VEDAM

When was the last time you would have come out of a theatre watching a telugu cinema saying that 'this is a kind of cinema that we can show case to the world'.Vedam is one such unique cinema that any telugu cinema goer can be proud of. There used to be a period of K.Viswanath films which are a perfect blend of art and commerce film making and most of his films are always looks like so pure and divinity personified. His films may not have quite broke the box-office records that many other commercial films did, but in a Telugu cinema text book, there will always be a separate chapter mentioned for his films. The respect that he possessed through his films cannot be measured with any box-office success. Vedam is one film which reminded of K.V's gaari cinema with its honesty.

I am not against to the commercialization of the films with a '6-song,5-fight' formula provided if it blends with the story and treatment well. All the blockbusters we have seen in the last decade are the films in my opinion that somewhere or the other stroked this fine balance quite effectively. The flip side of it though is that the stories are built in the process to fit in certain aspects (say fights, songs etc.,) and the result is the most of the mediocre films that we are seeing. It's became so poisonous over a period of time that most of the film makers found it really tough to come out vicious 'so-called formula' circle that Telugu cinema is revolving over quite some time now.

Vedam is one such film which is perfect blend of art and commerce with a old formula. The formula here is very simple, a good story, treatment and 5 well written characters. Sound very simple isn't it? To get that on board without compromising on the story line, and with three leading stars in the market (Bunny, Manoj and Anushka) AND in Telugu cinema is quite tough. To manage the egos of the stars and fans these days are quite difficult and the credit needs to be given to Bunny, Manoj and Anushka for accepting the roles as it is and blindly following what the story demanded. Krish's work is commendable and the producer needs to be appreciated for daring to attempt this kind of cinema in this formula-oriented filmy culture. The performances are top notch and realistic to an extent what the character desires. It feels really great to come out theatre and say that this character has done really well. The stars has finally acted in a movie and is so refreshing and touching to see such honest performances. The characters will be remembered for a long time to come. Personally, my favourite scene is where where cable raju steals money from Nagayya, realises the human inside him and returns the money is one of the beauty of scenes and the best from Bunny till date.

I think I don't deserve to comment anything negative on this film as a viewer because honestly all the little negatives are overshadowed by the writing, performances, music and other aspects and my human inside me does not allowing me to analyse this movie from critic point. The only one sentence I can say if you have not seen the film yet, "Watch it and discover the human inside YOU".

Final word: I consider this year as a path breaking for Telugu film indsutry, as within a six months span I have seen four films which I can be proud of as a viewer, One is YMC, Second is Leader, Third is Prasthanam and Fourth one is Vedam. Hope we will have many such films to refer at the end of year as we go to the second half of the year. One little hope that is pondering over my head , Has the change for Telugu cinema finally come?

IDLEBRAIN.COM LINK : http://idlebrain.com/community/mymovie/vedam-pavan.html

Final Lyrics - BEING HUMAN

Following are the lyrics finalised at last for Being Human and the song has come out really well, at least I think so. Kudos to Dilip, the man who composed it.


Life is gone away with pains and tears 
with no one to care for me


Look at me I am here 
with no one to share my love


Lots of love in this world to share
All I need is a soul to care


Winters have gone for the year 
But my rags still stays there


Seasons change, your fashions change
but am a victim of this human race.

Hunger

       Following are the lyrics written by Sundar for one of the scripts that I wrote called “Being Human”, which is a story of a street kid and his struggle to fill his stomach. I always believed that he has great lyrical abilities and when I asked to write a song for the script which should depict the heart and feelings of a street kid looking at the world around him and questioning himself why he is in this situation and why others are the way they are? He is come up with wonderful piece as follows. I am not sure whether I can use part/full lyrics in the film as it is still waiting to go to the production (don’t know when it will happen). You can also catch him at http://sundarspeakstoyou.blogspot.com/

Look at me I am here
Summer's Gone Winter is here


Look at me I am here
Heat is gone, but the hunger stays


Lots of things you have to throw
Not one that makes me full


Look at me I am here
Summer's gone, Winter is here


Seasons change, your fashions change
But my rags are still on


People stop , throw a glance
Faces turn, not my choice, are my looks


Winter is gone, so is the year
Destiny's child, hunger still here


Lots of love in the world to share
All I need is a soul to care


Blood in veins, mine to sell
Don't look for me, I don't need the care


Winter's gone so has the hunger
Donno if I can still see the summer


Don't look for me I am gone
Bones still fear, for there may be hunger

Who am I? - the thought process behind it

The days when I was working in HP, feeling really bored in the weekends and weekdays sometimes. I was not sure what I am doing in my job or why I am doing, but doing something for my living, not sure if I can continue this forever as my career? As there are so many questions waiting for an answer and at the same time, I was being fascinated my seeing a lot of films and my passion for films is increasing day by day. I decided to do something worth during the free time at least. What can me more worth than pursuing your passion during free time?

Okay, now I decided to do something on which I love, how can I start? I know that I cannot go overnight and do films, which is impossible. But, I can definitely do something on my scale confined to my knowledge, resources that I have and with the help of Mr.Google, I collated pictures in accordance to the script that I had in my mind. When I was so addicted to this film called “The Shawshank Redemption” at that time, there is a quote from that film which keeps on rolling on my head for quite sometime, It is said by Andy Dufrense to Red, “Get busy Living, or Get busy dying”. I must confess that the genesis of this video must have come from this quote subconsciously and couldn’t resist using this quote in the video. The result is Who Am I? , Which is a collection of various pictures taken from Google, collated and put together in windows movie maker and a mediocre back ground track(s) behind it. I really think so when I see it now. Done in one night, five hours of hard work, with help of moviemaker software and the next morning it is in You Tube. It must be more than 18 months old in You Tube and I realized very recently that there are more than 1000 views and posting it in my blog now.

WHO AM I - PAVAN

IPL - fairy tale ending

              Though some T20 games have fairy tale ending, it seems predictable in T20 competitions that most of the times it is the underdogs who are emerging as the winner at the end of the tournament. This is true with respect to the Indian team winning the first T20 world cup followed up with Pakistan. The same fairy tales are happening with IPL as well. The first IPL won by RR where no one gave them a chance even to reach the final four, the second edition goes to DC and the third goes to Chennai Super Kings. Not that Chennai has a bad team, but the kind of up’s and down’s that this team has gone through, very few would have bet their money on them winning the cup in the middle stage of the tournament when they seem like down and out.

The turn around for Chennai came with them winning the last league match against Punjab in Dharmasala. It seems like much difficult for them to chase down 190+ score to win a match and reach semi final. The difficulty seems impossible at one stage though Dhoni is batting at one end they need to score almost 15 runs per over. But, seems like Dhoni has some other ideas and just started hitting all the bowlers out of the ground. The result is in their favor and they are ecstatic to reach top four and went on to win the tournament.

Catches win matches they say and if you don’t grab the opportunities not once but twice at the crucial time then that’s for sure means that some one need to compensate that with special batting performance. None happened for Mumbai. Though Pollard seems like achieving at the end what seems like inevitable, but then it’s become too tough for him as well. Many times in a pressure final like this, often the team who handles pressure well will go and cross the final hurdle. Chennai did that extremely well and grabbed all the opportunities that Mumbai gave them with both hands. All Chennai did in this final was cashing on the oppostion’s mistakes and they did it extremely well. Hindsight, it is Mumbai who flunked at the crucial time and lost cup themselves rather than Chennai winning it. Nevertheless, CONGRATS CHENNAI.

IPL (cont..)

      If there is one team that deserves to win IPL 2010, it is MI without any doubt. Though, it is disappointing to see RCB losing like the way they are in the semi final, one must confess they were simply outclassed by MI's and Pollard. At the end of the semi final, if one looks at the points table and the team that RCB has, you will say that they should have reached semifinal very easily rather than depending on the net run rate. Further introspection into RCB's performance this year, they just didn't played well as a team some times and lost the key moments in some matches. Example, the DC match in Nagpur which they should have won quite comfortably; made a mess of it and lost it with a lot of difficulty. If they come together and play well as a unit at least against DC in the play off, I see no reason why they can't win the match and go to champions league.

Now that we know the finalists, it's time to gear up for the big sunday to see the spectacle. While the little master is not sure to play the final, it will be privilege to see him play and drive his team to lift the trophy. Being realistic, it might be asking to much of him to play after he himself confessed that he's got eight stitches to his hand. Having said that, I may not be surprised to see him in the toss on Sunday. I am gearing up to cheer MI to win the IPL and I am sure whole Chennai must be saying whistle podu...

Though the IPL final is supposed to be held on Sunday, the big final however seems to be on 26th April for Lalit Modi. His audacious approach made IPL a global sporting event and a profit making organization that one could only dream three years ago. Whether he will continue as IPL chairman or thrown out, or whosoever takes his place, no one can take away the credit from him what he had done and the success of first three year IPL should go to him. It doesn't matter who stays and who don't, what is important is that IPL to exist in India and most importantly the game nedds to be credible. For that to happen, IPL and BCCI should clean all the shit and allegations that has been made and to come out clean and transparent. Only then, IPL as a brand will stay with cricket lovers for a long time. (to be continued..)

IPL

Nothing in India generates as much interest and curiosity as these two things does. One is Films and the other is no doubt Cricket AND the third angle to it is Controversy. Controversies are there everywhere and with so much of money running on in IPL and movie starts and politicians being linked to it, all three will go hand in hand for sure, whether agree or disagree and the proof of it is the recent Kochi franchise controversy.


Keeping all the controversies and gossips aside, IPL is definitely is one of the biggest entertainment of the hot summer over the last two years and is going to much bigger in the coming years. The revenue that it is generating is a clear indication of the success it is achieved. IPL brand value in 2010 is expected to be more than $4 billion and is expected to grow at a rate of 100% every year. India being a cricket crazy nation must have helped to achieve this number. No doubt that IPL as a business is a revolution and considering that it is started only 2 years back, this is a achievement on its own kind.


Business aside, the biggest good that IPL is doing is for all the cricketers who never dreamt playing for India or at least to play in the big stage has a platform now to showcase their talent and of course benefiting monitorily from it will do a lot of good for their lives, their confidence and ultimately it is good for Indian cricket. When IPL started on 2008, no one would have given Rajasthan Royals a glimmer of chance to win the tournament that year, but that is what is happened at the end of the league. RR emerged as a surprise winner for 2008 and considering them being the least priced franchise and banking on a lot of unknown fringe Indian players, no one would have given a chance to win the tournament with that team and Shane Warne proved every one wrong with his unconventional leadership skills. Everyone in the world cricket knows that Warne has a great leadership skills, though he is never given chance to prove his mettle with Australian team, IPL has given him a chance and he grabbed it with both hands. It helped Ravindra Jadeja to get in to the national side and who can forget the contribution of ShaneWatson for the team which helped him to grab a place in Australian side and everyone knows how is performing and cemented his place. Same goes to the second year edition in South Africa where DC and RCB (who stood and 7th and 8th in first edition) played the final in J'berg and DC emerging as a winner is a worth to remember for years to come. Adam Gilchrist this time turned the magic around for DC's unimaginable roller coaster ride and they continued this year as well to reach semi finals winning last five games in a row to reach the stage. It is only possible with IPL that the unfancied players like Harmeet Singh, Kamran khan, Trivedi, Rayudu, Suman etc., will get noticed and get to play alongside greats like Gillchrist, Sachin, Warne etc., AND almost forgotten players like Robin Uthappa keep reminding you (the selectors) that how big mistake it is not selecting him WC T20. FANTASTIC is the word that comes to my mind when I see these many players/teams of different kinds coming out of no where, the making the unexpected happens.


It is quite evident that in the two editions of the IPL, the teams who has done well till now has a team of domestic players performing well for their teams at the right time. The resurgent MI is an example for this and the players like Tiwary, Rayudu doing well did a lot of good for their team and who can forget the contribution from the legend himself who is the owner of the orange cap now. He needs no introduction. Being RCB fan, I would love to see RCB winning this time, but their last game against MI has put a lot of doubts in my mind plus they will be playing MI in semifinal in Mumbai. That's quite lot of odds isnt't it? Let's see what happens, honestly I don't mind MI winning as well because of Sachin. Fingers crossed !!!! (to be continued...)

YMC vs VTV

Yesterday, when Sundar asked me to come for VTV (vinnaithandi varuvaayaa) tamil version of YMC (ye maya chesave), I was a little apprehensive since I already saw YMC four times and might end up comparing each frame of it. But, I know that I cannot say NO to this invitation as there are lot things that are dragging me to experience this film again, be it the music, the performances, the technical brilliance, the picturization of the songs that I am crazy these days plus the different climax which people are claiming is different from YMC. All put together I ended up in the PVR at 9 pm show yesterday to watch the movie for the fifth time. Sundar for the third time.

As film set to take off, the first thing that strike me was the English subtitles for a regional film, a good idea to improve the market for regional films. It is the first time I am seeing Simbu on big screen and I hardly seen any of his previous films earlier. But, whatever I had heard about him, they say that he has the torturous acting skills that anyone can dare to possess and there comes Trisha and the first impression is not great as I have already seen YMC four times and Samantha is one main reason for watching it so many times or may be the baggage Trisha has will not give you that impression. The first two songs of the films 'Hossana' and 'Omana pennae' are shot beautifully in different locations from what you see in YMC. The film has the same shot making in most of the scenes, though there are couple of scenes which I observed was great taking wise in YMC, one is the scene where Jessie proposes Karthik for the first time right after the marriage broke up(watch for camera work here in YMC) and another scene where Jessie asks Karthik to leave telling its all over. These two scenes are captured brilliantly in YMC and great example in terms of shot making and the actors performed brilliantly. Having said that, I must confess that in some of the scenes in the first half the VTV pair showed their experience and excelled with great ease. It's unfair to compare the acting and the pair between both the versions as both the pairs has dominated each other in some scenes. The bottom line is that both pairs did fantastic job and this Karthik and Jessie characters will remain among the best in their careers. Though, I personally love to see Chaitanya and Samantha than VTV pair as the young pair is lovely to watch on screen and Samantha here will score all the marks with her grace.

The only thing at the end that sets apart between both the films is the climax. Director Gautam really showed his cinematic brilliance at the end of the film when the couple who will give you an impression that they are together and got married are actually going to set apart and is not known till the final scene and ends with Mannippaya lyrics with beautiful Shreya ghoshal voice which perfectly suited the moment. It took some time for me to digest and understand what he has done in the VTV climax as the happy ending in YMC got sink ed into me. When thought of it as a film, I must confess that VTV has a realistic ending that stays with you.

When I go through my memory lane to check when was the last time I came to the theatre to see a film 5 times and I can recollect only one film Shiva which got released in 1989. I was a small kid at that time and I still remember going to theatre more than 20 times to see that film. I must be 7 yrs old when Shiva got released and when I think of it now and question myself what made me to see Shiva so many times at that age when one hardly know anything about films, it leaves me answer-less and the only reason why I must have seen it so many times is because I wanted to cherish the experience of that film again and again and again..and the same thing happening with YMC/VTV now. The language might be different, but the feel remains the same. It's really MAGICAL.

Ye Maya Chesave

If you are a Telugu cinema fan, how many times you would have come out of the theater commenting that this scene is good, this song is bad etc., and most of the times these days when we are seeing all kind of crap so called formula based films with no basics, wherein me as a normal movie goer felt many times that where is the Industry heading towards. If these are the kind of movies that we will be seeing frequently, then I seriously think that we need to grow up and say that I didn't liked it. But, we are programmed by many of the film makers so much that if someone does something correct, we say its not good just because its not like a certain type of cinema that they are expecting it to be. The correct here in my opinion has to be the proper story line with good technical values. The pity is that we are programmed exactly the opposite.

Ye Maya Chesave did not do any maya (magic) in terms of it story and screenplay. But, the magic is created by the director by just following the basics and following his heart but nothing else. The technical values are top notch and is on par with any other film you would have seen in this genre in India in the last five years (may be more than that). It has the shades of Maniratham kinda film making sometimes, but I'm not complanining on this factor as it is always good to copy a creator than a disciple. The colors the you see in the film are so good that it is a feast to your eyes. The lead pair (chaitanya and samantha) displayed amazing chemistry on screen . This film don't have dialogues rather have conversations that anyone who is in love would have gone through or felt atleast once in their relationship. The film is complimented with amazing A R Rahman music and BG score which just takes the film to another level of its own. It's a feel that no one should miss and must be enjoyed by every movie goer. It's the cutest love story that I have seen for some time now and for all those who are not in love will feel like falling in it once the movie is over. Don't miss it.

CONSCIENCE - PAVAN JAKKA

Watch my new short film "CONSCIENCE" at you tube and let me know your comments...

CONSCIENCE

My second attempt as a film maker.

Not sure if I can call myself as a "film maker" to be honest. However, I also believe anyone who makes film of his own idea, irrespective of its size monetarily, technically, whose there in it etc., can call themselves as film maker just for the fact that they have made it...

Everyone of us have our own sense of right and wrong... and what happens when your inner self conflicts with real world and can't able to deal with it. CONSCIENCE is the mind state of an individual who is in the midst of this conflict. Lot of questions always ponder over his mind where one part of it tells him to do something and the other always questions why? what should he do ? either to live like others and participate in this impotent human race and live like a dead living being or to fight for a life in this world that he wanted to see... He's aware of the fact that he needs to face a plenty of difficulties to live a life that he wanted to and he's ready to face it ...but he can't do it for many reasons. What would you do?

CONSCIENCE is the amalgamation of all these random thoughts which is the the genesis of this script.

If we train our conscience, it kisses us while it hurts us - Friedrich Nietzsche

Man's life is always been a conflict between 'want to' and 'have to' . I'm sure most of us must have been in this mind state at some point or the other in our lives. However, the degree of conflicts might vary....and we moved on in our lives after some time. But, it is the one who goes one step ahead, acts as a destroyer breaks all the so called values into pieces and create new road for himself is called as a creator.

Am posting a picture of a mind set created for the film. I tried to demonstrate through this picture how you will be in your mind. All the sides which you see are the different statements/thoughts in your mind.





Also, find the trailer and the script of the movie




THE SCRIPT

Voice over –

It’s ME
AND
Am just another fucker in this fucking world.

[TITLE – CONSCIENCE]

Since childhood I was taught something and bought up to live one way to be in this world. As I grew up, I slowly realised that one way did not function and the world is something else. Suddenly, I feel like cheated. Cheated by this world. Most importantly, by myself.

All the hammerings about the so-called truth, honesty, ethics has taken a beating by my conscience when I started dealing with the real world.

The world is beautiful, but it always has a disease called man.

After all, what is this world? It consists of disease beings like me & You who run for something all the time for many reasons !

But, why does everyone run?
Why should I care why everyone run, may be because I am also one among this everyone,
But, why do I run? Just because everyone run !
May be yes. But, does everyone run just because the others are running OR they run because they want to?
Does everyone think like me?
Why should I even care about what others think?
OH GOD, Why should I think like this?

Why can’t I just get on in my life and live the life that I want to live?
Wait, wait, wait, wait, ………..
Can I do that? Can I live a life that I want to? Well, to live a life that I want to, I guess I need to win this impotent human race first to do anything?
But, Why should I least bother about winning it when I think it is impotent?

What if I don’t run?
Obviously, I might look like a LOSER in the world’s eyes. They laugh at me and think that I am an asshole who doesn’t know how to live in this world.
But, there’s always a satisfaction to my inner self, which says “ I did what I want to do !”

BUT,

Is this really a WIN?
Am I not foolish?
Am I intelligent?
Am I unique to the rest? Am I a genius?
OR
Am I incapable of dealing with the reality?

Many thoughts always ponder over my mind where one part of it tells me to do it while the other always questions why? AND I don’t have answers for them. Don’t think so if someone can help me to come out of this vicious circle.
[PAUSE]
There’s this one question for which I cannot escape without finding an answer.
WHAT SHOULD I DO NOW?
I guess I don’t have much of choices available.

Either I need to kill myself
OR
I HAVE to live.

The decision to kill myself was not taken in a hurry. It is a very thoughtful and a vary painful decision.. But, I decided to live after a serious thought...

I decided to enjoy the life struggle with no guarantee of winning it. But, I have to do this to get what I want to?

Whatever happens from now on, One thing is for sure,
I’m NOT going to LIVE my life as just another fucker in this fucking world.


...Pavan

AVATAR GOD

After coming out of the theater watching Avatar Yesterday, I feel like so dumb these many days who used to call many other films that I have seen as great ones. Avatar has created a whole new benchmark for the other film makers should target to achieve or at least try to in their life time.

Clearly Avatar is such a kind of cinematic experience that one has to experience at least once in their life time. Many may still argue the story is not great, the emotional quotient of the film is not felt as it is with something like Titanic. But, it just the kind of experience that you have never experienced it till now which makes this film a great one. The kind of imagination/vison James cameron has and able to sustain it over a decade plus years plus you need some thousands of people working on your vision for such a long time and to make sure you and your team are on the same line and don't loose control on your vision over a DECADE is something that tells me the work that has put in in for us to see the film the way it is on the screen now.

I always felt that it is very difficult to project what is there on your mind. But, to show something which our brains can never ever dare to imagine that something like pandora can even exist. This will definitely make other film makers feel like morons in front of him. Each and minute part of pandora is so exotic that I bet your two eyes are not enough to experience it. Be it the different creatures or the deep valleys or the floating mountains or the na'vi people and gracefully beautiful Neytiri who is my personal favorite.

We all are taught since childhood to pray to certain god's and we have god for literally everything. I always used to wonder who created these god's and why should I pray for something which I always see on photographs or in rock statues? While this confusion still remain in my head, I definitely have seen a new god in the name of James cameron who created AVATAR and I will be proud of praying him for this.

--Pavan