29 January 2007

75 years Of Telugu Cinema - Mixed Feelings

The degeneracy is rampant ! Yet, everyone stopped to commemorate the maestros of the Telugu cinema. Jandhyala was completely forgotten (till Brahmanandam mentioned him) while Silk Smita got a mention in the departed actors section. Bapu and K Viswanath honored but JV Somayajulu forgotten. Chiranjeevi and Mohanbabu engaged in an uncouth and ridiculous squabble. On the whole the celebration was a fiasco. But some aspects of the function stop you from calling it that - like Balu's anchoring and presence of great personalities like Bapu, Viswanath, and the stars that lit up the silver screen in the yesteryears.

Topping all this agony, I happened to see the following film summary (Veerabhadra) in a popular telugu website yesterday.




I was horrified when I read the last line in the review. My horror stemmed out more from the review than from the actual film dialogue itself. In case the image above is not clear, let me write it again -

"నరకడం మొదలుపెడితే ఏ ముక్క ఎవడిదో తెలుసుకోడానికి వారం పడుతుంది" వంటి డైలాగ్స్ ప్రేక్షకులను అలరిస్తాయి.

As far as I remember, the word "అలరించడం" was used in the context of good music, good cinematography and good dances in a movie... some times a good sentiment brought out by an actor or actress's performance. Since when has this word been used in describing violence?

"బృందావనమది అందరిదీ" అన్న పాటలో సావిత్రి నటన ప్రేక్షకులను ఎంతగానో అలరించింది - I can make sense of this line. But the above line completely beats me. A deep sigh escapes you when you think of the industry - where it started and where it's going. The golden period is certainly over!