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Telugu Cinema 2005

Koundinya | January 03, 2006

Also read New Blood | Dubbed Films Are A Big Hit | Telugu films released in 2005

Year 2005 ended with absolute disappointment. The volume of production was a record. It is 130 beyond. Dubbing was 64. So are the flops. The hits were a few. One significant feature is the change of taste for cinema. A film was received well only when it had some stuff to entertain the audience and the taking was good. If the film did not meet these demands, even a big star film was rejected. With the advent of introduction of new tax system, there arose opportunity for imaginative producers and directors to go for small budget films with refreshing themes. But the producers and directors found pleasure only in rehashing. As if there was an end for their imaginative power, they fell back on old films and found inspiration in those themes. But they failed even in redoing them.

The Rayalaseema trademark films continued their tirade this year too. They got practically stuck up with faction stories, which they thought was a safe bet. January had seven releases, of which the significant were 'Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana', which sent the box office ringing, star image films like 'Balu', featuring Pawan Kalyan, 'Naa Alludu' with NTR and 'Dhana-51' of Sumanth. The latter three miserably failed. Of the 13 films released in February 'Sankranthi' a Telugu remake of the Tamil film 'Anandam' was the only film that bagged some success.

The other notable film to be mentioned here was Bapu-Ramana's 'Radha Gopalam', a classy comedy that could not reach masses. 'Radha Gopalam' could be understood well by readers of various magazines, in which Bapu's influence is found in cartoons and quips. This movie was conversion of those jokes into visuals. Songs are wonderful and the heroine Sneha proved a wonder girl, when presented from Bapu's angle. It was an artistic presentation, though it did not make big money. Better not to talk of films like 'Sravanamasam' and the other ten films, including 'Orey Pandu' of SV Krishna Reddy, Jagapatibabu's 'Pandem' and Kodi Ramakrishna's 'Keelugurram'. They were all in the losers' list.

Of the 13 films released in March, none could put a brave face. There was some effort by off-beat directors like Neelakanta who made 'Sada Mee Sevalo' and Krishna Vamsee who made 'Chakram'. Nine films were released in April. 'Bunny' and 'Hungama' were the only films that made money. K. Raghavendra Rao's 'Subhash Chandra Bose' was a miserable flop, taking Venkatesh as its victim. Teja's another attempt 'Ounanna Kadanna' was another disaster. In May Raviteja's 'Bhadra' and Kalyanram's 'Athanokkade' raised box office expectations. B. Gopal's 'Narasimhudu' with NTR Jr. playing the lead soon touched dust. All these examples denote how the audience is judging a film. 'Anukokunda Oka Roju' released in June, made some waves because of the skilful handling of the subject by the Gunnam Gangaraju's team. But Chiranjeevi's 'Andarivadu' proved he is not 'Andarivadu' as far as this film was concerned. Rest of the films were down and out.

July had Nagarjuna's 'Super' which turned out to be a super flop, after it had an initial run because of the star image of Nagarjuna. The rest of all looked to be experimental films. 'A film by Aravind', among them was a bit better. But the rest did not do well, because of the wrong handling of characters and artistes. Tarun's 'Oka Oorilo', Srikanth's 'Kanchanamala Cable TV' and Aryan Rajesh's 'Nireekshana' only reflected the urge of the director to go different.

Except 'Athadu' of Maheshbabu and 'Andhrudu' of Gopichand none of the films released in August are worth discussing about. 'Grahanam' got awards, not rewards. 'Chatrapati' in the September releases list proved a hit, while 'Political Rowdy' of Mohanbabu was a disaster. K. Raghavendra Rao again tasted adverse remarks for his 'Allari Bullodu'. Nitin and Trisha figured in this. Srihari's 'Okkade' and Narayanamurthy's 'Amma Meeda Ottu' were average. There were two experiments - one with just two characters and the other with three. They were 'Athadu+Aame=9' and 'Mogudu Pellam O Dongodu'. This kind of experiment was made perhaps to reduce the budget. But they did not have the support of a good subject. 'Good Boy' was a change for the lead artiste, but not to the market, for, this film too slowly lost its glitter.

October releases had films that fared badly. They included Balakrishna's 'Allari Pidugu', Raviteja's 'Bhageeratha' and Krishna Vamsee's 'Danger'. 'Ayyinda Leda' and 'Seenugadu Chiranjeevi fan' reflect bad taste right in the naming of the films. 'Vennela' was the only saving grace of November. This is one of the good films produced in this year. It is still running to good houses. The last month suffered a lot. 'Sree' and 'Mahanandi' tried to look a bit different. 'Mahanadi' was a better film. 'Yuvakulu' and 'Pourusham' had no proper openings at all. To top it all 'Jai Chiranjeeva' is also going the same way that his 'Andarivadu' did.

The total picture of Telugu cinema this year was the result of immature handling of scenes and inability to write a good script. The state government's sops to the industry by way of resetting the tax system should have helped the industry, especially the small cinema. Slab system was replaced by a new system of taxing only those tickets that were actually cut at the counter, but not on the total capacity for the theatre, which was the earlier slab system. Our heroes don't want to change their approach. They want to be omni-present in the film. Character roles are ignored.

In contrast the Telugu dubbed versions of Tamil films - Rajnikanth's 'Chandramukhi', 'Manmadha' of Simbhu, Shankar's 'Aparichitudu', 'Premiste', Surya's 'Ghajini' – made biggest box office collections. But the Telugu filmmakers never learn lessons in the art of screenplay writing and story writing. Now we are where we were in 2004. The biggest tragedy of the year was the demise of that great lady P. Bhanumathi.