Boys will not stay boys forever.

This post dates back to the good old childhood days when school used to be fun and telivision used to be heaven. Back in those days one of my favourite shows on the idiot box used to be “I dream of Jeanie”, a television show that ran during the period 65-70. It could be said that I used to be crazy about that show. Skipping cricket to watch it, that outta explain the craziness to some extent. Its basically the story of the ‘troubles’ of a astronaut due to a female “Djinn” named as Jeanie. The irony of the show lies in the fact that the astronaut resuces her frm her long stay of 2000 years in her bottle. Jeanie’s primary goal is to please her master but due to the lack of experience and due to ignorance about the modern age ends up bringing trouble for him. It also incudes her master’s best friend and the psychologist of the base where her master is stationed at.

The show mainly focuses on Jeanie’s love(obsession) for her master and his reluctance in marrying a Djinn. The main areas where comedy has been included are Jeanie’s ignorance, the situations her master has to go through due to her and the plight of the psychologist who is constantly subjected to the shock of witnessing most of the aftermaths of Jeanie’s doings. It also involves Jeanie and her master taking trips to the past and getting involved in some major events of the past including Napolean’s decision of trying to conquer Russia ;). It also involves the psychologist witnessing weird things such as, a elephant, a tiger, a jail and other such things in the astronauts house and oddly enough had to go through a snow storm in Florida, in the middle of July and over only 1 house. It also sports a love angle where Jeanie is in love with her master and as a result is jealous about him going out with other girls. The main problem fun begins when she tries to PROTECT him frm other girls in her own way.

The good old days(Age 12) used to be filled with my wishing for a Jeanie of my own for the primary goal of finishing my homework and stuff. Though most of the dialogues used to be greek and latin for me, it still used to be funny based purely on my visual understandingof the show. Frankly it wouldnt had much of a difference even if the show were to air in German or some other language for that matter. The boring part used to be all the conversations.

Then  arrives the age of action(Age 15-18), in other terms the Arnie fever. Though the show had stopped airing I couldnt wonder about the things that I would be wishing for if I were to get hold of my very own Jeanie. It typically used to be guns, rockets(no missiles. I was still ignorant to the concept of missiles.), wars, snipers and replacing my life with the life of John Rambo ;).

Now when I get reacquainted with the series, the period when I can understand what the characters keep babling about, I finally discover how funny the show really was. The frequent references to historical figures like Omar khayam as Jeanies friends, the real reasons why her master doesnt like it when he receives original peices of art frm Jeanie and many other things. But unfortunately now when the laughs end I cant keep my mind of the inconsistences in the script of the show. Apart frm them a lot of scientifical aspects about the life of a astronaut and other things in general.

I guess thers a time for everything. Though U dont understand everything and for the most part are ignorant there a lot of things that are enjoyable when Ur kids that might  turnup to be boring of CHILDISH when U growup. And again we reach to the conclusion that education spoils us ;).

Ps :- For people interested in the series, it is out on DVD and my peers Saini@CSL roxs ;).

Stalin

Saw the movie today and wanted to express my views on the movie.

1. Awesome theme music, good cinematography and decent comedy.
2. The movie has a good theme but lacks in story and screenplay. And the pace of the movie is a bit slow too at times.
3. A decent flick and considering Chiranjeevi it would be a hit. Mayb not as big as Tagore but definitely a hit.

Now for the part in which most Chiranjeevi fans would b interested in.
Songs and Dance sequences. Overall the songs wernt a drag. The steps assigned to Megastar though wernt as complicated as his previous endeavours but the cinematography was pretty good and the steps seemed to go well with the songs. The intro song which has long since become mandatory for all Chiranjeevi movies struck well with the overall picturisation of Chiranjeevi’s character in the movie. The locations for some of the songs seemed fresh and the cinematography was good in almost all of the songs. The movie also included a item song by Anushka( of Vikramarkudu and Supre fame) which I rate to be the best frm a purely male point of view. Trisha didnt seem to compliment Chiranjeevi in the songs.

Comedy. Some of the comic sequences had Chiranjeevi’s mother(Sharada) in the pivotal position with Bramhanandam(marriage broker/purohit), Sunil(Chiranjeevi’s friend) and Khusboo(Chirajeevi’s sister) complimenting her. While a few others rotated around Chiranjeevi and Trisha. Trisha’s sister also takes part in a few comic sequences. The comic sequences between Chiranjeevi and Trisha seemed to lack the comic timing at times. The sequences involving Chiranjeevi’s mother seem to be the best.

Fights and Dialogues. The fights though seem far fetched frm physics point of view, the cinematography, the choreography and the effects seem to carry the weight of the sequences. The dialogues were powerfull and an attempt for social reformation was made. A war sequence has also been included with Chiranjeevi as a major in the military in a flashback. The sequences lacked everything except patriotism and heroism. In plain english the sequence sucked.

StoryLine.
The movie revolves around the lead actor’s attempt to rekindle the long dead helping nature of mankind. A corrupt politician(Prakash raj) and his son-in-law(Sye villian) have been included to fill the gaps in the movie and to give the hero a anti-hero other than the heartless selfish society.

The movie starts with acts of kindness and the helpfullness of the lead actor. A traumatic incident leads the lead actor to lead to a method for improving the society. A person helps 3 ppl and instead of acceptings thanks asks them to inturn help 3 others and pass around the gudwill. This idea has been copied frm a movie “Pay it forward”. The central idea of the movie seems to be revolving around this idea which seems to have failed at the beginning but towards the end becomes a revolution.A small feud over a drunk punks rudeness and hostility towards a beggar turns into a clash of, principles and moralities of the hero and the ego and ambitions of the anti-hero. The anti-hero tries to get rid of the hero’s family but fails and inturn leading to his only son’s death in a bizzare and ridiculous fight seqence of sorts. He plans to pin a murder of noneother than the CM on the hero but fails in even killing the CM thnx to the hero and later gets arrested on those charges.

On the sidelines A small and persistent feud between the lead actor’s mother and his sister based on her marriage to a punjabi razes on and ironically leads to some good laughs. Though towards the interval the feud ends thnx to dontaion of kidney by the punjabi.
The love story between Chiranjeevi and Trisha seemed to included only for aesthetic reasons and even the humour attempted failed miserably. Overall Trisha’s existence in the movie is purely aesthetic and holds no significance.

Performances.

1. Chiranjeevi is awesome asusual. But he has become old. He isnt what he used to be.
2. Trisha seemed to have failed to do justice to even the meagre role assigned to her.
3. Chiranjeevi’s mother’s performance was good and times and the comic timing was perfect.
4. Prakash raj seemed to be a imitation of Laloo in appearances and the role is unique and is not cliched.
5. Khusboo’s performance did justice to her role.
6. Sunil seemed to have become the perfect filler but unlike his previous movies his role is more emotional and less humorous.
7. A lot of actors were wasted.
8. Suman plays a guest role.

And again the theme music is awesome.

PS, thanks to

1. Ippili for the tickets.
2. Ramji for Chiranjeevi’s mom’s name ;).
3. Ramji and Yar for reviewing.
4. Srikanth for enlightening me about the movie “Pay it forward”.