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Sbk2012 Side Hero Username: Sbk2012 Post Number: 6628 Registered: 01-2014 Posted From: 68.5.32.99 Rating: N/A |
Mahesh Babu and Pawan Kalyan churned out a million films with chauvinism and sexism sprinkled all over them, with love stories with no emotions and female characters with no importance. Tollywood simultaneously boasts of SS Rajamouli. The guy is a great director, he has never had a flop in his career, agreed. But Kajal Aggarwal plays an extremely dependent, insecure and suspicious character who falls for a stalker, in Magadheera, Genelia DâSouza exists in Sye to cheer lead and letâs not even get to Tamannahâs character in Bahubali: The Beginning. Again, I donât blame the actors, I blame most of the directors who probably still think that women belong in the kitchen. I donât mind making a list of the most sexist directors in Tollywood for anyone who is interested. Srinu Vaitla would undoubtedly top the list, followed by Gunashekar. I shamelessly watched Mahesh Babu and Pawan Kalyan portray such sexist characters again and again. I adore Mahesh Babu, so I watched each of his films 10 times in the theatre (including the highly sexist films such as Dookudu), knowing fully well the influence they had on public and trying to ignore the offensive content, because the punch dialogues and forced comedy were too entertaining. I watched and I watched and I watched until I got tired and saturated and couldnât take the sexism anymore. I saw Aagadu once and cringed at the idea of watching another Telugu film ever again. I had had enough. Just because you grew up with something doesnât mean you let it disrespect you for the rest of your life. Almost ten months went by and I didnât dare watch a single Telugu film, not even on TV. Then came Bahubali: The Beginning, dragging me to the cinema hall. Apart from the magnum opus that it was, the emotions in the film were disappointing. While it had Tamannah and her immature love story on one side, it had Ramya Krishna roaring the screen on the other. It gave me hope. But avoiding sexism is not about making female dominated films. Itâs about making an equally strong female character in even a male dominated film. But that sounded funny and Tollywood producing something like that was impossible. It was August 7 and my deeply rooted love for Mahesh Babu drove me to a nearby cinema hall in New Delhi. Higher taxes and costlier popcorn, Srimanthudu better be worth it, I thought before entering the screen. The film got over and I walked out realising that I hardly ever noticed Mahesh Babu in the 2 hours and 43 minutes. Both my eyes on Shruti Haasan and all my heart with the writer and director Koratala Siva. I went back to the screen the next day hoping to feast my eyes with Mahesh Babu, but I saw Shruti Haasan yet again and fell in love with Harsha. Harsha is the name of Mahesh Babuâs character from Srimanthudu. I watched every single film of Mahesh Babuâs a thousand times over. But I donât remember falling in love with the character he portrays in any of the films. I read a lot of books and watch a lot of films in other languages and Iâve fallen in love with some fictitious characters before. But never one played by Mahesh Babu. Harsha was different, Harsha was acceptable and Harsha was respectful. He treats Charuseela (Shruti Haasanâs character) with immense respect and thinks she is beautiful on the inside. He doesnât stalk her, he doesnât pass any comments on her. He values conversations over coffee and he acts on the little things Charuseela says and accepts with dignity when she rejects his love. Charuseela on the other hand is a strong independent character. She doesnât fall for a stalker, she doesnât encourage bullsh!t. She is smart and does anything to stick to her ideals, including rejecting the man she loves. She shows a confused Harsha the right path in life and he, finds his passion there. And the relationship between them is love, the real, genuine one (I donât think I ever felt the love between the male and the female lead characters in a mainstream Telugu film before, as much as I felt in the scene where Charuseela and Harsha meet each other after 3 months, in the second half of the film). It is not a high school (fight with each other type) equation, it is not a damsel in distress falls for the shining knight equation and it is definitely not a love story made for the songs. It is, simply put, the light at the end of a long tunnel. A long dark tunnel full of Tollywood films. Today, I donât write this post to appreciate the fact that my favourite heroâs film managed to portray what was deemed to be hopeless and impossible in Telugu Cinema. Today, I write this post because I am genuinely happy as a woman. I am genuinely happy that an industry I grew up watching and giving so much of my time, mind and love to, finally respects me back. Hereâs hoping that Srimanthudu doesnât remain as a one of a kind film but sets example and standards to all Telugu films in the future and marks the beginning of a much needed change in this industry that we love like no other. | ||
Sbk2012 Side Hero Username: Sbk2012 Post Number: 6627 Registered: 01-2014 Posted From: 68.5.32.99 Rating: N/A |
If you have fallen for the click bait in the headline, my sincere apologies for taking a leaf out of BuzzFeed and Upworthy, because I had to bring your attention to what was, in my view, one of the stand out features in Mahesh Babu, Shruti Haasan starrer Srimanthudu. Directed by Koratala Siva, the film narrates the story of a billionaireâs son, who goes in search of his roots and ends up adopting his native village to bring a change in peopleâs lives. While the filmâs central theme has already hogged the limelight, letâs focus on the segment which is set in college, where Mahesh Babu and Shruti Haasan take classes in rural development. First things first, every time a hero or a heroine in a Telugu film plays the role of a college student, itâs more of an excuse to show everything that might happen (or probably happens) in a college set-up. People get ragged; people tease their friends; people make fun of their lecturers; people fight with each other; people threaten to commit suicide; people go on a strike; people bash up goons who threaten to disrupt the harmony amongst students; people indulge in student politics; people fall in love with each other. But the bottom line is, quite rarely are we shown that people actually go to study in college. And thatâs precisely why I couldnât believe what I was watching in Srimanthudu. It might seem like a simple thing or too frivolous to realise that the director Koratala Siva and the actors, Mahesh Babu and Shruti Haasan are breaking the norms, which are so deeply entrenched in our minds for more than a decade (The norm being a college as a place of fun and frolic). The icing on the cake is Mahesh Babu paying attention to the lecturer and writing down what he learns. Thereâs even a dialogue where Shruti takes a dig at Mahesh saying, âEppudu choosina edho EAMCET ki prepare avuthunnattu notes raasthu untaav (You take down notes as if you are preparing for EAMCET!).â I couldnât help but guffaw at that scene. Itâs all so effortlessly done that I began to think about when was the last time that a film, starring an A-list actor, approached such scenes with so much sincerity. Having said that, college eventually becomes the place where Mahesh Babu and Shruti Haasan bond with each other and fall in love, but from the way I saw it, the segment was a class apart from how college scenes are treated in most other films. There are no sidekicks in the classroom to tell Mahesh or Shruti that the other person is oggling at them (remember Dil?); a lecturer who simply does his job without any distraction (remember the Jhansi-Sunil-MS Narayana segment in Sontham?); no student in the college who behaves as if he owns the place (remember Simha, Master, Shiva and countless other films?). By defying all these conventions, Koratala Siva gives the entire segment the respect it deserves. Let me also suggest that every film which depicts lifestyle in a college has more or less set an unreasonable standard to youngsters about what to expect when they go to college. Iâm certainly not suggesting that films are faithful to what actually happens in college, but anyone who has been to college will tell you that their college life is nowhere close to whatâs shown in films. If I could digress from the topic for a bit, I was confused when I saw Sekhar Kammulaâs smash hit film, Happy Days. That was certainly not the college life I lead, but I could understand why a lot of college goers, especially in Hyderabad, could relate to the film; however, even there the focus is most on everything that happens outside the classroom. This is exactly why in the wake of how scenes set in college have been treated in the past, in Telugu Cinema, what was shown in Srimanthudu comes like a breath of fresh air. And both Mahesh Babu and Shruti Haasan study without being goaded by someone close to them. In most films itâs a good-hearted lecturer or a principal, who claims to be concerned about the future of their students. All this reminded me of a speech which the vice chancellor of a college (BITS-Pilani) back in 2003 where he said, âI believe all of you here are 18 years old and quite capable of making right choices. You have all the freedom in the world in this college to choose what you want to. If you study well, youâll go places. If you choose to do something else, then Iâm sure youâll understand what your destiny is in due course of time.â Choiceâ¦thatâs all it boils down to. Mahesh Babuâs character Harsha chooses to take what he learnt in college one step further and implements the lessons he learnt to develop Devarakota. And that made all the difference in his search for a purpose in his life. If only most of us were that wise to understand what our purpose in life was, back in college. But then, when it comes to life, anything can happen and thatâs what makes it so exciting. I rest my case. |