No, this has nothing to do with the ‘new year
resolution’ thing. I guess it has just been there on my mind for some time. While the
inception of this decision owes its thanks to more than a single name, the
final push, however owes its thanks to Mr V. V. Vinayak and his latest outing narcissistically
named “Nayak”.
Yes, I did have the ‘privilege’ of watching this
movie yesterday evening. I went into the theater with no expectations, thanks
both to a slew of earlier Telugu films I had endured in theaters and to the
earlier debacles of movies made by Mr. VVV. But the absence of expectations did
not really invoke any positive thought in my mind about the movie, partly
because the theater was almost empty in spite of it being the first day of
release and mostly because the movie itself is so lack luster, so blatantly
replicated and so shamelessly devoid of any sensible and good emotions.
I have, right from my adolescent years, been a
self-proclaimed “fan” of the Megastar. I used to get as incessantly happy when
I got to watch his movies first day-first show as I used to get sullen when
something or someone stopped me from watching that first show. And my inability
to cut myself away from that devotion at the first warning bell is the only
thing to blame for the inevitable shift of a part of that ‘fan-loyalty’ to his
successors. As you sow, so shall you reap! Chirutha was more of an overzealous
video resume for Mr. Ram Charan. And Magadheera is as much a hit due to Charan
as Obama is the president of the USA due to me. Orange promised a lot through
the music and disappointed a lot more through Mr. Ram Charan. Racha was a
nightmare better forgotten (even the “mega fans” were whistling more at
Tamanna’s over-the-top but enticing gyrations than anything else). And now
Nayak lives up to that trend.
I do agree that there are those characteristic
dances and bloody one-man crusades in the movie that might be liked by the
intended audience. So do all of Mr. Rajamouli’s movies. But that is not the
reason why Mr. Rajamouli is sans a hard-hit failure till date. He imbibes
a certain amount of sensible emotions that every person can relate to,
or at the very least, sympathize with. Be it the mother-son longing in
Chatrapathi or the helplessness of a normal citizen against a powerful and corrupt
reign in Simhadri and Vikramarkudu, he has always catered to 99% of the
audience classes. I do not love any of his movies but I don’t hate them too.
And even today, if I don’t have anything else to do, I do like to watch any of
his movies playing on the cable.
Ok, enough of the ramblings now. If you are a
person who is happy and content in life and have no better things to do or
learn in life than to spend some money and family time in navigating the
omnipresent traffic mazes and the hordes of irresponsible human faces just to
go watch a mediocre feature film that will, in no manner benefit you or for
that matter anyone in the society except make those already insanely rich film
people a bit richer, well, then what are you waiting for? You are as welcome to
go watch the movie just to warp your mind as much as you are welcome to get
drunk just to barf. Actually, for a single ticket, you will be treated to a
mish mash of all such movies as Krishna, Tagore, Chathrapathi, Simhadri and
Adurs.
And no, I didn’t forget about the “decision”. I
have finally come to a decision to prune myself off of Tollywood just as I had
pruned myself off Bollywood. Not completely of course! Just as I still do look
forward to the movies from the houses of Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Anurag Kashyap,
I will wait for the movies from Trivikram and Rajamouli with the same hopes and
expectations as a child promised to be taken to a zoo or an amusement park. And
I don’t blame Nayak or Vinayak for this. In fact, I honestly thank Vinayak for
giving that final push to knock me back into my senses to save my nous
faculties and money.
