Part 5

Continued from Part 4
The context is of an eloped teenage couple couped up in a hotel room spending their first time together alone away from the prying eyes of the world. There is as much innocence in that situation as there is curiosity. There is as much purity in that moment as there is prurience. "aaviri chigurO idi oopiri kaburO, swaati vAna laeta enDalO jaali navvu jaaji danDalO" comments Veturi on that situation stirring the pot up with "alivaeNi aaNi mutyamA, nee kanTa neeTi mutyama". The hesitation in approaching the moment, the vacillation in committing the deed evoking feelings of both tenderness and aggression at the same time, brought out so eloquently in Veturi's words "andAla ammakee, kundanAla kommakee, aDugu maDugu lottanaa meetagaa, avunaTae tappugaa..". While no amount of praise would do enough justice to Veturi's poetry, it is Jandhyala's choice that is equally commendable while handling such a potentially explosive and exploitative situation with kid's gloves, making it amply clear to the lyricist that the song should retain the same freshness and innocence that is usually associated with such situation, and any hint of slightest overtone should only resonate the inexperience of the couple, and consequently the result becomes - "kuduramaina bommakee, kuluku malle remmakee, nuduTa muddu peTTanaa boTTugaa, voddanTae voTTugaa...". Direction is not merely translating the words on paper to images on the screen, but it also involves extracting the right word from the lyricist pertient to the situation and getting the right tune to gell well with the worlds. And in Veturi Sundaramamurthy and Ramesh Naidu (and occasionally Rajen-Nagendra), Jandhyala found the right combination (mATa-pATa) to translate his vision on the screen.

A typical middle-class girl, with enough aspirations as to dream big, but with enough sensibilities too to reign in the dreams, tries to curb her blind enthusiasm (aasala tarangAlu, oohala keraTAlu egasegasi paDakunDa), constantly chiding herself to not get her hopes up, in perhaps what could be the most tender song to ever emanate from Veturi's pen - "manasA tuLLi paDakae, atigA aaSa paDakae, ataniki naenu nacchAnO laedO, aa subha ghaDiya vacchaenO raadO, tondara paDitae alusae manasA... telusA...". There is a mixed bag of emotions in this song. On one hand is constantly lurking a glint of optimism, hoping that everything might eventually turn out good for her, and on the other hand is the ever present danger of reality that might dash her hopes and crush her castles - "manasA ninnae maha andagADu, tanugA jatagA manakandi rADu, kalalApavae kanne manasA...". Softness is one word that could be used to describe the perpetual tone in Jandhyala's songs. There is a certain amount of reality that is rooted in the common middle-class sensibilities even when the expression is about fantastical and abstract items as love. "himamulA rAli, sumamulai poosi,rutuvula navvi, madhuvulai pongu, nee praema naa praema, SiSiramainA SidhilamainA, viDichi pObOkumA virahamaipOkumA..". Veturi was probably at his poetic best for most of Jandhyala's movies - "aTu chooDaku jAbili vaipu karugutundi chukkalugA, chali cheekaTi cheeralOnae sogasantA dAchukO" (nee kOsam jeevitamantA vaechAnu sandelalalO), "chiru gAli darakhAstu laekunTae karimabbu chinukalle rAluna varadalle pongunA" (kAstandukO darakhAstandukO praema darakhAstandukO), "ee toorupu aa paschimam sangaminchina ee SubhvaeLa paDamaTi sandhyArAgAlaevO pArAni poosenulae". toorupu lO udayinchae aruNa varNam paschimaaniki pArAni pooyaDam - the nascent red of the east turning into golden yellow on the west - an excellent metaphor of nature's resplendent splendor metaphorizing the theme of "Padamati Sandhyaragam" was brilliant of Veturi.

The association of Jandhyala with Veturi would not have come to fruition, had Ramesh Naidu not weilded the baton. Here was a maverick music director who detested the idea of songs in a movie, and would score a tune only if he was properly convinced of the context and the situation. The director had to justify the reason for the song and further make him see the point that prose could not completely deliver the goods and that only a lyrical word could further the cause. Out of that convincing and cajoling came out gems that ranged from "alivaeNi aaNi mutyamA" to "toli sAri mimmalni choosindi modalu", from "chaitramu kusumAnjali" to "lipilaeni kanTi bAsa", from "kastUri rangayya karuNinchavaemayya" to "alarulu kuriyaga aaDenade". Though Jandhyala dabbled with Rajan-Nagendra ("chinukulA rAli nadulugA sAgi", "nee kOsam jeevitamantA vaechAnu sandelalO", "viraha veeNa nidura rAka mrOgae vaeLalO") Chakravarthy ("O priyA ontari dAnanurA", "mallepoola mArAniki bantipoola pArAni"), Mahadevan ("rALLallO isukallO rAsAnu iddari paerlu", "yaemani pADanu renDu manasula mooga geetam") for a brief time to produce equally rich tunes, Ramesh Naidu remained his favorite music director, with whose association Jandhyala moved beyond the realms of film music boundaries to step into divine halls of Tirumala, and brought out a one of kind "Annamayya Amrutavarshini", a compilation of more than 75 popular Anamaarcharya Krithis, sent to Naidu's tunes. When Jandhyala initially set forth to make a film about Annamayya (titled "hari sankeertanAcharya annamayya") with ANR, he commissioned Ramesh Naidu to score for the film, who, in turn, agreed to do the film only if he was given a free hand in setting tunes to the already popular Annamayya padAlu.

...and the result was nothing short of brilliant. The ever so popular ones "muddu gArae yaSOda", "chaeri yaSOdaka SisuvitaDu", "phAla naetrAnala prabala vidyullata", "alarulu kuriyaga aaDenadae" which had become household tunes in a particular style and format, found a marked variation from the norm in Ramesh Naidu's tunes. The easier way would have been to take the same existing format, refurbish it a little bit and re-arrange the composition to suit the contemporary needs (as was done by Keeravani for Annamayya). And the other way, the more challenging way, is to internalize the tone of the song and score it differently without disturbing the emotion that is usually associated with the tune. Consider for example the tune for "adivO alladivO". The song is about a devout saint who bursts out into a full throat rendition for having found the Lord, he was long longing to have a glimpse at. The original tune had the passion, urgency, joy and the excitement bursting out of the poet and the same emotions would have been greatly dulled, had the song been set to a more subdued and a soft tune. Naidu's "adivO alladivO", in the beautiful voice of Balakrishna Prasad, pays a great homage to the original tune by remaining in the same playing field, but differing at places to stamp his signature on the composition. With close to 75 different tunes, "hari sankeertanAcharya annamayya" would had been a very interesting experiment from Jandhyala and Ramesh Naidu, both in terms of content and presentation, and unfortunately as history has it, the experiment was relegated to the audio portion alone.

A director's taste could be revealed the kind of words he chooses for his songs and the kind of tunes he approves for those songs. Even after all the time that had passed on in years and decades, if listening to a song could evoke the same response as was envisioned by the director long ago, understanding a character's intention by the words and the director's intention by the tune, the song is said to possess that magical quality called "timeless" and the director's aesthetic could be described as "peerless".

Continued in the Part 6

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