A lot of you have probably heard of RRR by now. It won the Best Original Song at the Oscars. But before there was RRR, there were over a thousand Tollywood movies (obviously, lol). Today I am reviewing an earlier movie by S.S. Rajamouli, the director of RRR. Before we delve into the review, here are some definitions and context for folks new to Indian movies.
Bollywood - Hindi languages movies, predominantly from North India (official definition)
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Tollywood - Telugu language movies, predominantly from South India, especially from the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (official definition)
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South Indian Movies - Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam language movies (how I used this phrase in this post)
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NOTE - I do want to point out that I have generalized here. Obviously my opinions and/or some of my descriptions do not apply to all movies from the Indian subcontinent. I am mainly talking about the mainstream movies or otherwise known as 'Masala Movies'.
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Masala Movies - Multi-genre movies or family entertainers: These movies have a little bit of romance, comedy, action, melodrama - something for everyone (my definition)
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Item Number - a song which often has nothing to do with the movie, is meant only to please the male gaze. Usually a gorgeous skimpily clad woman is gyrating to thinly veiled innuendos. They are often very catchy and add the 'masala' to a movie (semi-official definition)
I grew up in India on a steady diet of South Indian Masala Movies. I only know three out of the five languages listed but we get lucky in India, several movies are dubbed into other languages for our consumption.
Let me be honest here, most of these movies are – to put it mildly – problematic. Not only are they over the top in all aspects but are often stalker-y and sexist. I obviously don’t condone the sexism and I am not making an excuse for it. I just have been desensitized to it and I expect some level of sexist content. It does hinder my enjoyment but I also love watching bad movies. My friends and I deliberately watch bad movies, for fun (Sharknado series, the Return of the Killer Tomato, Iron Sky, etc.). I strongly believe not all movies need to be works of art, movies are meant for entertainment and I watch movies to be entertained. I like it when we have to suspend our disbelief, I always say the reason super hero movies are not so popular in India is because our heroes are super heroes. They can break a windshield with one punch, kick a guy so he flies a mile, pick up an entire boulder, pick up an entire 200 pound man and chuck him, all kinds of shenanigans and I love it.
For E, I had to pick Eega. Its available on Netflix USA at the time of writing this post. This review is spoiler free – even though it may seem like it isn’t, I promise the trailer itself discloses some ‘plot elements’.
Official Review:
Eega is a 2012 Tollywood movie. It was a blockbuster hit, made upwards of 16 million dollars in profit alone. This movie not only departs from the Telugu Romance movie template but does it in a fun and completely unexpected manner. Its stalker romance and sexist quotient is pretty low comparatively.
Eega is the story of Nani, Bindu and Sudeep. Nani has been in love with Bindu for almost two years, he has expressed his love for her and has been waiting for Bindu to respond. Bindu is yet to express her feelings to Nani. Bindu encounters Sudeep, the big bad villain of the movie. Sudeep wants Bindu all to himself but discovers that Bindu seems to be more interested in Nani. This sends Sudeep off the deep edge. Finally, at the moment that Bindu is ready to express her love to Nani – Sudeep gets his hands on Nani and… (watch the movie to learn what happens next or just watching the trailer will do too really).
The actors have done a really good job all around. Nani is adorable, the perfect boy-next-door and very convincing as the lovesick hero. Sudeep however is my favorite – he portrays the villain with just the right amount of whimsy and wickedness, doesn’t hurt that he is a handsome devil. Samantha looks gorgeous, but like most Indian movies, she doesn’t really have a role other than plot catalyst.
The music is catchy, beautiful and fun! Most of the songs are part of the movie instead of dream sequences, not that I mind a dream sequence or two but I appreciated the seamless blending into the story. I especially welcomed the absence of an item number. Background score works really well and moves fluidly between the fun and emotional scenes.
The visual effects are amazing. Especially for 2012 Tollywood, the technical aspects are unparalleled. I can’t go into detail without some spoilers so I will leave it at this.
I have seen every movie by S.S Rajamouli, I love each and every one of them, a lot of them are on my top twenty but Eega is on a different level.
I have my non-Indian friends start with Eega if they want to venture their way into Indian movies. I strongly recommend watching this mostly light hearted fun romantic movie.
Have you seen any Indian movies? Have you seen RRR or Eega? What are your thoughts on bad movies? Let me know! I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
Across the Ocean 