ICC World Cup 2015- A review till 23-Feb-2015

The ICC cricket world cup 2015 started with a good note and so far 9 days into the world cup, its very good cricket that has happened, with some ferocious batting, bowling and fielding efforts on display from the teams. There were some awesome performances and some unexpected performances too.

Coming into the teams and how they fared so far in the world cup, lets have a short look at those. Let me start with India, being an Indian.

India:

Many had written off India till the world cup began and now they are the talk of the town with two astounding wins against their Arch rivals Pakistan , to whom they never lost in a world cup match till date and South Africa, against whom they have lost all the three world cup encounters till yesterday's win.

It all started with the match against Pakistan , where the batsmen came in handy with 70's from Shikar Dhawan & Suresh Raina , along with a marvelous ton by Kohli that made India to post 300 on the board, though the last five overs yielded only 21 runs and India lost 4 wickets ( including 3 wickets from overs 48.5-49.2), the total was sufficient to knock down Pakistan by 76 runs. Shami, Umesh, Jadeja , Mohit chipped in with wickets when needed and in the middle overs took 3 wickets for 1 run which made Pakistan go away from chasing and once Misbah got out, its all but a win for India.

Against South Africa too MSD won the toss and chose to bat, despite losing Rohit for a duck, courtesy direct hit by ABD, Shikar came out blazing with his career best score of 137 , and a patient knock of 46 from Virat, an attacking 79 from Rahane has made India post 307, their highest against SA in a WC game. Those who wrote off Shikar dhawan had seen a fantastic innings from him and he repeated his Champions Trophy outing style here too. Again with the mediocre bowling India has, it managed to bowl in right areas and keep the proteas in check, controlling the run flow and taking out QDecock early( in his previous 3 outings against India, he has scored tons). Then with the run flow restricted,and Amla taking a risk of pulling a short ball, got out by a brilliant catch in the deep by Shami, judging it well to keep himself within the boundary line. Then when ABD took the risk of a second run , misjudging Mohit's arm in the deep, lost his wicket, which gave India much wanted relief and in a similar way Miller too got out, the ever productive reverse sweep has called for the fall of JP Duminy and India beat the proteas by a whopping 130 run margin, one of their bests in a WC game and their best ever against SA.

With the other games for India scheduled against UAE,Zimbabwe, West Indies and Ireland, India can be the leader from the group if it keeps its winning form in 3 out of 4 games.

New Zealand:

Temper - My Take!

After couple of flicks of Tarak not going well with the audience, and Puri slightly off mark with his last 2 flicks, both came back with a bang at the Box office with Temper. The confidence shown by the Temper team before the movie release was apt and its truly 100% correct, and showed how they believed Temper can make inroads at the BO and end the lag period of the lead actor as well as the director!

Coming to the movie, everything they kept on the screen is apt for the story line selected, added with a racy narration made the movie an awesome one to watch. We , the Tarak fans are expecting such an energetic performance from Tarak after Baadshah, and the performance is inline with his best performances given in Aadi,Simhadri,Yamadonga! And with this our thirst has been quenched by the Temper Team!

Coming to the best aspects in Temper, its the lead actors performances on screen, the racy narration, entertaining dialogues, perfect dialogue delivery by every one with Tarak's being highlight of the movie, the best BGM of recent times, stylish looks, stylish picturization of the songs, awesome choregraphy( best inline with Yamadonga, Kantri), and best direction!

The first half is quiet decent one and until we watch the movie till the end, we do not realize the importance of the first half. Almost all the scenes in the first half , has been used as lead scenes to the second half and when the movie is in high TEMPER mode in 2nd half we do realize that the decent first half is of so much importance and its awesome too!

Coming to Tarak, his mannersims ,stylish looks, his acting, dances, dialogue delivery are at his best. I am really realizing that Puri's words in Audio Release function that , NTR will be seen as Before Temper and After Temper, its 200% true. We have been waiting for such a performance from Tarak and we are satisfied with Temper now, we want Tarak to select such scripts which give ample amount of entertainment and gives his best performance.

A special thanks to Vakkantham Vamsi for such a brilliant story, he deserves applauds for the court room scene in the pre-climax. And Posani, who is well known for his comic performances , has given a superb performance, elevating Daya( Tarak) in every scene. I can definitely say this is best from Posani and will be remembered forever. The other cast , including Prakash Raj did justice to their roles and gave a neat performance making the movie entertaining in every scene.

The choreography, cinematography , BGM deserves special applause for making the movie look so stylish and rich. Only one thing I can say for sure is, irrespective of the Total BO collections of the movie, as Puri told in the audio function, the movie will stand tall in our hearts for a long time.

Overall, the movie is definitely worth watch and you wont find even a single scene that disappoints you. Its a different movie from Tarak & Puri and both are at their best in this movie. Watch it on Big Screen and enjoy the movie.

As a Tarak fan, I feel satisfied with the movie 200% than what the cine industry people told in social media and media about the movie!

Tarak's Emotional Speech about N-fans in Temper Audio Launch!

All the Tarak fans were mesmerized by the speech given by Tarak at Temper Audio Launch. Every word spoken by him is a priceless gem about his fans. His words made every Tarak fan feel proud of being a Tarakian. This is not to mean other heroes and their fans are not good. Its simply that Tarak has made his fans proud.

The most important thing to note is a fan has made a audio visual showing off his feelings on Tarak, his acting capabilities which many fans supported. Tarak is the best of the lot of present generation actors overall and he should not be confined to only Mass entertainers, which at one point of time, may look monotonous and leads to failures at Boxoffice.

The concern shown by Tarak towards his fan's feelings is awesome gesture by him, and his words indicating that he will keep trying till all his fans proudly lift their collars and say "I am proud to be a Nandamuri Fan". And his words of Nandamuri Namasamvatsaram is 100% true, with his brother Kalyanram's Pataas emerging as 1st Blockbuster of Telugu Film Industry in 2015. And all the fans are hoping that the trend continues with Temper and Lion.

His confidence and subtle gestures make us feel so proud of him. His words saying that he will satisfy us in Temper , if not in his next film is so great. He need not to give importance to every fan's feeling, but he did, which is a remarkable one and that makes him stand much more taller in our hearts.

I sincerely wish the Temper team to get a blockbuster hit , as did the audio!

Nandamuri Nama Samvatsaram of Tollywood Started!

Its official now that Nandamuri Nama Samvatsaram has started in Tollywood with Nandamuri Kalyanram's Pataas getting the 1st blockbuster status of 2015 in Tollywood or the Telugu Film Industry. Jr NTR@ Tarak's Temper's audio is a great success and the combination is expected to work wonders at the Telugu box office followed by Lion, which will be a mass entertainer from NBK, who is riding on the success of Legend.

Coming to the Pataas' Blockbuster status, the movie theatricals was sold for 9 crores and the first week distributor share was around 9.5 Crores( some websites claim it as 9 crores and some close to 10 crores), though official figures from producers and distributors are awaited, they declared that the movie is in profit zone from day 7, which means the collections are more than 9 crores in the first week. More prints were added for week 2 and the 2nd weekend collections will be another 2 crores , with no biggie in competition and added prints, in many screens, sankranthi releases are being replaced by Pataas and another same day release Beeruva, which is a good sign for continuing the good run of Pataas.

As per the latest reports from BO, the 10 day collections are estimated some where around 11-11.5 crores, which simply means 2-2.5 crores profit or 22-28% profit to the distributors. And with minimum share around 2 crores expected more to get added in the full run, the distributor profits will be around 44-50%, which is enough to term the movie as a REAL blockbuster and the first Telugu Block buster for the year 2015.

As a fan of Tarak, I am really happy to see his brother Kalyanram deliver the first telugu blockbuster of 2015 and wishing Tarak to continue that with TEMPER and NBK continue with LION.

With the range of the Hit received by the Audio of Temper and the craze among the fans and telugu movie audiences for the Tarak-Puri Combo, it is more likely to end up as a HIT movie minimum.

Wishing all my dear Tarak fans & N-fans a Nandamuri Nama Samvatsaram!

Pataas- Good beginning for N Hereos in 2015

After a long time, a much deserved Hit has come for Nandamuri Kalyanram in the form of Pataas. His wait for a hit for 6 years after his last hit Hare Ram has paid off. Same way a hit for Nandamuri Hereos after Lengend has come, in the month of January 2015 marking it as a good beginning for Nandamuri Hereos and fans. With Temper and Lion to follow, and hoping these 2 will become hits at the BO, making it a clean hit year for my Nandamuri Fans and Nandamuri heroes. And it has been real Sankranthi for N-fans on 23-Jan-2015 when Pataas was declared hit with the positive mouth talk and its BO performance.

What makes Pataas a hit/Super hit/Blockbuster:

From the movie aspect, these are the key things that made the movie generate positive talk and end up declared as hit.

1. Kalyanram's performance
2. Pacy narration and interesting screenplay
3. Music
4. Brilliant performance from the Technical crew and other star cast.

From the BO prespective , this is how the movie has been declared hit.

1. World wide theatricals sold for 9 cr INR.
2. Day 1 collections of around 2 crs share and 1st weekend collections of 5.5 cr share.
3. The movie had did well at BO on day 4( republic day) and continuing the same on 5th day, with the estimates for these 2 days adding upto another 2.5 crs share.
4. By all above, the movie share will be around 8 crores by day 5, which is 90% of the theatricals recovered in 5 days.
5. With the mouth talk for the movie and postivie reviews all over, and the response from audience, the movie is expected to earn around 9 cr share by Week 1, which is the breakeven and enough to be declared hit.
6. The range of the movie going into super hit/block buster depends on how much it earns in its 2nd week, based on the current scenario around 15 cr world wide share is expected for Pataas, which will be enough to term it as Block buster at the BO.

With such a good BO performance, it has made all N fans happy and its the best sankranthi gift for fans, that Kalyanram can give to us, the N fans.

 

India's chances at the World Cup 2015!

India being the defending champions of the World cup cricket, has much more responsibility to come back on track and perform well in the world cup. The current form of the team is a big question mark, with the team not performing collectively. And unlike the earlier world cup, where spin played a major role, this world cup is being played on pace friendly tracks and Indian bowling attack is not so good in such conditions.

Moreover, from the last world cup there are few changes to the rules in ODI cricket

1. Usage of 2 new balls from each end
2. Power play overs reduced to 15( First ten overs mandatory, 5 overs batting powerplay before 40th over)
3. Only 4 fielders allowed outside the 30 yard circle in non-powerplay overs, against 5 allowed in the previous edition.
4. Spin friendly tracks in 2011 World cup Vs pace friendly tracks in 2015 world cup.

The above new set of rules has made the part time bowlers role limited in ODI's, whereas part timers were so effective in the previous world cup( remember Yuvi playing a significant role with the ball). Still, there are much more ways to tackle this if some kind of effective plans are made , all needs is batsmen in form and bowlers doing decent job with fielders supporting them. Its so simple, but how far India can make this effective, considering the performances its showing the CB series is putting serious doubts in the minds of Indian cricket lovers!

Indian team in Group Stage:

The group stage for India is set up very well, the other teams in the group being South Africa, Pakistan, Westindies, Zimbabwe, Ireland,UAE. Top four teams qualify for the knockouts. To make that happen, minimum requirement is win 3 games with good margin to progress. With teams like UAE,Ireland,Zimbabwe and WestIndies in the group, India's chances of qualifying to the knockouts is more or less confirmed, unless a very bad or worst performance against the lower ranked sides happens, which is the least possibility. If Indians perform reasonably well with both bat and ball, qualifying to knock outs is never a question mark.

India Vs Pakistan

India's opening match against Pakistan is more than the world cup finals for them, as India will look its clean sweep record against Pakistan in World cups and Pakistan wants to make it a no-clean sweep. The first time both these teams met in a world cup is in 1992 in Australia and this time its the same country hosting the match. There were India Vs Pakistan clashes in 1996, 1999,2003,2011 and all the games were won by India. More than 50k viewers are expected to watch this match on the venue( all tickets sold out on the day it opened within a span of less than 30 mins, much more than any other match in this world cup) and about 3 crore( 30 million) viewers on television.

India relies on its batting strength and Pakistan on its bowling strength. If Indian batsman out perform the Pakistani's by a good margin, then the match will be in India's favor, as an Indian, I wish to see India winning this game than any other game in the entire world cup. The match is a pure contest between Indian Top 6 batsmen Vs Pakistan bowlers. On paper this match looks of 50-50 chance for both the teams.

India Vs South Africa

The only team against which India lost a match in 2011 world cup is against South Africa and they have edge over the Indian's this time too. And South Africa is known for its choking and hopefully it happens against India.

South Africa is strong on both the batting and bowling fronts with Amla,De Cock, ABD, Steyn,Philander,Morne giving out their best on any given day. If India has to win this game, or atleast be competitive in the game, the top order needs to fare extremely well against the feiry SA pace attack and the bowlers need to contain the SA top batsmen, which is a difficult task. On paper, it looks 80-20 in favor of SA.

India Vs Westindies

Westindies, in the absence of Pollard and Bravo looks like a team that is regrouping, still there is Gayle at the top order, if he clicks, then it will be a good chance for the carribeans to win against any team on given day. They have Ramdin, Russel, Samuels who can hit big and if all click together India will find it tough to win the game. But on the other hand, India has firepower in batting and if its clicks well, it will be a tough job for the windies. On paper this looks like 70-30 in favor of Inda.

India Vs Zimbabwe

Compared to other full members in the group, Zimbabwe is the weakest side. And against India, if they want to win, they need to perform a miracle almost. Lack of depth in both batting and bowling fronts give the advantage to India in this game and on paper its 90-10 in favor of India.

India Vs UAE

The associate nation from Asia is yet to prove on the 50 over format against full nations and unless any miracles happen its easy game to Win for India. The chances are 98-2 in favor of India.

India Vs Ireland

The associate nation is known to give shocking defeats to full members in world cups, the win against Pakistan in 2007 shut doors for Pakistan progressing further and their win against England in 2011, chasing down 328 is a remarkable one in WC history and its a record chase in a WC match. India needs to be a bit cautious against this side to progress into knockout stage.

Knockouts

The likely combinations of QF match involving India is Australia, England, Srilanka, New Zealand. Except Srilanka all the other 3 teams are strong on pace friendly tracks and it needs a spectacular performance from the Indians to go into semifinals and finals.

Key Players need to perform:

Virat Kohli- The batting strength lies with the form of Virat undoubtedly and he needs to give star performances for India to reach knockouts and finals.

MSD- MSD should utilize his options available to the fullest and with the bat and gloves he need to perform.

Rohit Sharma/Shikar/Rahane - A lot depends on how these batsmen score runs at the top of the order either to chase down the target or put a stiff target to the opposition.

Bowlers : The bowlers needs to be much more consistent in line and lengths. Ishant, the most experienced of the bowling attack needs to spearhead and cause enough damages to the opposition. Shami/Bhuvi/Umesh should take atleast a wicket each in the first 10 overs to put brakes on the opposition scoring. Binny/Axar/Ashwin/Jaddu should concentrate more on tight bowling to contain the opposition and also take wickets.

On the whole, the real test for India is in the knockouts and they should take every game seriously in the league stage to reach knockouts.

Wishing the Men In Blue a success in this world cup 2015.

 

Pataas- Much Needed Hit for Kalyanram!

Kalyanram has been striving for a hit after his last successful movie Hare Ram, for more than 6 years. He made only 3 movies after his last hit - Jayeebhava, Kaththi, OM 3D, all under his home banner. All these 3 movies were not impressive at the boxoffice, though OM 3D was well received by critics.

Finally the drought has ended with Pataas, and is most likely to emerge as a commercial hit at the BO , first for Nandamuri heroes in 2015. The pre release business of 9 crores seems to be a decent one for the movie and in all possible ways, the movie is expected to cross this easily in its first week itself. The early reports from the early morning shows in AP gave a talk ranging from above average to Hit, and the early trade buzz is indicating that Pataas is having good openings, which is much needed for Kalyanram.

This will put NKR back into stardom and depending of the range of hit of the movie, the market value of Kalyanram is going to increase from the present 9 crores for sure. A good comeback from him.

Coming to the reviews of Pataas so far, all reviewers has given good rating about the movie indicating that Kalyanram performance, music, dance, action sequences, speedy narration, energetic screenplay,abundant humour are the plus points of the movie and its a clean commercial entertainer, though the story is of regular action drama one.

On the whole Pataas team deserves a pat on their back for giving such a Hit movie and making all our N-fans happy in the first month of the year 2015.

A multistarrer from N- Heroes! Dream for many N fans!

Telugu Industry has not been so favorable to multistarrers though here and there were few multistarrers. Few of the notable multistarrers were critically acclaimed as well as commercially successful and few ended up  as failures too.
The multistarrer movies Telugu audience supported well in the last decade are
1. Seethamma Vakitlo Sirmalle Chettu - Venkatesh & Mahesh Babu
2. Gopala Gopala - Venkatesh & Pawankalyan
3. Yevadu - Ramcharan & Allu Arjun
4. Oo kodathara ulikki padthara - NBK & Manoj
5. Pandavulu Pandavulu Thummedha - Manchu Heroes.
6.Sankranthi - Venkatesh,Srikanth
On the other hand we have seen few failures as well
1. Krishnarjuna  - Vishnu & Nagarjuna
2. Shadow- Venkatesh & Srikanth
3. Romeo- Raviteja & Sairam Shankar
4. Sarochcharu - Raviteja & Nara Rohit
Coming to N heroes, we have Tarak, NBK, Kalyanram, Tarakarathna, Nara Rohit and NHK was a hero as well. Its wish of many fans to see at least few of these heroes share screen space on the silver screen. So why not a movie be made with N heroes combination?
1)A family entertainer in which NBK& NHK in father roles,Tarak, NKR, Tarakarathna, Nara Rohit in the current generation roles

2) A simple family drama with NBK,Tarak,NKR/Tarakarathna
3) A full length comedy entertainer with Tarak, NKR,Tarakarathna, Rohit.

The movie can be made under NTR arts banner with a limited budget ,as a concept based movie with more comedy, so that the movie will be a minimum guarantee hit and will emerge as a commercial hit at the box office. More over this can help N heroes like NKR, Tarakarathna, Nara rohit who are waiting for a big commercial success. Will make many N fans dream come true and also it will be a visual treat for us to see at least 2-3 N heroes on silver screen together!
Waiting for feedback from my dear co Tarak fans on this thought!

Temper- My thoughts!

All Tarak fans are eagerly awaiting for Temper movie ,so are Puri fans. Puri is on a good track record recently with Businessman,Heartattack becoming hits and Idharammayilatho being an average flick. On the other hand, Tarak , is in need of a blockbuster, as his last 2 movies were not hits at Boxoffice

Positives:
1. This is the third movie for Tarak as cop and his previous 2 cop based movies are hits.
2. Puri is well known for handling cop based movies.
3. Puri makes stylish underplay movies that turn as heavy grossers at BO
4. Tarak performance irrespective of the script will be the highlight and best as usual.
5. Dialogue delivery of Tarak is the best asset.
6. Previous combo from these was a failure at BO and hence it will be a defenite plus.
7. Last 2 movies of Tarak not hits at BO.

Negatives
1. Piracy- for all movies its not avoidable
2. Expectations for a mass flick from Tarak - if its a class flick,it may not go well with a section of audience
3. Anup rubens is not known for best music. If he turns out good it will be a plus to Temper than a minus.
4. Release time. If it clashes with any biggie, the result of the other biggie might impact Temper.

As a Tarak die hard fan, I am hoping this movie will be a milestone in Tarak's performance in the movie and at the BO.

My take on a Fan’s emotional speech to NTR Jr@Tarak!

Recently a die hard fan of Tarak @ NTR jr from Bangalore has posted a audio clip in youtube about his feelings on Tarak’s movies and what kind of roles he wishes to see Tarak in future. After listening to the clip, I felt its not only his feeling alone and many other fans like him has the same feeling too. There is good amount of coverage in the media(ABN, TV9,Times of India) about the feelings of him.
Since most of the fans has already listened to the clip there is nothing much to be told about the clip here. My sincere thanks to this die hard fan for bringing out the feelings of atleast many thousands of NTR fans to public.
Here I wish to continue from where he left. No one in Telugu Film Industry can deny the fact that Tarak is the best of the lot of current generation heroes , who is best in terms of acting,dance and high energetic performances. With all the qualities he has in terms of his onscreen performance , I feel he has not even did 50% of his capability he possesses. A section of the fans might not agree to this,but its true.
The kind of performances he delivered in Aadhi,Simhadri,Yamadonga,Raakhi,Ooseravalli are not repeated again in any of his movies, or not even half of it is repeated in other movies. His humourous roles in Brindavanam, Adhurs proved that he is very good in doing such roles with ease and give the best. But the recent movies like Ramayya vasthavayya, Rabhasa had weak story lines though Tarak tried to give best out of him, they failed to impress the audience.
I feel that Tarak is again pulled back to his mass flicks by the movie makers which will not give any scope for him to deliver performances to his full capability. Tarak , if chooses stories that offer full scope to deliver much more performances will defenitely make him uncomparable. But at present he is not doing so. Hope Temper reveals another dimension of his performances and satisfy all sections of the audiences.
As of now, Tarak is confined to the mass section of audience and he is seen as a mass hero,though he is way above that. Though he managed to get close to family and female audience with adhurs,brindavanam and baadshah , he dint manage to hold these sections with his other movies. Fans like me feel that he has to do something different to get hold of all sections of audience and do much more meaty roles that can elevate his performances and make him a complete actor than simply a Mass hero.
For doing that first he needs to think beyond his star image and select movies that offer much more scope and variety to his acting dimensions. There are lot of new , talented film makers who are very good in doing off beat cinema, or movies that give much scope for the main cast to give their best performances. And added to that there are concept based movies, similar to Hollywood which can be done in a short period of time and in the best way. This does not mean that Tarak should stop doing Mass entertainers, in between his mass flicks, he can do different genre movies that will cater to different sections of audiences which will increase his fan base to a greater extent and bring family, female and youth to his movies much more than present scenario.
I have a few suggestions to Tarak for utilizing his full capability as actor, those will definitely help him to reach towering heights if chosen.
1. Getting into Shankar, Manirathnam movies , that are beyond his star image( like Oke okkadu, Aparichithudu,I)
2. Simple Love stories with lot of humour
3. Family entertainers with very little mass elements
4. Concept oriented movies
5. Situation based movies ( story starts and ends on the same day – a thrilling incedent / humours incident is the core of the movie)
6. Full length comedy entertainers
7. Thrillers ( like bhadram)
8. Social message oriented movies
9. Off beat movies
Except for the point 1, all the rest can be done within 20-30 days of shooting time, with a lower budget and can be done in between 2 mass entertainers. This will bring in more dimensions to his acting, he can show his full acting capability, and make movies catering to all sections of audiences. Barring the remuneration of the cast and crew, these movies can be done within a budget of 2-5 crores. and with the market capability and stardom of Tarak, these will end up as commercially successful movies too, besides being successful on performance front.
More over these can be done on co-operative movie making , in which all the cast and crew will be paid a certain percentage of the profits of the movie. So the point to think here is , the movie budget will be recovered from the satellite rights itself and the share it collects will be the profits of the movie which can be distributed to the cast and crew. More over this will make Tarak explore various styles of acting, cater to different sections of audiences, and will have 2-3 movies released yearly, which will make the fans feel happy, rather than waiting for a movie per year.
This may look like a critic writing, but as a die hard fan of Tarak , I wish to see him more like a Kamalhasan-ish rather than a Star image-ish actor.