What is the mark of confidence? Ans: Minimalism. The greater one grows in his craft, the fewer the strokes would become to convey the same idea. Gone would be the elaborateness and the eagerness to please with more. The delivery reduces itself to the core doing away with usual extraneousness. In the earlier days, the photograph of the deity of Tirumala use to appear in full regalia replete with all the glitter. And then in some artist's brilliant brainwave, the whole image got down to a trough shape with a vertical line through it against a completely black background conveying the "Thiru naamam", letting the viewer's mind to do the rest filling up the blank space with the actual image. Another example would be Bapu's illustrations (and his script), which confines itself to only the essential strokes to convey the central idea. SriSri's 'Maha Prasthanam' is another example of not just the effectiveness of minimalism, but also the mastery of the craft in communicating the idea in as few words as possible. In short, Rajamouli has finally reached that place where his confidence refused the crutches of commercialism presenting his vision in a straightforward fashion and let the content speak for itself. In doing so, he made what could be his most sincere, and, arguably, best work till date. 'Eega' would not amount to any landmark achievements, with its less than impressive graphics work, but his conviction in the concept and honesty in delivery would certainly make it an important personal milestone in his career. In every important filmmaker's career, there comes a moment where he truly realizes his potential (if he is sincere enough to do the introspection, of course, and not attribute the successes that he had had before that moment to his capabilities alone) where the important question at that juncture would be, whether he has the courage to continue along that path. That way, 'Eega' is less about itself than it is about Rajamouli's choices from here on. Some filmmakers take almost their lifetimes to arrive that at this point, and for some, the fork would never appear at all. Congratulation Mr. Rajamouli, you now found your calling!

'Eega' is 'Magadheera' all over again in its structure (though it borrows heavily from 'Ghost') with the hero thrown into the future, this time, to realize his love by vanquishing the villain in the process - but this time only better. The movie rests primarily on the strength of its idea (and execution) and the wonderful acting of Sudeep. Like Rajamouli, Sudeep <i>got</i> 'Eega'. He realizes that dialing up even a degree more would reduce his antics to buffoonery (which is most common misstep in such villain versus nearly invisible enemy) as he treads that fine line by keeping his histrionics strictly within the realm of realism, playing it completely straight, as though he was being harassed by an actual full size individual. His fears, frustrations, anger and outbursts are entirely genuine, and consequently, all the steps he takes (some hilarious ones) to get rid of the pest seem totally natural. Kudos for the stellar part and the portrayal. The only quibble with this entertaining fare remains the quality of the graphics work, which were passable at best, and tacky, at worst. With even commercials, lasting only a few seconds, boasting of photo-realistic graphics, and with Hollywood movies breathing down the neck of the local fare with eye popping imagery, one can't afford to remain sub-par and be counted seriously. The graphics looked like a 'work in progress' needing a few more iterations to make them near realistic. But such is the strength of the script that one can coast past these minor speed bumps and yet be immersed in the proceedings completely (like enjoying the stage show put on the by kids purely for their enthusiastic spirit than on quality of the execution). With the earnest wish and sincere hope that Rajamouli continues on his new found path, three cheers to the tiniest protagonist in the history of cinema!

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