Natu Natu – song from RRR has put an Indian movie song on World stage.  

What a great achievement - a Telugu song full of rustic rural lyrics, original tune, full of energy and rhythm has won Golden Globe award for Best original song award facing tough competition from top international stars like Lady Gaga, Rihana and Taylor Swift.  Not only the first Indian but first Asian movie song to win this honours a proud movement for Telugu and Indian film industry.

Hearty congratulations to brothers Keeravani and Rajamouli, lyricist Charabose, singers Rahul Sipliganj and Kala Bhairava.   A Special appreciation to Prem Rakshit for fantastic choreography and Ram Charan and Jr. NTR for their most energetic and synchronized dancing.   The way the song with dance has shaped up and come on the screen has helped the song to become so popular globally and stake claims at Golden globe and Oscars.   It is very common in Telugu states for frenzy audience to get up on seats, throw colour papers, currency notes and move towards the screen and dance when such song and dance sequences come on the screen.   But watching audience doing so and get on the stage and dancing to ‘Natu Natu’ number is a unique and unusual experience.   RRR broke record on Netflix by being on the top of charts for 15 weeks consecutively.   Though released in USA, UK Europe and Japan much after release by Netflix on OTT, the movie is still going very strong at box office.   The US media and critics have given very wide and positive coverage to RRR and it proved to be a real cross over movie beyond both Telugu states not only in India but all across the Globe.

Keeravani : Keeravani is one of the most talented and original Telugu music directors.   He scores music in Hindi movies with the name of Kreem and Maragatamani in Tamil. The specialty of Keeravani is that in every song each note comes out very clearly and it is never sound and fury.   His Telusamanasa/Tum mile dil khile from Criminal, Jamuratri jabilamma from Khanam Khanam, Awarapan Banjarapan from Jism, Pachabottesina from Bahubali and all songs of Anamayya and many more songs showcase his talent.    Apart from music for the songs, he is specialized in giving fantastic background score. He has taken background score to dizzy heights in movies like Maghadheera, Bahubali 1&2 and RRR and the contribution of background score is at par with the computer graphics and special effects in creating out of the world experience.   As explained by Rajamouli he goes to the heart of the emotion of the scene and start working on the background score and take lot of time and efforts in coming out with the best.

Right from Magadheera, Eega, Bahubali to RRR Rajamouli is raising the bar which no other Indian director could match.   With these movies not only Rajamouli got Telugu movies recognition all over India by grossing highest box office collections but started PAN India culture for regional movies which hitherto was the bastion of Hindi movies.   With the success of RRR and his next venture with top Telugu star Mahesh babu with a whopping budget of around Rs. 1000 crores he can surely rub shoulders with top Hollywood directors.

Rajmouli realised NTR (sr) dream:

I am very happy that today Rajamouli has realized NTR dream.    NTR at peak of his career when he was essaying wide variety of roles viz., mythological, folklore, historical, social and action movies he felt constrained by the limited market of Telugu movies in the then united Andhra Pradesh.   He   used to say that Telugu movies, actors, technicians, directors and music directors deserve so much recognition at national and international level which was not forthcoming.   Great actors like NTR, SVR, Savitri, directors like BN Reddy, Dasari, Ragavendra Rao, music directors like S Rajeswara Rao, Ramesh Naidu, gifted and divine singers like Ghantasala and P Susheela could not get the recognition they deserved even at an all-India level not to speak at international level.  

Suppression by Bollywood

There is no denying of the fact that for decades regional cinema spcially south Indian and Telugu movies have been suppressed by Bollywood and for Bollywood and I&B Ministry of Government of India cinema means Hindi cinema and nothing beyond it.    When International Indian Film Academy Awards was constituted, it was given only to Hindi movies and Hindi filmy personalities as if the regional cinema is not part of India film industry.  South India cinema has come together as set up their own award SIMA to counter that move.   For getting any recognition or awards from the Government the regional cinema personalities have to put ten times more efforts than a Hindi filmi personality.   Chiranjeevi has shared many times how humiliated he felt that at a national awards function in Delhi which he attended to receive an award for his movie `Rudra Veena, he found photos of many Hindi stars like Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar etc., put up in the hall and not even a single photo of Telugu stars NTR & ANR who acted in more than 350 and 300 movies respectively, Malayalee actor Prem Nazir who acted over 650 movies, Shijavi Ganesa and Savitri, the greatest actress of Indian cinema was put up.  

 

A cursory glance at the below mentioned film personalities from south who were denied their well-deserved recognition will expose how deep the malice is.

NTR – acted in over 350 movies over 45 years (till he left the industry on his own to enter politics) essaying such wide variety of movies like Mythological, folklore, historical, social and action movies.   Only conferred Padmashri.   If there is one film personality who deserves Bharat Ratna, its NTR

SVR – greatest character actor and villain who acted in Telugu and Tamil movies.   First Indian actor to win an international award for his role in Telugu movie Nartanasala in Jakarta International film festival.   Not even conferred Padmashri.  

Savitri – the greatest actress India has ever produced.   Highest paid Indian actress in her hay days even more than Hindi actress of those days like Nargis Meena Kr etc.  Used to have more significant roles than NTR, ANR, MGR & Shivaji.   Not even conferred Padmashri

Vijayanirmala – a Telugu actress who has acted in over 200 movies and directed a world record number of 48 movies by a female director.   Not even conferred Padmashri.

Dasari Narayana Rao – a Telugu actor, producer, director, editor, lyricist, story and screenplay writer.   He directed a world record number of over 150 movies and not even conferred Padmashri

Raghavendra Rao – extremely successful and popular director who directed over 100 movies with over 90% box office successes - Not even conferred Padmashri

K Satyanaryana: - a Telugu Character actor, villain and comedian who has acted in over 750 movies in over 65 years of film career and not even conferred Padmashri

And the list goes on ……………

It is even difficult to imagine any Hindi actor, actress, director or producer with such longevity in the highly competitive cine fields with such trail blazing career in terms and quantity and quality and popularity.    Compared to the above, extremely ordinary performers with pedestrian credentials (acted hardly in less than 25 to 50 run of the mill movies) in a span of 10 to 15 years in Hindi film industry were given Padma awards and Dadasaheb Pakle award.  Sail Ali Khan, Kangana, Asha Parekh, Vidya Balan are few of the many examples.  

Overcoming adversary

But the Telugu and south Indian industry has never bogged down by the cold shouldering by the Bollywood and kept on its good work and keep raising the bar.   Thanks to Pandemic, the Indians have discovered the worth, talent and range of South Indian movies and got into habit of watching a quality and entertaining movie whichever language it may be coming from.  This has thoroughly exposed the Bollywood mediocracy and in the last 4-5 years it is feeling the heat from regional movies and completely lost its ground and market.  Hindi producers and actors are scared to release their movie around release of a south India top star movie as many south Indian movies made much higher box office collections in the Hindi heart land than Hindi movies. Top producers like Karan Johar are too happy distributing South India movies like Robo and Bahubali.  A look at 2022 box collections will show how south Indian movies have left Hindi movies far behind.

KGF-2      - 1275 crores

RRR         - 1272 crores

Vikram   -    480 crires

Kantara   -  400 crores

Pushpa 2 – 380 crores

Today Telugu and South Indian movies do not crave for any recognition from Bollywood the world is its stage.   Actors like Prabhas, Allu Arjun, Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Mahesh Babu are most sought-after actors and command anything around Rs. 80 to 100 crores per movie, producers queue up before directors like Raja Mouli and Shankar.   With PAN India market and good share from overseas market, the budget of Telugu and Tamil movies are going through the roof and every movie with a top star is planned at not less than 400 to 500 crores with confidence to mop up around Rs. 800 crores.   Moreover, unlike Bollywood for the financing of the movie they need to bank on sources across the border who control every aspect of film making.  The big size landlords and businessmen pump in large amounts into film production in Telugu industry and hence producers and director have freedom to make movies as per their conviction.    Earlier small time heroins and villains from Hindi cinema used to run after south Indian directors and now all top Bollywood actors are looking to get into one frame with Rajamouli and Shankar how so ever small the role may be.  OTTs are bombarded by South Indian movies and are the first choice of movie buff and the going is never so good for South Indian industry.  But other regional cinema viz., Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Assamee and Bhojpuri could not lift themselves and progress the way South India industry has done.   

It’s a shame that RRR was not shortlisted by Indian Government for Oscars but you find the I&B Minister thumping chest on RRR song winning Golden Globe.   Thanks to the efforts made by the producers, Rajamouli and leading actors who camped in US and gave a push and great momentum and made sure that it figures in eligibility list of Oscars in few categories.    Winning of Golden Globe award augurs well for RRR and gaining nomination and win Oscars.   Winning Oscars will be icing on the cake.     I wish good luck for the RRR team.

Hope it works as a wake-up alarm to the Government and Bollywood and they start treating all movies of all language equally

S. Prabhakar

12.1.23

 

Mat Pee, Mat Pee….Peeke `Pee’ mat kar

(The Air India `Pee Gate’)

So much is written, said and shared about this horrible and condemnable incident of an Air India passenger urinating on a fellow passenger an old lady of 70 years.  He is named shamed, hunted down and sent to Judicial custody.  As reported, he consumed alcohol in large quantities and no one including him would have done that shameful act unless he is heavily inebriated.

Traumatization to the elderly lady: I feel so bad for the elder lady of 70 years who has been put to such humiliating and traumatising situation without any fault on her part.   Someone unzipping himself and urinating on is the least one could expect to happen in an international flight.    Taking the incident lightly and casually the cabin crew had made her sit on the same seat after change of dress.   The least they could have done is to make her sit in another seat even if that required to upgrade her to business class when it was reported that they were few vacant seats.    As if this is not enough, in a bit to cover up the Air India crew has falsely propagated that there was an understanding between her and the accused and they let the passenger go scot-free.

 Failure by many on many fronts:

a)      Air India crew: The biggest failure in this entire episode is that of Air India cabin crew and the pilots.   First, they have served the accused lot of liquor, he was reported to have taken 4 pegs before lunch itself and no one sure how many more pegs has he downed before that ugly incident.   When the incident was reported by the lady to the cabin crew, they took it very casually and lightly.    Neither they confronted the accused, nor reported the matter to the commander of the flight and made sure that some appropriate action is taken against the accused.   No action seems to have been taken to isolate him, report the matter to the airport authorities of destination airport and hand over the accused to the airport security/police and get him arrested.   As if this is not enough, she was made to sit on the same seat after giving cloths to change. The crew which has lady members were so unmindful how discomfortable it will be for a lady to continue to sit on the same seat without any words of comfort.    Another shocker is that when the lady wanted to lodge a complaint, she was given a piece of paper to write down her complaint and hand it over.   It is surprising that Air India does not have compliant register with serial number and does not give a copy of the compliant to the complainant.   In the absence of it the cabin crew may any time deny any complaint being lodged with them and refuse to take any action.

     The commander of the flight is responsible for safety of all passengers and vested with full powers to take any action on any passenger not conducting himself well with cabin crew and fellow passengers.   In this incident though the matter was reported to commander of the flight he did not take any action to isolate the accused or report the matter to the airport authorities and gone by the version of cabin crew that there is an understanding between the lady and the accused.

b)     Co passengers:  The behaviour of co passengers of not coming to her rescue either during or after the incident is equally shocking.   It is quite unlikely that none of the fellow passengers specially those sitting in the row and couple of rows on either side not observing it, but they did not push him or pin him down.   When such things happen in any public place, unfortunately, the people around look on the other side and behave as if it does not concern them.    I expected the fellow passengers to protest until the cabin crew initiated some action against the accused. 

c)     Air India top management: The worst culprit in this entire episode is Air India top management, now owned by TATA group.   Firstly, they have not trained their cabin crew and pilots how to react in such circumstances and then the massive efforts to cover up for over 5 weeks till it was exposed by media.   They have not reported the matter to DGCA and not filed FIR with police.     How a top industrial house like TATAs can be so ill advised by their legal team and did not realise that the acts done by the accused falls squarely under sexual harassment, indecent behaviour with a female in full public view and causing mental trauma to an elderly lady and there cannot be any arrangement or comprise in a criminal case.  It was their duty to file a complaint with the police to get FIR registered and let the police investigate.   Despite the fact the lady has reported to have filed a complaint in the portal of Air India, they held for a long time after media exposure that there was an understanding between the lady and the accused, and they let the accused go on that basis.   It is only after anger and outrange by the public and huge pressure mounted by the media that the CEO of Air India has condemned the incident and put cabin crew and pilots under de roaster.  TATA group brand has taken a huge beating with this incident, and it is unfortunate that TATA group is behaving like any unprofessional outfit.

d)   DGCA & Ministry of Civil Aviation: For some strange reasons DGCA, the most spineless regulator we have in India, always bends its back to accommodate the private airlines and let them have their way squeezing the hapless airlines passengers and putting them to all sorts of inconveniences.   Unlike other regulators we hardly find DGCA taking any stringent actions against the airlines, penalising the erring airlines or suspending their operations which will pinch them to make them mend their ways.   Even in this episode DGCA and Ministry of Civil Aviation are the last to swing into action after massive exposure by media.  

The Uncontrolled drinking habit: 

 It has been almost half a century that I have been advising my dear friends and colleagues to an extent of pestering and irritating them not to drink in public places and not be in the company of those who keep pushing them to have a drink or two (or many more) pegs than what they can handle.  But as can be expected they hardly heed.  The worst part is that they don't get drunk (which word they neither accept or like to be used for them) in their home or small parties of close relatives or friends but in full public view in marriages on public roads in Car-O-bars behind baraat processions in places like Delhi, office parties before junior colleagues and female colleagues.  In marriage we are invited to solemnise a pious occasion and the least one expects is not to get intoxicated and similarly when you are in an office party before junior colleagues and female colleagues, one is expected to be at one’s sober best and when one is intoxicated, he can be expected to be anything but sober.    The best (or worst part) is that howsoever one is drunk and gone much beyond control of his/her physical and mental faculties, they always feel and say that they are under control.  With their tired looks n weird behavior all people specially females around them feel the discomfort and they do what best they can - avoid them.  I am witness to many incidents where highly educated well placed, very cultured and respected persons behaving in most ridiculous manner in parties specially in marriage parties under influence of alcohol bringing shame to themselves and their family members.  A time comes when they try to justify their behavior saying that they had couple of pegs more as if their behavior is acceptable on extending this excuse.  It's not uncommon in India that many males drive vehicles after consuming good amount of alcohol which makes driving highly risky for them as well as for others.  I never could understand people who are well off to maintain a SUV and who cannot abstain from drinking engage driver for a day or hire a cab to avoid putting themselves and innocent people on the road to risk of serious accidents.  Lack of strict laws mandating compulsory arrest for few years and cancelation of license for life and lack of strict enforcement of law are root cause of this menace.   The over confidence about their control after downing few pegs, no fear of law or their ability to fix cops become a heady cock tail.   I always wonder why people should go through all these hassles and run the risk of being putting themselves in embarrassing situations when there is no restriction on their consuming alcohol in their home

In this episode Mishra is holding a very senior position in an American MNC and was travelling in business class on an international flight.   What was the need for him to consume alcohol and that too over 4 pegs to an extent of losing complete control over himself and end up doing such a shameful act.    One act of indiscretion his word has come crashing down.    Now he has been arrested and booked under various sections of IPC, his employer has sacked him and issued a public notice of the same.    He may end up serving few years jail sentence, may find it very difficult to get a job or visa to America or any other countries.    Every person is condemning his behaviour and no one has any sympathy for him and he deserve none.  Now he and his clever lawyers are trying to pass it off as act done by a person under intoxicated condition, as if it is less of a crime  to first get intoxicated and then do such criminal acts.    Earlier we have seen an ugly scene where star comedian has insulted his fellow comedian Sunil Grover in an international flight under inebriated condition.   Though matter remained between them, Sunil Grover has walked out of the comedy show and the comedy show took a beating in TRP ratings and could never regain its past glory after the exit of Sunil Grover though many comedians were tried out as his replacement.    

Hope this unfortunate incident serves as a warning to all those who don’t think twice before getting intoxicated in public to introspect and abstain from drinking in public.  

 

S. Prabhakar

7.1.2022