Monthly Archives: January 2014

Etc.

Amazon Has Jedi Mind-Tricked You Into Forgetting It’s Pretty Much Walmart

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Amazon.com is the best-loved company in America, despite being very similar to one of the least-loved companies in America: Walmart.

The Internet megastore had the best public image of any U.S. company in 2013, according to a study released on Monday by YouGov, a market-research firm based in the U.K. YouGov surveyed about 1.2 million people online over the course of 2013 to come up with its rankings, which confirm earlier research: A Harris Interactive poll released in March scored Amazon with the best reputation among large U.S. corporations.

In the Harris poll, Walmart ranked 40th out of 60 total companies, toward the back of the pack with oil drillers and wireless carriers. YouGov only ranked the top 25 U.S. companies, and Walmart did not make that list. YouGov also broke down the five highest-rated discount retailers: Amazon topped that list, too, while Walmart did not appear.

In fact, many people despise Walmart, and have for years, as a torrent of bad press has weighed on its public image. Walmart’s bad rep began when it systematically squashed family-owned shops during its rapid national expansion in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Since then, Walmart has endured a wave of lawsuits from workers accusing the retailer of gender discrimination, poor health care and wage theft.

Amazon, on the other hand, is loved for the breadth of its inventory and the ease of using its website. People love its convenience.

Click here for complete article at Huffingpost.com

1-By Laksh, ET, Movies

Yevadu…

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”Yevadu” sets out to be a commercial entertainer and unabashedly goes about its objective. It is this clarity in execution, a few decent commercial elements and the presence of two leading stars works for the film.

The film reminds you of several old films like ”Mass”, “Chatrapathi”, “Athanokkade”, “Rangam”, “Deva” etc but the set up of the movie in the first half and the lead to the second half holds the audience’s interest. But once the second half gets into motion, movie treads a much beaten and convoluted path when the real ”Ram Charan” makes his claim on the movie. Couple of good songs provide much needed relief and Ram Charan dances like a dream in ”Freedom” song. Acting wise he doesn’t have much to do, other than believing in the routine scenes and provide his screen presence, which he does.

Rest of the star cast provide adequate support, with a decent ensemble of veterans like Sai Kumar, Jayasudha, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Brahmanandam, L.B.Sriram, Murali Sharma and newbies like Shashank, the guy who played Ramcharan’s friend etc. DSP’s music is decent and with each film he is making his mark with the background score.

In many ways the movie is meant for Ram Charan fans, and the presence of Allu Arjun is is an added bonus, who lives on beyond his small role for most of the movie’s first half. As Dil Raju mentioned in a recent press meet, it is very rare for a film that is delayed to have a positive start at the box-office, and ”Yevadu” breaks this jinx. The fact that it has dated content already helped his cause?:) If it were based on a  theme of topical interest there would have been a risk of getting outdated :)?  The movie was promoted aggressively, more so, in comparison to the other films and that might have helped as well.  The extent of “Yevadu” success would be known in couple of weeks, but for now it has the cash registers of single screens ringing.

Side note: Wondering in how many films did we see ‘basti’ being used to portray heroism. Here is my partial list.–Laawaris (1981), Nayakudu (1987), Yamudiki mogudu (1988), Angaar (1992), Chatrapathi (2005), Andhrawala (2004) Businessman (2012). But ”Nayakudu” still retains the top spot in my mind 🙂

Related links: Nayakudu (27m 54s)