Telugu Cinema in 2008-An Overview

2008 was an interesting year for Telugu Cinema. While some of the hardcore star movies did well and some flopped, a lot of the well made smaller films went on to do be critically acclaimed and also do well at the box office. Given below is my personal take on the Telugu movies released in 2008-

Best Movies

Gamyam- Directed by a debutant, Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi (Krish) the movie evoked a strong response from one and all. A road movie (inspired by Motorcycle Diaries) it had a strong script & excellent performances from Sharwanand, Allari Naresh & Kamalinee Mukherjee.
Ready- This was a perfect family entertainer from Srinu Vaitla and had the right proportion of all the commercial ingredients. The chemistry between Ram and Genelia was just right, Brahmanandam’s comedy rocked and the music by Devi Sri Prasad was an added bonus
Ashta Chemma- Directed by Mohankrishna Indraganti and produced by Ram Mohan, the movie was a tribute to Oscar Wilde (Inspired by The Importance of Being Earnest). While Mohankrishna deserves praise for adapting the story well and bringing in a fresh wave to telugu movies, Ram Mohan deserves praise for backing the movie very well and promoting it in the right manner.Performances by Swati, late Bhargavi. Nani & Srinivas were truly remarkable.
Vinayakudu- Sai Kiran Adivi’s tale of a love story between a fat man and a good looking woman has clicked with both the masses and the critics. Krishnudu and Sonia were earnest in their roles. A great example of how a good product backed by right promotion can do wonders for a movie.
Kotha Bangaru Lokam- Dil Raju continued his successful run with KBL.Srikanth Addala wove a poignant romantic tale of two teenagers which captured the hearts of everyone. Varun Sandesh and Shweta Prasad played their parts very well. Music by Mickey.J.Meyer was certainly a big contributor to the movie’s success.
Avakkai Biriyani- Produced by Shekhar and Chandrasekhar Kammula and directed by Anish Kuruvilla, the movie was a simple tale of romance between a muslim youth and a hindu girl in a small town close to Hyderabad.Performances from Kamal Kamaraju and Bindu Madhavai were commendable.Both the DOP-Shamdat and the music composer – Manikanth Kadri deserve mention for their contribution to the movie

Talking about the big star movies, Pawan Kalayan finally tasted solid success with Jalsa, Balakrishna bounced back after ages with his Pandurangadu and Venkatesh continued his good streak with Chintakayala Ravi. For Nagarjun (Krishna Arjun ) it wasn’t a great year, but he has King ( releasing on 25th Dec) to look forward to. NTR’s Kantri was just about average at the box office. Among the dubbed movies, Kamal Hassan’s Dasavatharam was the sole success and Surya S/O Krishan also managed to get noticed.

Let’s wait and watch out for 2009.