RIFLE RANGE BOY

RRR (Telugu; 2022) Director: S.S. Rajamouli Week after week, this film seems to be roaring to greater heights at the box office. And the reviewers are going gaga over the offering from Tollywood and giving the Bollywood mafia and their chamchas  a run for their money. The recent spate of blockbusters from the South cinema has evoked has started a Twitter war that may be related to the rekindling of the national language debate. RRR also reaffirmed the fact that the Baahubali duology was no flash in the pan. In keeping with Baahubali's drift, RRR also threads along with big bucks on CGI and historical slunt. In RRR, the storytellers decided to create a fictional account loosely based on the lives and times of two freedom fighters from India. Alluri Sita Rama Raju Alluri Sitaram Raju (1897-1924) opposed the 1882 British Forest Act, which restricted movement in forests. It interfered with the tribals' practice of the 'slash and burn' style of farming ( podu ). The reason f...

Rangasthalam ( రంగస్థలం, Theatre, Telugu; 2018) You think he is alright as your leader. He seems well composed to hear things out. He exudes an aura of confidence. He always has people around him who love him. He gets things done. He must be doing something right. He is even to be personally partaking in religious functions. He appears charitable enough. The same divine forces that govern your life must be the same one that runs his. The Ruler of the world must have sanctioned him to rule over this piece of land. Then you realise one or two things do not match. It does not seem fair; not proper. You pass it off your own naivety. After all, a person with so much public support and approval cannot be wrong. Then it hits you. Your liberty is snatched away. You scream injustice, but then it dawns upon you the whole administrative machinery has been turned to suit him. You and the ones wronged by the once thought to be the saviour of the land is actually a wolf in sheep's clothing....

C/O Kancharapalem (2018, Telugu) In Nature, the union of sexes exists solely for procreation. It has its check and balances to ensure continuity of progeny and survival is only of the fittest. It does try to prevent chimaera monsters by minimising extra-species exchanges of the seeds of life. Invariably, the union across species tend to be infertile and slow to respond to environmental changes, thus resulting in self-destruction. Mules, the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, are mostly sterile. So is a zorse or a zebra-horse hybrid. Even within species, through innately developed hierarchical dominance, Nature tries to ensure that over generations, the young will be hardy to face challenges of the environment. The strongest of the males get to mate the healthiest of the female to this purpose. The weak male has to do with the weakest or the deformed female, which would result in failed descendants. It appears like Nature is inherently nihilistic in its outlook of the f...

Baahubali #1 The Beginning (One with strong arms, Telugu; 2015) Move over Pixar, Dreamwork, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Hollywood! The land where the word 'Avatar' originated had arisen. This is Kollywood's answer to all the megalomaniacal productions with mammoth studio sets, computer wizardry, graphic imaging, tall fabled stories, macho men with crafted bodies and gravity defying stunts. Baahubali, the most expensive production from India has made its mark in the international arena. And made it presence it did, with much pomp! Stories like in 'Baahubali' had been made many before in Indian cinemas, of stories of kings, revenge, loss of kingdoms and duels. However, what makes this offering different is the sheer work of cinematography, picturesque scenery, CGI expertise and well choreographed stunts and fight scenes. Never before, the war in Indian movies been fought with strategies and various traditional armamentarium. The mammoth structures like t...