A tribute to Gunnam Gangaraju

Back in early to mid 90's, most of the telugu movies were either big banner productions with sleazy humor with double meanings dialogs and heroes trying to build a mass appeal; and all of them are there to just make a buck. I dont blame commercial aspect of any film. They all did what they had to. Those were also the days when film producers are trying to introduce their ugly kith and kin to the industry.

Just then, there was a movie which came out like a sharp lightning, flashed, made its mark and left. Its only people like me who were either kids or were teenagers then remember a film called "little soldiers (1996)" with as much fondness as my elders would talk about "maya bazaar".

Little soldiers was a simple film, with simple dialogs, no histrionics and no vamp gyrating to gratutious music. People noticed it along with another classy film with a relatively bolder concept - Sogasu chooda tarama (1995), remake of hollywood's "indecent proposal", directed by Guna Sekhar. These are the two movies which stand apart as being made by less known director and less known producers but with creative production values. By this time, audience were attuned that Manirathnam movies will be classy and come out with good research, Ramu's movies would have great production values and thrills. I will not talk about any other telugu director of those times in this same paragraph; for reasons of blasphemy ofcourse :)

Anyways, after the decent hit of little soldiers, people were expecting Gunnam to come out with barrage of ideas and movies, but it didnt happen that way. Telugu audience had to wait for 7 years before he produced "Aithe (2003)" and we were not disappointed. The movie didnt have great promos, so people like me who live abroad took one whole year to notice this movie. However, Gunnam garu didnt make us wait for another 7 years and came out with "Anukokunda Oka Roju (2005)" . This movie also excelled in all departments, with Gunnam garu producing them and Chandrasekhar Yeleti being the director.

Lo behold, we have yet another movie from "just yellow" banner and who else than Gunnam himself is directing the movie "Amma Cheppindi (2006) Video Link".

I listed all the films that he is associated with, the real tribute is to thank him for being there, in believing that one can a good tiding for telugu movie and this does bode well for tollywood. I am sure that there are budding directors who watched/watching these simple movies being noticed and will go in same path as Gunnam. One can expect a golden decade of telugu movies, only due to "initiators" like GG.

cheers
-P

Pakistani policeman eaten alive - Happy V-day :)

A Pakistani policeman was eaten alive, while thousands of people were watching a cricket match at Lahore. There was no one to rescue the poor SOB, while the lady Indian tiger snarled an and had him for lunch and all he could was close his ears and eyes while gloom set into his heart.
For more details, see the pitcure.
If anyone can fetch me this sherni's number, I will build a shrine for them outside our love-nest.

India connection:: Renu?

During my initial days in US, I used to relate everything and anything that happened with something I knew/learnt/experienced in India. That phase lasted until I visited back home for the first time, when I started relating my experiences from here over there - lets cut the "here and there" talk and get to point.

I once thought that the multi-purpose contact lens solution of Bausch and Lomb, which was named "Renu" was "aptly" inspired from its sanskrit roots.

rENu (ray-Nu) in sanskrit means eye. I never even bothered to check if what I thought is true or not. When I saw its commercial on TV being pronounced as "re-new", it occured to me that they are simply talking about renewing the freshness of the lens. I couldn't prove whether there existed a sanskrit connection; searching on net didnt help either. In anycase, the name of the solution is apt and might only be coincidental.

If anyone know more about this, please do share your thoughts.

cheers
-P

How does master spooky look like now?

Last night I watched 1976 scary classic movie "The Omen". It would be 4th or 5th time viewing, but still enjoyed it till point where I just couldnt stop from falling asleep.

What got stuck in my head is that the kid who played the character "Damien" is really spooky to just look at. The casting director need to be appreciated for choosing him for that role, not to mention that "Harvey Stevens II", who played the role is a blonde boy who had to go jet black for this movie.

While all of us agreed that the kiddo is a freakshow, I left wondering how he looks like as an adult. I searched all over the internet to find out if anyone got a mugshot of this guy, but none. Harvey was a one-time wonder (with brief role in one another movie - if you are interested, go google) and now he is happily married and living in Kent, while being a succesful realtor.

Now thats interesting - what would you think he'd say to his prospective client, or when he is showing the new house around. Look "I AM SPOOKY and I can sell"? :))

An interesting tid-bit is that he still wants to keep the tricycle that he rode in the movie and wants to pass it on his daughter.

So much for my blog - you may slap yourself for reading this.

cheers
-P

Don’t they deserve something better?

It always bothers me as to why Indians (mostly Hindus, but can add others also into the list) get so cornered when it comes to dealing with Muslims or Islamic countries. A classic case of such behavior is India’s vote against Iran and thereby referring it to IAEA.

I don’t understand how is the world more unsafe if Iran is going to legally get some nuclear arsenal. IMO, the world is safe if it’s a unipolar world (USA being the power center) or a multipolar world (where all major countries take the center stage). Most smaller western nations like Finland, Sweden, Switzerland or USA centric Asian nations like Japan, Philippines openly support uni-polar world, all other major countries who would like to have share in the power pie vouch for multi-polar world. Due to strategic interest w.r.t my Indian citizenship, I want the latter option.

As far India’s strategic interests are concerned, world is unsafe if Pakistan has the arsenal than Iran and the Satan has got the dog bone anyways. Those bastards have stolen right from the nuclear bazaar. Why not let Iran also have it. Won’t it help Iran to deal better with Pakistan w.r.t to Baluchistan? Shouldn’t that be in India’s best interests to make sure that Pakistan has to work harder on its other side of border instead of on Kashmir?

Besides the security strategies, India has a lot to lose by not buying the cheap oil from Iran, which is selling oil for much lesser price than what Saudis are quoting to us? Isn’t it better that we buy oil from a non-arabic country? Are we such beggars that we make Saudi king as chief guest for our republic day and fart on face of Iran – is that what they get for being the nation which favors India the most? Until the militant Wahabi culture has taken over within the last century, the Indian Muslim (not Mughul) culture is influenced more by progressive Sufi/Persian culture which was widely prevalent in parts of Iran and Afghanistan. It is only fair to extend the camaraderie back to our real friends beyond borders.

I think Indian government has made an irrevocable mistake, which is going down in history that we betrayed Iran. At least the dillydallying tactics (which is crown bread and butter of a Congresswala) like abstaining from vote would have done some face-saving. While Russia and China (whose vote actually matter) are taking their own sweet time in deciding which way to go, India jumped into the pile way too soon and this is a point of no return.

cheers
-P