I was watching the movie Karthikeya for second time at Asian Uppal Cinemas; there was a scene where the snake suddenly attacks hero. I was waiting for that scene and at that nick of time my screen view was blocked and my ears heard the voice "Sir... 2 Frankies, 1 burger, 2 cokes.. seat number 8".... he was the vendor providing service to the seat itself at an important juncture of the movie.
He was reaching out to them at seat 8 by stretching himself from seats 9 and 10.
After the movie I asked my friend if he watched this scene. He said "no"....!!!
I go to movies to watch it and do not expect these kind of disgusting disturbances. If this happens next time at any movie, I will take this to the notice of supervisor/manager to avoid this during movie screening.
Some people come to watch the movie 30 mins after the start and create such disturbances.
Babies often cry aloud or make noise... why cant the parents control them and if they can't let then don't come to movie with babies.
Some people speak aloud in c(h)ell phones and have a quite a good time conversing with the person on the other side. Why don't you go out and do that? how many times should we tell you to speak in a low voice?
If one persons shakes his legs, the entire row gets the movement.. very irritating (I have told to stop this to the person sitting beside me a number of times.. one person picked up a fight with me in Mangalore big cinemas when I was watching Gangs of Wasseypur part 1)
Leave me alone and please let me watch the movie peacefully...
Vs
I feel pity when I look upon the kids born after the year 2000. They would only see the hundreds of channels on TV, Video Games, Xbox, Pokemon, GI Joe, shopping malls and the game zones there, play angry birds on an iPad, taunting new battery operated toys to their friends, celebrating birthdays with cakes in the shapes of spiderman/batman/probably more new superheros take birth for this, AC School classrooms, buses, houses with inverters, tons of books and lots of homework.
Then they grow up and become tech savvy to have the latest bike, gizmos like cell phone, online social networking, watch movies with cheap comedy and high voltage action films where the hero kicks the bad person who then like a ball hits the walls and comes back to take one more beating.
I was born in 1988, which I feel that the kids of this time have seen everything during the transformation. Let me list out what I have been through:
1. Listening to 1 hour movies on radio on a red colored radio cum tape recorder.
2. Spending Dussera/winter/summer holidays at grandparents’ place where there was only Doordarshan channel on it.
3. Watching Mowgli for its title song, chitralahari for the latest Telugu movie songs, Teleschool at 10:30 AM and then end up in disappointment to watch the screen with the message “All links are now linked to Delhi”
4. Waiting desperately for the only Telugu movie of the week on every Sunday at 4:00 PM.
5. Alif Laila, Legendary RamanandSagar’s Ramayan and Mahabharatha, Shaktimaan – the Indian Super Hero, Anandobrahma, Maryada Ramanna.
6. The happiness when your teacher signs in your notes saying “Excellent” (We used to compete with our classmates for the most number of Goods & Excellents)
7. Craving for a pepsi – not the regular one. It used to come in plastic covers like a tube with flavored colors.
8. The joyful cry when the power goes out and all the children in apartments play till the power is up (Now-a-days having inverter at home has become a mandatory thing)
9. Cricket game in text books, WWF card games.
10. Clean comedy movies from Jandhyala.
11. The relation between a whitener and typewriter, tape cassette and pencil.
The GenNext today will never know:
1. Color TV with a cable connection is a rarity.
2. Mopeds like TVS Champ, TVS 50 (we had red colored one) was the first luxury transport.
3. The revolution brought in by Bajaj Chetak..! Only a few privileged had one – HAMARA BAJAJ..!
4. Mil Sur Mera Tumhara song on Doordarshan depicting our Unity in Diversity and the typical Doordarshan conclusion music after that.
5. The taste of Chalkpiece soaking in mouth .. Ummmmmm..!
6. Swami and friends and other stories from Malgudi Days, Ruskin Bond short stories (to name a few)
7. Gramaphone.. My grandpa had it with a huge collection of records..
8. Playing hourly video games like Dave, Mario etc by paying rent at gaming zones.
I believe some of them are already extinct.
Poor new generation..
P.S: This is written in view of a middle and upper middle class family environment.
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An Election in India is probably the biggest and largest democratic exercise, which is undertaken for every 5 years. I have been a part of this by volunteering the work of web casting at the polling booth (live telecast of events going on at the polling booth which is viewed by Admin team and officials). It’s a magnum opus by EC. I had the privilege of having a sneak peek in the process.
Let me brief it:
1. Every 5 years, elections are conducted to decide the governments at state (Assembly) and Central (Parliament) through vote.
2. A party should be registered with Election Commission of India (EC) to contest in elections.
3. A party is recognized only when it secures minimum limit of voting.
4. Political parties decide list of candidates for each assembly and each constituency under it.
5. Electronic Voting Machines and Control Units and other materials are prepared.
6. Each EVM can accommodate 16 candidates list (2014 elections had NOTA option: None of the above). If for a constituency the candidates are more then multiple EVMs are prepared and attached to a single CU.
7. Allotment of people to carry out the elections at each polling station is chalked out. Usually government employees, school teachers, bank employees are given the election duty.
8. They will be trained about the duties as per the role given. The roles are given related to their current work designation.
9. A day before the Election Day, the allotted people collect the material at a distribution center and by evening reach their respective polling stations and setup everything.
10. A typical polling station functions with the following:
a. Presiding officer: IN charge and point of contact for the polling station. Is responsible for handover of EVMs and other materials at the end.
b. Assistant Presiding officer: Like the Vice Captain
c. Polling officer: Could be 4 or 5 people.
d. Polling Agents: These are the persons posted by the party candidates who also have the list of voters in that polling station.
11. Usually polling time is from 7 AM to 6 PM. Between 6 AM to 7 AM, mock voting is done to test the EVM and CU in the presence of polling agents and then sealed off.
a. A person coming to cast his vote should get the voter slip along with an identification card.
b. Polling officer1 marks the name in the voter list. The same thing is done by the polling agents to validate the person.
c. Polling officer2 makes a note of the identification card number and makes a mark on the finger.
d. Polling officer3 issues voter slips (one for Assembly and One for Parliament).
e. Polling officer 4 and 5 press the button ‘Ballot’ on the CU and only then the EVM can register the vote casted by the person
12. Every 2 hours, the number of polled votes are reported by Presiding Officer to the Returning Officer.
13. At 6 PM, the voting is closed and the CU along with EVMs are sealed in the presence of polling agents before taking the total count from the CU.
14. All the material is packed and is to be submitted at a reception center common to the Assembly constituency.
15. The allotted people at the polling station have the postal ballot facility because they will not cast their vote due to the allotment of election duty.
P.S: April 30th was the Election day for us in Hyderabad and I was posted at Polling Station# 47, Grama Panchayat Office, Bandlagudajagir village (10 KMs from my home). I went to the distribution center – Sri Venkateshwara Veternary University, Rajendranagar - on the day before at 10.30 AM and collected the 3G dongle (BSNL), Logitech Web Cam and a DVD.
-- Had lunch and returned home by 3 PM.
-- Went to polling station at 7 PM, verified the setup and came back home by 9 PM.
-- Reached polling station at 5.45 AM and got the setup done by 6:00 AM
-- Was given 2 idlis and 1 Wada as breakfast.
-- Mock polling started at 6.40 AM and ended at 7.20 AM. I started the web streaming from 6.40 AM.
-- Had lunch at 12.30 PM
-- Cool drink at 3 PM
-- Closed web streaming at 6. 10 PM and reached the reception center – Gachibowli indoor sports stadium by 7 PM and waited 1 and half an hour to submit the material.
-- Reached home by 9.30 PM
Got 750 /- as the remuneration amount..!!
Disclaimer: Writing this as a pure admirer and worshipper for Telugu Cinema. No offense meant.
I wanted to write something about the movies that are coming up in Telugu these days but then how to start, where to start, whom to blame – the audience or the movie makers as a whole?
Let me start with the latest 100 days sensation – Atharintiki Daredi. I fell in love with PK’s magic since Komaram Puli only for the pure hype created prior to his movie releases. People shall admit that there is something in him; probably the power in him which draws people to theaters, make them to buy tickets for 800 to 2000/- or more for the first show of the day. I too watched it after a painful search for ticket booking and then compromised with the fact that it is going to be a good hit for Power Star.
Take out PK from the movie – what is there to watch? Where is Trivikram? It was a good family entertainer. That’s it..!
Are our Telugu audiences stupid enough to watch only these kinds of movies, won’t they receive serious theme oriented movies like Tamils do?
Are we not the same people who watched the classics Shankarabharanam or Muthyala Muggu?
Let me list out a few directors of Telugu Cinema of this generation who have added a new dimension – Sukumar, Bhaskar, Dev Katta, Mohana Krishna Indraganti, Krish, Trivikram, Chandra Siddharth, Neelakanta, Krishna Vamshi, Karunakaran, Shekar Kammula, Rajamouli, Srinu Vaitla, VV Vinayak, Puri Jagannath, Gunasekar, Hanu Raghavapudi (though one film old, he gave the fresh breath), Surendar Reddy…
DID I MISS ANY ONE ELSE?
Sukumar, Bhaskar, Krish, Trivikram, Krishna Vamsi, Karunakaran, Shekar Kammula, Rajamouli are the ones whom I look up-to
Bhaskar: Came out with Ongole gitta
Krish : Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum
Krishna Vamsi: Mogudu, Chandamama, Even Paisa trailer is’nt looking promising
Trivikram: Julayi , AD
Shekar Kammula: Life is Beautiful (OMG..! WTF movie..!!)
We do not want to watch movies like Khaleja, Jagadam, Prasthanam, Oy, 180, Andari bandhuvaya, Shambo Shiva SHambo, Na autograph, Bhageeratha, Arya 2.
I might have mentioned only a few here which are really good movies with novel ideas. Agree that some of them should have been more effective. But every film has its pros and cons. We should ignore the negatives when a new theme comes up.
- Jagadam : Was brilliant. People say that heroine was the minus point for this but this is the best work from Sukumar.
- Prasthanam : Salute and hatsoff to the director and producer of the movie to come up with such a masterpiece.
- Khaleja : It pains me to say that it was outrightly rejeceted by us. We are to blame. Sorry Trivikram....
- Neninthe : Puri Jaganath’s best work till date. Which again is rejected by us. Sorry Puri.. I know that this is the reason you don’t make such movies again.
- KVJ : The heart breaking thing for me was KVJ from Krish. Except the trailer parts picked up from the movie, nothing is notably worth in it. Why did you take up this safe house formula? I can never forgive you for this. You too Brutus?
- LIB : Shekar Kammula, you were the ray of hope to new budding directors, brought freshness once again to Telugu cinema. But why did Life is Beautiful come up? Leader should have be more effective if the love saga wasn’t dragged too much in the second half. The plot loses its intensity due to this prolonged love angle.
Trivikram : Man, this article started because of you. Are you the one who made Athadu and Nuvve Nuvve? And then Julayi? I know that you are forced not to do path-breaking movies by us only. We take the blame collectively.
But then let tell you, I watch movies for its theme, the taking, cinematography, and screenplay but not for 2 beautiful songs, mind blowing (blasting) fights and a couple of punch dialogues.
Why are the directors coming out of their mark and making the so-called commercial potboilers? The reason is we are expecting only these kinds of genres for our entertainment. We are to blame for this kind of scenario. And to add the image of ‘big’ stars and fans would not agree for an out of box movie that easily.
Bottomline : Sukumar
You are the man of the moment for coming up with 1 Nenokkadiney.. What a movie….!!!!! Nicely made; right from the title design.. and the link with the sound recording machine is carried through out the movie.. The interval part is simply mind blowing stuff..! Excellent ending to the movie..! What a screenplay and script you have penned out..! Thanks to producers and Mahesh for believing in the work and giving us a master piece.. I was super excited when speaking with you on phone in the dial in program in a news channel.
I am so delightful to end this article on a happy note because of Sukumar.. Thank you once again for giving us such a cult movie and hope that other filmmakers get inspired and try to come up with new things and raise the stature of Telugu Cinema.
P.S:
1. Watched 1 – Nenokkadiney a couple of times but still want to go for it atleast two times for now.
2. Awaiting Autonagar Surya from Dev Katta. Please do not disappoint..!
