March 27, 2011 Y. Sunitha Chowdhary
Kathulatho Kadura Kantichooputho Champesta..doesn't that dialogue sound very familiar? The powerful lines fom Narasimha Naidu by Paruchuri Gopalakrishna became so popular that even after it's release in 2001, a zillion films have used it as a parody, but for Gopalakrishna it's no laughing matter. He calls the spoofs vulgar and says the beauty of the dialogue is being lost. Narasimha Naidu was born for the village, he will kill anyone or offer his life for the village, the dialogue was written not for the hero but the hero's role, his attitude.
Ditto with Tagore, the words 'Nee kantam lo naraalu tenchi na bootu ki lacelu ga kattukuntaanu' was written for the protagonist who vowed to finish the corrupt. A few dialogues in Bobbili Brahmanna too brought the hall down but hasn't this style of writing become outdated? Aren't people seeking realistic, contemporary colloquial language? Gopalakrishna is peeved, disagrees that his dialogues, sometimes twisted but in a different style are repeated in film after film.
He's been here for 33 years and had written for 350 films and opines that the brothers duo had changed their writing in accordance with time and people's taste without which they would have been history. One would find a touch of communism, progressive thinking, puranaas, revolution in their early works but internalized the style with Preminchukundam Raa, Kalisundham Raa, Premante Idera and then successfully moved over with the flow to Okkadu, Varsham, Manasantha Nuvve.
He questions, "When we had written for the above films, didn't you ask if we were the ones who actually wrote such stuff and remarked it was the in thing? Thoda kodithe sound ki sacchipothav kind of dialogues can't be written for films like Manasantha Nuvve. In Manasantha Nuvve, the same dialogue had mellowed down to appudu kottalanipinchindi, ma amma addam vocchindi, ippudu kottalanipinchindi ma chelli addam vocchindi. Such delicate and soft words. We have moved on."
The writer quips that his next films are for youngsters Manoj (Mr. Nokia) and one for MS Raju's son and he obviously is going to bring down the tempo of his language. In Balakrishna's case he defends, it is inevitable, they have to write in accordance with his body language. Multiplexes are flooded with only youth and they want only love stories, they use 'F' word, 'shit' liberally and profanity in films has become order of the day. He is appalled at women addressing men as 'orey' and thinks that it is not our culture, habit or civilized behaviour, and that we are spoiling the society.
Once the writer's eyes welled up with tears when a dialogue written by him was censored despite him giving an elaborate explanation, such passion and involvement went into writing for the film. He adds, "We censor our own words, my brother acts as a moral police, if he finds any of my words objectionable he strikes it down. For Pellilla Perayya the censor officer objected to "Oka sthree tho samsaaram cheyyataniki katnam adige magaadu oka sthree tho vyabhicharam cheyyataniki dabbisthunnadu."
All the censor people could understand was I was equating a wife with a prostitute and not the actual meaning. As a writer I felt it was my duty to tell this to the society, we are not outdated. See my brother's dialogues.."Enti maavaiyya mee Hyderabad lo aadapillalu undara? Such colloquial and simplistic words."
The brothers are like double-edged swords, while Gopalakrishna's dialogues are dramatic, has high voltage and is lethal, it also has an element of poetry thanks to his Master's degree in Telugu literature. His sibling on the other hand writes lighter vein, simple and entertaining lines which are like spoon feed for the lay man. He gives an example of his verse like prose from Maa Annayya Bangaram.
In the film the younger brother says, "Nenu velli kaalla meedha padaina adigosthanu annayya, vadhinanu rammani" to which the older brother replies, "Nenu medalo kattina thali aavadiki kanapadtaledhu ra, kaallameedha padina kanneelu emi kanapadthayi." Gopalakrishna says he had stopped writing such stuff.
He's saddened that Telugu literature, history, culture has taken a beating and challenges one to go to one of the multiplexes in the city and question the audience with a camera and a mike as to who the writers of Ramayan and Mahabharata are. They will tell you which hero or heroine acted in a particular film or who scored how many runs in the recent match. All this is unwanted knowledge.
The Telugu film industry is deluged by Hollywood and Hindi film culture which is so much like fast food. The fetish for 'this language' is temporary he asserts. Finally he reels out the names of dozen Telugu film actresses from Savitri to Soundarya and challenges you to recollect the names of a dozen latest actresses in Telugu films. As you ponder and struggle, he laughs aloud!
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