The Telugu movies are far from real life and the audience no longer expects realistic storytelling from our filmmakers. But some clichés are heavily overused that any film that doesn’t follow them is labeled as an experimental film. The following are some of the most common clichés in Telugu movies.
Strong Protagonist
The protagonist in a regular Telugu film should be a strong guy. He sleeps until afternoon, never hits the gym, boozes a lot but still can beat tens of bad guys when required. The only exception is the comedy films where things could be a little different. Almost all youngsters follow this path so that they can have a mass image.
Black and White Characters
The Telugu films generally feature either good guys or bad guys but not someone who does mistakes. The hero is an absolute good guy and the villain is the personification of evil. Anything done by the hero from robbery to rape to murder is justified in the films. They are supposed to be good guys, so any crime they committed should have a valid reason. The regular mass films have the protagonist slaughtering tens of people, and later someone will compare him with Gods to justify the act. The central conflict of such movies will be good vs evil and in the end, the good triumphs.
Family of Protagonist
The protagonist in many Telugu films doesn’t have a family of his own but is not an orphan. This may sound strange but is true. The fabricated characters are seen in many Telugu films. For example, in films like Magadheera and Dhruva, the family of the protagonist is never discussed. Chiranjeevi starrer “Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari” was a fabricated story that had its protagonist developed as padding to the central theme. The kids were involved for the sake of drama. The same formula has been used again in his other films like Anji and Tagore. Apart from that, most other films have extremely low importance for the family of the protagonist unless they create some problem for the advancement of the story.
Placement of Songs
The placement of songs is not bad in most films and some films, one or two songs are wrongly placed. But several other films have an extremely bad choice for the placement of songs. In some cases, the songs come as a speed breaker for the action or thriller elements. The placement of 5 or 6 songs has become a norm and many filmmakers follow it blindly and shoot the songs even when they are not needed.
Stunts
The stunts in many Telugu films have become a laughing stock for the audience of several other industries. The stunts are considered a measure of heroism by many filmmakers and the heroes are shown as powerful through stunts. The B and C center audience enjoy mass elevations and fights, so the stunts are choreographed keeping them in mind.
Point of View
The point of view is not taken seriously by many filmmakers. It changes several times throughout the story. The editor and director have to take care of the point of view for a flow of narration. Most commercial movies are told from the protagonist’s perspective but the perspective changes to the third person during flashback episodes or action scenes.
Happy Ending
The happy ending has become the biggest cliché in Telugu films. The audience already knows the climax of most of the movies they are watching. The lead pair get married in romantic movies, the hero kills the villain in action movies, the families unite in drama films, the villain gets arrested in crime films, etc. Happy endings are a norm and most Telugu movies strictly follow them. Not everyone likes a sad ending, but there could be much more than just happy and sad endings. The twist endings, multiple endings, ambiguous endings, etc have been rarely done in Tollywood. Even in happy endings, they could try something different other than being extremely predictable.
These are not all but are common clichés in Telugu movies. Cross-genre is another cliche that was discussed in another article. The times are changing but we have restricted ourselves to formulaic films by following these clichés. The Telugu cinema could be a lot better than what it is now. The clichés are not just annoying but spoil the mood of the film. The writers should come up with scripts without involving too many of them.
