Neninthe..

No, this is not a post about me. This is a new Telugu movie, by Puri Jagannath, I saw yesterday. It deserved a post. Its a good attempt but its a little one sided and it fails to address the real issue so I will complete the job here. Puri Jagannath attempted to send a message to every one related to the telugu film industry in the movie.

Its a story about an assistant director who is not really struggling but one who has ambitions to make it big in the industry. The first half of the film is good and Puri was content with making fun of a director who sorrounds himself with yes-men and makes crappy movies without realizing it. The second half is when he resorts to full on scathing criticism of everyone including the audience. The problem is since its a movie and he has to stick to the continuity of the movie, he blamed everyone and exonerated everyone. The rant by Mumait Khan about how the item girls are perceived by the public is good and even that is not completely justified as the industry ecosystem is bad and Puri is blaming the people for it. Its good that Puri is attempting to clean up the Telugu industry and at least trying to bring in some professionalism to the industry which badly needs it.

The main points of his rants are -
- Movies do not now run for 100 days and more anymore as the ground reality has changed.
- Viewers always expect the same thing in a movie and that the fans typecase the hero.
- And most importantly, the film people make movies not to make a buck but because they love movies.

The only problem with this is Telugu industry for a long time now only cared about making a buck and nothing about making movies. Even Puri's films are like that to an extent. He no doubt has some talent but he is no different. Also throughout the movie Puri sticks to the same format and expectations he makes fun of and expresses angst about.

From what I see, the Telugu industry has no respect in India among the people and more imporatantly in North india dominated by the Hindi film industry. The industry (and probably Puri) is under tremendous stress to make huge movies for big banners that run for 100 days. The expectations of the industry needs a reshuffle, not that of the audience. They treat movies as a business now as now the producers only depend on the revenue from the first 2 weeks for any movie now. To that extent, they are releasing a huge huge number of prints to show it on as many screens as possible to rake in the money before the reviews come in. But the idiots still stick to the same formula of film making. Obviously too much of anything will induce boredom, like all the previous Puri movies. The telugu audience is one of the laziest audience I have seen. They currently have been watching the same story over and over again for the last 15-20years with just different dialogues and actors. So lets hope the current pressure for profits changes that.

The fact is creativity and talent in the industry is at an all time low and there is no one with a good screen presence, good writing skills, directing, music or even singers are just not there. No matter what Puri says or thinks, its essential that educated young people from middle class families move to the industry for its long term sustainance. The film industry by catering to the masses over the years alienated itself from the core middle class which is where it gets its talent from. Telugu industry is not seen as a career option by almost the entire population. If this does not change, the industry will crumble more and more and sink deeper into the family business mindset that is so prevalent.

Hindi movie which at one point was close the telugu industry in terms of standards, movies made and talent is now so much ahead that telugu is just a dot. Don't get me wrong Hindi movies are still bad but they have become very better at creating a respectable image and perfecting marketing a movie and its stars. There is almost zero new blood in the industry and only families that worked in the industry during the last three to four decades try and push their offsprings now. This will push down the quality of films and subsequently profits. This death spiral will make the industry become even more irrelevant. If the telugu industry does not change it will be lose the money involved in it too. Because with all the urbanization the industry will lose audience share to Hindi movies. Its time the industry changes.

Now back to movie :)

Should you see it? Yeah why not. The dialogue is crude as in every other Puri Jagannath's movies. Much of Mumait Khan's rant is censored as they used a lot of explicit language there. I wish I could get the uncensored verison somewhere. But it still conveys the message. So yeah, see it and watch the self pity Puri feels for the industry and himself may be?