Worst of 2022: Radhe Shyam to Liger to Acharya, here are Telugu cinema’s biggest disappointments this year

As much as 2022 was considered a breakout year for Telugu cinema in more ways than one, the truth of the matter was that theatres struggled to draw crowds in various phases of the year. Word of mouth proved critical for films to sustain their run beyond the initial weekend. Even biggies like Liger, Acharya turned out to be box-office turkeys, crashing within a couple of days into their releases.

2022 was a lesson for filmmakers and stars that hype, aura may not always ensure a ‘minimum guarantee’ result at the box office and conviction in storytelling was the key to success. Some of the films that we’re to mention below were much necessary wake up calls that you can’t take audiences for granted. You need to work harder, give better reasons for viewers to leave their homes for a ticket.

On that note, OTTplay takes a look at Telugu cinema’s biggest disappointments this year:

Radhe Shyam

This Prabhas-Pooja Hegde starrer is a great example of ambition without a vision. The makers were so obsessed with the canvas of the romance - it was like a soulless lullaby trying to capture the imagination of a listener. The director Radha Krishna Kumar missed the thin line between a classic romance and a silly excuse of a plot. The flaws appeared all the more glaring owing to its scale. From Raveendar’s tasteful production design to Manoj Paramahamsa’s classy cinematography, nothing could salvage a tale that had a jaded Prabhas and a clueless Pooja Hegde.

Acharya

Director Koratala Siva’s dream run as a storyteller came to a grinding halt with Acharya, a film was so concerned about glorifying its stars Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan that the story took a backseat. The plot of an outsider emerging a saviour of a temple town and vanquishing the baddies was alright for a mainstream film. However, Acharya was a painfully dull fare, devoid of emotions, strong characters, memorable music and paisa vasool moments. Despite being Ram Charan’s immediate film after RRR, Acharya crashed and how!

Liger

Puri Jagannadh, credited as a starmaker, united with one of the most promising finds of Telugu cinema, Vijay Deverakonda and it promised viewers a mouth-watering commercial cocktail. There’s every need to address this as a ‘pan-Indian’ failure, given how its creators were so desperate to ‘tailor’ it to a wider audience, without paying heed to the core-viewer base of its male lead and the director. The result? Liger neither appealed to Telugu audiences nor those in the other parts of the country. The staggering budget aside, what’s more baffling is the indifference and the recklessness with which it was made. One felt sorry for Mike Tyson and his unintentionally funny special appearance that was the butt of all ridicule.

Ramarao on Duty

There are stars for whom success does more harm than good. Ravi Teja, unfortunately, is slipping into that category. Taking cue from hits like Kick, Raja The Great, the star has limited his scope as a performer so much that it looks like he doesn’t care about straining his facial muscles anymore. Film after film, the stories and his (stock) expressions remain the same. Ramarao on Duty was a statement from audiences - ‘we’re done’. Beyond Ravi Teja’s disinterested performance, Sarath Mandava’s done-to-death tale around a heroics of an honest government officer was so 80s in its treatment that it was destined to sink without a trace.

Macherla Niyojakavargam

Slow motion intro shots, a dumb female lead, remix of a popular chartbuster for an item number, a forced comedy track to mask its ‘plotlessness’, editor-turned-director Rajashekhar Reddy tried every trick in the book to make Nithiin’s masala fare work at the ticket window. Macherla Niyojakavargam left a bitter aftertaste and was a reminder to its makers that Telugu cinema audiences have matured enough to reject a mass-appealing film with empty heroics revolving around verbose dialogues, caricaturish villains. It’s high time Nithiin regained his mojo and prioritise stories, films that matter over indulgences to climb up the popularity chart.

Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu

While the title of this Sharwanand starrer may mislead you into thinking that this is an empowering feministic tale, the film is everything but that. The plot is so ‘empowering’ that the lives of all its women only revolve around the men. Beyond the story, it’s criminal how a filmmaker could be so clueless about harnessing the services of powerhouses like Radhika Sarathkumar, Khushbu and Urvashi in a film. Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu was a clear example of a desperate Sharwanand selling himself short in pursuit of box-office success. With its dream star-cast, it’s telling how the film didn’t make any noise at the box office. It’s 2022 and one could do better than casting 38-year-old actor in a story of a youngster seeking marriage.