Mythology has been the bread and butter of Telugu film industry during its golden era. The three main epics remained invaluable repositories of stories of all rasas. How else could one explain Sabari, a passing character in Ramayana, being a source of a full length movie? Same are the cases with babruvaahana, ushaa pariNayam, meghanaadha and the rest that followed the lot. Movies made during as late as mid 80s, still relied on those revered books, for freshness in the topics and topical in their contexts. Case in point - Vijaya Lakshmi Productions' "chaTTam tO pOraaTam" (1984) (written by Paruchuri Bros.) which was an intelligent adapatation of Satee Savitri story.

Coming back to the 50s and 60s, Samudraala Sr. (Samudraala Raghavaachari) was considered the wizard at weaving interesting screenplays around popular mythological lines. His body of works ranged from the Aswaraj Productions' Vinayaka Chaviti (that's correct, they made an entire movie out of this popular festival, and an entertaining one at that), DeepaavaLi, seetaa raama kalyaaNam, bhookailas etc. Though he started off with social themes - Vijaya's Shavukaaru, Vinoda's Devadaasu, Annapoorna's Donga Raamudu, it was in narrating the age old texts that he was adept at. Samudraala, like Pingali (or it can be the other way around), weilded his pen, in both forms of written text - paaTa, maaTa. His lyrical content overflowed with "tatsama telugu" (words that are synonymous). Aadi praasa and antya praaasa stood out in his dialogues. Consider the song "deva daeva dhavalaacala mandira" song from bhookailas. The song is nothing but a compilation of various names of Lord Shiva - and every name is either a parayaa padam (synonym) or a vyutpatthi (derivative). N.A.T.'s seetarama kalyaaNam, hailed as one of the best mythological movies ever made, was text book samudraala. Narada (Kanta Rao) never sounded more calculating, cunning and witty in Samudraala's words.

Observe the lyrical flow in the dialogue of Ravanaasura to Rambha - "nee ooruvula sOyagam coosi daanavae anukunnaanu. mahaendrudu tana vajraayudham tO nilabeTTa laeni vaibhavam, nee sOyagam tO kaaduTae daapeTTu kunaedi". From abstract ("kalimee laemulu kasTa sukhaalu, kaavaDi lO kunDalani bhayamaelOyi" - devadaasu) to eternal ("sree seetaraamula kalyaanamu cootamu raaranDee" - seeta rama kalyaaNam), Samudraala was the true commander of the printed word.

If composition was samudraala's stength, precision and brevity were Aatraeya's forte. Another pen, which wielded command and respect, both in oratory poetic form or oratory prose form, Aatraeya was famous for his socialistic themes. A product of the then famous telugu theater scene, Aatraeya (kiLaambi Venakata Narasimhaachaaryulu), in his long and fruitful association with Annapoorna movies, created and adapted (mostly from Bengali works and popular telugu novels) screenplays that remain eternal, fresh and unparalleled. With Adurthi Subba Rao (director) and DukkipaaTi Madhusudhana Rao (producer), he was driving force behind tODikODaLLu, maangalya balam, daakTar chakravarthy, chaduvukunna ammaayilu (with gollapooDi marutee rao) and with aadurthi, he marched along penning mooga manusulu (with muLLapOODi), manchi manasulu, with P.Pullayya, Jayabhaeri, Venkateswara Mahatyam (not to be confused with Ramakrishna Studio's Sri Venkateswara Mahatyam) and the like and the like. Though he remained a spent force during his twilight part of the career, Aatreya nevertheless, was associated behind successful movies that included Prem Nagar, Prema, Abhinandana etc. His association with K.Balachander during the mid 70s, that brought out Antulaeni Katha, Idi Katha kaadu, marO caritra, aakali raajyam brought his vitriolic best against the then prevailing social conditions. Sarada pictures Jayabheri, arguably his best social theme set in a folk milieu, talks about the rise, fall and subsequent rise of struggling artiste, while encompassing other social themes like untouchability, drinking awareness, caste barriers. Through the words of one of the characters, he pours his heart out, pointing out the mutual exclusivity between money and art, that plagued him through out his real life "aem talli (to Lord Saraswati), nee putrulni lakshmi kaTaakshimcaDam nuvvu coochi Orvalaevaa". Aatraeya - manasu kavi - mana sukavi.

During the late 60s, a small movie which neither boasted of a popular star cast, nor a great theme, made its way to the silver screen. That it was called Sakshi, which won an award at the Tashkent Film Festival, was beside the fact to the arrival of comic word and a genius eye. The former went by the name of mullapooDi venkaTa ramana, and the latter called himself Bapu (Sattiraaju Lakshmi Naarayana). Sakshi, to quote mullapOODi was an "aardhika kaLaakhanDam" - a euphemism to box-office failure. But it brought them to the attention of Akkineni, and buddhimantuDu took shape. A scribe by occupational nature, ramaNa remained a true friend and an life long associate of Bapu, a scribbler by nature. Muthyaala muggu, balaraaju katha, snaeham, andaala raamuDU (one of their most un(der)-appreciated work), Sampoorna Ramayanam, Sreenatha Kavi saarvabhouma (NTR's last and memorable movie), peLLi pustakam (a reverential twist of Missamma), seeta kalyaNam (a director's movie in the truest sense) etc. The memorable characters that Ramana has created - appaa rao, teetaa (teesaesina taasildaaru), buDugu (kalyaana taamboolam), raadha gOpaalam, baasu kuTTi (peLLi pustakam), naitaas (reverse for saitaan, in raajaadhi raaju), continue to relate to us and regale us. Though famous for his zany sense of humor ("naitaasu! (addressing satan), nuvvu devuDuvayya!", "naenoo.... aDDagaaDidalaku, aa maaTa meerae annaaru, udYogaalu ivvanu") , ramaNa reserved his sentimental best for poignant characters within his movies - Kantaa Rao (muthyaala muggu, goranta deepam) "siphaarasula tOTi kaapuraalu nilabaDavu", "prati gunDelOnU gOranta deepam unTundi, adae dhairyam", Jhansi (peLLi pustakam) - "aidu vaeLLu okalaa unDaka pOyinaa, anni kalistaenae gaani annam tinalaeka pOtunnaam", "kaLLu kaayalu kaayinci ee raegi paLLakOsam vaccaavaa tanDree" (sabari in Sampoorna Ramaynam) etc. From satire to sarcasm, from irony to philosophy, from practicality to pure sentimentality, mullapOODi was a consummate writer, peerless and par elegance.

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