Dear Trivikram Sir,
I write this with a lot of helplessness and disappointment after watching your latest offering JULAYI. I understand that films, especially in India and more so in Andhra Pradesh are judged purely by its performance at the cash registers and the longevity of its run in the B, C centers.
After listening to your tribute to Mr. Sirivennela Seetarama Shastry, if I may even call it that, at a public award function about how hard it is to actually write what you feel like in a script/song within the constraints of an image ridden industry like ours, my respect for you has increased many a fold. I hear JULAYI is doing pretty well at the Box Office…. So Cheers to that.
It would be an understatement to say that you are an accomplished Film Writer. You’re eons ahead of most of your contemporaries who have even gone on to make films without a script. I’m sure “Swayamvaram” to “Malliswari” has been the period in which you’ve redefined “Screen writing” and enthralled the Telugu audience with some unforgettable lines. TFI owes you a lot for that.
Then came “Athadu”, which, despite its performance at the Box Office, remains your best work till date. It had everything what I believe Telugu Cinema represents. Comedy/ Satire have always been your forte and you’ve always succeeded in using them effectively. Sending out a message is probably the toughest thing to do through a film without preaching and you’ve managed to do it quite effortlessly. Some of the conversations between characters in your films are worth savoring. They do not just emote but strike a chord, make one think and may be even contemplate. That is the brand of movies that you have introduced us to, the movies that you’ve believed in and loved making, the movies we didn’t mind waiting for.
Post that, you’ve written “Jai Chiranjeeva”, “Theenmaar” and directed “Jalsa”, “Khaleja” and “Julayi”. Don’t get me wrong: A few of them did fairly well at the Cinemas and as far as the others, let’s just say our audiences are too evolved to appreciate different cinema. But somehow, for me the math just doesn’t add up. One reason that I can make out is that all of them contained “Stars” and you either wanted to make a lot of money by having a sellable actor (or) you’re forced to make changes to your script by someone who felt that something else might work.
Whatever the reason, JULAYI gave me an impression that, and I say this with a lot of worry, you have bowed down to the norms of commercial cinema. The next time you come up with a film, I might not be that excited, but I will still go to the cinemas, in search of your brand of storytelling, in search of genuine laughter and more significantly, in search of the Trivikram of the Old.
Surya Karteek Yamujala.
An Ardent Fan.
An Ardent Fan.
