We have seen plenty of movies in the last one year. Some good ones, some bad ones and some beautiful ones. Beautiful movies are those that make us fall in love with the whole experience of watching movies. Hoping that all of you have seen the below mentioned beautiful movies, let’s take a look back and cherish the memories they had left us with.

Let’s start with the hit movies. Pelli choopulu, A Aa, Nannaku Prematho and Jyo Achyuthananda. We all loved these movies. Pelli choopulu was like the first flower that bloomed after autumn/fall. So much out of place yet very familiar, a very beautiful sight and totally inspiring. This movie will be mentioned in many articles for next few years. What Anand was for last decade, Pelli choopulu is for this decade.

A Aa is a beautiful movie made to work. With a very familiar story line, filled with nice music and visuals and supported by perfect dialogues, this movie came out packed with all the ingredients of a blockbuster. And also the timing could not have been any better since the audience were deprived of a good family entertainer just weeks before. One director who can never make non-beautiful movies is Sukumar. So if he makes a movie, it has to make it to the Beautiful movies list any year. Nannaku Prematho is no exception. It is an intelligent emotional movie that worked and gave NTR the much-needed image makeover.

And finally, we had Jyo Achyuthananda from Oohalu Gusa Gusalade team. Both movies are miles apart in genres but still had two things in common. A very middle-class setup, the one that’s been upgraded to upper middle class in all our recent movies, and relatable emotions in correct proportions. I feel the genuineness is what made this very off beat movie work, of course besides great haunting music.

The next two movies had some minor flaws in them but were totally rejected. And irrespective of their minor flaws, these movies deserved some more appreciation than what they received. Manamantha was from Chadrasekhar Yeleti, one of the most underrated directors of Telugu cinema. In Manamantha he tried his hand at humanitarian values after trying thrillers, treasure hunt, a single day love story etc. He succeeded to a large extent but the pace of the movie and less than famous faces on the posters worked against the movie.

Lastly, Oka Manasu. This movie had almost all the ingredients to be a classic. A good looking couple, a music album that should have been as big hit as Aashiqui 2 and a very sensible old world-ish love story. Now the big question, what worked against it? My guess is the good looking couple. Both Naga Shourya and Niharika were too big for this movie. They came with a set of expectations even though they tried their best to downplay them before the release. They did justice to the roles and the director’s vision but the audience were not in the mood for a slow paced emotional love story with cryptic dialogues from them.

I feel the era of the audience with a taste for cryptic dialogues of immense depth in meaning is gone. This is the era of simple one liner seeking audience. Nevertheless, Oka Manasu, may be an era late, can still be called a beautiful movie. Let’s wish we get more such beautiful years from our Telugu cinema and we appreciate them a little bit more in coming years.

– Column by Rohit (Opinions expressed are his own)