History of Telugu Film Reviews

83 years of Telugu cinema witnessed many classics, master pieces, super duper hits and more number of disasters as well. While classics were appreciated, utter flop films were abused like anything by the movie lovers. Film Reviews in media play a vital role in eliciting what is good and what is bad of a movie. In fact, Film Reviews on Telugu movies have a great history and a big book on this needs to be published to give the coverage of the history of Film Reviews with illustrations. However, this article just gives you the glimpses of the history of Film Reviews. Checkout the following.

KINIMA: A magazine named 'Kinima' was published during 1950s. The magazine used to review then movies. It didn't hesitate to criticize then classics 'Maya Bazaar' ', 'Gundamma Katha' etc. Fans of NTR and ANR would criticize those reviews. 

VIJAYABAPINEEDU'S VIJAYA: Most of the people know Vijayabapineedu as a film producer. But very few people know he was one of the great writers of detective novels and the editor of a reputed magazine 'Vijaya'. Two or three movies were reviewed in every monthly edition of 'Vijaya'. Vijayabapineedu is said to be the pioneer of categorization of movies. Based on his reviews, he categorized the movies as super hit, hit, above average, average, below average, flop and utter flop.

GUDIPUDI SRIHARI AND OTHER REVIEWERS: Gudipudi Srihari's reviews in 'Sithara' magazine got lot of popularity and people would wait for the release of the magazine every week to read the reviews of Gudipudi Srihari. However, a big hero's fans annoyed with his reviews as they felt he intentionally criticizing their hero. Gradually, the hawa of Gudipudi was ended. 

VENNELA: A newspaper's 'Vennela' got significance for its reviews on movies in every Friday edition. The newspaper followed rating system in reviewing the movies. The newspaper got good circulation every Friday due to its 'Vennela' edition. However, 'Vennela' was lambasted due to its bias on small budget films and hatred on big heroes films. Especially, the supplement would never write good about a number one hero's films. However, fans of that hero would feel proud and happy when their hero's films got super hit statuses irrespective of the reviews.

WEBSITE REVIEWS: With the emergence of internet, film websites were launched in the beginning of new millennium. Initially, the reviews appeared to be amateurish. Gradually,the reviewers set the mark of their own. However, as most of the audiences of AP have no computer and internet access even today, most the reviews show least impact on the people. Meanwhile, educated and software professionals like to read website reviews. However, NRIs from US completely depend upon the ratings given by the top websites. This trend also appears to be gradually changing and some of the movies are registering hit statuses irrespective of poor reviews. 

BOTTOM-LINE: The good and bad of Film Reviews, nowadays, turned out to be hot discussion topic. A reviewer, whose mindset is connected to the mindsets of most of the general audiences, is said to be a good reviewer.