Bahubali and More at Ramoji Studios

 A visit to Ramoji studios after a good 15 years, I think. Much water has flown under the bridge, but this time, a Bahubali set was awaiting us, and we had a nice guide too.. Ayushi Deshpande, on our bus. So despite the heat, we enjoyed most of the sights- pics to prove it.

A permanent set of a King's court, above.

A station with a train, below.

European houses, on a single street.

Pic by Ayushi, above.

Directorial stuff.

Cheerful Bahubali, and serious Kattappa 

We had the Eiffel Tower overlooking the Wild West and Magadha empire, among other things.. Talk about juxtaposition!

She was not part of the set, just a co-passenger who was in the frame while I shot something else!

Uplifting Movie-Golconda High School

Saw Golconda High School, in Telugu. It's at one level, a formula sports film, about a school cricket team that finds a coach who inspires them back to winning ways, in the process also saving the school ground from being auctioned off. Good performances from the kids, and a tightly edited script keeps you engrossed, aided by some upbeat background music and songs. The heroes for me are the young cricketers and the school Principal who shows courage in adversity, and is willing to stake his job for a cause he believes in.

But it has a deeper meaning if you care to look for it. It points a finger at all of us who don't do enough to achieve what (we say) we want in life. From a cricketing victory, to personal goals of different types, we want a lot, but we don't necessarily do the needful. Sometimes, due to our own immaturity or unpreparedness or lack of knowledge, we may need a guide, a coach, a sounding board, so to speak. At other times, knowing fully well what is needed, we are just too lazy. But in either case,a sincere effort from our side is needed-even if it is just to find a mentor. Perhaps that was also the hidden meaning in all our stories about a king or a commoner doing "tapasya" to get a boon. The boon and the penance probably represent the achievement and the goal-oriented hard work, respectively.

An Education of Sorts

Can watching pulp movies be educational? Yes, if you watch them with some attention. And particularly, if you watch them just after you have watched an entire day's shooting for a movie in the making. This is precisely what I did this weekend (which started on Thursday-lucky me). I first saw the shoot of a new Telugu film being shot- on a cricket field, coz the story is that of a school cricket team coming back from the dead. Called Golconda High School in the film. Learnt a lot about getting your act together, camera angles, shot conceptualisation, number of shots you can shoot on a good day (about 40?), and the like. It was hot as hell, but the crew worked 10 hours a day, making us academics look silly. Trolley shots (camera on the rails moving straight ahead or back following a character), crane shots (from atop a crane), plain long shots, close-ups, each has its own place in a movie, and can enhance the efect of what's being shown.

Then I saw two Telugu films, one Hindi film and one Agatha Christie classic, in a span of two days or so. Excellent education, I'd say. I liked Chak De the best, of all. Crisp editing does it for me. Plotwise, Agatha Christie wins hands down. But interesting touches in the two Telugu films- Sye has some nice rugby scenes though they come too late, and A Film by Arvind (that's the title) starts off well with a director finding an incomplete script, and life imitating fiction (the script), before losing its way in the dark-literally.

I uploaded my autobiography in 20 odd pieces on a website, www.scribd.com and found it got a lot of readers- you can find it on the website if you search for My Experiments with Half-truths.