We find universal themes in several Telugu film songs. The purpose of this blog is to present an English paraphrase to such Telugu film songs. Telugu is a classical language with rich literature. The words and idioms of Telugu are almost untranslatable. Readers of other languages who enjoy the melody in Telugu film songs can also have a glimpse into the meaning of these songs. Readers can offer alternative versions and improved paraphrases.
There are no restraints on the wild breeze
and there are no boundaries to the ocean! How can the upward surges of river Ganga are contained in a kamandalam—a mere small
jar?
Is it possible to control the racing mind
by placing it inside a borderline? Shall I sing several songs by being a cloud in the sky? Shall I perform several dances
by being a peacock on this earth? Where is the restraint on the wild deer
that jumps from place to place with gay abandon? Does malli flower hide behind a green leaf if the spring season visits again and again?
There are no restraints on the wild breeze
and there are no boundaries to the ocean!
Oh! Bumblebee! Make me move in the
swing of my imaginations!
Oh! Malli! Give me a string of smiles!
A mature woman has turned into a young girl and a flower has blossomed into a bud!
What is wrong in my leaving a temple and becoming a flaming lamp in another temple?
There are no restraints on the wild breeze
and there are no boundaries to the ocean!
This write-up is based on the song “Gaalikadupu Ledu…” from
the Telugu movie Idi Katha Kaadu (1979) featuring Sarat Babu, Jayasudha,
Chiranjeevi, and Kamal Haasan. This song was written by Acharya Athreya and set
to music by M. S. Viswanathan. The song was rendered by S. Janaki. This movie
was directed by K.Balachander.
Padma Vibhushan Akkineni Nageswara Rao has worked in several genres of films in his
78-year acting career, including mythological, social, and drama films. He
has played the lead role in over 256 Telugu films and 26 Tamil films.
Out of all these movies he has a personal liking for two roles: Surendranath in
Batasari (1961) and Judge Chandrasekharam in Sudigundalu (1967).
Judge Chandrasekharam (Akkineni) is very kind and helpful
to the relatives of the culprits. His wife dies after giving birth to a baby
boy. His son Raja is murdered by two youth—Prasanna Rani and Vijayachander. The culprits are sentenced to death by the
court after giving them a fair trial. Judge
Chandrasekharam takes a decision to defend those culprits, and argues in their favour. The dialog
for this movie was written by N.R. Nandi, and the lengthy oration of Akkineni
in the courtroom is a treat to the audience, abounding with several
philosophical and psychological issues engulfing our society. He makes his viewpoint clear, and concludes that the total responsibility of the crime cannot be placed on the culprits who are the victims of the ills of the society. The responsibility of offering the youth the right direction rests with the
parents and the society. In his view, the present youth are trapped in sudigundalu—hurdles
and problems of the present world. If we give the youth proper direction, they are capable of becoming professionals and responsible citizens. The film offers this
message in a very convincing way, and Chandrasekharam dies in the court hall
after offering his defence to the young culprits. The histrionics and diction
in the delivery of dialog of Akkineni in the court room is a masterly stroke of
this great actor.
Bhaktha Prahlada was made in 1967 with Roja Ramani in the
lead character. The storyline of this
movie has its base in Sri Bhagavathamu, and this movie has made use of several immortal padyamulu
written by Bammera Pothana. These padyamulu and several equally great songs in this
movie have been rendered by P. Suseela under the baton of Saluru Rajeswara
Rao. Parents may listen to these songs
and padyamulu with their young children.
This is one of the movies that has the power of fostering bhakti in
young minds. The melody and meaning that
we find in these songs and verses are heart touching.
We know that K.V.Mahadevan was one of the most successful music
directors of South India. He is well-known
for extending full freedom to the lyricist in writing lyrics for a movie. Lyricists never filled words in pre-composed tunes in
all the movies for which K.V.Mahadevan offered music—the movies remade from
Tamil are exceptions.
He was the first
music director in India to receive National Film Award(Silver Lotus Award) forBest Music Direction for the Tamil movie Kandan Karunai in
1967. The song Thiruparamkundrathil Nee
Sirithal from Kandan Karunai (1967) was a great hit. The producer K. Murari Babu of Yuvachitra banner is a great fan of
Mahadevan, and he requested the legendary composer to make use of the tune of Kandan
Karunai for his movie Naari Naari Naduma Murrari in 1990. Mahadevan too had a
soft corner for K. Murari Babu. This is how the lovely song Iruvuri Bhamala
Kougililo has come into being!
Sri Raja Mungu started his career by reviewing Telugu film
songs in every movie released from 1973 onwards. He is the person who initiated a new genre of
Sangeetha Visleshana in Telugu film journalism. His music reviews widely read
by readers when they first appeared in Cene Herald in mid 1970s. Later his eminence reached new heights with features
like Apaathamadhuram in Vartha dialy newspaper, and Aaa Paatha Paata Madhuram
in Koumudi online magazine brought out from United States. He made several
contributions to Doordharshan and founded a highly-renowned magazine Haasam
focussing on humour and film music reviews.
He became well-known as Cineswaralu Raja..Sitaraagaalu Raja..Miniweekly
Raja.. Vaartha Raja.. Aapathamadhuram Raja.. Haasam Raja..Gurtukostunnai
Raja..more to come! He has a lot of information and research work to share with
all the music lovers across the world. He deserves the support and encouragement
from all film music lovers .
Haasam Raja received Best Journalist Award for South India for
2012 instituted by Santhosham film weekly.
Ommm...
The eternal Veda —the primordial vibration of life, has come into being
—in the form of a thought in the mind of the Creator
—the One who authors the fate of all!
The life currents in the nerves
received stimulation from Ommm...
—the primeval vibration—the sacred syllable!
The entire repertoire of the Universal Form
has reflected in the pond of my vision
seen through my eyes!
The reverberations in the depths of my heart
are the vibrations of the song
emanating from the Creator
from his divine veena!
I wish to sing of this sacred syllable…
The song that I sing is the song of life—
is the essence of Sama Veda!
A song full of the emotion
abounding with musical notes
gaining momentum to turn into a flow of divine nectar!
I transformed myself
into the Creator to compose this muse!
into the divine veena to play this song!
I play this song on the veena in the East
merging vibrations from the flame
emanating from the rays
of the Maker of the Day—the rising Sun!
Like an awakened bird freely flying over
the arena offered by the blue sky!
While the chirping sounds of birds
choose the momentum of this song—
it marks the beginning of the world, and the affairs of this Universe!
I transformed myself
into the Creator to compose this muse!
into the divine veena to play this song!
This wave of vibrations sounds in the voice of every infant born!
The meditation of the mridungam of the heart
is heard in the sounds of awareness of heightened stimulation!
It is the raga eternal…
the first measure of musical time…
the infinite flow of life …
the ongoing direction of Creation!
My inhalation is muse!My exhilaration is music!
full of the emotion and abounding with musical notes
a flow of divine nectar!
This is the song of my life!
The song that I sing is the song of life—
is the essence of Sama Veda!
A song full of the emotion
abounding with musical notes
gaining momentum to become a flow of divine nectar!
This write-up is based on the song “Virinchinai virachinchithini…” from the Telugu movie Sirivennela (1986) featuring Suhasini and Sarvadaman Banerjee. This song was written by Sirivennela Seetharama Sasthri and set to music by K.V.Mahadevan. The song was rendered by S.P.Balasubrahmanyam and P.Suseela. This movie was directed by K.Viswanath.
An article on S.Rajeswara Rao from The Hindu, Friday March 12, 1993 By M.L.Narasimham
Remember Chandraleka, a magnum opus even by today's standards and its famous drum dance and the music that enriched it. The creator of that enchanting music was none other than this year's Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram's Kalaimaamani award winner, Saluri Rajeswara Rao, a pioneer of light music in South Indian films.
"It took us one year to compose music for Chandralekha. Much of the time was taken for the drum dance sequence. As the dancers performed, we used to rehearse and compose the music. It was done with incredibly few instruments. We used a piano, ten double bass violins and drums from Africa, Egypt, and Persia which we have acquired from an African War troupe." reminisces Rajeswara Rao, who will be completing six decades of film career next year.
His tryst with cinema came unexpectedly in the form of a talent-scouting Huchins Recording Company to his native Vizianagaram in 1934. A child prodigy, he could identify the ragas at the tender age of four and by the time he was seven, he started giving stage performances. His father, Sanyasi Raju, was a famous miridangam player for the concerts of Dwaram Venkatasamy Naidu and was also a lyricist. Huchins spotted "master" Rajeswara Rao and took him to Bangalore along with his father.
"I was 13 then. Since then I have stayed put in the field of film music and records," recalls Rajeswara Rao.
Huchins recorded Bagavat Gita in Rajeawara Rao's voice. Soon word spread about his melliflous voice and producers P.V.Das and Gudavalli Ramabramham, visted Bangalore, and impressed by his singing ability, brought him to Madras. Finding that young Rajeswara Rao had stage experience too, they cast him as Lord Krishna in their Sri Krishna Leelau in 1934. The film was released the next year and Rajeswara Rao became a household name all over Andhra. Later for the same team he played the role of Abhimanyu in Maya Bazar(1936). The next year he went to Calcutta to act in Keechaka Vadha.
Though he won appreciation as a singer-actor, the urge to prove himself as a musician was stronger in him. In Calcutta he met such stalwarts as Kundan Lal Saigal and Pankaj Mullick, and got exposed to Hindustani music. He became a disciple of Saigal and learned Hindustani music for a year. He also learnt to play the sitar and the surbahar. He had already mastered playing the tabla, dholak, and miridangam without the help of a guru. Later he learnt the piano, harmonium, mandolin and the electric guitar too. By this time he had acquired the knowledge of orchestration, of how to mix the sounds of different instruments.
Rajeswara Rao returned to Madras in 1938 and formed his own music troupe, became an assistant to Jeyaramayyer for a Tamil film Vishnuleela in which he also played the role of Balarama and sang his own songs. The film was directed by Raja Sandow. This was the only film for which Rajeswara Rao worked as a music assistant. Later he tuned a few songs for a Kanada film, Vasantha Sena (1939) for which R.Sudharsanam provided the music. The same year he became a full-fledged music director with Jeyaprada (Pururava) which Chitrapu Narashima Rao directed. Alongside, he continued with his acting in Balanagamma and Illalu in which he acted opposite his famous singing partner, Rao Balasarawati Devi. Bala Saraswati incidently had acted in Sri Krishna Leelalu too.
By the time Illalu was commissioned Rajeswara Rao was no more interested in acting. His mind was set on film music. Even his father felt his son would shine as a music director. He approached Ramambrahmam. The director was sceptical at first as it was a social film and doubted whether Rajeswara Rao could do justice to it. Moreover Bhimavarapu Narashima Rao (BNR) was his permanenet music director. After much persuasion and when BNR himself told the director to give the boy a try, Rajeswara Rao was given a cradle song as an experiment. He composed the music and rendered the song much to the delight of Director as well as the original music director of the film. Rajeswara Rao got the job he wanted. He also acted in the movie, which was his last as an actor.
"When I entered the industry there was no playback system. We used to sing and act at the same time with the orchestra in the background unseen by the camera. But by the time I was doing Illalu the playback system had come into vogue," recalls the veteran.
When the Telugu film song was evolving from stage poetry to modern lyric, Rajeswara Rao showed thru his private records how light music should be. "Thummeda Oka saari", "Kopamela Radha", "Podarintilona", "Rave Rave Koyila", "Challo Gaalilo" "Paata Paduma Krishna" all of which his father has written.
Rajeswara Rao, through these songs, set a new trend in light music in Telugu.
Rajeswara Rao's most rewarding assignments came from Gemini, which he joined in 1940. "I joined Jemini on a salary of Rs. 600 as a music director and by the time "Chandraleka" was made, it rose to Rs. 1500. My association with Gemini continued for a decade and Apoorva Sagotharagal(1950) was my last film for them. Jeevan mukthi, Balanagamma, Mangamma Sabatham, and Chandrelekha were some of the movies for which he created music while in Gemini. In those days when there were hardly any modern technical equipment he created in Balanagamma re-recording effects "on par with any Hollywood film". "And in Chandreleka simply because I mixed western music to local taste it was appreciated both within the country and abroad. For music there are no barriers. There is nothing wrong in making use of western tunes, moulding them carefully to our taste and to our form. I have done that for some of my songs in later films like Iddaru Mithurulu and Bharya Bharthaluduring the seventies. Though I have made use of western tunes, no one can say that I have blindly copied them. But today the scene is different. Western tunes are being used as they are in our films. This is very unfortunate" says Rajeswara Rao.
After leaving Gemini, he got an offer to provide music for B.N.Reddy's "Malleswari" (1950). It was a sensational music hit. Then came Vipranarayana, Missiamma and a host of other musical hits, more than a hundred of them in Tamil and Telugu and a few in Kannada. Some of the films might have failed in the box office, but his music has never let down cinegoers. When Vijaya's Missiamma was made into Miss Mary - producers AVM in Hindi, Hemantha Kumar provided the music. He changed all the tunes, but retained one - "Brindavanamum Nandakumaranum" which Hemantha liked so much that he took permission to retain it in the Hindi version - an instance of one master's tribute to another.
Among the classical ragas, Rajeswara Rao likes Bhimplas, Sindhu Bairavi, Kafi, Kalyani, Pahad, and Malkauns, which he has used most in his songs. "Generally songs set in these ragas become popular with the audience" feels Rajeswara Rao.
Some of the memorable films for which he composed music are: Vikramathithan, PremapAsam, Paanai Pidithaval Pagyasali, Amaradevi, Iru Sagotharagal, Aval Yaar besides Chadralehka. Tamil-Telugu bilinguals: Allauddin Adbhutha Deepam, Mangamma Sabatham, Apoorva Sagotharaagal, Missiamma, and Chakradhari. Telugu: Chenchu Lakshmi, Bheesma, BhaleRamudu, Iddaru Mithurulu", "Kulagothralu", "Baktha Jeyadeva", "Amarasilpi Jakkannachari", "Baktha Pragalatha", Rangula Ratnam, Vipranarayana, Dr Chakravarthy, and Chitti Chellue. Hindi: Chandrelehka and Nishan.
Rajeswara Rao's two assistants for over four decades Rajagopal and Krishnan, both well versed in.
On the quality of today's film music, Rajeshwara Rao blames he producers and directors. "It is not the audience, but the producers and directors, who are to be blamed. Today film making and music are like fast food," he says. Among the directors he rates Singgetham Srinivasa Rao , who learnt Carnatic vocal under Rajeshwara Rao, as a man with music knowledge.
e tastes of different viewers. Variety is important in film music."
Rajeswara Rao was awarded the honorary doctorate Kalaprapoorna in 1979 by the Andhra University. He was appointed "Asthana Vidwan" by Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams, during which period he composed music for Annamacharya Kclassical music have proved an asset to him. Music flows in Rajesawara Rao's family. His elder brother S. Hanumantha Rao was a music director in his own right in the Kannada and Telugu field. Rajeswara Rao's eldest son, Ramalingeswara Rao is well known piano and electric organ player in the South. His second son, Poornachandra Rao, is a popular guitarist while his third and fourth sons, Vasu Rao and Koteswara Rao are well-known music directors today. Vasu Rao has preferred to go it alone on the lines of his father's melody, but Koti has formed a team with Somaraju (son of veteran music director T.V.Raju) as Raj-Koti and the duo is the most popular team in Telugu film music todayeerthanas sung by Ghantasala.
