Telugu Cinema Enthusiast?

In the aftermath of watching yet another Telugu movie, Raviteja’s Power, I write this in angst. What do Telugu audience get by way of their movies? This is a question with probably the shortest answer. Let me still attempt to define this

• 1.       One hero – a real superhero who kills no less than 200 people in the movie. If the movie has double action then God help the genocide. Hitler will be put to shame.
• 2.       One heroine – nobody knows her character in the script. She makes an appearance right before a song and then wears skimpy clothes with a background of snowcapped mountains. Once in a few movies she is the daughter of the villain or related to him. At that time she gets to use some glycerin in the eyes. She does give interviews on local television on her breakthrough opportunity in the movie.
• 3.       One or multiple villains – there is one main guy, a few on the side. They all eventually get together to end the streak of the hero. Poor fellas. They all die excruciating deaths lasting about 30 minutes of screen time where slow motion is used to emphasize the pain the hero is causing them in every limb. There are a few hundred extras who act as goons and those are eventually killed by the hero too. Of course!
• 4.       The comedians – they are probably the only reason the industry still survives. We have one who has registered his name in the Guinness book of world records. He is more important than the hero and the heroine put together. He needn’t even be a part of the whole movie. His time in the movie is measured in gold. They are the difference between a successful and a not so successful movie.

Every tale is the same. There are bad guys and super bad guys. The hero gets them eventually. They cause him or his family or the heroine harm directly or indirectly and he being the good guy brings out a weapon of choice which is tastefully designed and goes about chopping heads as if he is chopping onions for Master chef. Then there is the music. Music helps the promotion of the movie immensely. Hence there are songs. Some are hummable but they absolutely have no role in the movie except for some screen time for the heroines or the item girls roped in for the song. They come, they go and the movie resumes after almost like a 5 minute interval. The side cast come and over emote where needed and add to a weak script. The only variety I seem to have noticed in such movies is how innovatively the bad guys are being hit. Nowadays they bounce of the ground as if the hero was Michael Jordan and them his balls. Well that may not have come out right, but you know what I mean. The hero is getting more and more badass as he gets back at the villains and the director no longer wastes time in ensuring the hero is married or is having kids at the end of the movie.

Amidst all this come movies like Eega, One – nenokkadine, Dhrushyam, Venkatadri express to name a few in no particular order. They are script heavy and do not always feature one of the top stars of the industry. Our image conscious stars only seem to believe in “the format” or “the formula” movies. The formula movie has the 4 aspects I mentioned above in some degree and any intelligent viewer is totally vexed after watching 2.5 hours of sheer bullshit.

But I maybe the odd duck. As the heroes roar against the villains the crowd seems to go crazy whistling and cheering the heroes. Maybe that’s all they want. A lady who is arm candy, a man who is superman and a villain who is grotesque but will meet his death eventually under sheer gruesome circumstances. I may have very misplaced expectations if I am expecting The Dark Knight in Tollywood. After all the industry does survive pretty well.