Shankardada Zindabad : A Review

Disclaimer. Strictly for Telugu movie goers and people who are wondering who the big-butt in the picture is.


Am just back after watching Shankardada Zindabad; the remake of a truely brilliant movie Lage Raho Munnabhai. I remember I watched Lage Raho on the day of its release in Ahmedabad and immediately after the show , i said "Send it to the Oscars" . It came close to being the Indian nomination but in the end missed out. I wanted to see how good it's telugu remake would be. For starters, the movie's directed by Prabhudeva and Shankardada is played by Mega Star Chiranjeevi.

The telugu version did not open to the regular Chiranjeevi crowds. The fact that i bought the ticket straight from of the counter is a testimony to that fact. It doesn't happen often with big
starrers in this part of the world.The first day talk too didn't live up to the expectations. All the more reason i wanted to watch it.

The director Prabhudeva played safe and sensibly so by making a frame-to-frame remake of the original.I actually liked what the director did because i think he would have missed the point had he tried to fiddle with original and include something of his own . So first things first, he respected the original like i wanted him to. Prabhudeva and his film one set up for their right intentions.

This being a remake i won't comment on the plot and the screenplay of the movie but one thing to watch out for was the performances. I felt a couple of roles were terribly miscast. The villain and especially the heroine. She looked inadequate in the movie and we missed Boman Irani and Arshad Warsi bigtime. So a few scenes looked a little out of place. This made the scores level. One set each.

But wait, that's only a part of the story.Having watched so many hollywood movies and having seen actors from Humphrey Bogart to the that little girl Abigail Breslin is Little miss Sunshine , we often tend to downplay our own actors. I did that too hundreds of times. But let me get things straight here. We have brilliant actors too and Chiranjeevi is one of them . I know some of them will hate me for but i mean to say Chiranjeevi is one great actor. Like it or not. So full marks to Chiranjeevi for carrying this role with his usual panache.
So that makes it 2-1 to Shankardada Zindabad.

The main surprise came when i was looking forward to watch that sequence which was excellent in the original . The pan-spitting and the old uncle-stripping episode. To everyones surprise Prabhudeva didn't remake them but simply dubbed them to telugu. I thought he could have done better considering there would be people who already watched Lage raho. So after a tuff fourth set, 2-2 it is. (Some of them might have liked it and sealed it 3-1 for the movie but i thought otherwise)

But here's the decider. The numerous guest appearances that were well timed. You will find a few biggies in the industry there but the highlight of the movie for someone who's already watched the original was the rocking item number "Akalesthe" rendered by Mamtamohan Das and to which none other than YanaGupta sizzled on screen.
So that long sentence seals it for Shankardada Zindabad. It wins three sets to two. Not extraordinary but definetely watchable. Especially if you haven't seen the original !!!

P.S: I confess, i thought "Neal and Nikki" was watchable. [:D]

Post No 34 : Mascot Launch

Karthik : He must be on the flight to Atlanta while am writing this. A Good friend , a better artist and an excellent human being whose notes helped us clear most of our courses at DA-IICT, gives me one more reason to thank him. This caricature of mine. Now, the problem with the word "Thank you" is, it's used too frivolously and frequently irrespective of the level of gratitude you want to express. So i tried finding another word to thank Karthik but looks like there's no better word. So here it goes Karthik . A big "THANK YOU".




And finally ..."Know more Nonsense" has it. Its mascot(s).


I haven't christened them yet but Boblichki has agreed to come up with a name. He was known for his "thunder thighs" , his Jumbo Thali and his ability to sit on the PC for 30 consecutive hours doing nothing productive. He owns the Hyderabad Community on orkut, so if you want any community to be added in the "related communities" feel free to scrap him. :P

Once again i thank Karthik, Rashmi and Boob-li for making this happen . And i especially want to thank these five regular readers of mine : Evv, Ree, Won, Auff, Yue. :)

P.S: This is the closest i could come to no-nonsense.

Out of Boredom.

So. Here i am without the usual month long break between posts. Why? The Joblessness before my first job. Guys suffer from this i-can't-sit-so-idle problem twice in their lives. Once before their first job and again after they retire. So what do guys do during these phases. In all probability they login to social networking sites and add anonymous profiles. The guys you see adding profiles like "Career forum- Center for CAT coaching" ( and i mean profiles here not communities) , are most likely waiting for their first job. I dare not go beyond this point because nowhere does anyone make fun of jobless guys. Not even on "Know More Nonsense". So we better take up something we are entitled to pass judgments on. Yes, i am talking gals here.

Gals are so much fun to shop around with. You go with them to shop, they pick up what they want and you come out. No,wait . Shopping isn't so simple with them. So we see that this is, in fact, not a good example, and we should just move on.

One thing they are really good at is multitasking. I wonder how could one watch "Kyun ki", say "wow" and hold the remote at the same time while we guys are busy challenging our manhood, trying to open the soft-drink bottle with our teeth and doing nothing else.When it comes to TV watching they hit the "male" on its head. "Close up Antakshari " when United is playing Liverpool at Anfield, "Mom Zone" when Sachin is on fire and such like.

They can get up and ask questions like "Are you emotionally balanced for a long term relationship" while you are busy figuring out how the vibrating condom works. Guys from Madhya Pradesh do not have such problems because they have banned anything that vibrates including the cellphone. That will get you rid of most of the problems i tell you.

But let's give them their due credit for this. They appreciate brainy people. Don't you know they prefer a Wipro employee with a good sense of humour to a bare-chested John Abraham? They infact prefer Prof. John Abraham who teaches astrophysics to the cut and chiseled John in Jism.

We could go on like this for hours but my point is ,after reading this post you must have realised there's a lesson there, that guys lie when they want to and when they have nothing to do.

Now for some real news and i am not making this up: Updates on "Know More Nonsense". I planned to launch a blog mascot sometime back . One of those fun things i wanted to do and I asked for some friends' help. Though i am waiting for some more of them to pour in, i thought i should publish this. Rashmi from Newyork, no New Jersey , no some "New" place in the US sent me this. A caricature of mine which she calls "Junglee macho" . Rashmi is doing her MS is Bio Medical Engineering and specializes in heart valves and other implants. [:P]. She's also known as the girl whose profile-pic once kicked ass. "Know More Nonsense" thanks her for the effort. [:)]







P.S for the Jobless: "Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time you've got" and remember our maha mantra " Were in; we're out; we're done!" and we are only talking effectiveness here.

I love these Miyans

Hyderabad is not the most happening of places. True, if you have not stayed long enough to visit the "gallia" in the "scootera" here. Most people take the pubs , the restaurants ,the of hangouts and the likes as a measure of the greatness-quotient of a city. If you are looking for these in Hyderabad let me tell you , you might end up dissapointed. But the real Hyderabad is here, on the streets . Yes, the streets of Old city, Charminar, Monda Market and Sultan Bazar to name a few. I know i am digressing but talking of Sultan Bazar, it probably boasts of the highest density of female lingerie shops in the world including that country Amsterdam. No, Amsterdam is a city i am told . So it must be Czechoslovakia. So Sultan Bazar it is, the place to wait for your long-lost-school-time love. Coming back to the streets, by streets i mean the commoners like you , me and the scooter mechanic that make up these streets. I call them the "miyans": Hyderabadi by heart. These people are the soul of this city.These are the same people who help you park your car in the most crowded of streets . They are also the ones always ready to "gusad a bumboo" if you called Chiranjeevi or Salman Khan names.The "selectively take it peaceful" types.They do not think too much about what people think about them whick makes them what they are. Complete fun machines.I recently happened to meet one of them. A guy who worked in a small PC repair shop. My external hard disk was creating problems and i had to take it to their shop for repair. Our miyan was sitting outside fiddling with a CPU while singing "Partner partner. Love me baby. Chuck de phatte".
What followed was .

Me: Anna!!

Miyan: "Partner partner. Love me baby" happily involved in his work.

Me: Arey oo anna!!

Miyan: "Bolo Hero" with that energy and warmth the receptionist at the Marriot couldn't beat.

Me: Iska kuch problem horra.

Miyan : Aisa?? Bhaito thodi dher.

Me : Arey jaldi jaana hey yaaron. Lele.

Miyan: Kya hero tension lera tu . De idhar. Kya problem hain.

Me: Pata nahin. Detect nahi hora.

Miyan: Acha teekh hain. Saab ko dikhana padega. (Then came the moment)
Saab ye hard diks to dekho. Koyi problem hain.
(again looking at me):Poora Hyderabad main sabhi ke Hard Diksaa se problem hain boss. Poore karrab ho jaare. Pehle tho Kirrak chal rahe the. 24 hours. Abhi tho dho dho minute ko problem aara.

I just couldn't stop myself. I had to laugh out . And i did.

Miyan: Kya hua boss. Hasre tum.

Me: "Diksaa nahi anna. Diskaa bolte. Hard Disk." smiling.

Miyan: Arey kuch bhi anna. Hum school jaake English, 123 nahi seekhe anna. Sirf 143 aata humko.
Teekh hain. Kal aajana lene ke liye.

Me : "Teekh hain." still smiling.

Miyan: " Anna. ye try karo ek bar. ye" trying to touch his nose with his tongue. "Subah se nayi hora"

Me : " Arey! choD hero. Mere se nahi hota. Kal aata hu phir"

Miyan :" Ok kal aajana. Pakka teekh kar doonga aapka Diks ko"

It was a thoughtful way back home. "123 nahi seekhe anna. Sirf 143 aata humko" meant so much. His bonhomie meant so much. The last few hours of my life sure seemed more interesting than the rest of it. And i still was trying to touch my nose with my tongue as i got off my car.