their daughter to a fraud!) Luckily for her, she makes new friends at the train station. She begins working at a tea stall and ends up earning a little money too! The tea stall owner is a kind old lady Manju Mai, who has harsh words for everyone, but is soft at heart.

As days pass by, SI is sure Pushpa Rani is Jaya and spies on her and finds her selling gold bangles and sending someone money through Money Orders. Is she a thief?

All the while, she has made herself many friends in Deepak’s house. It is apparent that Jaya a.k.a Pushpa is well educated and not a total bumpkin like Phool!

Even though Deepak wants to search around for his bride, all he has is a picture of her with him, with a ghoonghat covering her face. The incident when khan saab tells him that ghoonghat is not only covering Phool’s face but also her identity! All the while, Khan saab’s wife herself is in a burqa, which shows the sad state of women across the society. (The movie takes place in 2001)

All ends well, when Phool Kumari reaches Deepak after the missing person posters are printed. Phool Kumari’s friends at the train station celebrate upon knowing that she reached her in laws home safely. Such a heart rending moment.

But what is the story of Jaya? Why not watch the movie to find out?

I loved, loved and loved the main leads, Phool , Deepak, Jaya and the supporting role of Manju Mai and their acting. The best character, though, went to Ravi Kishan as the SI who rose to the occasion. He sets things straight between the chauvinistic egoistic dowry hungry Pradeep Singh and Jaya. I could totally guess what was going to happen, but the way Shyam Manohar handled Pradeep brought me immense satisfaction.

Laapataa ladies is an honest and beautiful movie and is worth watching for the director Kiran Rao’s ability to tell a story and for the actors who did their job perfectly. This movie is of the ‘not-to-be-missed’ kind!

Why not watch it over the weekend?

P.S:

Of all the movies I love, Zoya Akhtar takes my top billing thanks to her Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Then comes Talvar by Meghna Gulzar tying with The Namesake by Mira Nair, followed by English Vinglish by Gauri Shinde, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer by Aparna Sen and commercial super hit Om Shanti Om by Farah Khan, lastly, Bareilly Ki Barfi by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari.
There may be better movies, I am yet to watch them. Once I do that, I may change the list.
I love the incident when Deepak meets a local politician to help find Phool. It brought some laughs.
I also loved the subtle romance between Phool and Deepak. I am thankful that Kiran Rao selected the cast based on her story and not because they are big named stars!
Actress Chhaya Kadam who played Manju Mai reminded me so much of aai, whom I was fortunate to meet in USA. She was sooooo relatable!
I am on a movie spree. I have few more movies to watch and I will surely update as fast as I can.

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Premam

May 15, 2024 / queenbee / 2 Comments

I wanted to watch Premam for a really long time, because of the reviews it had garnered. But I was busy with my own life, getting married, moving to USA, coming back to India and all.

Recently, I read an article about Sai Pallavi, since she is going to play Ma Sita in the Ranbir Kapoor starrer Ramayan. That brought back the list of movies I wanted to watch and I ended up watching Premam. So, here goes the review.

Interestingly, I watched the movie almost 7 years after its release.

Released on : May 29, 2015.

Reviewed on : May 16, 2024. (after almost 7 years!)

Directed by : Alphonse Puthren

Starring : Nivin Pauly, Anupama Parameswaran, Sai Pallavi and Madonna Sebastian.

The movie starts in Aluva, Kerala, with George David (Nivin Pauly), a 16 year old teenager, busy writing a love letter for his first love, Mary George (Anupama Parameswaran), who is a regular high schooler, girl next door, with bushy hair. George’s bestie Koya even wonders what George sees in her! Infact, she has most of the local boys wooing her. Her father is always on his toes, shooing away all the boys who crave for Mary’s attention. Even I wondered why so many boys always waited near her gate (in-spite of her strict father), trying to catch a glimpse of Mary. Its not like she is the only girl in Aluva! George’s love comes to an end as Mary loves another boy.

Years pass by and the once innocent George David now sports a full beard and a mustache. He and his friends are a tight bunch and are always ready to fight. He is a college student.

Then comes Malar (Sai Pallavi), the guest lecturer in his college. George smokes, he drinks, he appears to be a tough guy but is soft at heart. He falls in love with Malar at first sight. It is interesting to see that, George, has no prejudices. Once again Koya asks why George likes a lecturer, who has pimples on her face, who is from another religion and community, who speaks another language, who is also few years older to him. George is pretty open minded and he is confident his parents will accept his love. He manages to express his love and Malar loves him too.

The brief dance sequence by Malar is beautiful. (No movie of Sai Pallavi is complete without a dance number.)

Since I already saw the movie poster, I was sure there is another heroine who is yet to enter the picture and wondered how this love story is going to end. (Either the lover has to die or cheat him because of some unknown reason. Thankfully, the director didn’t go down this route.) Turns out Malar loses her memory during an accident and that’s the end of the love for George. (He is brave enough to visit her after the accident but not brave enough to wait for her to regain her memory.) At that instance George proves why age difference is important. He is immature.

He later attends Malar’s wedding and that closes the second chapter of love for George.

Years pass and George is now the owner of a cafe. He even bakes the cakes himself. He now ditches the beard and only has a mustache. (Simple manipulation facial hair changes his face a lot. Guys are so lucky. Women can never change their appearance so drastically!) He meets Celine (Madonna Sebastian). She flirts with him with knowing smiles and glances and he seems interested in her. Turns out, she is the beautiful younger sister of Mary George, his first love!

Instead of wasting time to woo her, George directly asks her if she is ok with marrying him. (Almost all his friends are married and he is a 30 year old.) He has his priorities right, his goal is marriage!

After a minute set back regarding an ex-fiance, George weds Celine at the end. Even Malar comes to his wedding and wishes the couple.

What I loved:

The natural acting and progress of the story (especially of the lead pair). I liked the chemistry of George and Malar at first and later of George and Celine. The expertise of the director is also apparent from the way the film was made. I already have a high opinion of Kerala and its streets, so, watching this movie filled me with positive vibes. It was relatable. I liked how even the heroines are not portrayed as having no flaws, but as mere humans. They charm us with their nativity.

Although I am have no knowledge of Malayalam, I found a couple of songs good. This is the second Mallu movie that I liked a lot , after Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey! ( I also liked Drushyam 1 and 2, but I hardly know the lead pair of Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey and this is my first Nivin Pauly movie.) Drushyam has Mohanlal and he is not a newbie, so liking his movies is a no-brainer!

P.S:

We all know some directors love to do cameos in their own movies, this is one of those. The director Alphonse Puthren appears at the end, as Roney Varghese,ex-fiance of Celine. It is a powerful cameo, because, I felt like he deserved the beatings he got from Nivin and others in Premam!
The other famous cameos include Rajamouli in a scene before item song in Baahubali – The Beginning and Quentin Tarantino in Django Unchained! There are others too, but I am unable to recall at the moment.
I also like watching movies of Mammootty and Suresh Gopi. After Ala Vaikuntapuram, Ponniyin Selvan and oldie Pancha thanthiram, I also admire Jayaram, not to forget ‘Ramam‘ Dulquer Salman!
I wonder if Nitesh Tiwari the Ramayan movie director is going to use Sai Pallavi’s dance expertise in the movie. She could probably perform a beautiful number like the Pranavalaya song in Shyam Singha Roy and steel many hearts up North India! A graceful Ma Sita indeed!

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The Bully at the Potter’s Wheel

April 19, 2024 / queenbee / 0 Comments

While I was busy cleaning out some stuff and making space for the new junk, I came across my USA journal where I had written stuff that needed to be posted in the blog. I was so into pottery in Charlotte, so here it is, the new post.

– – – – – –

After reading the title, you must have put two and two together and arrived at the conclusion that the Potter’s Wheel is the name of the studio I had begun my journey as an amateur Potter. It is not actually Potter’s Wheel, but I have named it so for privacy sake.

There I was, just out of the cab, with my off-white canvas tote bag, stuffed with my black striped apron hanging out. I didn’t waste a minute and began walking towards the studio in-front of me. That was when I saw him!

He looked round, well fed, dark, with shiny eyes, waiting at the studio portico, for unsuspecting innocent people like yours truly, QueenBee!

I walked past him, trying to look breezy and cool, kind of aloof. But secretly I was observing his every move, from the corner of my eyes. I thought I had escaped his attention, but I was wrong. He followed me to the door!

Yikes!

I looked over my shoulders, as I typed the security code in a jiffy. He was neither tall nor trained to know the security code…..

I opened the door after the beep, enough to let myself in and shut the door behind me in a hurry. I could still see him looking at me through the glass doors!

Breathe, breathe, damn it, I said to myself….

I think I have an enemy on my hands, I thought.

I reached my station, took out my bag of clay and began kneading and measuring clay for use. I set up a bucket full of water near my wheel, ready to throw clay on the wheel. (Throwing is the term used by potters, when they begin to make shapes out of clay)

My dream Pottery studio looks something like this – Pic Source : Google

Then I remembered that I had items to be bisque fired. (Clay is first kneaded. Then potters throw clay to make bowls etc. Then the bowls are bisque fired. Then glazes are used to colour the bowls, then fired again. The final product is then ready to be used. Each article goes for firing at least twice.)

Here I was taking my bowls for the first firing. On my way to the firing station, I saw that he had entered the studio! Someone must have opened the studio door and let him in. (Such ignorant people) Once again, he began to follow me, in and out of the firing station. I could hardly concentrate on anything.

‘Meow‘, he said at-last, probably bidding me goodbye, before finally ditching me . He met new people, probably ‘cat people’, to stalk. He got many rubs on his back. He got all the attention he needed and that must have satisfied his ego!

Thank God, I sighed. So much for the Potter’s Wheel bully!

P.S:

Although I am an animal lover, I never go too near either the cats or the dogs. I don’t mind touching a fish or sting ray for that matter, but I stay away from cats and dogs. I can even baby talk them, but I refrain from touching them. I prefer cows! (When Mr.Bee and I visited Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and also in Charleston Aquarium, I got the opportunity to touch sting ray and a medium sized fish. They felt rubbery!)
I dearly miss pottery. I would have probably become a master by now, since in 2 years I had graduated to intermediate level.
*PJ alert* Incidentally, I am a hobby potter, who is a Harry Potter fan!

Till the next post…cheerio friends.

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The Family Star

April 18, 2024 / queenbee / 0 Comments

After what ‘felt’ like 6 months, we went to the theaters to watch The Family Star. Our last movie date had been to HanuMan.

Let’s get down to the review of The Family Star.

Review:

Released on: April 5th, 2024

Director: Parasuram

Starring: Vijay Devarakonda, Mrunal Thakur, Rohini Hattangadi, Jagapathi Babu.

———— SPOILERS AHEAD —————–

The movie starts with Indu (Mrunal Thakur) praising Govardhan (Vijay Devarakonda, VD for short in this post) and telling whoever is listening to her about his good nature.

VD is the good boy of the family, who even takes care of the families of his 2 elder brothers, (who have no role in the movie at all). He is single, because he is yet to find a wife who thinks like him, who is ready to accept to live in a joint family, with responsibilities and all.

Now enters Indu, a new tenant in VD’s house and his life changes. All is well, till they decide to make things official but soon VD finds out that Indu is infact submitting a thesis on VD and his family in her University. She is an anthropology student and the book she published is called ‘The Man! (Highly unlikely and unbelievable even by the standards of anthropology and the movie, BUT whatever!)

VD feels insulted that she chose to approach him with a thesis at the back of her mind. He slaps her, doesn’t let her talk why she had done, what she had done and that’s the sign of INTERMISSION in movies.

Then comes the brain sucking, yawn inducing second half. What have I done to deserve this?

VD rakes his brains and comes up with a master plan on how to get back at Indu!

He contacts the company that had initially hired him during his campus placement days, meets with Jagapathi Babu, the MD. He not only asks for the job, but also for 2 or 5 year salary advance! (I am not sure if it is 2 or 5 yr advance because, at this point I was like, what the hell!)

Interestingly, Jagapathi Babu not only accepts his proposal but also decides to send VD for on-site work in the USA!

Can you guess what VD does with his salary advance, which is in crores? He pays off loans, buys bike, jewellery for the ladies in the family. Well and good. But he shows it off to Indu, through video calls! Such a loser!

He gets ready to fly to USA and guess who is accompanying him, but none other than the new CEO, Indu, who is the daughter of Jagapathi Babu!

Wait! So Indu’s father is running a construction company. She is his only daughter who inherits everything. She will surely be the CEO. Then why the hell did she go about studying Anthropology in Central University and write a thesis on VD! Beats me…

From here on the movie is a drag, with fights here and there and boring story line and sad faces and taunting lines.

Even Vennela Kishore is wasted in this movie, with no scope for humour. I wasted 350 bucks for a recliner seat and 750 bucks for caramel popcorn (I thought the movie would be entertaining!)

This is an all time bakwas movie I had ever watched, right behind LOVE STORY 2050, which is still going strong at the first spot.

P.S:

Rohini Hattangadi as the grandma is a plus for the movie. I love watching her always. The other side characters are passable, not worth mentioning. The fresh pairing of the main lead is a positive for the movie.
The director even tried to remind us of Geetha Govindam by clever placement of classical dancers near Mrunal Thakur, (as in Inkem Inkem kavale song) but still, this is no Geetha Govindam.
To think that the movie was made by the director who made my all time favourite movie SOLO is a little surprising, but then, humans make errors.
Solid editing would have made the movie better.
Interestingly, die hard fans of VD say that the movie is fantastic and big heroes are trying to bring VD down, just like they did with Uday Kiran. I think that is trash talk. Uday Kiran movies were wayyyy better!
Last but not the least, the name VD goes by in the movie is Govardhan and everytime I heard the name, I could only think of Subbaraju as Govardhan in Khaleja (another favorite of mine).

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If winning was easy….!

March 28, 2024 / queenbee / 0 Comments

This incident happened during the ICC World Cup 2023. I had been wanting to share it since, but I got too distracted and it was super painful seeing India lose in the finals at home ground!

I didn’t have a single tear to shed, as I was too shocked to understand how a perfect team lost its most important game! Nerves can do that to the best of the teams or probably just a bad day.

Anyway…

As I was crying dramatically, (fake wiping my tears and all, to show how I was feeling), GBee asked me why I was sad. I told him our desi team lost to Australia in the finals. When will we ever get the chance to host the World Cup, play with the perfect team and win again? The simple thought caused me buckets and buckets of disappointment!

Crocodile tears, the father of all fake tears and fake crying!

As soon as GBee confirmed with me that I was indeed talking about the World Cup 2023, which the whole family had been watching with much fervour and enthusiasm, he had a simple solution!

New T.V. = New match result!

Thank you Sweety, for kindly reminding me how simple the brain of a 6 year old works. But no, the match result can’t be altered with a simple deed as buying a new t.v.! It can be only altered if we can successfully bring in the foreign Time Machine from Back to the Future or our own pukka local Time Machine from Adithya 369! Or better still, we can bring in Hermione to give a special lecture on the successful usage of Time Turners and complete the task at hand!

P.S:

I had written this post way back in 2023, right after the World Cup Final, but I was as depressed as Rohit Sharma probably was, so I refrained from posting it!
November, December and January brought in exams for GBee and we had a hectic time, getting on with the home fun’s, tests, reports and the likes. Gawd! He is a first grader, but he had exams in every month, from November to January. Then came the finals in March, so, ya, a season of exams came to an end at last.
I shudder to think what will happen to me once GBee is in higher grade and KBee will also be joining school in a couple of years! I will probably make my very own version of Sleepless in Seattle, called Sleepless in Hyderabad! (Although Tom Hanks was not sleepless because his kid had exams every month!)
I will get back to blogging in April, thanks to summer holidays. Till the next post, cheerio!

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Guntur Kaaram!

January 20, 2024 / queenbee / 0 Comments

I am not a fan of Mahesh Babu. (Sorry fans!) I am more of a story centric viewer. I was not at all eager to watch Guntur Kaaram. Firstly, I didn’t know it was directed by Trivikram Srinivas, secondly, I didn’t particularly enjoy the trailer! In-spite of this, I watched Guntur Kaaram, because, we have a family friend A, who gave us free passes for the movie! (Fans do so much for their Stars!)

Without much ado, let me review the movie.

Review:

Directed by : Trivikram Srinivas

Released On : January 2024

Actors: Mahesh Babu, Sree Leela, Rao Ramesh, Prakash Raj, Murali Sharma, Jayaram and Jagapathi Babu.

The story starts with a fire accident and the ensuing fight causes Raghu Babu to kill Sunil by mistake. (Sunil in a brief cameo.) Incidentally, the fire also causes Ramana (Mahesh Babu, MB for short in this post) to lose sight in his left eye. (I am not exactly sure about it, but how can a person who is partially blind in an eye, not even show a little bit of discomfort in his fights or dances? That’s hero worship for you, where even the director is blinded by the hero and his fandom!)

The fire accident also causes a rift between both MB’s parents, where his father ends in jail and mom leaves her only child to marry another gentleman, Rao Ramesh. They have a son, Rahul Ravidran (another useless cameo!), who could have been replaced by a card board figure and no one would have known the difference, as such!

Jayaram, plays the father of MB, who does nothing but sit in his corner table and listen to situational songs. (Perfect example of casting an actor for a role without scope for acting. He hardly gets a scene to perform. I loved him in Ponniyin Selvan and even Ala Vaikuntapuramlo)

How would a child turn out if the father lives in his own world and a mom who leaves the child and never stays in touch? The child would have issues, with everyone and everything. That is the reason for MB’s temper issues. (Guntur Kaaram)

Ramya Krishna plays MB’s mom and she gets a scene or two, to show her prowess.

Anyway, Prakash Raj, plays maternal grandfather of MB. As you might have guessed he is the villain, who wants nothing but MB signing off his inheritance and the likes. His lawyer Murali Sharma is incharge of getting MB to sign. This somehow brings Vennela Kishore and Sree Leela into the picture, who are after MB to get him to sign.

That is where everything goes wrong for me. Which lawyer in the world would send his own daughter to pester a man, who is known all around to be Guntur Kaaram, known for his temper issues? Why is there a need for so many cameos? Why did Jagapathi Babu even work in the movie? Why is there a character of cousin in the movie, called Raji? What is the significance? The only thing I could come up with is, Trivikram roped in one actor each from all his hit movies, to give Guntur Kaaram an extra push!

But…

Guntur Kaaram feels similar to Ala Vaikuntapuram.

Rahul Ravindran replacing Sushanth,

Ramya Krishna mirroring Tabu, (both living with their rich fathers)

Prakash Raj – villainous grandfather replacing the lovable grandpa Sachin Khedekar

Sree Leela replacing the dusky Pooja Hegde

Meenakshi Chaudhary and her counter part Nivetha Pethuraj

Mother sentiment in both the movies, even background score is similar to Ala Vaikuntapuram. Lack of creativity and imagination from director and music director is sad.

Trivikram even managed to rope in Eashwari Rao ( the nurse from Ala Vaikuntapuram. She plays MB’s aunt.)

Seasoned actors Prakash Raj, Ramya Krishna, Jayaram, Murali Sharma, Vennela Kishore performed well within the scope of their respective roles. MB never lit so many cigarettes in any movie ever! He has performed better in the dance numbers, probably not wanting to lose to Sree Leela! The movie is worth watching only for its seasoned actors and MB.

I am not a fan of the unnecessary dance performance by Sree Leela, in the godown! We all know she is a fabulous dancer, but the sequence is so out of place. I loved Ala Vaikuntapuramlo better, because, the hero worship was less apparent! (Atleast it had top notch acting from Murali Sharma, Sachin Khedekar and Allu Arjun, while the story was the main hero!)

P.S:

It has its moments, but it is no ‘Athadu‘ or ‘Khaleja‘. It is just a forgettable Guntur Kaaram! (But fans may disagree with me.)
I dozed off in the second half of the movie, that sums up everything for you.
I know a hero needs to cater to his fans, but I was surprised by mass song MB performed at the end! It reminded the song, Ma Ma Mahesha from Sarkar Vari Pata. That is not all. The concept of the heroine approaching MB with ulterior motive is similar to what Keerthi Suresh did in Sarkar Vari Pata. Overall, Guntur Kaaram is a mash up of two hit movies but it still is a mediocre one time watch!
If you are in a mood for a new movie, with fantastic visuals, goose bump moments and without cheap thrills, head straight to ‘Hanu-Man‘ and thank me later.

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Hanu-Man!

January 14, 2024 / queenbee / 1 Comment

Ever since I saw the trailer of Hanu Man, that too with Teja Sajja as the main lead, I wanted to watch the movie in theater, thanks to it being a super hero movie based on Hindu Mythology. Added to that Teja had been my favourite child artist after my other favourites and National award winners Tarun and Shamilee, both from the children’s movie directed by Mani Ratnam, Anjali (1990).

Anyway, watching same kind of movies is so boring. I also watched Guntur Karam. I will review it next. I think this is the month of movies as I also watched 12th Fail and The Archies in quick succession!

Let’s get back to the Hanu-Man.

Review:

Directed by : Prasanth Varma

Release Date : January 2024

Hanu-Man

The movie starts with a school going child Micheal and his love for super heroes. (which is generally normal in kids) But once his love turns into obsession, this child grows into a super villain and as far as I know, that is the first instance in a movie, where the villain is introduced in the first scene itself! His mom tries to give him good advice and he also manages to retain it in his brain, the only thing is that he never understands the true meaning of it. So that is our clever, rich and psychotic villain.

Then comes the drone shot and the majestic Hanu-Man statue, guarding the village of Anjanadri, where we find the male lead Teja, playing Hanumanthu, a common thief. Thanks to the build up given during male lead introduction, we may imagine the hero to be good at fights etc, but he is not! He is a failure in many ways. (That clearly shows the contrast between Hanumanthu before and after gaining his super power.)

He is in love with his childhood crush, Meenakshi, a doctor, who visits the village for summer holidays and also enlightens the villagers, who are under the iron fist of a local pehlwan.

Long thing short, during a fight among the goons and the hero, who is in it to save Meenakshi, Hanumanthu falls into the ocean and finds himself a stone, with the power of Lord Hanuman. (The stone is said to contain a drop of Lord Hanuman’s blood. Nice!)

Suddenly the good for nothing thief, finds himself at the centre of supreme power and uses it to help the locals bring down the pehlwan. He also manages to get them to start electing a local head to rule them.

Meanwhile, Micheal happens to see a video of Hanumanthu showing off his super power and lands at Anjanadri, on the pretext of constructing a hospital for them!

The rest of the story is about how Hanumanthu saves the stone from the villain. The movie ends with Hanumanthu becoming a super hero, with a red cape, like Doctor Strange!

Teja as Hanumanthu is believable and is a natural. He is better than some other star kids, who suck at acting.

Amritha Aiyer as Meenakshi has little scope for acting, she is good in her scenes.

Vinay Rai, the hero of Vaana (2008 movie, meaning Rain) now plays a villain who is on the verge of being psychotic. Even if the duration of his role is small, he is impactful.

Sathya, Getup Srinu bring some laughs. I liked how a bird, probably a humming bird, hovered on Sathya’s head, always! Lol! This scene itself shows how well comedy has been blended in the scenes, without adding extra dialogues to impress us, the audience.

The best role however went to Varalaxmi Sharatkumar. Her role is relatable too.

Lastly, there is Samudrakhani, who plays an important character in the movie. I won’t reveal it! (I will forever remember him as the villain from Ala Vaikuntapuram. He even has a song in the movie. Which villain ever had a song in a movie? It is a rare feat!)

Vennela Kishore, for once played a character role and not anything related to comedy. He is one actor who has a natural flair for comedy after the world record holder, Brahmanandam. This is purely my personal opinion. (Sunil used to have similar flair for comedy. But he has transitioned effortlessly into character and villain roles. He is not suited for hero roles, thank God he found his positives.)

Hanu-Man has its highs and lows, but some scenes are memorable and will remain with us for sometime. Just like how Rajamouli makes a powerful statement with memorable scenes, Prashanth Varma has also executed it.

The one scene I love, is where Hanumanthu, after beating up the goons, sits on top of them, which is similar to how Lord Hanuman makes his own throne with his looooong tail, in Lanka, to sit a few feet taller than the Lankesh, Ravana.

Hanuman seated on tail throne in front of Ravana – @Tadipatri, A.P.

The other scene I love is when Hanuman is shown as the shadow of Lord Rama. Chef’s kiss on its way!

It is satisfying to watch Hanuman at the climactic scenes. Thankfully, the CGI is beautiful, which will satisfy an average movie-goer and the scenes with gold coloured Hanuman statue are good too.

Overall the movie is a pleasant watch. There is no vulgarity or cringe worthy scenes, so that’s a plus.

Go ahead and watch it, I am eager to see what will follow this movie.

P.S:

Prasanth Varma, the director is ambitious and the movie is made under Prasanth Varma Cinematic Universe! There will be sequels coming up and I hope they will surpass the first installment. Way to go. About time someone made a super hero franchise in India.
Even though Hanu-Man showed a lot of potential, only limited number of theaters or multiplexes had shows for this movie. Injustice! It proved the rumour that big producers don’t allow small movies.
I loved the song in which the hero Hanumanthu fights the bad guys while the village ladies were busy making the yummy mouth watering mango pickle!

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The Sheep of Jannaram!

December 20, 2023 / queenbee / 0 Comments

Like I already mentioned in the previous post on Jannaram, I have a couple of cartoons. Here goes the first one.

While on the road to Kadem from Jannaram, as the Sun was setting in the background, we saw herd of sheep returning to their homes, along with their shepherd.

Sheep and their Shepherd!

GBee who was actively watching the road, started the conversation…

GBee pointing out sheep and KBee playing with his fidget toy slug!

The grammar Nazi that I am, (in spite of being tired of hearing loud screams and noises from both the kids in my precious little ears), I found the chance to correct GBee, even though we were on a holiday, enjoying the beautiful sunset as well as reminding myself, why I was in the car and where I was going! (I become philosophical sometimes…I must be aging rapidly!)

GBee agreeing to my gyaan and KBee seemingly ignoring me!

GBee has the habit of being attentive and at least look like he is listening to what all nonsense or gyaan I speak. Whereas my younger gem, KBee never bats an eyelid, even if I teach him something fun. He ignores me completely and I wonder if KBee ever listens to anything I say, just like his dad! (Mr.Bee has the habit of immersing himself completely in his cell, I have to repeat everything twice or thrice and even then he manages to forget some important stuff and later asks me if I ever talked to him at all regarding the said topic!) Like father, like son, I thought!

GBee and his laughs with KBee and his impromptu song!

Turns out KBee listens once in a while and can even sing in tune! Turns out, anything, even sheep can inspire someone to sing!

P.S:

The cartoon is supposed to be in a car, while in transit. This is all I could come up with. It has a lot of sharp edges, because drawing curves is difficult in paint!
I found the fidget slug online and bought it for KBee and GBee, one each. Whenever we travel, that is what the kids carry with them. Hyper kids love fidget toys. They also have other toys to play during our travels, but this is the latest addition.
We recently travelled to Indore and I will post about them soon. Looks like BeeAfterYou is turning into a travellogue!
KBee and GBee talk to each other in English. I talk to them in Telugu. Only GBee can talk in Telugu. KBee is yet to learn Telugu. He finds English easier. (No wonder Telugu is a dying language!)
KBee’s language is still not clear and I sometimes giggle listening to how he pronounces stuff! He doesn’t like it when I laugh. He reprimands me saying, ‘It’s not funny! ‘It’s not funny’ is a line from Peppa Pig. I think KBee takes after me, even I used to have trouble pronouncing words properly. LOL!

Till the next post, cheerio!

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