Tears of a Legend

100 million views. The most awaited sequel to the biggest Indian movie. The costliest movie in the history of Indian movie industry. The biggest Indian franchise. A movie coming with the largest release, to be followed with the first VR Live action movie from India.

And there it came. The moment finally came when the promotions took the power that was expected of a big movie, going ahead with full speed.

Once one of the legendary music composers of Indian cinema took to stage and gave a re-rendition of the famous "Yevvadanta yevvadanta.." song, the captain of the ship came up to stage on his request and that was the moment: the moment when I saw the first tear of another legend, caused by the overwhelming emotions created and churned out by the first legend through touching lyrics. I just hoped the tears dont touch the earth so that the earth could remain immune to the immense effect of them! Why?Because those were not ordinary tears: They were the tears which evolved from just a water+salt mix to something so intense, so compressed with ambition that a single drop of that tear would have burnt the earth below! So just wanted the legend to control the flow of that immense pent-up energy so that he could show it in his next non-baahubali project and keep entertaining the society to levels unknown to us!

Citing a few words: "Eyes are not meant for tears and Heart is not meant for fear, Never get upset but always cheer.. Because you are the one who can make people smile for years."

By the way for those still wondering what was this all about, the first legend I talked about is M M Keeravaani(ఎం ఎం కీరవాణి), the second is S S Rajamouli(శ్రీశైల శ్రీ రాజమౌళి), and the event is the pre-release function of the movie "BAAHUBALI: THE CONCLUSION"!.. దండాలయ్యా దండాలయ్యా మా దర్శకుడివి నీవేనయ్యా!

With love.. Anil

The post-demonetisation era of digital payments and the irony!

Everyone knew the after effects of the demonetisation on India and the positive impact as well as the negative impact that it had.
But hardly did anyone think about the opportunities that lay unexplored, whether it is for the good intention or the bad. In fact, there were so many instances where merchants accepting digital payments or the customers making cashless payments were taken for a ride.
No doubt people were forced into this digital payment business due to lack of cash during the initial 1-1.5 months of demonetisation, but later the situation improved to such an extent that the ATMs again looked empty despite having the cash.
The biggest irony here is that once things came back to normalcy, there was a sudden dearth of cash in several ATMs and some bank branches. Is this due to the sudden cash flow or due to the uncontrolled printing of notes by RBI or exaggerated demand for cash from certain sections of the society?
It has to be noted that this is how the society behaves. Once the limit on daily withdrawal has been increased significantly, again the people will start to stack up the cash in their homes/offices. This is not unusual since the public's confidence in banks came down during the demonetisation. It is not the note ban itself that caused this distrust, but the fact that the banks were not able to serve the general public with the honesty expected from them. This is due to the few bad apples found in almost all departments and the situation could only get worse until and unless the govt doesnt encourage digital payments even after the availability of cash. How do they do it?
To convince the public that digital payments are better and more beneficial to them, they need to be given incentives: For example doing away with the petrol surcharges, giving cashbacks for digital payments just like how it is being done for fuel stations where a fixed 0.75% cashback is given for every fuel using debit/credit cards. Hope such promotions are given across several merchant locations.
It is here that the BHIM app is really useful and needs to be expanded and enhanced with some attractive features where cashbacks are given on certain categories of transactions.
Anyway, the present situation reminds me of a simple story: The king was given a new security chief since the existing chief has been proved to be corrupt and stealing valuable stuff from the palace. But the new chief is not popular with most of the palace staff since he is too sincere and nothing could go wrong under his supervision. So what did the staff and inmates of the royal palace do? Slowly started the misuse of their rights and brought back the previous chief in disguise. The king could not do much here since the staff are much smarter than him and they wanted to exploit the royal resources as much as they can.
So the moral of the story is that until and unless the people's mindset doesnt change, even a king cannot do anything to root out the malice of corruption and black money which go hand in hand.
The note ban was a temporary measure but the fake notes and money hoarding as well as other ways of black money strive until and unless the govt is not agile enough. Conduct review meets with the RBI and all major banks and track the money that they have in the banks or ATMs and track those dealing in huge amounts of cash. Sadly, this doesnt seem to be happening now since everything has settled and anything related to black money is hardly discussed these days on news channels or in the govt.
So the irony is that despite the hike in usage of digital payments, the usage of cash could actually increase now since the banking network is hardly enough and even if there are enough banks in india they are suffering from the lack of trust in the eyes of public. No one has any idea of what new charges are applied on their own hard earned money in the form of not maintaining AMB(depite the jan dhan yojana being touted as a movement to open crores of "zero-balance" bank accounts, many of those accounts, including those from the govt-owned banks are making it mandatory to maintain a minimum balance). Unless the financial system works in a coherent way and remain constantly in sync with the PM's vision of financial inclusion, any number of demonetisations or remonetisations will yield peanuts.



With love.. Anil

Expanding the world of Maahishmati!

Some movies make such a huge impact on you that you start getting into the world in which that movie was set. Baahubali is one of the best examples of how a complete world has been created just for the main kingdom Maahishmati and other smaller kingdoms like Kunthala.
The visual treat was nothing but the best, as is the background music.

Such is the impact of all the characters like Baahubali, Kattappa, Shivagami, Devasena, Bhallaladeva, Avanthika, etc. that I have created my own ebook which has the extension of the movie as imagined by me. Not a big book, but definitely took some time to weave origins story for each of the main characters of the movie. There are so many storylines that could possibly be weaved around Baahubali: The Beginning that my ebook becomes one of the multiverses of them!

For example, there are so many questions left open in the movie like why is Kattappa helpless and completely living like a slave to Bhallaladeva despite he getting an offer of joining hands with Aslam Khan.
The intensity with which Bhallaladeva converses with Devasena as well as her oath to fry him on the pyre set up by her means there is a very intense flashback that must have happened decades ago involving Kattappa, Baahubali, Bhallaladeva and Devasena.

So many questions have been raised(including the biggest puzzle of "why Kattappa killed Baahubali") and those have an answer in the complete Amazon Kindle ebook here:

Maahishmati Kindle ebook on Amazon

Some of the excerpts from the book are below:

Excerpt 1: Athura: The First War:

"
The sun started to rise a little faster the next morning as the tension remained high. The enemy was baying for blood as their soldiers kept building floating boards to cross the huge river. All their efforts to swing across the river using ropes turned out to be futile as they were punctured by poison-edged thorns coming from people specialized at aiming them. Attacks by wild animals were not uncommon but the enemies warded them off using their shields and weapons.
With a singular aim of wiping off anyone who are not from their faith and establishing their caliphate, the thirst of their greed knew no bounds. With the job of breaking through the defenses getting tougher, they aimed for the offensive by using their weapons like thousands of arrows. In response, the people of Mahaashanthala went back to escape them.
As the attack neared the people, they prayed for the almighty to show them a way. Off the dusty atmosphere, the devils started appearing clearly. They neared them and shouted “Athuraaa! Complete your duty. Why are you hiding?”
The people were shocked to hear the name of Athura from them. In a split second, Athura emerged from behind them, took a special sword that seemed to have been made specially for him, and raced towards the defenceless people. Uttama saw all this from a distance and rushed forward to save the people from him.
But as he was getting close, Athura threw the sword backwards towards the devil army with such a skill and power that it cut the throats of the commanders, went around for the heads of the marching soldiers and returned to the hand of Athura.
“Now my duty is complete”he shouted.
The devil army stood there in shock. They hadn't seen such level of skill from anyone and came towards Athura, with the remaining generals shouting: ”You traitor. You cheat your own people? The prophet will never forgive you. You will die a horrible death for going against us.” as the foot soldiers charged ahead, baying for his blood.
“I have found my people.” shouted Athura, pointing to the people of Mahaashanthala.

"

The above is just a small sample of one of the chapters and this particular piece is about the origins of Kattappa, his ancestors and most importantly how his extreme loyalty towards Maahishmati came into being).

Looking forward to share more info and snippets in the coming days.

Excerpt 2: Post-Kaalakeya War

"

In the aftermath of Kaalakeya being defeated, there is a larger challenge: To control the evil mind of Bijjaladeva and his son Bhallaladeva from playing games that could put the whole of kingdom in danger.

During the war against Kaalakeya, Kunthala kingdom wished that Kaalakeya is defeated, because if Kaalakeya wins, the next target would be Kunthala. And its whole population is not even as large as the strong and highly-inspired Maahishmathi army. Despite not going to the war, Kunthala used the time to sharpen its army’s skills, and one of the sharpest weapons is Devasena. Nayaka’s pride, Maahishmathi’s envy, Devasena has showcased her defensive and combative skills in sword fighting. Maahishmathi’s people saw her as a direct competitor to their loved king-to-be Baahubali.

One fine day, Shivagami called everyone to the palace to decide on the auspicious date for the cornation of Amarendra Baahubali as the king of Maahishmathi. Priests from several kingdoms made their way to the large environs of Maahishmathi. They were stunned to see the advanced architecture and the magnificent style of the kingdom and wished to stay there for some more time than just the few hours that they originally planned for! The large palaces, temples, wide pathways, strong horses, sharpest of weapons, and the huge elephants and energetic people made them stunned.

They entered the main courtyard of the palace where so many important decisions were made in the presence of Shivagami over the years.

“15 days from today there is a fantastic alignment of planets. That is the perfect time for coronation. Nothing can come close to it in the next 5 years!”

One of them interrupted: “But.”

Shivagami responded: “What but? Tell us”

“There is a danger lurking in the next few days. Amarendra needs to avoid mingling with outsiders, especially lower caste people or rival kingdoms during this time.”

There is a growing tendency in the kingdom to get influenced by the kings and segregate themselves based on castes. This split has resulted in a cold war of sorts.

During one of these days, Amarendra Baahubali was walking along the street, when he found something is wrong. He sensed something is wrong at the other side of the street.

A group of people were shouting with each other due to something serious. Amarendra queried them about the matter and found out that the issue is about letting some people from other caste to the largest temple of Maahishmati. He took an instant decision: There shall be no more distinction between the upper caste and lower caste.

To make his statement, he did something no other king-to-be woukd have done:

Washed the feet of the lower caste devotees with pure water and welcomed them.

The royal members who are in the temple were shocked when they saw this scene. They tried to take Baahubali away but in vain. He stood firm in his resolve.

On the staircase to take the lower caste to temple, he found the people very happy and they started seeing them as their hero.

Back in the palace, Bijjaladeva was furious. He warned Baahubali not to mingle with others because that is not only dangerous to his life according to the astrology, but also against the norms of the palace and the royal family.

But Baahubali kept calm and ignored him silently. Shivagami too kept a dignified silence.

"
Another chapter, this time on Shivagami, based on her characterization in the movie:

Excerpt 3: Introduction of Shivagami:

"
The day finally came:
Rudrayya has always been the quintessential free bird in terms of doing whatever he wants to do. On the deciding day, he was taken to Vaidehipuram where he witnessed
the people’s lifestyle. They too seemed to believe in dreams coming true. Rudrayya laughed off.
He was taken to the palace where there is a dedicated area for competitions.
The king finally arrived. Tall, well built and handsome, Rudrayya suddenly saw that the king also seemed to be built well and had more mass. The huge drums signalled the start of the competition.
Both of them started bravely with a huge thud of their thighs and skillfully outwitted each other repeatedly and it was almost impossible to tell who was having the upper hand.
“Actually this is to find the right groom for the kingdom. And my daughter Shivagami is ready for you. I knew no one would marry anyone from our family which is considered inauspicious and a harbinger of bad luck.” He paused.
He called the guards to bring in his daughter Shivagami. She is just a young girl, around 19 years. Out of her father’s urgency to marry off his daughter, Shivagami accepted it hesitantly. But her dreams are loftier than just finding a brave and heroic husband.
Rudrayya found this crazy and immediately replied:
“Is this a joke? I cannot do this. I cannot cheat my wife. I can never ever touch any other woman in my life, let alone marry her.”
The king replied: “Well, here we dont have the tradition of monogamy. If you dont accept the marriage, we are going to be losing our honor”
.
Shivagami kept calm. She didnt knew what to do. Rudrayya refused this offer, angering the king and ministers. Shivagami remained indifferent. She never wanted the marriage nor any kind of relationship at the moment, but she couldnt go against her father’s wish either.
So she chalked out a plan: “I want to talk to Rudrayya.” The court turned towards her when they heard her voice. Authoritative and confident for someone so young.
“Personally”. They were surprised further!
Rudrayya entered Shivagami’s private room. As Shivagami started to say something, there was a huge alarm in the palace, notifying an extreme emergency.
“Our kingdom has been attacked. Save yourselves” the announcer said to all the inmates of palace. The king has been given a special security but the body guards themselves sliced his back before he fought back with extreme injuries. He was brave and fought them off before falling down.
As Rudrayya was coming out and saw the king lying in a pool of blood, the king ordered him to take Shivagami to safer areas and look after her. “She is the only hope of Vaidehipuram. This is the only dream that I have. Go.” Shivagami shed tears upon seeing her father in a pool of blood, but promised him to remain with a strong will and
continue a legacy of justice that her father always believed in. She bid a teary farewell to her father by giving him a final hug. Still sensing danger behind them, Rudrayya rode the horse as swiftly as he can to take Shivagami to safety.
Across the waterfalls and rivers, he rode like an expert, protecting the young Shivagami and entered the kingdom of Maahishmathi. Shivagami looked around as everything seemed like a collection of moving images around her. Her fate took a sharp turn within a few hours and she couldnt believe it. Peeking out of her warm blanket, she saw the emblem of Maahishmathi for the first time in bright sunlight that is just jutting out of the morning sun. Rudrayya told the guards that he is bringing the princess of Vaidehipuram. Maahishmathi’s prince Vikramadeva welcomed Shivagami to the palace and ordered everyone to take care of her and treat her as a guest...
"

Excerpt 4: Shivagami and Kunthala's Destruction

"
When Shivagami entered the main courtyard, she saw complete destruction. Amidst it all, Devasena and her infant are struggling to escape a huge fire put up by the enemies.
Still Devasena was fighting against the fire, like a warrior, very similar to Rani Laxmi Bai, with her baby put tightly inside a cloth tied to her back. In a huge blast that broke apart the palace, Bhalla thought that Devasena and her baby were burnt to death. Nayaka left the palace much earlier to fight the enemies and left his body guards to
take care of Devasena, but they were killed by Maahishmati’s soldiers on the orders of Bhalla. With no one to help her, Devasena valiantly fought on her own and killed most of the enemies who were attacking her right inside her room. After the huge explosion, it turned out to be too difficult to find a way out. But luckily for her, in the dense smoke, Shivagami appeared, surprising Devasena and rescued her, taking her baby in her arms. She is happy that her mother-in-law has come to rescue her, but Devasena, feeling very weak, collapsed on the way when they crossed the boundary of the palace where there was no one. Shivagami tried to wake her up, but to no avail. With some of Maahishmati’s soldiers chasing her from far away, and left with no other option, she ordered Kattappa to look after her as she carried the baby away from the prying eyes of the enemies, disappearing in the dark of the woods. No one else saw her again.
Kattappa gently took his daughter in his arms and with tears in his eyes, carried her to a safe place.
“Can I ever tell you the fact? It is my fate. My bad fate that I have to see you in this situation” Kattappa silently talked to himself.
On getting her conscience back, Devasena felt that Kattappa is trying to capture her and tried to fight him. Devasena knows nothing about the truth about her and Kattappa and fears that he may kill her too on the orders of Bhalla. Unable to convince her that he is trying to protect her and also not in a position to tell the truth, a war of words happen between the two and finally Kattappa had to leave the place as Devasena went her own way into the woods, trying to keep distance from Maahishmati’s soldiers.
But some of Bhalla’s forces spot Devasena in some plains of Kunthala’s forest. Bhalla order them to tie her in iron chains and bring her to Maahishmati palace.
Back at Maahishmati, Bhalla wanted Kattappa himself to tie the chains on Devasena and tie her at the main city square.
With no other option than to obey Bhallaladeva’s orders, Kattappa kept low and waited for an opportunity to release Devasena from all the humiliation and imprisonment.
A couple of weeks passed by during which the people were trying to cope with the huge destruction. In Kunthala, Nayaka and some of his staunch followers, who escaped that dreadful night of massacre, await their moment to strike back at Maahishmati, which plays like mute spectator as their queen suffers humiliation at the hands of Bhallaladeva.
Devasena lives in an illusionary state of mind and always waiting for her son to rescue her from Maahishmati. She wants to see Bhallaladeva’s heart, blood, and everything to be burnt on a pyre that she was preparing for the past several years and reveals the same to Kattappa after she realises that he is trying to release her in many ways, officially or unofficially.

Bhalla, in a few weeks, married a trader’s daughter and within a year turned into a proud father of a son named Bhadra. Unfortunately, Bhadra’s mother died soon due to delivery complications. A heartbroken Bhalla took refuge in hundreds of concubines in his personal hall inside the palace and lead a luxurious life at the cost of people’s lives who were heavily taxed and discriminated based on their caste, color and gender too.
"

For more of the above story, check out the ebook here!

Thank you all for your love towards the book at Amazon(ebook as well as paperback). It give me immense pleasure when people support good work and it works like an energy booster to write more books in the future..

With love.. Anil

Bravehearts

When the enemy gives an evil eye,
When the terrorists were given a grand sendoff,
When the attacks cross all levels of tolerance,
The boiling blood gushes out after the surgical strike,
And the heart screams Bharat mata ki jai.

When millions of miles away the jawans wake up,
When the separation from near and dear ones pain the bravehearts,
The heart sends out the best wishes to our real heroes,
And feel like sending a tweet and sweet this Diwali.

When their toes pain with endless movement,
When their eyes burn out of sleepless nights of vigil,
When their stomachs experience hunger pangs,
When their limbs give cramps out of exhaustion,
I feel like touching their feet and just say,
"We are here for you.."

When the chilling environs take all their energy,
When the burning sun roasts your fluids,
When the ammunition flumes asphyxiate the bravehearts,
Thoughts flow out making me think:
"What level of wishes can make their lives a little comfort?"
And my Sandesh2Soldiers goes out.

-Anil Kumar Reddy.

iDonkey goes live!

After several months of delay, the book finally is live and not to mention the excitement that it gave me during the uploading and review process.
Not the first e-book, but yes, the first book to be created with long-term dedication. Of course it is open for review by anyone, but this is a first small step towards more books on varied topics or genres.

Feel free to check it out if you like it. Below is the link to the book:
iDonkey

With love.. Anil

Breaking the barriers of resistance..

Despite all your efforts, there will be something in life that keeps on stopping you, halting you, and also putting you down from achieving greater heights. And that is called "homeostatic balance" of the mind. We seem to compromise on everything, everywhere to just let the day pass away without looking at what that means for the future ahead. I remember the term being told at a training session by a great person, but the real life scenario came across recently and I had to make a choice.
And that choice is continuous dedication towards a long term goal. Never mind the smaller obstacles that come in the way, there is something that pulls me from the homeostatic balance.
Such are the vagaries of life that despite your best efforts, some things take longer to take shape compared to others.
Finding time to fix upon a strong story and build characters into it or rather onto it is not an easy task and it can take weeks, months or even years to get a solid foundation of writing books.
So the process is going on slowly but surely.
Off to a late night sleep!

With love.. Anil

16sep2015, wed: A day of immense challenges and a new outlook towards writing

Never mind the challenges in life, there will always be times when you ought to take that extra leap forward to go to the next level. And today is one such day for me in many ways.
First, the aim got clearer and there is a renewed energy that seems to put lots of emphasis on what it takes to achieve success:
Is it mere brownie points from the ones who sit above you?
Is it just the figures on the home page that you are presented with when you log in to your bank account?
Is it the unknown appreciation that you get from your real inner self when you start analyzing the day that went past?

I am sure that it is the thrid one by far and the best!
And what is that which I love inside the depest confines of the mind?
It is writing! Writing about anything that crosses my mind. Anything that strikes a moment of amazement. Anything that seems like poetry to me. Sometimes I feel what is life without poetry?
How would life look without poetic visuals, poetic sounds and poetic words? Damn boring!
So that is what I loved more about today: It is not that I took up some challenge in something that doesnt touch my heart, but that fact that there is a renewed vigour to complete something that I have been doing for the past few months: Writing a book.
Having already written a small, tiny book of poems, today I would like to update the book with new poem that goes by the title: "Blue is Wohoo!" at the below link for my #WorldOfPoems:

World of Poems

And I hope to complete the new book, which is in the genre of fantasy/fiction/satire soon and publish it online for the world!

With love.. Anil

Most probable story of #Baahubali based on its #bahubalitrailer and wallpapers

Most probable story of Baahubali based on the trailer can be written thus:
A young kid Shivudu grows up into a handsome youth in beautiful jungles in a fictitious land and one fine day he catches spots a gorgeous angel-like lady Avantika and attracted by her beauty runs behind her, only to be trapped by some unknown gang of a big, oppressive kingdom. There he witnesses slavery and tries to escape from them, fighting the guards and releasing few of his inmates in the process.
When he finally asks one of them who he is and what his identity is, he is told the story of his father "amarendra baahubali", who is a ferocious fighter and a king of a large empire. His wife Devasena(Anushka) is also a fighter and due to a conspiracy by the evil Bijjaladeva(played by Nasser in a role similar to shakuni) and Shivagami(played by Ramya Krishna, inspired by Kaikeyi or Gandhari) to capture the kingdom and make Bhallaladeva(Rana) the king, baahubali is eliminated(either alive somewhere due to being saved by his loyal minister Katappa or killed) and Devasena is put in prison as a prisoner of war. But before Devasena is captured, she gives birth to a son and she keeps the baby safe by secretly swimming across a river, keeping the baby afloat. This baby grows up into Shivudu.
Now, this could form the first part of baahubali, whereas the second part could explore more about Devasena, what happens to her and her son Shivudu and how they take revenge against Bhallala deva and co.
A bigger question is also about the mystery about Avantika and who exactly is she, which could be explored in the first half. There could also be a strong link of Shivudu and the story with the Shivalingam. It could be the Shiva lingam which might have saved the new-born Shivudu.

With love.. Anil

Baahubali: Analyzing the first look posters!

Nothing can be more amazing than an amazingly created picture which tells a deep story that is hidden behind its pixels! Since 1000 words, let me describe the above collection of 2 posters in one picture in 1000 words as below!:
The woman's hand has blood dripping down despite coming out of water. This signifies that the woman has gone through some trauma or attack while giving birth or after bringing the baby to this world, presumably the villains chasing her, as she falls into the sea. The background is either an open sea or a really wide, massive river under an overcast sky. One could even deduce that the event could have happened under rain either in the morning or in the evening, going by the direction from which the sun rays were originating!
Nevertheless, with a closer examination, we can notice that the cloth that wraps the baby has a simple, but royal-look to it. This could mean that he is meant to be the inheritor of a heritage/kingdom or a family's huge property. This poster also shows the baby coming in front of the sun, which means he is meant to bring light into lives of many, like a rising sun. When will any world need the light? It needs it the most when it is either plunging into darkness or is already reeling under a shadow(evil). Going forward, it would also be safe to assume that the baby may have something to do with one of the most important elements of this universe: the sun. Could he have born with the energy from the sun? In some ways, this could even be compared to the epic of Mahabharatam, where despite hundreds of Kauravas, pandavas eventually win by going against all the odds created by the enemy. In Mahabharatam, Karna is the Surya putra, so is Prabhas going to have similar characterization here too?If we go by another photo related to Baahubali, the pose of Prabhas aiming high with his bow and arrow bears uncanny resemblance to either Arjuna or Karna(both bitter rivals and arguably the best archers the world has ever known)!
Or is she giving birth to a baby who may be killed by her enemies who believe that the baby could bring them bad luck(like kamsa)? There can be so many theories that could be derived from this first poster of the movie. When we look at the logo, it looks like it is carved out of bronze and has a very tough, rough and sharp look to it, which means the movie could have lots of hard-core action sequences in it! Coming to the hand that is holding the baby: It is a little wierd that one can balance a baby, however small it may be, on a single palm, but in the cinematic universe, any well-shot scene is accepted!
Looking at the poster, one can even tell that the main aim of the director seems to be to tell the story of the beginning, which could be the most important part of any movie aiming to be a series or a franchise later on based upon the success. One look at the colour scheme used in the first poster, and one can see the level of detailing that has been done to maintain consistency across all the elements of the image and also keep the secrecy about the story by hiding extra information in the posters. One thing is for sure: It is going to be a visual wonder after what we have seen in Magadheera, which could now look tiny compared to the arriving Bahubali. The shadows are smooth, the lighting is well arranged and the focus of the poster has been on the baby, which obviously is going to grow up to be the main lead character leading us to the muscular character on the right: Prabhas as "Shivudu".
A man carrying such a huge Shiva lingam is obviously an exxaggeration but that is what a movie is ought to be! The character "Sivudu" has been captured so well that we can almost sense what Shivudu may be doing there or in which context is this image captured. One can see the determination in the eyes of Prabhas(as Shivudu in the poster on the right). This could either mean that he is lifting the huge Shiva lingam as a challenge to show his strength, or he could also be saving the beautiful monolithic structure from some evil hands. It could also be a frame from the introduction scene of Shivudu! As is for any movie, there have been some fringe elements hogging their own limelight by digging the internet for some look-alikes with regards to both the released posters, but they need to understand that the beauty of any movie poster or the movie itself doesnt depend on how original it is but how well it is captured and how well it communicates the different essences of the movie. With all due respects to similar posters of movies like "Simon Birch" and "Tiruvannamalai", the beauty of showcasing the best scenes of a movie is more important than unnecessary comparisions with older movies which were completely unrelated to the genre of #Baahubali. Despite all the accusations about both the first look posters, people need to remember one thing: ipod, iphone or the ipads were not the first original products in their categories but one of the top-class ones in the industries right now, or for that matter even the best android phones may not be original but certainly better than their rivals. Surely the previous products were big hits, but ipod, iphone and ipad reinvented the product categories to an extent that few would have imagined. So in short, it is not if your product is the first one or the original one, but how good is it, no matter how many might have made similar things before! So there may be millions of movie posters that may be similar to #Baahubali that were released till 5May2015, but these are the best in its genre for sure and raises many expectations as well as sets our mood nicely before we step into the theatre to watch the movie on 10th July 2015!
And that was exactly 1000 words!

With love.. Anil

Nirbhaya: Who is the real culprit and what is the solution?

For the recent controversy regarding a British documentary filmmaker's interview with Nirbhaya's convicted rapist, about whom lots of people are up in arms against the airing of the documentary, I have one thing to say:

"CHANGE THE MINDSET! Nothing else will work." 

You heard it right. This one of the biggest issues that churned many thoughts within me and started to ponder over what could possibly the solution to this problem and more than the problem itself, why do people react in a way that doesnt give any concrete solution.

The convict is just the tip of the iceberg. The bigger problem lies in the mindset of the people and the documentary is just an effort to explore that mindset and put it in-front of the public to analyze and give the society and chance to evolve from the medieval mindset. But the public and most of the media seems to be only interested in cure and not prevention. Showing anger is just a temporary event and just a step to please the mob, but the bigger problem needs to be solved by the public itself. Police cannot intrude into the minds of people and repair them. It is the public that needs to think and introspect why such extreme violence is happening and who is responsible for the same.

I keep reading news that goes with the hashtag: "#NirbhayaInsulted". Really? I have a few questions to those who support the above hashtag:

1. When was Nirbhaya actually insulted? When some honest documentary filmmaker tries to explore the mindset of the convict and tries to show it to the nation? Nirbhaya was insulted when she could not use her real name out of fear of being looked down in the society. The fact is that the society which is acting as if it has done some great work by protesting during the whole episode, is in itself guilty of creating such rapists with the various mindsets that kept seeping in from times unknown. Society has time and again looked up to people with a history of crimes that include rapes and corruption(both complement each other), and instead of alienating them from public life, given them votes in exchange of money/"free gifts" like free electricity, free tv, free sarees, free alcohol, etc. This proves that as far as creating proper examples is concerned, no one cares. They only care about how much money they get from the politicians/leaders during elections and forget their basic responsibility of choosing the right person for the job of ruling us!

2. Why are people getting offended with each and every event that seems to be exposing the reality of the society? The mindset of the convict is not just some stray example but a widespread mentality of many people, male and female who have similar views! Is the society afraid that their real image is getting exposed by some western documentary filmmaker?

3. When the parents themselves don't think there is anything objectionable in the content of the interview, why is the media hell bent on blocking the documentary? It looks to be a war between major media houses(namely NDTV vs Times Now,CNN IBN, etc) thats going on where each of them is trying to get as many points as possible and TRPs. The fact that the high court held on to the govt's view and asked the media to block the airing of documentary is another issue altogether.

4. If there is anything to be censored from the documentary, the power lies with the censor board or a body that regulates the broadcasting in India and this can only be done once the complete documentary is watched by the respective authorities.

So what is the main point? People seem to be running behind an imaginary cure(which does not cure at all in reality!) rather than prevention. It is time the society wakes up and tries to look at itself in the mirror and evolve itself into the ideal society that India deserves and not into something that becomes a curse to many Nirbhayas across the nation.

With love.. Anil

An ideal leader..

The other day, I was watching "Air Force One" on some HD english movie channel. What struck me was the way the lead actor(Harrison Ford) plays the President of USA. Though we wonder how would it all happen in reality, the fact is that his was a fictional character that is a dream of many Indians: The one who becomes a role model of millions or even billions across the world in these times of distress, violence and unending journey to find hope and that one spark that is needed to bring about a revolution in the society. When I say "revolution", it need not necessarily mean "change in the setup or a complete overhaul of the system" like how some people think of, or complete hopelessness in the institution of democracy that stood firm in several nations like India, USA, France, UK, etc. despite many attempts to bring it down.

Coming back to the movie, the role played by Harrison Ford was amazing to say the least. Despite watching the movie several times already on TV, the latest airing of this hugely successful movie is something that brings out admiration for the actor as well as disappointment somewhere in the corner of public conscience in my nation.

Do we have a leader who can lift the spirits of the people around them when everything looks down and over today? To some extent, yes, in the form of Narendra Modi, but a lot needs to be done still. This is not about the oratory skills of Modi or his ability to attract huge crowds with his charisma. It is about the consistently positive approach to be taken by a leader at all times: Never get too excited when things are going very well and never show disappointment when chips are down.
It is too early to judge the existing PM of the world's largest and probably the most stable democracy in the world, but if he can maintain the same level of energy, positive approach and inspire others by an example, I dont see any reason why we dont have a leader who not only can be an inspiration to the billions of Indians across the world, but also to other friendly nations who share the same values of India, most notably: "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam"(వసుధైవ కుటుంబకం, "the whole world is a family").
Till then, it is on an optimistic note that I sign off, that better times are ahead for those are willing work and who serve the society!

With love.. Anil

Everything about PK thats good and bad.

Over the past few days, there has been a raging debate over the contents of the movie PK which kept the movie goers busy and therefore created extra free publicity to the film. While there is no denying the fact that PK is a very honest film and the makers have made it with lots of conviction and with a "devil may care" attitude and with dialogues which were penned in authentic Bhojpuri and Hindi, there are certain sequences in the movie which prove that atleast in India, bashing idol-worship and everything related to gods is the best way to get popular and then claim to cleanse the system.
The problem with PK is not that it exposes the godmen(which is a topic thats done-to-death by hundreds of movies in various movies in many languages and this movie doesnt tell anything new), but that it tries to portray even a simple, harmless, absolutely normal ritual as a superstition. I call it over-rationalization. Let me take a comprehensive look at PK with both its merits and demerits:

The good:
1. PK's depiction of innocence is funny to the hilt(makes one laugh genuinely) and heartwarming in some scenes. We just feel like helping him to get back to his planet whenever he tries to answer the question of where he came from. Aamir's performance is highly commendable and deserves all the awards for 2014!

2. The scene where he tries all the ways to impress the Gods by using all the methods, finally reaches a place with various idols and starts praying in all the ways he knows is heart touching. It shows his desperation to get back to his home-planet and shows the seriousness with which he is praying to God. I remember bhakta Kannappa who worshipped Lord Shiva in his own ways by offering Him meat out of ignorance. Similarly, PK too seems to pray to various Gods in a "trial and error" method, but his desire to get help from God is genuine.

3. The final scene where PK returns to his planet is well shot without going into too much of sci-fi. The spaceship lands, but the focus is on the conversation between PK and Jaggu and how PK tries to hide his feelings towards her! The dialogue "he came here to teach everyone to be truthful, but he learnt how to lie" is nice and is a paradox!

The bad:
1. Take for example rolling over your full body around a temple(called 'anga pradakshinam'). Whats wrong in this practice where there is no harm done to other living beings? Are they slaughtering some innocent animals? Are they doing indecent exposure? Is it a wastage of resources? Absolutely not. Then why are the makers hell bent on projecting it as a superstition? It would have been better if they had concentrated on slaughter of animals in some temples(yes) and during bakr-id(obvious) in the name of religion, apart from other rituals in other religions that leads to animal torture.

2. Another example of complete disregard to religious rituals is in a scene where PK proclaims that "those who are afraid go to temple(jo darte hain woh mandir jaate hain)"and his opposition to building a temple. Why the hell does the story need such episodes which are completely out of context and look like they are just patched up without any relevance to the story? Yes it is true that lots of people go to temple(as well as mosques, churches, etc) out of some emotion like fear, desire, return of favor, desperation, depression, etc, but highlighting only fear is an indirect statement against the people who attain peace by going to a temple. Is PK(the alien) trying to convert this planet(out of ignorance) to his home planet just because he finds everything funny here? Yes there are multiple religions on earth, but that is a beauty that might have existed in his home planet. If that is the case, then the movie's title should have been "mental".

3. By showing extreme sympathy and showing a media person shedding tears while talking to Sarfaroz, the movie again tried to use the emotional tricks to pull the audience into some kind of emotional state where they feel that lots of injustice has been done to the boyfriend of Jaggu.

4. By publicizing this as a movie with a strong message and showing many of the valid, scientific practices of religions(Hindus, Muslims, Christians, etc.), they are not just entertaining but more than that, they are trying to preach the public what to do and what not to do through the mouth of an alien, who doesnt know anything about earth(specifically India) and the people here. If they were to go to the neighboring nation that is just a few hundred kms from where it landed(Rajasthan), the alien would have had a tragic death due to its actions. The one-dimensional approach towards the God may be apt for an alien which doesnt have any language, clothing, no god or any tradition or identity(I wonder how boring or how monotonous their world might be), but doesnt fit for humans.

5. Trying to be a messiah to a complex nation like India: When PK says "My God doesnt ask people to do this or that unlike your God", it indicates that the alien is fed up of our Gods and is trying to impose his beliefs on us. Let the alien have their own God, but that should not be glorified just because PK doesnt believe in yatras or rituals or chanting of mantras.

6. PK asks for a refund of the money he deposited in a temple, unable to get it back and therefore steals it. If the same logic were to be applied to all activities in this world, does it also mean that just because I didnt like a movie, my ticket amount needs to be refunded back?

7. Cheap sentiments and artificial emotions in certain scenes: Why the hell does the colleague of Jaggu(name unknown) start weeping when Jaggu calls the pakistan embassy and is involved in a conversation to find the whereabouts of her boyfriend Sarfaroz? Why would anyone weep for such a pathetic reason and that too in a seemingly important climax? It seems like a forced crying, just like how Navjot Sidhu laughs in the multiple comedy circus shows on TV even for silly reasons! This is a very cheap trick being used by Rajkumar Hirani since Munnabhai MBBS. The genuineness keeps missing and all that remains is a feeling that this is a fake movie meant to mint money like any other movie, using the cheapest of tricks and repetition of the same formula. It is obviously not a crime to make films in this manner, but to use this "purely-comedy" film to decide who is "true god" and who is a "fake god" is just unacceptable. The concept of "wrong number" falls flat.

As a closing comment, I just want to ask the makers and promoters of this film: "You say all the babas or faiths have wrong numbers to reach out to God. Do you have the right number to contact your version of God? If yes, put it in public. Of no, then let the people maintain their beliefs instead of dismissing their Gods."




With love.. Anil

Watched PK: A promising movie thats gone wrong.

I usually express my views in a conservative outlook towards movies and I compile it as my review usually immediately after watching it, but for the new movie "PK", it took a lot more time(more than 3 days after I watched it on Monday, 22Dec2014)! to put my thoughts into words.
With the expectations that zoomed higher than mount everest(including my own expectations and imaginations about the plot), it is going to be a tough job for Raju Hirani when he sets out to work again with Aamir after the fantastic 3 idiots.
The problems with this movie are many:
1. The reason why the alien PK gets into a complicated issues and beliefs related to different faiths is unconvincing and looks like a repeat of OMG.
No matter how carefully Raju might have handled the story, the movie eventually falls into a poor cousin of OMG. The only saving grace of the movie are its dialogues and a good performance by Aamir.
It may surely get almost all the awards in and outside India, but it is certainly not the type that will be remembered for a long time nor is it going to be a classic like the earlier movies by
Raju, like Munnabhai 1 and 2, and 3 idiots. Mixing sci-fi into a controversial movie makes things even worse.
2. There are so many questions: Do we need to get an alien to tell us how to worship?
3. What is wrong in going to a mandir located far away in himalayas?
4. Why is the director hell bent on potraying God in a funny way without minimum concern to the beliefs of hundreds of millions of people? For example the lead actor using God's stickers to save himself from slaps or making a stage actor playing shiva run around in fear? There is also a dialogue that really gets on the nerves of people: "jo darte hain wo mandir jaate hain"(Those who are frightened go to temple).
Will someone tell the director that bashing someone is going to set the cash registers ringing and bring him laurels?He surely may get awards from people purely based on comic entertainment, but for someone who sees a soul in a movie, PK falls flat.
If the makers think that making a stage actor dressed up as Lord Shiva run around is funny, they are mistaken. They cannot take everything in Hinduism for granted. There are certain aspects that are more sacred and as valuable as our parents. Will we laugh if someone playing the role of our parents on screen is made to look like a buffoon? There have been unnecessary tweets from Raju Hirani that expose his total disregard for beliefs of a certain community. Let me tell you, many of them are scientific. Karva chauth is meant for health, turmeric is a well known for keeping bugs away from the entrance, circumambulation of a temple is known to be beneficial to us with generation of positive energy. We can go on and on and prove that religious customs that seem silly to some film makers are actually based on authentic science. When the so called "wild wild west" proves the same, thats when all these people will wake up.
There are many problems in the society like exploding population,  environment pollution, etc and the makers have problems with people going to temples, idol worship, multiple religions and helping cows. Some are spreading news that this has a strong message. Yes, it does send out a strong message in a way, but it is a bad one.
The positives are of course the performance of Aamir and some of the scenes which touches your heart like PK praying to different statues of Gods pleading them to help him, and trying different ways of pleasing them, to no avail. If the filmmaker had concentrated on such nice moments instead of making fun of them, it could have been a better movie, but in its present form, PK, at least for me is a movie that is a propaganda by the makers and promoters, that I completely disagree with.

With love.. Anil

The name called "Harivanshrai Bachhan"

Having gone through the blog posts of Big B Amitab Bachhan at: http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/, it is hard to believe that someone who is so busy with his films' schedule could squeeze out enough time to publish articles on a daily basis for his online fans/followers(whom he calls "extended family")!
The post on his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan on the eve of his birth anniversary(born on 27Nov1907) was particularly touching!
I read a few poems of him during my school days and though I didnt remember the poems, I still remember an incident where I thought Harivanshrai Bachhan and Amitabh Bachhan are not related(just like how Anil Kapoor and Raj Kapoor are not related). It is only after I joined college and watching on TV that I realized that they are in fact father-son duo!

I just now recalled one of the poems that I read as a kid in our CBSE school. Those days we never had an idea as to who he is, his contribution to literature or other facets of his life! All we knew are some names like Munshi Premchand, Mahadevi Varma, Bharatendu Harishchandra, etc. Below is the text of the poem that I remember: 

जो बीत गई सो बात गई (Jo Beet gayi so baat gayi):

जीवन में एक सितारा था
माना वह बेहद प्यारा था
वह डूब गया तो डूब गया
अंबर के आंगन को देखो
कितने इसके तारे टूटे
कितने इसके प्यारे छूटे
जो छूट गए फ़िर कहाँ मिले
पर बोलो टूटे तारों पर
कब अंबर शोक मनाता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई

जीवन में वह था एक कुसुम
थे उस पर नित्य निछावर तुम
वह सूख गया तो सूख गया
मधुबन की छाती को देखो
सूखी कितनी इसकी कलियाँ
मुरझाईं कितनी वल्लरियाँ
जो मुरझाईं फ़िर कहाँ खिलीं
पर बोलो सूखे फूलों पर
कब मधुबन शोर मचाता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई

जीवन में मधु का प्याला था
तुमने तन मन दे डाला था
वह टूट गया तो टूट गया
मदिरालय का आंगन देखो
कितने प्याले हिल जाते हैं
गिर मिट्टी में मिल जाते हैं
जो गिरते हैं कब उठते हैं
पर बोलो टूटे प्यालों पर
कब मदिरालय पछताता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई

मृदु मिट्टी के बने हुए हैं
मधु घट फूटा ही करते हैं
लघु जीवन ले कर आए हैं
प्याले टूटा ही करते हैं
फ़िर भी मदिरालय के अन्दर
मधु के घट हैं,मधु प्याले हैं
जो मादकता के मारे हैं
वे मधु लूटा ही करते हैं
वह कच्चा पीने वाला है
जिसकी ममता घट प्यालों पर
जो सच्चे मधु से जला हुआ
कब रोता है चिल्लाता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई

                                                  —   हरिवंशराय बच्चन

With love.. Anil

Vaagudu(My take on Aagadu)..

After watching Aagadu yesterday, it seems the dialogue writers went crazy and over-creative and packed 100s of dialogues that would have made it into at least 2-3 movies. If there ever was a movie made only with dialogues, its this one. Vaagudu(talking non-stop) would have been the perfect title for this movie. The villains were shown to be so stupid that they fall for any cooked-up-story that the hero says repeatedly. Is it so easy to fool someone? This is where the hero loses some of his strength because for the hero to be shown strong, the villain needs to be made seriously strong and not some buffoon.

The performances of all the actors seem to be eclipsed by the hundreds of lines of dialogues that they have, so much so that the story writers seem to have written dialogues before the story and somehow wove a story around them!
Many of the characters seemed to be a misfit, including the lead actress Tamanna who is used only for songs and fill up an empty space and nothing else.
Aagadu could have been a movie made as a hobby and for rohit shetty's fans, but not everyone. We can easily close our eyes and just listen to the dialogues since there is nothing much visual or intelligent in this movie. Even for a hard-core fan like me, it is only above average(closer to a disaster than average).

With love.. Anil

Internal battles in sports..

There seems to be lots of internal fighting going on in various sports in India, be it tennis(Paes-Bhupathi unhealthy rivalry that hurt India's morale and chances at major events including olympics), or more recently badminton.

I just saw the comments made by one of the ace shuttlers of India Jwala Gutta against India's best badminton coach Gopichand yesterday on times now and it made me think:

Why is there so much negativity in Jwala Gutta's comments during these comparatively good times of badminton? Are these words of her coach Mohd Arif? Before commenting against other coaches, they need to prove themselves point by point and medal by medal that they won in any major event. Comments like these will only hurt the game and nothing else. Discipline is of paramount importance in sports, and in its absence it becomes a war. India needs medal machines which can bring us golds in mega events, not egoistic meat.
Looking back 2 weeks or so, Sania and Jwala seem to be competing to stay in the news in someway or the other. I just hope they just stop all the nonsense, do their job(after all they are being payed for their game) and bring the nation medals instead of harping on others.

And as far as the commonwealth 2014 scandals involving officials is concerned, it is an insult to the whole nation and it can never be pardoned and should be dealt with all seriousness.

With love.. Anil

Movies vs the reality

Recently, there was a show as part of a Telugu Quiz show which should be an eye opener for many people who get drawn too much by the movies and believe them to be true, especially the ones based upon history.
One such movie is "Chanakya Chandragupta". The movie is in itself  a fantastic one depicting the relation between the great political genius Chanakya(played by Akkineni Nageshwara Rao), the king Chandragupta(Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao) and Alexander(played by Shivaji Ganeshan). It showed Alexander fighting Chandragupta and a fictitious story was built to just add spice to the movie.
In the Telugu quiz show "Meelo Evaru Koteeshwarudu"(Telugu version of the famous show "Who wants to be a millionaire"), it was asked:
Which of the following Indian rulers fought against Alexander the great in battle? And the options were:

1. Ashoka, 
2. Chandragupta Maurya, 
3. Porus
4. Chatrapathi Shivaji

And the contestant, owing to the movie, immediately answered Chandragupta and locked the answer. She was wrong.
The answer was Porus(the Greek version of the original name of Purushottam(or Puru for short)), whom Alexander defeated. The movie just added a bit more drama to its story by including Alexander, but the fact is that Chandragupta and Alexander never faced each other. In fact Chandragupta Maurya established the Mauryan Empire(in 321 BC) 2 years after the death of Alexander(323 BC).
So the impact of movies on the general public cannot be underestimated and sometimes can be misleading.
And the contestant paid the price for believing the cinematic story by losing a big amount of her earnings. Sad, but thats the harsh reality that people have to face for not seeing the movie as an entertainment and assuming it to be a historical fact.

With love.. Anil

The whole noise about hindi vs others!

Ever since the rise of humanity in its present form, there has been a necessity to communicate with each other using some method or other. First it was gestures and later the spoken word came about and later the written word. And groups of these words were collectively named as languages and today we have thousands of languages the world over and many hundreds of them in India itself, with most of the speakers worshiping their native language. So when it comes to one language dominating the other, it is bound to become a critical issue and gets more personal and emotional for those who have a strong bond with their mother tongue.

The recent hungama over the hindi language promotion has been one of them. Some claim that hindi is being unfairly imposed upon some states of India, and it was even termed as unconstitutional and against the spirit of the constitution!
Whoever has read the actual circular will know the reality: It was just an attempt to increase the usage of hindi in hindi spoken areas, specifically in the social media.

"...all officers and employees who operate official accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Google, Youtube should use Hindi and English languages. Prominence should be given to Hindi.."

First things first: In a country like India where there are hundreds of languages, there is bound to be increased level of communication and exchange of ideas between the various regional languages and dialects. And due to this there will be evolution of languages and several dialects emerge due to the influence of one language over another. Now this doesnt mean that one language is superior to another or that there is a conspiracy to eliminate other languages based upon the numbers they have.

With love.. Anil

सपने हैं

उभरती हुई सूरज की किरणों में
आशा भरी हर एक लड़की की आँखों में
ओस की बूंदों की चमक में
हर नदी की ऊर्जा भरी लहर में
दौड़ते हुए बच्चों की खेल में
अन्नदाता किसानो की पसीना में
सपने हैं सपने हैं..
गैर लोगों से क्या लेना,
स्वशक्ति से है दिखाना
हर एक भारतीय की निष्ठा से
कर्म योगी महानेता की प्रेरणा से
हम सब लायेंगे अछे दिन,
निभाएंगे अखंड भारत की सच्चे वादे

सपने हैं सपने हैं..
सपने हैं सपने हैं..

-अनिल कुमार रेड्डी

Expanding power capacity through solar panels

An idea of increasing power generation and feeding to the national grid: why can't we make the public a partner in power generation by encouraging them to rent out or lease their rooftops for solar panels that generate power and feed to the grid? Let the public invest in setting up the panels and let the govt pay them back by discounts in bills.
This policy is already encouraged in some states like TN and karnataka and it would be good if it is promoted on a national scale.

The advantages of the above policy would be many:
1. Zero pollution: It is completely noiseless, without any exhaust gases.
2. The public will take ownership of the solar panels since it will be their investment of their space and thus a culture of partnership can be promoted. They become partners in nation building since they provide any extra power to the national grid.
3. Consistent and wide spread potential for power output unlike the wind mills which work only in certain windy areas.
4. Virtually infinite source of energy: the sun.

One of the detailed articles is here.

With love.. Anil