Before this gets started, I must say that not every Telugu movie is like this but a majority of them go along the lines of what will be said in this article. So I am a Telugu - American happily born and raised in Michigan and one of the things that my family likes to do is watch a lot of movies and get all excited when the protagonist or 'hero' comes on and kicks some villain butt. For those who are unfamiliar with Tollywood (Telugu Film Industry), let me fill you in.

Basically all Telugu movies start like this: The hero enters and has a cool theme song to introduce him, Next, he sees this beautiful girl walking and time stops because apparently only he can see her and will be the man she will marry, After that, he discovers that out of the ENTIRE CITY he happens to like the girl whose father or brother is a big gangster or corrupt politician. Next, He directly tells her that he loves her not bothering to get to know her because she is so beautiful that it doesn't matter what she has to say and this breaks into a song. Obviously, she HAS to reject him because if she didn't then she is 'easy' and her mafia dad or brother would hire a gang to kill him. But after literally following her through the entire movie without her consent she starts to develop feelings for him. When she realizes she loves him then another song starts. After, she tries to tell her father about this he says NO! and sends like a million men to go and kill the protagonist but each one of them gets fatally injured by the hero's master fighting skills. Finally, the hero will proudly kill the antagonist, marry the girl, and live happily ever after.

Now, that the officially plot summary is done, it's time to point the things that I don't like about these movies. First of all, the heroine of the movie is always very light skinned (practically white) even though most South Indians are tan skinned and this promotes a standard of beauty that might be achieved by ordinary Indian women with dangerous methods such as skin bleaching and useless creams like Fair and Lovely.

Secondly, the hero directly tells the heroine that he loves her on first sight without getting to know her personality. Unfortunately, this emphasizes that personality doesn't matter compared to looks and it is just disheartening to those lovely smart women who were never given a chance because they didn't look like Kajal Agarwal. The heroine could be psycho or boring and he wouldn't care because she is the most perfect woman he has ever seen. In spite of all these small annoyances, there is one major flaw that bothers every time I watch a Telugu movie; and that is no respect for personal boundaries. It seems cute in movies when a guy grabs the girl's wrist to make her listen to his proclamation of love but it is actually kind of scary. He literally forces her to like him and her rejection is followed by endless persistence which could be mistaken for harassment. Would any woman want that? To be cornered by some strange man preventing her from escaping him? I didn't think so. It might just be a silly movie but India is one of the most dangerous countries for women today from acid attacks to brutal gang rapes. I have seen pictures of girls whose faces have been burned off by acid because they said one simple word. "No." I don't entirely blame these movies but more the stigma around the "hero." It implies that every man just has to be a little more persuasive and the pretty girl will just run into his arms immediately. Everything is all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Nice try Tollywood but its going to take a little more than a handsome man and catchy songs to change my mind.