Mr.Perfect ( Telugu 2011)

This family drama is absolutely a summer treat  for the entire family. The movie starring Prabhas, Kajal Aggarwal, Taapsee, Prakash Raj, Bramhanandam has all the ingredients- drama,romance, action and comedy needed to make it a dish you would relish till the last bit. The predilection of a youngster trying to disprove the  the "old attitude" of satisfying the world rather than yourself is the theme of this movie. Vicky ( Prabhas) is a video game developer in Australia, he returns to India after 4 years for his sister's marriage. His dad
(Nasser) finds a prospective bride in Vicky 's childhood enemy Priya (Kajal) who practices medicine in their native village. The scenes between Vicky and Priya are cute pranks each one plays on the other. Priya realises that they need to leave their childhood behind and behave like adults. This is when Priya begins having a soft corner for Vicky eventually she falls in love with him.

The twist comes when Vicky substantiates why a girl who sacrifices a beautiful world of a village filled with happiness for him, a guy living in a foreign land rarely having a time for a social life. Vicky returns home only to receive a call from Cadbury's who have found a girl who matches his character through a search hunt involving 6 lakh applicants. Vicky starts dating Magee (Tapsee) thereafter. Things appear to be smooth till  Vicky seeks Tapsee's hand from her dad (Prakash Raj) in marriage. Prakash Raj in typical Santosh Subramanium or Bomarillu style strikes a deal with his future son-in-law to disprove that he is not the apt guy for his daughter. The movie  takes a U-turn as we see Vicky perfecting himself to make himself accepted by Maggie's entire family but for Maggie. Vicky 's character morphosis into Priya , thus drifting away from his Maggie like nature without his knowledge.  Kasi Vishwanath as Maggie's grandad receives obeisance even from the audience. His conversation  may have been a catalyst for Vicky's transition.

The film portrays realistic incidents of sibling rivalry, racist attacks by Australian teenagers, abandoned elders, hasty love marriages and refusing to obey the elders word- these are few real life scenes which connects the audience to the story. The songs "Agipulla adapilla nenu" , "Light theesko" are songs which interested me among the rest. The background score is in sync with the story and the music director needs credit for the same!

Rating : ***** Must watch family entertainer !

VARUDU (Telugu 2010)

This may be the latest review on this Telugu hit of Allu Arjun. The movie which has captured the five day Telugu wedding in 3 hrs along with some action is surely the best tribute to the cultural extravaganza - if I could call it so. The focus of the cameraman is Allu Arjun for sure.Atleast Arya-2 had a cute and bubbly Kajal to share the frame alongside Arjun , in this movie the "varudu" (prospective guy) stars almost the entire movie. Its totally a male domination with Arya turning out to be the absolutely scary actor in this movie. The story starts with All Arjun a modern day, cool guy telling his parents to search for a bride personally. The twist comes when he decides not to see the bride till the wedding day.For a movie goer whose marital status is single , the whole thought of refusing to see the bride 's pic makes him feel that the hero is insane ! On top of it the girl refusing to do the same makes you realise that lady luck was shining on the guy and they were obviously made for each other!

The story then progresses with the wedding being described in detail with the " pasupu danchadam" (thrushing turmeric) , "nalugu function" ( applying turmeric) and the dressing up of the varudu for the day. The bridegroom's procession on the elephant bare chested has been shot extremely well by the cameraman. The most important part of the movie is when the girl and boy look at each other for the first time as the screen separating them is slowly brought down. It was the first time even I saw the girl ! The heroine looked like a simple next door girl who looked a princess in the bridal wear.

The portion where the mandapam is brought down would have been the art director's nightmare for sure.Except for the unrealistic backgrounds in certain parts of the movie and a extremely unpractical climax the movie is a beautiful piece of work. Excellant acting by Arya and Arjun !

Rating :  * * * 1/2

Punjab destroyed by a Gayle storm in Bangalore !!

On Friday, Gayle who was in a slumber for a short while woke up in true style leaving Kings IX Punjab bowlers staring at the sky. Adam Gilchrist elected to field hoping that his seamers could have a good time with the green surface on the ground in their  favour. The real game started when Chris Gayle knocked off sixes in the long off and long on in Ryan Harris ‘s over  in the battle. Dilshan who has not been quite in his original form was caught in his attempt to hit a six by Praveen Kumar. His departure meant the arrival of the much in form Virat Kohli, who helped Gayle entertain the Bangaloreans with a thundering assault of the Punjabis earning himself 107 off 49 balls. The Gayle storm sent the Chinnasamy Stadium roaring with 10 sixes and 9 fours in total till the man was caught by Harris in Chawla’s over. The end of Gayle did not rip the RCB, the game continued till a double century was on the score board with A.B.de Villiers  and A.Mithun not out.

The Kings IX Punjab must have lost all hopes when their think tank was duck out for the first ball from the RCB camp. The presence of Paul Valthaty was reassuring only for 28 balls with Gayle storming into the winning dreams of the Punjabis. The RCB camp had a party with Sreenath Arvind taking four wickets and leaving Punjabis to struggle to grab the 14 runs in his over. While Gayle danced away to glory as he added three wickets to his bag, truly letting him call  it his day . At the end, Punjab was defeated brutally by the RCB by a margin of 85 runs! Friday night’s power packed performance by Chris Gayle was truly a reason for Bangalore to party hard at the Chinnasamy stadium. Gayle’s brilliant batting and bowling now raises the RCB’s chances of reaching the play-offs.

Annual Science Camp 2011

Today was the last day of  the Annual Summer Camp 2011 organized by Parikshan Charitable Trust. I had initially hesitated in volunteering as a teacher at the camp. I really feel the camp has triggered my long term memory cells . The knowledge  I had  gained from ChildCraft and Britannica was now put to use to enlighten the kids. The subject I was allotted was Biology and since I was just a volunteer-teacher I had easy experiments in my bag. The experiments I had handled over the weeks included Sense of smell, Sweat, Lung Model, Solar System, Fire Proof Balloon, Transpiration,Invisible Ink,Stomata, Skin Moisturization , Acid Rain. The kids enjoyed initially as they involved group activities but in the last few days it seemed too theoretical as the experiments started involving lot of knowledge rather than expermentation.

Apart from the responsibility of teaching it involved baby sitting the younger ones who had a natural tendency to play with the chemicals kept around them. I was a bit nervous when I was given an experiment that involved fire but after a while gained confidence. The kids aged between 5-10 yrs , so the problem of being gunned by doubts was lesser but I handled the questions in most of the cases. On the last day, it was exciting as I saw the students perform experiments before their parents and the organizers. Along with the kids who were experimenting, their siblings much younger 2-3 yrs started joining them, inquisitive to watch their bros n sis at work.

There was a dental check up and a talk on dental care delivered by one of the student's mother -
Dr.Srividya Vashishta as a part of the camp followed by a nutritionist Sandhya check up.Earlier the camp started with a inaugural talk by the head of  Parishkan Labs who delivered a thanksgiving speech to the organizing team of the camp. I was surprised when he called out my name and thanked me for "showing interest in the camp even before my exams were over "  I seriously did not see that coming and was humbled as my friend who had worked under him had told me really good things about him.