Sunday, December 12, 2010

The leading idiot

That the Telugu Film Industry, 'Tollywood' (stop snickering!) produces movies ranging from the bad to the worse with dedication and discipline is a fact that is unknown to very few, seeing as how the industry is inhabited, and indeed dominated by filmmakers equipped with ever dwindling IQ. If any of you reading this are thinking about contesting this statement of mine, thank you my friends, but your services are no longer required on this planet. You are now free to kill your resepctive selves in whichever manner you deem fit, or unfit, as the case may be. However, it must take a special kind of idiot to make a movie that is as cringe worthy,, and as retarded as Daggubati Rana's debut vehicle, LEADER. That special kind of idiot, is the director, Shekhar Kammula.

Now I sincerely do not know whether Shekhar Kammula actually believes his movies are any good, or whether he has been fooled into thinking so. If the latter is true, I'm baffled by what ulterior motives lay behind such an inhuman act. The act is inhuman not because of the false sense of aesthetic superiority that the 'director' has been lulled into. It is inhuman because of the kind of tripe the few discerning humans among us audiences are subjected to. As if the over hyped, overrated, and equally, if not more (in comparison with the subject of my rant, LEADER)cringe worthy "HAPPY DAYS" wasn't bad enough, Shekhar Kammula, due to mystifying brainwave, decided to make a movie that will tap into the dormant political consciousness of the general movie going public, and make them more politically dynamic. Sadly, however, that idea seems to have died in gestation, as what the final product is, however, is a movie that is full of hammy acting, even hammier acting, bad...nay... worse dialogues... a plot line that is filled with more holes than a fisherman's net. To top it all, the movie was skippered by a director, who seemed to have abandoned all good sense, including a sense of direction, to the four winds (A bad pun, but it'll have to do).

Enough talk about the non-specifics that have gone into making this movie. On to this movie itself. The basic plot line is this - The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, is the victim of an assassination attempt. Just like every bad movie demands, the CM, after a protracted battle in the ICU, dies. Now here, we have a few interesting things to take note of. The incredibly yawn-inducing battle with death, is, in fact, a cunning plot device inserted to establish a background to the movie. In this case, the background is the dirty world of politics, where everything takes a backseat to hunger for power. At this juncture enters the CM's gormless, expressionless, senseless, and talentless son, Arjun Prasad. The poor boy, being in the US, studying for his masters, seems to have no clue that his daddy-dearest, is an Indian politician (Indian politician is a politically correct way of saying "corrupt", FYI). Hence, after his father's death (to which we add the mother of all 'icing-on-the-cake' effects - the dying father's last words - the son should become the Chief Minister), the son is horrified to discover the true extent of his father's corruption. So with steely resolve devoid of all facial expression, he sets himself on a personal mission - that of cleaning up the state politics. Good luck, son! Anyhow, on we go...

So, the hitherto political retard, is now an overnight politician, complete with arm-candy (a suitably dumb looking Priya Anand). He, with consummate ease, spins political webs, trapping his father's adversaries, and attracting his father's allies, and soon, manages to occupy the CM's Gaddi. Funny thing here is, our fresh pup of a CM is on a mission to eradicate corruption, yet, he has no qualms about bribing politicians and officials left, right and centre. Tired of his operation clean-up, the politicians now hatch a plot against him. So now, our hero thinks of yet another cunning plan (again devoid of all facial expression). The government's main political ally, very conveniently, has a daughter, who is just ripe for the plucking. Moreover, she is a social activist, who goes around calling the CM on his personal mobile. So the CM, with speed of thinking that would fail to surprise even Dr Manmohan Singh (equipped with his sunday best expression of surprise), decides to "romance" the daughter to bag the father's support. He does that, and yet fails to uphold his government. The young CM is in quandary now. The very values that he has sworn to uphold, he is now forced to betray just to keep the government alive. To hell with it, he thinks, and decides to fight it on his own, including his very own Padayatra (a favourite pastime of Indian politicians). He wins, gets sworn back in as Chief Minister (must be a record of sorts, an idiot getting elected as Chief Minister of state twice in a row. Are we smart or what!).

'Nuff said about the movie. In a nutshell, the movie is made of bad acting, terrible writing and downright horrendous directing (if there was any direction, that is). Nothing surprising, as every other Telugu movie can boast of the same. Why did I pick on Leader, then? Well, I had to start somewhere, eh? Rana Daggubati might become a good actor eventually, but there's very little evidence of that in his first film. Shekhar Kammula can't direct to save his life, and there is a lot of evidence of that. Don't make me go into the details again. Rana can't act, Shekhar Kammula can neither direct, nor write. And I can't watch. Such a happy family, eh?

I will end this rather abruptly by quoting my current favourite onscreen politician, Shivaji Rao (Rakht Charitra). Topic is over!

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