Second Half Syndrome: Time To Focus On It

For every film, the second half is so important that it decides what audiences, including common folks and critics, feel while walking out of the theatre. Even if the first half is bad, a good second half will cover all the previous mistakes and work in favour of the movie. But if the second half is bad, all the good work done in the first half will also go for a toss, and people tend to get aversion to the film itself. Guess what, Tollywood is currently making movies that have a bad second half.

In recent times, movies like Toxic and The Paradise suffered from a massive second-half syndrome that many even thought of walking out of theatres. Even Sankranthi releases like The Raja Saab also suffered from the same. However, when the second half is stuffed with supreme comedy or huge emotions, the result is like Mana Shankara Vara Prasad and Peddi, where it covered all the mistakes and boredom in the first half massively. Somehow, many filmmakers are getting the setup in the first half right, but failing to tie the loose ends, build up the drama and give a stunning end to it with the climax.

Currently, many filmmakers are busy blasting the critics, finding fault with the audience and then throwing mud on other star heroes for negative campaigns. Rather than doing that, it’s high time they introspect the reality of their film’s second half, focus on writing, get amazing thoughts, and then deliver something that would withstand even critical blasts.

A talk in the industry is that here everyone wants to become a writer, and everyone wants to become a director, but then they are neither good at writing nor good at directing in the first place. Once they understand the importance of these two trades and ace them, then the outputs will be different. Or one has to learn from masters like Sukumar and Rajamouli regarding the same. Beating them at the box office is possible only if creators study them.