“Avengers” is what they like to call themselves, in the words of Tony Stark!

Posted on April 28, 2012 by workaholicvarun

If all the comics super-heroes got together, what would they be fighting for? ‘Earth’ is not the right answer. Copyrights is !

What happens in a symphony? Hundreds of Instruments, all types of them, would play together and produce a sound that is one! Symphony, though varied in its composition, has only one mission, strike a chord with the audiences. This movie has different types of super heroes, 6 of them with the same mission to save the earth. But do they achieve it in symphony with one another is for the audiences to watch and experience. If you ask me, I would think this was the only drawback of the movie. The roles and some sequences were included just because they had to give a chance to all the 6 super-heroes. Trust me, Iron-man and Hulk were more than eneough for this task.

“Avengers” is what they like to call themselves, in the words of Tony Stark!

Boy, does he have class. From the way he lands in his terrace, to how he dismantles his armor on the move, to how his armor follows him and saves him while he is falling down from the top most floor of the new Stark building, to the A that remains hanging to his building even after the aliens attack signifying the emergence of Avengers! Avengers depend mainly on Tony Stark for class, creativity, utility and mobility. He is the star player of the team.

Hulk, the angry guy, surprisingly proves to be the comic relief. A couple of scenes picturised on him are simply one of the best in any of the super hero movie seen till now.

Thor gives emotional atyaachar to the movie, while one wonders what is Captain America’s role ever, forget Avengers.

Don’t even ask me about the remaining two super heroes, they are basically eye-candies for the aliens and the audiences. Scar-Jo remains super hot, although I would have loved more if I had known earlier about what her powers were!

Its raining super heroes these days and what more could one have asked for rather than watching them all under one roof. After the initial ego clashes and hiccups between the Marvel comics super heros, things do start working well in a MARVEL world and they rise up to the image of Avengers.

I wonder what the DC comics guys are contemplating? Quadrangular love story between Super-man, Spider-man, Bat-man and Mary Jane! Ha, that would be fun to watch. Each guy is a deeper lover than the other and who knows, they could even gift a parallel galaxy to woo Mary Jane!

–Varun Mannava Gowtham

 

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3 (Tamil 2012)

Posted on April 4, 2012 by workaholicvarun

Entertainment is inversely proportional to logic in Indian movies. If a movie, that is set to entertain crowds of all sorts, can still tie back to logic, I consider it to be top class entertainment.

Remember the bus stop, the isolated stretch of road while going to school or the super-market near your house where you used to frequently get a glimpse of the girl on whom you had a teenage crush? This movie transports you to the magical world of school days. Those days when you thought you would not get caught in rain but you would end up getting drenched. The days when you wanted to dance around in the rain thinking of your blossoming love. Aishwarya Dhanush (Director) can definitely strike a chord with the youngsters when it comes to portraying the first love. Add to that Anirudh Ravichander’s amazing background score, the feeling of watching it on the big screen grows on you.

The director did not submit too much to the image of the leading actor (Dhanush) and controlled herself from doing something illogical. This has been so evident from the fact that the world popular Kolaveri Di song was shot in a simple way on Marina. This proves they have not got carried away with the success of the song.

Dhanush has got a rare combination of entertainment quotient as well as acting depth. He breezes across as the teenager in pursuit of his first love. Comic timing of Shiva Karthikeyan is a plus point during the school days. He emotes heart-break with ease when his lover tells him she is going off to US for higher studies. He sets the standards while acting as a Bipolar disorder patient. Only an actor of his caliber can make sure such a concept sails through to the audiences un-adulterated.

Someone please stop Shruthi Haasan from crying. Can’t stand when she is trying too hard to impress the critics that she can act those emotional scenes. She is cute as the schoolgirl, and shares great chemistry with Dhanush during the intimate scenes. However when it comes to the depth scenes, she just irritates.

Anirudh Ravichander is a bunch of talent. When he takes the piano or the violin or the guitar, he just owns the crowd. Mandolin Seenu for the theme music is a smart application of talent.

For those who are wondering what 3 stands for, since the suspense is already out, I can go ahead reveal that it is Ram (Dhanush), Janani (Shruthi Haasan) and Ram’s other side ! And just like Bipolar Disorder that Ram develops, the movie and the performances excite you too much in the first half and deeply affect you in the intense second half.

–Varun Mannava Gowtham

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Book Review : 1000 CEOs

Posted on March 20, 2012 by workaholicvarun

Quite a rare bunch of the human population are born leaders.  Inspiring their team is an inborn characteristic for these special people.  For the rest of us a little help is needed.  If the neighbor at my apartment was a CEO, I could have socialized with him over a golf match in the Golconda golf club in Hyderabad and got tips on management and leadership.  If the CEO was rather younger, I could have challenged him to a tennis match and made him run corner to corner.  Let me cut to the chase. CEOs are very smart and very busy people. They do not conduct coaching classes here on how to become a CEO (unsure if Arindham Choudhary has come up with that course too).  My point is that, we only get to know about CEOs through press releases, cover stories in newspapers & magazines.

This is where 1000 CEOs takes us up-close and personal with the leaders.  1000 CEOs is not a crash course on how to become a CEO in 30 days.  It’s a subtle index to 1000 of the smartest brains in the corporate world, their strengths, their weaknesses, their best decisions etc.  The aim of this collection is not to bore you with their personal life.  Where did they grow up, when did they have their first crush etc.  This speaks in a crisp language and makes it easy for you to remember the turning points in their lives (maximum one page per CEO).

What makes this book so inspiring is the people on whom this book is based.  For example:

Angela Ahrendts, CEO, Burberry: She is famous for never having taken a day off sick in over 25 years in the business.  Her most famous quote is “I am still as passionate about what I do as the day I started.”

Else you have Indra Nooyi saying “Companies today are bigger than many economies…  If companies don’t do [responsible] things, who is going to?”

The Editor in Chief – Andrew Davidson and the Business Editor Marjan Bolmeijer have organized these CEOs under 10 major headers: Innovators, Start-up Titans, Motivators, Organizers, Strategists, Rebuilders, Value Squeezers, Visionaries, Controversialists, Globalists.

From Steve Jobs to Subroto Roy, you have them all.

–Varun Mannava Gowtham

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MoneyBall

Posted on February 25, 2012 by workaholicvarun

Quantitative Optimism!

Let me be very straight-forward when I say I have never watched a baseball game. In this side of the globe, we play the ball game differently. But that does not stop one from just loving this movie for what its worth.

It proves to be an example of “Quantitative Optimism”! What happened to the Wall Street in the 1990’s happened to Base Ball in 2003 which is ‘choosing your pick based on numbers and statistics and not by popular belief’. MoneyBall is based on true incidents that changed the face of baseball ever after.

Moneyball could very well be called the ‘ChakDe’ movie of the US! However, here the emphasis is not about winning. The emphasis here is about taking the road less traveled. The emphasis is about believing in something measurable like statistics against all odds.

Ok, so you have a true story to depict, pretty interesting one, now the question is how do you convey this across to the audiences without boring them. Here’s where the director Bennett Miller chooses parallel screenplay. Brad Pitt plays the role of a General Manager, Billy Beane who ties up with Jonah Hill (Both nominated for Oscars 2011 as Best Actor and Best supporting Actor respectively). They come up with a strategy to take on the Goliaths of baseball. The director chooses to give some depth to Billy’s character by depicting the sensitive dimensions of his early baseball career in parallel with his current role. Billy looked very promising as a star during his early career and was supposed to be a rising star. But did he prove to be an achiever as a player himself and as a general manager? This  forms the reminder of the story.

Brad Pitt is a fresh breath of air to this movie. Maybe because its his own movie, that he has taken every precaution to make it look and feel as good. Jonah Hill is very talented and it clearly shows from this character. They can be funny too!

Another interesting dimension that the movie captures is the superstition factor linked to games. While watching our favourite match we do some regular stuff / sit in our lucky corner and hope that our team wins. Billy has one big superstition that he cannot watch the games whenever his team is playing, he listens to them only on the radio.

Its not all ‘dressing-room inspirational speeches’ and adrenaline pumping to that last ball victory. Its real, its sensitive, its path-breaking and its inspiring!

–Varun Mannava Gowtham

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WarHorse 2012

Posted on February 12, 2012 by workaholicvarun

Be brave! Be a Horse!

A thing of beauty is never permanently owned.  At times auctions are held to decide the owner. Sometimes it is just snatched away. At times it is owned through love and friendship. There have been wars over owning Helen! Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal, but he perished. The Uttar Pradesh Government owns it now.

This warhorse too, a thing of beauty and courage, is owned by several owners at different stages of his life. Some owners give him compassion and love. Others take pride owning the horse. Some just employ him in pulling artillery and torture him! But Joey (the warhorse) keeps looking forward during its struggling phase.

This movie has been rightfully nominated for best cinematography, art direction, original score. The landscapes of England have been wonderfully covered by the cinematographer. The background score generates the emotion in your heart and it ends as a tear in your eye. Emotion is the silent character throughout the movie.

This is one of the masterpiece movies that does not care about box-office. It has its fair share of humor, however it keeps focus on the main protagonist, the Warhorse and his journey. The brilliance of a director like Spielberg reflects during the war scenes. What amazes me is the perfection with which they shot the scene where Joey gets entangled in the barbed wire. Directing excellence, one must say! Watch out for some exceptional dialogues on Bravery! The costumes and the settings transport you back to the war-zone that existed a 100 years ago!

Saving Private Ryan is one of the greatest war movies ever made, this is because of its star-cast! WarHorse does not have a cast to depend on. This in a way becomes its only drawback. Its more like a documentary on the Horse’s life at various stages rather than a movie involving characters. Maybe it was meant to be that way. This leaves a sense of incompleteness in this Spielberg movie.

Miracle horse found in the battle front re-unites with his master.
Bottom-line : Karma can be lenient on Hardworking Horses!

–Varun Mannava Gowtham

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Epic Final – Australian Open 2012

Posted on January 30, 2012 by workaholicvarun

when the joker tamed a raging and wounded (at heart) bull.

Its proven! Till the time Djoker is fit and playing grand slams, Rafa can’t win a grand slam. I can say this after witnessing a historic match. Whats more, Rafa has got a new title, the only man in open era to have lost 3 grand slam titles consecutively. Despite 6 attempts to overcome the joker in 2011, Rafa failed. The only player to have defeated a healthy Djokovic was the one and only Roger Federer.

When the day had dawned, I was recovering from the recent loss of Roger against Rafa in the semifinal. It was definitely Djokovic’s day, given the recent clash results in 2011. But Rafa is known for his fighting spirit, so it could be anyone’s match.

Adversity tests the true character of a champion. Rafa’s true colours came out during this match. Read more to know what I think are Rafa’s true colours.

The first set displayed the motor skills of both men.  I was very much relieved to see that Djokovic was moving around freely, without signs of his breathing problem or fatigue from the Friday semifinal match against Andy Murray. Djokovic needed to be his 100% otherwise a player like Rafa would capitalize on his weakness.

Rafa on the other hand changed his strategy. He was always deep down the baseline, which made him treat Djokovic’s powerful cross court shots as mere shots and convert them into winners. Rafa will break him once in the first set, Djokovic breaks even, then Rafa breaks him back, all this is happening in the first set, mind you.

Djokovic comes back during the second and especially the third set. What worked for him was that he was connecting the shots well in these sets and making lesser unforced errors. His romance with the baselines and the border-lines continues. His shots drop just perfectly on or before the line but rarely away from the line.

Rafa takes the match to another level in 4th and 5th set, with an attitude “if you want the title, you gotta earn it the hardway”.Thats exactly how Djoker won it, the HARD way. Baseline winners are not so easy. What a thrill to the match point rally build up.

Rafa’s true colour comes out during the fourth and fifth set. He fights with all his fuel, puts everything down to each and every point, however does one thing that world-class tennis players would never resort to. Even Djokovic feels so. Rafa serves, there is no fault call, djoker returns, rafa continues to play the rally, but at the end of the point which Rafa has lost, he walks to the referee and checks on the service error. This is not gentlemen’s tennis, this is school kids level. Winning is important for everyone, but one needs to go by the books too. Calling a service error challenge after you finish playing your point? So if Rafa would have won the point, he would have been ok with the service call. This is why I can never like Rafa, despite all his hard work and contribution to the game.

Roger Federer would never do such a thing, and its a pity people compare the great Roger to a human Rafa!

— Varun Mannava Gowtham

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new york city

Posted on January 20, 2012 by workaholicvarun

the rays through the urban jungle
wake me up

the high rise view from my window
wakes me up

the buzzing traffic in the streets
wakes me up

the urge to walk to work
wakes me up

the desire to do something different
wakes me up

this great city wakes me up
like no other

–Varun.

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Varun’s “Flute-story” : My unique way of expressing a story through tunes on my flute

Posted on January 1, 2012 by workaholicvarun

–Varun Mannava Gowtham

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MI 4 : Ghost Protocol

Posted on December 17, 2011 by workaholicvarun

Even secret-agents need friends !

If you are scared of heights, don’t even think about watching Agent Ehtan Hunt crawling up Dubai Burj! It could give you the ticklish feeling especially when you are watching it on IMAX. Trust me, you would not have witnessed a harsher sand storm either in non-animated action flicks.

Right from the sparky MI4 title to the smoky Ghost Protocol title to the hoody jacket appearance to the disappearing in the dark, this movie thrills you from the beginning till the end. The plot is crispy and does not demand too much attention from the viewers.

For all you gadget freaks out there, you are gonna feast on the fresh gadgets that you are gonna see. Best part is when the mask maker shuts down incompletely displaying an error and the scene where Agent Ethan Hunt needs to pat on the self-destruct messenger to actually self-destruct. Reality check ha!

One needs to appreciate the guts of Tom Cruise to go shirt-less at the age of 50. There is the trade-mark scene of him running around in the mission impossible movies. He may pass on the role to younger looking agents in future? Jennifer Lopez .. err.. Paula Patton looks amazing in this movie. She plays Agent ‘eye candy’.  Anil Kapoor plays Vijay Mallya in the movie.. comic relief! That leaves us with Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg. Simon pegg is amazingly funny.

Brad Bird, the director of the animated movie “The Incredibles” directs this action flick amazingly well. Attention to details is great, however Mumbai is restricted to Ramoji film-city? I saw telugu signages in the so-called Mumbai.

The popular MI theme comes back to rock you and may be because the Brit Secret Agent did not do well in the box office, the experience of watching the American Secret Agent and his gadgets goes one level up.

An Ageing Cruise pulls off a slick action flick. JeremyRenner quotes “Next time I am seducing the rich guy”, could this be the theme for MI 5? Keep looking for clues.

American Popcorn is back with a bang!

–Varun Mannava Gowtham.

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Rockstar

Posted on November 13, 2011 by workaholicvarun

Directed by : Imtiaz Ali

Starring : Shammi Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Nargis Fakhri

Music by:  Mozart of the east – A.R. Rahman

I am actually confused. At one end you have the director’s vision to create something different, to show the making of a Rockstar, to show the attitude of a popular person, to create a symbol. At the other end you have a weak plot revolving the leading lady. Her character looks tailor made to suit the making of Rockstar!

Shortly there is going to be a crash course on “How to become a Rockstar!” Imtiyaz Ali could very well write a book on the same. “Thorns to competition” kinda book!

It is a popular belief that artists with a painful backdrop in life can create more depth in their works. But going in search of pain to become a rockstar and throwing away one’s current life looks too cinematic. Add to that, we have a firang who hangs out in the college without any boy-friends. I can guarantee you this would never happen in real life. The “Fire in belly” to become an artist is missing.

There are quite a few aspects that are worth mentioning in this movie.

Movie starts with a silent tribute to Shammi Kapoor, who is the true rockstar of Bollywood.

Music plays the second protagonist in this movie, creating a big image for Ranbir Kapoor. A R Rahman is the Rockstar of Indian Music! The songs are chart-busters already.

Simple yet creative dialogues by Imtiaz Ali go beyond excellence. “Heart-Breaking-Machine” being my favorite dialogue of the movie.

The narrative is amazing. Imtiaz Ali knows that the audience have no other choice but to watch the movie the way he wants them to watch. And he exploits this to the maximum. You cannot go to the theatre with a pre-determined thought that the movie is going to start like this and its going to end like this. Its a pleasant surprise, take it !

Ranbir Kapoor has delivered one of his best performances. His hair-style, depressed look, dressing, aggression everything works. And it looks genuine too. If you can digest the brief stint in the college where he looks too stupid, you will see that the performance graph keeps progressing.

Nargis Fakhri has got the dolly look. She could very well be called the successor of Katrina Kaif for her firangi accent and plastic expressions.

One needs to appreciate the effort made by the director to keep this movie away from the common band making, breaking and re-union type of scripts. This movies’ got an attitude of its own!

–Varun Mannava Gowtham

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