“Nanati brathuku natakam” is a beautiful Annamacharya keerthina, popularized by the great singer M.S.Subbalakshmi through her out-of-the world rendition in Revathi raga.

In this keerthana, Annamacharya laments about human existence, its various obstacles in attaining Moksha and says “tegadhu paapamu teeradhu punyamu”. It loosely translates to the  parallel tracks of good and bad acts performed by humans and the inescapable/non-nullifiable consequences of such acts.

‘The Apostle’ is such a story where a Christian preacher struggles to exorcise his bad past even while he constructs a life of good deeds. A detailed synposis is available here on RottenTomatoes.

I saw this movie in 1988/1999 on home-video and Robert Duvall’s performance has stayed with me since then. For many he is the quintessential background guy (Tom Hagen in ‘The Godfather” or ‘Boo Radley” in “To kill a mocking bird”) who delivers a subdued performance but never in the league of a ‘staring in the face’ kind.  ‘The Apostle’ proves this notion wrong.

Robert Duvall is outstanding as the tormented preacher, who is mindful of his own sermon– ‘His judgement cometh and that right soon’. It is his performance that makes the film a must watch for anyone and more so for any actor who wishes to explore realms beyond his comfort zone.

…aka ‘Dhoom-3’.

Dhoom-3, the latest in the Dhoom franchise forces you to redefine words like ‘circus’, ‘magic’, ‘illusion’, and ‘reality’. If you succeed in doing so,  you might be able to sit through this ‘fast’ paced revenge caper that is a cross between a ‘James Bond’ and a ‘Pink Panther’.

Let me present a few cerebral challenges that you might face if you attempt to slot it in either of the above instead of the hybrid.

• Jackie Shroff is a visionary who saw that animals based circus feats would be passe and takes it on him to reinvent circus with the help of magic. Much later, his revenge seeking son, adds a few acrobatics to give it some semblance of circus.
• All it takes for international police to summon Indian super cops is notes left by criminals in Hindi. These Indian super cops come in between scenes, unlike the old films where they come in the climax secene and arrest the baddies. (By the way, Indian super cops do not even arrest the baddies in this film).
• A bank can go public and still have all its branches in a single city. Such banks extend loans based on full dress rehearsals.
• Dhoom-3 baddie (Aamir Khan) grows up into a handsome young(?)man in his 20s? in the span of 13 years and works hard on his tap dance, muscles and updating his father’s tricks. But he does not inherit his father’s vision and limits his revenge to one old banker who once scowled at his father and did not extend the bank loan beyond five days.
• Bikes vroom in and out real slow to make sure the riding star is established, even if such stunts are badly executed on set and off-set. (Is it the only way to ensure screen space for stars amidst too many stunt scenes featuring doubles?)
• When you adapt themes from Hollywood films, simple substitutions will work just fine. For example, take ‘The Prestige” and substitute a pigeon with a kid and voila, you have a second-half. Of course, no kids are harmed in this movie.

Now, for the saving grace in this record breaking movie.

The makers of the movie chose not to incorporate the ‘great indian rope trick’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rope_trick) and let Aamir Khan get away with his crime. Or did he? I didn’t quite understand the ending and the theme song kicked in.

Spoiler alert for Telugus- ‘Police Brothers’