7th April 2005

Growing up in Chennai didn't give me too many opportunities to watch Telugu movies. To me, Telugu movies were stereotypical: gaudy costumes, loud music and funny dances. I had little notion of the winds of change that were blowing across Southern Cinema with our Telugu industry fast becoming pre-eminent in the South, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

All that changed one day, when a friend suggested that I watch Okkadu. The movie completely took me by surprise. It was by far the best action movie I've seen in a long, long time. There was nothing unusual about the story: knight in shining armor rescuing a damsel-in-distress, but the taut, focused screenplay and stunning action sequences were a revelation.

The numerous awards and accolades that Okkadu won stand testimony to this fact. Oh, and did I mention the hero? Mahesh Babu, unknown to me until then. Yes he was tall; yes he looked good and could dance well. And yes, he was great in the action sequences. But most importantly, he could emote well. He could be sentimental without seeming mushy, romantic without going overboard, and angry without looking convulsed.

I was inspired to watch every movie of his and was never disappointed. Although some of the movies could have been better, Mahesh's performance was high quality all the time. I was sure a star had arrived!

He is without doubt the best among the current crop of young heroes in both Telugu and Tamil. With about ten movies under his belt, he has provided wholesome entertainment to the audience, portraying every character he has played in a novel manner. He has a knack of dominating all his movies, without overtly attempting to do so.

I've recommended some of his movies to several Tamil friends of mine, and they've all liked him a lot. And inevitably, the next thing that comes out of everyone's mouth is, 'Wish there was someone like him in Tamil'. His appeal seems to transcend linguistic boundaries.

Across both the Tamil and Telugu industries, actors seem to be stuck in a rut today. All the good actors are aging, and the young actors are pretenders. Everyone is a wannabe Rajinikanth or Chiranjeevi, and they all believe that the secret to superstardom is this: Talk about themselves and maybe their ancestors in third person and vigorously move selected parts of their body several times in a movie. Don't forget to look at the camera and wink a few times to interact with the audience. Very simple, nah? Now if the movie fails, it was either because they shook the wrong part of the body or because of pirated VCDs.

In light of all this, Mahesh's performance in Okkadu was like a whiff of fresh air. Here was a hero that had the self-confidence to let his movies do the talking. He could traverse the boundary between mass and class movies, and could do it effortlessly. There is a dearth of this genre of heroes in Tamil today, and Mahesh is someone that could easily fill the void. Clearly, he is the only young Telugu hero currently who has the potential to storm the Tamil audience too, young and old alike. Having had his education in Chennai, language is not a constraint for him. There is no young actor today that can be compared to Nagarjuna or Kamalahassan in terms of cross-border appeal, and Mahesh would be able to fill that void quite easily.

The tremendous success of Okkadu in Chennai and the great openings that Arjun recently had mean that this would be the perfect time for Mahesh to venture into Tamil waters and explore a potential market there.

Given that Tamil moviegoers are also open to welcoming change and embrace novel subjects, Mahesh will probably do really well in Tamil. The success of new and different concepts like Autograph, Kadal Kondein, Kaaka Kaaka and New in Tamil stands testimony to this fact. The surprising success of Telugu remakes in Tamil like Jayam and M. Kumaran s/o Mahalakshmi, with an ordinary performer at the helm is evidence that the Tamil audience would be more than willing to accept someone like Mahesh who is head and shoulders above the competition.

From his discography so far, Mahesh's penchant for subjects that are different is evident. Of late though, the lukewarm box office response to some of his efforts has tempered that desire, and he seems to have resigned himself to doing routine boy loves girl, 3 fights, 5 songs, faction backdrop formula movies regularly. Tamil cinema could relieve some of the intense pressure to succeed that he faces, and serve as his avenue to try out new things, and where his innate desire to do different movies might come true.

If not straight Tamil movies right away, maybe he could start off with dubbing some of his recent movies or better still, do a bilingual. Arjun would probably be a good choice for a debut dubbing venture - considering that the Tamil audience is familiar with the rest of the cast viz. Shriya (Enakku 20, Unakku 18), Saritha, Prakash Raj and Kalabhavan Mani.

Maybe a ManiRathnam would come along to showcase the untapped acting potential of this young hero and do to Mahesh what an Idayathai Thirudathey (Gitanjali in Telugu) or Udayam (Shiva in Telugu) did to Nag in Tamil.

After all, why wouldn't his fans want to see their favorite hero dominate both fields? Here's to his popularity in both the languages… the ball is in your court Mahesh!

Lavanya Karthik
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