How long will bowlers be given a raw deal?       

                                                                                                                              

The sudden (not shocking for me, at least) retirement announcement by Ashwin in the midst of a series in Australia has brought into the spotlight the raw deal given by successive Coaches,  Captains, the Selection Committee, and the BCCI to the bowlers in general and Ashwin in particular for the last 3-4 years.    

Even before Ashwin's father went public, an average cricket follower could make out that the sudden retirement announcement by Ashwin, the world premium spin bowler, had come due to frustration with the humiliating way he had been treated by captains like Virat and Rohi, coaches like Shastri, Rahul and Ghambir and the Selection Committee.  

Why the difference yardsticks?

Though batters and bowlers play equally important roles in a cricket team's success, from time immemorial, different yardsticks have been applied to batters and bowlers' selections for a series first and then picking them up in the final eleven to play any match.

While the 4-5 front-line batters select themselves and their places are permanently fixed as if they have put fevicol on their backs, it’s a musical chair as far as bowlers are concerned.  Any batter who has shown consistency for 3-4 years and became popular by performance on and off the field can consider his position permanent despite running into poor form for a very long time also.   They are given long rope test after test and series after series till they regain the form and hit a half-century or a century giving a sigh of relief more to the coach, and selectors than themselves and are given another 5-10 matches and it goes on and on.    A cursory glance at the career of Rishab Pant, and Virat records in the last 5 years can demonstrate this trend on the part of the Selection Committee, Coaches and Captains.  But it's not any new trend but it is an old-age practice, at least from 1975 onwards when I started following the game.  

Bowlers have to prove themselves all the time

As per the expectation of the Selection Committee, Coaches and Captains, bowlers have to prove themselves all the time and even the most premium bowlers are not assured of their place in the 15-member squad for a series or the final eleven.   So many factors like the reputation of the ground/pitch to be pace bowler or spin-friendly, the weather condition on the day of the match, the batting lineup of the opposition and their vulnerabilities, all these factors are taken into consideration to make even the world top premium bowler to sit out and warm the benches and accommodate and give another chance to a pedestrian batter to justify their selection and cement his position which is shaking badly. But no such consideration has ever been applied while considering a batter selection, like bouncy pitch, vulnerability of the batter against bouncers, fishing outside the off stump and dancing to the spinners.  

                                                                                              

                                                                                             

In mid-70s no one dared to think of dropping Gavaskar, Vishwanath or Vegsarkar despite whatever form they were in for a long period specially in the case of Vishwanath.    During the same period, there used to be tossing amongst Bedi, Chandra, Prasanna and Venkataraghavan and more specially the latter two – all those four world-class spinners would have walked into any team final eleven as the first choice.   Not to speak of Karsan Ghavri, Madan Lal, Binny who used to manage get a look at only after selectors and team management has finished packing the team with as many batters as possible.   You will be shocked to know when none of those bowlers or one of them found favours from the Team management, it was Gavaskar who used to bowl 2-3 three overs before spinners took over a 5-6 over old ball and bowled beautifully right throughout the innings.   This was a time and on those pitches when Australia, England opted for 4 front-line pacers and WI 5.     But team management at that time never thought it necessary for team-building to give a long and consistent run to the military medium-pace bowlers like Binny and Madan Lal to improve their skills and be a permanent feature like the batters.  

You fast forward to the early 2000 you have tock solid batting lineup comprising of likes of  Saurav, Sehwag, Rahul, Sachin, VVS and later Dhoni, and it was a crime even to think of dropping any of them for any reason except injury.   Even when Sachin had tennis elbow issues, it was left to him if he chose to play or not and he played many tests though he was not match fit fully.   During the same period, we had star bowlers and match winners in the form of Zaheer Khan, Kumble, Harbhajan, J Srinath, Ishant Sharma, and Umesh Yadav, and all of them were never assured of their place in the final eleven as that of the batters referred to above.   The present pack of batters with fevicals on their backs are Virat, Rohit, Pant, as against match winners bowler/all-rounders like Sami, Siraj, Kuldeep, Chahal, Jadeja and world best spinner Aswin who are forced to play musical chairs and the best sitting out for many matches/series. 

The shameful treatment meted out to Ashwin

In recent times the best thing to happen for Indian cricket after Kumble is Ashwin.  He is the best contemporary spinner, intelligent, attacking and wicket-taking spinner. In every parameter, the number of wickets taken, his strike rate, averages and the fast clip he took from 50 to 500 wickets is phenomenal and he was at par with Virat Kohli.   He was on the right course to break the record held by Kumble as the highest wickets taker and Warne record and might have just fallen short of Muralidharan’s record of 800 wickets.   Compared to Kumble, Warne and Murali, he is a far better batter and scored 6 test centuries which many players who played for India as batters in 30 – 40 tests have also not scored.    But for some strange reasons, he was never considered as an all-rounder but on the other hand whenever he was dropped and Jadeja was favoured for his all-around abilities were put forth as the reason. 

 The shameful treatment of the most premium bowler Ashwin started under Virat Kohli's captaincy, and Ravi Shastri was at the helm as a Coach.    There was a time when Virat was all-conquering and racing in the chase to break Sachin’s records, most of them he did and the 100 hundreds looked to be within his reach.   Naturally, he has become the poster boy and darling of advt agencies.    For some strange reason, in Indian cricket when a player, mostly batters/captains reaches such an unassailable position they develop a sense of insecurity about losing that unassailable position by someone as talented as they are and contributing more than them.  Gavaskar had with Kapil, Dhoni had with Sehwag and Gambhir.    In the Indian scenario, though in popularity charts bowlers never succeed in being as popular as or more popular than the batters, Kohli started feeling a sense of insecurity with Ashwin being around.    Taking advantage of his being captain and the `you starch my back and I scratch your back’ understanding he has with team Coach Ravi Shastri, he started giving the cold shoulder to Ashwin, and to the shock of his fans, he was dropped from match after match and also not picked up in many series.   For me it was as bad as dropping Gavaskar, Sachin, Virat at their peak which of course is unthinkable.    It went on for such long time that for over 3 years, Virat was going pathetic form with centuries completely dried and after close to 3 years he scored a century and in tests, in the last 5 years he scored only 3 centuries.    So during this period if there is one who should give way to any other player including Ashwin it was Kohli but he was accommodated in every match and in every form and during the same period Ashiwn was made to sit on the bench in many tests and limited over games.   It has become so brazen that many ex-captains of India and other countries, writers, and commentators cried horse how a match-winning premium bowler like Aswin can be made to sit out.    Had he been playing for any other country, he would have been the first person whose name would be written in final 11 picked up to play any match specially a Test match.   But whatever is written and said, did not affect the captain, coach and the ecosystem created by them.    The fate and treatment of Ashwin has not changed in a big way under Rohit captaincy and Rahul as Coach.   Things improved a bit immediately after Gambhir took over as a Coach, but it looked like Rohit started to prevail over the Coach in recent times to accommodate the average performer like Virat, himself and his fav Jadeja.    Ashwin was pushed to a breaking point, and his not being picked in 2 matches in Australia and the upcoming England series has become the last straw on the camel's back to announce retirement amid an away series.   Every cricket follower, including PM of India, felt that he had a couple of years of cricket left in him.   If we take into consideration the number of matches Kohli has dropped Ashwin would have taken a minimum 100 wickets more than what he has taken and had he played for a couple of years more, he would have ended his career as the highest wicket-taker of India and the second highest wicket-taker in the World.   But unfortunately, that was not to be, and despite pathetic shows and averages in recent times Virat and Rohit keep blocking two seats in the final eleven.  

Cricket has been reduced to a batter game

When only test cricket was played, Batters and Bowlers had a level playing field.   The bowlers – both Pace bowlers and spinners – made the game as interesting and attractive as the batters.   For every Viv Richards, Lloyd, and Greenidge you have Andy Roberts, Holding, Garner and Marshal, for every Chappel brother, you have Thomas and Lillie, for every Gavaskar and Viswanath you have a Bedi, Chandra and Prasanna and Venkat and for every Miadad and Zaheer Abbas you have Imran and Sarfaraz.   I vividly remember the magical spin web cast by Bedi, Chandra, Prasanna and Venkat around top Australian bowlers in their backyard in 1977 series.   We should not forget that most innocuous-looking military medium bowlers like Mohinder, Madan and Binny have successfully defended a very modest total against the star-studded and destructive batting lineup of West Indies in the final of 1983 world cup win.  Who can forget Bumrah’s magical spell, which was ably supported by Arshdeep and Hardik when the World Cup final was all but lost?  

But over a period of time, specially after the advent of limited-over cricket in the form of 60/50 overs a side matches was first introduced by a disgruntled media mogul Carry Paker who failed to bag TV streaming rights from the Australian Cricket Board.   The limited overs matches caught the imagination of youth who need quick fixes and all of them always liked the bat dominating the ball and taking an aerial route popularised by greats like Sobbers, Tiger Pataudi, Viv Richards has become the norm of the game, especially in limited over matches.

The `Tamasha’ called IPL

As if 50 overs aside limited-over matches are not enough T20 matches have become popular – first among the test-playing countries, then came the Tamasha called IPL.    It has redefined the way cricket is played, marketed, revenue generated, and player put on auction and getting picked up at a vulgar price tag, much higher than what the respective Boards of different countries pay to their player for playing for the entire year, in just 45 days.   

Thanks to the tremendous efforts of Jag Mohan Dalmia, the tainted Lalit Modi and Srinivasan, the revenue generation of IPL for BCCI and to all franchise, players and support staff running into hundreds is phenomenal and way ahead of anyone’s imagination.    ICC has come under complete control of BCCI and happily plays a subordinate role, and the wish of BCCI and its President is a command to ICC.   With every player from every country permitted by BCCI to play in IPL matches (except Pakistan), happy to offer himself for auction and the Boards of all test-playing countries have no option but to bend their backs and keep the window of 45 days clear for IPL to avoid their player boycotting matches under their respective Boards, the way the WI players have done.  

With media and telecasting rights going as high as over 40 thousand crores and a huge amount at stake, there is a huge pressure to make IPL colourful, entertaining, thrilling, and reducing cricket to a tamasha at mega proportions.   As in the case of 50-over matches, in T20, everyone wants to have a high-scoring match, and the batter butchering the bowlers hitting sixes and four all the time reducing the bowlers like Bowling machines.   The entire game has become non-sophisticated, non-traditional, and rustic and every rule was skewed against the bowlers and in favour of batters.    The bowlers are still expected to tell the umpire from which side of the wicket he is bowling and by which arm he is bowling but the batter is not under any obligation to bat with the hand and side he is talking the guard and switch sides after the bowler bowls the ball, thus making a mockery of the field set by the captain and the bowler.   The batters are allowed to continuously move in the crease before, at the time of release of the ball by the bowling thus distracting the bowlers and the margin for declaring wides and no balls is heavily stacked against the bowlers.    Going by what batters are doing, why not allow bowlers to switch the ball from one hand to the other and bowl with whichever hand he is comfortable bowling and also allow bowlers to dodge the bowlers the way batters keep moving in the crease and go for reverse sweeps and switch hits and hitting over the head.    There is a limit of the number of overs a bowler can bowl 12 in case of 50 overs and 4 in case of T20 but there is no such restrictions for a batter, in some matches, the opener has carried his bat through.   Why not put the same restriction on the batter that he has to retire after playing 24 balls or allow a bowler who is in good form to bowl 10 overs (the maximum that can be bowled from one side) at the discretion of the captain? 

Commercialisation of the Game    

With the phenomenal money generation by IPL/BCCL, the game and the players have been commercialised to the core.   For the first time, starting with Sachin, huge efforts have started to develop players as brands and the celebrity management agencies cropped up in a big way.   Mark Mascarenhas was a pioneer who managed Sachin brand for many years and the one who got him the first Rs. 100 crores brand endorsement, a figure never heard before.    These professional agencies do whatever it takes to keep the brand value of their client players  high and, amongst other things, ensure that their clients are picked up in the final eleven so that their brand value does not get affected.    That is what justifies Kohli still figuring in the final 11 of a test team, despite below par 30 plus average for a premier batter like him for one or two but five long years.   Unfortunately, premium bowlers like Ashwin and Bumrah are never the darling of Advt agencies and axe has always fallen on someone like Ashwin and I will not be surprised if at some future point of time, it happens to the other most valuable player of Indian cricket Boom Boom Bumrah to accommodate some favourite child Pant. 

Despite the raw deal given, Ashin you are a true champion player and a decent and thorough gentleman.  A glorious chapter will be written on you in India's cricket history and people talk in equal measure about what you have achieved with ball and bat and what you could have achieved, but for the dirty politics.  

Have a glorious post retired life. 

S. Prabhakar

21.12.2024

 

 

`NATU NATU NAILS IT’ – BAGS FIRST OSCAR FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Today is an historic day for Telugu/Indian cinema, `Natu Natu’ song from RRR becomes the first Indian movie to wins Oscar for `Best original song’.   It’s a `double dhamaka’ for India as `Elephant Whispers’ has won Oscar for best documentary short movie.   Its is a cute movie on relationship between orphan elephant and the kind-hearted who bring them up.  

What worked for Natu Natu

Unlike movies of the rest of the world specially Hollywood, songs and dances are the integral and most attractive part of Indian cinema taking the story telling forward.   With most of the top Telugu stars being good dancers lot of importance is given to songs and are mounted lavishly bettering movie after movie.    The following factors have come together in right proportion to make Natu Natu such a sensation hit and a raze:

i.                     The original and rustic lyrics by Chandra Bose

ii.                   The original and native music by Keeravani.  

iii.                 The energetic singing by young and new singers Kaala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj

iv.                 Fantastic choreography by Prem Rakshith

v.                   Sensational, synchronised and most energetic dancing by Jr. NTR and Ram Charan who looked like mirror image of each other.

vi.                 The importance of the song in the movie, in a way the win over colonial swollen heads and Komaram Bheem with the help of his friend winning the heart of Jenny

vii.                DVV Danayya, the producer of the movie, who liberally opened his cash chest for Rajamouli and giving him complete freedom  

viii.              Kartikeya pushing the idea of the song and Rajmouli conceiving the song the way it came on the screen.  Like in all aspect of his film making, he extracted the best out of his team of Choreographer, actors and not letting anyone go till they delivered what he has in mind.   It was reported that he took some 60 retakes till he got perfect synchronisation by both top stars Jr. NTR and Ram Charan which was really difficult task considering that both the actors had their own different styles of dancing with huge fan base.

The Originality:

Many times we find songs being copied/inspired/adopted from some other song/source whether Indian or Western, classical or hip hop.  But the best part of `Natu Natu’ is that both the lyrics and the music are absolutely original and rooted in Indianness .  Since the heros were to give back the brant Britishers for the insult in trying to throw them out, they had to present an absolute Indian original song with Indian beats.   Chandra Bose and Keeravani have succeeded in doing so.  Few of the words used in the song. 

Natu – Naitivity

Pollamgattu Dummulona – Dust of the fields

Potlagitta – Raging Bull

Poleramma Jataralo -  the village fare of `Poleramma’

Kirruseppu – village foot ware which makes creaking sound 

Karrasamu – Stick fight

Errajonna rotte – Bread made of maize

 

The entire song goes on in the same lines.   These rustic and earthy lyrics was supported by fantastic music which starts slowly and builds up tempo to final climax without using any western or modern beats.  

The long journey to Oscars

It may not be a walk in the park for Natu Natu but the huge hype created for the last 3 months or so specially in US made things easy for it.    The rousing reception the song got in US theatres with people dancing on the stage in theatres as has been done in single screen theatres in Telugu States, the song winning Golden Globe award and many more American Critics’ Awards all worked in its favour.   Even when the song was announced and performed by the singers and US dancers at the awards function it got a standing ovation which is not so common.

The Royal Snub by I&B Ministry

The passage of Natu Natu to Oscar was anything but smooth and almost a nonstarter.  At the cost of being blamed for triggering regional divide, as always happens I&B Ministry didn’t have a real hard look at the southern movies when it comes to Padma Award or sending it to Oscars.    Despite stupendous success neither Bahubali nor RRR were sent to Oscars as official entries in any category.    Both movies deserved to be the official Indian entry in the categories for Best movie, Best Director, Best visual effects beside Best Original Song for Natu Natu in RRR.   The I&B Ministry has given a royal snub to RRR.  But once the Oscar is won everyone including I&B Minister and PM is jumping into congratulate the RRR to make India proud which their Ministry almost denied.   They should first bother to check what is wrong with I&B Ministry.  

Anyone in the position of Rajamouli would have felt disappointed and let it go.   But the team of Rajaouli and his talented son Kartikeeya who was the line producer of RRR did not get disheartened and started to work their way to Oscars.   First, they applied in `for your consideration in general category’ Then they organised the screening of RRR in Oscar approved theatres and simultaneously created the right kind of buzz through TV chat shows in various American Channels and interacting with audience in theatres by the Director Rajamouli, two leading stars Jr NTR and Ram Charan who camped for a long time in US despite their busy schedules.  They spent huge amount of time, efforts and money to promote not only their movie and song but brand India.   

As a prelude to Oscars Natu Natu which faced the toughest competition from top stars like lady Gaga has created history by winning Golden Globe Award for Best Original song.    This has made the RRR team feel that they are in with a very good chance to win Oscar and then came the good news of its being nominated for Oscars.   Thus Natu Natu has become the first Indian entry to make it to nomination stage coming through `for your consideration general category’ and ultimately won the Oscar, - first in the 80 years history of Telugu film industry.   In a way it is a tight slap on the face of Committee of Duds appointed by I&B Ministry who did everything to ensure that India would not have got Oscars.

M M Keeravani : It is ultimate glory to the highly talented and sober Telugu music director MM Keeravani.   Though he is not as prolific as other leading music directors in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi in which he scores music with different names `Marakathamani’ and `MM Kreem’, his music has always been unique, special and original.   Besides tunes for the songs, his Background Music has always been outstanding.    It is taken to dizzy heights first in Bahabali I & II and then RRR.   Many of the larger than life scenes of Bahubali were brought to life by the fabulous back ground score of  Keeravani,    I always had the feeling that it is music directors like Keeravani and Illayaraja (another hugely talented music director and my all-time favourite) who could bring international laurels to India.

Rajamouli’s Magic

Anything said in the praise of Rajamouli becomes repetitive but in this moment of glory I cannot help but salute this unparallel talent called Rajamouli.    First he broke industrial records in Telugu taking movies to such massive and unbelievable heights movie after movie starting from Magadheera.   His spending large time with his father on building the story, conceiving each and every frame, constructing massive sets, extensive use of special effects and spending highly disproportionate time on postproduction to bring out a product never seen before in India cinema.    The Telugu market being small (not more than Rs. 100 crores at the max during pre-Bahubali era) he set his eyes on an unprecedented PAN India release of Telugu movie and had producers backing and came out with historic and record breaking Bahubali franchise.    While Bahubali became a sensational PAN India blockbuster, with RRR he built a Global brand and market for Telugu/Indian movies.   Apart from winning many critics’ awards as director of RRR, he got special praise from top Hollywood big wigs including Spielberg and Cameron who indicated their interest to collaborate with him.    Now any movie which he makes hereafter will not only be a PAN India movie but a global movie.    He has already announced his next venture with Telugu heart throb Mahesh Babu, a jungle action adventure which suits international audience.    With that I am sure that Rajamouli is going to do another first – The First Telugu/Indian Global movie.  

Till then let us celebrate the success of Natu Natu and keep grooving to the wonderful tune while I&B Ministry figures out why their team could not see what the world could see and appreciate so generously. 

A Big Thanks to Keeravani and Rajamouli for not only producing such a sensational song Natu Natu but for all the special efforts made in promoting the song and brand India .   

 

S. Prabhakar

13.3.2023

Shankarabharanam creator K Vishwanath’s Sivakyam

2^nd February, 2023 is one of the saddest days for Telugu movies goers when one of the greatest sons of `Telugu kalamataalli’ Writer, Director and Actor K Vishwanatnath passed away after a long and fulfilling life of 92 years.    He achieved everything what one could imagine and much beyond and called it a day graceful and left the world peacefully without much  of pain leaving behind legacy of masterpieces which will be referred to by generations to come.  

One of the Greatest :  K Vishwanath is unarguably one of the greatest Directors Telugu cinema and Indian cinema has produced.   Many people follow a trend and succeed, few create a trend which others follow but the greatness of K Vishwanth lies in the fact that he created a trend which no other could follow either his contemporaries or Director who came to the industry much later.  He only had that conviction and competence not to follow the trend and express helplessness and blame the audience for their poor tastes.  He stood out to create a new trend lapped up by the audience during same period when decay has started.     In 70s and 80s when action movies full of violence and vulgarity were at their peak and used to struggle to get censor board certificates even with huge cuts (Sholay and Quarbani to name a few) K Vishwanath has made movies in dozens with central themes of classical singers, classical dancers and other performance artists, women oriented movies and many socially relevant subjects.   Most of the movies were made at shoestring budgets but turned out to be not only super hit commercially but won many state and national awards for him, actors, singers, music directors and other technicians.  

The following facts will make him stand towering over many of the run of the mill Directors and he does not have peers in this respect.

·        Most of his movies did not have an action director, action scenes or murders or killings.

·       No club dances/items number in any of his movies

·      Whether it is a Telugu movie or Hindi movie released in 80s and 90s also, his heroin always wore Sarees, put big bindis, bangles and other ornaments.   Who says cine goers did not have taste?

·      None of his movie were made on a huge budget, no big sets, no shoot in foreign locales, no special effects

·     Most of the songs of his movies were based on classical ragas and none had any disco music or pop songs

·    Almost of all movies have social relevant topics like untouchability, plight of classical singers, dancers, musicians, specially challenged people like blind, dumb etc.    Any other producers and director would have been scared on thought of making a movie on such subjects and K Vishwanath has made movie after movie on these subjects.

·      In all his movies the hero, heroin and leading actors are absolutely normal and the like we find next door and mostly deglamourized.   Its is true not only to newcomers, and small actors but to the top stars like Chiranjeevi, Kamal Hassain, Mamoothy, Anil Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Jaya Prada, Vijaya Shanti and Bhanu Priya

The following additional information will show how much conviction he had in the subjects he chose, his commitment in sticking to the central theme without any commercial compromises and pulling out super hits movie after movie:

1.     Sirisiri Muvva (later remade in Hindi as Sargam) : Heroin is a dumb daner

2.     Shankarabharanam : the story of a classical singer who struggles to uphold the glory of classical music diminishing in popularity under the influence of western music

3.    Sagara Sangamam : The story of an young talent classical dancer who is denied his well deserved recognition turns alcoholic and gets recognition while on death bed

4.    Srutilayalu : the story of classical singer who wants to set up a Music school and his own sons trained in classical music but commercialise their talent to become rich.

5.    Saptapadi : Untouchability and story of a temple priest getting his daughter in law remarried to an untouchable whom she loves before her marriage to his son.

6.   Swarna Kamalam : Story of poor plight of classical dancer and artist and his daughter of  disliking classical dance seeing his poor financial status

7.       Swati mutyam (remade in Hindi as Eeswar) : story of a mentally challenged adult taken care of a lady

8.       Sirivennela : story of a blind flutist.    Hari Prasad Chaurasia played plute for this movie

9.       Swayamkrushi : story of rags to riches of a cobbler who believes in hard work

10.   Swatikiranam : story of a classical singer suffering from inferiority complex with a child prodigy forcing him to commit suicide

These are few of the examples of how K Vishwanath chartered a path very successfully which no other director could ever follow and preferred to churn masala commercial movies.  

Early career : Like many film personalities,  K Vishwanath too had a very modest beginning.   He started his career as Assistant Director of iconic Telugu movie Patala Bhairavi.   For some strange reasons, despite the stupendous success and cult status of Patala Bhairavi, K Vishwanath, stayed away from Direction for over 14 years and focused on being sound recordist.   He debuted as Director in 1965 with ANR starrer Gauravam, which was not only a huge commercial success but won Nandi award for best Telugu movie of that year.    Between 1965 and 1980 he made many successful women-oriented movies like Chelleli Kapuram, Kalam Marindi Sharada, Jeevana Jyoti etc.  All these four movies apart from being commercially successful won Nandi awards.  

The Stupendously successful Shankarabharanam :  When we talk about K Vishwanath career or Telugu cinema we refer to two eras – the Pre Shankarabharanam and post Shankarabharanam.   Written and directed by K Vishwanath, the movie shows the plight of a famous classical singer’s desperate effort to save classical music from being swept away by the influence of Western music on youth.    As if taking a huge risk of picking up such subject for a full length movie is not enough, after considering top stars like A Nageswara Rao and Shivaji Ganesan, he zeroed on J Somayajulu, who was serving as a Government servant and debuted with the movie.   It was K Vishwanath talent in spotting talent and carving them which brought best out of J Somayajulu to make every cine goer felt that he was born for that role and no one else could suit better than him.   Though he was tad unluckly to miss national award by whisker, his performance was rated by Forbes as 25 greatest performance of India cinema.   Not only J Somayajulu every actor who acted in the movie were small time actors and when it was released without much fan fare after initial uncertainty it hit like tsunami not only in Andhra Pradesh but all over India specially Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.   It has been screened in various international film festivals and won awards.   In poll conducted by CNN IBN Shankarabharanam came eleventh in greatest Indian films.    It has won 4 national awards and 7 state Nandi awards.   It was the first PAN India movie which word we started listening post Bahubali.   Understandably it has become a successful formula which though none of his peers in any language could follow, but he belted over a dozen successful movies in similar themes in the next 15 years which can be referred to be the Golden Era of Vishawanatham.

Director the captain of the ship :  One of the greatest services done by K Vishwanath was bringing back the glory to Director.    After greats likes B N Reddy in 1950s, its during Viswanath era movies started to be referred and sold with name of Director.   This legacy was taken ahead by his contemporary Director Bapu and Raghavendra Rao, Dasari and now Rajamouli who followed him.  Producers, any actor of any standing like Chiranjeevi and Kamal hassain had so much faith in his conviction on a subject of a movie they used to surrender themselves.    Every actor used to consider it an honour to work in a movie directed by K Vishwanath and never bothered about their image in commercial movies while working with him in off beat low budget movies.   As can be expected, for all these top stars the movie they acted under his direction remained landmark movies in their career.   But K Vishwanath never signed any actor who has not suited the character he conceived.    He never banked on the star power to pull his movie though he directed all tops star viz., NTR, ANR, Krishna, Shoban Babu, Chiranjeevi, Kamal Hassain, Venkatesh, Mamoothy, Anil Kaoor, Rishi Kapoor, Jayaprada, and Vijayashanti .    Whether giving break to old and pot-bellied J Somayajulu in Shankarabharanam or signing up an unknown Bannerjee in Sirivennela, debutants Ravi shankar and Ravikanth in Saptapadi he always went for those who suit the role.  

Another best quality of K Vishwanath was apart from the leading actor assaying the main roles, all other support actors used to have definite roles and he extracted best out of them.   His direction and conceiving of the roles used to be so impactful that many actors who had even 5 minutes roles are remembered after many years – Whether it is Alluri Ramalingayya and Sakshi Ranga Rao in Shankarabharanam, Mitra in Swarna kamalam in 5 minutes role as a Government officer who insults a scholar, or the young boy who takes photos of Kamal Hassain in Sagara Sangamam.

Hands on Director: Every actor who has worked with K Vishwanath vouch that he is a hands-on director.    He used to conceive entire scene to be shot and not only explains to the actors but act and show it to actors.   Many actors used to get amused that if in a scene there is a lead actor, actress and comedian he used to act the part of all 3 and show and never leave till actor delivered the way he conceived the scene.  

Great Human being : K Vishwanath was known to treat not only the leading actors but everyone on the sets with lot of respect and affection.    There was a time when all the support staff on the floor other than actors were required to wear khakhi dress.   Only producer and director were exempted from this requirement.    But K Vishwanath, to make every technician to treat him as one among them and to ensure that arrogancy of being Director and captain of the ship does not go to his head, he always wore Khakhi dress while on the floor for shooting.  

Ear for Music : Being trained and worked for over 14 years as a sound recordist, K Vishwanath has a fantastic ear for music.   In almost all the 52 movies he directed the music and songs were super hit and were the life line of the movies and contributed a lion’s share in the success of his movies, specially after Shankarabharanam.   First he used to sit with the lyricist like Veturi, Seetarama Shastry and others and get fantastic lyrics written and then sit with music directors and singers for hours together till he got what he wanted.   With Shankaranabharanam, K Vishwanath has given a new lease of life to S P Balasubramaian.   By his own admission SPB was not sure of his ability to sing purely classical based song and requested him to take Yesudas or Ramakrishna who had strong classical background.   But K Vishwanath had more faith on SPB than SPB had on himself and trained him under Puhalendi (assistant to music director KV Mahadevan) and made him sing all the songs and as they say rest is history.   Not only songs of Shankarabharanam became sensational hits but SPB has won National award for the song of the movie.   Dozen movies after Shankarabharanam directed by K Vishwanath were sensational music hits.   For most of his movies music was scored by his favourite music director K V Mahadevan, after his death he collaborated with Illayaraja for Sagara Sangamam and Swati mutyam and then with Keeravani.

Foray into Hindi industry : Besides 42 Telugu movies, K Vishwanath has directed 10 movies most of them remake of his successful Telugu movies.   Out of Hindi movies directed by him Sargam, Kaamchor, Shubkamna and Eeswar were popular and hit movies.   

Awards galore: K Vishwanath has won national award 5 times Nandi award 7 times, Filmfare award 10 times in Telugu and once in Hindi.   He was conferred Padmashir and Dada Sahedb Phalke award, and Raghupati Venkayya award.    He also won international awards – Prize of Public at Film Festival, France and special mention at Moscow International film festival.

Apart from K Vishwanath, many who worked with him in his movies also won many prestigious awards.  Some of the national awards won:

Vani Jairam – won 2 national awards for Shankarabharanam and Swati Kiranam

SPB - won 2 national awards for Shankarabharanam and Sagara Sangamam

Illayaraja - won 1 national award for Sagara Sangamam

KV Mahadevan - won 1 national award for Shankarabharanam

Edida Nageswara Rao - won 1 national award for Shankarabharanam

 

Besides this many have won State awards and film fare awards.

Withstood caste discrimination: Howsoever people may deny, the Telugu industry is rife with caste politics by Kammas and Reddys earlier and Kapus later.    Others in the industry belonging to other castes specially Brahmins were looked down upon, supressed and not allowed to come up.    They and their talents and command over language were used only for story writing, lyrics and dialogues.   K Vishwanath has not only withstood the discrimination but also encouraged Brahimin artists and maintained excellent relations with all others.    S P Balasubramaian and Chandramohan (both his cousins), and many artists, lyricist got great support from K Vishwsanath.  K Vishwanath's greatest gift to Telugu industry has been two gems of lyricists Veturi Sundararama murthy and Sirivennala Seetarama Shastry   

Commanded respect:  One of the best qualities of K Vishwanath is that though he was in the film industry for over 60 years he stayed away from any controversies and commanded respect from actors, producers, fellow directors, music directors, lyricists and singers.  It was not only during  his prime as director but till he breathed his last.   Not only top actors like Chirajeevi who are in Hyderabad used to visit his house frequently specially on his Birthdays, but actors like Kamal and Anil Kapoor used to make it a point to visit and take his blessings whenever they used to come to Hyderabad.   Politicians across all parties including both CMs KCR and Jagan used to visit his house and felicitate him.  

My Father favourite: K Vishwanath is a favourite of our entire family, Even our father who was not a big-time movie buff used to like him and his movies and when he retired in 1990 we purchased dozen video cassettes of all Vishwanath movies and he used to watch them often including Shankarabharanam and Sagara Sangamam   

K Vishwanath has stopped directing for somewhere around 2000 and for next 10 years and assigned some memorable roles including Shuba Sankalpam.  It is a sheer coincidence that the movie which brought fame Shankarabharanam was released on 2nd February, 1980 and he died on the 40th Anniversary of its relase on 2nd February 2023.  The contribution of K Vishwanath to Telugu and Indian film industry is enormous and path breaking.    There is no parallel to him in providing clean and whole some entertainment.   As long as film industry is there, K Vishwanath name will live on.  

I strongly feel Government of India or atleast the Telugu State Governments should constitute an award for best direction in the name of K Vishwanath.  

Om Shanti

S. Prabhakar

3.2.2023

 

 

Natu Natu – song from RRR has put an Indian movie song on World stage.  

What a great achievement - a Telugu song full of rustic rural lyrics, original tune, full of energy and rhythm has won Golden Globe award for Best original song award facing tough competition from top international stars like Lady Gaga, Rihana and Taylor Swift.  Not only the first Indian but first Asian movie song to win this honours a proud movement for Telugu and Indian film industry.

Hearty congratulations to brothers Keeravani and Rajamouli, lyricist Charabose, singers Rahul Sipliganj and Kala Bhairava.   A Special appreciation to Prem Rakshit for fantastic choreography and Ram Charan and Jr. NTR for their most energetic and synchronized dancing.   The way the song with dance has shaped up and come on the screen has helped the song to become so popular globally and stake claims at Golden globe and Oscars.   It is very common in Telugu states for frenzy audience to get up on seats, throw colour papers, currency notes and move towards the screen and dance when such song and dance sequences come on the screen.   But watching audience doing so and get on the stage and dancing to ‘Natu Natu’ number is a unique and unusual experience.   RRR broke record on Netflix by being on the top of charts for 15 weeks consecutively.   Though released in USA, UK Europe and Japan much after release by Netflix on OTT, the movie is still going very strong at box office.   The US media and critics have given very wide and positive coverage to RRR and it proved to be a real cross over movie beyond both Telugu states not only in India but all across the Globe.

Keeravani : Keeravani is one of the most talented and original Telugu music directors.   He scores music in Hindi movies with the name of Kreem and Maragatamani in Tamil. The specialty of Keeravani is that in every song each note comes out very clearly and it is never sound and fury.   His Telusamanasa/Tum mile dil khile from Criminal, Jamuratri jabilamma from Khanam Khanam, Awarapan Banjarapan from Jism, Pachabottesina from Bahubali and all songs of Anamayya and many more songs showcase his talent.    Apart from music for the songs, he is specialized in giving fantastic background score. He has taken background score to dizzy heights in movies like Maghadheera, Bahubali 1&2 and RRR and the contribution of background score is at par with the computer graphics and special effects in creating out of the world experience.   As explained by Rajamouli he goes to the heart of the emotion of the scene and start working on the background score and take lot of time and efforts in coming out with the best.

Right from Magadheera, Eega, Bahubali to RRR Rajamouli is raising the bar which no other Indian director could match.   With these movies not only Rajamouli got Telugu movies recognition all over India by grossing highest box office collections but started PAN India culture for regional movies which hitherto was the bastion of Hindi movies.   With the success of RRR and his next venture with top Telugu star Mahesh babu with a whopping budget of around Rs. 1000 crores he can surely rub shoulders with top Hollywood directors.

Rajmouli realised NTR (sr) dream:

I am very happy that today Rajamouli has realized NTR dream.    NTR at peak of his career when he was essaying wide variety of roles viz., mythological, folklore, historical, social and action movies he felt constrained by the limited market of Telugu movies in the then united Andhra Pradesh.   He   used to say that Telugu movies, actors, technicians, directors and music directors deserve so much recognition at national and international level which was not forthcoming.   Great actors like NTR, SVR, Savitri, directors like BN Reddy, Dasari, Ragavendra Rao, music directors like S Rajeswara Rao, Ramesh Naidu, gifted and divine singers like Ghantasala and P Susheela could not get the recognition they deserved even at an all-India level not to speak at international level.  

Suppression by Bollywood

There is no denying of the fact that for decades regional cinema spcially south Indian and Telugu movies have been suppressed by Bollywood and for Bollywood and I&B Ministry of Government of India cinema means Hindi cinema and nothing beyond it.    When International Indian Film Academy Awards was constituted, it was given only to Hindi movies and Hindi filmy personalities as if the regional cinema is not part of India film industry.  South India cinema has come together as set up their own award SIMA to counter that move.   For getting any recognition or awards from the Government the regional cinema personalities have to put ten times more efforts than a Hindi filmi personality.   Chiranjeevi has shared many times how humiliated he felt that at a national awards function in Delhi which he attended to receive an award for his movie `Rudra Veena, he found photos of many Hindi stars like Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar etc., put up in the hall and not even a single photo of Telugu stars NTR & ANR who acted in more than 350 and 300 movies respectively, Malayalee actor Prem Nazir who acted over 650 movies, Shijavi Ganesa and Savitri, the greatest actress of Indian cinema was put up.  

 

A cursory glance at the below mentioned film personalities from south who were denied their well-deserved recognition will expose how deep the malice is.

NTR – acted in over 350 movies over 45 years (till he left the industry on his own to enter politics) essaying such wide variety of movies like Mythological, folklore, historical, social and action movies.   Only conferred Padmashri.   If there is one film personality who deserves Bharat Ratna, its NTR

SVR – greatest character actor and villain who acted in Telugu and Tamil movies.   First Indian actor to win an international award for his role in Telugu movie Nartanasala in Jakarta International film festival.   Not even conferred Padmashri.  

Savitri – the greatest actress India has ever produced.   Highest paid Indian actress in her hay days even more than Hindi actress of those days like Nargis Meena Kr etc.  Used to have more significant roles than NTR, ANR, MGR & Shivaji.   Not even conferred Padmashri

Vijayanirmala – a Telugu actress who has acted in over 200 movies and directed a world record number of 48 movies by a female director.   Not even conferred Padmashri.

Dasari Narayana Rao – a Telugu actor, producer, director, editor, lyricist, story and screenplay writer.   He directed a world record number of over 150 movies and not even conferred Padmashri

Raghavendra Rao – extremely successful and popular director who directed over 100 movies with over 90% box office successes - Not even conferred Padmashri

K Satyanaryana: - a Telugu Character actor, villain and comedian who has acted in over 750 movies in over 65 years of film career and not even conferred Padmashri

And the list goes on ……………

It is even difficult to imagine any Hindi actor, actress, director or producer with such longevity in the highly competitive cine fields with such trail blazing career in terms and quantity and quality and popularity.    Compared to the above, extremely ordinary performers with pedestrian credentials (acted hardly in less than 25 to 50 run of the mill movies) in a span of 10 to 15 years in Hindi film industry were given Padma awards and Dadasaheb Pakle award.  Sail Ali Khan, Kangana, Asha Parekh, Vidya Balan are few of the many examples.  

Overcoming adversary

But the Telugu and south Indian industry has never bogged down by the cold shouldering by the Bollywood and kept on its good work and keep raising the bar.   Thanks to Pandemic, the Indians have discovered the worth, talent and range of South Indian movies and got into habit of watching a quality and entertaining movie whichever language it may be coming from.  This has thoroughly exposed the Bollywood mediocracy and in the last 4-5 years it is feeling the heat from regional movies and completely lost its ground and market.  Hindi producers and actors are scared to release their movie around release of a south India top star movie as many south Indian movies made much higher box office collections in the Hindi heart land than Hindi movies. Top producers like Karan Johar are too happy distributing South India movies like Robo and Bahubali.  A look at 2022 box collections will show how south Indian movies have left Hindi movies far behind.

KGF-2      - 1275 crores

RRR         - 1272 crores

Vikram   -    480 crires

Kantara   -  400 crores

Pushpa 2 – 380 crores

Today Telugu and South Indian movies do not crave for any recognition from Bollywood the world is its stage.   Actors like Prabhas, Allu Arjun, Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Mahesh Babu are most sought-after actors and command anything around Rs. 80 to 100 crores per movie, producers queue up before directors like Raja Mouli and Shankar.   With PAN India market and good share from overseas market, the budget of Telugu and Tamil movies are going through the roof and every movie with a top star is planned at not less than 400 to 500 crores with confidence to mop up around Rs. 800 crores.   Moreover, unlike Bollywood for the financing of the movie they need to bank on sources across the border who control every aspect of film making.  The big size landlords and businessmen pump in large amounts into film production in Telugu industry and hence producers and director have freedom to make movies as per their conviction.    Earlier small time heroins and villains from Hindi cinema used to run after south Indian directors and now all top Bollywood actors are looking to get into one frame with Rajamouli and Shankar how so ever small the role may be.  OTTs are bombarded by South Indian movies and are the first choice of movie buff and the going is never so good for South Indian industry.  But other regional cinema viz., Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Assamee and Bhojpuri could not lift themselves and progress the way South India industry has done.   

It’s a shame that RRR was not shortlisted by Indian Government for Oscars but you find the I&B Minister thumping chest on RRR song winning Golden Globe.   Thanks to the efforts made by the producers, Rajamouli and leading actors who camped in US and gave a push and great momentum and made sure that it figures in eligibility list of Oscars in few categories.    Winning of Golden Globe award augurs well for RRR and gaining nomination and win Oscars.   Winning Oscars will be icing on the cake.     I wish good luck for the RRR team.

Hope it works as a wake-up alarm to the Government and Bollywood and they start treating all movies of all language equally

S. Prabhakar

12.1.23