I recently caught a few scenes from SS Rajamouli’s Simhadri on TV. Some showed the hero hacking bad people. Some others showed the savior promising more bloodshed. Some scenes had crowds in them cheering the violence. All may have been cheered by the crowds involved in making and watching them.

A day before that I had watched part of an interview of SS Rajamouli (the initials stand for Super Successful, I am told). Thoroughly discussing his craft and influences, of course. He explained how all his characters are rarely seen in a real society and are larger than life, but how they are all realistic. I can’t comment on their being larger or smaller than life, but I notice that most of them do not value life.

I disapprove. My snobbery and indifference are sufficient reasons, but for once I feel eager to offer an explanation.

The setting is easy enough to grasp. There lives a superhero who minds his own business. Unbeknownst to him exists a most bestial villain enslaving the society with his thousand goons. The superhero accidentally saves a stranger or the villain accidentally mutilates a member of the superhero’s kith and kin, and inadvertently the two cross paths. The righteous superhero rises, becomes the guardian, massacres the thousand and one miscreants, and sets the society free. (I fully acknowledge the injustice done to the story by not explaining the roles of the heroines, the comedians and the items.)

The protagonist succinctly summarizes his principle as, “padimandini kApADaTamkOsam champaDAnikainA siddhamE chAvaDAnikainA siddhamE.” I am ready to kill or die to save ten people. I dare say that this is shared by many of the protagonists played by today’s “mass heroes”. Apparently simple and adjudged by a majority as valid, it is a war-mongering violence-hungry non-principle that is useless, inefficient and incomplete.

Neither killing nor dying is the first solution. They are rarely a solution at all, and at best temporary suppressants rich with side-effects. It is the reason why societies hire Police (hire, yes). It is the reason why societies debate the validity of capital punishment, and many have abolished it. It is the reason why the United Nations was and is considered an important idea and institution, however dysfunctional it may seem. That, life has value. If this sounds too preachy: killing is not a solution because it is not reversible yet (our medicine isn’t even advanced enough to heal fractures perfectly), and dying is not a solution because if one is willing to die for people he or she is likely to be more useful alive in the future. (I am doubtful about this justification for people certified to be dying.)

Superheroes are relatively unknown. I sometimes wonder whether the hope may be an implication of the importance given to Hindu mythology in Indian culture. Sri Sri wrote, “evarO vastArani EdO chEstArani eduruchUsi mOsapOkumA”, and another poet I can’t recall wrote, “evarO vacchuvAralani mIkElA vRdhA bhrAnti?” Why this useless delusion that some savior will come? Useless. Even the most courageous of people who bring change in the modern society, real heroes that are largely ignored by Indian filmmakers, are rarely blood-thirsty.

Corruption is relatively universal as a manifestation of greed and need in every opportune society. The superhero’s act does not involve empowering the society (whatever that means). It remains opportune for another at a later point to take over. Inefficient. The superhero’s style is more inefficient because it is at most an act of transferring fear from the society to the leadership, a temporary transfer. The superhero’s act of toppling itself is a form of monarchy (multi-starrers perhaps cater to aristocracies), a form of government that many societies have long ago recognized as ineffectual and less desirable than a democracy.

The incompleteness is best explained by Thomas Barnett about how it is not enough to change status quo (winning a war here) without reestablishing a stable self-governable system.

I wonder why the filmmakers continues to successfully retry the experiment numerous times, as if expecting different results.d

My introduction to Veturi began with the ETV programme ఝుమ్మంది నాదం years ago. I was so overwhelmed with his repertoire that whenever I heard an interesting song – సరళమైనవి, లోతైనవి, చిలిపివి, గమ్మత్తైనవి, అద్భుతమైన భూతులున్నవి  – whose writer I didn’t know, I attributed it to him. I still do and I might continue to for songs written long after his death. It might be because even though he may have not written those songs, it seemed that he could easily have written them with his other hand while attending another mind-numbing awards ceremony.

After his recent death, I listened to a number of his songs hoping to transcribe another of those. I finally settled with ఝుమ్మంది నాదం itself. The music director with the first sound of percussion sends a wave through the legs, and by the time it climbs up the body the lyricist with his first word sets the heart aflutter.

I don’t understand the lyrics completely, but that never hindered my pulse from rising and my mind from dancing beside Jaya Prada and Chandra Mohan. I don’t think the picturization could capture as jubilantly as the words did the resonance of the atmospheric phenomena with the emotions inside the mute protagonist’s heart. ఎల తేటి రొద probably means the sounds in a tender coconut; I don’t know what లెస in కలిత కవిత లెస and విరుపు in నీ మేని విరుపు exactly mean.

చిత్రం: కె విశ్వనాథ్ గారి సిరి సిరి మువ్వ (1977)
రాసినది: వేటూరి సుందరరామ మూర్తి
కూర్చినది: కె వి మహదెవన్
పాడినది: ఎస్ పి బాలసుబ్రహ్మణ్యం, పి సుశీల

ఝుమ్మంది నాదం సయ్యంది పాదం
తనువూగింది ఈ వేళ
చెలరేగింది ఒక రాసలీల

యెదలోని సొదలా ఎల తేటి రొదలా
కదిలేటి నదిలా కలల వరదలా
చలిత లలిత పద కలిత కవిత లెస
సరిగమ పలికించగా
స్వరమధురిమ లొలికించగా
సిరిసిరి మువ్వలు పులకించగా

నటరాజ ప్రేయసి నటనాల ఊర్వసి
నటియించు నీవని తెలిసి
ఆకాశమై పొంగె ఆవేశం
కైలాసమే వంగె నీకోసం

మెరుపుంది నాలో; అది నీ మేని విరుపు
ఉరుముంది నాలో; అది నీ మువ్వ పిలుపు
చినుకు చినుకులో చిందు లయలతో
కురిసింది తొలకరి జల్లు
విరిసింది అందాల హరివిల్లు
ఈ పొంగులే ఏడు రంగులుగా

chitram: ke viSwanAth gAri siri siri muvva (1977)
rAsinadi: vETUri sundararAma mUrti
kUrchinadi: ke vi mahadevan
pADinadi: es pi bAlasubrahmaNyam, pi suSIla

jhummandi nAdam sayyandi pAdam
tanuvUgindi I vELa
chelarEgindi oka rAsalIla

yedalOni sodalA ela tETi rodalA
kadilETi nadilA kalala varadalA
chalita lalita pada kalita kavita lesa
sarigama palikinchagA
svaramadhurima lolikinchagA
sirisiri muvvalu pulakinchagA

naTarAja prEyasi naTanAla Urvasi
naTiyinchu nIvani telisi
aakASamai ponge AvESam
kailAsamE vange nIkOsam

merupundi nAlO; adi nI mEni virupu
urumundi nAlO; adi nI muvva pilupu
chinuku chinukulO chindu layalatO
kurisindi tolakari jallu
virisindi andAla harivillu
I pongulE EDu rangulugA

A few decades ago every ravishing vamp was made to die, either directly killed by the villain or during her own attempt to rescue someone following her remorse and newfound respect for “our values”. When a supporting character “slipped her leg” in her blind love for the not-so-good guy, towards the end either she died too or that not-so-good guy was good-ified and made to marry her. What would Helen Schlegel of EM Forster’s Howards End (1910) have thought about it?

Yoganand’s mUganOmu (1969) is one movie I recall where the heroine gets premaritally pregnant with the hero’s child. For the heroine herself to tread in that path seemed courageous, though the poor newborn had to be eventually left outside an orphanage and the movie had more to do with class differences and sacrifices of women.

Jandhyala’s nAlugu stambhAlATa (1982) dealt with similar themes and his chanTabbAyi (1986) through a short montage of scenes impressively portrayed the strength and vulnerability of Dr. Nischala who never married after a failed love affair.

Other than such occasional nods and mentions over the decades, women who make “bold” premarital choices have often been kept at a distance, if not outright oppressed, and this treatment is subtler though still perceptible today. Men, on the other hand, appear undeserving of such questions and thus this discussion is not even possible for heroes.

In Anand (2004), Shekar Kammula wrote a cute dialogue in his signature style of fragmented sentences. The scene was to establish Rupa’s openness and expectations from her relationship with Anand. In it she tells him that she had never kissed Rahul the way she kissed him. Sweet. Previously I never considered the dialogue to be anything more than what it seemed to be, but the last time I came across the dialogue I realized that the writer was carefully marking the heroine’s territory.

Rupa continues to be hailed as the true independent Telugu heroine after a long time. The movie starts with her breaking off a marriage with her boyfriend minutes before tying the knot, on seeing one side of her future husband and mother-in-law. Then why was she not allowed to cuddle up with him during their courting before that marriage that never happened? Would that have degraded her character from independent to “loose”? Clearly everybody seemed to accept her making out with the hero before anybody mentioned marriage.

I wonder if this is the implicit non-stand that the Telugu film industry takes. Anywhere else one couldn’t be sure whether a character marries another, but in Telugu movies there is rarely such a risk. So this stand appears bold enough for the younger generations to like the heroine going all the way with the hero, and restrained enough for the older generations to prefer the heroine not going all the way with her boyfriend who wouldn’t become her husband. An old newspaper editor once called something like this “peeing down both the legs”.

Among recent movies Chandrasekhar Yeleti’s anukOkunDA oka rOju (2005) appeared to accept the reality without judging either way. Tsunami Swetha’s was a character comfortable with her life style that occasionally involved sex. Her unplanned pregnancy and planned abortion get reprimanded by her friend Sahasra and respectfully treated by the doctor.

This line of thought accidentally reminded me of Mouli’s manasu mamata (1990), a rare movie which dealt with premarital choices of women and their consequences (as deemed appropriate for those times) with the sensitivity it deserves. I watched it very long ago and cannot recall to my satisfaction. The heroine (Sitara) gets pregnant with her first child (Tarun, in his first Telugu movie) and then marries the hero (Naresh) without telling him the truth. The hero loves the son as his own, and the heroine doesn’t because he is a living reminder of her guilt. They are mostly happy, maybe bittersweet, until a family friend (“Subhalekha” Sudhakar) asks their suggestion in marrying a “cheDipOyina” woman (Sudha Rani) who confessed to him about her past. DV Narasa Raju wrote both mUganOmu and manasu mamata. I tip my hat.

Times have changed and reality with it. The directors and writers, the actresses and their dubbing artistes, all know it well. I hope to watch a movie on what they know more than what they think the audience will prefer. Once in a while.

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Despite Sirivennela’s signature lyricality and SPB’s towering voice, I was disappointed by the song.

One. I think music directors should experiment with other voices for such songs. While his voice adds more weight, SPB’s intonation has become overly familiar and I fail to feel a pleasant surprise, or a did-you-hear-that jolt like in this particular case.

Two. Is it just me or do songs written with a strong social theme tend to be polysyllabic? Especially when written by Sirivennela. I heard that Mahatma seemed to be made for B and C centres, perhaps intentionally by Krishna Vamsi. I am not sure if the lyrics of this song can catch up very well with those masses.

After the lines “indiramma inTipEru kAdura gAndhi, Urikokka vIdhi pEru kAdura gAndhi, karensI nOTumIda ilA naDirODDumIda, manam chUstunna bommakAdura gAndhi” I thought that those were all that Sirivennela added to what we have already heard so many times. (Those lines were apparently censored from the movie.)

The genius thus aptly ended the song with a “ilAnTi naruDokaDilA talampai naDayADina InATi sangati, nammarAnidani nammakamundE mundutarAlaku cheppanDi”. Because freedom struggle is getting too old for today’s generations to be personally acquainted with, and more importantly because of our failure to understand and capture Gandhi’s timelessness, Gandhi is gradually losing relevance and becoming a myth. (So Sonia is being crowned as the reluctant leader.)

చిత్రం: క్రిష్ణ వంశి గారి మహాత్మ (2009)
రాసినది: సిరివెన్నెల సీతారామ శాస్త్రి
కూర్చినది: విజయ్ ఆంథొని
పాడినది: ఎస్ పి బాలసుబ్రహ్మణ్యం

రఘుపతి రాఘవ రాజారాం
పతిత పావన సీతారాం
ఈశ్వర్ అల్లా తేరో నాం
సబ్కో సన్మతి దే భగ్వాన్

ఇందిరమ్మ ఇంటిపేరు కాదుర గాంధి
ఊరికొక్క వీధి పేరు కాదుర గాంధి
కరెన్సీ నోటుమీద ఇలా నడిరోడ్డుమీద
మనం చూస్తున్న బొమ్మకాదుర గాంధి
భరతమాత తలరాతను మార్చిన విధాతరా గాంధి
తరతరాల యమయాతన తీర్చిన వరదాతర గాంధి

రామనామమే తలపంతా ప్రెమధామమే మనసంతా
ఆశ్రమ దీక్ష స్వతంత్ర కాంక్ష ఆకృతిదాల్చిన అవద్ధూత
అపురూపం ఆ చరిత
కర్మయోగమే జన్మంతా ధర్మక్షేత్రమె బ్రతుకంతా
సంభవామి అని ప్రకటించిన అలనాటి కృష్ణ భగవద్గీత
ఈ బోసినోటి తాత
మనలాగే ఓ తల్లికన్న మామూలు మనిషి కదరా గాంధి
మహాత్ముడంటు మన్ననపొందే స్థాయికి పెంచద ఆయన స్ఫూర్తి
సత్యాహింసల మార్గజ్యోతి
నవశకానికే నాంది

గుప్పెడు ఉప్పును పోగేసి నిప్పుల ఉప్పెనగా చేసి
దండియాత్రనే దండయాత్రగా ముందుకు నడిపిన అధినేత
శిసలైన జగత్జేత
చరఖా యంత్రం చూపించి స్వదేశి సూత్రం నేర్పించి
నూలుపోగుతో మదపుటేనుగల బంధించాడుర జాతిపిత
సంకల్ప బలంచేత
సూర్యుడస్తమించని రాజ్యానికి పడమర దారిని చూపిన క్రాంతి
తూరుపు తెల్లారని నడిరాత్రికి స్వేచ్ఛా భానుడి ప్రభాత గాంధి
పదవులు కోరని పావన మూర్తి
హృదయాలేలిన చక్రవర్తి
ఇలాంటి నరుడొకడిలా తలంపై నడయాడిన ఈనాటి సంగతి
నమ్మరానిదని నమ్మకముందే ముందుతరాలకు చెప్పండి

సర్వజనహితం నా మతం. అంటరానితనాన్ని అంతహ్కలహాలని అంతంచేసేందుకే నా ఆయువంతా అంకితం. హే రాం!

chitram: kriShNa vamSi gAri mahAtma (2009)
rAsinadi: sirivennela sItArAma SAstri
kUrchinadi: vijay Anthoni
pADinadi: es pi bAlasubrahmaNyam

raghupati rAghava rAjArAm
patita pAvana sItArAm
ISwar allA tErO nAm
sabkO sanmati dE bhagvAn

indiramma inTipEru kAdura gAndhi
Urikokka vIdhi pEru kAdura gAndhi
karensI nOTumIda ilA naDirODDumIda
manam chUstunna bommakAdura gAndhi
bharatamAta talarAtanu mArchina vidhAtarA gAndhi
taratarAla yamayAtana tIrchina varadAtara gAndhi

rAmanAmamE talapantA premadhAmamE manasantA
ASrama dIkSha svatantra kAnkSha AkRtidAlchina avaddhUta
apurUpam A charita
karmayOgamE janmantA dharmakShEtrame bratukantA
sambhavAmi ani prakaTinchina alanATi kRShNa bhagavadgIta
I bOsinOTi tAta
manalAgE O tallikanna mAmUlu maniShi kadarA gAndhi
mahAtmuDanTu mannanapondE sthAyiki penchada Ayana sphUrti
satyAhimsala mArgajyOti
navaSakAnikE nAndi

guppeDu uppunu pOgEsi nippula uppenagA chEsi
danDiyAtranE danDayAtragA munduku naDipina adhinEta
Sisalaina jagatjEta
charakhA yantram chUpinchi svadESi sUtram nErpinchi
nUlupOgutO madapuTEnugala bandhinchADura jAtipita
sankalpa balamchEta
sUryuDastaminchani rAjyAniki paDamara dArini chUpina krAnti
tUrupu tellArani naDirAtriki swEcChA bhAnuDi prabhAta gAndhi
padavulu kOrani pAvana mUrti
hRdayAlElina chakravarti
ilAnTi naruDokaDilA talampai naDayADina InATi sangati
nammarAnidani nammakamundE mundutarAlaku cheppanDi

sarvajanahitam nA matam. anTarAnitanAnni antahkalahAlani antamchEsEndukE nA AyuvantA ankitam. hE rAm!

Many of Jandhyala’s songs in his early movies gelled well with the situations – especially songs like pisinAri sangham jindAbAd. The other three songs in chanTabbAyi – uttarAna lEvandi dhruva nakShatram, nEnu prEma pUjAri and aTlAnTi iTlAnTi hIrOnikAnu nEnu – are all situational. I think they are easier to write. The one below is a mellow melody from Veturi and Charavarti. (Listen here)

It is not a great song and I blame Veturi. The second charaNam feels conspicuously cosmic. (I couldn’t catch all the words.) I like the song more because of the video (which is true for all Chiranjeevi songs). For a duet, this song is not romantic, at least not in the way they are in movies. It shows a couple at peace, a man and woman loving the company of each other more than anything else.

చిత్రం: జంధ్యాల గారి చంటబ్బాయి (1983)
రాసినది: వేటూరి సుందరరామ మూర్తి
కూర్చినది: చక్రవర్తి
పాడినది: ఎస్ పి బాలసుబ్రహ్మణ్యం, పి సుశీల

నేను నీకై పుట్టినానని
నిన్ను పొందక మట్టికానని
చెమ్మగిల్లే కనులతో
చేయిపట్టే మనసుతో
చేసుకున్న బాసలో ఊసులే ప్రేమ
ఊపిరి ప్రేమ

నిన్ను చూడక నిదరపోని రెండు నేత్రాలు
కలల హారతి నీకుపట్టే మౌన మంత్రాలు
నిన్ను తాకక నిలవలేని పంచ ప్రాణాలు
కౌగిలింతలా గర్భగుడిలో మూగ దీపాలు
ప్రేమ మహిమ తెలుప తరమా
ప్రేమే జీవన మధురిమ

ఏంట్రా చల్లగావుందంచెప్పి ఇక్కడ సెటిలైపొయావా? బడుద్ధాయి. వళ్ళుమటుకు బాగా పెంచేస్తున్నావురా. యేందింటున్నావ్? బండలు కొండలు తింటున్నావా? ఆ? లేకపోతే సూపరేసి తింటున్నావా? రాస్కెల్.
నాకు బాగానే వినిపిస్తుందండి. చెవుడు నాక్కాదు మా అన్నయ్యకి మేమిద్దరం కవల పిల్లలం.

స్త్రీఅనే తెలుగక్షరంలా నీవు నిలుచుంటే
రావడల్లే నీకు వెలుగులా ప్రమిదనై వుంటా
ఓం అనే వేదాక్షరంలా నీవు ఎదురైతే
నాదమై నిన్నాలపించే ప్రణవమై వుంటా
ప్రేమ మధుమ తెలియ తరమా
ప్రేమే జీవన మధురిమ

chitram: jandhyAla gAri chanTabbAyi (1983)
rAsinadi: vETUri sundararAma mUrti
kUrchinadi: chakravarti
pADinadi: es pi bAlasubrahmaNyam, pi suSIla

nEnu nIkai puTTinAnani
ninnu pondaka maTTikAnani
chemmagillE kanulatO
chEyipaTTE manasutO
chEsukunna bAsalO UsulE prEma
Upiri prEma

ninnu chUDaka nidarapOni renDu nEtrAlu
kalala hArati nIkupaTTE mouna mantrAlu
ninnu tAkaka nilavalEni pancha prANAlu
kougilintalA garbhaguDilO mUga dIpAlu
prEma mahima telupa taramA
prEmE jIvana madhurima

EnTrA challagAvundancheppi ikkaDa seTilaipoyAvA? baDuddhAyi. vaLLumaTuku bAgA penchEstunnAvurA. yEndinTunnAv? banDalu konDalu tinTunnAvA? A? lEkapOtE sUparEsi tinTunnAvA? rAskel.
nAku bAgAnE vinipistundanDi. chevuDu nAkkAdu mA annayyaki mEmiddaram kavala pillalam.

strIanE telugakSharamlA nIvu niluchunTE
rAvaDallE nIku velugulA pramidanai vunTA
Om anE vEdAkSharamlA nIvu eduraitE
nAdamai ninnAlapinchE praNavamai vunTA
prEma madhuma teliya taramA
prEmE jIvana madhurima