Telugu Movies to Avoid

I’ve come to the conclusion that it is as important to document bad movies as good. I often forget that I’ve watched a movie before, or forget what my reaction to a particular movie was. This post will help keep things organized. It will have Telugu movies which I would rate 1 or 2 stars (out of 5). 1 star means I hated this film and it was an effort to sit through it; 2 stars means I could sit through it but disliked it. I guess I’ll keep adding films as I come across them.

Of course, these are to be contrasted to my post on good Telugu movies.

I recognize that many of these movies will be very popular ones. Nevertheless, these are poor movies. Hackneyed, shark-jumping plotting (or a total lack or a plot), cringe-inducing humour and dialogue, and lead actors who take their own shenanigans too seriously are the main problems with most of these movies.

These star ratings are not on the same scale as the ratings on the “movies to watch” page. The worst movie on that page is better than any of these.

1. Classmates. (2 stars)
2. Athadu. (2 stars)
3. Boys. (2 stars) Starts off interesting (albeit crude), about adolescent boys, but turns into a hackneyed love story after a bit.
4. Stalin. (1 star) Way too Rajnikant-ish for my taste.
5. Jalsa. (2 stars)
6. Nuvve Nuvve. (2 stars) The girl liked the guy because he sprayed cheap perfume on her. It also subscribes to a common Indian movie mantra: to impress the girl, treat her real badly. ‘Nuff said.
7. Pokiri. (2 stars) Full of bloody, senseless violence.
8. Okkadunnadu. (2 stars) I really wish I could’ve put this in the “movies to watch” list, it had great promise. See brief review.
9. Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana. (2 stars) Incoherent film with trumped-up situations, bad over the top acting and a ridiculous plot.  Horrible.  But this movie was a huge success — my tastes don’t match most Telugu audiences’.

More as I watch.

Telugu Movie Reviews

Here are sites that do Telugu movie reviews:

1. 
   http://www.idlebrain.com/movie/archive/
   

   The reviews aren’t very uniform, not always informative, and I disagree with many of them. But the site seems comprehensive for recent movies.

2. 
   http://www.cinegoer.com/reviews/
   The reviews on this one are as uneven as those on Idlebrain; again, it has most recent releases. Careful with this site; it includes extreme spoilers. It reveals not just general plot elements, but the final solution to a suspense or mystery. (Think “the butler did it”.)
3. 
   http://www.telugucinema.com/c/publish/cat_index_33.php
   This site seems to have better reviews than the previous ones. They still have the style peculiar to Telugu movie reviews: divided up into “Analysis”, “Cast”, “Performances”, and other peculiar categories. The writing is still average. But at least they seem to recognize a hackneyed plot when they see it. A very interesting feature: they list Hollywood movies that inspired each movie!