Along with the mesmerizing dance moments, aggressive action sequences, powerful punch-liners, and well-timed comic encounters, there has always been another hall mark of Chiru’s movies – a self-styled ‘romantic touch & feel’ with heroines on-screen, and the lovable-jodis that he formed with Radhika, Radha et al demanded dream sequences quite a plenty.
But of late, the very same on-screen hero-heroine chemistry is one of the disappointing things of Chiru’s previous flicks, be it Andarivaadu, Jai Chiranjeeva, or even Stalin. Why so, where lies the problem actually! Has it been the wrong selection of ‘skinny’ heroines or the lack of skillful actresses to act against charismatic Chiru! Is it because of script limitations, starry-syndrome, romanceless-glamor or combination of all! Has ‘aging’ anything to do with it!
Aging!! May be yes and may be not too. Not long ago, ‘Annayya’ did rocking romance with Soundarya. Later, ‘Daddy’ did it convincingly with mommy ‘Simran’ too. Then the ever-charming ‘Indra’ made Rambha & Urvasi feel jealous – through tilting his body like ‘Veena’ on a foreign soil with Sonali Bindre while having love-hate game with gujju girl ‘Arthi Agarwal’ right in Rayala seema. Tagore too had a brief stint with Jyothika while Shankar dada tried his best with Sonali, the doctor. That was it. From then on, the graph has been downwards, falling rather rapidly. Aging might also have played a role, bcoz, starting with ‘Anji’ to the latest ‘Stalin’, it appeared to be mere dancing with dolls while syncing lips & legs with lyrics, a pretty mechanical stuff, missing the feel of ‘pair-in-love’ kind of stuff, isn’t it! Considering the standards that he himself set in his prior films, Chiru’s dances/songs, romantic and comic encounters seem to be neither captivating nor convincing for general audience anymore. Wish Parbhudeva could bring back the liveliness.
No doubt, Chiru is doing the same what he does best with the same dedicated effort that he is always known for. Then, why the hell the same factors that led many to theatres tend to make the reverse swing now! Because audiences have more choices for entertainment now, and are no longer in awe of oft-repeated, out-dated formulaic action melodramas that consist either a song or a fight every 15 mts along with a comedy track or over-the-top dialogue sequence. Also, guess what, ageless-ness and 60s dancing with 16s were bygones with ANRs, NTRs, Krishnas, Sobhanbabus et al…And one-man-beating-hundreds also appeal no more either, indeed some of our stars-stunts look ridiculous in the wake of dubbed hollywood adventures. Alas, still our stars go with images and fancy fans-concerns, u know!
Back to the point, if you strike off the ‘age’ factor for a while, then what do you attribute it to! So-called scripts and screen-plays that are powered with wired-action of one-man show! Or star-centric scenes and the limitations they pose to heroines! Whatever may be the reason, agree it or not, except being glamour dolls to show some skin and shake a leg with Chiru, heroines have had nothing much to do in more recent films, and that contributes to weak on-screen hero-heroine chemistry, and that is where a question mark arises for SD’s Karishma Kotak too.
It is not just the glamour or fresh faces against star-heroes that matter. How appealing they are as ‘a pair on- screen’ also matters. To name a few, Chiru - with Radhika, Radha, Vijaya Shanthi, Roja, Rambha, Ramya Krishna, Nagma, Soundarya, Simran, clicked bcoz the pair appeared plausible to the viewers. As the star gets older off-screen, his heroine gets younger on-screen – isn’t it true with Chiru’s cinemas too! Chiru - with Bhoomika, Sameera, Rimmi Sen, Trisha, any takers! Mega star or his mega-fan-base may think otherwise. And that is the reason this article intends, not to counterpoint the past-heroine selection, but to emphasize the need of the hour. Aren’t there many who were impressed well with this kind of pairing and the stuff they played on screen!
Then where does it leave the upcoming SDZ heroine – FTV’s ‘Fresh face of 2007’! Of course this ‘Lakme laavanya’ looks gorgeous, but she is a long-legged imported thinny again, u know. No doubt, her NRI style, London-ish looks might just fit into FM station - Radio Jacky’s role; but the point here is – will she & SD make a lovable pair on screen, not just on Aus/NZ roads but also in the entire movie! One may doubt, unless Prabhudeva proves it wrong, if at all he has much say in other departments too, in addition to choreography, and he showed with NVNV what he could do given liberty to his creativity and comic sensitivity.
Undoubtedly, the original ‘Vidya Balan’ would have been a best bet, but then she wouldn’t turn to tollywood that easily when she is on the demanding side of Bollywood, u got it. Then why not a more mature face with proven talent! Say a ‘Sneha’ in modern costumes or Nayana Tara or even Asin!
Who knows what happened behind the scenes, many names would have been tossed out, and finally Shankardada fell flat with a fresher, and handed-over ‘Liril’s girl’ to dance master-cum-director. With both being more energetic than ever, all seems set to shake the silver screen yet again. And guess what, ‘Chiru and his Limca lady’ rushed onto foreign shores to give us more dreamy stuff & filmi-istyle fun. Will they appeal as a ‘telugu jodi’ that telugu audience would expect! If you want to be fair, odds seem to be not in favor based on the last 3 flicks. Then, u never know, magnetic mega star and his comedy-oriented Gandhigiri coupled with Prabhudeva’s gyrations could pull of the trigger in its favor! Still, will KK suit SD - an unbiased answer is awaited till that fateful Friday’s first show until a neutral viewer shows up and makes a verdict that would impact the fate of the film itself.
