Monthly Review: December 2023
The final month of the year is here, and it’s time for me to reflect upon my whole year! Well, I’m bad at this but let’s get started with what I did (and doing) in December for the sake of this blog post 🙂
Movies
Compared to the previous months, I’ve not watched as many movies in December, at least not yet and I’m not hopeful to watch many (or any) in the next 3 days. I watched three films at the theaters, starting with Animal on 1st December.
Animal
First time in my life I watched a movie as early as 7 am. I went with my brother and sister to watch Animal in Hindi, in my hometown and had mixed feelings about the movie. I liked the movie for its worth but had a few complaints on the repetitiveness of Sandeep Reddy Vanga, and also the reaction of the crowd to a few scenes.
A few scenes didn’t work for me, starting with Ranvijay proposing to Gitanjali, and she falling for him. The scene culminating in the Hua Mein song also didn’t work for me owing to it reminding me of a similar scene in Arjun Reddy. Also, the scene where school-going Ranvijay carrying a gun to find out the miscreants who ragged his sister, felt like Arjun Reddy being in a different world around different characters. Not to forget the affair he has. It was completely off for me.
I was engrossed in the movie and couldn’t notice that Abrar hadn’t arrived on screen yet, and when he was on screen, it was awesome. Again, his ending felt abrupt — I was expecting a bigger showdown rather than a lackluster fight, given the setup for both characters.
Sandeep Reddy Vanga, I feel, ventured to make a film about a father-son relationship and I was expecting it. But nowhere in the movie, I felt it was about it except for a few scenes — perhaps because of my expectations or because the movie was centered around Ranvijay and not his relationship with his father alone.
The climax also felt off and was emotionally disconnected. And that ending with another Ranbir felt forced on me. I’m not a fan of these forced cameos and love to see the organic ending for a film that set out to make what it promised.
Even the scene where Gitanjali confronts Ranvijay about the affair felt off to me. I was waiting for the scene to end so that we get to see Abrar again, after his terrific introduction scene.
Towards the end, I couldn’t believe that I sat throughout the film, which lasted more than 200 minutes. Sandeep Reddy Vanga kept me hooked to the screen with his perfect casting, screenplay, and direction. Not to forget to mention the brilliant background score by Harshavardhan Rameshwar. I can’t help but appreciate the work that elevated scenes like crazy.
Last week I was traveling in the Hyderabad metro and noticed many people in the compartment watching a reel or playing this song — Abrar’s introduction song. Even in Mumbai, people in the local train are listening to that music way too much! Happy for Harshavardhan Rameshwar.
Hi Nanna
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from Nani’s outing and thought I’d watch this when this movie is out on an OTT platform. The film, still running in theaters, got rave reviews from critics and audiences that made me book the ticket at a nearby theater.
A little context on this:
I booked a Rapido to the cinema hall and the Rapido captain asked me which movie I would watch. I replied “Hi Nanna” to which he asked why am I going alone to watch a movie. I told him to accompany me to the cinema to witness why I like going to the movies alone but he declined. If at all he’d have accompanied me, this would have happened:
Little did he know that I cry a lot during emotional scenes like a baby and prefer going alone because I don’t want my friends to laugh at my involvement in the cinema.
Now, coming to the movie, I loved it. Nani’s strong zone of comedy and emotional scenes is utilized perfectly and complemented by another actor who also has the same power of making us cry during emotional scenes — Mrunal Thakur. She’s just awesome in the movie with all the little nuances and cute expressions throughout the film. And that little girl, Kiara, whose performance was excellent. She has a good screen presence and has an ease on screen.
From the song, Gaaju Bomma, I was invested in the film until the end titles. Good music certainly takes us into the world of the characters and their relationship sooner than dialogues. This movie is an example of that. Previously I remember this happening with another Nani film, Ninnu Kori, where the first song, Ninnu Kori, had me immersed in the world.
Reflecting, I was asked by a friend about the scenes where I cried during the movie. I couldn’t recall much and my safest response was “The scenes where Mrunal cried.” Now reflecting, I feel it isn’t a joke. This happened in Sita Ramam as well for me.
Dunki
My third theatrical visit this month came in the form of Dunki, the only SRK film released this year on which I had many expectations. And this movie led me to disappointment.
Raj Kumar Hirani in one of the interviews mentioned how he ensures the scenes are written well. He, along with his co-writer, Abhijat Joshi, write scenes that have one of the three elements of LCD — Laughter, Cry, or Drama. While this worked well for his previous movies, I feel none of these worked well for Dunki.
There’s no laughter — most of the jokes are lame and stereotypical. Although there are a few funny one-liners, those couldn’t bring the most laughter either.
There’s no cry — this is one of the biggest complaints I’ve had about this movie. We couldn’t connect emotionally to any character. Even the character played by Vicky has an emotional story but they didn’t give the time and space for the audience to connect to his character. It felt hurried and had no backstory either.
The drama isn’t great either — I wasn’t able to invest in the story. While the setup and the background are good, it didn’t pay off well in my opinion. There’s a social commentary, like in all Raj Kumar Hirani’s films but the initial story leading to that isn’t strong enough to evoke the emotions towards the end.
Coming to the performances, everyone did well but SRK was as charismatic as he was. I could watch him for more time provided the script had the strength. But he did pull off this movie well, except for the voice that felt off.
Overall, the movie wasn’t worth the hype and I paid the highest amount for any movie in my whole life to watch this film in Mumbai, that too for a late-night show that started at a time when I usually sleep!
Movies on OTT
I watched three movies on different OTT platforms this month including a revisit to John Wick Chapter 4.
Bedurulanka 2012
This has to be the craziest film I’ve watched this year in Telugu Cinema. Although it has flaws, I appreciate the filmmaker for picking a premise that we are familiar with and dealing it with social commentary in a satirical way. I loved the film and a few scenes are worth a repeat watch! Hilarious movie.
John Wick: Chapter 4
I wanted to revisit this movie for a month or so now and finally watched it. My thoughts on the movie are here.
Mangalavaram
I watched it today, just before writing this blog post. A daring attempt in my opinion but it lacks the effect somehow. The night scenes are filmed well, and the music adds a layer, immersing us in the movie. The twists are good too… But overall I felt the movie could have been better and more interesting, not that it’s bad now.
Garudan
My friend and colleague Yitzhak suggested that I watch this film back in November and I added it to my watchlist then. I started writing this blog post and before editing it, I watched the movie. The movie is unpredictable and holds the suspense until the end. I was waiting to cheer at the interval but was wondering what the second half deals with, only to surprise me. Jana Gana Mana and now this movie reinstated my belief in the human ability to go to any extremes and do things beyond our imagination. Also, it reflects upon the ways innocents are implicated and criminals walk scott-free.
I was reminded of multiple Malayalam movies while watching this, starting with Jana Gana Mana, two parts of Drishyam, and Kannur Squad owing to the way scenes unfold in this movie. Drishyam because of the intellect a human can possess to fool the system, and Kannur Squad to reveal the resilience and camaraderie among the Police.
If you’re into thrillers and suspense, I’d recommend this movie.
Books
I’ve been reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson this month, turning a few pages every day, getting to know his journey and his character more. Based on my reading speed, this would take another month or so to complete. In parallel, I want to quickly finish reading a Telugu novel so that I have the momentum and a story to travel with. Let’s see how it goes!
Song of the month
I’ve been listening to this song from Narasimha (Padayappa) these days, especially for the voice of Harini, and the little voice expressions she gives in the song that makes it too sweet to hear (that ay baboi is cute)
And from the time I watched Hi Nanna, I’ve been listening to the “Gaaju Bomma” song on a loop. Such a soulful song ❤
Travel
Oh my god! I’ve been to multiple places this month, starting from Bengaluru to Mumbai, for various reasons.
Starting December 6th, I was in a town near Chikmagalur for two days to attend a wedding, and then in Bengaluru for a day. We had a company offsite in Coorg for three days. And finally, I was in Mumbai for ten days, until Christmas. This was my timeline for a week where I happened to travel almost every day:
December 5th: Hyderabad to Bengaluru
December 6th: Bengaluru to Kadur
December 7th: Kadur to Bengaluru
December 8th: Bengaluru to Coorg (Madikeri)
December 9th: Rest day!
December 10th: Coorg to Bengaluru
December 11th: Bengaluru to Hyderabad
It was hectic but I got days to rest as well. With these daily trips, Yoga took a toss as I was unable to do Yoga every day. I tried to have No-Zero days (where you do the least minimal thing possible towards an activity to avoid not doing it entirely) but couldn’t do it either.
Mumbai
I went to Mumbai the same week I returned from Karnataka. It was pre-planned and I had booked tickets way back in October. I was in Mumbai five years back and went there again for two reasons — my friend Nikhil Goutham is staying there for a brief period and to revisit the same places I went to five years ago.
We were accompanied by another friend, Janmejay in Mumbai, and together, we explored multiple places in two days. Either alone or in a group, I covered the following places — Mannat (SRK’s home), Juhu Beach, Marine Drive, Fashion Street, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Gateway of India, Taj Hotel, and NMACC. In two days, I walked for more than 50k steps, thanks to Goutham and Janmejay, and our common interest to cover as many places as possible.
Owing to the distance between the places and the traffic, I happened to travel by multiple modes of transport during this trip — Local train, Metro, Bus, Mono Rail, and auto! Among all these, the Local train turned out to be the most convenient one for me but I can’t board it during peak time. I happened to board it twice during peak hours and the experience wasn’t great. I was constantly checking my pockets throughout the journey.
I visited my extended family too — my uncle’s family stays there. I visited them during my last trip, and it was nice meeting the entire family again after five years. Although I was with them for an hour or so, we had good conversations and laughter! ❤
Also, while in Mumbai, I attended a Film Companion Adda event, hosted by Sneha Menon Desai. That was a conversation with the lead cast of Kho Gaye Hum Kahan — Ananya Pandey, Siddhant Chaturvedi, and Adarsh Gourav. It was a mere coincidence that I was there in Mumbai at the same time! Got a few pictures with them during the event 🙂
I was at Navi Mumbai too, to meet a friend and a fellow Product Manager, Ashwin. He works for a different company and isn’t from the same college as me.
Do you know how we became friends? Yes, you guessed it right. He read one of my blogs on LinkedIn and reached out to me on LinkedIn and we became friends. The benefits of social media, if you will. We had interacted on Google Meet a few times and since I was there, he welcomed me to Navi Mumbai and we walked along the streets of Vashi. It always feels good to meet someone you know online and interact a few times virtually before meeting in person.
Other Stuff
Now, coming to the interviews I’ve watched this month, there’s no list as such. I’m halfway through two conversations — BR with Sandeep Reddy Vanga and Prashanth Neel. However, I completed the latest Siva Kartikeyan and BR interview as the interview was relatively short and the conversation was smooth. Loved the humility of Siva Karthikeyan and his admittance to things he’s not aware of.
Owing to continuous travel for more than twenty days, I couldn’t focus on my fitness. So, soon after I returned from Mumbai, I resumed going to Yoga classes and it has been a three-day streak. Booked for the next two days as well (break on the 31st and 1st).
I couldn’t write or publish blogs this month, again, owing to my priorities. I could have done this but didn’t do it. After this blog, I’ll write my reflections on this year, and hopefully publish this on the 31st.
Okay folks, thanks for reading thus far! Until next time…
