Velugu Needalu:K Viswanath

Velugu Needalu
K Viswanath




Here is the the series that focuses on the many greats who lurk in the shadows behind the silver screen bringing out the best in them, to radiate and redirect their brilliance onto the silver medium. We hope that these articles would focus our attention and applause to these true "stars" to whom limelight and spot lights do not usually beckon upon.


Prologue

The sea was quite turbulent that day; the waves were crashing fast and hard against the unmoved rocks; unfazed by the attitude of the rocks the waves keep on addressing (appealing to) the rocks; Madhavi spots Balu sitting on one of the rocks pondering over the events that transpired after his mother's death; She comes running towards him eager to share her feelings, her ambitions (art) and ultimately her life with Balu. The background music (Illayaraja) soars just like the waves in the background. And just when she is about to reach him and hold his hand to never let go of it for eternity, she finds the man who left her hand at the altar looking at (for) her. Silence reigns. Madhavi retreats her steps (and intentions). Her husband moves forward a few steps. Balu chooses to remain in the background. Madhavi controls the surge (and urge) of her emotions. Her husband rises to the occasion at just the right time. Balu transforms his admiration and love for her into pure devotion (aaraadhana) right at that moment.

gunDelO chOTu choosukunna manishiki
moorthigaa kOvela kaTTi
bhaktigaa koluchukunna vaeLa
praema ganga urakulatO saagi saagi
baadhyatala aanakaTTula aagi
aaraadhanaa saagaraala Odi chaeru vaeLa
aavaeSamula uppenala jaDilO
tana manishini munchettha valenani kadili
aalOchanala tarangaalugaa taggi
nuDuTa boTTugaa chindaka
paadaala paaraNi tanu kaDugu vaeLa
sagara sangamam - karuNa ganga praema saagaraala
rasaananda saagaara sangamam


A classic K. Viswanath moment. A moment that screams of subtlety. A moment that urges the viewer to dig deep inside of him to try to understand what each of the characters might be undergoing. Madhavi's situation - torn between her love for Balu, her respect(?) for the tradition. Balu's condition - vacillating between his heart and his art. Husband's dilemma - unable to decide between what is good and what is right.

Set the classical (sometimes, semi-classical) music aside, set the semi-classical dances aside, set the soothing words aside, set the lilting lyrics aside, set the actors, their statures, their performances aside - Viswanath's movies revolve largely around these moments filled with simple yet profound emotions that convey a thing or two, saying a word or two about human drama.

When Rangadaasu becomes a collector and is posted to the same village as his parents, the whole village comes together to greatly rejoice the return of their son to their land. His mother watches the procession with from a distance and unable to contain the excitement and unable to conceal the giddy delight anymore, runs away far from the procession to her home dragging her husband into the hut enroute. Haridaasu is baffled by his wife's never seen before display of emotions. She closes the door, looks around for a second, drags him closer and plants a kiss on his cheek and says - "entha manchi koDuku nicchavayyaa!" and weeps in delight.

putrOtsAhamu tanDriki
putruDu janiyincinapuDu kalugadu janulA
putruni kanugoni pogaDaga
putrOtsAhambu nADu pondura sumatee!


Another classic Viswanath moment. The link he creates between a simple sumatee satakam poem and an otherwise ordinary moment of a child being recognized and lauded by the rest of the world in front of his parents, and his ability to expand on an emotion conveys a thing or two, saying a word or two about human drama. No loud words, no harping on the moment, no beating the emotion till the point of death. Touch the moment till it creates an impact and move away from it.


The medium he chooses to convey these moments neatly wrapped and nicely packaged is art - classical art. If it is vocal in SankaraabharaNam, it is dance in Saagara Sangamam, if it is instrumental in Sirivennala, it is vocational art in Swayam Krushi. The art that gradually is getting lost in the evolutionary process of times, tastes and attitudes. Sankara Sastry chides Sarada in front of his prospective in-laws for mis-stepping boundaries and wandering away from norms and traditions ("ala swara sankaram chaeya Daaniki siggu laeduTae neeku"). He atones his outburst at his innocent kid by offering haarathi right in his palm. While he retires to bed (but still unable to sleep because of the burnt palm), Sarada comes in with a cup of butter, gently applies to his palm and STARTS TO SING THE SWARAMS IN THE WAY IT IS MEANT TO BE SUNG. Words need not say more. It is not a question of finding words to the occasion, it is a situation where no more words are needed.

Another quintessential Viswanath moment



Part 2

Silence - a state that speaks more and better about a frame than a thousand words. Never more than in the visual medium is the value of silence understood better, and if used properly, is the emotion conveyed effectively, shifting the onus of explaining the scene to the audience allowing it to have it's own interpretation of the proceedings and derive it's own meaning of the context. Build a few words, present the argument and let the audience be known what the director exactly thinks about scene in question and the point is made. Take the words out of the equation, rely on the mood, cut back and forth between the expressions, proceed with the action and a point could made this way too. A double-edged sword, the latter way of handling a scene can literally slice the mood apart, if the setup to the silence is too shaky or if it just lacks the proper gravitas rendering the whole exercise as hypocritical and pretentious; but, move the set pieces in just the direction and place them apart at just the right distances, the result is a true work of art - the very reason why visual medium scores and ranks much above its aural counterpart, proving over and over again, that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

Tulasi, who has just been acquitted by the court of murder, stand on the steps of court. Her mother had just been dragged away by the police, kicking and screaming and hurling curses and abuses at her. Her hopes dashed and her life doomed. Alone, she awaits her true verdict of future. Her uncle comes back and tries to grab her and drag her back into the wretched life that she greatly detested. And the scene calms down here. All that we could hear are the crushing footsteps (typical of "aaku cheppulu") that resonate in the halls of justice of Sankara Sastry. An impressive figure (aided by the low-angle tilt of the camera to enhance the commanding stature), he looks on at the uncle who had his hand on Tulasi's shoulder, from the top of the stairs. Silence rules on. The hand is drawn away. Sankara Sastry walks by the uncle and Tulasi joins him. Uncle looks on mutely and the scene cuts away to both of them riding the horse drawn carriage speeding away through the streets much to the astonishment of the onlookers.

Dissect this scene and see how much information was infused into those last few shots without being aided by the otherwise wonderful words of Jandhyala, one can call it a true tribute and deep respect of Viswanath to the visual medium. The low-angle of Sankara Sastry standing on top of the steps of the court hall, a principled man with an unblemished and untainted record, looking down upon the uncle (He who has not sinned shall cast the first stone - well, Sankara Sastry can). The air of confidence and the gait of proper culture, his hands folded in front, the look of seriousness in his face ripping away whatever faux-authority that the uncle had over Tulasi. The walk down the stairs down to them, a glance at Tulasi and the walk away. The instructions to Tulasi were not conveyed and implicit. The order to the uncle was unexplained and unnecessary. The acceptance of Tulasi by Sankara Sastry was unspoken. While the carriage zooms fast in the streets of the city with eager onlookers, the sense of regality conveying that Sastry does not care about what the world would think of a pious man together with a woman of disrepute. The entire sequence is just one among the several poignant silences that Viswanath peppered in Sankaraabharanam, each silence varied but equally effective as every other. Consider the scene when Tulasi meets Sankara Sastry in his compartment the very first time, when she runs away from her house. No introductions, no drawn out dialogues, no explanations - a true testament of the ability of the direction to trust the scene, to trust the audience and more importantly, to trust to the value of silence.


It is not only when dealing with one particular emotion alone did Viswanath employ the services of silence. When Balu comes to know that Madhavi has got him an entry into National Dance festival, emotions take over and silences the words. Balu's mixed sense of happiness, elation, indebtedness, respect, admiration, and that important emotion of being finally recognized even by a single person who places him next to the stalwarts - Silence rules and lets the mood spill over. It is very prudent of the director to make that important decision of whether to translate those feelings into words or hold back on the words and let expressions interpret the emotions. Sivayya is helpless in making a decision, whether to let Lalitha and her kid leave him and have a seemingly better life with her father-in-law or spend a contended life with whatever they had. One needs to appreciate Viswnath's sensibility and judgement here, because of Sivayya's inability in framing complex words around complex thoughts. He is a kid at heart and acts like a kid with a big heart. He cannot verbally express the conflict between what is good and what not right. He starts to sulk at a corner and when Lalitha catches him in his solitude, she (we) finds him, fiddling with his fiddle, throwing his hands around, unable to overcome his sorrow nor able to control his emotions. Again, no dialogues, no words, no sounds.

kaadaa mounam prati bhaavaaniki bhaashyam

Viswanath's hardest challenge - Sirivennela)


Part 3

How can one describe the exquisiteness of the beauty pervading all around, if one cannot feel the sense of it visually? How can one describe of the nature of the beauty that envelopes the every day life, if one cannot aurally express the emotion? The challenge that the director had taken upon himself to take out the two important facets of the motion picture - the visual and the aural aspects, and then try to describe the nature of the beauty, the cause and its effect, through the characters that have no access to those important faculties, talks a lot about the immense faith that he reposes in them to convey his audacious idea, without the view and the word, but simply with the feel. With "Sirivennla", Viswanath has taken one more brave step towards finding an interpretation, a way to explain, a way to totally abstract the idea of beauty, that he started off with "Sirisiri muvva". The title of the movie, which in itself is quite poetic, is about a sheer grace of the stillness of the night in full bloom, which one character has no idea what it looks like, and which the other character has no idea how to describe it, but which the audience feels, both the characters understand it at a much deeper level. As some poet who once quipped aptly, if mathematics is the only way to explain the nature around us using the mind, art is the only way to feel the nature around us employing the senses, Viswanath takes the latter route and endows his blind hero with a great feel for the world around him and his mute heroine with the ability of communicating through her art.

He accepts the challenge of using silence for communication, instead of words, and takes it to an entirely different level, when the mute heroine draws up the portrait of the hero, not in a typical fashion of stroking the silhouettes and shading the sides, but in an abstract way of drawing up the "ucchwaasalu" and "niSwaasalu" and shaping up the entire picture as an embodiment of a "sampoorNa maanava moorthi", who feels the "vaekuva raagaalu" in his "vaeNu gaanam", who feels the expressions of "kavanam" and "gaanam" in his life process, who feels the eternal sound of sustenance ("aadi praNava naadam") in every breathing moment of his life thereby encompassing the entire nature in himself. Viswanath moved beyond the realms of drama, beyond his usual comfort medium of scripting and depicting human emotions using art as his canvas beyond using simple, but heart-touching, metaphors to drive home his point and instead ventured into a new arena, where simple answers do not quite suffice when explaining that a blind person could feel, perceive and enjoy the bounty of nature just as any regular person blessed with sight, where simplistic situations, like the heroine has to have admiration and thereby fall in love with the hero only because of cinematic considerations, are completely replaced with the struggle that both face while explaining the true natures of their love, where payoffs in the end occur, not in a normal way of the hero and heroine united in the end as the culmination of their love, but rather depicting the confluence of sensory perceptions progressing towards the common goal of "rasa siddhi", thus moulding "Sirivennala" as a true work of art.

Though Viswanath has taken up the subject of art devoid of normal means of expression much before "Sirivennela", in "Sirisiri muvva", he treated the latter more as a drama concerning the struggle of a mute lady, communicating with the world through the expression of her dance. By the time he moved on to "Sirivennela", Viswanath has done away with the (self-)pity, the condescension, the sympathy that he had for his physically challenged characters and started to delve into the struggle that concerned their minds. Examine his take on love from the hero and heroine's perspectives. Hero adores the beauty that he can only perceive through sound and feel. Heroine admires the extent of the hero's vision (avalOkanaa vistruthi) and is in love with him for what he perceives is beautiful. The metaphor of likening the hero's life to the instrument he excels at, the flute, by suggesting the wind, that blows through the flute, breathing life into it, causing it to flutter and creating such a melodious sound, is the same force of inspiration that the hero feels for his muse. Hero's interpretation of love is one that is based on inspiration - one which would inspire him to rise to higher levels, one which would force him to achieve greatness, one which would make him in the process make him a better person. On the other hand, the heroine does not get drawn towards the hero just because they share a handicap. She understands his true affinity towards his art, his respect for his muse, and his humility towards his greatness. While Viswanath creates the muse as the one that breathed life into the hero to mould him for what he is, he shapes the other who shares a kindred feeling as the one that would mould the hero for what he would be (refer to the heroine's skill as the sculptor and a painter).


If it is tough to move forward a scene without words, it is sheer bravery to plot an entire movie around non-communicating characters and yet establish a semblance of communication, if not via the normal mode, but through the much difficult and different way of using art. Viswanath tries to outdo himself by setting greater goals through out the movie, by trying to describe "vennela lO brundaavanam" to a blind girl, or trying to explain why the hero loves his muse even when he has no idea of her physicality nor knows anything about her past, or when the heroine sees the hero celebrating his unison with the nature (in the song "ee gaali") and starts to develop feelings for him ("ee swathi vaani lO naa aatma snaana maaDe") depicted through the excellent visual of the ink mixed with the rain, flowing through his flute and ending up in the paper in her lap.

gunDe lOtula bhaavaalu bayalu chaeyu baadhyatala alasi solasi
kanulu alasi pOvaa? gontu mooga pOdaa?
kanTa imaDani soundaryam paluka naeraani santOsham
taeTa parichi parichi
kanulu alasi pOvaa? gontu mooga pOdaa?
manasu kanna kalalu panchukona panina murisi murisi
kanulu alasi pOvaa? gontu mooga pOdaa?
jaeravalasina majilee yeTTakaelaku kaLa chaerinaaka
kanulu alasi pOvaa? gontu mooga pOdaa?


Viswanath's poetic best - Swarna kamalam)


Part 4

What purpose does art serve or what purpose does it have to serve? Enlightenment, awakening, entertainment, stimulation are some of the answers. After these states are reached and these purposes are served, art has the ability to go one step forward and render the state of pure joy. Bliss is what is also known as. Once that state is reached, the lines between between who is driving, what is being driven ceases to exist, meaning, the question whether the art is motivating the artist or whether the artist is exhibiting his art becomes irrelevant. It is that state when one would have a tough time between differentiating between the driver and the driven. As is with anything, the state of transcendence is inexplicable - words fall short of explaining the meaning, emotions fall short of expressing the feeling. It becomes a paradoxical situation to have it to explain to someone and make them see the purpose of the art and what the end result of such a progress could be, if both words and emotions fail to come to the rescue. To embark on the journey of the pursuit for perfection, to start with the process of finding pure joy, to set forth on a mission to dig deep into oneself and come face to face with bliss, requires one to have that one essential ingredient, FAITH, without which the pursuit become purposeless, the process is devoid of the desired result, and the mission become pointless.

Viswanath's movies, apart from the drama that is built around, are about the preservation of the legacy, pertaining to the ageless and timeless art, and handing them over, in word and in faith, to the subsequent generations. Sankara Sastry, an cold person with a tough heart, eventually dies in peace, when he realizes that his art is in the safe hands of Tulasi. Balu, an aimless and rudderless burned out artist, rests in peace, after passing on whatever he had gathered over the years to Sailaja. While the rest of the movies deal with reservation, Swarna Kamalam deals with the pains and trials of realization. Meenakshi has a tough time realizing what is in her hands is much more worthy than she is running after. The eternal battle of materialism versus spirituality (in a broader sense) rages on in her mind, while she gets drawn more and more towards the glitz of the former than endure the rigors of the latter. And it is at this point that faith takes over. Faith - a trust in the institution of art, that it would certainly offer all that it has promised and much more, a belief that regardless of the hurdles, the end goal could be reached with enough perseverance, a dogmatic approach that has been handed over by the earlier generations, who have proved beyond any reasonable doubt that it works. Viswanath has made the point of Meenakishi's realization, the point of her believing in her innate art, a sudden one, that is as abrupt and as sudden as someone finding the path of faith.


Swarna Kamalam has the unique distinction among the rest of his movies, in that the movie is completely about a person finding her true inner calling. Viswanath does not deviate from this path of self-realization and makes Meenakshi go through the same path as several before have trudged, before reaching that point of eternal joy and enormous satisfaction. By pointing out the different phrases of disinterest, denial, disgust, slowly transforming into deep thought, deep churning and eventual embracement, by indicating the metamorphosis of the personality of Meenakshi, from a hot headed typical angst ridden youth to a mellowed down, level headed understanding personality (depicted in a subtle way through her early morning make-up procedures), Viswanath lays down the path that is more personal and one that is fraught with self-doubt and guilt. It would not start getting better until it turned absolutely worse, quotes a proverb. Right at the point of the lowest ebb, right at the point of total and complete darkness, right at the point of absolute doom, where the surge to the better takes place, where the pursuit of light takes shape, where the will to wrest control takes root, does every artist realize that what had been accompanying him/her all through out in all his/her travails is not what is around him/her, but what is inside of him/her.

Chandrasekhar finds himself in a thankless position. His love for Meenakshmi is consumed by his stubbornness to make her see what is right for her. His admiration for her art is usurped by his undying passion for making her realize the true purpose of her gift. Caught between his unrelentess approach, continuing the tradition of her father, and his mentoring instincts, continuing the tradition of the guru-shishya parampara, is the tender feelings that admires her, adores her, respects her and loves her. In comparison to his previous movies, Viswanath makes the mentor on the same level as the protégé thus bringing in the ego element into play. Meenakshi spites Chandram's motives and takes it out on her art during her dance performance. Meenakshi resents Chandram's intentions and takes it out on her art by completely reneging it for a professional opportunity. Viswanath does not make it clear whether Chandram's advances are guided by his feelings for her, or whether they seek an ulterior motive of her mending her ways and getting back to her roots. A glance at the three gurus in Meenakshi's life, her father who claims the role of her tutor, Chandram, who assumes the role of the mentor, and the American born Odissi dancer, who triggers the realization process, and one can safely conclude that Viswanath's idea of self-realization is not of one that occurs instantly overnight, be it through a song or be it through a few words; instead it is a path that is long drawn out beset with detours and troubles, but one that ends in answer for the purpose of art - one of pure joy, one of pure bliss.




Viswanath - the wordsmith)



Part 5

Do words punctuate emotions or emotions emphasize words? Viswanath's economy of expressions is as renowned as his clarity with words. Having worked with the likes of Adurthi, Mullapoodi, Dukkipaati, Gollapoodi in the early stages of his career, Viswanath honed his ear in picking up the right word for the right situation and play it for that exact moment of time. Take any slice of the most emotional moments of his movies, the dialogue plays right into it and does not over-stay its welcome. Yaajulu walks into the shack briskly and notices his grand-daughter, Hema, not yet prepared for the dance performance later that evening. "aemiTi ammaayi inkaa tayaaru kaalaedu"? thunders his voice. "aa talanTu inkaa pOyalaedu" comes the reply from his docile daughter-in-law, from behind the door. "aemiTi evarannaa posaedundaaa, laekaa adee naenae pOyaalaa" remarks Yaajulu and walks away. The son sandwiched between his father's commandeering and his subservience irratatedly comments "aemiTo, vedhava Slaeshalu, ardham kaaka chastunnaam". The little trinkets of information that seep into such dialogues not only serve the purpose of advancing the plot but also lets the viewer under the dynamic between the characters. That which could be played over reams and reams of dialogues and emphasized over scenes and scenes of raw stock, is simply replaced by understanding the true nature of the characters and supplying them with the right word. "aDagaDam aemiTayyaa, kaDigaestaanu. veyyi marDarlu chaesina vaaDinainaa kaLLallOki kaLLu peTTi nijam cheppinchaeyagalanu. vaaDanTae naakaemannaa bhayamaa! unnaaDaa lOpala?" asks Madhava in a tone that smacks of bravado. "aa pakka gadilOne unnaru" pat comes the reply from gOpaalam. "nee moham manDa, cheppavaemayyaa aa maaTa. naa maaTalu vinnaaDanTaavaa?" cowers Madhava. Just a little line that explains completely about the relationship between Sankara Sastry and his childhood friend Madhava.

Of all the pens that have worked with Viswnath on the majority of his ventures, Jandhyala, Aakella, MVS Haranadha Rao and Sainath, Jandhyala's understanding of Viswnath's characters extends beyond the rest of his peers. Penning for sirisiri muvva, seetamaalakshmi, SankaraabharaNam, saptapadi, SubhOdayam, Subhalaekha, saagara sangamam and AapatbaandhavuDu, Jandhyala's craft, under Viswnath's tutelage, can see a marked transition from one movie to the next, peaking with saagara sangamam, which, arguably, has the best words that any writer has breathed into the characters' lives. "naenu ekkuva taagalaedu vadinaa", a slouched Balu looking at the Krishna paadaalu in front of the house refusing to come in. "naenu aDagalaedae", an even more understanding sister-in-law with a dinner plate in her hand, settling beside Balu. As much as the situation can bear the burden of the extra words and over-emotions, Viswanath reigns the both of them and renders one of most heart-rending scenes of the movie. "talent okkaTae saripOdu, raasi peTTi unDaalanDee. abbO birju maharaaj, great dancer, Shoba Naidu, abbO pedda pedda vaaLLantaa vastunnaaranDee" marvels Balu as he leafs through the invitation and stops at one leaf. "eena kooDa pedda dancer ae" observes Madhavi. The cue stops the flows of words to hammer the point further and it almost feels like Jandhayla knew the exact instant, when he should stand back and let Kamal, Jayaprada and Illayaraja have their moment.

"Music is divine whether it is Western or Indian. sangeetaaniki bhashaa bhaedaalu, swapara bhaedaalu unDaalu, adoka ananta jeevana vaahini. ae jaati vaaraina ae matam vaaraina andulO daaham teerchukOvacchu" starts Sankara Sastry when trying to teach some sense into the reckless youth, bent on ridiculing "swadharmam" while blindly embracing and aping the western culture. A look at Viswanath's creations, it is quite obvious that the dominant tone of his characters is one of sensibility, that is rooted in wisdom, experience and intelligence. Even after Sambayya slaps Chinna hard across his face for picking up a cigarette, more out of fear that he too would follow the tracks of his drunkard father Govindu, he repents immediately for his rush of blood unable to come to terms as how to the "spare the rod, spoil the child" tenet would work against a child, who does not understand his doings (wrong or right) in the first place. "inta chaesinaa, inta koTTina, aa pasi manasuki enduku ardham kaavaTam laedO teliyaDam laedu" laments Sambayya, teary-eyed, confessing his surge of unruly emotions to his beloved, Ganga. When the entire village is finally up in arms against the atrocities of neelakanThaiah, and wants to settle the score in terms of flesh and blood, a calming voice of Hanumanthadaasu appeals to the sensibilities of the mob, arguing how a violence only begets violence the greedy appetite for blood and flesh can never be quenched nor can it never be quelled. While it is quite easy to play up the situation and fan the emotions of the characters, feeding it with "powerful" dialogues, it is all the more difficult to see the speck of sensibility amid the unruliness, a spark of intelligence in the face of insanity and a tinge of wisdom buried under the heap of foolishness.


Any mention of Viswanath's movies flashes the images of dance, culture, music, words and emotions. As subtle as his penchant for emotional words, humor is very much an ingredient of his characters' worlds and a healthy dose of comedy is sprinkled all throughout, that which is un-obtrusive and un-obstructive to the regular proceedings. Wit, sarcasm, satire, innocence and all the different variations of comedy find place in his worlds. "ekkaDainaa, illu kaalipOyina vaaDini choosunTaavu, voLLu kaalipOyina vaaDini choosinTaavu, ilaa bhakti tO kaali pOyina vaaDini ekkaDanna choosaavaa naayanaa" - a blackened face with a mirthless laugh (Swarna Kamalam). "sundOpasundulaa? vaaLLevaru?", "inkevaru, sundulu meeru, upsundulu vaaru". "aemiTO nanDee, rOgam paerutO deeniki, deeni moguDu hOdaalO naaku baagaanae maryaadalu jarugutunnaayi" (Sagara Sangamam). "adi rishabhamaa, vrushabhamaa", "abbae rishabhamaenanDee, rishabhamae. akkaDa rishabham paDitae hindOLam endukavutunDanDee, charukaeSi avutundi gaani", "chaarukaeSaa???", "abbae, chaarukaeSaa, kaaphee, kaaphee avutundanDee", "nuvvu mundu lae ikkaDi ninchi" (SankaraabharaNam). "ammo ammO, noone elaa pilla kaalavallaaga pravihinchaestOndO, Oraey vedhava aapu aapu", "aravaddu anTae vinalaedu gaa, eddu chooDu koorchunDipOyindi. ippuDu aa ganuga nee meDalO vaesukuni nuvvu tirugu" (Swati mutyam). There were no separate comedy tracks, there were no specialist comic actors, there were no separate comedic words. An observation of the lifestyle of the characters, the situations there are thrown in, and the events that happen around them, proved plenty enough raw material to Viswanath to extract the comedic ore that is refreshing, heartening and more importanly, plain funny.




part 6

vaagardhaaviva sampruttou vaagardha pratipattayE
jagatahpitaram vandE paarvateeparamESwaram vandE
paarvateepa ramESwaram

The original verse of Kalidasa, which means just like the inseparable linking of the word and its meaning (vaakku, ardham), I beg to thee "aadi dampatulu", the inseparable couple (the slight modification of parvatee parvamaeSwaram to sound parvateepa (husband of Parvati) and ramaeSwaram (husband of Laskmi) was credited to Veturi Prabhakara Sastry, the renowned poet and scholar, Veturi's father), can very well be used to describe Viswanath's long and continued journey with the lyrical word. From "charaNa kinkiNulu ghallu ghallu mana" (chelleli kaapuram) to "nee chentae oka chechita naitae" (Swaraabhishaekam), Viswanath's association with the poetic structure can be characterized by his work with the two seminal poets of their respective generations - Sri Veturi Sundararama Murhty and Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry. With "swaati mutyam" providing the hand-off movie between Veturi and Sirivennla, Viswanath extracted some of the best works from these illustrious poets that were ever put on paper, the scope being telugu film lyrics. Sirivennla once commented that receiving an award under Viswanath's stewardship isn't all that satisfactory and rewarding and his jocular angst certainly has some merit and meaning. With the context that is just ripe to be interpreted lyrically, with the characters that definitely have a depth and a lot of conflict, the situation would automatically write itself into a beautiful poem and all that the poet had to do was offer it a little verbal help (maaTa saayam). The styles of Veturi and Sirivennela (the scope restricted to Viswanath's movies) can be juxtaposed to observe how each of them treated the situations and how each of them felt for the characters.

Though Veturi started his "pada prasthaanam" with "O seeta kadha" (also under Viswanath's direction), it wasn't until "siri siri muvva" that he became a regular mouthpiece until "swati mutyam" and later for a brief stint with "Subha Sankalpam" and "Swaraabhishaekam". Veturi's observation of the characters and the situations can arguably be termed as very distant and very macro-level (not be considered superficial, in the slightest bit). When dealing with as grave a subject as untouchability and casteism, Veturi turns very philosophical and puts the words

aeDu varNaalu kalisi indradhanasoutaadi
annee varNaalaku okaTae ihamu paramunTaadi

aadi nunchi aakaaSam moogadi
anaadigaa talli dharaNi moogadi
naDumavacchi urumutaayi mabbulu
ee naDamantrapu manushulakE maaTalu
inni maaTalu

into a simpleton's mouth, herding his cows. Passion about the topic and personal opinion do not get in the way of the context and subject and his observation of the situation can be termed as clinical at best, right in tune with a "gollavaaDu" who doesn't comprehend what the fuss regarding a man's caste and creed is all about. Even while envying God for all the good things that happen to him without any effort on HIS part, Veturi pens

raayaitae naemi raa daevuDu
haayigaa unTaaDu jeevuDu
unna chOtae gOpuram
usuru laeni kaapuram
anee unnaa mahaanubhaavuDu

There is just a hint of jealousy and a dash of envy in the words of a lazy bum who ponders over the simplicity of the life of God. Veturi does not go overboard, rising above the situation, and starts wondering about the bum could make the world better place, if he possesses the same magical powers as God. All that he is concerned with is some food at the right time, a nice shelter at the nighttime and no botheration with the world any time.


SankaraabharaNam - what made the words "Sankara gala nigaLamu, Sreehari pada kamalamu, raaga ratna maalikaa taraLamu SankaraabharaNamu" so immensely popular even with the illiterates, when the song is peppered with "samskruta bhooyisTa pada bandhaalu" and laden with such deep concepts as "advaita siddhiki amaratva labhdiki gaanamu sOpaanamu"? As is with the rest of his movies, the authority of the character and the amount of respect he deserves makes the audience understand and appreciate, even when the language spoken by the character is quite out of their reach. Veturi's prowess is quite evident here when he does not let the language dumb down (or brought down) to the level of the commoner and allows it to remain on the same plain as the character. And when Chandramohan comes into the picture, the tone of the pen softens quite a bit when he teasingly mouths "madhura laalasala madhupa laalaanala, pedavilOni madhuvu raali vratamu pooni jataku chaeraga" to Raajyalakshmi. The choice of the words chosen for the lyric oozes of "chilipitanamu" and "konTetanamu". The way the lyric segues from the Tyaagaraja's traditional lyric "sama nigamaja sudhaa maya gaana vichakshaNa gunaSeela dayaala vaala" (He who expounded the ambrosia-like (amrutamu laanTi) Samaa vedam with benevolent qualities, please take care of me) into "madhura laalasalu" and "madhupa laalanalu" remaining in the same nectar-like metaphor but applying to a different context, is absolutely brilliant of Veturi. Again, he takes no liberties with the character and remains in the same playing field.

Sagara Sangamam - "mOhanaala vaeNuvoodae mOhaanaanguDitaDae lae, pOtanna kaitalannee pOtapOsukunnaDae maa muvvaa gOpaaluDae maa mudddo gOvinduDae" - what better lyric to be debased and debauched by the rut of "steppulu"? With exception to the song "mouna maela nOyi ee marapu raani raeyi", Veturi remains completely unattached to the characters within the rest of the lyrics. Since the movie is about a man's admiration and adoration of his lady love that he is even willing to take on any indignation and any suffering, while passing on his art, the words written for the movie remain as much ethereal and platonic as the intangibility of his feeling. Sagara Sangamam and SankaraabharaNam remain some of the best works of Veturi where the day to day struggle that the artist undergoes, the regular rigor, the conflict of his with the rest of the world, is never treated (or is never reflected) in the words that come out. Instead they remain quite detached (bordering on stand-offishness), separating the art from the artist. Even when the character lost in the drunken stupor balancing on a thin rod on the top of deep well, Veturi's macro-mind does not get bogged down by Balu's struggles or conflicts nor get saddled with the ecstaty for having finally met the love of his love that the character lost sometime ago. Veturi's detached mind takes over and scribbles "naruDi bratuku naTana, eeSwaruDi talapu ghaTana, aa renDi naTTa naDuma neekendukintha tapana". Compare this to a similar situation when Hyma, the mute dancer, is taken away from her home by Sambayya, unable to bear her step-mother's atrocities. The situation begs for a heavy-handed, over the top lyric and Veturi remains non-committal and muses "evarikevaru ee lOkamlO evariki eruka, ae daareTu pOtundO, evarinee aDagaka".

When Viswanath phased off Veturi with "swati mutyam" (due to creative differences), he lost the voice of reason, the voice of fate and destiny and the voice of eventuality that Veturi so eloquently snuck into the character's words. As luck would have it, Viswanath found another voice, a voice of personality, a voice of philosphy and voice with deep-seated optimism with Sirivennela in Seetarama Sastry.

(Viswanath's poetry - 2)


Part 7

sunni pinDini nalichi
chinnaari gaa malichi
santasaana murisindi santulaeni paarvati
sutuDanna maaTa marichi
Soolaana tega nariki
peddarikam nilupukone nippukanTi penimiTi

The classic confrontation, the eternal struggle, the never-ending tug-of-war between the devotion to the husband and the draw to the child, in the words of a tragic mother. The situation where Anataraama Sarma's envy tries to boil over into Gangaadharam's talent and disrupt the peace and harmony of the family, transported to the mythological context and applied to Lord Siva's tussle with his son, is vintage Seetarama Sastry. Grasp the entire subject of the movie, distill it into the purest form and package the message applying the tools of metaphors, similes, comparisons and applications, forms the basic model of Sirivennela, especially in Viswanath's movies. This is where one can observe the marked difference between Veturi's and Sirivennela's style as far as approaching the material is concerned. While Veturi relegated himself to be a distant observer of the proceeding, Sirivennela tries to get in closer to the subject, and make the struggles and conflicts of the character a more personal one. While Veturi covers the exterior and periphery of the material, Sirivennela digs into the interior chiseling his way to the core. The subjects remaining the same, it would be really interesting to observe the take of each of these distinguished poets, on Viswanath's characters which are the embodiments of the same empathy, sensibility, and tenderness.

jhaNana jhaNana naadamlO
jhaLipinchina paadam lO
jagamu jaladaristundi
pedavi palakaristundi
gajja ghallu manTunTae
gunDe jhallu manTundi
gunDe jhallu manTunTae
kavita velluvaitundi


writes Veturi

ghallu ghallu ghallu manTu
merupallae tuLLu
jhallu jhallu jhalluna
uppongu ningi voLLu
nalla mabbu challani
challani chirujallu
velluvocchi saagani
tolakari allarloo
pallavinchanee naelaku
pacchani paravaLLu


writes Sirivennela

Take the above subject which is not fettered by context nor bound by the situation that talks about the feel of "andelu" (anklets) inwardly, to one's self, and the effect it generates outwardly to the world, as such. Veturi's take is of vibrancy, when the whole world reverborates with the rhythimic nature of the feet outwardly, and the steps resonating in the soul bringing the self into ecstasy inwardly. Sirivennela's observation is more mellowed and observational, when the whole word beckons to the lightening speed and the thunderous sound of the anklets, letting itself to surge, shower, and finally flow into the lotus feet of the art, the source and cause of it all. The third person perspective that Veturi embodied served Viswanath's movies to an extent that most of the songs in those movies were distant and independent, in that, the songs could survive on their own without the aid of the characters nor the context. When the torch has been passed down to Sirivennela, (and with exception to the movie "Sirivennela"), he took the cause of the characters as a personal mission and reflected the true identity of the characters in the words that they mouthed, and thus remained closer to their identities than Veturi ever did. Even when Sirivennela stayed close to the characters, remaining non-judgmental all the while, he never loses the focus of the character and more importantly, nor the objectivity.

Swarna kamalam remains one of the hallmark pieces of Sirivennela's poetry, where he plays a fair judge balancing two points of view - one of independence and the other of structure, and comes out being perfectly impartial, treating each point of view on its own merit, enumerating the ups and downs with each side, and still remaining sympathetic to both the causes. Never once does he assume the role of a preacher taking the moral high ground against any one side, while merely remaining an impassionate observer when one side realizes the joy in the other and makes the switch, all on its own, sans the pushing and prodding, sans the lecturing, sans the brow-beating. How can a poet see two sides of the coin with the same dispassionate view being attached and detached at the same time? This is where the important distinction between these two poets come in. Stand outside the conflict and observe it from a distance, the choice become quite an obvious one and making a judgment about which side has more merit becomes more easy - Meenakshi is wrong, Chandram is right. Get close to the characters and observe the reasons behind the choices from close quarters, in the process BECOMING the characters, one would feel equally sympathetic to both the causes and does not start evaluating their decisions in terms of right or wrong, but instead finds the reason that led them to the decisions. So a "layakae nilayamai nee paadam saagaali, malayaanila gati suma baala oogali" sits with the listener just as well as "valalO odugunaa viharinchae chiru gaali? selayaeTiki naTanam naerpinchae guruvaeDi ?". Indeed!

Ever since Sirivennela, Seetarama Sastry went along with Viswanath embarking on the same journey that the characters signed up for, discovering the marvels of life, wondering about the vagaries of the same, learning new lessons all the while and imbibing the new-found truths and age-old virtues.

churuku manToo poDichi laepae
soorya kiraNam ee vaeLa
kaluva virisae chaluva kurisae
kalalu choopindae
veDi gaalai venTa tarimae
yenDa kaalam ee vaeLa
aeDu rangula indradhanusai
yeduTa nilichindae




The new age dawns upon the fresh mind that sees the world around in a different light. The eye-piercing brightness of the sun light becomes the guiding brilliance that teaches discerning and distinction. The horrid heat of the torrid temparature turns itself into a bearable breeze of a soothing waft. New realization opens up new doors welcoming into new frontiers. Enlightenment and evolution are constant themes in Sirivennela's poetry, which are displayed in ample measure when the character hits upon that troubling block and with the aid of sensibility finds itself venturing into the new vistas that since before has been hidden in view. The constant urge of getting better of one's senses, getting better of oneself and moving to the next level in the natural progression of a thinking mind, remaining along with the character all the time, makes Sirivennala's observation much more personal and much more evolutionary. A child prodigy who finds his mentor in the elements of nature drawing inspiration from the natural beauty of the world that is pervading all around thusly

ee poola raagaala pulakinta gamakaalu
gaaraabu kavanaala gaali sangathulu
nee charaNa kiraNaalu palukarinchina chaalu
pallavinchunu prabhoo pavaLinchu bhuvaanaalu


turns more and more introspective and drawn inwards, as he comes into grips with his prowess, growing humility and turning more sensitive thusly

aalOchanaamrutamu saahityamu
sahita hitasatyamu Saaradaa sthanyamu
saaraSwataakshra saaradhyamu
gnyaana saamraajyamu janma saaphalyamu


Step in step, right with the character!

Sirivennala's lament about having to share the best song award and reward with Viswanath for giving enough operating room for the poets to toil and flourish is more a lavish praise on the director, who realizes the power of the word and gives it its due respect, lyrically.

Viswanath-music)


Part 8

Some associations are hard to forge, while some are hard to build upon. Some associations are hard to gel while some other are hard to stick. Especially in the areas where creativity is concerned, it is particularly difficult to hold back and silence one's own input and let the talent in the other speaks out. When a director sits down with a writer (poetic or prosaic) or with any other technician, trying to explain what needs to be told in that scene, it speaks well of his wisdom and judgement to let the technician take over from that point onwards and bring in his creativity to the mix, thus enhancing the overall appearance and presentation of the output. A good director extracts the right material for his product while a great director allows the right material to flow into his product. Present the situation, provide the context, supply the inspiration, spur the imagination and allow the magic to happen. While it is not just providing the right framework to the technicians that does the job, the art of picking up the apt output, from among the rest, depends on the judiciousness of his mind and the familiarity with his material Under the tutelage of Adurti Subba Rao, who was himself a master forger of long-term friendships (with aatreya (word), K.V. Mahadevan (sound), Selvaraj (eye), Madhusudhana Rao (money), and such), K. Viswanath picked up the right cues to form the right relationships with the right people and maintained them throughout his career. With Jandhyala, Veturi, Sirivennela, Mahadevan and Illayaraja forming his stable of artists, Viswanath set out sketching the broadlines allowing the talent to fill in the finer details. [Lore has it that the phrase "telavaaredaemO swaami" (Srutilayalu) had been coined by Viswanth, who then left it in the safe hands of Sirivennela to finish off the rest.]

From his debut movie "aatma gouravam" to Mahadevan's swan song "swati kiraNam", Viswanath's association with K.V.Mahadevan can only be paralleled, in a fitting way, by the latter's association with Viswanath's mentor, Adurti Subba Rao. Known for his meticulous rule of composing a tune only to a written lyric ("maaTa paaTaku praaNam pOyaali"), Mahadevan's work ethic matched perfectly with Viswanath's aesthetic sensibility of decorating the word with the tune. Relying purely on the beauty of the words and setting forth enhancing the beauty of it with an even simpler tune, Mahadevan's songs are known better known for how well the tune hides behind the words, allowing the listener to concentrate on what the words are trying to convey and forget about what meter and rhythm the words are set to and how well the orchestration has been arranged. It is indeed a testament for a music director who refuses to play along with the assembly line tune creation, or creating tune banks, but instead allowing the words to rouse the right passion and trigger the proper tune. Listen to the little aalapana that starts off with a female voice (P.Suseela) which marches along gracefully with the progressive steps of the veena in the first interlude of "kanchi ki pOtaava krishNammaa". Simplicity is the characteristic of Mahadevan's music. If the requirement is an outright classical piece, pick up any song of "SankaraabharaNam" and every song proves the fact above and beyond. If the requirement is outright folk, pick up the foot-tapping "Dappu" beats of "sirisiri muvva" and get swayed away by the rythm. Light music, "Subhalekha" begs to be mentioned, semi-classical, "saptapadi" stands in the front. What is interesting in all these different kinds of music is, Mahadevan did not seem to be too keen to make a mark and stamp his brand on any his creations, allowing the songs to be judged on their own merit.

Enter Illayaraja. In the few movies that Viswanath collaborated with Illayaraja, the songs seem to retain the flavor of the maestro while adhering to the standards of Viswanath all the same. With exception to "swarNa kamalam", whose tunes were set to lyrics, the melodies of "saagara sangamam" and "chinnabbaayi" are as much popular for the tunes as they are about the words that they are set to. Consider a tune like "vae vaela gOpemmala muvva gOpaaluDae", that was decided at the end of the constant interaction between the director and the musician and later handed down to the lyricist to translate the notes (bhaavam) into a feeling (anubhooti) with the aid of a few alphabets. It is difficult in such cases to decide to whom would go the most credit - is it the music director who has come up with such a beautiful melody out of the thin air (considering, he does not have the luxury of the language yet) or is it the lyricist who has come up with the right words to fit right into the tune, embellishing the tune and extrapolating the situation or is the director who has a general idea of what he needs, in picking the right tune for the mood and right word for the tune? Now ponder on the reverse. "andela ravamidi padamuladaa, ambaramanTina hrudayamudaa". A dancer's ecstatic expression of unfettered joy flowing into the tireless pen of a thinking mind. The situation has been dictated and the words have been set. Now looking at the words and thinking about the situation, how does one come up with a tune that is both a vibration of inner senses and a celebration of soaring spirits? As the words rise from "anga bhangimalu ganga pongulai, haava bhaavamulu ningi rangulai", the tune increasingly gets more vibrant and stimulating, and when it reaches to its crescendo with "parvataalu prasarinchina pacchani prakRti aakRiti paarvati kaagaa", the notes comes down in a hurry as to observe in introspect whether it is "andela ravamidi padamuladaa, ambaramanTina hrudayamudaa". Whether it is creating a tune to the context or setting the tune to the words, Illayaraja scores, on both counts.


One area that Illayaraja dominates (?) Mahadevan/Puhalendi in Viswanath's movies is the re-recording (background score) department. Who can ever forget the soul stirring violin melodies with mRdangam accompaniments in "saagara sangamam" that not only comment on the scenes, when Balu tries to bring her mother back to consciousness on her death-bed with his dance performance, when Madhavi recollects her favorite moments with Balu in her flashback (against a scintillating santoor score) and such. While Mahdevan/Puhalendi stuck to the traditional route and preferred to remain behind the scenes with their background scores, Illayaraja's talent spills over the screen, letting the viewer to be totally immersed in the moment, visually through the context and subliminally through the background score. One important aspect that stands out between Mahadevan and Illayaraja (scope - Viswnath's movies) was how much Viswanath/Mahadevan relied on classical music and went around modeling the scores around the traditional tunes. Each of the collaborations of Viswanath and Mahadevan would find atleast a couple of classical tunes (be it tyaagaraja swami kRthulu, ramadasu keertanalu, annamayya samkeertanalu, kshetrayya padaalu, siddhendra yogi abhinaya padaalu), which seem to be sorely missing in his works with Illayaraja, but for the occasional "bAlakanaka maya chaela sujana", "koluvai unnaaDae daeva daevuDu". As the new bride in the village, who remains quite reticent with the rest of the tattle talkers of the female group, walks up the stairs, the group muses silently to a "vayyaari muddula satya bhaamanae satyaaa bhaamane" casting angry and sarcastic darts at them. "ae teeruga nanu daya joochedavO, naa taramaa bhava saagarameedanu" laments a young lad in need of food, clothing and shelter. "mandaara makaranda maadhuryamuna daelu madhupambu bOvunae madanamulaku" the wife gently chides a greedy and a lazy husband. The keen ear of Viswanath to recollect all that he had heard till that point in his career and adapt the great wealth of literature quite adeptly to some situation in his script, talks volumes not only of the vastness of his literary reach but also his sense and taste to mould and fit them to suit his need.

Viswanath - longevity)a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp497y2GMhscvKKwZkfUq7NTkG0Nh06vdPUsLBqlLzb4XsPKl56VxA2w7k6lZSDFXgVWtPjBdN4YsCmCNVri7a4VPs8_PRjjpLneQae6Zfjl-odDwAtUchuTdKIzEXUxq7c9ybwOuupWo/s1600-h/io.jpg">


Part 9 (last part)

When a writer/director sets forth telling a story, he is sure to be caught up in the trappings of the box-office success formulae, swayed away by the current trends blowing in the market and get fixated on making a hit movie that would earn him another chance of finally making a movie of his choice, that is personal and satisfying. When the maker pass the buck to the audience and attribute his inability of creating a body of work that suits his passions and his tastes, to the box-office rules, current trends and hit movie-making techniques, not only does he undermine the intelligence and sensibility of the audience in accepting good movies, but also silences his own instincts betraying whatever drive and whatever enthusiasm drove him to picking up a pen and start scribbling on a blank sheet of paper; and the result, movies that are become the flavors of the week, flavors of the month, until they yield their positions to the next flavor of the week and the upcoming flavor of the month. Because a movie (for that matter, a story) is not (and need not be) a reflection of the current trends and tastes of the movie-watching public, because a movie is not (and need not be) guided by the existing standards of the society, and because a movie is not (and need not be) bound by whimsical and inconsistent rules box-office, this amazing art form has the great convenience and advantage of transcending space and time, and would be appreciated for how it struck a chord with the watcher than what it is actually about. After the huge humdrum at the box-office dies down, time remains the sole yardstick sizing up the performance of a movie, deciding if it was able to create an impact on the audience remaining in their memories long after the old trends have blown away to give way for the new ones and the formulae that were once cast in stone have been rewritten and reworked up. Longevity - the sustaining capability of a story, a character, a performance and on the whole the movie, to withstand the brutal onslaught of time and tastes on generations of audience, decide the true mettle of the movie.

When Telugu film was just finding its way in the commercial corridors of the industry in the late seventies, (in his own words) Viswanath handed 2 coconuts one each to Veturi and Mahadevan at the launch of "SankaraabharaNam", trusting his true partners in art, believing his instincts and respecting the ability of the common man to understand and appreciate the complexities of "ucchwaasa niSwaasamulu vaayuleenaalu, spandinchu navanaaDulae veeNaa gaanaalu" and the simplicities of "aamani kOyila ilaa naa jeevana vaeNuvu loodagaa". Box-office beckoned, taste hearlded the welcome of this nouveau cinema that remained truthful to the culture, time presented an opportunity to get familiar and re-introduced with the forgotten arts. And here it is, close to three decades since the movie has come and gone - Sankara Sastry still remains an examplar of discipline and commitment, the music still remains quite fresh and evocative, the lyrics are still approachable and deep and the movie has successfully withstood the cruel breezes of the time and taste. Between the period of "SankaraabharaNam" and "saagara Sangamam", Viswanath struggled with social themes in "saptapadi" (caste discrimination), "SubhOdayam" (true awakening of the inner self) and "Subhalekha" (dowry system) built around the same construct of classical song and traditional dance. Whenever he returned to his roots of depicting an artist's personal struggle of finding an inner voice that would set him/her in peace with the world around, Viswanath met with commercial success - "saagara sangamam", "swaati mutyam", "sruti layalu", "swarNa kamalam". And in between the periods when he ventured into social themes with "swayam krushi", "sootradharulu", and the like the result remained an artistic satisfaction (in muLLapooDi's words - aardhika kaLaa khanDam). So what was it about the voice that was personal which claimed commercial success and the same tone which was voicing concerns about the society that met with lukewarm response?

Keeping the standards of the movie - the music, the dialogues, the lyrics and the performances, the same, Viswanath personal movies had a way of holding audience's attention sympathizing with the struggle that the artist undergoes, making them identify with his pain, loss, suffering and finally his triumph and success. The mould, howevermuch, beaten and oft repeated has the advantage of being utterly sensitive to his struggles providing a unique cathartic experience when he meets success at the end. Nobody would feel bad for the loss of life of Balu at the end of "saagara sangamam", for, the audience knows that because "naasti taeshaam yasah kaaye, jaraa maraNajam bhayam" (the common rules of age and death do not apply to body of art (adulation)), Balu lives through in the art that he has successfully passed down to Sailaja. Nobody would feel cheated for the end of the life of Sankara Sastry, for he died a man in peace seeing the successful transition of his wishes, hopes and aspirations in preserving the torch of art and culture in Sankaram and the experience of watching such intensely personal stories ending on such triumphant notes, on some level, provide an opportunity to the audience to reinforce their views on their great culture and rich heritage. The social themes, howevermuch reflective of the current society, remain observational, at best, and impersonal, at worst. "sootradharulu" tackles with the subjugation and reformation of the bestial instincts in the man by instilling a voice of reason, by appealing to the sensibilities that made him a part of the society in the first place. Grappling with such a theme, and set against the typical subdued atmosphere that Viswanath's themes commonly operate under, "sootradharulu" failed to make violence more personal and identifiable whereupon when the villian character finally reforms for good, the exercise becomes an act of mere observation than identification (compare this scene to a moment in "Gandhi", when Om Puri character renounces his weapons and his ways at the fasting bed of Gandhiji throwing a piece of Chapathi at him to break his fast, Gandhiji asks why he took to weapons in the first place. Puri (character) replies that he had his 2 year old killed by the muslims and as an act of revenge he started bashing any 2 year old muslim kid that come across his ways against the walls. The moment holds on the disturbed faces of both Gandhiji and Puri. Gandhiji clears his throat and advises Puri to find a 2 year Muslim kid, whose parents have been killed in the violence, and raise him as his own kid, but raise him Muslim. Puri watches him for a couple of seconds and falls at his feat. Now the audience clearly understands the agony of Puri and the greatness of Gandhiji for such an advice. This is one of many ways of making violence personal, identifiable and reformable).


Through a small body of work (that do not exceed 25 movies), Viswanath created a world of deeply impressionable characters occupying a world that is not set in fantasy and unrealistic ground, caring immensely about passions that resonate in them from deep within. Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao once said that there are only two makers in the industry that never shied away from their true paths, no matter the box-office pressures and producers' guidelines - one is K.Viswanath and the other R.Narayana Murthy. A successful movie is just not one that regales the audience momentarily showing them a good time and giving them their monies worth. A successful movie is one that remains with the audience for a long time, automatically extending its lifeline with the passing timelines, making them not only entertained but, more importantly, enlivened of having had the experience of walking with the maker, meeting with the characters that make the audience privileged and proud for having known them and undergoing the process of transitions and transformations that are cathartic and enriching to not just the characters themselves, but also to the audience. If success is measured on thus on a graph of time vs merit, K.Viswanath remains the one of most successful film-makers that telugu industry has ever known, who has shown the extent of a sensible mind to not just the telugu audience but also to the national and international film enthusiasts.

End.