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31st
December 2004
As
2004 comes to an end, it's that time of the year where we
sit back and recollect what went through in our lives and
how memorable or otherwise this year has been. And in those
thoughts Telugu cinema creeps in automatically. So here I
am, jotting down "some" of my picks from the 122
movies released in 2004. I say some because I couldn't see
all the 122 to come up with "all" my picks of 2004.
1.
Varsham
 If
it was not for DsriP's mesmerizing melodies, simple and effective
lyrics by Sirivennela, 'I came-I saw-I conquered' heroine
Trisha and incessant publicity in the form of teasers on all
the popular channels on the TV, Varsham would have ended up
like a summer shower that comes yes, but goes even before
one realizes. Just like the way MS Raju has adapted Anmol
Ghadi into Manasantha Nuvve, he has molded Tezaab into Varsham
albeit with good care. Varsham gave Prabhas what Okkadu gave
Mahesh - their sole sensational hits till date. Also MS Raju
gave Trisha such a huge hit that with just one film she is
now touted as the number one heroine in Telugu film industry.
Hope Trisha lives up to that with her ensuing movies.
Stars
of Varsham: DsriP (music), Trisha (actress), MS Raju (screenplay,
producer), Sirivennela (lyricist)
2. Arya (Feel my love)
 A
friend of mine describes Arya as 'irritatingly interesting'.
And I concur. At many points in the movie, Arya's character
just gets on to your nerves. But you are still hooked to his
(over) actions, his (ape like) pranks and his (strong) beliefs.
So what is it that makes Arya click big time? Director Sukumar's
novel presentation (except the last half hour) of the movie
is the answer. There are many scenes that he has handled with
great dexterity thereby showcasing his creativity that impress
you so much that you safely accept a bit of over action from
the hero and a lot of 'Come on guys! Am I supposed to be acting
too?' looks from the heroine. Added to that, DsriP's music
for Arya was funky and fabulous. DsriP indeed rocked our world.
If there is one thing that is quite superior about Allu Arjun
then it's his exquisite dancing skills. Way to go Arjun. Another
striking aspect of this movie is its slick cinematography
by Ratnavelu who made each frame look very rich. The credit
for all this should also go to producer Raju who put a lot
of faith and money in this project and made sure it got the
right look and feel. Telugu audiences very much felt and connected
with Arya's Feel my love caption.
Stars
of Arya: Sukumar (story, screenplay, dialogues, direction),
DsriP (music), Ratnavelu (photography), Raju (producer)
3.
Anand
 Anand
has changed the equations of Telugu film industry this year.
With relatively new actors/actresses, with a director who
was not known beyond the elite circle who saw and appreciated
Dollar Dreams and with a very simple story, Anand has re-written
the definition of success in Telugu film industry. One person
who has to be credited for all this is, Shekar Kammula. 2004
lo meeru Shekar Kammula, vochharu telugu cinema ki oka varamu
la. And I am really glad that Anand got a much-deserved honor
and applause from Telugu audience. (Note: Am not an alumnus
of Osmania University, so please rest your doubts on my shower
of appreciation on Mr. Kammula). Anand is probably the only
movie this year that can be truly defined as a testimony of
"variety" and "different" Telugu cinema.
Haunting music (with not so good choice of singers though),
beautiful lyrics, a heroine whose eyes spoke much more than
her body language and Sunitha's wonderful dubbing are the
other hallmarks of Anand. Anand is as close a Telugu cinema
can get to real life. Coherent situational humor without tending
to be slapstick or dramatic, an inherent aspect of this movie,
is a rarity in Telugu cinema.
Stars
of Anand: Shekar Kammula (director), KM Radha Krishnan
(music), Veturi (lyrics), Sunitha (dubbing)
4.
Shankar Dada MBBS
 "Shankar
Dada MBBS hu ha, hu ha" roared the audiences all over
the world watching Chiranjeevi, after a long time, in a full-length
comedy role as a don turned medico. "Correcte, prema
gurinchi naakem telusu…." Saying that Chiranjeevi
took us on a joy ride teaching us everything from lovaria
to mirthful euphoria. Just check out the number of letters
written to us by his fans from all over the world about their
wonderful experiences of watching Chiru as Shankar Dada and
you'd understand how much they all loved him and his ultra
cool bewarse walk. Though this movie pales in comparison with
the Hindi original, if it was not for Chiranjeevi (to a major
extent) and Paruchuri brothers' hilarious English transliterations
of Telugu proverbs, this movie would not have achieved the
hit status it received now. Chiru, with his superb comedy
timing and his ability to carry the entire movie on his shoulders,
proved that when it comes to entertaining us in such roles,
nobody comes close to him.
Star
of Shankar Dada MBBS: Chiranjeevi (all the way)
5.
Malliswari (The Princess)
 Scene
1
Sunil: "Malliswari is the best movie ever"
Venkatesh: "Abhadhham, nijam cheppu"
Sunil: "Ok, Malliswari is not as good as Nuvvu Naaku
Nachhav but it still rocks"
Scene 2
Sunil: "Katrina should get a National Award for Malliswari"
Venkatesh: "Cha, inko maata cheppu"
Sunil: "Nannadigithe, Katrina ki National Award kaadu
kadha, National School of Drama lo apprentice la kooda cherchukoru"
That's
just an excerpt inspired by Venky/Sunil scenes in Malliswari.
Malliswari is probably the only movie this year where the
heroine was exorbitantly exaggerated before the movie's release.
Consequently, though people found Katrina sweet and cute,
they just could not accept her zero acting abilities and zilch
dancing skills. Though the movie was titled with the heroine's
name, Katrina could neither make name nor fame in Telugu industry
out of this movie. But hey, Malliswari still rocked and had
people in splits for most part. Trust Trivikram to come up
with some of the best hilarious one-liners and his dialogues
for this movie were filled with an ample dose of those. Awesome
job by Trivikram, as always. (I can't wait to watch his present
directorial venture Athadu). Venkatesh, who displayed amazing
comedy skills in Nuvvu Naaku Nachhav as Venky/Venkateshwarlu
fared even better here as Pelli Kaani Prasad, scoring his
only hit this year.
Stars
of Malliswari: Trivikram (story, dialogues), Venkatesh
(actor)
6.
Venky
 Venky
will be remembered more for its rib-tickling, hilarious first
half handled quite well by director Srinu Vytla and dialogue
writer Kona Venkat. Ravi Teja was just too good in this half.
His comedy scenes in the train episode are among the best
comedy scenes of 2004. DsriP contributed his share of success
to his movie by scoring some very popular mass numbers. Sadly,
his subsequent music scores for mass movies like Shankar Dada
MBBS, Mass and the recent Naa Alludu carry a heavy Venky hangover.
Stars
of Venky: Srinu Vytla (director), Kona Venkat (dialogues),
Ravi Teja (actor), DsriP (music)
7.
Yagnam
 With
a title like Yagnam coming from a director whose first movie
Manasutho was a total washout and with a beaten to death subject
of Rayalaseema faction, Yagnam more than surprised me with
its content. Director A S Ravi Kumar Chowdary deserves a pat
on his back for not letting any boring moment creep into the
movie and handling it with an interesting narration throughout.
Giving ample support to the director in this movie is hero
Gopichand who excelled in the role of a servant turned rebel.
The outcome - audiences lapped up this movie and appreciated
it by making it a hit.
Stars
of Yagnam: AS Ravi Kumar Chowdary (screenplay, direction),
Gopichand (actor)
Apart
from the above, there are two movies that were remade from
highly successful Tamil films that failed to click with Telugu
audience - Gharshanaa (The Final Battle) and Naa
Autograph (Sweet Memories). Both of these were faithful
remakes of their originals. While Gowtham, who directed the
original Tamil version directed Gharshanaa, ace cinematographer
S Gopal Reddy made his foray into direction with Naa Autograph,
sticking to shot-by-shot execution from the Tamil version.
When the originals were huge hits, why did these remakes not
work with Telugu audience?
1.
Garshana
 Khaaka
Khaaka, the tamil version of Gharshanaa had wonderfully appropriate
casting. Surya and Jyothika excelled in their respective roles
and their first time pairing worked very well. But I don't
think Venkatesh, with due respects to his portrayal of the
role of DCP Ramchandra, evoked the same response as Surya
did. Also, Asin though good in her own might could not recreate
the magic of Jyothika's portrayal of the role of Maya. But
only those who have seen both the versions can make such comparisons.
All this apart, the publicity, the music (though catchy and
among the best works of this year) and the packaging of the
movie gave an impression that the movie was aimed more at
class and not mass audience. So the masses, whose response
gauges the box-office performance of any movie, kept away
from the movie.
2.
Naa Autograph
 Coming
to Naa Autograph, regardless of Ravi Teja's sincere performance,
the audience was just not comfortable accepting Ravi Teja,
who acted in many mass roles until then, in such a down to
earth, humble role. The main reason the Tamil version became
the only genuine Silver Jubilee Tamil film in recent times,
is that it generated excellent word of mouth publicity. Besides,
Cheran is known to handle such sensitive subjects with good
amount of success. But in the Telugu version, S Gopal Reddy
had no track record as a director and the very first impression
of the Telugu audiences was a state of shock to see Ravi Teja
in a meek role and this boomeranged and killed the chances
of the movie banking on the word of mouth publicity. Nonetheless
this is a well-made movie that probably would have suited
some other actor who did not carry any pre-conceived image
in the audiences like Ravi Teja.
Sometimes
it's hard to believe that this year is already coming to an
end. It feels like only yesterday I saw Andhrawala [released
on Jan 1 2004] which induced a brain blasting migraine that
was so worse that I felt people might have to carry me out
of the theater if I were to sit through the entire movie.
But thanks to Shekar Kammula, I got rid of the migraine by
sipping his blissful coffee in the form of Anand. And Anand
is the last latest Telugu Cinema I saw this year. Although
the success ratio this year is far better compared to previous
year, one must question as to how far has Telugu Cinema progressed
in 2004? How much innovative advancement did we make in 2004?
What path-breaking milestones has Telugu cinema achieved in
2004? In a nutshell, has Telugu cinema entertained us like
never before, in 2004? NO. Shocking but true.
The
words "variety", "different", "new",
"novel" have been beaten to death so much by their
constant (mis)usage in the industry that I fear their actual
meaning might die down very soon when uttered by someone in
the industry. Its time somebody woke up and steered Telugu
cinema to a path where innovative ideas, new themes, good
acting (please, no more junior artistes who don't understand
what acting is), proper singing (without any thickly accented
pronunciations) will be the norms and not mere value additions.
I,
on behalf of Idlebrain.com, would like to wish all our readers
a happy, enriching, peaceful and safe year ahead in 2005.
Lets make the world a better, happier and a safer place for
all of us.
Note:
Since I haven't watched Lakshmi Narasimha, 7/G Brindavan Colony
and Mass, they were not short-listed to be featured in this
article. Any inconvenience is deeply regretted.
Other
articles about Telugu cinema in 2004:
Box Office results
of Telugu cinema 2004
2004 - a year of
inspirations
Paruchuri
Brothers - real heroes
USP of Telugu Cinema
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