`SAAHO’ AND `SYERAA’ TWO TELUGU MOVIES WHICH CAN CHANGE FACE OF TELUGU/INDIAN CINEMA

The next fourty days are going to be crucial for Telugu and also Indian film industry with two mega bucks Telugu movies slated to release.  

The first one is the much awaited Prabhas starrer `Saaho’ which has a whopping Rs. 300 crores budget and going to be the costliest Indian movie till date, leaving the costliest Hindi movie Thugs of Hindustan at Rs. 180 crores way behind.   While top Telugu stars like Mahesh Babu, Jr. NTR, Allu Arjun are still waiting for an appropriate time and movie to make Bollywood entry and Ram Charan cooled off after disaster of Zanjeer, it is an unlikely candidate Prabhas who ranks below all these has become a huge star on All India basis thanks to the stupendous success of Bahubali I and II.   To encash his huge popularity Prabhas has launched this ambitious movie. Whereas Bahubali was made like a period movie, Saaho is a modern time action movie, larger than life sets and action sequences being common in both the movies.  Apart from popularity of Prabhas and special effects and action there is hardly anything to talk about star cast.  For the last two decades Telugu movies have relentlessly resurrecting the careers of long forgotten Hindi villains who are not in reckoning right from Sharad Saxena, Mukesh Rishi, Shinde to Ashish Vidharthi.  The movie casts many such actors like Mukesh Manjrekar, Chunky Pandey (the comedian), Niel Nitin Mukesh.  Banking too much on VFX and action scenes is a risky proposition but these daredevil producers have developed appetite for such risks.   Considering its huge budget to make it a safe bet it is simultaneously made in Telugu, Hindi and also dubbed into Tamil and Malayalam and slatted to released in 5000 plus screens all over India on 30^th August, 2019.  The release was preceded by an unprecedented publicity blitz.    Depending on the success in Indian markets all plans are in place to dub and release the movie in China, Hong Kong and Japan.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD0-ztCFydA

The second movie is the ever bankable Telugu Mega Star Chiranjeevi starrer `Syeraa – Narasimha

Reddy’ with Rs. 200 crores Budget.   It is based on the story of a lesser known Telugu freedom fighter and has independence struggle backdrop.   This movie is also made on a huge canvass and is in making for the last two years.  It is made in Telugu but getting dubbed in Hindi, Tamil Kannada and Malayalam.   To give it a wider acceptance on an all India basis the multi lingual stars are roped in – Amitabh from Hindi, Sethupathi from Tamil, Sudeep from Kannada.   Chirajeevi is not new to Hindi audience.   He tasted success with his first Hindi movie `Pratibandh’, followed it up with `Aaj ka Gunda Raaj’ but packed off bags after the failure of `Gentleman’ .  But I must say that he is more popular for the dubbed movie `Indra – the Tiger’ which might have been screened over hundreds of  times in the last decades or so in various Hindi channels which telecast dubbed Telugu/south Indian movies. The movie is releasing all over India on 2^nd October, 2019.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJBslYyD2mQ 

Telugu and Tamil film industries are back bone of Indian film industries and always gave run for money to Hindi film industry, despite having very limited markets.    Content wise Malayalam and Bengali film industries too are very strong but other language movies are left far behind.   Telugu film industry can be divided into two phases the pre Bahubali era and post Bahubali era.   A decade back more than 90% of Telugu movies are made with a budge of below Rs. 5 crores and  the remaining 10% movie with top stars are made with the budget of around Rs. 25 crores and they used to have a market of about Rs. 50 to 75 crores if it is blockbuster.   Around that time producers Shobu and Prasad roped in highly talented Raja Mauli and liberally threw open their coffers and pumped in Rs. 250 crores to make a master piece called Bahubali.   With no Telugu film crossing a 100 crore mark till that time and Telugu movies not having much market beyond the two Telugu speaking states, it was considered a foolish and unrealistically overambitious venture.   After release, the movie not only re-written collection records all over India but all over the world and made a whopping Rs. 1800 crores .    It was for the first time world press has covered the release of a Telugu movie.  The Hindi film industry has not only taken note but openly acknowledged the talent, potential and supremacy of Telugu and Tamil film industry, led by Karan Johar. Hindi producers lined up up for joint venture with Telugu producers or purchase rights for release of Hindi version of Telugu movies.  

In 1960s and 1970s the hugely talented and popular NT Rama Rao, who mastered in every genre from Mythological, Folklore, social, to action movies and had the Telugu film industry at his feet was reported to be very discontented due to only one factor that such highly talented actors like him, ANR, Shivaji Ganeshan do not get any recognition outside their respective states and completely ignored by Hindi film industry and not to speak of World cinema.   He was of the firm view that Telugu and other south Indian actors, directors and technicians are capable to take the Indian cinema and world cinema by storm.   Though in his life time till he chose to bid good bye to cinema to join politics he remained an uncrowned king of Telugu film industry and treated as a demy God, he was relatively unknown beyond south India.   Bahubali has set the bench mark and if Saaho and Syaraa with combined budget of Rs 500 crores succeed it will change the landscape of Teugu/Indian cinema.   Rajamouli has already announced that he has set his eyes for a movie with Rs 1000 crores budget and ready to devote five years if some producers are ready to back him up.   The type of technology they are using, the conceiving and execution of action scenes the overall package and very aggressive marketing techniques used are no less than Hollywood.    If such movie succeed we can dictate terms and set up a parallel cinema to Hollywood in world cinema and not crave for recognition at Oscars, which traditionally been biased against Indian cinema.   The way south Indian movies have their own SIMA awards (on being ignored by the organisers of IIFA awards), the Indian cinema can have its own Oscar.  

Best wishes for the success of `Sahoo and Syeraa’

S. Prabhakar

25.8.19                                                                                                                                                

CAN TELUGU INDUSTRY EVER PRODUCE ANOTHER `SAVITRI’?

Budding and struggling actress Sri Reddy over the last one month or so has opened `can of worms’ and exposed the rut in the Telugu film industry.   I want to start with a disclaimer that by no stretch of imagination I support her top less half nude act in  public to bring focus on the casting couch and denying opportunity to Telugu girls in Telugu cine industry.   But yes I do share her anguish why for decades opportunities in featuring Telugu films are denied for Telugu speaking girls and film after film year after year absolutely mediocre non Telugu speaking actresses are promoted by top heroes, producers and directors .

The Role and contribution of the Actresses in Telugu Industry

There is no denying that like in any other language, the Telugu film industry is also predominantly a hero dominated industry.   But traditionally the role and contribution of the Actresses in Telugu industry used to be very significant and they used to give run for the money to the Heroes.   

It started with actresses like Khanamba, Anjali Devi and Bhanumati who played significant roles with the then first star hero Nagayya, Peketi, lateron NTR and ANR.    Then came the Golden Era of 50s and 60s in Telugu film industry which saw the rise of NTR and ANR (who had the longest run in the industry and treated to be two eyes of the Telugu film industry).   Around the same time Telugu film industry has seen the best phase for heroines with leading ladies like Savitri and Jamuna which continued till late 80s.  The heroines had almost equal length of roles like heroes and commanded star billing.   Apart from acting Anjali devi and Bhanumati have started producing movies.  Bhanumati has gone on to handle almost all departments viz., Acting, producing, directing, writing story, screenplay, dialogues and singing. The popularity of Savitri and Jamuna has soared to such heights that author backed roles were writing for them and there were many heroine oriented movies which racked mullah at box office.   Both of them enjoyed super star status.   They were so gorgeous, talented and commanded such huge fan following that for some reasons when NTR and ANR ganged up and boycotted

Savitri

Jamuna and did not act with her for about four years at peak of her career she still could withstand and survive and bring them around to agree to act with her again.  They were beautiful, graceful, had expressive faces and possessed great acting abilities.  The physical features were not given that importance in those days and only the ability to act was the prime criterion.   The fact that their part was so critical for the success of the movie can the gauged from the fact that there used to be special shows exclusively for females and even in other shows first tickets used to be sold to females first and only after all the females got tickets the remaining tickets were to be sold to male patrons .  Can any Telugu movie fan can imagine Gundamma Katha, Missamma, Maya Bazaar, Mooga Manasulu,.  Devata,

Jamuna

Devadas, Pandava Vanavasam, Mangamma Sapadham, Dr. Chakravarthy and Rakta Sambhandam without Savitri and Jamuna though all these movies featured NTR or ANR or both.  

Vanisri

Sridevi

Closely followed on their heels was the era of Vanisri, Jayalalita and Sharada again very dominating female actresses with huge fan following specially female fan following.   They had more than a decade run with NTR, ANR, Krishna and Shobhan Babu.   Come 80s a new crop of heroines have hit the Telugu industry viz., Jaya Pradha, Jayasudha, Sridevi and Vijaya Shanti, all of them were extremely talented and had the ability to shoulder equal responsibility with the heroes of that time.   With producers becoming more prolific and most of the super hit Telugu hit movies being remade in other languages specially Hindi, these actresses specially Sridevi and Jayapradha had crossed over to Hindi film industry.  Sridevi had not only settled in Bolloywood

Jayaprada

but has also become most successful and top heroine.  

Start of the worst trend

Chiranjeevi

By late 1980s NTR has left movies and gone into politics and the aging ANR, Krishna and Shoban Babu have slowed down and the Telugu industry was looking for new stars.   New crop of heroes viz., Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna (son of ANR), Balakrishna (son of NTR) and Venkatesh (son of famous producer Rama Naidu) have found their footing and started establishing their fan following base.   Of the four Chiranjeevi definitely was head and shoulders ahead of others churning hit after hit which made fans confer him the titles of `Supreme Hero’ first and then the `Mega Star’.   He to a great extent could fill the vacuum created by the exit of NTR atleast for the mass fans.   So a phase has come in Telugu industry where like in case of NTR, producers were ready to accede to any demand of Chiranjeevi to get him sign on the dotted lines for their next movie.    NTR at his peak was known for peculiar demands of asking producers to make Mohd Rafi sing for him (which was no mean feat at peak of the singer’s career) or Shankar Jaikishan score music for his movie or Helen/Aruna Irani do item numbers in his movies.  Following in his footsteps Chiranjeevi started the trend of asking producers to sign Bollywood established stars to be signed opposite him which was never the trend hitherto.   So Bollywood actresses like Nagma, Sonali Bindre, Ravina Tandon, Juhi Chawla, Anjala Zaveri,  Sridevi (as a comeback to Telugu industry after establishing in Bollywood).   Producers not only used to shell out huge amounts compared to what has been paid to Telugu heroines but used to put up with all sorts of unreasonable demands of the Bollywood  heroines.   It might be possible that the other top heroes might have taken it as a prestigious issue that they should also get Bolloywood  heroines opposite them.   Nargarjuna immediately followed suit with Nagma, Tabu, Ranjni etc., and Venkatesh and Balakrishna also joined the band wagon thus opening flood gates for Non Telugu speaking heroines at the cost of Telugu speaking actresses.  

Around that time the death of Shaudarya and super stardom of Vijaya Shanti and her decision to

do solo movies with the tag of `Lady Amitabh’ has created a vacuum of Telugu speaking heroines in Telugu industry.   This added to the penchant and craving of Telugu heroes for Hindi speaking actresses unfortunately have brought down curtains on the opportunity for Telugu speaking budding heroines.   The trend of every film/every hero having a new non Telugu speaking heroines got so entrenched that it has been over two decades that a new Telugu speaking heroines has ever been introduced in Telugu films.   With over 120 movies being produced in Telugu every year they could not get that many established Bollywood heroines, so slowly they started giving break to the new and budding aspirants from Mumbai, many parts of Punjab, Bengal, Gujarat, and name any state in India except Andhra/Telangana. 

What lead to this unexplainable craving and worst trend

No one could put a hand what lead to this rut in the State of Andhra/T which produced most talented actresses like Savitri, jamuna, Vanisri, Sridevi, Jayaprada, Jaya sudha and Vijayashanti could not produce one single actress in more than two decades.   

I personally feel that it is a result of sense of inferiority complex of our heroes post 1980s.  As explained above the heroines of Telugu industry were extremely talented and fantastic actors,

dancers and could garner huge fan base.   The actors of yester years like NTR and ANR working in  disciplined atmosphere in banners like Vijaya, Vahini, Gemini and AVM used to take lot of efforts in perfecting their diction, dialogue delivery modulating and orientation. It was reported that for mythological movies NTR used to take tutorial from Tirupati Vekatakavulu and used to make lot of efforts to get perfection in delivering Sanskrit and Chaste Telugu dialogues.    Compared to this the command over the Telugu and dialogue of Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Nagarjuna and Vekatesh in 90s and Ram Chanran, Allu Arjun, Mahesh Babu, Prabhas now is anything but perfect.    They bank heavily on their stardom rather than acting abilities.   Under these circumstances it is not in their interested to be pitted against heroines who have a command over Telugu language, good in acting and dialogue delivery.   If they succeed and attain stardom then they may start demanding meaty roles, scenes, dialogue and there is always a chance of their overshadowing these mediocre heroes.   The best and easiest way to come over this risk is to take Non Telugu speaking and new heroines for every movie.  All these plastic faced non Telugu speaking actresses look and sound so awkward in the absence of lack of understanding of the languages, struggling to lip sink and emote.   So neither these heroines have any substantial role, meaty dialogues nor any significant part to play in any movie.   Their role is reduced to being oompish,  go through few song and dance sequences invariably at foreign location for reasons best known to the heroes and be around in absolutely unavoidable scenes in the movie.   Though many of the heroines have been acting for years in Telugu movies their dialogues get dubbed by dubbing artistic who in most cases mess it up.   The simple strategy being followed by our great heroes is `long line and short line formula’ – shorten the line of heroines so that their line looks longer/bigger.   As a result of this strategy, in the last two decades more than 100 new non Telugu speaking heroines were introduced in Telugu films (a new heroin in every second film) and not even a single Telugu speaking girl was given break.   With these non Telugu speaking girls being new to State/place being among unknown people unknown language always live on the edge and treat the heroes larger than life and as their `masiahas’ which surely massage the king size ego of our heroes.   Moreover, there are about eight top heroes and every new entrant whose first couple of moves hit the bull’s eye pair atleast once with all the eight top heroes then get degraded to the second string of actors and within four years it is pack off time.   That allows our heroes with king size ego breathe easy.   This suits these young girls who come down to the state by dozens as they make fast buck and pack off to do some business in their home states.  This disease has spread so much that not only the leading heroes but the second and third string heroes and even the comedians turned heroes ask for and get a non Telugu speaking heroines imported from North.   Apart from the roles of heroines for other small roles also non Telugu speaking girls are roped in.  

Others Imports from Bollywood:

The import from Bollywood started with heroines did not stop there.   The heroes, producers and directors got so carried away by the recognition they get amongst Bollywood folks who work in Telugu films,  and `jee hoojuri’ they get from Non-Telugu speaking guys that apart from heroines they started hiring Non Telugu speaking guys for Character actor and Villain roles also.   Barring exceptions like hugely talented Amrish puri (who not only acted in `Jagadeka Veerudu Atiloka Sundari’  but also took lot of efforts in dubbing his own dialogues) most of the villains and character actors look very odd and out of place and a limited number of dubbing artists doing dubbing for them becoming very irritating.   Pretty ordinary actors like Sharad Saxena, Mukesh Rishi, Shinde and Ravi kishan are taken as main villains (incidentally the later two completely left Bollowood and settled in Telugu industry).    Actors like Jackie Sheroof, Anupam Kher, Sudhir Mishra, Ashish vidharthi and Paresh Rawal look absolutely pathetic.    Once in an interview Anupam Kher made fun of his outing in a Telugu movie and explained the difficulty he faced in lip sinking dialogues and the directors suggesting him to just count 1,2,3,4,5,6, upward and downwards and rest we will take care in dubbing.    What is the compulsion?  Why producers have to put up with all these nonsense.   Compared to Telugu actors these imports from Bollywood charge a bomb and producers have to put up with their tantrums all the time.   What a fall from extremely talented villains and character actors like

Rajanala, the greatest Ranga rao, Nagabushanam, Satyanarayana, Rao Gopal Rao and Kota Srinivas, who stood so strongly against NTR, ANR, Krishna, chiranjeevi, etc.  They became hugely popular and became household names.    

The same goes as far as singing is concerned.   It is a shame that a State which produced God of Film Music Ghantasala, the sweetest voice P.Susheela,, SP Balasubramanian, who sang the highest number of songs and S Janaki  cannot find good Telugu speaking singers in the last fifteen years.   The less said the better how Hindi singers like Adnan Sami, Mikka, Kailash Kher, Udit Narayan murder Telugu songs.    One really has to struggle to find out Telugu words in their songs.   Someone should educate our stupid music directors that out of 7 editions of Indian Idol two winners (Sriram and Revanth) and one runner up (karunya) were Telugu speaking guys from Andhra.   Are these young singers who are talented enough to win an all India singing competition in Hindi, but not fit to sing Telugu songs?.

Who will bell the bit bad cat?

The entire Telugu film industry is completely in the vicious grips of four filmy families and a cartel of producers.   What they wish is the Rule and they do not let anyone raise their head or voice.   Sri Reddy is now being branded in many ways negatively and brushed aside by the powerful MAA (Movie Artists Association) by denying her membership.   The casting couch which she threatens to expose is not new to Telugu industry or to the entire film industry in India or world over. Many leading Hindi actresses and even Hollywood actresses have come out against exploitation.  Why the top actors or MAA didn’t address her question why opportunities are not given to Telugu speaking budding actors rather than finding fault in what she did.   If the Telugu film industry cannot survive without importing stars from Bollywood then why heroes are not imported from Hindi and other languages in place of our heroes.   Maharastra Government was worried about the labour class in the state is being dominated by people from UP and Bihar and there were so many protests on this issue.    In America when more than 30% of soft professional are from India the Trump Government is worried and put so many sanctions in place.   But in Telugu film industry 100% of heroines and villains are imported from Non Telugu speaking states for last two decades.  Shouldn’t that bother anyone?    After all it is a matter of employment to the locals.   I am all for right for employment anywhere in India but surely not cartelisation to complete deny opportunities to Telugu speaking actresses. 

Both Andhra and Telengana Government should take note of this in all seriousness and insist that Telugu speaking artists and technicians should be used atleast in those movie which claim subsidies from the state Government.    When we talk of up liftment of the Telugu language, it should be in all walks of life including film industry.   The audience should do their bit by boycotting Telugu films featuring non speaking heroines and villains/character actors.  I would like to see another Mahanati Savitri, Jamuna and Bhanumati in Telugu Industry and another `Gaana Gandharva’ Ghantasala and SP Balasubramaniam.  

S. Prabhakar

9.4.2018

SRI DEVI - THE ONE AND THE ONLY 

`ALL INDIA FEMALE SUPER STAR’

Millions of fans like me woke up on Sunday to the shocking news that Sridevi is no more.  She neither had any health issues nor is she aged enough to go away.    With 50 years acting career at the age of 54, more than 260 movies in five languages, millions of fans all across the country and world, might have mislead the almighty to think that she has lived her full life.  

Undoubtedly, she was the most charming, bubbling, natural, talented actress who lit up the screen in every frame in every movie and dominated it for decades.  She was probably the only female actor for whom special scripts and roles were written not only in South Indian languages but the male dominated Hindi movie industry.

The earlier days:

Born in Shivakasi as Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan, Sridevi started her career at the tender age of 4 years in a Tamil movie `Thunaivan’ and has become very prolific child artist in Tamil and Telugu movies.  As child artist she acted with superstars and the demy Gods of south Indian film industry like NTR, ANR, MGR, Shivaji, Savitri, Jamuna and Jayalalitha, but never overawed by their larger than life presence and held her fort by her confidence, natural and in born acting talent (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjoatqtTIzw - song from `Badipantulu’ with NTR and Anjali).  Right from childhood, she was so intense and involved in her acting the moment camera starts rolling.  Telugu Director Ragavendra Rao shared an interesting incident of her childhood days- in one of the movies she was asked to run across the road and a car was to cross over the road very close to her.   She ran across the road without any fear but due to mistiming of the driver of the car she was hit by the car and almost came under the wheels (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XfH5nd4Tn0) People like me who followed her career from her childhood never had any doubt that she will make it big as a heroin also.   She graduated from child artist to heroin without any transition break.   Apart from acting as an adolescent in Hindi movie ``Julie’ she did few Malayalam movies around the age of 13 to 15 before making it big in Tamil and Telugu with resounding hit of `16 Vayathinile’ which was remade in Telugu as `Padaharella Vayasu’ and `Solwa Sawan’ in Hindi.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v2C8m1lM1Y song from Padaharella vayasu)  

Superstardom:

For the next decade or so there was no looking back for Sridevi in Tamil and Telugu movies.   Whether it is aging superstars in their mid fifties like NTR, ANR, Krishna, Shoban Babu, and Shivaji or the young budding stars like Kamal Hassan and Rajnikanth the first choice was Sridevi.   It goes to her credit that she used to adjust herself looks wise and more importantly in dance sequences keeping her male counterparts limitations and slow movements and strangely most of the movie with all these stars were blockbusters and audience never felt very odd about it. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q4MU5UTTbE - Super duper hit song with NTR in Vetagadu)  In an era where heroines were reduced to mere decorative pieces and just used for song and dance sequences, she commanding top billing, screen space and meaty roles alongside all the south Indian superstars.  Within no time she developed a huge fan base of young (with her charms) and female and elderly fans (with tear jerker south Indian movies).   A time soon has come where movie started revolving around her and heroes like Shoban Babu, Chandra Mohan, Murali Mohan and Bhagyaraja were only consequential.  

Unique distinction :

movie with Father ANR

movie with son Nagarjuna

One of the greatest tribute to Sridevi is her adaptability and tenacity was that she worked as a daughter and granddaughter of NTR, ANR, Krishna and Shobanbabu and later on worked as heroin in many blockbusters with the same actors.  And the unparallel achievement was that Sridevi not only acted as granddaughter and daughter of NTR and ANR later on as their heroin but also acted as heroin with NTR son Balakrishna and ANR son Nagarjuna.  This achievement still remains unmatched in Indian cinema industry.   

Most Charming actress:

Sridevi was one of the most beautiful and charming actress with big eyes and most expressive face.  She had most impeachable timing in dance and comic scenes. Apart from having a child like face she had an unbelievable body language which she used very effectively in acting and more importantly dance.   She was a most natural and innovative dancer who used to enjoy dancing and caste a magic.   Though many Telugu, Tamil and Hindi heroes were no match to her in dance numbers but she set the screen on fire with good dancing stars like Chiranjeevi and Kamal Hassan. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw5BPAtPgDA – dance with chiranjeevi) .  Her pairing with Kamal Hassan was the most enduring with both of them acting in 28 movies together.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHlg_JCD7fM – song & dance with his favourite co-star Kamal H)assan

Versatility personified:

The range of acting and versatility of Sridevi is phenomenal and helped her to have an extended tenure in Indian cinema.   As a child actor she used to be very cute and lovable, as a heroin in commercial movies (like Vetagadu, Sigappu Rogjakkal, Himmatwala) extremely attractive, very naughty and `chulbuli’ in comedy roles (like Kshanam Kshanam, Mr. India and Chaal Baaz), very mature in tearjerker south Indian family oriented movie (like Karteeka Deepam, Devata, Premabhishekam, Lahme and Maa)

She is probably one of the best dancers in Indian cinema.  Though not an exponent of classical dance, her adaptability in every type of dance was amazing.   No one could match her in expression in a song and dance sequence.  Her dance number `Katenahi katihai ye raath’ in Mr. India is a text book for budding actors (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9KecQZLVTE – song from Mr. India).   Sridevi and Saroj Khan were a deadly combination and churned out great super hit dance numbers.  Sridevi and Madhuri competition in late 1980s was legendary.  

The successful cross over and becoming a National Super Star:

Sridevi was the most successful cross over from South to North.   Though South Indians like

Vaijayatamala, Rekha and Hema Malini were very successful in Bollywood, they started their career in Hindi only.   But Sridevi after having very successful career in all the four South Indian languages made a very successful cross over to Bollywood.   From a plump big nosed and a typically South Indian looking actor Sridevi transformed herself into a slim, sharp nosed and stylist smart young lady and accepted easily in Hindi movies.  Initially most of the her Hindi movies like Solwa Sawan and Himmatwala were remakes of Telugu and Tamil movies later on she established herself so much that she paired

with all top stars under all the leading banners.  Her dominance was to such an extent that then Superstars like Anil Kapoor, Sunny Doel, Rishi Kapoor, Vinod Khanna and Rajni Kant did not mind playing second fiddle to Sridevi in movies like Mr. India, Chaal Baaz, Chandni, and Nagin, and in Khuda Gawa she was pitted against Amitabh with double role.  Her all India fan following and acceptability was phenomenal and she was so prolific that she acted in a record number of 260 movies – 85 in Telugu, 72 in Tamil, 71 in Hindi, 26 in Malayam and 6 Kannada.

The Personal Life:

Howsoever active, energetic and bubbling she was on the screen, but in her personal life she used to be reserved, talk very measured and tried to stay away from controversies.   Her decision to get married  to Boney Kapoor, an already married man with grown up children, attracted lot of criticism, she always maintained a dignified silence on the subject.  Once blessed with two daughters, they became her life and played her role as mother as intensively as she did her movie roles. 

The last High:

After marriage with Boney Kapoor she took break in 1997 and settled down in life and stayed away from movies for over a decade.   But the born actor in her could not keep her away from arc light for a long time.  She started her second innings with a bang with critically acclaimed `English Vinglish’ and followed it up with fantastic performance in `Mom’ and raised hope that she will have a very long second innings like Amitabh.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMaw21lRBqk (dramatic scene from Mom)

 

Though Sridevi, in close to half century career at relatively young age of 54 has achieved more than what a female actor can imagine to achieve in Indian Cinema, there was a lot which remain unfinished.    Indian cinema surely lost one of the most beautiful, charming, talented and versatile actor who proved that the female actors can carry movies on their shoulders and paved way to many young female actors like Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone and Anushka Shetty.   As far as female actors are concerned the Indian cinema can now be divided and referred to in two phases, `THE PRE SRI DEVI ERA AND POST SRI DEVI ERA'.  Sri Devi has measured up to the pre Sri Devi Era top heroins like Nargis, Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Savitri and Jamuna but we have to wait and see if the present crop of heroin and future entrants can measure up to the dizzy heights Sri Devi has scaled.    Surely many female actors can come up and prove their metal but there cannot be another Sridevi and the dominance and universal acceptability as Sridevi enjoyed.  

In the climax scene of `Jagadeka Veerudu Atiloka Sundari' where she has done the role of a Deva Kanya, she was all set to return to heaven where from she comes and in the last moment throws the magic ring and stays back in the world.   Millions of her fans really wish that something like that could happen but alas it is REAL LIFE & NOT REEL LIFE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlrpmuJcNvo – climax scene from Jagadeka Veerudu Atiloka Sundari)

You live on Sridevi

S. Prabhakar / 25.2.18

SACHIN – ARE YOU UPHOLDING THE DIGNITY OF `BHARAT RATNA’?

Disclaimer : In a country where Cricket is the most Secular Religion saying anything against Sachin is considered to be blasphemy.  As far as cricket is concerned, Sachin continues to be one of my most favourite cricketer along with Kapil Dev, Viv Richards and Ian Bhotham – all four being the most impact players, who could win any match on their own strength.   This article is result of the few aspects of non-cricketing side of Sachin which disappoints me and many of his fans.

Sachin – should he be considered as God?

In a movie and cricket crazy country like India, often crazy fans treat their idols as God/Demi-Gods.   Though I am not in favour of any blind following in any field, I can still digest this status being bestowed on a movie star because he/she is pitted against stars of hundreds of countries which are into movie making and the canvass is really huge. Come to think of it, hardly 10 nations play cricket and 4 out of them are docile and pedestrian – that leaves only 6 actives teams in the fray.   Out of close to 200 countries only 10 countries play a sport called Cricket and to consider someone who achieved a distinction of scoring 100 hundreds as GOD is too much of magnanimity.

Sachin – The cricketer

So much is written about Sachin the Cricketer that anything more on that may sound to be repetitive.  What always impressed me the most about Sachin is his work ethics and discipline as a cricketer on and off the field which is exemplary and that is something which everyone should emulate in their respective professions.  As the advertisement tag line goes, he eat cricket, he drank cricket and he slept cricket.  How much his discipline and single minded devotion towards cricket helped him can be gauged from making a comparison between his success and the failure of his childhood friend and contemporary Vinod Kamble.  Being a left-handed batsman, VK was considered to be more stylish and equally prolific to begin with and scored two double centuries at faster clip than Sachin.   But unfortunately see how VK has tripped and could never get up and regain his rightful place, due to his wayward way of living.   Sachin always remained a great family man, sober, grounded and had a matured head over his shoulder which he managed to keep there only.

Sachin – the Records making machine :

In his illustrious career Sachin has broken almost all conceivable records.  Though he was very dominating and absolutely copy book style, many felt that he lacked the spark of Richards and appetite for huge scores like Brain Lara.   If one looks at his various innings he was absolutely dominating till he crossed hundred and laboured after crossing 150 and lost steam once crossed double hundred.   That is the reason even after playing 200 tests triple century eluded him.  The biggest advantage Sachin had was that at his peak the Indian cricket team was playing highest number of tests in a year compared to the days of Don Bradman or even Gavaskar, making it easier for him to accumulate large number of runs.   Unlike his Australian and South African counterparts, Sachin never seemed to be playing for joy and for the benefit of the team rather than be self centric and record oriented.  Sachin has never pardoned Dravid for declaring the innings in the Team interest when he was close to scoring double century.   When Dravid was facilitate by BCCI for his life time achievements, every top cricket turned up for the function but Sachin gave it a miss though the venue in Mumbai was across the street where Sachin was staying.   Sachin had literally laboured towards the end of his career and received flak from many quarters for his lack of form, almost forgetting where his middle stump was and letting all and sundry bowlers sending his middle stump for a walk.   As Imran Khan rightly said the winning stage of the World cup should have been befitting for Sachin to announce his retirement.   But he has his eyes firmly set on 100 hundreds and BCCI was hell bent on giving him chance after chance to achieve this land mark even at the cost of a critical place in the final XI being blocked and sabotaging the winning chances of India team.   Such was the craze and obsession of Sachin for getting his name written in record books. On the subject of retirement Gavaskar once said that a player should retire when people ask `why retire now’ rather than wait for them to ask `why not retire now’ and Sachin has reached the second stage much before his retirement and ultimately it has been announced only after the then tough man of BCCI Sandeep Patil had a open and frank talk with him that either you announce retirement or get dropped from the Team.

Sachin – The Money Making Machine

Along with smashing records Sachin, as a sportsperson has also broke all records in making money through endorsements.   This mad chase behind the money has put Sachin to much of malice.   No one will have any grouse if you wish to make hey while the sun is shining.    But Sachin has miserably failed in showing the same amount of dignity in making money as he did in playing cricket.   This must be something to do with Bombay/Mumbai `hawa paani’  which teaches one `that the whole thing is sub se bada rupayya’.   He chased money as religiously, if not more, as he chased runs and records.  I really do not find anything wrong in anyone making money honestly but one expects some amount of dignity from an iconic person of Sachin stature.   What pained me the most was that when he was sure to be selected in T20 team he found that he was not of right age to play T20 matches for India and opted out.  But very closely following that comes IPL, he found himself to be youthful enough to play for Mumbai Indian team for few seasons simply because Ambani’s could pay him vulgar amounts of money compared to what

BCCI paid for playing in T20 matches.   Sachin not taking pride in representing the country in any form of the game is a crying shame.  Despite the fact he was earning hundreds of crores through endorsements, for importing the Ferrari presented to him he approached Government for special waiver of customs duty which the Government has readily obliged as if it was waiving farmers’ loans.   And it is a pity that he sold the same Ferrari on which he got customs duty exemption and made profit out of it.    One would have expected him to pay back the customs duty exempted even at that time but that weren’t to be.  

In case of a person of Sachin Standing how he spends his money also matters.   No one deny him the right to spend his hard earned money the way he wants but one would expect him to believe in some measure `giving back something to the Society’ which is practically unheard in his case.   You would hardly hear Sachin’s name in any major charity work, either donating his money, or donating his time and goodwill except few Government social welfare advertisement which most of the celebrities do to be in the good books of the Government to be in reckoning for Padma Awards.   One often listen the name of Gautam Ghambir and Viran Kohli when it comes to charity.   Ghambir surely has earned much less compared to Sachin but it is not the question of having deep pocket but larger heart.  

Is Sachin upholding the dignity of Bharat Ratna/Parliament Membership?

An ABSOLUTE NO.   Sachin has been nominated to Rajya Sabha.  But though he is coming to the close of his six year terms his attendance percentage is absolutely pathetic and in single digits.   Less said the better about his participation in debates and moving private motions.   He let go a great opportunity to highlight the plight of non cricketing sports persons, in the Parliament and strive hard to get some bills passed for the welfare of the sports persons.  He could have followed the footsteps of Javed

Aktar.  When a huge hue and cry was made questioning his absenteeism from Parliament sessions, he raised a boggy that his brother was undergoing treatment for heart ailment and wanted to take care of him and applied for leave of absence.   But during the same period  he managed to take time out to go all the way to Vijayawada (in Andhra Pradesh)  to inaugurate a private shop – no marks to guess that it is for hefty fee and not for charity.  

Just take a look at this photo taken at a sales meet of a water purifier company.   Sachin’s leg was put under heavy supporters and it was not easy for him to walk without pain and being helped.   But see his commitment towards `Commercials’.   Mind you this event has happened in Delhi and not in Mumbai and how much of special efforts he has taken to make it to the event.   The same person even when he was in a position to walk and move comfortably had never had the same commitment and interest to attend Parliament.   So he neither thinks himself to be Parliamentarian nor its Brand ambassador.   The handsome allowances and freebies worth lakhs of rupees of the tax payers’ money is no motivator for Sachin to make frequent guest appearances to Parliament.   Sachin and his die hard fans could turn around and say that he has not craved for it nor sought to be nominated, but there is no denying that even if the than Government wanted to nominate him for whatever benefit they were looking at, he had to accept the nomination to be sent to Parliament.   What stopped him from politely refusing the offer saying that he will not be able to devote his time being very busy with his commercial assignments – the way he did in case of representing India in T20 matches?  After being a Parliamentarian  is not such unimportant position to be taken so lightly and in a country of over billion people there is no shortage of talent to represent in Parliament.   For six long years he blocked the seat without doing anything but enjoying the name and fame of being a Parliamentarian and some perqs and lifelong pension.

The biggest controversy of Sachin’s life has been his being conferred Bharat Ratna on the last day in the office, ahead and at the cost of host of more deserving candidates specially Late Major Dhanchand. Unfortunately, cricket crazy fans of India (which includes many decision makers in Government) are blinded to many facts and refuse to acknowledge any sporting contributions beyond cricket, either in team sports like Football and Hockey or individual sports like Badminton, Tennis and Athletics.   How competitive Cricket is, which is played by a mere 10 nations in the world compared to Football, Hockey, Tennis, Badminton and Athletics which are played by hundreds of nations and what is the comparative worth of the achievements in Cricket.   It is like someone scoring 500 points in `Kabbadi’ and if any one does that, can anyone with any degree of sanity suggest that he deserves Bharat Ratna.   If one looks at the illustrious list of recipients of the coveted `Bharat Ratna’ the short Sachin gets further dwarfed.   Most of the Bharat Ratna awardees have put not less than 50 to 60 years of selfless and dedicated service to the nation through their chosen profession and conducted themselves with highest degree of dignity that reverence comes so naturally for them.    Who can take the name of  Sachin in the same breath as the Divinity personified MS Subba Lakshmi, Lata Mangeshkar, Bismilla Khan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, CV Raman, Sarvepalli Radha Krishnana, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Ambedkar, Vinoba Bhave and Abdul Kalam. 

At the least once he was honoured with the highest civilian award, he should have bothered to conduct himself in such a way which behoves being Bharat Ratna.  We still find him in any type of advertisements and as if it is not enough, he sits in the dug outs and designated area for technical staff of `Mumbai

Indians’ IPL team, building the Brand of MI for his masters Ambanis for hefty fee.   He never finds time to devote for any NGOs, sports academies for less privileged budding sportspersons.   He has got so much from the Society but hardly paid anything back to the Society.   How I wish he bothers to take a leaf from Pullela Gopichand who has devoted his entire post retirement life in shaping the future of hundreds of budding badminton players and already produced couple of Olympic medal winners.  It is reported that he reaches his academy at 3:30 am and spends the entire day there personally supervises the progress of top prospects like Saina, Sindhu, Srikant and many more.   He has no other life than his academy.  Sachin, the Bharat Ratna, pales  in comparison with Gopichand.  

I admit that it is no fault of Sachin.   RaGa (whatever thinking capabilities he possess) and the Government at that time thought that they can get sabahi from the billions of cricket crazy` janta’ (which could get converted into votes) on hurriedly conferring Bharat Ratna on Sachin.    May be he is not willing to realise his responsibility as `Bharat Ratna’ and leave any opportunity to make few more bucks by endorsing any product, attending any commercial event, sit out in stands for MI. 

  Returning `Bharat Ratna’ may be disrespectful but surely Sachin can offer to keep his `Bharat Ratna’ in abeyance / suspended for the time being as long as he does not attain the maturity and dignity to handle the most prestigious award.    This way he may be able to redeem some of the lost respect and adulation from millions of fans likes me.

S. Prabhakar

25.5.17