Telugu Cinema - Then and Now

Hello Kalyani ,

Very good thread indeed to discuss the magic of cinema in Tollywood.

I love the old golden movies especially the black and white ones starring NTR and Kanta Rao revolving around the royal adventures.

Some of the movies I watched as a kid on Doordarshan were Patala Bairavi , Keelu Gurram ..I can't remember a lot of names but would love if other ILs pour in their thoughts and reminisce about the good old times.

It is really going to be refreshing to catch up on all kinds of films..

 

Hello Kalyani

Once again u did a great job opening a fantastic thread.

I love movies of all laungages..especially i like telugu movies..

I am much watcher of old telugu movies..like gorantaku, gundamma katha(will never forget the acting of suryakantham) i simply enjoy seeing the scenes of rajbabu,padmanabham,and all other comedy actors..

Present days sunil,brahmanandam, ali, and some others are doing gud.

will continue more in coming posts

 

Hi kalyani,

I logged in today to post something about the old golden days of telugu cinema when i found this thread.

I got introduced to the old era by my parents. In 15 years i guess i have seen almost all the big hits of those days like keelugurram, Missamma,Devadasu, Gundammakatha, Mangalya Balam, Malliswari, Kulagotralu, Bharyabharthalu, Illarikam, Velugu Needalu, Devata, Dr chakravarthy and so on and so forth.

I just love ANR-Savitri or ANR-Jamuna pair. I have seen each movie atleast 7 to 8 times and not even once I got bored.

I feel there is no comparison between telugu movies then and now. Some movies by Jandhyala, Bapu, Viswanath which came out in 80s and 90s were real gems and comparable to the old movies. Each movie had a different story to narrate and a different base to talk about.

The only themes our present directors seem to be getting are love, revenge, factionism filled with violence or skimpily clad heroines and vamps. So boring!!!

Ofcourse we should not forget Shekhar kammula who gave good movies like Anand, Godavari and Happy Days. He is the best of the lot I feel.

No comedian can ever come close to the trio Relangi, Ramana reddy and Suryakantham. Bramhanadam, suttivelu, veerabhadra rao, srilakshmi were really good in their days. But now even their comedy lacks luster.

The music and lyrics were amazing and great. I read some where that after listening to this song "kalakanidhi viluvainadhi Brathuku kanniti Dharalalone balicheyyaku" from the movie Velugu Needalu, a person at the verge of committing suicide thought of giving life a second chance. Such was the sahithyam then, thought provoking and motivating.

These days I hardly get to hear a good song. Very few are good but those are not that great to be remembered for life time.

I sometimes long for more black and white movies which portrayed human relations and emotions in a very beautiful way, which treated a heroine as one of the main characters of the movie and not as love interest of our macho hero.

I was born in 1981 and still I talk about the movies made in 50s and 60s (when my parents were very young). Can we expect our children to do the same about the movies which are being made now. I think its just a dream.

Sirisha

 

Sirisha , you are right.I don't think any of the channels now telecast those old movies.Most of movies shown on channels now belong to the 90s , 2000 era.

 

hai frnds,
i also like old movies like paathalabhairavi,keelugurram etc.,
specially vittalacharya movies..my dad is having huge collection of old movies......

 

Kalyani ,

Gundamma Katha is a blockbuster in todays words.Suryakantham delivered memorable performance and the characters were so appealing.

I love Savithra in the movie Mayabazaar especially the song 'aha na pelli anta'.Her exemplary acting is laudable.

What can be said about the comedy duo Relangi and Ramana Reddy.The comedy was enjoyable with no references to obscenity or lewd remarks.I feel the comedy has deterioted in early 90s and for some reason the film makers felt that there has to be sexual innuendos when it comes to comedy corrupting it from the pristine form we have seen in earlier movies.

Aha , I didn't know that Bhaktha Prahlada is the first Telugu movie.Thanks for the info, Kalyani ..this thread rocks and I 'm loving it..

 

Kalyani ,

Thanks for posting the poster though I am still wondering where did you get the relic from ???

It is so simple and straightforward the advertising of movies in those days ..am sure now even the theater and plays have huge adverstising campaigns.