Trends keep changing from generation to generation and most films made in a particular era needn’t necessarily age well with time owing to the same. A trend has emerged with the works of a star filmmaker, which one had least expected would feature in a list of films whose appeal has wavered with time. We’re talking about the mounting dislike for films of director Shankar among several film enthusiast groups and tweets across social networking sites.
Film viewers, of late, are of an opinion that the filmmaker has done nothing concrete in his career but for rehashing his idea of vigilante justice across different subjects featuring star actors. While one can’t dispute the notion that the ‘common man’s fight for a corruption-free society’ has been a recurring theme across his films, the terrific packaging/screenplay of such stories is something no filmmaker can ever dream of replicating. The re-watch value of films like Bharateeyudu, Aparichitudu, Oke Okkadu to sample a few, will tell you why.
Very few names among mainstream filmmakers, apart from Shankar, Ramgopal Verma and Mani Ratnam, have given a strong reason for spectators to watch their films in theatres in the 90s and early 2000s. Shankar’s songs alone are a testimony to his craft and it was his wild creative imagination and picturisation that even make mediocre films like Jeans immensely watchable today. For those who feel Shankar has stuck to a single theme throughout his career, films like Premikudu, Boys, Snehitudu, Robot prove that he hasn’t been afraid to break the mould once in a while.
Another reason one needs to consider why such a trend has emerged is because of the quality of Shankar’s recent films like I, 2.0 and Snehitudu which haven’t been upto his regular standards despite being commercial successes. While ‘I’ remained a disappointment for spectators for its patchy story, 2.0 relied on technology over a concrete story, Snehitudu was a heartless frame-to-frame remake of 3 Idiots. It deserves to be understood that these films have come in an era post the death of his regular collaborator, writer Sujatha, who has provided story/screenplay for Shankar’s films till Robot. Spectators feel that the director hasn’t found a good replacement for the writer in his works, a thought which can’t be completely disregarded either.
However, it doesn’t require saying that every filmmaker has a phase in his career where one has to reinvent himself according to the times – names like Mani Ratnam, Gautham Menon too are no exception to that. All that Shankar has to do is to relook at his packaging; one hopes Bharateeyudu 2 reflects that change though there’s always a fear it’ll be a great challenge for him to better a near-perfect film like Bharateeyudu. 2020 hasn’t been a good year for the director with the death of his couple of team members during the film’s shoot in an unfortunate mishap and the subsequent delay in its filming. It’s only a matter of time that Shankar finds his mojo and replenishes his creative energies again. We can’t wait to watch Shankar 2.0!
