On ‘Swades’ versus ‘Srimanthudu.’ And the idea of the socially relevant ‘mass’ movie.
A few weeks ago, Mahesh Babu’s Srimanthudu had a subtitled release in Chennai. I must say it was a brave move. Not because it was a Telugu film – these Telugu ‘mass’ films (or wide-appeal masala movies) are practically identical to the ones in Tamil – but because it referred to Mahesh Babu as ‘Super Star.’ As we all know, there’s just one of those in these parts (insert smiley here). But back to that ‘mass’ film business. Srimanthudu has all the expected formula elements. The hero introduction scene (during Ram Navami celebrations, where there’s pleasant confusion about who exactly is being deified)… The heroine entry scene (she’s in a salwar kameez, drawing a kolam/rangoli on the porch; in other words, she’s non-threatening desi arm candy)… The villain establishing shot (he brings down a log of wood on some poor man’s skull, and he’s so evil, he doesn’t stop there; he orders his men to throw this man on the road, so he can get crushed by a passing truck)…
But Srimanthudu is a little different from the usual mass movie, in that it has what the industry would call a ‘soft’ subject. It’s about a billionaire who doesn’t care for money, who’s not interested in taking over his father’s business. He keeps associating with the lower classes – at one point, he hands over lakhs of rupees for the wedding of an employee’s daughter. (We’re not meant to ask things like: Wouldn’t it be better if he said something against dowry and found the girl a groom who accepted her for what she is? This is about the hero’s heart, his big, golden heart.) And later, goaded by his girlfriend’s taunts, he adopts a village – he uses his wealth to build roads, schools, hospitals, and so on. So the film is a bit of Rudraveena (Unnal Mudiyum Thambi in Tamil), a bit of the Buddha’s life, a bit of Swades…
It’s the latter, mostly, that keeps coming to mind. This isn’t an exact comparison. You might say that there isn’t a single moment in Srimanthudu as powerful, as intimate as the one in Swades where the NRI protagonist buys non-bottled water from a little boy at a nondescript railway station. But then, that was a different kind of movie, the equivalent of a close-up – Srimanthudu, on the other hand, is a wide-angle shot. Swades devoted a lot of its running time to detail how this man changes this village, while in Srimanthudu, it all happens over the course of one song. But this isn’t about which is the better film. This is about how the same premise is treated in two modes of popular Indian filmmaking – a relatively ‘realistic’ mode (Swades) and an unapologetically larger-than-life mode (Srimanthudu). So Swades has a protagonist, while Srimanthudu has a hero – one who has to perform periodic goon-bashing duties in order to remind the mass audience that despite his do-gooding impulses he can be a badass.
Is there another country where there’s such tonal variety in mainstream cinema? Elsewhere, you have popular cinema (released in large numbers of theatres all at once, and aiming to make tons of money from all audiences) and art cinema (released in a few theatres, for a select audience) – but here, even the popular cinema can go the way of a Srimanthudu or a Swades. What’s more interesting, the line between art cinema and popular cinema has begun to blur in at least one respect. Once upon a time, the mass films were mainly about power struggles (which typically rose from economic disparity) – so you had the village-based films where the hero was a lowly farmer and the villain a zamindar, or the city-based films where the hero was a lowly clerk and the villain a politician or gangster. But in the past few years, mass films (at least the ones in Tamil and Telugu) have begun to look at the kind of ‘socially relevant’ issues usually relegated to documentaries and art-house cinema.
Srimanthudu hints at how private enterprise can play a part in the rehabilitation of underdeveloped villages. The Vijay blockbuster Kaththi brought into focus farmer suicides and the role played by Coke-like multinationals in depleting water resources meant for agriculture. Ajith’s Yennai Arindhaal had a subplot about organ trafficking and Sivakarthikeyan’s Kakki Sattai talked about migrant workers. Seen one way, this is just lip service. These films are not really about any of these issues – complex realities are often dismissed with simplistic solutions, like taking an aspirin for cancer. Oftentimes, it’s just that the directors are trying to avoid cliché, thinking up out-of-the-box villains (MNCs, organ traffickers) for the hero to go up against. But look at it another way. Should we be happy that a medium that reaches millions is at least throwing these topical subjects into the conversation around a movie?
On a tangential note, I was happy Srimanthudu was released here. The point isn’t about the quality of the film, the “is it worth watching?” question. The point is that the regional films that end up in cities outside the ‘region’ of the film’s making are almost always pedigreed films – like the impressive Court (Marathi), which won Best Feature Film at the National Awards. But watching Court does not translate into watching ‘Marathi cinema’ – just like you’re not going to get an idea about French cinema in general by watching Godard. That’s not what the average French moviegoer sees, the commercial, mainstream stuff. These regular films are important too. What are we like as audience? What do we find socially or culturally acceptable enough to drag our families to? What kind of film do we open up our wallets for? These are important questions, and the best answers come from our mainstream movies.
An edited version of this piece can be found here. Copyright ©2015 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Chanakya
September 19, 2015
Mahesh inherited the ‘Superstar’ tag from his father. The fact that he is numero uno in the current crop of Telugu stars also helped. But I think there’s only one Superstar in South India, and we all know who that is.
As a Telugu moviegoer, it makes me sad when films like this are hailed as ‘something new’ and ‘different’ by fans and critics alike in our states. Mahesh’s ‘1’ was also critically praised as a groundbreaking thriller when it turned out to be just another mediocre thriller. We’re nowhere close to making the wide range of films that Tamil and Malayalam film industries make these days. No wonder genuinely experimental and art house films that come out once in a decade sink into oblivion.
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Rajendraprasada Reddy
September 19, 2015
Good review.
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Ramesh Nayak
September 19, 2015
Rangan Sir, Please Watch and Review Kannada movie Rangitaranga. It has got excellent reviews and doing phenomenal business in Karnataka and Overseas. It’s currently running in Chennai with subtitles.
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abhilashache
September 19, 2015
it is an interesting analysis, especially the last paragraph.
Telugu films are not just mediocre, but are atrocious and mind numbingly stupid. and though i dont watch a lot of them nowadays, all i can say is that telugu films (there’s no need to say mainstream telugu films, because,really there is no other kind at all), unlike the average tamil mainstream film has no changes happening, at all. tollywood films are also extremely risk averse and consist of stories that are plain generic or plagiarized. it does,sadly, reflect the mindsets of telugu people at large. i will quote a few examples:-
1) in ye maya chesave, the telugu remake of vinnaithandi varuvaaya, the hero and heroine of the movie get married in the end unlike the ending of the tamil movie,where the couple are not together. read, happy endings in telugu movies are almost as mandatory as having only tamil titles for kollywood movies.
2) in alaipayuthey, shalini’s name was shakthi. in sakhi,the telugu dub of alaipayuthey, the names of all the characters remain the same except for the heroine’s, which is shanti. i keep telling myself not to read too much between the lines, but the anamoly is a bit more glaring,considering the amount of misogyny seen in tollywood.
3) i recently happened to read an interview of tollywood director teja, where apparently, before a.r.murgadoss’s ghajini released, the tollywood distributors did not like the film and predicted that it would flop because of its content.
i really dont know why i’m ranting like this but telugu cinema really really irks me and it makes me feel more bad because it talks a lot about the community i come from. the reason mahesh babu made srimanthudu was because he along with his brother in law was planning to adopt his native village burripalem and wanted to fashion a show reel to show his beloved fans how noble his work is. coincidence? well tollywood is filled with a lot of coincidences. akhil akkineni, nagarjuna’s son’s upcoming debut film is also named akhil.
there are two very uncool things here. one, though mediocrity is always visible in movies of all industries, there is at least some scope for different movies. for a jigarthanda or a bangalore days or a masaan or a lucia to be there and co exist, if not anything else. but in telugu films there’s nothing (no,what is bahubali if not an old fashioned, one dimensional david vs goliath/prodigal son update with shitloads of vfx and sabu cyril) and the two, here cinema is only about the stars. and stars are about their film families. and film families are about their fan clubs and fan clubs are about castes. no exaggeration. one star can push a team to make a film on adopting a village because he is doing that in real life and other star (kid) can have a debut film named after him because well, he has to keep the family business in good stead, should’nt he?
Cinema,at the end of the day,whether it is mainstream or parallel, commercial or arthouse is about telling a good story. nothing is above the story. and if a person with fame or family name dictates what a cinema should be-then to me, its not cinema at all.
fin.
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rajandr
September 19, 2015
These mainstream movies taking up documentary subjects are trying to invoke pseudo social awakening but careful not to challenge or question the status quo.
Should we be happy that mainstream movies are bringing attention to such important social issues. No it’s in fact a dangerous trend where it dilutes and diverts the attention of the masses from critical thinking and appeals only to their sensual pleasure.
Recent Tamil movie தனி ஒருவன் did exactly the same thing. It started with telling how multinational pharmaceutical companies through their patents make life saving drugs unaffordable to poor developing countries. It would be uncomfortable and inconvenient for the writers to paint the MNC corporations as the bad guys throughout. Doing that would make them pitting against the big powerful (political & economical) group.
Rather taking such a risk the writers reduce the unethical greed of a corporation to one individual’s greed and thereby channelized the anger of hero and viewers to an individual rather the corporation. They take the issue which is affecting the people (unaffordable drugs) place their movie plot and divert the people’s anger from the real villains to caricatures.
This same Tamil cinema played a major role in Dravidian movement’s eradication of superstition, revival of Tamil language etc.,
I don’t have problems with pure entertainment movies whose aim is to only entertain without any logic or taking any serious social issue. But it’s these mainstream movies which take up important social themes and dilute it which are dangerous as they do disservice to the society.
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MANK
September 19, 2015
Chanakya, its true about Mahesh’s inheritance. But i really like him as a an actor.I believe he is genuinely talented performer. With all due apologies, his father Krishna couldn’t act, dance or fight to save his life and yet became one of the biggest superstars of telugu cinema for almost 3 decades. Mahesh is any day a better performer than his father and if it wasnt for the stifling commercial environment of telugu cinema, i am sure he would have risen to greater heights as an actor than what we get to see. I mean you just need to watch Okkadu and Pokkiri and their several remakes to understand his worth. None of the actors in the remakes come anyway near him.
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Telugupride
September 19, 2015
i feel terribly dissapointed with the current state of telugu cinema as well as the telugu actors. I dont know any other industry where star sons, nepotism and most importantly Caste has such a stranglehold over an industry. Actors just dont need talent anymore. They just need to belong to a particular film family which incidentally represents a certain caste. Fan wars always end up becoming caste riots, as happened with Prabhas and pawan kalyan recently. You get the audience and fans for free. Horrible. And they have such fancy names. Mega power star, young tiger, stylish star… ugh. Much of these actors are so bad. They are unfit to be even in amateur plays
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Priyangu
September 20, 2015
What kind of movies that we, the general crowd, like to see? My answer to it would be quite simple.
Case-1: If I live in a place that is full of day-to-day problems, like power-cuts, irregular water supply, imperfect medical treatment even for small ailments, water/sewage logged roads with several unknown troughs, never-ending mosquito pricks, zillion different types of noises from morning till late in the night, relatively common problems like bomb blasts, train accidents, scaffolding from a construction site falling on your head, fire accidents with no emergency exits, etc etc etc, then, I would be interested in watching a totally fantastic movie which makes me happy and forget my daily life at least for a few hours. For me, my life itself is like a horror movie. So, I would definitely be not interested in watching a movie that highlights my problems or the root causes of my problems and makes me feel even more depressed. I know the root causes well, I know the possible solutions, and I know that complex problems do not have simple solutions. All I would want to say is, to hell with it, and I would just watch a masala movie where the hero reminds us of Fourier series “by performing periodic goon-bashing duties”.
Case-2: But if I happen to be in a place where there is absolutely none of the above mentioned problems in day-to-day life, if my daily life is totally secure, and I know for sure that it is going to be so for many more years to come, then, it is like eating just sweets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In that case I would definitely be interested in watching other people suffer, sitting comfortably in air-conditioned movie hall, and feeling how miserable life is in some parts of the world, and feeling grateful that I have such a great life.
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jussomebody
September 20, 2015
I just rewatched Swades, so it was a pleasant timely surprise to see a post on it. As with every time I watch it, I am really sad how underrated Swades is. I am all for tonal variety in our moviemaking, and I am as big a fan of mass Tamil movies made well, as anyone else. I haven’t watched Srimanthudu, but it is rather unfortunate that it is still that socially relevant movie with a hero who beats up 20 rowdies instead of the protagonist facing relatively more realistic problems, which wins popular appreciation and box office success. Maybe it isn’t that simple – Swades is at least 30 minutes too long – but even the country’s biggest star actor could not save it from relative oblivion.
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brangan
September 20, 2015
abhilashache: What an excellent, informative comment. Thanks. Really opens up an industry/ culture that some of us do not know all that much about.
Can you comment a little more on the ‘caste’ angle?
I mean, some of that is there in Tamil cinema too (for instance, Thilagar, reviewed here, was about the Thevar community and it invoked the actor Karthik) — but that’s also a bit about politics, as Karthik has a party. Is the caste-based fandom of Telugu stars a political thing, or is it along the lines of “this actor belongs to my caste, and so I will only watch his films?”
Priyangu: I agree completely. That’s why it’s really difficult to recommend a film like Masaan, however great it is. Because I completely understand it when a friend says, “I just want to relax. I don’t want to see a film about burning pyres in Benares.” In the sense that as a rule I try never to say “Go watch this” when someone asks me the “what to watch this weekend” question. Instead I say “Well, I found this particular film interesting for these reasons,” leaving it unsaid that your mileage may vary. But when it comes to something like Court or Masaan and everyone’s raving about it, people specifically ask about these films along with the “should I watch it” question. And that’s difficult to answer.
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ThouShaltNot
September 20, 2015
And they have such fancy names. Mega power star, young tiger, stylish star… ugh.
If it is any consolation, this isn’t your exclusive preserve. We have: Ultimate Star, Power Star, Young Super Star, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and so on
Others under consideration: Brightest Star, Singular Star, Giga Star, Peta Star…
The sophistication and subtlety involved in picking these titles is nothing short of admirable. And these titles are non-overlapping across the border, just so fans don’t mistake one for the other and confuse their singular capabilities (heaven help us)!
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MANK
September 20, 2015
the reason mahesh babu made srimanthudu was because he along with his brother in law was planning to adopt his native village burripalem and wanted to fashion a show reel to show his beloved fans how noble his work is.
I dont know, is it is that simple? I mean Mahesh was reeling under 2 mega flops before this one. He was just desperately trying to fashion a hit by following the trend set by the success of such films like Attarinki daredi or siva’s previous film Mirchi. the story of NRIs returning to their native villages and solving problems. And of all current stars, Mahesh seems to be the least politically interested. At least that’s the impression he gives, as regard to other stars like Pawan Kalyan who are politically active.
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Chanakya
September 20, 2015
MANK, yes, I failed to mention that he’s also an excellent performer. I agree with you on that. But he will keep making these so-called commercial movies until he is too old to experiment with his films. So it looks like an enormous waste of talent for me. Having said that, I really can’t see anyone other than Rajnikanth as a Superstar. I’m just saying. 🙂
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Vikram
September 20, 2015
ThouShaltNot’s remark on star titles got me thinking on Kannada cinema. Here we have Mental Star (!), Raising/Rising Star, Dynamic Prince, Karunada Chakravarthy, Challenging Star, Lovely (?) Star, Crazy Star, Crazy Queen, and so on. Just like Telugu cinema, stars here talk about greatness of Kannada (never mind that the cinema is a remake), wave the Kannada flag, bash 10 goons single handedly, and win the heroines effortlessly. If at all they move out of their comfort zone, at the best, they will wear a wig or a try different make-up. However, unlike Telugu cinema, there are young directors who take risky projects. Lucia, Ulidavaru Kandante and now RangiTaranga and Kendasampige are such examples. It’s hard to say whether they can sustain such diverse cinemas for long. I am keeping my fingers crossed!
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Priyangu
September 20, 2015
BR, thanks for the reply. I personally really like the truly socially relevant movies like Masaan and Court, though I often fall into the ‘general crowd’ or ‘mass’ category because of the WTF attitude that I’m pushed into so often because of daily life hardships. In fact, I was quite moved and surprised when I read a really responsible review by a reputed reviewer like you for ‘Court’ movie. My image of BR changed very much after that 😛 Somehow I think there is so much of a deep yearning within a few of the learned crowd for some great miracle to happen to make the world a better place. I very much hope and wish that an angel with a magic wand comes out that collective yagnic fire.
@rajandr I too felt the intensity of wrong message that came out of Thani Oruvan. There were some more wrong messages that I do not want to mention here. The problems are extremely deep rooted. I doubt if the movie medium is relevant anymore for ‘mass’ awakening. As abhilashache mentioned, the ‘mass’ movies are dominated by powerful families and business houses. During freedom struggle, ‘Thyaga Bhoomi’ severed both as a mass entertainer and a social awakener. It was written by Kalki who had dropped out of school in order to give up western education. He was the change that he wanted to see. The situation now is very different. There is no ‘freedom’ struggle. There is more freedom than anyone can ask for. The general ‘mass’ is very eager to experiment with it. They are not ready to listen to boring messages. May be a socially relevant ‘mass’ movie will come only after people experiment with the newly found ‘freedom’. It has to come from someone who is ‘the change’, not from the powerful business houses with vested interests. In the mean time, the casualty in the form of farmer suicides, etc, might continue to happen. Till then, all we can do to is to say a little prayer for them whenever we see some food on our plate and whenever we wear a comfortable cotton dress.
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Iswarya
September 20, 2015
I think they resort to what you call the “aspirin for cancer” mainly because showcasing what happens with real-life activism (the repeated frustrations, failure and the frequent limbo into which any struggle his after a point) is too unromantic and ‘feel-bad’ to sell. Even surprisingly successful real-life instances of change wrought by activism might at best be placed in the motivational category rather than ‘masala’ entertainment.
Seen one way, films like “Kaththi” succeed for two reasons. Since it’s common knowledge that most mainstream entertainment is a matter of vicarious wish-fulfillment, it makes the underdogs whom it supposedly champions feel that hope and fulfillment, if only for the runtime of the movie. More dangerously, by showing us, the evil city-dwellers or the indifferent middle classes and so on as belonging to the same class as the hero (in a manner), it makes us feel a sort of vicarious atonement (for whatever sins the villain gets punished in the end). One group comes out feeling their cause has been heard and another group (with big pockets) comes out feeling all pseudo-virtuous. Meanwhile, the farmers continue to die and the filmmakers laugh their way to the bank.
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kalpeshjain22
September 20, 2015
@BR did you know, following the film many stars and politicians went on adopting villages here in telugu states
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Rohan Nair
September 20, 2015
“like taking an aspirin for cancer”
Do you mean crocin, or disprin, or even gelusil? What is aspirin?
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tonks
September 20, 2015
Surprising you do not know, its so commonly taken over the counter for pain and headache, but Aspirin (Acetylsalicylic acid is the name of the molecule) is the same as Disprin (which is a brand name)
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bart
September 20, 2015
Not just MLAs and MPs, Chief ministers have been elected from filmdom of southern states. If they do not “show” that they can handle real issues through reel at least, where else would they build their case?
Even if an issue is shown in all earnestness and sincerity, I do not think films are going to solve any of our issues [We know people do not fancy watching documentaries or even news reels]. Few could cite a few instances, but am sure it would be negligible compared to examples a many the other way, of the reel-world inspired crimes and problems in daily life. So, films are just useful in creation of fantasies/ fables and nothing more. Anything more is a plus. So a mass movie or a commercial movie that has been for years, mis-utilising blood cancer, hole-in-the-heart, brain tumor other than class oppression and unemployment, now has turned to more news worthy topical issues. Though it might dilute the issue-at-stake, otherwise the existence of such topics may not even be known to some of the intended audience. If we were a “reading” community, the print media should be doing all the intense coverage on these topics and these movies then would run quick back into their cans but then..
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Ram Murali
September 20, 2015
To me, the ideal “socially relevant” movie is created when the writer/director decides that he/she wants to say something yet is wise enough to not start preaching (or at least, keeps the preaching / messages to a minimum) and lets the message evolve out of strong drama. “Devar Magan,” “Mahanadhi,” “Rhythm” and “Kaaka Muttai” are movies of this kind that have stayed with me for a long, long time. These movies had some memorable characters, unforgettable dialogues, meaningful songs and evocative cinematography that all combined to convey the core themes in a powerful manner neither losing sight of (to use one of BR’s patented terms) the cinema aspect nor descending into moral science sessions. It is another matter that the commercial reception to these four movies spanned the gamut from flop to blockbuster.
Having said that, I think Shankar has been among the shrewdest when it comes to creating mass movies that have the veneer of social responsibility. His formula has been quite simple esp. for his earlier movies – pack a whole lot of emotional punch into a 20-min flashback and keep the other portions snappy.
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brangan
September 21, 2015
The other thing I’m curious about is whether there’s a period accepted as the “golden age” of Telugu cinema — the way we look at the 70s in Tamil and 80s in Malayalam. Or was it always just the odd K Viswanath film among the usual commercial fare?
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Ravi K
September 21, 2015
Brangan, I’m no expert in Telugu cinema, but the 50s and 60s are pretty highly regarded. A lot of those movies were Tamil/Telugu bilinguals, or remade/dubbed in Tamil. Mayabazaar, Misamma, Gundamma Katha, Devadasu, etc.
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brangan
September 21, 2015
Ravi K: Oh, I know those films — they’re good films, but I’d still include them under the rubric of ‘nicely made mainstream films,’ in the sense that it’s more about the writing and the performances.
I’m asking if there was a cinematic golden age of some kind — like what happened in the 70s in Tamil, when, for the first time, a whole bunch of “directors” appeared on the scene and films started looking and feeling less like photographed stage plays and more like cinema.
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Ravi K
September 21, 2015
Hmmm…I don’t know if there was a specific movement or golden age like you’re asking about, but Vamsi’s films in the 80s were stylistically interesting compared to other Telugu films of that time.
I’ve seen a few non-mainstream Telugu films like “Show” (starring and produced by Mahesh Babu’s sister Manjula), and “Vanaja” (made by an NRI outsider to the industry). I know of one-offs by outsiders like Shyam Benegal’s “Anugraham” (made simultaneously as “Kondura” in Hindi) and Goutam Ghose’s “Maabhoomi.” And maybe there are some other NFDC-type films like “Stri” here and there.
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sanjana
September 21, 2015
Ram Gopal Varma’s contribution to telugu films can be called close to golden period.
And then Rajamouli came with his Eaga and other films.
If one wants poverty portrayal as gold standard, then I do not know much about them.
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Chanakya
September 21, 2015
What Telugu audiences and critics refer to as ‘Golden age’ was the 50’s and 60’s when mainstream cinema was filled with family stories. But the kind of ‘Golden age’ you’re referring to never really took off in Telugu Cinema. In the 80’s, directors like K. Vishwanath, Bapu and Vamsi tried to bring their art films into mainstream, but that movement lost it’s steam pretty quickly. Interestingly, K. Balachander was also part of this movement in Telugu. It’s been downhill for Telugu cinema ever since.
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vamshi shankar
September 21, 2015
Rangan, Firstly interesting that you compared Srimanthudu with Swades, as i personally think they are both as different as chalk and cheese, Srimanthudu is out and out masala movie where Mahesh Babu the ‘star’ has nothing to prove and the director has to just “elevate” hero at regular intervals, where as swades was more like SRK was trying to prove he is also an a great Actor and not just a Star, and the director got that out from SRK, with pretty good success.
Golden Age, in Telugu Cinema? sorry wrong question, we only had “Golden Times” when we had K.Vishwanath, Bapu and Vamsi’s movies release – I suggest you to have a look at Vamsi’s “April 1 Vidudhala” absolutely brilliant movie – though his recent movies are disappointing. Jandhyala – another great director – made great comedy movies – without even a tinge of crude jokes or double meaning dialogues, he was the last director whose movie we watched without thinking twice as we were sure they will be entertaining – and with that i will say Telugu Movies are just for “entertainment” unlike movies from other languages that are not just entertaining but also intelligent.
Even the current toast of telugu industry Rajamouli’s movies are always “Hero Centric” never had great content with one exception “Eega”
But yes I think currently Kannada movies are going through a “golden period”- with movies like Lucia, Simpalagi ondu Lovestory, Ulidavaru Kanadanthe, Rangi Tharanga and the recent Kenda Sampige are just brilliant – i suggest you to watch the last 2 as they are pathbreaking – within the commercial format – how i wish to see these kind of movies in Telugu – but hard luck!!!
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sanjana
September 21, 2015
And there was Puttanna Kanagal. Movies like Belli Moda, Shara Panjara… Actresses like Kalpana, Aarti… Actors like Anant Nag. Not gold standard, but interesting films.
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sanjana
September 21, 2015
What surprises me is that extremely well educated and well placed telugu people loving these movies. No critic worth mentioning. Atleast during those early periods, the music used to be outstanding.
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Arun Bala
September 21, 2015
Being a Chennai guy who grew up on the masala overdose of the 80s, it feels great to experience the current path breaking generation of Tamil film makers. I’m surprised there hasn’t been any mention of Shekhar Kammula in the context of Telugu movies. While there are some remnants of mainstream Telugu cinema trappings, his movies have always come across as clean (sometimes socially relevant) entertainers with great re-watching potential – Anand, Godavari, Leader, Avakaya biryani (produced by Kammula), Happy days, Life is Beautiful. Can’t wait for his next.
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South In North
September 21, 2015
While I am not sure about golden age – Telugu movies definitely went through what could be an equivalent of the Hrishikesh Mukherjee phase when Jandhyala was at peak. The movies he made were clean, with somewhat ludicrous story-lines, which he still managed to make believable by keeping the background uncluttered. I think, after Jandhyala there was nobody in Telugu who made ‘comedy’ movies like that.
Brangan: I’d love to read you write about these movies, if ever. Jandhyala and K. Viswanath, both.
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abhilashache
September 21, 2015
baradwaj sir,
thank you for that wonderful feedback. it was gratifying and it meant a lot.
Caste in telugu cinema works in two ways.
1) one is the obvious caste angle, where actors of a particular caste find fans from the caste the said actor comes from. its not that these fans hate or don’t watch films of other actors or become fans of that actor just because of his caste, but these fans feel an affiliation and a distant kinship with the actors because of their similar caste. fans of this particular kind are not just fans of an actor, but are also fans of his family, too. so instead of just having chiranjeevi fans or nagarjuna fans, you have fans of the mega family and fans of the akkineni family. these fan clubs support, promote, encourage and endorse the releases of the star kids hailing from the film families. like, chiranjeevi is a kapu, so he finds fandoms amongst fellow kapus who are not only his fans but also fans of the other star kids in the family (allu arjun, allu sirish, varun tej, sai dharam tej, ram charan tej). yes, fan love is very wholesale in andhra. in fact, fans consider the debuts of star kids as a given. the other day, i read in hyderabad chronicle that a fan club celebrated the birthday of balakrishna’s 17 year old son mokshagna, who has not even signed his debut film. i always wonder if these star kids are pressurised by their parents to join the business like the way we normal kids are pressurised to study engg/mbbs and other salaried professions. sad.
2) caste, also works on a regional level, where films of an actor are more popular in the region they hail from compared to other regions in the state(s). for example, films of prabhas and sunil (who are rajus,by caste) are more popular in the west godavari district which, coincidentally, has the large number of rajus. this is the same with kapu strongholds guntur and krishna districts where the films of chiranjeevi and the mega family are more popular than films of other actor/family/caste. the telugu film industry purely consists of actors from the andhra region. the only telangana origin actor in the industry is actor nitin reddy, whose films, naturally, have better box office collections in the telangana region. nitin debuted in a film called dil, which was directed by dil raju who (wow,another coincidence) is also a major distributor of films in the telangana-nizam region.
caste in tollywood is not explicitly political,though it is a open secret in andhra and telangana that balakrishna gets incensed dialogues written for him, which conveniently act as comebacks for the opponents of the telugu desam party. coincidence alert – balakrishna has a loyal fan base in hindupur, ananthapur district, a town whose member of parliament is balakrishna.
fin.
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abhilashache
September 21, 2015
the whole concept of golden era of any cinema is overrated because if you notice the so called golden eras of cinema were called so because they produced a vast number of films of one stock genre. i feel that an era or timeframe can be declared as golden only when films of all kinds are accepted, encouraged, liked and even disliked at the same time. i believe that the best thing that’s happened to cinema in the recent past is the internet and the availability of affordable filmmaking equipment. this has not only democratised the platform of filmmaking but has also changed the industry perception of one-movie-for-all and is bringing out different types of films for a diversified range of audiences. yes, that is happening, slowly and all at once.
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abhilashache
September 21, 2015
shekhar kammula lost his blue eyed boy of watchable telugu cinema image ever since he made leader and became a sell out.
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abhilashache
September 21, 2015
@MANK
you should understand that i have nothing personal against mahesh babu. yes, i can understand he wanted to make a hit and all but why did he have to shoehorn his “philanthropic” aspirations in the script? the story of the film is integral, sacred even and is above everything in the film. but does the telugu film industry understand that? i was questioning and criticising their inability to do so. due to this and so many other unfortunate factors, we have an industry, that, despite its abundance of able technicians, resources, infrastructure and finance is a hotbed of misogyny, mediocrity and parochialism.
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Vivek MV
September 21, 2015
You say only Telugu and Tamil film industries are doing socially relevant mass films. What a silly and utter baseless comment from a reputed film writer that is! Have you even tried following Kannada cinema? And do you at least understand that Malayalam cinema has impressed many globally with its socially relevant themes and the same films have managed to hold mass elements. Its a pity that you make a very vague generalised statement.
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South In North
September 22, 2015
@abilashache
So much vitriol! I agree on actors from the film families getting stardom as a birthright; most of them are actually just stars. They will probably win awards too, and have grand openings for their movies. Yes. But, there is definitely a small niche of break-the-mould movies, and it has been there for the last few years. Ashta chemma, Midhunam, oohalu gusa gusa laade come to mind. And there was Anand and Godavari before that.
I don’t know Tamil at all, and cannot compare on frequency or diversity of subjects, but I think these movies are comparable to something like a Queen or English Vinglish.
Also, is this caste/community card is typical to Telugu cinema, I wonder. Ever seen a Salman Khan movie on the day of release?
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Telugupride
September 22, 2015
This is the golden period of Telugu films.We have the best comedy actor the world have ever seen. Pity, that neither he nor the world realises this. 😛
Any industry that can survive natasimham Balayya’s antics can take a fair share of misogyny, mediocrity and parochialism. 😛
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Tejah
September 22, 2015
Ah! Telugu cinema did have a ‘golden’ age – a run in the 70s-80s and early 90s. We had two kinds of movies going: those made from the racy, plot-driven novels written by Yandamuri Veerendranth, Jandhyala’s comedies and, of course, Vamsee and Viswanath. Music for most of these movies by Ilayaraja and MSV were solid elements. Then we had the template for the blockbuster hit, as pre-fabbed by Raghavendra Rao (Jandyala writing some great dialogue for his movies and Ilayaraja and Chakravarti stepping in with the necessary beats) and Dasari Narayana Rao. Telugu cinema’s ‘Manmohan Desai’s, as they fine-tuned their movies to deliver commercial successes one after another (Dasari Narayana Rao does believe he moved the social narrative in Telugu films forward – tear-jerkers that were a pain to watch, but made money). The movies we see now are the grandchildren of the story-telling techniques of that time…
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abhilashacherukuri
September 22, 2015
@south in north
yeah i know i sound bitter, but then again i would not bother to ponder about the flaws of nollywood, lollywood, sandalwood et al, would i?
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Raja
September 22, 2015
feels like rediff comment boards to see someone hold on to superstar tag. Powerstar is the best podhumA?
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superfan
September 22, 2015
@Abhilashache
What caste does mahesh babu belong to. He looks like a Hollywood film hero
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Ravi K
September 22, 2015
Telugupride: I love watching Balayya’s movies. The fight scenes are so ridiculous, and his “dancing” so laughable that I can’t help but enjoy them. My favorite so far is “Vijayendra Varma.”
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chandra prakash
September 24, 2015
Sorry to barge in, thought tristate area people who might have missed Kaakka Muttai movie, may have an opportunity to watch.
http://www.movingimage.us/visit/calendar/2015/11/22/detail/the-crows-egg
for tristate area makkal, this movie is being screened on Nov 22nd, Sunday at Museum of Moving Images, Astoria, NY.
Didn’t know any other easy outlet to share the info about this good movie.
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nivasrathan
September 25, 2015
@abhilashacherukuri you have a lot to say, but what you say sounds very unbalanced. If caste equations were indeed so huge, why do heros have fan clubs in every town and city? In fact having caste based fanism would be working against their adavantage. Only a particular set of people would see their films.Which producer will put their money into it?
@brangan I have limited knowledge of the yester years of telugu filmaking, but I think we are in the golden age of telugu films. At least commercially.In three months we have had three Blockbusters, which is almost unheard of in non-hollywood film industries. See this tweet for an idea of the range of collections.
and in the same year we have had films like malli malli idi rani roju, Yevade Subramanyam, Asura. check them out if you can.
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anil
September 27, 2015
Dear Rangan,
I like your reviews and do read them regularly in “The Hindu”. I want to put my 2 cents on Telugu cinema vs others. Many have commented on the content of Telugu Cinema like Mass masala, Commercialisation, misogyny, plagarism, remakes, formulaic, Star kids etc. I feel these are problems in other film industries as like Tamil and Hindi as well. As you see in Telugu or Tamil or Hindi most of the actors are sons of some actors, directors or producers. With some exception new generation is not coming into industry that too trained in theater
Regarding experimentation I do agree Telugu cinema is behind Tamil and Malayalam though occasionally it has come and people might not have noticed as many readers pointed the list of movies. However I agree that Mainstream telugu heros are hesitant to break the formula mould (fights, songs, dance, hero-villain etc). If they try (generally they result in not good box office collections as fans dont like it). So chiranjeevi who is a good actor is forced to do all these formula films. Mahesh babu said he will not risk after a nice experimental movie failed at box office. How ever if you compare % of Tamil movies like Kakka muttai in year vs over all total its very less.
From mid 1980’s masala films increased. This trend of fans clubs etc started around mid 80’s when NTR joined politics. Till then Telugu cinema had multi starrer, stories based on novels etc. I can say pre-1985 is a good era of telugu cinema as there was less masala. Some gr8 directors 1) K Viswanath for movies on Music, dance, culture 2) Jandhyala for clean comedy movies 3) BApu-ramana on artistic movies 4) SS rajamouli for larger than life movies 5) Not many know Ram Gopal varma is a telugu and he directed good movies before he movied to hindi like Shiva, kshana kshanam etc. 5)Dasari narayana rao movies 6) Vamsi and many others. I also want to say that tamil film makers are good at marketing compared to others and now telugu films makers also now started it
I want to comment on caste and cinema. As you know unfortunately in this country everyone human is born in a caste along with other things. If he likes to be associated or not people do associate. As NTR enterted politics in 80’s the other rival community in politics Kapu’s do glorify their star. I feel this factor is exagarated. Yes, Fan based thing of cinema is political as well. As we indians take pride in success of indians in USA.Oh..gr8. Satya Nadella and Sundar pitchai are cEO’s of MS and Google. We dont understand that they are succesfull because america gives merit and innovation its due place irrespective of race, gender etc unlike india (or even europe). Similarly some people who belong to the community of heroes take solace that “‘Oh our guy is hero” we are not inferior to anyone etc..Those with identity crisis do such things. Many dont understand that a hero can’t survive with audience from one community. Also a film is team work of many. People from many communities directed NTR, ANR, Chiranjeevi movies and produced movies and people of all community watch if movie is good. Also someone mentioned film actors are mostly from Coastal andhra region and not many from telanagana. The reason is Telugu cinema originated in Madras and Telanagana was not part of Madrad presidency. Only Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema were part of it. Its natural many people from films are from that regions. Now we see good numbers of directors and other artists from telangana as well, it takes time
Regards,
Anil
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Neo Meister
October 24, 2015
i know i am late to the party but just wondering if you saw this girls take on telugu cinema through her video that has earned her a lot of brickbats from the actors and their fans …. I am mallu from chennai so don’t know what the impact of it was up there….. But considering Rajamouli had to take a question regarding the said video sort of merits its inclusion…. If you ask me she got some wrong but most of them right from the small amount of telugu movies i have seen so far……
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kaizokukeshav
January 28, 2021
I am late to this discussion, but there was a question about golden period for telugu cinema. So just thought of putting the point. I strongly feel there are two era in Telugu movies.
First is the wave of Black and White Social dramas that took place in a indoor/village setting with NTR, ANR, SV Ranga Rao and Jaggayya at the helm. Not to mention the fantastic contribution from producers like B Nagi Reddy. These movies were morally rich that laid a strong foundation to the narrative of the Telugu way of thinking.
Second is the meteoric rise of Chiranjeevi during late 80s-00s (which is akin to Amitabh in Hindi) that brought structure, commerce and competition to the theatres. Not only he ended up as the one of the most loved actors in Telugu, but was able to successfully collaborate with almost every famous director and writer of the 80s and 90s. He brought many genres to the plate that include action, classical arts, social commentary, politics, drama, dance, comedy, family. Also he made sure that Nagarjuna, Venkatesh, Balakrishna etc. had no choice left but to up their game. The actors who came later are still basking in their glory.
The yard stick for the above analysis is simple. It’s based on which movies audience prefer to watch now. Telugu audience will surely look at these two eras of movies
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