The recently-released iSmart Shankar set the cash registers ringing, and one of the reasons for that could be the usage of the Telangana dialect. Writer Peddinti Ashok Kumar, however, believes that the film does not speak in pure Telangana dialect. He had written the first song and the dialogues in Mallesham and has a strong take on the way it is spoken.
“People think Telangana language means gitla , gatla , endhira bhai etc; they are bringing in street language and terming it Telangana. All you find are expletives and double meaning dialogues to attract the youth. It isn’t healthy at all. Telangana dialect is beautiful like you heard in Mallesham . Fidaa was a welcome change and has filled the hearts of writers with confidence and pride. For me, literature and cinema are the same; we have had some great filmmakers from Telangana. In between, commercial ingredients have crept in which had distanced literature from cinema. There is a possibility of great success if both work in tandem,” he says.
Peddinti Ashok Kumar
Ask Ashok Kumar if his writing caters only to the rural folk, he denies it and cites Dagudumuthalu Dhandakor (remake of Tamil film Saivam ) which was written for an urban milieu. Ashok likes writing on rural Telangana where he can focus on hunger, suffering and injustice that villagers face. “To write on happiness there are many people, there could be 99 happy people around. As a sensitive person, I write for that one person who is in distress. I bat for all those who invest not on welfare completely but on developmental schemes. We should create opportunity, provide resources for optimal production.”
He feels sahityam (literature) should benefit society and hopes his 200 stories, six novels, 100 essays, 15 plays and two films will pave way for a "change in society.”
Ashok Kumar who hails from Rajanna Sircilla district credits all his work to the students in his classroom and his village. He was a mathematics teacher. His family owned less than two acres of land but the copious rains, ponds were sufficient to give out a good harvest. Five years later when he left his village and returned, he was distraught. The water bodies had dried up and the village changed beyond his imagination. Though he had no background in literature, he began writing short stories to vent out his pain and frustration. He adds, “Whatever I was a witness to made me a writer. Aasa Niraasa was my first short story and when the pain didn’t fit in, I began writing essays, plays and novels. I would make students write stories and the classroom was my prayogashala (laboratory)’. The kids, their parents, each student had a story.”
He also wrote books suggesting changes in the education system. The department took note and introduced the changes. People wanted English as the medium of instruction. Many people in the teaching profession were motivated by his books. Though all his novels are popular, one of them titled Jigri was translated into nine languages and fetched him recognition. Jigri which means thickness, is a love story of an animal and a man. He elaborates, “A family brings a bear from a jungle and it develops human-like qualities and the person in the house discards his humane behaviour and develops animal instincts. The struggle between them is Jigri .” His play Tegaram won him 25 awards. “My job as a writer is to peep into the past, observe the present and suggest changes for the future. We are the voice of the society,” says Ashok who is presently writing for Telugu films.
