NO FIRE IN T-TOWN'S BELLY

NO FIRE IN T-TOWN'S BELLY

On Republic Day, Hyderabad Times talks to T-towners to find out why the biggest film industry in the South rarely comes up with films that stir up patriotic feelings

Karthik Pasupulate

Here is a small question to start with. Name a couple of big ticket Telugu films that dealt with the issue of corruption in the last one year. Well, not many films come to mind, do they? That's because there haven't been any. "Leader", which released in 2010, was perhaps the last one. What's interesting is that it was in 2011 that the Anna Hazareled anti-corruption movement made headlines, and yet, the subject did not seem to catch the fancy of even a single filmmaker in Tollywood, which is considered to be the country's leading film factory. Something sure seems amiss.
Film scholar Kathi Mahesh Kumar isn't the least bit amused. "Telugu cinema has evolved into an escapist dream factory that is least connected to the socio-economic realities of the day. Normal stories just do not work for us anymore. That's why only fictional superhero stories have become the order of the day. In fact, there hasn't been any issue-based cinema since the dawn of the new millennium in Tollywood," fumes Mahesh.
Director Chandra Siddhartha offers an interesting explanation. "Telugu cinema is essentially commercial cinema bound by the dictates of what sells. Characters like Surya Bhai of "Businessman", even with all his faults, are much more salable commercially than a Mahatma Gandhi or even an Anna Hazare. So only those issues that can fit into the commercial format are made into films and not the other way round. In any case, television channels are full of news about corruption, so unless cinema can offer something more than lip-service, beyond what is already being shown on TV, it just won't find an audience," reasons Chandra Siddhartha adding, "Films are reflecting issues in their own way. Take Mahesh Babu's "Businessman" for example where he talks about how Cuddapah elections incurred costs of over 250 crore, suggesting the state of affairs."
Director Nandini Reddy echoes his views saying, "Audience's acceptance of films dealing with real issues is very low. For us, cinema is just entertainment. Unless we have filmmakers who genuinely feel for issues from within and come up with innovative solutions to real problems in a gripping script, I don't see things changing too much. Anyway, I'm not complaining about the state of things as I'm not attempting any such films myself."
Perhaps that's why we see just a handful of films like "Khadgam", "Tagore", "Aparichithudu", "Sivaji", "Leader", etc that are routinely telecast on patriotic holidays like Independence Day and Republic Day. Even these flicks are a little too jingoistic in their approach, feels Mahesh Kumar, "Most of these films have a Robinhood approach to the issue of corruption where the hero takes the onus of changing the system single-handedly by looting and attacking the bigger looter, while people remain silent observers. They do not offer any practical solution and resort to popcorn sloganeering without dwelling into the historicity," laments Mahesh. karthik.pasupulate@timesgroup.com

(Clockwise from left) Stills from 'Leader', 'Aparichitudu', 'Tagore' and 'Khadgam'