Wild Fruits

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Wild Fruits which i found at an SEZ(Special Economic Zone) in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh.


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Few thoughts on VEDAM

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Looks like many filmgoers have taken a CRASH course in ‘Identifying Plagiarism’. Krish’s VEDAM starring Allu Arjun, Manchu Manoj and Anushka gets a concoction release and publicity. Even before the release of VEDAM we have heard film experts (so called) saying that it’s a copy of a Hollywood film, Krish’s first film ‘GAMYAM’ was bashed for the same reason that it was a copy of ‘Motorcycle Diaries’. It’s quite clear that people who said that ‘Gamyam’ is a copy of ‘Motorcycle Diaries’ haven’t seen Dennis Hopper’s ‘Easy Rider’. Coming back to VEDAM, all those folks who say that VEDAM is a copy of CRASH should know the difference between Plagiarism and Inspiration.



Seeing the hype created for VEDAM before its release I was under some kind of intangible impression that this movie is gonna be a disaster(Critically and Commercially) at the Box-Office, the mutual praise by actors and directors made me feel that VEDAM will be TELUGU TASHAN. After the following poster of VEDAM was released I developed some kind of interest towards the film

Just before the release we have seen Allu Arjun , Krish talking about Vedam, lot of online publicity, the twitter publicity, TV Channels publicity, other contemporary directors praising the work of Krish …Oh God….what not… I could sense the change which telugu cinema has slowly embraced. The change may be due to inevitable compulsions or it’s a positive metamorphosis.

/*Possible Spoiler Alert*/

VEDAM is a hyperlink film of 5 stories. Cable Raju(Allu Arjun) who traps a rich girl by pretending to be a rich guy. Vivek(Manchu Manoj) wants to give a live rock show but his mother wants him to join the army, Saroja(Anushka) is a Amalapuram prostitute who runs away from a brothel house to setup her own brothel company in Hyderabad. Rehman(Manoj Bajpai) is a honest Hyderabadi Muslim who is seen as an extremist and Ramulu(Nagayya) is a old man under the curse of poverty and in search of money to free his grandson from the landlord.
Director Krish has a lot of understanding on human emotions, he relies on human emotions, and he possesses the rare talent of capturing the vulnerable human emotions on screen. Krish successfully presents the gamut of human emotions and psychological itch lingering with it.

I guess Krish is a studious follower of Syd Field, the screenplay is styled with respect to the audience thinking, and he has a firm grip on the raw characters like we have seen in the character ‘Gaali Seenu’ in ‘Gamyam’ and here now in ‘Vedam’ as ‘Cable Raju’. Cinematography by Gnana Sekhar is an asset to Krish, the Jubilee hills slum is shown as slum and nothing more. How often do we see a telugu actor holding a guitar in the way it needs to be? Manch Manoj was very good as a wannabe rock star. I liked the scene in which Vivek has a brawl with moral police guys and the way he attacks the vehicle with a stone was brilliantly shot and the scene where Cable Raju tries to run away with the money but Nagayya catches his leg.

Anushka plays the role of Saroja, a prostitute. The legacy of K.Ragahavendra Rao is carried forward, we see some navel shots and low tied sarees, and we should remember that Anushka is not Kate Winslet and Krish is not Bernardo Bertolucci and thus the skin show ends there, guys who are expecting more than the usual stuff would be disappointed. As always the prostitute is accompanied by a eunuch named ‘Karpooram’ and we are shown a cameo by Bhramanandam who counters ‘Karpooram’ by saying ‘Agarbatti emi kaadu….?’ and a very mediocre joke on ‘Karpooram’. Cliché is the apt word to describe the story of Rehman played by ‘Manoj Bajpai’. The role of Rehman lacks freshness and the talented Manoj Bajpai is underused. Like most of the hyperlink films even VEDAM has one climax, it’s like watching the good old movies where we are informed that here is the climax…. the climax is not forced upon the audience but instead it traces the unexpected and peculiar ending when compared with the normal telugu films.
Observe the scene when ‘Cable Raju’ is about to handover the money to buy the passes….the image of Cable Raju is reflected multiple times in the mirror, this reminded me of Orson Welles ‘Citizen Kane’, you are free to assume whether this shot was a copy or inspiration or coincidence. Even ‘Wim Wenders’ has copy or inspiration or coincidence.


What did Telugu Cinema Achieve/Change?
Frankly very little is achieved and some things are changed by the release of VEDAM. There is much to be achieved and changed by the path set by Vedam. Here are some changes which might happen…
•New directors can dare to come up with innovative scripts leaving back the prescribed formulae based stories.
•Telugu Cinema can hope for Multi-Starrer films provided good scripts are available.
•Films with noble intentions can still be produced with innovation added to it.
•Hopefully we can see less of cars crashing against each other unnecessarily and Tata Sumo’s blowing into air etc…
•May be now directors will think twice to showcase the Superman stunts of our heroes and I guess they will give some respect to Newton’s “Laws of Gravity”
•Films with different genres, different narration etc… might pop up.
•Publicity tactics may undergo dramatic changes including the posters.
•Filmmakers may not feel shy to show taboo roles.

People who still insist that ‘Vedam’ is a copy of ‘Crash’ should digest the fact that ‘Sholay’ is also a copy , 'Inglorious Bastards' is directed by ‘Sergio Leone’ not by Quentin Tarantino.
Why is the tag “Guest Appearance” attached to ‘Manchu Manoj’ during credits????


Originally published on Passionforcinema.com

MONSOON !

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The first clouds of Monsoon in Chennai.....


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