It is something that even a novice mountain climber tell you. Ask him which is the most difficult part of mountaineering, he will quickly say that it is not climbing the rocky-snowy face of a mountain. But staying there is.

In other words, succeeding is not difficult. Retaining that is.

Sure tell that to the likes of Uday Kiran, Tarun and perhaps even to Prabha's. These young heroes have been hugely successful at the start of the career. But somehow have not been able to retain that now.

Especially Uday and Tarun --- eternal lover boys of Telugu screen. Uday, after his sensational debut in Chitram, was on a cloud nine. There was no stopping him. Or so it seemed, as hits after hits followed.

And then that fellow Murphy struck --- yes, the same gent who propounded that when everything is going right something will go wrong. Uday's films began to fail; his personal life was also not doing well (his engagement to a top stars daughter came unstuck).

Now Uday's career is at the crossroads.

Ditto for Tarun. The handsome young man, who began as a child artiste (a national award-winning one at that) became a star in his own right after Nuvve Kavale. This was followed by a couple of successful films too.

Then it was Murphy again.

Prabha's is seemingly poised in the same route as his latest failure Adavi Ramudu would suggest.

The point is that these heroes are going through mid-career blues not because of any lack of talent. It is just that they have paid a price for poor choice of roles and some injudicious career moves.

The other problem for them is that they achieved so much in so little a time. In other words, they did not go through the painful pangs of initiation. And when they are faced with a crisis mid-career they are unable to come up with a convincing response. Their struggles make you to appreciate the success of the likes of Chiranjeevi and Venkatesh. The sheer longevity of them is simply amazing.

To be sure, Uday and Tarun have plenty of films in hand. But somehow the excitement that they brought to their films is missing. Further, there are too many claimants to the lover-boy, chocolate-box-faced hero throne (the likes of Allu Arjun, Nitin).

So the biggest test for Uday and Tarun is in the coming days. They have to prove that their original success was no flash in the pan. It is time for the men in them to stand up and be counted.

It is easy being a lightning on a dark night. But it is difficult being a shining star all through a black sky.

Time for Uday and Tarun to show whether they are lightning or stars.