Premaku Raincheck - Movie

Premaku Raincheck is a movie that is produced and directed by my friend from our Engineering College days, and then a successful investment banker and entrepreneur to boot, AP Srinivas. So I won't trust myself to review this movie without bias anyway.

AP, as we know him, is a wholehearted, generous, fun loving guy with a simple, non-judgmental soul, a down-to-earth and humble personality for someone who has achieved quite a lot, and mostly, a big heart. He ticks all boxes of 'success' in every way - Engineering from Osmania, MBA from IIM, Lucknow, a sharp rise in ICICI and then a giddy high in successfully launching a software company and riding a wave. All done, one would think! AP could be sitting in some plush place sipping his cocktails and doing what investment bankers do - but then he would not be AP then.

AP talks unabashedly and with a disarming simplicity about how he used to take tuition's during college, coming from a middle-class family like most of us, and earning early in life. When I met him after all these years, at the music launch of 'Ashta Chamma' we caught on immediately. I remember an animated conversation with him about movies and realised how deeply he loved the medium. He narrated a script he had in mind (Shwetha), met Ganga Raju and other movie personalities and discussed movies in depth, and I knew then, he had this movie bug in him. In more conversations later, I understood how passionate he was about movies. But nothing in what he said or did, prepared me to handle the bombshell he dropped. One fine day three and a half years ago, AP, after considering several other options, decided to produce and direct a movie. What? Won't that be too much for someone with no experience in filmmaking? Why not first produce and then direct? These were questions for lesser mortals like us, but AP was firm. He would produce and direct.

AP was clear as he normally is and fully trusted his investment banker side just as he trusted his artistic side. He learned everything from scratch - screenplay, direction, script, dialogue, music. Software, story, team, script, actors...he went through the process meticulously like any good investment banker would and I remember meeting him at different stages in the process. He got himself a team he was comfortable with - Shashank, Raghu, Sharath. He was open to advise from everyone - met and picked everyone's brains whether they were responsive or not. He got his vision clear, his script in place, his screenplay locked. He spent months finding his Wiki, his Ramya and Tanya. He spent hours learning the intricacies of direction, music, spent hours getting the perfect lyrics in place and worked and worked like I haven't seen him work. In fact, he would always joke - those who work are not my friends. By that definition, AP fully left his old self behind and immersed himself into his project.

As the movie progressed, we kept in touch and my hitherto slightly skeptical self, began to admire and wonder at his passion at bringing his vision to reality. So deeply was he invested - he would play songs, show small snippets, the first cut, seek views. I had little to offer because he was clear about his vision and his process. Much before the movie got done I told AP - that whatever happens to the movie, you have done a great job. You left nothing in your power to chance. And just for that dedication and sincerity of effort and honesty to his vision, AP was through in my eyes. When the movie was done, AP, as only he can, invited every single person who was part of the journey and threw a lovely party where the crew and cast were also present. His eyes light up and he laughs as spontaneously as ever. Thankfully the project did not steal that from him.

For anyone who creates, it is a huge journey, because you are fully responsible for your creation. You cannot hide - praise or criticism. This is where many try to fit into the popular formulas. AP did not think twice about his off beat name, nor the idea of adventure sports, nor several other urban concepts - he went about being true to his vision. That is what matters to me. What went into it, the honesty and sincerity behind it. To me that's the only measure of success. All else is not in our control.

'Premaku Raincheck'is a layered movie. It is about a young man, CEO of an adventure sports company called Wiki, who believes work and romance should not be mixed. But as luck would have it, he finds the perfect girl, mature, smart and caring, in his team. Much as he fights his principles, Wiki finds that his heart has a bigger say than his mind in his actions. A complex relationship with Tanya, who fits his principles but not his heart's diktat, makes things more complex for the conflicted young man. The work environment, friends and their own stories, the conflict between themselves and the others lead to a perfect ending - all ends are well tied up (including some really tiny threads). Music by Deepak Kiran is lovely, the locales breathtaking, Sharath ever reliable. All the debutants - Abhilash, Priya, and Mounika are very credible. The support cast adds to the fun and they did a great job too. It moved at a fine pace, got me believing the characters, made me feel for them and root for them. The story comes together well in the end.

I saw a 3/5 rating on ToI today. Some other user reviews are very promising. 89% seemed to have liked the film. It's a movie for the millenials and AP never tried to dumb it down for anyone which is a good thing. I hope PR gets AP great success. All said and done like I told him, AP was a winner way before the film released. And I do hope he continues and makes more movies with stories that he believes in and are close to his heart. 

Thought for the Day - Context is Everything

Context is everything. What you want it to be and what you operate in is what makes your reality.

It is up to us to set our context. The one who can set himself a fine context lives that life. The one who cannot suffers. 

Stages - A Play

Naresh bought tickets for this play and invited me. I am not much of a playgoer but decided to try it out. It was at the Westin Hotel. The play is presented by the Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation, which is led by Mohammad Ali Baig, and which has a mandate of preserving the culture and heritage of Hyderabad. The play is adapted from a short story written by Noor Baig. It premiered in the US, Turkey and several prestigious festivals in India.

The play is about an old world Hyderabad family that saw the opulence, grandeur and Hyderabadi lifestyle of the old in its good days. Read as polo matches, poetry recitals perhaps, large mansions with stables and horses, servants and the works. The house is one of the last such remaining in an otherwise rapidly shrinking space thanks to apartments and high rises. The young protagonist Aziza is an artist and loves the old heritage and memories associated with the house, and her now deceased father, whose portrait she has begun but is not able to complete. Her mother is leaning towards selling the house and moving to an apartment - the maintenance and insecurity of maintaining an old house and an old servant is getting to her. The only man servant left from the old days is the aging Ramaiah who shares Aziza's thoughts. In sharp contrast is the young help, Shehzadi who cares two hoots for heritage etc and is a heady consumerist. Aziza's fiance lives in Chicago and is hoping that she will sell the old house and join him there. He finds that she is not likely to do that and is more likely to let him go than the house and makes his peace with her decision.

The cast was Noor Baig, Vijay Prasad, Madhu Swaminath, Mohammad Ali Baig, Shailaja Reddy and S.A. Majeed.

Like all good things, the play grows on you slowly. Noor Baig carries the play on her own almost and she is good at what she does. It was a fine evening with a lot of fine people including the Consul Generals of the USA, and Turkey and the High Commissioner of Britain, Director Alliance Francaise, Dr. Sahib Rasool Khan of the Shadan Group, in attendance and beaurocrats like Jayesh Ranjan and Arvind Kumar.

For all the talk of preserving heritage it was interesting to see the westerners wearing Indian clothes and the Indians wearing western clothes. There was a panel discussion moderated by Jayesh Ranjan and he did a fine job of it. It pretty much centered around heritage buildings in Hyderabad and what one must do to protect them.

Naresh knew the Baig's and went to meet them and all the others he knew up front in the stage. Very enjoyable evening. Thanks Naresha.

A Qadir Ali Baig production, Mohammad Ali Baig and Noor Baig starring play - ticked.

Into the Great Heart: Legends and Adventures of Guru Angad - Kamla K. Kapur

Guru Angad was the second Guru of the Sikhs after Guru Nanak Dev. The author Kamla Kapur writes a poetic account of how Bhai Lehna, a Durga worshipper who comes to visit Guru Nanak, gets drawn to him and makes him his guru. In the first meeting Bhai Lehna mistakes Guru Nanak to be an ordinary servant and allows him to take his horse and lead him in. From that moment on Bhai Lehna is drawn to Guru Nanak and the Guru Nanak understands his great devotion for him.

Guru Nanak's companion through his years of travel is Mardana, a Muslim. Now Guru Nanak and Mardana live in the same town with their families. Guru Nanak's sister Nanaki stays with him, as does his Sulakhni and his two sons who vie for the position after Guru Nanak - Lakhmi Das and Sri Chand. While Sri Chand has a following of seekers who call themselves Udaasis, Lakhmi Das has a different style of living God's life, of hunting and killing birds and animals. Both sons wish to follow their father to his psosition but Guru Nanak is not convinced. Bhai Lehna's devotion impresses him more.

The story is driven by conversations between Buddha, a follower of Guru Nanak, Aziza, daughter of Mardana and the various women mostly. Mata Sulakhni is angry with Guru Nanak for what he subjected her to by leaving her alone with her small children. Nanaki supports her brother. The discrimination of gender, of religion even to play a musical instrument is shown gently through the narrative. We get a fair sense of how the society was then, the situation in their house and Guru Nanak's philosophy.

Two stories I remember of Guru Nanak. The first when he sees some Hindus praying at Kashi and giving water to their ancestors by facing East. He turns West and starts pouring water upon which the priests ask him what he is doing. He tells them he is watering his plants in Punjab. In another story he tells an ascetic who closes his eyes and says he has found all the secrets of mankind inside him. Guru Nanak hides his lota behind him and the man gets furious. Guru Nanak asks him how he found the secret to mankind when he could not find his lota.

As the story progresses we see that the family of Guru Nanak does not like the presence of Bhai Lehna and get him removed from their house. Bhai Lehna leaves with a heavy heart. The two brothers Sr Chand and Lakhmi Das fight one day leading to Lakhmi Das's death or rather, disappearance. Upset that his father will not make him the next guru Sri Chand leaves with his band of followers. Soon after, an ageing Mardana dies. Guru Nanak chooses his follower in a drastic manner. He calls all hopefuls, takes them to a forest, shows them a decaying corpse and asks the one who wants to follow him to eat the corpse. None touches it but Bhai Lehna asks if he should start with the head or the foot and if he could share it with the others. Just as he is about to eat it, it turns into a prasad. Truly, Bhai Lehna proves he is worthy of his guru's affections. In the end, Guru Nanak leaves his earthly abode and Bhai Lehna becomes Guru Angad, the second Guru of the Sikhs.

In one chapter, while mentioning that Guru Nanak disapproved of the Hindu rituals after a person's death because they frequently put poor people into debt, Kamla Kapur describes the entire process that takes place when a Hindu dies. The person is carried from the bed to the floor, feet turned towards the North to ensure he doesn't become a ghost, body bathed in curd and ghee, clothed in best outfit, covered in a shroud, widow and children touch the feet, lamp lit near the head of the deceased to light up the journey to the other word, men shave heads, women take of jewelry,  body taken to cremation grounds to the sounds of drums, stringed instruments gongs and conch shells. Flower petals and dry fruits are thrown over the body. The body is carried out feet first, as against head first from the womb, on the shoulders of four close relatives. The body is placed on a pyre. Wood piled. A pot of water is broken to symbolise that the form has broken and shapeless water has returned to the soil. The eldest son sets fire. Midway he lifts the club and breaks the deceased's skull.
Mourners bathe at a pond or well, wash their clothes and wear new ones to purify themselves from death. The bones are collected and consigned to a river, always to a river that takes away and brings. a feast follows to ensure the deceased has a good afterlife. A cow is given to Brahmin priests so that the deceased can clutch its tail and cross over to the other shore. You can imagine what Guru Nanak might have said about such rituals. But it was interesting for me to see it all laid out like this. I saw several, did a few, but never made sense of it all.

'Into the Great Heart' is poetic and easy to read. There are so many references to it which use the word 'poetic' and though I cannot put my finger on why, there is a lilting quality to the prose. Though simply told in a very accessible manner the characters stay with you. The philosophy and lessons are deep and clearly show that Kamla Kapur knows far more and far deeper about the philosophy and the story. Kamla Kapur is a poet, author and playwright. She taught play writing, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, mythology at Grossmont College, San Diego and currently divides her time between Kullu Valley and California.

'Into the Great Heart; is written with much love by a person who knows what she is writing and wants to share her understanding with her readers. An enjoyable and enlightening read.

The Sunday HANS - Indians Come First

Indians Come First!
http://epaper.thehansindia.com/1800465/SUNDAY-HANS/SUNDAY-HANS#page/6/1

A Priceless Gesture by Joel Wilson

Joel Wilson and I played cricket for All Saints High School in the one year that I played, 1982. He was a good off spinner and batsman, and always a fun guy to have around. Years after school we still kept in touch somehow and he came around for the book launches of '50 Not Out' and 'This Way Is Easier Dad'. Apart from meeting at school reunion parties Joel and I share our cricket connection and a few laughs about the world, over the phone. He is one guy who calls frequently and exchanges pleasantries and we laugh about it all.

Setting up for the photo shoot

So it was a lovely surprise when he called me the other day and said he wanted a copy each of all my books because he wanted to gift them to his daughter Cinderella who is studying medicine in China. I was rather surprised at this request - no one had ever asked me for all four books and that too for their children. Most seem to think I am a rather dangerous influence on their kids and some actively keep me away from their kids, so this was a huge moment for me. I said I will keep a set ready and he said he would come and pick them up.

Smile - Joel and I and my life work so far

I forgot about his request until he called me the other day and said he was coming down from Nagole to pick up the books. What! He was serious? I had to leave early so told him to come by 830. And come he did and picked up the books. We had a cup of chai, laughed about this and that, called Rajesh Chetty, another cricketer friend from All Saints. Rajesh asked me what Joel was doing at my place so early in the morning. I told him that Joel did what no one had done so far - come all this way to a set of my books for his daughter. Rajjesh said - you need one friend like that among a hundred. I fully agree. Joel - you did make me feel so happy my friend, with your gesture. Joel bought them all of course.

What a beautiful setting for a beautiful moment!

But then I suddenly realised that the last copy of TWIED that I had was now gone and wondered what to do. It did not seem appropriate that Joel's gift to Cindy should not have 'This Way Is Easier Dad' which is all about father-daughter conversations. I searched high and low and finally gave away my first copy of TWIED - something that I normally retain as mine. But Joel deserved it and so did Cindy and  I hope she enjoys reading them all. A priceless moment deserved another priceless return gesture.

In those few minutes of chatting I knew so much more about Joel than I had before. And then it was time for him to go. That's a memorable moment in my life for sure. Thanks Joel and good luck Cindy. 

Parched - Movie

Four women in rural India and how they cope with society and its double standards. Powerful.