Sankrantiki Vastunnamu (Telugu Movie) – a breeze of fresh air

By

S. Prabhakar

At a time when every film, every hero right from the top  5 young Telugu heroes viz., Allu Arjun, Prabhas, Ram Charan, Jr. NTR and Mahesh Babu to old and senior stars like Chiranjivi, Ballayya, Pawan Kalyan and Nagarjuna and even relatively newcomers like Vijaya Devarakonda and Nikhil are in the race to sign mega-budget movies only to be released in multi-languages simultaneously on a PAN India basis, Venkatesh has chosen a different path of going for Telugu movie made at reasonable budget only for Telugu audience for release only in two Telugu states.   This is what top Tamil star Vijay does and his stand-alone Tamil movies make anything between 200-300 crores business which is good enough and he has not ventured a PAN India movie till now.   The heartening thing is that this small-budget movie which was released without much fanfare and 80 feet cut out of Venkatesh, turned out to be a sleeper hit collecting Rs. 160 cr in 4 days and piped at the post the much-hyped (almost for 3 years) Ram Charan Shankar cambo Game Changer and Ballyya `Daku Maharaj’ on a rate of return basis.

       

                                                                   

I always maintained that every Telugu movie or South Indian movie cannot be a PAN India movie and pumping in over RS. 500 crores is not justified.    A lot of compromises have to be made to make a Telugu/south Indian movie a PAN  India movie.   The nativity is lost, movies are not rooted in the local culture, customs, traditions, and attaires and the biggest casualties has been the comedy, which has been back bone of the Telugu industry for over 6 decades.   Heros, Heroins, villain roles can make over to suit all Indian audiences, but the brand of comedy that suits a Telugu or Tamil movie can never be acceptable in any other language, especially by Hindi, Bengali or Punjabi audiences and vice versa.   As a result in all the Telugu / Tamil PAN India movies, the producer directors have completely done away with comedy whether it is Robo, Bahubali I and II, RRR, Pushpa I and II at a time when most of the Telugu movies had at least half a dozen comedians and many comedians like Rao Gopal Rao, Kota, Brahmanandam, ML Narayana, Vennala Kishore, Rajendra Prasad, and Naresh enjoyed star status.  Comedy heroes like Rajendra Prasad and Allari Naresh might have acted in more than 100 movies as heroes in purely comedy movies.    For decades Brahmanandam was the topmost and highest-paid comedian and one of the very few comedians who was conferred Padma Shri.  

Coming to the movie, it is a simple light-hearted comedy movie minus logic or reasoning.   The story is wafer thin, a top IT giant CEO who is on a visit to AP, is kidnapped by a gang and demands the release of a dreaded criminal in exchange for his release.   CM is advised to take the services of ex-top cop Venkatesh who is peacefully settled in a village with his wife and four children in a big joint family in a picturesque Godavari district.  The responsibility to bring him on the board for this assignment was put on his ex-lover and high-ranking police officer Meenakshi Chaudhuri.    From then starts a roller coaster non-stop laugh riot, first the triangle between Venkatesh, his wife and ex-lover under the same roof, then the entire gang of Venkatesh, his wife, children, and lover all set out on a mad chase of getting the dreaded criminal out of the jail and from the uncompromising and honest jailer who does not listen to anyone including CM, then the dreaded criminal getting killed and the entire gang moving around with the dead man to make believe that he is alive and ultimately rescuing the CEO.  

Anil Ravipudi hits the Bull's eye again 

The lion's share for the success of the movie should go to Anil Ravipudi, who has written the story, screenplay, dialogues and directed the movie.   Anil has developed a reputation for churning out rip-roaring comedies with top stars, from Patas to F2 and F3 (both with Venkatesh), Sarileruneekevvaru with Mahesh Babu.  After a one-off departure to action movie Bhagawat Kesari with Ballaya, he has come back to the comedy genre and delivered an entertaining hit movie.   Though there is hardly any story, it is the racy screenplay and engaging nonstop comedy that makes the movie watchable.   He succeeded in extracting comedy from almost every actor whether there are comedians or not, whether it is father and co-brothers of Venkatesh, son, wife and ex-lover, the egoistic jailer so wonderfully played by Upendra Lamaye, and Sai Kumar as his assistant (who is famous for his baritone voice and top notch dubbing artist cum actor, whom his jailer boss teases as having weak voice), Naresh as hapless CM and Ganesh as Party President.

Another appreciable thing about this movie and Anil is that though it features a top senior actor like Venakatesh, both Aishwarya Rajesh and Meenakshi Chaudhuri have an equal role and there is hardly any scene where Ventakesh is there and either of them or both of them were not there.    It is so refreshing compared to the minuscule screen time Kaira Advani got in Game Changer just to do song and dance scenes.  At a time when senior heroes on the wrong side of their 60s trying to do action scenes and still project macho image, Venkatesh is so sportive to accept a role, where after accepting the tough assignment of bring back a kidnapped CEO from a dreaded criminal, he was shown to have cramps all over the body, sprains his back trying to pick up something fallen from chair, cannot climb one floor without panting for breath and long forgotten shooting.  He is in his comic elements like in Malleswari, F2 and F3.  Aishwarya got the role of her lifetime and she did an excellent job as a jealous and possessive wife, Meenakshi is good as a cop but her comedy was bland compared to other actors.    The child actor who did Venkatesh's son stole the thunder from many seniors but I have a serious reservation in Director making the child artist mouth expletives in a couple of scenes, but thankfully though it is repeated a few times in the movie the dialogues were masked by background music.    This type of dialogues are not expected in a movie which can be termed a family-oriented comedy movie that too from a Child artists

After a long time, we had a movie whose music and songs had become super hit before the release of the movie.   Bheems Ceciroleo music and refreshing singing by Raman Gogula and Madhupriya have contributed to the success of the movie in a big way.   Godari gattumeeda Ramachilakave and Gobbiyallo Gobbiyallo were chart bursters.    Raman is the same music director who scored music and sang for many movies of Pawan Kalyan over a couple of decades back.

Dil Raju gamble pays off

Dil Raju is king of the distribution of movies in both Telugu states and is counted one of the biggest producers now.    With Game Changer he completed 50 movies as a producer.   He is so prolific dare devil producer that he not only produced the Rs. 500 crores Game Changer and medium budget Sankrantiki Vastunnamu but released both in the Sankranti season just 4 days apart, and add `Daku Maharaj’ to it and distributed all the 3 top Telugu releases in this Sankranti season and how difficult it must have been distributing screens to his own 3 movies.    That is how he bets, one had he produces mega-budget masala movies like Varasudu and Game Changer and on the other hand small budget but very successful movies like Shatamanam Bhavati and Balagam.   Once again he hit bull’s eye by medium budget Sankratiki Vastunnamu while burnt fingers with Game Changer

I hope, the grand success of Sankrantiki Vastunnamu despite stiff competition from Game Changer and Daku Maharaj in Telugu and a few more movies in other languages during Sankranti season, and get good number of screens in both Telugu states, will start a new trend and give assurance to the Telugu producers that small and medium-budget movies with Telugu nativity, a family dramas and comedies and made exclusively for Telugu audience will be well received by the audience.  Every producer need not make all compromises, or changeovers to tailor their movies for a PAN India release.   Going by rate of return, movies like Sankrantiki Vastunnam may prove to be a safer bet compared to a Game Changer. 

Strongly recommended to have a hearty laugh if you do not tax your minds for logic or reasoning.   Other language audiences may have to wait for its OTT release dubbed in other languages.

 

S. Prabhakar

18.1.2025

 

Does L&T Chairman know that his employees do more important work at home than staring at their spouse at Home

                                                                                      

By

S. Prabhakar

The L&T Chairman and Managing Director,  Mr. S N Subrahmayan, is caught in `the eye of the storm’ by his `foot in mouth’ statement' that `I am sorry that I am not able to make you work on Sundays’.  Speaking at a corporate event,  he advocated a 90-hour working week and urged the employees to consider working on Sundays. What has really triggered a backlash in social media in an unprecedented manner is his bizarre statement `What do you do sitting at Home?’  `How long can you stare at your wife?   How long can wives stare at their husbands,? Get to the office and start working.”

Such a misogynistic statement coming from L&T C&MD, which position was held dignifiedly for over two decades by Mr. Naik, is extremely indignified and bad in taste, to say the least and doesn’t behove the respectable position he is holding.

Does long working hours translate into higher productivity

Definitely not, but unfortunately we find many middle-level managers in many corporates, and now a couple of top guns like Mr. Narayana Murthy and Mr. Subhramanyan feel so.  Not only employees at all levels are expected to work for long hours, much beyond the designated working hours, but those who sit late and work on holidays from the office or home are treated to be more sincere, hard-working and making better contributions for the growth of the company and to the nation (going by the statement released by L&T).   Many times, gender inequality and gender discrimination also creep in as female employees who are married and who have children are not treated at par with their male colleagues only because of their inability to sit late and put in longer hours as expected by organisations like L&T.  

It is not uncommon in organisations whose managers and owners believe in long working hours, that employees are relaxed and laid back during working hours as they know that in any case they will be expected to sit late beyond office hours and they will be called on Sundays and holidays and working during this extra hours gets better recognition and reward.    An organisation loses in many ways in such situations, they end up paying more than what they should, and the smart and quality performers leave the organisation due to lack of recognition and reward as they lag in the race for putting up long hours of work.  

Does Indian really work less?

Surely not.  Various studies have shown that Indian employees work for longer hours and under a very stressful and toxic atmosphere.   Added to the long working hours in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad 2-3 hours in travelling to and fro to office bracing huge traffic jams and pollution.  

In most countries, the working hours per week are decreasing giving more stress to higher productivity.   The following are some of the countries with the shortest weekly working hours

Name of                            No. of hours 

the country                        per week            

Netherlands                              30

Denmark                                  33

Norway                                    34

Germany                                  34

Austria                                      35

Belgium                                    35

Finland                                      35

Ireland                                       35

Switzerland                                36

 

Many companies in countries like Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland and Ireland have gone for 4 days a week

In India, the labour legislation prescribes a 48-hour working week which most of the corporates follow, though many factories in small cities and unorganised sectors flout these labour legislations.   The IT industry and Construction industry, to which L&T belong, are infamous for making the employees slog for long hours round the clock in very punishing and odd work schedules to suit the global clients.  

                                                                                                                  

Even at 48 hours per week, Indian employees work more than the employees in the top 10 longest working week countries:

Name of the country        No. of hours 

                                           per week

Colombia                                47

Turkey                                    46

Maxico                                   45

Costorica                               45

Chile                                      43

Portugal                                 40

Isreal                                     40

USA                                      39

Latvia                                   39

Slovak Republic                  39

 

The backlash

Mr. Subrahmanyan's statement specially the part `staring at spouse’ has received the sharpest criticism in recent times.  Right from L&T employees, common people to industry leaders have reacted to it and most of them are critical of what he said and suggested a balance between the demands of an organisation and work-life balance.  

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·        RPG Enterprises Chairman Harsh Goenka expressed his disapproval on X, stating, “90 hours a week? Why not rename Sunday to 'Sun-duty' and make 'day off' a mythical concept?   He criticised the concept of a 90-hour workweek, warning of the dangers of burnout. “We need to work hard and smart, but turning work into a perpetual office shift isn’t the answer”

·       Anand Mahindra said  “long work hours - is in the wrong direction because it emphasises on quantity of working hours”.   My point is we have to focus on the quality of work, not on the quantity of work.    "What output are you doing even if it's 10 hours? You can change the world in 10 hours."   In a way he had a huge swipe on Mr. Subrahmanyan when he said wittily  “ My wife is wonderful, I love staring at her”

·       Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto said “Number of hours of work doesn’t matter, quality of work does. We need a kinder, gentler world more than ever before.”

      TMC MP Mahua Moitra urged SN Subrahmanyan to ‘get a life’ “Danish engineers Larsen & Toubro founded L&T in 1938. Today Denmark ranks 3rd globally in work life balance, 9th in GDP/capita & averages 34 hrs worked/week.

·       Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shivsena MP, wrote on X, “Besides being misogynistic, this statement reeks of wanting to be the new age slave drivers of India.”

·       Richa Singh, Co-founder and CEO – Yourdost   “The narrative that longer hours automatically translate to greater success is not just outdated—it's dangerous,” 

·       Deepika Padukone said, “it's shocking to see people in such senior positions make such statements.” 

      The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said Mr. Subrahmanyan’s statement was similar to the “satanic statement” earlier made by the Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, urging an increase in working hours to 70 hours per week through statutory measures. “It seems that there is a rogue competition among the corporate messiahs to rinse the blood and sweat of Indian workers

Taking Family responsibility is beyond `staring at spouse’

Every employee, apart from his job/professional responsibilities has family and family responsibilities to discharge which are equally important as office duties.  Ask any average employee including L&T employees, whatever they do and most importantly whatever they earn is more for the family than for themselves.   A Happy family and growing up children are great motivators for any person to do well in every walk of life including at the workplace.  

It was reported that in the financial year 2023-24, Mr. Subrahmanyan earned ₹51 crore,   This figure is 534 times higher than L&T’s median employee salary, which stood at ₹9.55 lakh in the same period.   With this salary, Mr. Subramanyan could engage dozens of domestic helps to take care of many of the household chores and tutors to take care of the education of his children.    However the majority of the L&T employees may not be able to afford domestic helps and high cost tutors and would like to rush back home to help their spouse and children and take great pleasure in it.   So Mr. Subrahmanian should be conscious of the fact that his employees have much more than `staring at their wife’ after going back home or staying at home on a Sunday.  

In every corporate, you have a bunch of people at every level, especially in the management cadre,  who boast themselves of as being `workaholics’ and may spend 70 hours or 90 hours and more than that and quite possibly they may be on a fast track in their progress to top positions.   But that should be a matter of choice left to the employees, depending on their family composition, the support they get the way they would like to manage their family responsibilities.    What works for someone like Mr. Subhramanyan or such a breed of people may not work for all the employees across the board and it is too much to expect it from all the employees.  Majority of the employees would be happy giving their best during the normal working hours and be happy with normal progress at the work place.     Any effort to implement such long working hours may prove to be counterproductive and damage the wonderful brand of L&T, which has already become but of jokes and memes on social media                                                                                 

               
                                                                          

Work-life balance

Research shows that long working hours lead to burnout, decreased productivity, and serious mental health challenges.  Overworking increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases and stroke, as well as affecting mental health. The physical and mental strain of the overworked people can start from acute physiological responses such as fatigue, stress, impaired sleep, and unhealthy lifestyle changes in response to the stress.  As per the Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury (WHO/ILO Joint Estimates), report of WHO and the International Labour Organization (ILO), 488 million people worldwide had long working hours, and more than 7,45,000 people died in 2016 from heart disease and stroke related to working more than 55 hours per week. These figures make long working hours one of the biggest occupational health hazards.   As against this if our industry leaders Mr. Narayana Murthy and Mr. Subhramanyan prescribe 70 hours and 90 hours per week is extremely harmful to the well-being of the employees.    Recently a 26-year-old young CA of EY died due to cardiac arrest within 4 months of joining the job which was attributed to work-related stress due to additional work during non-office times.   Many young entrepreneurs have died in their late 30s or early 40s due to cardiac arrest. 

Work-life balance is a key part of a healthy and productive work environment.  These days most corporates strive hard and make sincere efforts to motivate their employees to maintain a work-life balance so that their productivity increases and they make qualitative contributions.   Not only Government offices but most of the corporates have gone in for five days a week as against L&T which is still working six days a week.   But strangely the L&T C&MD is not finding it enough and aspiring to become the first Indian company that works a seven-days-and 90 hours a week.   

These are some of the benefits that can be derived from maintaining a good work-life balance:

·       Maintaining good mental health

·       Improves physical health

·       Ability to manage work-related stress

·       Increases productivity

·       Improves relationships

·       Improves creativity

·       Becomes well well-rounded personality

·       Greater job satisfaction

·       Becomes more successful

 

The firefighting exercise by L& T

Though no further statement has come from the C&MD of L&T, the company has made some firefighting efforts.   In a statement released the company tried to defend what their C&MD said, that it reflects the company's larger vision for nation-building.   “At L&T, nation-building is at the core of our mandate. For over eight decades, we have been shaping India's infrastructure, industries, and technological capabilities. We believe this is India’s decade, a time demanding collective dedication and effort to drive progress and realise our shared vision of becoming a developed nation.  The company clarified that Subrahmanyan’s comments were intended to emphasise that “extraordinary outcomes require extraordinary effort” and reaffirmed its commitment to fostering a culture driven by “passion, purpose, and performance.”

That may not cut much ace as a country's development is not directly proportion to the number of hours its people put at their workplace.    That is demonstrated by the number of working hours per week the top 4 world economies have

Name of the country      No. of hours 

                                          per week

USA                                     39

China                                   40

Germany                             34

Japan                                   40

So whatever targets the present Government has made to make India the world's 3rd richest economy and L&T reaffirmation to this nation-building exercise, increasing the number of working hours per week to 70 as suggested by Mr Narayana Murthy of Infosys or 90 hours by L&T C&MD, Mr Subrahmanyam is not the only solution.  

So, Mr. Chairman, `Live and Let Live’ and let us not break our grand family system in India.

                     ***                                                        ***                                               ***

S Prabhakar

14th January, 2025