Magadheera @ 100

All south Indian cinema records are history now with S.S.Rajamouli's Magadheera successfully completing 100 days across the globe in 223 direct centers.

The movie is India's biggest movie this year grossing more than 100 crore rupees and still going. The movie has surpassed Telugu industry's benchmark Pokiri (43 crores) in just three weeks and Rajinikanth's Sivaji (one of the worst movies of the decade, yet south India's biggest grosser) comfortably.

Unlike Sivaji, Magadheera didn't have any expectations among the audience. But the stakes soared sky-high after the audio release. The trailers were a huge hit and along with the audio and created unprecedented curiosity and excitement.

The film, released worldwide by production house Geeta Arts (the makers of Hindi Ghajini) started with a bang on day one breaking records right from day one. Ram Charan Tej has evolved as the new Mega Star of Telugu Cinema.

The impact of the movie is clearly seen as the industry hasn't registered even a medium hit since Magadheera. A number of movies which would otherwise have recorded a decent run have been footnote to the magnum opus. Even Kamal Hassan's straight Telugu movie after more than a decade had to bite the dust.

Like Arundhati, Magadheera is sure to dominate the 2009 Nandi awards (the Andhra Pradesh government's annual awards).

The movie will be released for Pongal in Tamil Nadu.

For more details visit www.megafanz.blogspot.com

PS: Rajinikanth's Robot (Yentiram in Tamil and directed by Shankar) is the next biggest film in South India.

BSNL’s New Portal

BSNL has moved its customer information onto a new portal, but failed to communicate this move to its customers.

Most of the users are still ignorant of the new web address

http://selfcare.sdc.bsnl.co.in/selfcare/start.swe?SWENeedContext=false&SWECmd=Logoff&SWEC=2&SWEBID=-1&SWETS=

and are wondering about the sudden malfunctioning of certain features in the old address www.dataone.in.

BSNL didn’t even bother to flash a message about the new development on its old website or redirect its users. The old website simply displays the following error message when the broadband users try to log in.

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.


New Range of Services

The new portal boasts of many new features. First time users need to register with the website to explore the new elements that range from STD code search facility to application forms and bill payment.

The request is verified and the user gets his confirmation via telephone within a week.

On the surface, the portal looks healthier than its predecessor in terms of looks and navigation. The Home Page provides complete details of the user’s telephone and broadband plan along with the status.

Generic customer issues are placed under the services section which includes request for new service and its status, register a complaint and its status, update contact information, check broadband and telephone usage details and others.

The portal also promotes BSNL’s new offers and recommended products along with information about various plans under the offers and info section.

Moving on the website’s weaknesses, there are a few glitches with the broadband usage details. Unlike its ancestor, the broadband usage details do not get updated immediately after the session and can be seen only after a few days.

The portal looks pale and sans impressive graphics or bright colors giving the feel of a typical government website.

It seems to have some rivalry with Firefox and works efficiently when opened in IE.

I am yet to explore the portal fully and would appreciate any contribution from my visitors.

It's Out Now!

A huge banner put up at the Microsoft office in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, on the eve of Windows 7 launch.

Employee Pampering

Straight to the point: Do employees need frills at workplace?

Frills include a/c cabs, amphitheaters, a number of restrooms equipped with plasma televisions that most often play to empty seats, closed windows and blindfolds, conditioned air, artificial lighting, automated washrooms, etc.

Of late, a number of companies (including native and foreign) that have expanded to major cities in India have begun to provide such add-ons, if not all of them. In fact, employers seem to be vying with each other to provide better amenities to employees.

So, can workplace frills enable produce better output? The answer cannot be a definite yes or no. They can help retain employees for more time and make them come back to workplace the next day. But for how long is the immediate question.

It’s often seen that organizations with huge employee friendly infrastructure too have high attrition rates. This phenomenon is common in BPOs and back offices of multinational companies in India.

Does the nature of work too influence the kind of accessories? A mundane copy paste job many require employers to provide heavier add-ons than a dynamic job – not mentioned deliberately.

For most employees, it is the nature of their work and the accompanying pay check that matters than the aforementioned paraphernalia.

No doubt, good work and a decent pay combined with such frills is a deadly combination. Alas! It’s a very hard and singular combination, says my experience.

Frills may not add much value when other important components like organization culture, nature of work and employee management are poor, but certain frills can create huge void if ignored.

PS: Work, pay and frills are relative terms.

National Awards and Telugu Cinema

"Telugu films are being made lavishly but no film has substance to consider for an award," remarked National Film Awards jury chairperson Sai Paranjape.

Thanks for the compliment madam. But is this an issue worth worrying?

A popular local television channel presented an interesting case on this.

It said huge lobbying happens at the awards and Telugus are very poor in this art, which affected fate of a number of good films on the national platform.

Classics like Sankarabharanam, Sagarasangamam and Swati Mutyam didn't get their full due, though they bagged a few national awards. Kamal Hassan didn't receive national award for his roles in Telugu movies Sagarasangamam and Swatimutyam (India's official entry to the Oscars in 1986).

Prakash Raj, the best actor for 2007, was brilliant as a factionist in the Telugu movie Antahpuram, but alas! the committee wasn't interested in his performance. A similar role in a Bengali, Tamil or a Malayalam movie would have won him an award for sure.

This is one side of the coin. On the other side we have commercial and entertainers dominating the Telugu industry. Social themes too are narrated in a typical filmi style with songs, dance, fights and comedy sprinkled across the movie. In the process, messed up a lot of good stories resulting in sub-standard and illogical movies.

The situation has also to do with the tastes of audience partially. Patronage for commercial cinema is strong and unbelievable. Commercial heroes enjoy demi-god status and have huge, loyal fan base, forcing them to make movies to satisfy their rooters.

Classic example of this is Chiranjeevi's Rudraveena released in 1988. Directed by Balachandar, the movie dealt with many burning social issues then. Chiranjeevi, who was already the biggest star of Telugu cinema then, portrayed the role of a reformist and his character was devoid of any commercial lineaments.

The result: Rudraveena won a few national awards and was acclaimed as one of the best Telugu films ever made. But commercially, the movie was a disaster at the box office forcing Chiranjeevi to return to his domain - mainstream cinema.

General audience here cheer pure entertainment. Native comedy and clean family entertainers take top honors while racy songs and action sequences follow suit. Of late, movies providing grand visual experience are being embraced with open arms.

Films like Pokiri, Jalsa, Magadheera and Arundhati have generated millions of rupees while movies without commercial gloss have more often faced outright rejections.

The audience here encourage movies that are technically superior, contain good humor and present novel themes. Language is no barrier and that is the reason a few good Tamil and Malayalam movies (dubbed version) enjoy a decent run here as well.

As a common man and with the little knowledge I have regarding the award-winning movies, I would run away from most of them. I beleive, heroes or movies should entertain and recharge us whenever we are down and bored. I would opt for a racy movie like Pokiri to get reloaded than a national award winning movie.

PS: The much coveted Oscars too were on the brink of losing their identity this year, forcing them to nominate and award some trophies to commercial flicks like Slumdog Millionaire.

Viewership is minimal for national awards while filmfare and even the Andhra government's Nandi Award attract larger eye balls.