Baahubali: The Beginning.

At times a worthwhile talking point precedes the reputation of a film so much that while it doesn't quite color my viewing, it does hamper me with preconceptions. This was the case with Baahubali, the first part of the big budget Tamil/Telugu two-parter fantasy action film, and its alleged sexism. Yet, there are a lot of other facets that deserve discussing, too. In a year where I barely watched Indian films (and also neglected this poor blog of mine) it makes sense to begin the new year by breaking down the biggest blockbuster of the previous year.

Shiva (Prabhas) grows up below a magnificent waterfall, above which he knows there is a land he must get to, even as his mother forbids him not to climb it. But climb he does, to discover the warrior Ananthika (Tamannah) who he has been besotted with ever since he found her mask on the bottom of the waterfall. Ananthika's mission in life is to free the queen Devaseva (Anushka Shetty) from the clutches of the evil king Ballavadeva (Rana Daggubati), and Shiva joins her in this mission, unaware it is all his destiny.

In terms of the good, the look of the film is spectacular. The bombastic Southie masala style has always fit the fantasy-history stories, and it does here as well. The story never stops moving, and is so vast it can't be contained in this single film. I absolutely loved Rana Daggubati's horrendous villain and thought all female leads did fantastic. Prabhas is an actor I've never quite become a fan of, but he continues to be just fine in my books.

I liked how well incorporated the visual effects were, though not flawless, particularly in the massive crowd sequences. These scenes owe a lot both in terms of technology and inspiration to the scenes in Jackson's Return of The King, and while the inspiration is cringeworthy, it feels okay to place such a scene in a new, Indian fantasy concept. The racism in depicting the enemy as human but distinctly dark-skinned savages who seem to speak a language aping an African language is so offputting it turns comical.

Then there is the sexism, which has inspired criticism better written than mine, as well as counter-criticisms. It is gross and objectionable but it is also just so tired. The reduction of Tamannah's Ananthika from a woman with a mission, a skillset and if not a fully fleshed out characterisation then at the very least potential for one, into just a pretty young thing would be annoying in and of itself but it goes further. This change is brought on by the hero, sneakily, because his infatuation with her looks renders all other facets of her unimportant.

I suppose there are more forgiving interpretations of this that one could conjure up, but the film is pretty content in this laziness. It's strange how I've never been that annoyed with the overblown masculinity of Southie heroes, or even the casual sidelining of the heroines that comes with it. It is only these extreme cases that truly get under my skin.

The next installment in the Bahubali series promises more backstory on Anushka Shetty's character, which I am cautiously optimistic about because she is among my favorites in the Southern industries. Naturally the sequel could be as bad as the first film in the exact same ways, but I'm hopeful. As it stands, Bahubali: The Beginning is a decent spectacle elevated by its visuals and success, but not the story or its characters.

Arundhati - a woman and her dagger.

It is so rare to see an actress at the centre of a Telugu masala film, that when I spotted the Malayalam dubbed DVD of Arundhati, a 2009 Telugu supernatural thriller, I knew instantly that I had to buy it. The cast also intrigued me - Anushka Shetty, who is typically a solid performer, was at the helm and Sonu Sood, my favourite scumbag in both North and South Indian cinemas, played the horrifying villain she has to conquer. The plot tells of a woman being reborn in modern day to conquer the evil that once plagued her court.

I didn't have subtitles for this movie, so all of its subtleties, or lack thereof, escaped my understanding. What I could gather was the gist of the plot and the performances, which are all solid. The CGI was probably never amazing to begin with, so it looks a bit dated now, but serves its purpose, as this tale of black magic and all kinds of sorcery wouldn't really be told without the help of computer-generated special effects.

I wish I had had subtitles, though, because I feel like regardless of quality, this film would've been more interesting. What I gather is that it's an okay film, not a spectacularly good one - it has all the tropes of this type of film, from the revenge angle to the ludicrous horrifying lengths Sonu Sood's villain reaches. It's not quite Magadheera levels of fun, partly because it's so serious and has almost nothing in it to truly lighten the mood (even the songs never really make it fun). Some scenes are almost too dark, lending it a bit of a horror film feel, which may be entirely intentional. There is also one film shamelessly copied from a well-known Chinese film from the early 2000s.

It is so rare to see a female-lead film in this manner, though. There is no hero here - Anushka's two characters are the focus, and even though she gets some help from men, there isn't a single moment where it looks like the focus might shift towards somebody else. It's refreshing, but at the same time it's not as revolutionary as one might hope. There is no part in which the traditional gender roles are necessarily questioned - the heroine is given agency but she's kind of portrayed as the exception, not the rule. A devil's advocate might ask whether that's so different from how heroes are portrayed, too, though, and I suppose that's true.

Perhaps more telling is the fact that even if this was a pretty decent hit in the box office, I've not really seen it mentioned much. I suppose that could just be a sign of its reputation, because like I said, even without subtitles, I didn't get the sense I was missing out on nuanced storytelling, or even intriguing supernatural world-building. As it stands, I might recommend it to those who like the leads and don't mind dated-looking CGI combined with stern supernatural stories. 

Eega - wouldn't hurt a fly? Make that, couldn't hurt a fly.

Two parts ingenuity, three parts exploration of the old formula - these are what make up Telugu cinema's undoubted mastermind SS Rajamouli's Eega, dubbed into Hindi as Makkhi (I personally saw the Telugu original). He doesn't re-invent the wheel by making the audience care so much about the fate of a common housefly or its epic revenge tale against one man, but so much can be said for the execution of it. Clever, visual, riveting to watch and just marvelous masala, Eega takes a rather strange premise and turns it into one of the best films of last year.

The story is (as you might've guessed) one of rebirth. Nani (actor also named Nani) has been longing for Bindu (Samantha) for over two years, and just as she shows signs of being interested, Nani thwarted  by our resident villain Sudeep (Kicchan Sudeepa ..or just Sudeep) who kills him. Just plain murders him, around 30 minutes into the film. Luckily, Nani gets reborn as a common housefly, and is ready to exact revenge on Sudeep, and stop him from creeping on Bindu, who now thinks she's lost the love of her life.

The premise changes a couple of things about this masala. We don't get that many songs (though the ones we do get are great), and the hero being a fly means we don't get that much of his romantic antics. For the lack of that, we get much more of Sudeep's excellent villainry. He exudes moral corruption, greed and icky lust for our heroine, so there is genuine joy in watching him slowly unravel in front of us.  

I actually don't want to discuss the specifics of what happens after Nani's rebirth, because discovering all the twists and turns of the tale are the real joy of the story. To spoil them would be the spoil the film, which I definitely don't want to do - this post a full-fledged recommendation.

If forced to give a criticism, however, I have to say Nani's performance did not make me want him to stick around any longer than he did. He is your typical hyper young hero you see every so often in Telugu action masalas. Sometimes that can be very likable, but in here, Nani just doesn't quite work for me. He's too much of a buffoon, too hyper and goofy but never actually funny. 

These might just be character traits that the actor cannot do much to fix, however, so I preserve judgment on him as an actor for a later role, but for now, I was glad to see the guy replaced by a CGI-fly. 

Sudeep is just great as our striking-yet-slimy villain. His performance against the CGI really carries the film, as it should. He's on the right side of exaggerated, never as cartoony as the character could've been and he's just fun to loathe, and easy on the eyes as well. I pretty much loved him in this, and look forward to any future ventures he's in.

The CGI is for the most part seamless. There are only a few times where the fakeness of the graphics is so obvious you get a bit jerked out of the story, but for the most part, the graphics serve the story. The visual story-telling overall is pretty much top-notch.

The film has a fitting narrative device of a framework story - a kid asking their father to tell them a bedtime story - so it's not like the story needs to be realistic. And it really isn't, nor does it need to be. This is essentially an execution of a peculiar idea, and one that works surprisingly well. As such, it should be celebrated.

Samantha also does a good job as Bindu. Her part of the story is where the film goes on over-drive in terms of implausibility, but I think her performance sells it and while there are some aspects I find quite questionable (like the continued implied romance between her and Nani), she's very effective in the role. It's certainly more demanding than your average Telugu heroine part. 

Whichever version (Telugu, Tamil or Hindi) you can get your hands on, Eega is a film worth checking out - for the peculiar premise, for the execution of that premise, for the awesome villainry or just because it's a film unlikely to be replicated any time soon. Whatever your reasons for watching the film may be, I think you'll enjoy it. 

Baava - sweet but modest.

When watching this film, I suddenly realised it's been a damned long time since the last time I saw one of my favourites, Siddharth, in a film. Admittedly, last year was my least active film-watching (or blogging!) year since I got into Indian films, so it hasn't been anything particular about his recent films (all of which I will probably get to eventually) that's made sure I've stayed away. Still, this begs the question - what's happening with Siddharth these days?

In all honesty, the usual - the actor is dipping a toe into production, working with new directors in Telugu and Tamil cinemas, and typically putting out films that are not necessarily awe-inspiring but solid work. I get the sense he's not actively going out of his way not to star in Hindi films, or away from "alternative" roles, and his future releases promise some variety, but so far it seems that while I was occupied elsewhere, he's mainly done romantic entertainers. I won't blame him, since two years in film time is a short time, and I think he is actively seeking to do things other than his bread'n'butter, ie these romantic roles. (Off-camera, he's still being delightfully opinionated on Twitter!)

Baava is a Telugu debut direction for Rambabu, and a thoroughly harmless romantic family film about Veerababu (Siddharth) who is essentially a prankster, causing his fellow villagers quite a bit of grief. He meets a girl named Varalakshmi (Pranitha), who has returned to the village after completing her studies and - no surprises here - falls in love with her. However, as ever, the union of two lovers is never complete until their families are also united, and Veerababu's and Varalakshmi's families have more history than others'...

As with most of Siddharth's films, it's hard not to compare this one to Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana, the grand jewel of his past career, because of the obvious similarities. In a sense, over here he also plays a character who starts out kind of ridiculously hyperactive and (to some) annoying to boot. Then the love story kicks in properly, and his character mellows out and becomes more relatable, but still has to prove himself to the female lead character's family. I think NVNN is a lot stronger in the hyper first half, but Baava comes to its own eventually as well.

If there is anything bad to say about the film, it's perhaps that it never quite rises above "adequate". Both leads are fine, songs are cute, story can be compelling at times but draggy during some moments. It's a serviceable, entertaining film, but doesn't offer much anything that's new.

Is that necessarily a bad thing, though? Not sure. It didn't blow me away, but it did move me at times (the back stories for certain characters were great!) and best of all, it didn't really have anything to annoy me, unless you count the forgettable gang of friends of Veerababu on the first half.

It's worth watching, and if you're a fan of Siddharth, perhaps even owning.

The curious concept of masala, and a bit of Dabangg.

Carla's Dabangg review, besides being worth reading, got me thinking.

Whereas she draws comparison between this type of masala and the good stuff of the yesteryears, my go-to comparison is the action masala's from some of the Southern industries (Tamil and Telugu). Not that I've seen a whole lot of them, but enough to draw a general picture of what kind of tropes the films are composed of.

I was going to comment something along the lines of "Well, to me, the Southie industries have been keeping this sort of masala format warm all these years, so it's nice to see Hindi films going with this tried-and-true formula again."

Then I catch myself. Is this awfully reductionist and even for a personal interpretation tenuous at best? Probably. I mean, first of all, Southie films have their own history with their own stars and their own cultural context, which Northern industries and especially the supposedly pan-Indian Hindi film industry seems rather ignorant of. Who knows where the Southie masala took inspiration from? Rajnikanth was making movies around the time Amitabh was carving a place for himself. It seems weird to speculate when one doesn't know the full history of genres in Tamil/Telugu films.

At the same time, the Southie influence is clear in my eyes. Very few 70's masalas had a high skill in choreographing the fight scenes, or interesting in terms of camera positioning. The best cinematographers in all of India have famously come from the South, and the fight choreographies seemed to learn a thing or two from Hong Kong. You can definitely see that modern flare in Dabangg, and the realism in the violence.

Then there's the hero, of course. No longer the charming NRI whose dil beats for Indian family values even though he wears Western labels, Salman Khan's Chulbul Pandey is basically a certified badass rustic cop, assuming they give out such badassery certifications, and if they see him, they had better start. As Carla points out, he's not exactly morally sound, but there's a certain ends-justifies-the-means attitude that makes sure we don't stop believing in him completely as a hero.

The story's been called lacklustre and incoherent in the few reviews I glanced at, but I think what is interesting about these sorts of action masalas is that they are complete crowd-pleasers, but the perception of the crowd has changed a bit. Nowadays there's no one mass (was there ever, truly?) but multiplex audiences, NRI audiences, segments of the "mass" that don't necessarily care for the kind of cinema Dabangg and other such masalas are all about. I started thinking about the action masala hero and how strange it is that Salman, not Akshay Kumar, became the new box office king with these sorts of ventures. You'd think Akshay would have the skills and the mass appeal - and he certainly does. He's not an actor with mind-blowing range, but that's usually not what the masalas are looking for, either. And yet, starting from Wanted and culminating in Dabangg, it was Salman who has his renaissance with these action masalas.

Salman is the Marmite Hero, or Marmite Khan if we want to get specific. Aamir and Shahrukh inspire reactions ranging from lukewarm to passionate, but Salman seems to split people into haters or lovers. I'm more inclined to agree with the latter camp. Of course, now that I've said that you can all reminisce my Let's Talk About post about him, in which I write: "-- I like Salman Khan. I don't love him, I certainly don't enjoy him unconditionally, but the fact remains I do like him."

Isn't like a lukewarm reaction? Not really, not to me. The fact remains, when Salman makes good movies, I really like him. When he makes bad movies - which is often - I can't stand them or watch them just for him. These recent films feature him in roles that suit him superbly, suit his acting, his style, his core fanbase. The flicks are crowd-pleasers, and the crowd gets what they came for, unlike the crappy favour-for-a-friend films he's been known to churn out, with half-baked plots and disappointing action. You can virtually imagine the movie theater exploding when the shirt comes off - and you know for sure it will.

Some of you that are South Indian and know the industries inside & out, or those firangis who jumped the Tamil/Telugu gravy train in a big way and know your Vijay's from your Karthi's and can cite Allu Arjun's family tree by heart, will protest purely because there are things the legitimate Southie heroes can certainly do that Salman can't. He's an old guy who's not famous for emotional range, so when you've got young Telugu lads dancing their hearts out in limber moves to rival Hrithik's, charming heroines and kicking ass left right center and just right there behind them, it can feel wrong that Salman took influence from these types of movies and is now breaking box office records. But of course, Fair is not a word in the Indian film vocabulary, otherwise new talent wouldn't find it so difficult to break into it while son-of-so-and-so gets a debut role no problem.

And as for Dabangg? Well, if you can't tell by this post, I enjoyed it. Not sure whether it jumps ahead of the perfect-in-every-way Wanted (I hear some of you Salman haters protesting but ah, there you have it, Marmite Khan on display!) but it certainly comes close.

Southie, southie - some random musings.

I was somewhat inspired by a little exchange I had with Nicki on Twitter to talk about why I like South-Indian movies, but then, as I sat down to actually write this damn entry, I thought to myself, that's probably not a good question. Chances are, if you're reading this blog, you'll know why some people have a taste for Southie films. Or perhaps, you don't, and you're still puzzled and wondering why a non-Indian person might even contemplate watching Indian films in Tamil, Telugu (sad to say my Malayalam film count remains at the pitiful 1).

But I feel awkward approaching the subject because when it comes down to it, I've seen very few Tamil & Telugu films. I think my overall count is still below 50, perhaps even below 40, and considering how many Hindi films I've seen, that's not really a number to draw any conclusions from. The bottom line, without going as far as to say this or that generalization about these films, is that I enjoy them and they've got actors in them who I enjoy watching.

So if "why do I like South Indian films" is the wrong question, what's the right one? Perhaps it's "well, why haven't you watched more of these South Indian films, if you like them so much?". But that'd just lead me to a long, exhausting rant about lack of availability - no online rental services in Finland, shipping from online stores typically costs a lot, I often don't have the patience or the knowledge to do online piracy with obscure titles, plus finding subtitles can be a pain. So that's also not a very good question.

It also comes down to interest if I'll be totally frank with you - when my Bollywood interest/obsession was in its infancy, I didn't want to watch that many films because I didn't know that many titles, or actors or directors. I had no idea whether this or that or other film was something that'd interest me. With Southie films I'm largely still in those initial stages of enjoyment. I like films, I know some actors, but I've not yet hit a stage where the obsession is sprawling into multiple directions because I want to see more of him and her, and that director, and these two did a movie together again, yay, I must see it, etc. So when I don't know the players that well, when I only have those couple of favourites, it's hard to expand.

I suppose another good question to ponder is, what makes these films so different from Hindi films, which have managed to gain a global audience and an awareness for the label "Bollywood", even as the brand name so often misrepresents the varied film industry as a whole. I think that is mostly just about perception. I'm with the man in the above screencap, who often speaks out on the topic of how Southie films are perceived to be of lesser quality in the North. There's really not that much difference. Certainly, there are differences - in story-telling and interpretations and hero stereotypes and heroine's roles and target audiences. But in terms of good films, bad films, star-studded films, item numbers, catchy songs and talent, I think film industries in India suffer often from the same problems and have the same successes.

I wouldn't go as far as to say suggesting this is radical but it is interesting how the differences are often exaggerated and underlined, either to prop up the regional cinemas' uniqueness and quality when compared to the Hindi films, often perceived to be produced to the NRI-audience, or to underline the superiority of the Hindi-language cinema and its status as The Film Industry in India. I try to take a balanced, non-fanatic view on this. There are differences, but not enough to think regional cinema comes from a different country. Perhaps the problem only comes in when you start ranking the industries (not in terms of personal preference but a perceived objective quality) and Hindi films are too secure in their superiority over the regional cinemas. I think both could learn from the other, but in different things.

Well, that's nice, you might think. Prattle on some more, why don't you? You haven't really answered anything in this post! But ah, my dear readers, such is my philosophical nature. For your benefit, I shall answer one question I am sure you're all tossing and turning at night, wondering about:

Why is Vikram so incredibly good-looking?

I answer: because the world would be a very cruel and unfortunate place, were he not.

I hope this satisfies your thirst for knowledge.

[Screencaps from, in order: Nanda, Muthu, Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam, Saamy, Dhool.]

Like a big serving of kulfi - Oy!

In my last post about Siddharth's Telugu ouvre (KIKK review here), I expressed slight weariness of these family entertainers he's been doing since the success of Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (from 2005, review here). I suppose similar weariness affected my liking of Oy, the latest Telugu offering from Siddharth, launching another new director (Anand Ranga). Thankfully Oy, despite being an utterly deriative film, is also a good one. And like Aata (reviewed here), the insane mass-entertainer I loved but some people and fans were ambivalent about, it has the benefit of having Siddharth looking really, really good.

Siddharth plays Uday, your standard Siddharth character (young, hip, modern, NRIfied), apart from the distinct lack of family. On New Year's Eve he meets Sandhya (Shamili) at a night club, falls for her hardcore and eventually wedges himself into her life by moving into her house as a paying guest. Sandhya couldn't be less like him - she's stern, conservative, religious, not fun-loving in the least. Yet Uday goes out of his way to make himself ideally suited for her, and to make her love him as fiercely as he loves her. As you can probably guess, he makes her come out of her shell eventually and their love begins to blossom..

There's a plot twist buried there somewhere you can probably see coming miles away if you're quick to these things. I'll say upfront I'm not, but when the twist arrived, I didn't mind.

And when I mean the plot is deriative, I can't leave out a mention of the "disclaimer" that comes before the movie, a list of inspirations (pictures small to avoid spoilers)..


Speaking for myself, I didn't really mind this. The honesty was refreshing! And I haven't really seen these famous movies, so what do I care? Moving on..

It's quite difficult to see what Uday sees in Sandhya at the beginning. Shamili is a fine enough actress but the character doesn't come off as particularly lovable, stopping children from having fun during Holi and all these other things that make her out to be just a grumpy curmudgeon.

The character develops, however, and shows her, more pleasant sides of herself and even though the romance never really builds up to legendary heights, it is definitely sweet enough, with a couple of very adorable scenes here and there. One very interesting perspective on this "fully romantic" movie (Siddharth's words, as he was comparing Oy to say, Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam, which was a family-focused romantic film), is that because the characters don't particularly have a family, the romance between the two of them gets real focus. If they had living family members, I doubt this would have happened; in that case, those characters and their views on the romance would've impacted the storyline. It's an interesting contrast to Hollywood movies (which Oy borrows from), where the family is probably there somewhere but doesn't matter much in the coming together of the two romantic leads.

As with most of these films, I don't really have many complaints. There's just plenty of goodness and fun scenes, and the movie contains that fun spirit throughout it's length. It never stops dead in its track or gets dull, and there's good songs on both halves of the film. Especially the Buddhist temple scene (gorgeous visuals!), Uday making an Andra Pradesh meal for Sandhya, the gift scene and Uday learning pure Telugu were stand-out bits for me.

Oh wait, I just remembered. I do have a complaint. Again.

Sunil. Dude. Sigh. I do genuinely like him a lot in some movies - he was pretty fab in NVNN and Aata, and to some extent Chukkallo Chandrudu. But this film? Ugh, just get off my screen. I had no patience for his storyline in this one. Not funny, not interesting, with very little value. There's usually a certain wit to his sardonic comments but in here he just seemed like a boring idiot. I admit to fast-forwarding. So sue me.

"Fatso" who has no other name, played by Krishnudu, is Uday's partner-in-crime and loyal friend, is not particularly interesting, either. There's also a pretty well-known baddie actor who shows up on the second half, and he's probably the best side character in the whole film. I hate to appear as a shallow person but Fatso and Sunil didn't win my heart in this one.

But then, who the hell cares? It's a romance, and it's all about these two, and if you're a part of the target audience, you are a Siddharth fangirl (or a fanboy) and you're in it for the cute, especially when the cute comes in the shape of Siddharth.

Which it luckily does! And he dances (weird dance moves but nevermind, it's cool!) and has much, much better hair than in KIKK (thank lord) and is just ...Siddharth. If you know what that means, you know exactly how wonderful it is, and if you don't know what it means, get thee to a DVD of Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana!

It's all kinds of pathetic but I can't help it. It's like, "hey brain, remember when we used to be rational Siddharth fangirls? who just liked his acting and dancing and whatnot but weren't reduced to incoherency at the sight of him?"

My brain recalls those days. They were a wonderful time.

A time of intelligence and reflection and ---



Yeah, so, um...

That's my Oy review. Take it or leave it.

Note on the title of the post: Kulfi is a South Asian dessert, much like ice cream. I've had it at a Nepalese restaurant once. Delish.

IFAC #11: Colourful Southie film picspam

Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana ; Siddharth & Trisha









Muthu ; Rajnikanth & Meena









Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtham ; Tamanna









Kaadhal ; Bharath & Sandhya












Iruvar ; Aishwarya Rai

Indra ; Sonali Bendre & Chiranjeevi

Dhool ; Vikram & Jothika

Arul ; Vikram & Jothika

Anniyan ; Sada

Aata ; Ileana