Its always a matter a comparison. Who is doing good, and which is the better one. It applies the same to the many ‘woods we have, the nearest to us being TamilWood and Tollywood.
The tamil film industry is said to be blessed with visionary artists/directors/production units and musicians and they do take their respect. Tollywood lagged behind for a long time and is always in a never-ending loop to try and excel before the neighbors.
I would say our industry fared well in bridging this gap last one and half year or so, and we the audience, always expecting and encouraging variety and freshness. Thanks to the many efforts went behind. Why not ! If Tollywood makes around 100 movies a year, each one of us watch at least 30 of them (a movie buff goes way far!)
I won’t go beyond last year or so to just list the good ones that I can think of, but it doesn’t mean we only started having good movies last year only.(Except for the first one below, rest are not ordered in any specific way. They are purely random :P)
The first obvious item of the list is Magadheera, “the Grand Movie of Tollywood”. SS Rajamouli is simply the best director around. You watch Veer (a disaster hindi movie), Invictus (english movie on Rugby) to compare the international standards that he tries to bring. I can keep writing on him and his work and comparing and more, in one line, he is one of the visionaries Tollywood is hungry of.
Arundhati is another movie which has high risked production. Sheer love towards cinema made this possible ! Thanks to the producer (ShyamPrasad Reddy)
Movies of Ravi Babu are always to be watched out for, though some times he fails to bring in good stuff. Yet, the experimenting and the freshness he takes us to is to be appreciated. (Amaravathi and Anasuya)
Sekhar Kammula and his school of movie making has already won accolades. Hope he keeps up and adds himself to the visionary directors. (Happy Days, Leader)
Krishh is one director whom I am very much confident about his ability to deliver superb content, though he just made one movie so far (Gamyam). This movie has profound impact on my life! I rate it the one of the all time best movies (though its little too much, still I stand to it)
I want to mention about the movie ‘Katha’, I don’t know what reviews might have written about this, but if you have not watched yet, just do that! It has got tremendous creative work gone into it. (They are the followers of the great Alfred Hitchcock)
Chandra Sekar yeleti’s Prayanam is to be mentioned for sure. (though I personally don’t adore this movie)
There are some low profile and other flop movies, which tried to get away from the routine movies we see almost every time. Though they were not successful, yet their effort is to be recognized. Kudos to them and all the very best. (Ride, Manorama, Kavya’s Diary and importantly Baanam)
Asta Chemma is an IIM styled movie, it got lots of new stuff while still maintaining the nativity. I like it to the core. Hope you all do feel the same!
Apart from the above special movies, I do still want to mention other good movies like Kick (though routine, it is still different in many respects), Ullasamga Utsahamga (pure and colorful movie devoid the hero!) and Sukumar’s beautiful direction! Sukumar is one who again should go in the list of the visionaries. He got brains. Hope he does more and more good movies.
Other terrific directors like Gunasekhar, Puri Jagannath, Seenu Vaitla are good for us. We take pride in their identity !
Music direction is next. We want music. We want our music to be popular, we want it to be listened most. After all, its music !!!!
Mani Sharma is a genius at work with his variations, consistency and excellent sound engineering and re-recording. I watch (or rather, listen) movies for his sound tracks. The very demand for his music in Tamil movies, and in Bollywood recently (thanks to RGV!) proves his caliber. I simply love Mani. Go Mani.
Other than ‘direction’, the trend setting talented minds which totally stand out starts with Sri Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry and Trivikram. They changed the scope of the telugu industry once for all, and they still continue to do that. Our most beloved respects to them.
One artist is very very special from the last one-two years. Suddenly, we started going to movies only to see him. As soon as he comes on the screen, the theater goes gala. He got a face which you can’t forget once you see! You get stomach pain laughing and laughing. He turns the movies single handedly. The guiness book record holder, Padma Sri Brahmanandam (alias bramhi, movie comedian).
I definitely might have omitted some important names, please fill them up for me! and my apologies for my omission.
What else …
WorthvieW
Loves Music. Lyrics inspires me. I am here to share the lyrics of my fav songs.
A very nice article and very good initiative..
When it comes to music, I feel these people deserve a mention too..
M M Keeravani, needs no introduction and he is already familiar in bollywood as Kreem. He constantly delivers some great music, Magadheera being his recent hit.
Young DeviSri Prasad is another famous music composer(quite popular in Tamil n kannada) and very famous for his catchy tunes and mass numbers.(I like his sad songs to the most).
Finally comes Mickey J Meyer(Happy Days fame) who is a class apart and gave music numbers which are first of its kind in telugu cinema. He is the third composer from south India to have a degree from Trinity College of Music, London after Ilayaraja and AR Rahman.
One correction:
“Ullasamga Utsahamga (pure and colorful movie devoid the hero!) and Sukumar’s beautiful direction!”
UU was directed by Karunakaran(Tholi prema, Happy fame and notorious for his drastic climaxs)
A very nice article and very good initiative..
When it comes to music, I feel these people deserve a mention too..
M M Keeravani, needs no introduction and he is already familiar in bollywood as Kreem. He constantly delivers some great music, Magadheera being his recent hit.
Young DeviSri Prasad is another famous music composer(quite popular in Tamil n kannada) and very famous for his catchy tunes and mass numbers.(I like his sad songs to the most).
Finally comes Mickey J Meyer(Happy Days fame) who is a class apart and gave music numbers which are first of its kind in telugu cinema. He is the third composer from south India to have a degree from Trinity College of Music, London after Ilayaraja and AR Rahman.
One correction:
“Ullasamga Utsahamga (pure and colorful movie devoid the hero!) and Sukumar’s beautiful direction!”
UU was directed by Karunakaran(Tholi prema, Happy fame and notorious for his drastic climaxs)