Sunday, August 29, 1999

ENTERTAINMENT

At the Theatres

Film: Sneha (Kannada)
Reviewer: Srikanth

It has not taken a long time for our Kannada film-makers to deliver a remake from the recent Telugu hit Snehitulu . The film deals with a good cliche to reason out to the masses that 'friendship is the most sacred relationship in the world`.

Murali (Ravichandran) is a happy-go-lucky macho guy who falls in love with girls at the first sight. On a visit to his friend`s wedding in a village, he catches a glimpse of a girl to whom he writes a love letter. However, the girl Mahalakshmi (Raasi) happens to be the bride of his close friend. By the time villagers find out who has actually written the love letter, Murali escapes and reaches the city. He meets Kavya, who is the daughter of a underworld don. After the usual drama and persuasion Kavya and Murali eventually fall in love with each other.

When the stage is set for their marriage, Kavya`s father objects. Both of them decide to flee. Murali, who is on his way to get married, finds Mahalakshmi trying to commit suicide and prevents her from dying. In the subsequent race between the underworld don`s men and the 'couple`, Murali accidentally enters the bedroom of his friend with Mahalakshmi waiting for her husband as part of their 'first night nuptials`. It is now Murali`s friend`s turn to suspect the fidelity of his wife Mahalakshmi. He had nagged Mahalakshmi virtually to commit suicide. Meanwhile, unable to bear the torture meted out to Mahalakshmi, Murali brings her home. Kavya suspects Murali. Murali has to choose between Mahalakshmi`s platonic friendship and his love for Kavya.

Except the climax, the film has nothing much to say. V Ravichandran passes muster. Ramya Krishna is good but needs to watch out for the additional kilos that she has added. Raasi is okay. Doddanna is adequate. Kashi and Mandya Ramesh are hilarious. Ravichandran`s music has however shown some improvement from his earlier disasters.

An average family entertainer!

Film: Swayamvaram (Tamil)
Reviewer: Kala Krishnan Ramesh

This much advertised film, made in less than a day - 23 hours and 58 minutes - is quite a disappointment. But I suppose since one is Indian one must say ''after all, record padamaache. Nobody else has achieved such a thing.``

All things considered, its watchable. Some of the actors, Karthik, Parthiban, Khushboo, Roja, Prabhudeva, Prabhu and Aishwarya are very watchable.

Swayamvaram is an LS Movies production, and is directed by over half a dozen well known directors among who are P Vasu, K S Ravikumar, Sundar C, Selva, etc.

Swayamvaram is disappointing largely because there is enough in the existing story and its events to have made a much better film. A few more competent dialogues, a slightly more imaginative screenplay, and you would`ve had an enjoyable entertainer.

The story is very simple. Vijayakumar and Manjula have nine children, and it is their wish to see all nine married in the same muhurtham. To bring this about Vijayakumar and his adopted son, a doctor (played with amazing restraint by Napoleon, who one never sees except with gritted teeth, rolling eyes and a variety of roars) play a little drama. When the children hear that their father is on the brink of death, they cannot but comply with his wish. An interview is organised to select suitable brides and grooms, and those of the children who have lovers, arrange for them to attend the interview.

Sathyaraj, the eldest is in love with the gypsy Khushboo. Next in line is Prabhu and the love of his life is Aishwarya, a cleaner of toilets. And Roja is in love with Prabhudeva who is like he is in almost every film, lower middle class, street wise, body smart. There are a number of other children, and you actually have a hard time keeping tab of which one belongs where. Like I said earlier its not worth the effort because the like of Abbas, Vineeth, Heera, Kausalya, Rambha add nothing to the film and are tedious to watch.

One wonders why the lovers all have to be so far away from the norm of ordinary existence, a gypsy, a toilet cleaner, a seller of tickets in black, out of work young men, an addictive visitor to temples...it actually seemed after a while that one ordinary person would have made the whole thing exciting.

The biggest bore, however, are the interview scenes, where Urvashi and Bhagyaraj mouth the most unbelievably inane dialogues, seem to be competing to see who can be more stupid...an awful waste of good comic talent.

Actually, the most sensible thing in Swayamvaram is the casting of Parthiban in the role of a loyal servant treated like a part of the family. He not only delivers his tongue-in-cheek lines very tongue- in-cheek, and with perfect clarity, but with ironic gusto that is very entertaining. In the conventional hero role he is usually wooden, but here he shines.

The music is by Vidyasagar and S A Rajkumar and is alright.

Abbas, Heera, Kousalya, Vineeth, Rambha all have nothing much to do but wear some pretty clothes and mouth silly lines. It`s a pity that something on which so much effort was spent is so tacky. But like I said earlier, it is one of its kind, its a record, so what if its a little tacky, huh?

Go see it or else when the visitor from phoren comes visiting, and asks ''what about that movie which was made in 24 hours with so many stars? ``, you`ll seem very foolish if you haven`t seen it.

SCREENSCAPE

The two of a pair

From the day the young, handsome Panthulu played opposite the most elegantly beautiful Rajamma
in 1936, each grew in film, as in life, with grace and maturity, writes M Bhaktavatsala

The curtain appropriately fell finally at the end of the millennium, in 1999, on what is perhaps the most unique saga of two inseparables whose joint careers is woven deep into the entire history of the sound era of South Indian Cinema. Panthulu was born in 1911, in a village two hours away from Bangalore called Buduguru sitting right at the point where the three southern states meet - a historical accident that was to reflect on the entire course of his career. He started life as a school teacher ('Panthulu` in Telugu, a name that stuck for life) but could not stay away from his first love - stage. Being discovered holding drama clases for children, he lost his job and turned professional actor on the stage.

Rajamma, the future inseparable of Panthulu, was born in 1921 in a village in Bangalore South Taluk - Agdondahalli. Her father Nanjappa was a well to do merchant who himself being fond of stage encouraged his daughter, noting her inclinations, to act. Thus, a young teenager she entered Mohammed Peer`s 'Chandrakala Nataka Mandali`. In seven years of it`s existence this famous drama company spawned some great artistes who went on to shape the coming sound era of Kannada films. Panthulu was one them.

Rajamma and Panthulu went on the circuit doing a number of well known plays of the company - the most famous of which was Samsara Nauka. She played 'Sarala` the heroine opposite 'Sundara`, the hero. The perennial popularity of the play written by H L N Simha encouraged Rajagopala Chetty to produce it as a film - the first ever Kannada social. It was a mega hit and the couple got a great kick off in their career - a joint life long career as well as a very special life long relationship based on mutual admiration. Not just the respective families but the entire film industry came to accept and over a time, respect this unique association. He launched his own production company and so did she - thus becoming the very first lady Kannada film producer. In fact, she turned producer long before him - in 1943 with Radha Ramana and of course Panthulu acted in it. The little known fact is that when the director, a Bengali named Sinha, abandoned the film, she completed the film as a director - another first. Her next film Makkala Rajya was directed by Panthulu.

Panthulu started his production company in 1954. By 1974 he had made 50 odd films in all of which Rajamma starred, her own tally of acting in films eventually touching a hundred.

When one peruses their entire repertoire, jointly and severally as actors, director and producers, - one realises the stunning fact that together they had unwittingly created, not just a Kannada, but a Southern identity which is unparallelled in the history of Indian cinema - an identity which they took to the nation in the Hindi Film School Master in 1958. It is worth pausing a while on the film which was also made in all the South Indian languages - all directed by Panthulu excepting the Malayalam version which was handled by his ardent disciple Puttanna Kanagal who incidentally also directed Panthulu`s last film - an experimental College Ranga . This was the golden era of social films claiming realist values like the films of B N Reddy, films of great artistic merit often failing at the box office. But School Master scored in all languages. A commercial hit which also won for Panthulu a national award and an international award. The Hindi version had great music by Vasant Desai and apart from Panthulu and Rajamma starred Karan Dewan, David, B Saroja Devi, Lalita Pawar, Shakila, Achala Sachdev and others, Panthulu was to make another Hindi film later in life - Dil Tera Deewana with Shammi Kapoor.

But it is in the South that he essayed a range of films that has never been achieved by any producer/director/actor in South Indian films. Jointly Rajamma and he forayed deep into Tamil culture, Telugu culture and of course Kannada culture and created films that have become part of the heirloom of each language. The greats of that era - Rajkumar, M G Ramachandran, Sivaji, Ganeshan, N T Rama Rao, Gemini Ganeshan, Savithri, N S Krishnan, T A Maduram worked intimately in their films. Shivaji particularly thought nothing of doing bit roles for him in non-Tamil productions (Modala Tedhi , School Master).

Panthulu directed and acted in around 30 Kannada films, 19 Tamil films, 13 Telugu films and 4 Hindi films - each very different to the other - many of which were truly landmark films in the respective languages. For instance, Kittur Chennamma (1961) was a film charged with patriotic fervour and made the Jhansi Ki Rani of Karnataka a household name. It was a brilliant historical marked by a career best performance of B Saroja Devi in the title role. This was as far away from School Master as a film could be. Almost simultaneously Panthulu created a Tamil film of equal patriotic fervour - Kappalottiya Thamizhan. The film was imbued with Tamil culture with songs of Subramanya Bharathi dear to the hearts of the Tamils. Set in Tirunalveli district, the film depicted the life of Va Vu Chidambaram Pillai the first Indian to set up a Swadeshi Navigation Company in defiance of the British rulers. The original prints had cameo appearances of Tilak, Salem Vijayaraghavachariar, Pondithurai Thevar and other national celebrities. Starring both the Ganeshans with Savithri, not unnaturally it became a cult film in Tamil Nadu. Both the films genuinely created national fervour soaked in two different cultures. Panthulu`s greatness was that he worked on them with total sincerity with no overt consciousness of his own roots. Perhaps the distinction of being born at the point of inter-section of the three cultures helped him to identify and promote the common factor the Deccan Culture.

Almost the same feat was performed when he launched the magnificent Veerapandiya Kattabomman. The film had scenes of epic proportions - a spectacle with lavish court scenes, temple worship and taming of the bulls. In colour (Gemini`s first) the film tells of the heroic fight of a ruler, Kattabomman (Shivaji) against the British in the 18th Century ending with his death. By common consent this film holds it`s place as a landmark film in history of the Tamil film industry even till date. Almost simultaneously Panthulu directed a children`s film for Rajamma, Makkala Rajya, a successful film in all the three languages.

The contrast between Kattabomman and School Master is truly amazing - that Panthulu had the capability of being a Cecil B Demille and a Vittorio Desica. Interestingly around the same time H L N Simha cast Panthulu and Rajamma in Abba A Hudugi, based on Taming of the Shrew starring Rajkumar and Leelavathi. The experiment was to hark back to his and Rajamma`s origins - Samsara Nauka - a urban theatre group performing the play to stage a 'real life` reformation of the heroine.

In 1965 came Karnan again starring Shivaji. It was one of the biggest productions of the day. The Kurukshetra battle scenes, shot at Jaipur with troops of the 61st cavalry regiment, using 80 elephants, 400 horses and three camera units was cinematic spectacle at it`s grandest indeed.

Panthulu went back again to Jaipur to shoot the theme dearest to his heart, the saga of king Sri Krishna Devaraya who epitomised the Telugu Kannada confluence in the heyday of Vijayanagara Empire. This is a definitive film on the theme and Rajkumar as Krishnadevaraya and Panthulu as Mahamanthri Thimmarasu enacted the roles of their lives. Panthulu was so totally imbued with film making and so unconcerned about his personal fame and name that when he was chosen for his performance as Thimmarasu in the film he rejected the state award stating that the award truly belonged to Rajkumar who played the king.

The Panthulu-Rajamma repertoire is like a many splendoured canvas of the cinema of the entire 20th century. From the day the young handsome Panthulu played opposite the most elegantly beautiful Rajamma in 1936, each grew in film as in life with grace and maturity. They were both extraordinarily well matched. Of even temperament and always helpful to others they came to personify the old world culture and naturally evoked universal respect. The ever smiling beauty Rajamma was much more than a foil to Panthulu. She had a very special rapport with fellow artistes as well as film journalists. When the latter boycotted a prominent actress of the day for arrogant behaviour Rajamma intervened and easily smoothed the ruffled feathers. When Panthulu noted the budding genius of Puttanna Kanagal and took him as his ward, it was Rajamma who looked after him as a son. Puttanna lived in an outhouse at Rajamma`s residence for quite some time before he moved into his own.

It is indeed revealing to watch the early films of Rajamma. She was truly a stunner and a good singer too. That alluring beauty of hers gradually metamorphosed into one of the most appealing of motherhood impersonations. Just watch her as Gauri opposite Rajkumar`s Shiva in Sathi Shakthi (1964) and as his mother 10 years later in Jaga Mechida Maga (1975). She had truly become the archetypical mother, even playing mother and most convincingly to the perennial mother of South Indian cinema, Pandari Bai, in a film appropriately called Amma (1970).

Panthulu died in 1974 - Rajamma outlived him by a quarter century. Save for a couple of films she was forgotten as an artiste after the death of Panthulu. Both went unsung, unheralded and unawarded.

The award Rajamma got at the tail end of her life was almost an afterthought and being recently instituted seemed like a consolation award going by the standard set by the first recipient. Too little too late.

Why did the nation neglect them so long? Forget the nation, what about the state? Can we find any two persons in the entire history of cinema whose lives were so intricately woven into the creative development of cinema of 20th century and that too in so many languages?

There is a parable. The great K S Narasimhaswamy (who should have got the Jnanapith award long before others much younger to him) of Mysore Mallige fame took the fragrance of the 'Kannada Jasmine` to every Kannada home. Jasmine cannot contain, it can only waft and exude it`s gentle aroma. That is or should be the hallmark identity of Kannada culture. Jingoism is totally alien to that kind of culture.

Panthulu and Rajamma best exemplified that quintessential Kannada culture wherever they Were, in whatever they did. In that sense of universalising our culture their joint contribution to Indian cinema is unparallelled. They were truly two of a very great pair.