Audience from Telugu Industry who were dying to watch a ‘Christopher Nolan’ type films have had their hunger satisfied with the movie ‘1 – Nenokkadine’ starring Mahesh Babu. And the credit for such intellectual thriller goes to the director Sukumar. Sukumar has been the one stop solution for brilliant characterizations in the place of the regular over the top heroism. His characters gel with the people in normal life and audience connect to it, sometimes hate themselves seeing them on screen. Though they aren’t regular commercial entertainers, his movies have a logical sense but still entertain with subtlety and his movies always have the strong female characters which generally are rare in Telugu. Also his movies have brilliant soundtrack considering the screenplay he narrates. His unique yet simple storylines are his USP. Let’s look into some of his brilliant works..
1. Arya / Arya 2Bringing out different variations in Allu Arjun, Sukumar has been very successful. His first collaboration a triangle love story, showing Bunny as the one-side lover ‘Arya’ who helps his girlfriend to get her boyfriend, established a strong base for Bunny in the industry. He created his lover-boy appeal through this film, and brought out his dance brilliance first time in this film. In the second edition of the film ‘Arya 2’, he portrayed Bunny as the psychotic best friend to the character Ajay and deep in love with Ajay’s girlfriend Geeta, and the negative touch to his role just thrilled the audience. Also Bunny’s best dance moves and DSP’s mind blowing soundtrack made the narrative absolutely crazy.
2. 100% LoveWho would take the subject of egos between cousins-in-law as the story line and develop the movie? Well Sukumar did it with ease. With untold love between the leads and their ego taking the front seat, the main characters had a different perspective in this wonderful film. Getting the best out of Naga Chaitanya and Tamannah, though the movie had a linear narrative, the interest was created with the layers of different characters in the film. Finally drawing a similarity between their grandparents and the grandchildren, the movie was given a perfect conclusion.
3. JagadamNot so popular and a flop one, this film is one of the most underrated films in Telugu industry. The story of guy who dreams to be a gangster and loves violence, and his realization after watching he’s giving out a wrong message, this film was one of the best written with the lead role again having a negative shade but a positive character. It was hero Ram’s one of the best characters, this film received mixed response from the audience. This also marked Sukumar’s different way of taking.
4. Nannaku PremathoA story about a guy going to any height to fulfill his father’s final wish. With a non-linear narration, this film has seen one of the best performance by Jr. NTR and his most stylish look. The brilliance of this film lies in the hero taking revenge on the villain not by killing him but destroying him. Sukumar has built this thriller on the base of ‘Love on Father’ and could connect the actors as well as the audience on the same line. He has perfectly written the mind game and connected the dots of the plot twists with a concept of ‘Butterfly Effect’.
5. Kumari 21fOne of the boldest films in Telugu Industry, Sukumar has written and co-produced this film but gave the chance for directing the film to his assistant Surya Pratap. The idea was to give chances to new age film makers with a zeal to tell different stories. And he has made no mistake in choosing the most different story to produce. Projecting the insecurities of a regular guy and his love, a posh girl who is a model. Sukumar projected the society’s wierd perspective on independent girls and their negative thoughts on open life of the girl, while taking the backdrop of the hero’s parents’ troubled relationship. Projecting the mentality of middle class guy and his good-for-nothing friends, Sukumar has again written the grey shade layers in the characters.
We wish Sukumar does more such unique concepts as the subjects for his films, and are eagerly waiting for his new venture “Rangasthalam 1985” with Ram Charan and Samantha, which has a village backdrop of 1980’s and we are sure to expect some twist in the narrative. We wish him a very successful and a happy birthday.
