Wish you Happy ‘May Day’!
Might look a bit bizarre to this “GenX dudes”. But, there is a day in our calendar in the name of our laborious laborers, the vital functional units of our globalized village. Though this day has a noble legacy and ideologies that established this tradition, all we remember of this day is some good red flags all over the town and some revolutionary films on the TVs.
And two names prominently occupy our minds and screens – Madala Ranga Rao and R. Narayana Murthy. These two luminaries have altruistically dedicated their lives to representation of this crucial labor section of this society, in a bigger, preferably glamorous medium called ‘Cinema’. Madala Ranga Rao is remembered for his revolutionary thought-provoking films like Erra Mallelu (1981) which evoked the senses and sensibilities of the society alike in the early 80s and for your kind information was a super hit too. While R. Narayana Murthy evolved no less than a successor to Madala Ranga Rao. His Erra Sainyam (1994) reminded us of our much ignored ground floor and was yet another remarkable film in the red pool. R. Narayana Murthy is an iconic figure who kept travelling against the commercial gravitation by establishing a banner by name Sneha Chitra pictures and went to make films like Laal Salaam, Dandora, Erra Sainyam and Koolanna. He hasn’t stopped his voyage nor ever looked by in this journey. Kudos to his conviction and commitment!
Not only these films but indeed this ‘red’ theme is a hit formula in the Telugu cinema hitherto. All our heroes from NTR to Chiru have played factory laborers and union leaders in few of their blockbusters. ‘Anna garu’ NTR has won the credit of hoisting the red flag accompanied by the song “Samaraniki neede aarambham…” and making hell a hell with the “Inquilaab” yelps with his film Yamagola (1977). Superstar Krishna delivers a classic like Eenadu (1982) as a laborer in the film. If Nandamuri Bala Krishna represents Singareni coal mine laborers in his film Nippu Ravva (1993), Venkatesh as Cooli No:1 (1991) and Chiranjeevi as a labor leader in Gharana Mogodu (1992).
So, this might turn irrelevant to the current drift of making and reception of our contemporary Telugu cinema but we cannot forget our atomic segments and ought to acknowledge the remarkable contributions made so far and encourage the ongoing efforts.
“LAAL SALAAM COMRADES!”
