Telugu Cinema Retro Series-1990

https://www.reddit.com/r/tollywood/comments/y1utr3/telugu_cinema_retro_series1990/

The 90s was one turbulent decade, the world changed like never before, the once mighty Soviet empire collapsed, ending the Cold War,new countries sprang up, Yugoslavia broke up leading to a bloody civil war, and technology began to play a major role. And it began with this year where the events would have a far reaching impact on India and the World.

V.P.Singh introduced the Mandal commission granting OBC reservation, sparking widespread protests, and L.K.Advani took out the Rath Yatra to counter it. It was the year when the Ramjanmabhoomi movement began seeing widespread protests. The Indian political scene changed drastically, as the Mandal- Mandir politics took centrestage. BJP that had just two members in Lok Sabha, would win 86 seats in the General elections held the previous year, and soon began to spread itself in the North and West emerging as a political force. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav emerged as powerful political leaders in UP, Bihar with Congress reduced to the fringes there.

Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, sparking off the first major crisis post Cold War, leading to US intervention, as the Middle East exploded.

It was a great year again for Telugu cinema, following up on 1989. A year where Chiru, Balayya, Venky all had major blockbusters.

Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari turned out to the blockbuster of the year. The movie merged action, comedy, drama, romance pretty well, to come off as a superb entertainer. Chiru made a swashbuckling hero, Sridevi was truly gorgeous looking like a Deva Kanya, Amrish Puri made a menacing villian, and the Mr.India style track with kids, added to the sentiment appeal and a great soundtrack by Illayaraja. The movie was released when the state was reeling under cyclone storm, but people still braved, heavy rains, floods to watch this. To date it remains a memorable movie of Telugu cinema.

Chiru had a successful year with Kondaveeti Donga and Kodama Simham, a Telugu cowboy flick doing well too and Raja Vikramarka having an average run. And must say Chiru made quite a good cowboy too, with his rugged look. He had a succesful debut in Hindi too, with Pratibandh, a remake of Ankusham, that was as big a hit as the Telugu original.

And Chiru's steps in this song were a craze, especially the way he twirls the handkerchief, the slow movement. Every one tried doing the same after this movie.

The other blockbuster of 1990 was Bobilli Raja that basically combined action with a family drama. The movie itself lifted from a whole lot of English movies- The Gods Must Be Crazy, Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It turned out to be a good entertainer, giving Venky one of his biggest hits, while Divya Bharathi would go on to become the crush of every youngster, for a long time. Illayaraja's songs too played a major part in the success.

Lorry Driver released in the first half of the year, was another huge success, the movie unabashedly played to mass audiences, and played especially well in B.C centers. Balayya had a good year with successes in Naari Naari Naduma Murari and Muddula Menalludu too.

Nag however had a rather forgettable year, riding high on the success of Shiva, all his 3 releases this year- Prema Yuddham, Neti Siddartha( a Telugu Godfather version) and Iddaru Iddare, crashed at the box office. However the Hindi remake of Shiva starring himself was as big a success in the North as it was here, giving some relief.

Kartavyam was a sensational hit, giving Vijayashanti the tag of "Lady Amitabh" as some one who could pull a movie on her own. The movie was a hard hitting look at political corruption, and Vijayashanti's performance won her a slew of awards, marking a transition to an action heroine throughout the 90s. It was also A.M.Ratnam's debut as a producer, and he would go on to produce a series of successful movies in the 90s.Also this was Meena's first movie as an actress(she had earlier worked as a child artist), where she played a rape victim and she would soon go on to become a leading heroine in her own right.

Fun Fact- Raviteja made his debut in this movie, as one of the guys in Saikumar's gang.

Mohanbabu too made a comeback as hero with Alludugaaru directed by K.Raghavendra Rao. A remake of the Malayalam movie Chitram starring Mohanlal, the movie was a good mix of sentiment and comedy. Mohanbabu's transition to her earlier did not work well, with a series of flops, making him switch to villian roles, and this movie would give him a second lease of life as hero, as he went on to star in a series of successful movies in the 90s. Incidentally many of his 90s movies were remake of successful Tamil or Malayalam movies.

Mahesh Babu appeared as the lead hero this year in Balachandrudu, though very much in his pre-teens, he was the main protagonist in this. The story is quite similiar to his movie Arjun later on, where he tries to save his Akka( Geeta)'s married life from the villians.

Krishna however had a forgettable year, with most of his movies flopping, and only Nagastram had a somewhat average run. It was clear his best years were behind him.

Magaadu a Die Hard style action flick, starring Dr. Rajshekhar as a lone cop taking on a group of terrorists was a success too, following up on Ankusham, establishing him as an action hero.

20 va Shatabdam with Suman in the lead, a gangster movie was successful too, and after a lull in his career, Suman came back well with another success in Peddiniti Alludu.

Naresh too had a series of successes with Manasu Mamatha, Kokila and Police Bharya, while Rajendra Prasad had a a rather forgettable year with most of his movies doing not so well.

Maine Pyaar Kiya was dubbed into Telugu as Prema Pavuralu, and it proved to be as much a blockbuster hit as the Hindi original. The songs in Telugu too were as popular as the Hindi ones, and it set a trend for succesful Hindi movies being dubbed in Telugu during the 90s. Bhagyashree became the heart throb of many a guy, and a whole generation were disappointed,when they found she had already married some one.

Mani Ratnam's Anjali dubbed into Telugu went on to become a success, and people loved the action of the 3 kids, especially Baby Shamili. Raghuvaran who till then was seen mostly in villian roles, was brilliant as the sensitive caring father.

Illayaraja had another dream run this year with Kondaveeti Donga, Bobilli Raja, Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari albums turning out to be super hits as well as Kokila, Anjali. Raj-Koti firmly established themselves in the mass movies space, their songs for Chiru's Kodama Simham were a super hit. Keeravani made his debut with Manasu Mamatha this year and he would go on to become one of the top composer of the 90s.

The year set many trends in Telugu cinema, be it narration, costumes, styling that would soon become a feature of the 90s decade, and also mark a transition.