I bunked school to catch a glimpse of Balayya's latest movie Chenna Kesava Reddy (CKR). I reached the theater at 9:00am. There was a lot of frenzy in the theater and it was as if I was in the midst of a procession. Heavy crowds, huge lines and sob sob, I could not get tickets for the morning show. The crowd for the matinee was even bigger and lady luck did not favor me again (I now wonder if it was an omen to make me shy away from the movie). Undeterred, I somehow could manage to make it into the theater for the first show at 6:00pm. I called up my mom and lied to her that I was attending a special class followed by a combine study at Rani's place. Anyways, I thought my day had finally been eventful. After the movie finished I let out a heavy sigh cursing myself for having wasted an entire day. As I walked back home after the movie, a zillion thoughts raced in my mind, which were far more interesting than CKR. Here are the excerpts from my thoughts -

Bharath (younger Bala Krishna) is a cop in Mumbai. Though he is a busy cop, he makes sure that he has time to zoom to nearby countries to sing some "thought provoking" songs once in a while. Preethi (my favorite cutie Shriya), who is a doctor by profession and having become sick of dealing with corpses and sick patients wants to inject some adventure into her life. She comes across Bharath and falls head over heels on him. Bharath reciprocates to her as he is all happy because he no longer has to visit countries alone, singing "thought provoking" songs. He realizes that its time for him to now graduate to duets from solos. As love blossoms between them amidst duets, Preethi is curious to know how Bharath is able to lead life so cheerfully inspite of being a cop?

<START OF FLASHBACK 1>

Before singing "thought provoking" songs in nearby countries, Bharath used to sing teen maar songs in the Alps of Switzerland. On one such occasion, he comes across three saints who have migrated from Rayalaseema [unable to bear the heat] to the snow clad mountains of Switzerland. With good ties between India and Switzerland, thanks to our film industry, obtaining a visa to visit Switzerland, was no big deal for them. Impressed by the singing capabilities of Bharath, these three saints, get reminded of their past singing capabilities.

<Start of Flashback 2>

Once upon a time there lived three kings called 'Samara simha', 'Nara simha', 'Seema simha'. All three of them tried to woo a princess called 'Sim(ha)ran'. All of them tried their best to woo her by singing many songs to her. The princess loved all three of them alike. While she was unable to choose her Mr. Right among these three kings, destiny had something terrible in store, consequently helping her to make up her mind. The princess saw Samara simha romancing another princess singing 'Andaala aadabomma'. She caught Nara simha asking a lux model out for lunch singing 'Lux papa Lux paapa Lunch kostava'. Down and dejected she went to Seema Simha with a hope. But she caught him red handed singing about the 'Koka raika' of another girl. The princess was shattered. She could not take the pain inflicted upon her and her thoughts turned suicidal. While wandering in the neighboring province in search of a cliff to jump off from, she came across a Kshatriya Putrudu reading 'Panchatantram'. Wondering what he was doing in such a lonely place, she expressed the same doubt to him.

<start of flashback 3>

When this Kshatriya Putrudu was once a Dance Master, he jumped off the same cliff along with his ladylove. Unfortunately, the girl died and fortunately he got struck in one of the trees and was eventually saved. So since then his ambition in life was to either convince people not to jump off the cliff or if they were adamant to end their lives then he would show them a better place from which they had 100% guarantee to fulfill their desire.

<end of flashback 3>

The princess was smitten by his thoughtfulness. Both of them looked at each other. Their eyes got locked and heartbeats got synchronized. Do I have to say more? And they lived happily ever after.

Hang on! The flash back 2 is not yet over. All the three mighty kings, having realized their follies and having lost their bone of contention, decided to renounce everything and lead a life of austerity shunning all worldly pleasures. They wanted to go to Himalayas for penance. But they could not leave their birthplace Rayalaseeema. So they found a place somewhere in one of the remote jungles of Rayalaseema and started doing penance. As days passed by, they just could not bear the heat in Rayalaseema and wanted to migrate to a distant cool place. Finally with the help of some film personalities they managed to settle in Switzerland.

<End of Flashback 2>

Having noticed a lionish fervor in Bharath, the three 'once-kings-now-saints' give him an advice - 'Ee lokam lo Navvevallani Navvani, Edchevallani Edvani! Alaage Pogidevallani Pogadani, Tittevallani Tittani! Nuvvu maatram ivvi evi pattinchukokundaa, munduku doosukellu simham la!!'

Bharath picks up some catchy key phrases from that message, adds his own lines and suffixes those lines with a punch phrase 'Don't Care' and voila he has a full-fledged song for himself. On his next visit to a neighboring country, this time its Singapore, he sings -
Navvevallu Navvani! Edchevallu Edvani!
Pogidivallu Pogadani! Tittevallu Tittani! Don't Care!!

<END OF FLASHBACK 1>

The creative talents of her beau, especially considering that he is a cop, overwhelm Preethi. She sheds anandabhaashpalu and its time for one more duet. By the time they come back to Mumbai, things have changed and Bharath is transferred to Pulivendala to hunt for his dad, who is a murderer. Ok! Let me stop here. I can very well understand the state of the people who have actually seen the movie and who don't want to be reminded of it again now. Having undergone the trauma of sitting through umpteen flashbacks in umpteen seema flicks, I have realized that my blah blah should also atleast one or two flashbacks [forget about the relevance of these flashbacks to the actual story]. No, my intention is not to make you guys go through the same pain I experienced but.... aah, let me cut the crap out! Whom am I fooling here? Yes, that solely was my intention. Nobody can outdo me! Ha ha ha!

That reminds me of the punch line of this movie. Adding an English punch line to a Telugu movie is nothing new. But the latest fad seems to be adding powerful one-liners to self proclaimed power packed (read seema) sagas. Having said that, just to refresh your memory, the caption for CKR is 'Nobody can reach him'. The makers of CKR came up with that caption to directly state that Bala Krishna is much ahead of his contemporary actors. But the meaning got totally distorted when the fortunes turned upside down after the movie's release. The new meaning given, by the buyers of the film, is 'Nobody wants to reach him'.

I thought 'Don't Care' was just a funda Balayya uses in a song. But if you notice closely, that seems to be the drive behind one more person, who doesn't care to explain many details in this movie. More on this in the ensuing paragraphs.

I read somewhere that cinema is a beautiful lie. Otherwise how can one expect and explain the inter-state transfers of cops? Siva Krishna gets transferred from Pulivendula to Delhi (Tihar Jail). Jr. Bala Krishna is transferred from Mumbai to Pulivendula (in Rayalaseeema). Given some more lenience, our storywriter VV Vinayak would not mind transferring cops from Los Angeles to Lal Darwaja. (A faint voice from the dark echoes 'Don't Care')

VV Vinayak, while writing the story, I guess, was only thinking about transferring cops from one place to another. Or he must have drained all his thinking abilities and reasoning capabilities in making Tata Sumos fly into the air or in canning helicopter chase scenes. How else could he neglect to explain why Chenna Kesava Reddy (older BalaKrishna) is kept in jail for 22 years and that too in Tihar jail where country's most notorious convicts are jailed? (The same faint voice again echoes 'Don't Care' with greater gusto now)

VV Vinayak showed a new technique of jumping from a tall building in this movie. All you gotta do is eat bananas, cushion your knees with air-pillows and jump for a safe landing. Did I hear you ask - 'That easy, is it?'. Well, somebody did not learn his or her physics lessons right. As I wonder if it is Vinayak or fight master Vikram Dharma, the faint voice, which is no longer that faint, shouts ' Don't Care ' again.

VV Vinayak has this fixation with Jeep/Sumo bombs. He either likes those vehicles very much or loathes them to the core. How else can one explain the usage of Jeep bombs in his debut film Aadi and the usage of 10 Sumos flying high into the air from underneath the ground. Is Vinayak trying to come up with some jeep blowing, sum flying tricks, on the lines of James Bond tricks? (That voice, which now becomes prominent, bursts out in happiness 'Thanks for caring to notice my bombing efforts'). Well Vinayak, after the 'bombing' of CKR your bombing efforts are well noticed now.

This blah blah is incomplete without a mention about the producer Bellamkonda Suresh. He gave a nasty advertisement targeting Megastar's Indra, in a newspaper after the release of CKR. Chiranjeevi fans reacted sharply to that advertisement with a protest, following which, the bigwigs of industry promised to take an action on the producer. Superstar Krishna is said to have supported the move to ban Bellamkonda Suresh from producing movies for 2 years. But ANR opined that a committee should be set up, which would eventually verify the whole issue and recommend what needs to be done. Hence MAA is said to have appointed a committee that is looking in to this issue. Now, did Bellamkonda take the punchline of the movie - Nobody can reach me - seriously? Latest news on this front is that, having realized that he cannot afford to imitate reel life in real life, Bellamkonda has conveyed his apologies to Chiranjeevi. Is that why, they say 'all's well that ends well'?

Bye for now folks,
Budugu

Past Budugu Trivia
Indra
Jayam
Allari
Santosham
Vasu
Aadi
Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu
Takkari Donga
Seema Simham
Adhipati
Nuvvu Naaku Nachav
Akasa Veedhilo
Naa Manasista Raa!
Bava Nachadu
Prematho Raa!
Kushi
Eduruleni Manishi
E for Elopement
Narasimha Naidu
Murari