50 years since Kavi Samraat Viswanatha Satyanarayana has been Conferred Jnanpith Award

 It is nothing less than an audacious attempt aided by stupidity for a person educated in English medium with no strong grip on Telugu language to write about Kavi Samrat Viswanatha Satyanarayana. Around 50 years back - in 1970, Viswanatha Satyanarayana became the first Telugu writer to receive the Jnanpith Award.

Telugu literature had its ups and downs, one of the lowest periods for Telugu language and literature was when parts of Telugu Desam was pillaged by Islamic invasions headed by Malik Kafur followed by barbarous rule imposed by chieftains of Delhi Sultanate. Telugu literature had a revival during the Vijayanagara Empire and later it was able to crawl on its own legs, but its prominence dwindled.

There were many writers and poets whose endeavors made sure that Telugu language and literature isn’t lost in time, but for some strange reason many are willing to give the entire credit to the revival of Telugu language to the British official, Charles Philip Brown. I have no intention to diminish the contributions of Charles Philip Brown but snubbing the works of other people is not affable.

Rangasthalam

When Raymond Chandler criticized Agatha Christie in "The Simple Art of Murder", it was criticism from a peer where Chandler makes an interesting point - "Fiction in any form has always intended to be realistic".

Sukumar's "Rangasthalam" is different and distinct in many ways. I fail to recollect when was the last time a top director made top stars appear in a period village drama in Telugu Cinema.

Sukumar has always been audacious right from his first film "Arya" where the hero introduction scene is - emerging from a crappy manhole, in "Jagadam" where the design of lead character goes against standard conventions, in "Arya 2" the hero is embedded with unprecedented grey shades, in "One: Nenokkadine" the hero has a psychological problem. In "Rangasthalam" the protagonist has hearing impairment but the audacious part of "Rangasthalam" is that it is set in the 80's.

The first top view zoom shot where Chittibabu is in a hurry tells the viewer that Sukumar's approach in Rangasthalam is going to be different when compared with his previous films. The post death ritual scene emphasizes that it has to be taken seriously, the suicide attempt - rescue scene underlines the approach of the film, the scenes of antagonist played by Jagapathi Babu gives the hint of the overall plot and politics involved in the film, the scene where President name is revealed, tell us that Sukumar has many such surprises in the film.

The most striking among the brilliant performances by actors is by Jagapathi Babu, it reminded me of Krishna Vamsi's "Samudram" and RGV's "Gaayam". Like his previous films, Sukumar comes with his trademark? item song, which increased the weight of my complain about stretching the movie beyond its potential and the target audience.

In "Rangasthalam", Sukumar doesn't shy away from escaping into humor whenever possible, doesn't feel shy to adapt melodrama, doesn't feel shy to exploit death, doesn't feel shy to use the obvious shortcomings of a village guy and also doesn't feel shy to emphasize the "thread" worn by antagonists.

Journey of "Rangasthalam" was with hiccups, definitely worth watching for its audacity, probably it will fill your mind in next few days with scenes from the movie but this still bugs me - "Fiction in any form has always intended to be realistic" or ‘Realism in art in any form has always intended to be Fiction’ or it doesn’t matter in Telugu Cinema?.

అ! reminds me of 'ఏడు చేపల కథ' - 'Story of 7 fishes'

For very long I have been detesting the reasons given by many who support mediocrity in Telugu cinema. Below are some of the reasons.

- Navarasa

- Common man works hard and expects to see a masala film which relieves him of his tensions.

- Indians expect a package in a movie.

- Navarasa:

The reason to bombard movie goers with mediocrity comes the lazy reason of "Navarasa", Indian art form does talk about Navarasas and Indian epics contain Navarasas but when and where is it commanded that Navarasas have to be sandwiched into a 21st century film? 

- Common man works hard and expects to see a masala film which relieves him of his tensions:

Probably the pukeworthy reason to celebrate, foster and perpetuate crap and mediocrity into Telugu cinema. This reason is indirectly implying that Telugu (Indian) audience aren't good enough to appreciate art and also an offending remark which insults the intelligence of the viewer.

- Indians expect a package in a movie.

This is a silly excuse. Yes, Indians do expect packages, they like their lunch to consist of different dishes with different tastes. But, remember that Indian breakfasts and snacks are not thalis, they do not come as a package, instead they have their own delicious unique tastes.

అ! reminds me of the popular Telugu children's story 'ఏడు చేపల కథ' -'Story of 7 fishes'.

In 'ఏడు చేపల కథ', the plot has seven layers, each of it is linked to the other layer, the philosophy of is very captivating but broken into different parts, but connected with the main narration and thesis. The same is done by writer and director Prasanth Varma in అ!

Some people might want to avoid అ! Awe going by some reviews and also might suspect that the film may be devoid of Navarasas, lacked masala or it isn't a package - I have to say that అ! has Navarasas, masala and comes as a package if the Telugu viewer is willing to find it like the philosophy in 'ఏడు చేపల కథ' -'Story of 7 fishes'.

25 years of Aapadbandhavudu

I don't think one needs to look beyond K Viswanath's "Aapadbandhavudu" to get a glimpse of Chiranjeevi's talent.

Aapadbandhavudu was released 25 years back, like many other people of my age, I watched Aapadbandhavudu on TV.

Arjun Reddy - Nostalgia isn't the same anymore.

I will not pretend to be hysterical and at the same time I will not shy away from strongly recommending Sandeep Reddy's "Arjun Reddy".

It is like an extinct mammal coming back to normalcy as the average appetite of Telugu audience to digest 3 hours of celluloid work without regular songs, group dances and anti-gravity fights is a rarity.

Trump's speech signals a change of USA's Pakistan Policy

"Civilization begins with distillation". Long before Bharat became the frequent target of invaders from Central Asia, Afghanistan was under the Mauryan Empire where special alcoholic drinks were prepared and exported to the rest of the continent.

Distillation is necessary in some aspects of present day Afghanistan, especially when it comes to approach of United States. Observers of Donald Trump’s speech on Afghanistan and South Asia may categorize it as:

• Continuing the interventionist policy of USA.
• No clear policy on withdrawal of troops.
• Change in stance on Pakistan.
• Nothing more than rhetoric of American exceptionalism.

The other one, often missed by editorials of American newspapers, is the dilution of post-cold-war attitude of USA towards India with respect to geo politics. For many years after the Cold war, USA has seen India with old lens as India was close to Russia during the Cold war.