Sandalwood vs Bollywood

Posted by Anantha | Posted in , , | Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008

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My friend Suksy posted this article in his blog recently. After reading which I started composing a comment, but the comment evolved into a post, which I am posting it here.

Suksy discusses about Kannada cinema, its quality and does a fairly good comparison with Bollywood. Suksy takes on the period of Kannada cinema from ‘Om’ till date. I also would like to comment on the same period as I have grown watching these movies. Analyzing the quality of Kannada cinema and commenting on it from the time 'Om' was released is actually a Herculean task. No critic would do proper justice in this job, 4get about movie enthusiasts like me. But, still I am making an attempt at it.

Suksy makes some of the very valid and some arguably valid comments in his post. Let me pick few of them and discuss. I prefer you guys to read his post and then come back here.

Suksy says, "Is it because we do not have good story writers? or is it because we do not bother about the social message that the film should portray? I'd rather think it is more because of the latter."

Let me not boast we have the best of story writers who could compete in the arena of world cinema. But there is also a possibility that not all movie makers have an eye for good story. Most people think of making a movie that goes with the current trend. Whether its ‘machu’ or ‘maLe’. Hence a good story remains on paper for eternity.

Suksy: "Personally, I feel that Mungaaru Male did not have a good story, but it was okayish for time pass"

I object my Lord! :) No I am not going to defend saying that MM had an amazing story. My point here is quite different. I would like to say, movie is mostly about narration and not entirely about the story. Even if u have a simple story or a story that has been told zillion times before, don bother unless the director is touching the hearts of audience through his narration.

And on comparing Bollywood and Sandalwood, first of all we should admit that the sensibilities of the audiences are different. When I mean sensibilities, I dont mean I would like to judge who is more sensible, I just mean the sensibilities which are influenced by geographical locations, customs and other myriad of factors are different.

I agree with Suksy’s point that Hindi cinema has a wider 'reach' when compared to regional cinema. I partly believe that could be one of the factors for Hindi movies to incur less loss or make more profit. But I also believe in 'NOT ALL HIT CINEMA IS GOOD CINEMA'. Therefore its not right to call a film industry to be more successful just because it produces 100 hit movies every year. I would call Dhoom-2 a trash, no matter how much of profit it made.

Suksy: "(Bollywood) films are not so cheap imitations of any other regional language movie or from a Hollywood movie"

Bollywood is not a land of only original ideas, 'Bheja fry' is a rip off of a French movie called Dinner game. 'Hey Baby' is ripped off from 3 men and a baby, 'Shourya' is a desi version of A few good men, and recently 'Krazzy 4' from The Dream Team, where as 'u me aur hum' from The Notebook. These are just few examples of how 'original' Bollywood script writers have been in recent past.

Suksy: "(Bollywood) actors know to ACT!"
What about Arjun Rampal, Katrina Kaif, Emraan Hashmi..

Suksy: "The violence is not glorified and there are a lot of other emotions in the movie which get glorified putting the violence aside."
I quite agree, there is more bloodshed in regional cinema than in Hindi

Suksy: "There are many radical directors like Madhur Bhandarkar, Ram Gopal Verma etc who think out of the box."
Yes. I personally regret we people dont have an answer when it comes to MB and RGV.

Talking about comedy movies, if most of Kannada comedies are gross [i never like Sadhu kokila, doDDaNNa, tennis KrishNa comedies], Most of the recent Bollywood comedies are mindless. I just cant bear Priyadarshan kinda comedies. The new addition to the list being Anees Bazmee. 'Welcome' is such a mindless crap. If Hindi cinema has to get wiser in comedy movies, Kannada movies seriously lack sanity in comedy movies.

Lemme raise another point. One thing that Bollywood easily beats Sandalwood is in the case of 'style'. The style of the movies which is a direct reflection of the bucks spent on making the movie is a serious limitation for a regional film industry like Kannada, having a limited market. But Bollywood movie makers are following a dangerous trend of making stylish movies which seriously lack substance. The flashy trailers look good only for trailers, but when it comes to hold the movie goer for 3 hrs, style wont suffice, u need substance for it.

Another thing about Hindi cinema is about the good looking actors/actresses. They are much ahead in when it comes to host six pack abs or voluptuous figures, when compared to Sandalwood.

How is it possible not to mention about music.. Bollywood has a long list of talented music directors giving some amazing tracks for each of their movie. But Sandalwood is not far behind. There has been a great leap in the quality of music in Sandalwood in the recent past.

The debate might go endlessly, but keeping our pride for Sandalwood aside we must admit Bollywood scores better as a whole. Sandalwood needs to gear-up..

Cheap 3ll

Posted by Anantha | Posted in | Posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008

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I would have named the title of this post as Crazy4 [ya, a cliché of course] if Bhai had joined us in a long drive on bicycles. But Bhai cudnt join us and we were 3 of us, Pujar, Byre n Me. Hence the name of the post ‘cheap 3ll’ :-)


My original plan was kinda too ambitious to try in hot Sun. The plan was to peddle till Nandi hills and return! Though its not an impossible task, but wud be too much for amateur bicycle enthusiasts like us. Bhai’s absence also made our long drive cut short till our good old college, gr8 Sir MVIT, which is 20+ kms from my home.


Pujar n Me left sharp @ 6 from my home. Byre had told us dat he wud join us near Hebbal. Pujar n Me reached Hebbal @ 6:35. Then 3 of us started peddling towards our college. It was fun to peddle in the morning sun. After peddling almost for an hour, we felt the need for a pit stop n do some pet pooja. We stopped @ Yalahanka, had fairly tasty Idli-vade. We bot some apples for munching in future pit-stops. I have heard people saying about plantains as energy booster, but its always pain to carry plantains. It gets pilpila very easily no matter how carefully you pack/keep it. That’s why its our usual practice to carry apples as natural energy boosters.


Peddling, panting and making fun of myriad of things on the way we reached our college around 8:30 AM. The ride was not @ all a problem except for our paining bums. Lemme boast about my coll now. It is spread across 130 acres of vast land. Hence it was easy for us to get lost if we come out of our class rooms. The road to our college also leads to a village named SuggaTTa in the backyard of our college. Many transport vehicles, BMTC bus and vehicles of villagers pass through the compound of our college. That could be a reason for the security guard of our college for letting our 3 bicycles inside the college compound without verifying our identities.


After giving a brief visit to SuggaTTa we came to the college premises and to our favorite aDDa, the foot ball cum cricket ground. We rested for a while there. It was really nostalgic to sit in the same place where we spent most of our time lazing around during our BE days. Nothing seems to have changed in the college, the mud path towards the ground, the trees, the somari kaTTe around the trees, the good old football ground. Its quite an irony that whenever we think of college we get the picture of football ground in mind but never a classroom or a single lecturer :-)


Since it was SAT, there was not much of crowd in the college.


Our college has a pretty decent facility to host inter collegiate/inter club cricket matches in the grounds. And there was a match about to begin in few minutes and we decided to add to the finger count of spectators. It was quite painful to park our already paining asses on the stone seats near the boundary. The stones underneath showed no mercy on our asses. We sat there for more than an hour cheering the players occasionally but often inventing new positions so as to apply less thrust on our asses. We decided to leave from there as the match was boring. We visited another endearing place of ours in the college. Yes the rest room :-) During our days in the college we used to claim it to be the best rest room, we also had names like Taj Mahal [no offense meant to ny one] and White House referring to the white marble and white paint on the walls of the rest rooms. After using the rest rooms we felt it was not well maintained compared to our time. And felt those days of glory will never return ;-)


We munched some thing in our college canteen, and headed back. On the way back the scorching Sun made us drench in sweat. But we dint have to peddle much, as we got many slopes.


Reached Hebbal around 12, the point where we had begun the crazy adventure. Byre peddled straight but Pujar and Me took a deviation towards the ring road which connects to new BEL circle, from then on towards IISc via Ramiah College. Despite the hariyaali of Ramiah College, the stretch proved to be strenuous in hot Sun. what seemed like a cake walk in the morning, now the same Rd seemed like an eternity. At last I reached home around 1.


Now sitting on a properly cushioned chair and composing dis post. May our asses rest on ice :-)

5 . sm 1 in Rangashankara dis weekend

Posted by Anantha | Posted in | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008

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'Five point some one' play will be staged in Rangashankara, both the days of this weekend. Having cherished the book so much, Im dying to see it transformed into a different medium.

But the ticket fare is quite too high… Its 200 bucks..! I have seen 'oDakalu bimba' b4 in Rangashankara, I remember the price was not so high.

Hmmm.. I know its just 200 bucks.. but come on, its more than the price of a movie ticket. [Damn the multiplex, I’ve never been to ny of the multiplexes n ll never talk about it]

It’s the similar dilemma I face every time I go to buy an original DVD or book.. the price ll be just too high..

Hmm.. To spend or not to spend…

Into the wild

Posted by Anantha | Posted in , , | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008

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Went to the DVD library, started glancing @ the new Eng releases neatly kept aligned in the shelf. I had no particular movie in mind. A movie called ‘Into the wild’ caught my eyes. The DVD cover contained the picture of a young guy sitting on the roof of a maxi cab, staring at the horizon with his baggage lying beside him and a clear sky in the background. Quite an interesting pic isn’t it? I told the boy in the DVD shop to get me that DVD to have a look @ the theme of the movie. Boy reached out to the shelf and handed over the DVD to me n said some thing funny. He said, “Sir, this movie is about life..”. It was queer to hear that from a lad like him, he must be some 11-12 years of age. I contained my laughter and smiled @ him. Reading the brief plot of the movie on the hind cover of the DVD, I was quite impressed about the plot of the movie. I dint bother to see the director’s name, lead actor seemed like a new guy. Many a times the movies which I have watched/bought by mere gut feelings have turned out to be gr8 movies. Pinning on the same gut feeling I borrowed that DVD.

Now lets talk about the movie. The movie is about a guy called Chris McCandless who is just out of his college. Tired of his parents’ troubled relationship and in an attempt of soul-searching he leaves his home, parents and a younger sister, donates his fairly huge amount of savings money to charity and heads towards west coast. When he wanders around the states of USA, he indulges in many professions, masquerades under a pseudo name called Alexander Supertrump, gets lost in the wilderness, canoes down Colarado River crossing the border of USA illegally! In course of his sojourn, he meets variety of people, some nice men who offer Chris a job, some wanderers like him, some gentle men who question his purpose of wandering, some naturists etc etc. As the last phase of his travel he heads towards a region of Alaska, where there is no trail of humans around. He finds an abandoned maxi cab and starts living in it.


The movie unfolds in its own pace, with no hurry of what so ever; after all, the protagonist has all the time in the world right..? The movie has two interlaced narrations by both Chris, the man himself and his sister Carine. Mostly narrated by the latter.


There are moments in the movie when Chris burns his currency, when he refuses to settle down with a wanderer couple, when he turns down the offer of a teenage girl to bed her, when he aimlessly stares at nothing, u might get frustrated and feel like shouting WTF this guy wants in life? But what I admire the most about the movie is this movie is like reading a fine book. I think that’s a great compliment on its own for the movie. Whether it’s the alphabets of Chris’s letters/diary which marquees along on the fore ground or the way Chris’s journey is divided into chapters like ‘Birth’, ‘Childhood’, ‘Adolescence’, ‘Manhood’ and the last chapter ‘Getting of Wisdom’. The camera captures the finest details of the nature, emotions of Chris n his parents, as would have penned down meticulously by a writer.


The movie is based on a novel by the same name by Jon Krakauer and directed by Sean Penn [yes ur rite, academy award winner for his role in Mystic River]. Actors have done a gr8 job, kudos to Emile Hirsch who plays the role of Chris in the movie.


One last thing about the movie is u may get disappointed if ur expecting the story to be some serious soul searching one would do fleeing away from home. I was stunned when I found ‘Into the wild’ is based on a true story! I would still reco u this movie, if you enjoy ‘reading a book’…

I won a goodie

Posted by Anantha | Posted in | Posted on Thursday, April 03, 2008

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There was this Mobile phone camera photography contest held in my office. I had sent few of my pics also. And one of my pic made it to the top 20 :) Im gonna get some goodie as a prize for this soon.. It feels good when there were more than 400 pics sent by different employees across the globe, and I made it to the top 20 list.

Below is that pic. Lemme admit, I hav not formally learnt the techniques of photography, I just have this sense of 'oh.. this might look good as an image' and i click pics.



This is a very ordinary pic, but I believe the title I had given for the pic caught the attention of the contest judges. The title I had given was 'Very few lead n rest follow'

At last I wanna say, my Nokia 7610 still rocks with 1 MP camera... Ummmaaa !!

PS: Hemanth's apt comment on this was: "A picture is worth a thousand words. this one shows- not always" :)