Telugu cinema worships at the altar of vulgarity and violence

From Subversion to Perversion

It's sad that Telugu cinema worships at the altar of vulgarity and violence, without giving any consideration to the art form

Vulgarity and Telugu cinema are synonymous. Simply put the most important thing that a producer asks when you meet him to narrate a script for a new project is: who is the heroine, do you have an item number and who will do it? This is because he believes that only a vulgar display of the female form will help him salvage the money he plans to invest on the director of the film. The Telugu cinema industry which has been around for 75 years is next only to Bollywood in terms of the sheer number of films produced and the amount of money involved. From the late 60s, unfortunately, cinema started thriving on vulgarity. Sexuality was considered subversive then. We had wonderful heavy-bosomed, huge-bellied ladies parading on the silver screen. The Jayamalinis and Jyothilakshmis ruled the roost by enchanting Telugu filmgoers with their sexuality, while filmmakers laughed all the way to the bank. No one seemed to be interested in treating cinema as an art form. While Bengalis and Kanadigas were busy making art-house films that aspired to reach global standards, we were happy seeing our rain-drenched heroines running around bushes as fat old heroes tried to seduce them. The vulgar use of the female form was a sure-fire way to "entertain" the Telugu audience, but that wasn't the end of it. We had lyricists and dialogue writers pouring out their oral perversion on to the screens. Most of the lyrics in the 70s, 80s and 90s were filled with sexual innuendoes. And they were all justified in the name of subversion. But the level of perversion reached another level in the 90s when EVV Satyanarayana and his kind were at the height of their powers. Satyanarayana's films had the potent combination of oral as well as visual vulgarity, which made him one of the most successful directors in the history of Telugu cinema. The Bhishma-pithamah (godfather) of Telegu film directors Dr K Raghavendra Rao too has thrived on sexuality (some might call it vulgarity), a practise he's kept up till today with the recent dud Jhummandi Nadam, where he has a new actress Tapsee stripping without any hesitation. Today, violence and sex is an integral part of Telugu cinema. With the emergence of 'video-trained' directors like VV Vinayak, Puri Jaganath, Raja Mouli, et al violence and blood-shed has become very common. We have screens filled either with blood or with sexual gyrations. In Ravi Teja (a current Telegu film star) films it is actually the hero who pulls all the crass sexual moves to attract his lady-love. The one major development in this parade of cheap sexual thrills is that we have done away with the item-girls. Though some like Mumaith Khan are still hanging around, the main heroines have graciously taken up this huge responsibility on their shoulders. One thing is clear, Telugu cinema lacks taste or culture. We have not transferred our rich cultural heritage to the film industry. Filmmaking has become a business venture with overt sexuality. The culture of making good cinema is almost dead in the Telugu film industry. In recent years the government has supported people who make children's films. But with the current state of affairs in the state, even that is not happening. On the other hand, the Karnataka government shells out Rs 15 lakhs to children's films or films based on literary novels written by eminent writers before 1947. This seems to be the way to promote good cinema. But the way things are going it's difficult to expect anything more from Telugu cinema. As we forge ahead with our vulgarity and perversion we are quite content with the standard of our films.