It gets a lot worse before it gets any better - Caught up in that eye of mediocrity maelstrom, the film industry, unable to recreate its age old magic, started resorting to writers dishing out outlandish themes. Movies of all possible genres - action, comedy, westerns, melodrama, spy thrillers etc - took shape during the 80s and reduced the role of the writer to a mere repository of foreign themes. They say, homage is an acknowledged plagiarism. After the old writers jaded and faded away, the young ones, that took their place, moved the telugu film industry, far away from the nativity, introduced foreign thematic elements, and brought in a 5+4 formula to guarantee success at the turnstiles. That any movie with 5 good songs and 4 decent fight sequences would succeed at the box-office, caught up like wild fire and left the film industry's creativity and ingenuity in shambles.

While the stars were dancing to the success tunes not moving too far away from safe circles, a parallel industry took shape with Gautam Ghosh's Maa Bhoomi - based on the Telangana Razakaar's movement. This movie marked the beginning of socio-political themes finding a foothold in Telugu films. 1978 was a year of importance with regard to the industry. Sraamika chitra's Chali Cheemalu made its way to the silver screen and made nooTokka jilla andagaaDu Nutan Prasad, a household name. The movie was credited to a then unknown writer - Paruchuri. No name became synonymous with success as much as the brand name Paruchuri, ever before in Telugu film industry. It is no exaggeration that Paruchuri brothers (Venkateswara Rao and Gopala Krishna) single handedly revived the sagging fortunes of the industry during the entire decade of 80s. Their uncanny ability to mix mythology with social themes, to spill politics into action themes, made them a darling item to the audiences and producers alike. Eenadu, Rama rajyam lO bheemaraju, mundaDugu, pratidhvani, kartavyam, prajaaswaamyam (directed by the duo) remain the landmark movies in their careers. "raasukO double statement" from pratidhvani, crossed the boundaries of political satire and surged deep into the lands of pure mockery of the existing political system. "saar saar! vijayawada lO iLLu tagalabaDi pOtae, mukhya mantri gaaru helicopter lO prajalni paraamarSincaDaaniki veltunnaru. manam aem statement iddaam saar?", "raasukO double statement, paper manadae kadaa. helicopter lO veltunTae - prajalu kinda nippulO paDi manDi pOtuntae, aayana paina aakasam lO shikaarlu caestaaraa.?" "helicopter lO veLLakapOtae?", "prajalu tama viluvanina Dabbulni kharchu peTTi helicopter koni istae, adi vaaDukOkunDaa raiLLalO tirugutoo prajaa dhannaanni durviniyOgam caestaaDaa, raasukO double statement". With the exception to K.Viswnath's movies, Paruchuri brothers worked for virtually every successful movie, during that decade and continue to do so till date. Though they seem to have lost most of their edge, that made them what they are, they are to be deemed as trailblazers in their own right, marrying different genres and reinstating the lost and long gone respectability of writers in the Telugu film industry.

When successes became scarce, waves and trends started to rule the roost. No sooner was a film pronounced a success, imitations, fakes and look-alikes, followed in its footsteps, most of the times, to find themselves falling flat on their faces. During the mid 80s, Yendamoori Veerendranath, a popular novelist, lend many of his interesting novels to be brought into life on the silver screen and a writer by name Satyamoorthy assisted in the process of abridging the novels so as to suit the movies' time and formats. The team, Yendamoori, Satyamoorthy, Chiranjeevi and Ilayaraja, some under the banner of Creative Commercials floated by K.S.Rama Rao, brought to screen the novels themes of Abhilasha, Challenge, Rakshasudu, Stuvartpuram Police Station, Rudra Netra, Rakta Sindooram and the like. Like any other interesting novel that was burnt on screen, some hit the mark and some mis-fired. At around the same when the commercial wave was sweeping the filmdom, a director with an artistic bent of mind, T.Krishna, like K.Viswanth, raised a lone voice against the distrubing social trends of rowdyism making in-roads into every day life of the common man. In 1985, produced under Usha Kiran banner, was released T.Krishna's Pratighatana, a powerful portrayal of a woman's resistance against a local gang-lord. Penned by M.V.S.Harnadha Rao, Pratighatana, infused new blood into the ailing film industry and in the process won a lot of accolades, both within and across the state boundaries.

The succeeding decade, like its predecessor, did not offer anything interesting to the movie going public. Formulae were strictly adhered to, dialogues assumed the role of filler items between songs and actions pieces, double entendres became commonplace and the quality of the movies slipped further. Plug and play concept found instant acceptance. The concept that a movie can be broken down into pieces, and each separate writer can handle his item of specialty, was embraced with open arms, much to the chagrin of the senior writers. It was brought to the fore with the ugly controversy that surrounded Vijayalakshmi Prod's Rowdy Inspector, when Paruchuri brothers, to whom the movie was credited to, had to openly issue a statement that the supposedly comedy track, full of lewd acts and absence dialogues, wasn't from their pens, but rather, from an upcoming plug and play writer. Barring a few hits and misses, the entire decade went down without a whimper, into the dark annals of the industry.

1999 saw a new voice emerge from among the lot. It started with a remake movie, Ninne Premista, was noticed with a low budget but high aspirations movie, Swayamvaram, and found wide appeal with Usha Kiran movies' Nuvve Kaavali. It is no exaggeration that Trivikram stood out and high, making his presence felt within the characters and making sensibility a part of the characters' trait, all over again. If Telugu film industry has lost anything, in the years of the wallowing in the commercial rut, it is but sensibility. The way a character talks, the reason why a character has to embrace its trait and has to remain true to it, and above all, the character's motivation all the requisites for the audience trying to identify with the character and/or sympathize with it - would be found in abundance in the few movies that Trivikram has penned to date. Case in point - Nuvvu Naaku Naccaav - the hero is torn between his love for the heroine and his commitment for honoring his father's sentiments and thus flows the conversation between them -
Heroine: "praema laedanTae ceppu taloncukuni veLLi pOtaanu, praema undanTae ceppu neetO naDici vastaanu, nannu veLLi pommanTae ceppu, taloncukuni taaLi kaTTincukunTaanu, kaani aedO okaTi ceppu". Hero: "neeku naenu kaavali, maa naanna ki tana snaeham kaavaali, mee naanna ku peLLi kaavaali, naaku nee peLLi kaavaali, nuvvu ikkanDi nunci veLLi pOvaali".

Without any excessive melodrama, the characters above, sound grounded in reality, sensible and practical. Same is the case of the Suhasini character in the same movie. Through her anguish about the case of the women after marriage, about leaving their people and places behind, the character becomes a part of one of the poignant scenes within the movie. Trivikram, in his usage of words, reminds of Aatreya for his economy of words, sounds like muLLapooDi for his touching witticisms and sentimentality and delivers wholesome entertainment like Paruchuri brothers, during their peak period. He continues to remain the sole beacon of hope in an otherwise dull and dilapidated Telugu film industry who single-handedly revived the flagging hopes and failing aspirations of the writers in the industry.

A movie starts with an idea conceptualized in the mind and deftly translated onto the paper. If the writing is taut, if the writing is involving, if the writing is moving, it makes us go through the same trials and the tribulations that the character undergoes. It makes us feel for the character. And nothing is more important than that starting point scribbled on those reams of paper. The millions that are poured into the movie starts at those pages, the hours and hours of painstaking work by every actor, every technician, every one associated directly, indirectly or peripherally, with bringing the movie to the screen, has to justify what was poured out on the paper in ink. It is really unfortunate to see that this vital part of the mechanism, being ignored, rusted away and allowed to decay, with lack of respect to the craftsmanship, no proper treatment for the artisanry. Ironic it is, when there is nothing much to write about the state of the writer.

"Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it" - says an adage. How we wish it were true!! How we wish we saw the golden era regale us with its regal splendor, now that we forgot every little detail about it! How we wish!

End of the article

P.S. A number of other accomplished writers, like Ganesh Patro, Satyaanand, Tanikella Bharani, L.B.Sriram, Marudhuri Raja, Aarudra, Sadaa siva brahmam and the like, did not find a mention in this article, not because of the lack of successes that they delivered, but because of their inability, in standing out from the rest. This does not however take away any credit from their abilities nor does this con done their talents.

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