It’s been 25 years, Ram Gopal Varma’s classic cult Siva had hit the screens. Still the movie is fresh in memories of movie buffs. The hangover of Siva continue to haunt several youth and yes, the film is still ruling the roost. Released on October 5, 1989, the movie bagged critical acclaim and commercial success. The film bagged rare honours and ranked among the best 100 Indian films. The film walked away with several awards and accolades. The film was accorded with state government’s Nandi Awards for Best direction, Best First Film of a director and Best dialogue writer.
Starring Nagarjuna Akkineni, Amala and Raghuvaran in pivotal roles, the movie throws light on student politics and campus elections. Be it Machi Raju (Kota Sreenivasa Rao) or JD Chakravarthy or Malli (Subhalekha Sudhakar) or Nanaji (Tanikella Bharani), every character in the film has had its impact. Especially the portrayal of Raghuvaran as Bhavani caught many eyeballs. Ilaiyaraaja has rendered one of the best tunes and all the songs turned out to be chartbusters. ‘Botany Pathamundi…’ is still a favourite song for several youth. Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry had penned the song while veteran Veturi wrote three other songs. Gopal Reddy’s cinematography and slick editing all together made Siva a classic film.
Siva is not just a turning point in Nagarjuna’s career, but also a milestone in Telugu Film Industry. The movie set a new benchmark in industry and hence it is called as trend-setter film. In fact, Siva led founding stone for modern Telugu cinema. Telugu cinema is often classified as “Before Siva” and “After Siva”.
While the classic cult is celebrating its silver jubilee, it’s auteur Ram Gopal Varma is going through rough phase and his career is on downward spiral. Yet we can’t rule out RGV’s grand comeback. Anything is possible at anytime. Because, he is Ram Gopal Varma. The man who enthralled audiences for decades with his raw plots and gritty realistic narration is now . Varma needs some motivation. It’s time for RGV to introspect and look back at his past. He should sit and take notice of his previous films (Satya, Rangeela, Company, Sarkar) and how he made them. One would agree that his recent films have no match to his previous films at all. Hope RGV overcomes this phase and will churn out classics like before.
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