Image-native!
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 12:44 am
A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue - said famous American playwright and filmmaker David Mamet.
David had obviously never been to the Tollywood of today, for had he been here, he certainly would have gone back with a new perspective on the subject reports TNN.
Down ’here’ if a film’s about anything, it is about the ’hero’ and what he says and does, with everything being coincidental. For over 75 years, the ’Telugu cinema hero’ has been the unquestionable style icon for film lovers. As a new generation of leading men stake claim to the tag of a hero, the image of the typical hero is changing too.
To start with, the idea of a new look for every movie seems to be becoming more of a norm rather than an exception these days, with the fashion quotient becoming more and more important, points out Shanti Swaroop, an ad filmmaker. "Change in look had so far been confined to wardrobe and minor alterations to hair and moustache in Tollywood.
Be it Chiru, Venky, Balakrishna or Nag (a few more times for Nag), except for a handful of occasions, their look has been predominantly the same over the years. Maybe the films did not require it. But the man on the street these days is more fashion conscious than ever before, so it is only natural that the films follow suit," says Swaroop.
Seconding his view is view is Pramod Kumar, a film lover who makes an interesting observation- "Tollywood has probably never had as many moustache-less heroes in it’s history as it has today! Jokes apart, most young heroes like Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun, Charan Tej, Raja flaunting the latest designer wear look more ’urbane’ than their predecessors. While the films may not have changed so much in content, the packaging has definitely become more stylised," says Pramod.
The reasons are rooted in simple market economics, feels T Jalapathi, a film critic. "The audience has to be able to relate with the hero. Now a film has to be tailored in such a way that both the front rows and the NRIs audience can connect the same way. It’s a balancing act in other terms, which can be best explained in that famous dialogue from Mahesh Babu’s latest film? ’Face chusi software anukunatavu kani lopala antha hardware’" says Jalapathi.
But purists like K Nagesh, professor of film studies, is of the opinion that more things change in Tollywood, the more they remain the same. Arguing that these superficial changes count for nothing he says, "You hear filmmakers saying they had conceived of an idea keeping a certain hero in mind. A film essentially is about telling a story, which is why most Telugu films never have a good story. So I believe it is just a gradual thing and has no profound reasons, which I think is only cyclical."
David had obviously never been to the Tollywood of today, for had he been here, he certainly would have gone back with a new perspective on the subject reports TNN.
Down ’here’ if a film’s about anything, it is about the ’hero’ and what he says and does, with everything being coincidental. For over 75 years, the ’Telugu cinema hero’ has been the unquestionable style icon for film lovers. As a new generation of leading men stake claim to the tag of a hero, the image of the typical hero is changing too.
To start with, the idea of a new look for every movie seems to be becoming more of a norm rather than an exception these days, with the fashion quotient becoming more and more important, points out Shanti Swaroop, an ad filmmaker. "Change in look had so far been confined to wardrobe and minor alterations to hair and moustache in Tollywood.
Be it Chiru, Venky, Balakrishna or Nag (a few more times for Nag), except for a handful of occasions, their look has been predominantly the same over the years. Maybe the films did not require it. But the man on the street these days is more fashion conscious than ever before, so it is only natural that the films follow suit," says Swaroop.
Seconding his view is view is Pramod Kumar, a film lover who makes an interesting observation- "Tollywood has probably never had as many moustache-less heroes in it’s history as it has today! Jokes apart, most young heroes like Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun, Charan Tej, Raja flaunting the latest designer wear look more ’urbane’ than their predecessors. While the films may not have changed so much in content, the packaging has definitely become more stylised," says Pramod.
The reasons are rooted in simple market economics, feels T Jalapathi, a film critic. "The audience has to be able to relate with the hero. Now a film has to be tailored in such a way that both the front rows and the NRIs audience can connect the same way. It’s a balancing act in other terms, which can be best explained in that famous dialogue from Mahesh Babu’s latest film? ’Face chusi software anukunatavu kani lopala antha hardware’" says Jalapathi.
But purists like K Nagesh, professor of film studies, is of the opinion that more things change in Tollywood, the more they remain the same. Arguing that these superficial changes count for nothing he says, "You hear filmmakers saying they had conceived of an idea keeping a certain hero in mind. A film essentially is about telling a story, which is why most Telugu films never have a good story. So I believe it is just a gradual thing and has no profound reasons, which I think is only cyclical."
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