Ram Gets a Nandi Award

Ram Gets a Nandi for Ashta Chamma
The big high of this week was Ram receiving the Nandi award, the Andhra Pradesh Government's film awards, for Ashta Chamma on Ugadi day from the Chief Minister Shri K.Rosaiah. To bag the award for his first movie is itself creditable but the praise that the movie won for its values, its clean script and entertainment value and for its ability to balance commerce with good cinema is what makes it more special. 'Ashta Chamma' got an award in the best movie for family viewing category and best actress category which Swathi bagged for her fabulous performance. She will go far, Swathi, without any effort because she has the kind of a talent I have not seen in recent years, and will certainly take home many more awards.
I do hope and wish that Ram and his team bags several more Nandi awards for making wonderful films like Ashta Chamma that are not only commercial hits but also provide great entertainment.

Vinod's Manuscript - Great Read
I read one of the early drafts of the manuscript of 'There's a drought here and you want us to wear ironed shorts..' - Vinod's first novel this week. It was extremely readable, very funny, with great characters and provides a wonderful peek into the life of the government officer in rural areas. His capacity to infuse humor into all kinds of situations, even the most tragic, is almost Sue Townsendesque. Vinod has put the first scene from his novel on his blog, the link to which is given below.

http://vinodekbote.blogspot.com/2010/01/first-scene-of-my-novel.html

Vinod is one of the few writers I have read who has the ability to make the reader laugh out loud. I am sure this book will find great success since I find it better than 90% of the books written and published by Indian authors.