Tarak's Sweet 16

    There is a plethora of movies coming out in the next few weeks. I am so excited that finally, I will see some more of my favorite Tollywood Heroes in the theater on the big screen. As I mentioned on my South Indian movies watched page, I have only been watching Southies for about a year and have only really gotten into them since March 2010, so while I have seen Prabhas and Bunny in the theater, I have yet to see Mahesh, Siddharth and my favorite of favorites Tarak on the big screen.
      Infact, I am so new to appreciating the awesomeness that is Tarak that I had an opportunity in January to see Adhurs in the theater and I missed it! It was a weekend I had nothing to do and I saw Adhurs was playing but didn't know if it would be worth seeing without subtitles and I didn't know much about Tarak, hadn't seen any of his movies yet, so I passed on it. Ayoo! My shins are still black and blue from kicking myself!
    Tarak's next film, Brindavaanam had its audio release today so now the promotions for the film are kicking into high gear. Here is the first trailer

     Looks great doesn't it? But the big question for me is what will the songs be like and what awesome dancing will the choreographers come up with for Tarak to do? I was excited when Tarak tweeted a couple of weeks ago that choreographer Prem Rakshit was killing him with a tough step. Yay! Tarak is known to not need to rehearse and apparently  gets his dance steps down in one take so anything difficult for him to do should be mindblowing for us to watch.
     I recently achieved Tarak Completeness by locating and watching the last two films of his I had yet to watch. I thought it would be fun to try and pick only one song as a favorite from each film. This task was easy for some films and very, very difficult for others. It is not a "best of"  list,  just my favorites for a variety of reasons.  Some of the songs I chose because I like the music, some it is the way the choreographers had them picturised, some I chose because I just liked the way Tarak looks, but usually, of course, it is because of his amazing dancing.  So here is Tarak's Sweet 16, compiled and chosen by me.


Ninnu Choodalani  (2001) 
I am thwarted already in my list, by the lack of Ninnu Choodalani songs on YouTube.  (That's ok  though because I know I won't be able to only chose one song from Yamadonga). This and Subbu were the last two Tarak movies I had to watch. I couldn't find dvd's of them so ended up watching on torrents sites. This was Tarak's first film and apparently it was a horendous flop.  I remember thinking when I watched it that the Director was evidently completely unaware that Tarak could dance, the song picturisations were uninteresting and unimaginative so it's just as well I couldn't find any links.

Student #1  (2001)
Kuchipudi Kaina - It's catchy and begins to show what Tarak can do. Plus there is a little Kuchipudi fight at the end!


Subbu (2001)
Hari Hara - It starts on a train! That and the sing along chorus makes up for the gori dancers.


Aadi (2002)
Sunnunda Teesuko - Love the set! What's not to love about giant buckets of laddoos!



Allari Ramudu (2002)
Shalibanda Golkanda - I love this one! Tarak and Aarti Agarwal do a great job with this dance and the song makes me want to sing along.


Naaga (2003)
Nayudori Pilla- There are lots of great songs in this movie. I love this item with Rambha. Lawrence shows up at the end so I am assuming he is the choreographer.  I am a total sucker for songs on trains thanks to Chaiya Chaiya.



Simhadri (2003)
Chimma Chimma - Hard to pick one from Simhadri too. Tarak's dancing is amazing.


Andhrawalla (2004)
Nairey Nairey- Another one by Lawrence. Doesn't get any better than this. This song was the first Tarak video I saw. I didn't know who it was but played it obssesively.


Samba (2004)
Luxemborg Lux Sundari -Bhoomika and Tarak totally own this song.


Naa Alludu (2005)
Sayya Sayya - I like this one because "the mom" gets to dance!


Narasimhudu (2005)
Yeluko Nayaka - Maybe it's the song, maybe it's the choreography or maybe its the Tarak and Sameera combination, but this is the first duet that I felt Tarak would actually know what to do if he "got the girl"


Ashok (2006)
Gola Gola - another movie where it was hard to pick. Sameera Reddy is so cute and does a great job of keeping up with Tarak.


Rakhi (2006)
Rangu Rabba Rabba - I love this Holi song. I'ts so creatively done, it's one of my all time favorite Holi songs.


Yamadonga (2007)
Nachorey Nachorey - My favorite of Tarak's dances from this movie. He just looks like he is floating and the back-up dancers are working so hard to keep up. I heard Tarak say in an interview that this song was the first time he rehearsed for a song before filming.

Olammi Tikka Regindha- I love that Tarak and Mamta sing this. It's a remake of a Legend NTR song. It looks like it was very fun to do.


Kantri (2008)
I Go Crazy - LOVE the kuchipudi dancing in this! Please Tarak ask your choreographers to have you do more! Another one choreographed by Prem Rakshit.


Adhurs (2010)
Assalam Vallikum - Tarak dances with himself! So Cool!


I wish I knew who all the choreographers were to these songs. I can't read the credits and IMDB and Wikipedia list the choreographers but don't indicate which chorographer does each song.  I know Tarak would be the first to say he couldn't have done it without them.  If anyone wants to fill me in in the comments section on who the Choreographers are I would really appreciate it.  I hope this list of Tarak's Sweet 16 tides you over untill Brindavaanam releases.