At a recent media interaction, actor-producer Nagarjuna Akkineni spared no effort to thank director Vikram Kumar for the romantic action musical that worked for Akhil Akkineni. Vikram Kumar being a fine storyteller made us give in to the play of destiny in Manam . He pulled it off yet again with the heart-warming Hello . Nagarjuna giving Vikram Kumar his due becomes significant when we think how star-driven our industry has always been.
There have been directors of merit who’ve stood their own over the years. It took a Ram Gopal Varma to make Shiva and a Mani Ratnam to give Nagarjuna and us the unforgettable Geetanjali .
Yet, this has remained an industry where stars have the last word in several aspects of filmmaking. But the winds of change have been strong in recent times and this year, almost all the good films have been director-driven vehicles.
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If SS Rajamouli kept our interest alive over a period of five years with his ambitious cinematic spectacle, Baahubali , a debut director like Sandeep Reddy Vanga showed that a non-conformist narrative can be absorbing even if it’s presenting the story of an arrogant, enfant terrible character like Arjun Reddy.
PSV Garuda Vega was the handiwork of writer-director Praveen Sattaru’s taut script and excellent technical team. Incidentally, it also marked the comeback of actor Dr Rajasekhar. The actor, we were told, trusted in the director completely and agreed to play by the script than have a regular hero-oriented masala film.
Meanwhile, Venkatesh asserted how he had to unlearn his regular mannerisms and gave in to the astute observations of director Sudha Kongara to play the rugged, temperamental middle-aged boxing coach in Guru . For his 100th film, actor Balakrishna steered clear of masala films and went by Krish Jagarlamudi’s vision for the history-inspired Gautamiputra Satakarni . It was Krish’s film and the director was rightfully hailed for channelising the actor’s aggression to suit the larger-than-life historical fiction.
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2017 marked the return of directors Sekhar Kammula and Teja. Kammula’s Fidaa was a delight, set in the Telangana countryside milieu and telling us the story of a girl who has her way in matters of the heart. Nene Raju Nene Mantri wasn’t without problems, but it proved director Teja isn’t done and dusted with filmmaking. And through the film, he gave his protégée Kajal Aggarwal a solid character to chew on, a welcome detour from her glamorous outings.
Indraganti Mohanakrishna with the screwball comedy Ami Thumi , Sudheer Verma with the thriller Keshava , Mahi Raghav breathing new life into staid horror comedy genre in Anando Brahma , Maruthi in Mahanubhavudu were the other noteworthy players.
Among the new entrants, Shiva Nirvana ( Ninnu Kori ), Vivek Athreya ( Mental Madhilo ) and Sankalp Reddy ( Ghazi ) brought something new to the table, tweaking the been-there-done-that formula in their own way.
10 picks of the year
Baahubali - The Conclusion
Arjun Reddy
Fidaa
PSV Garuda Vega
Gautamiputra Satakarni
Sathamanam Bhavati
Ghazi
Hello
Ninnu Kori
Mental Madhilo
