Hello namaste. First let me thank you all for such a huge response to my Meena Over Matters the MOM video episode 1.

I had almost 6000 views on Facebook and that’s and enormous deal for me. It means a lot and encourages me to come in front of you every week whether you like it or not. Thank you for your delightful comments on our YouTube channel please don’t forget to like and subscribe. Your comments mean a lot to us, views and opinions in this column the mom column are entirely mine and do not reflect. The official policy of India Parent Magazine, a very happy thanksgiving to you all and please be safe and secure at home with your loved ones. This weekend I will announce a few important events coming up on India parent magazine.

A shoutout to Kamala Harris and then move on to my views on some of the movies that featured this month on the OTT platforms. Starting with Sophia Lawrence Life ahead, multi star hindi film Ludo and the telugu films Miss India and Aakasam nee haddura. There are two important events coming upon India parent magazine you cannot absolutely miss. They’re going to be on digital platform. One a distinguished and exclusive open house for schools and homes coming up in January, we are working very hard on this. This will be a virtual event where we will be hosting several schools, private schools mostly with their spokespersons and listing the methodology and philosophy to parents interested. Several private schools will be presented here so you know and how to choose a school as per your child’s interest and your geographical needs. This will be a great opportunity for all young parents out there to make an informed decision about your child’s schooling next year.

You will be combining this with homes that is a real estate specialist will be brought in representing each city so one real estate will be representing each city combined with a private school in that area. This unique open house for schools and homes is presented to you keeping in mind that all young parents, what do they need after they need a good home and they are looking for a good school for his/her family and children. Keeping this in mind if you’re bring a combined event of school and homes. Second event and this is very exciting to me, as I love dance this is first ever prestigious dance competition for Indian classical dance with three categories of first place, second place and third place in both groups and solos. We will have 2 age groups the winners will be awarded a cash price of 1,000$ for first place, 500$ for second place and 200$ for third place for both group and solo categories. This will be a global competition with eminent classical dance experts as judges. The cash price will be accompanied by an IPM certificate and trophy as well. Please don’t miss this event. We will have an application form with more details online soon. Please keep checking ‘indiaparentingmagazine.org’ for more details they’ll be up very soon.

Now a few words about our vice president elect Kamala Harris, Kamala Harris what can I say about her that has not been said so far and what they only Kamala and not the president-elect you may ask while we congratulate both and ask them to be gentle and loving to all American people with no prejudice or favour toward and caste, creed or race. It is Kamala Harris that most of us look up to with our admiration and in hope. She is a woman of many firsts and one who belongs to all colours and races. White and jew as her husband is white and jew, Black as her father was an Indian as a her mother and above all a woman that many future youngsters might look upto with hope and pride and as does half of the population of the world, the woman population. Her importance was recognized and accepted by president-elect Biden as well, who gave her a unique opportunity to precede him and say few words on the victory speech night. This is also a first for any president-elect. Kamla Harris had made great history as the first female, first black and first Indian American vice president-elect and a woman of so many firsts happened to be an Indian origin at that is purely an amazing feeling in my heart bursts with mixed emotions. Lots of people of different ethnic groups are looking up to her with aspirations and desires in this land that is America and I truly hope and pray that she does not turn it into a pipe dream. In conclusion I’m proud of Kamala Harris, no not because of which party she belongs to it doesn’t matter really just she reaching to that position of such with such great honesty and hard work so gloriously commendable. At an age where many of us think we have reached our prime the 50’s Kamala Harris showed us that you can find love and power in 50’s as well and that age is just a number, her demeanor and confidence instills a desire to fulfil our own aspirations doesn’t it a little cliché but true right. Moving on to the fun stuff my reviews of the week let’s start with the best and go to the worst and back to the best again. I’ll start with a quick mention of emotionally poignant movie titled “Miss India starring the Mahanati actress Keerthi Suresh. I wanted to like it admire it and give a great review to women encouragement and all that you know. However, the movie is not merely a disappointment in story telling but a major letdown in reasonable area mainly the brain, for instance you know it’s unreasonable and loose any realistic values. It is a movie built on quotations, if any one of you has been to the pizza place called biology where you get to make your own pizza. I often visit the one in fremont you get to see lots of quotations on the wall as your waiting for your order. I love reading them copying one or two of them texting my kids as I wait. I think the director must have done just that, collected a bunch of quotes around the globe and built a meaningless and illogical story over them. The movie is so full of nonsensical and no contextual quotes. Miss India is about a girl from a small village in rural Andhra. There are some mixed messages coming from each one of the family members. Both brother and mother come across as misogynistic sexists. Father tells his eight-year old daughter who talks her class that future goals are more important than current grades. I mean what was that, grandfather was busy developing a mind-blowing chai with natural ingredients. No wonder the girl grows up so confused with her values, she becomes a megalomaniac with a huge sense of self-importance and movie is full of unnecessary and idiotic scenes for example what’s with the elder daughter’s wedding, do they kick her out because she married a Muslim or so I thought because there is on her wedding day with no Bindi on a bride’s face or I thought she married a Muslim so what is the big deal. I mean what is the purpose of the scene I didn’t understand frankly and there is so many purposeless scenes in this two and a half an hour bore of a movie. Strangely after the father is afflicted with Alzheimer’s and losses his job they all decide to move to the US, okay fine as the brother gets a good job in California somewhere. Finally the family discusses who should to the US as if the immigration office is waiting there for their arrival with a big harathi. The American embassy must be in their pockets as all of them get visa and move to California. For some reason the heroine insists on people calling her by her full name Manasa Samuktha, with misplaced pride and insists on doing business and eventually narrows it down to Chai. Its a funny business because all of the Californians drink chai all the time at home and a shout out to all my friends out there Naveena, Padma and my husband Tulsi Ram who brews fantastic chai by the way. Starbucks has already been carrying chai latte for years but our heroine makes it look like the idea of the century to bring chai to the Californians and just chai, I have never seen any eatables in her shop no pakodas nothing just chai. She meets Jagapathi Babu the king of coffee and a billionaire at that who makes it to the cover of all the magazines in the US including forbes. But our silly heroine who is big in her ambitions but a zero in her brains in this age and time doesn’t know the face of babu while she’s seeking his investment in her company. I mean is this ridiculous or what. Have you hear of google hello. The director is more focused on her dresses style, sun glasses and mercedes than her brains. All men in her life are interested in her personally and that makes it look like a junk as it looks like she is using them knowing that they are interested in her. This is a major flaw in her movie hence you cannot really root for her. Even the interview with her so called boss who she is friends with sounds so shallow and undermines all the hard work women entrepreneurs put in to grow in their personal ventures. Actors such except Nadiya, Naresh whose serious medical issue is by the way mocked about throughout the film name of comedy and Rajendra Prasad and all the actors except these three are dull boring and monotonous. Keerthi is so emotionless that you sometimes what to shake her. Even her delivering birthday wishes to her friends come out so dead and so dull. All men actors are extremely bad looking frankly sorry to say. I found this movie a big bore hallucinatory and actually comical at the simplistic notions the director has towards serious business of business for instance when Kirti wants to take up an offer to deliver products to a company on credit, that is you know she gives them goods upfront without taking any money this is to come out of the dirt she is in, she asks her friend to check into the company, no deep investigation no meeting with expert no online research or no research at all for that matter on some strange company, what a brainless piece of artwork she is, the lady is so full of herself that when she’s thinking of a name to her company, I seriously thought she would somehow involve her grandfather’s name as he is the one who came up with this fantastic child formula and she’s actually copying his idea but no she names it miss India maybe secretly imagining that she is miss India and yes even I was duped into thinking that this movie is about fashion and beauty industry, but no this is about chai sick, self, indulgent woman the director like I said is so involved with her looks and style, he completely ignores the logistics of reality seriously the less said about Jagapati babu the better, he’s so caricatured to look like a fool and regular maniac and sexist he actually asked the secretary to take pictures of Kirti before he comes down to meet with her and the secretary actually takes pictures of Kirti’s lips, legs and body, I mean give me a break second time this movie is an insult to your senses and intellect like majority of telugu movies the film is not worth watching, I mean you’ll get bored it’s a waste of time frankly. Moving on to the film “ludo” churned out of the hindi film industry, it’s another indulgence about a crook and a murderer as usual offcourse he’s made to look sweet and likeable and his murders comical inspite of this obvious glorification of the murderer the film is actually bearable even likeable in parts after a long time a couple of songs by Pritam are very melodious and sincere.

I specially liked “Yeh li he meri akhon ne” no offence to Arijit saying fans but I find his voice a bit nasal and I would have love to hear Sonu Nigam instead, but well that’s my choice, please don’t get mad at me all you Arijit Singh fans out there. The film is about four couples and how all their lives interact with each other with the dawn right in the center, the main role is played by the popular choice these days Pankaj Tripathi, movies about deceit, murder, money, love, hate, sexual exploitation, friend exploitation, marital greed, extra marital affair by men and so on. All these emotions brought out the front with fabulous bunch of actors and some of them are good on the eyes as well, good actors need not always be bad looking and Sanya Malhotra, Sanya Shaik, Pearl Manny, Abhishek Bacchan look awesome and reasonably well, better than Alia Bhatt and Deepika Padukone as far as I am concerned. Asha Negi as Bachan’s ex-wife  that’s pretty good the best part of the movie is times and pandemic have brought down the so called  star kids and industry insiders such as Abhishek Bachan and Aditya Roy Kapoor together with relatively new and outsiders such as Sanya Fatima, Asha and Rohit they all deliver Bachan junior is humbled to play and equal to actors and that’s what I like about him, he’s always a down to earth person and there is a lot that other so called insiders such as glorified Varun, Alia Bhatt, Ranveer and Deepika Padukone need to learn from him. Of course the star of the film is RajKumar Rao, he’s flawless the Surpanaka scene a play in the movie it’s too much hilarious his love long looks okay I know you’re using me but I still love you and can’t help helping you look is adorable, music is good and the child actor Inayat Varma is a pleasure to watch could not get enough of her. She’s very sweet, this dark comedy is fun to watch and brings a smile to your lips though it does glorify murder, mafia, drugs and blood money it’s still funny and the don in the end seems to get some kind of punishment for his sins but ladies and gentlemen I am not sure if you noticed there is one common thread in the film all women in some way or the other have a negative streak in them, they ditch though for the right reasons their husbands, use friends to sell goals, kill people like nurse for money and kill husband because he’s cheater and utterly contemptible. All women have ulterior motives, all men though are thugs, still are shown as kind, affable and funny did you see the difference, deliberately injecting negativity against women very symbolically so watch out for that. All songs sung by male singers for some unknown reason. Director Anurag Basu of Murder and Jagga Jasoos fame integratedly weaves a funny saga that those stretched a bit in parts is still entertaining in a breezy watch, nothing much to worry and you can watch with family just a little bit of parental guidance recommended. Before I go to the favourite film of my month just one line for Akshay Kumar’s Lakshmi please ignore this completely take it out of your list, it’s just cliched, offensive to the core and mediocre all at once. Now the star of my reviews this week is the film called “Akasam ni haddura” means sky is the limit. I saw it in telugu but you can also watch it in tamil and malyalam produced by Surya himself. He’s the hero in this movie and directed by Sudha Kongara it’s a delight to watch this fabulous film based on true story of Jiar Gopinath who pioneered a dukkan. He belongs to Tamil Nadu. The narrative very intricately yet stealthily weaves story of upliftment driven by a simple need of bringing luxury of flying to the common person. Generally it’s very easy to make films on bad person and make them sensational hits that’s what Ramgopal Varma, Anurag Kashyap, Sandeep Reddy of Arjun Reddy fame and all such directors deal with stories of underworld dons and killers and drug addicts, injecting a shock sex value that gives some people instant gratification but its difficult to narrate a story of good human being inspiringly and make it an enriching experience, such stories often tend to get preachy one-sided and even  boring but aakasam ni haddura is abosultely stunning to watch and keeps you focused throughout, in addition to me joy it’s also about gender equality has an extraordinary and little bit chubby south Indian cute actress called Aparna Balamurilli. I’ve never seen her before, this is my first one so I found her very sweet as heroine, but they have nothing against north Indian heroines if they all don’t look alike and if they can bring in some element of south Indian-ness in their acting and looks as well that’s all. This movie is directed by telugu women Sudha Kongara, please move aside Mr Rajamouli’s, Ramgopal Verma’s, and even Arjun Reddy’s and Sandeep Reddy’s so on and so forth. We want more Sudha’s, more Surya’s and more Priya’s. I am sick and tired of women telling women stories that only talk about sex issues and orgasms, nauseated of modern women as being shown as smokers, druggies, drinkers and sex addicts with a terrible fashion sense like having a half bald head as shown in Sushmita Sen series Arya as Arya’s best friend, remember that instead director Sudha a woman director brings into the story of a young, lovely a bit chubby women, ambitious and courageous enough to start her own bakery in those days and demands real equality from her future husband. Kongara does this not with lectures or you know long speeches but then through simple actions and self-goals of the heroin. The hero is actually listening to her and her thoughts and falls in love with her character, then with her body and legs. This actually reminds me of telugu movie Allu Arjun, I don’t remember the name I forget, where hero is stuck with the heroin’s legs, he actually falls in love with her legs, at that time it was shocking to me and the heroin instead finding this disgusting and insulting and actually falls back right in love with him, give me another big break. Just imagine if you have a daughter and someone does this to her, I’d rather had my daughter kick him.

Anyways coming back to the “Akashame haddura”, the story is about small town boy educated pilot and very good looking Surya, he dreams about making flight journey cheaper and making available to all, he wants to make flights inclusive caste and class free and a normal life. I remember in my younger days how expensive flights were and very rare people travelled in flights, that this has become common in India thanks to “Gopallan” the real life hero. Story and filming seem one captivating and engrosses you into it. It has its movements of fun, romance, idealic, heartbreak, fairy tailish movements all of them are inspiring and realistic on the right track. Sudha Kongara proves that to make a movie a hit and inspiring as well, you don’t need to fall back on crime, drugs, sex and body exposure. Good straight forward stories hero’s and heroin’s can also be incurable romantics, idealists, sentimentalists, dreamers, visionaries etc. Kongara brings in old time romance back. “Akho he akho mai ishara hogaya” kind of romance enough to raise your heartbeat. It’s the ideas that match first then the hearts and then the souls and bodies. There are couple of scenes that touched my heart, one when Surya is talking about building carriers like flights to avoid fuel costs to his chubby wife and he sits on his laps and asks “Aha tamarki weight unte nachada” and there is a killer look Surya gives her it’s very very sweet and nice and cute, there’s another scene where Surya is rushing out in emergency where as his wife is still at mall alone, looks back to ask her will you be ok? I have to go and she asks him to go ahead catching auto, a very simple scene but shows love and concern. Surya and Aparna as the main protagonist are awesome and excel in their roles and the politics including the Vijay Malya’s role the class and caste bias seems very close to reality and all supporting cast, including Urvashi, Mohan Babu, Prakash Kumar, Paresh Babu , they all deliver their respective roles fabulously, there’s a particular scene very crucial and turning point between Prakash Belawadi, very fine actor by the way and Surya actually shatters and punctures your heart, pinches your eyes, a fabulous scene there. Music by Prakash Kumar is good, I specially loved “The Katuka kanule” one and “Kavam chiliki natte gundelni gelikestive, yuddham jariginatte pranalu kudipestive” what lyrics fabulous lyrics by Ramjogaiah Shastri garu that’s splendid, no hindi or English words popping into them, just pure effective telugu, it’s a south Indian film, touching all south Indians is what I thought and the fact that Sudha Kongara is from Andhra and Telangana made my heart swell with pride, fabulous movie please enjoy with your family during the Thanksgiving break streaming on Amazon.

That’s all this week folks, will meet in my next episode, have a fabulous and safe thanks giving, please don’t forget to subscribe and like my youtube channel, thank you very much, Bye.