Vichitra Vivaham
Paluvayi Bhanumathi
Country: India; Year: 1973; Language: Telugu; Color: Black and White
Studio: Bharani Pictures
Producer: Ramakrishna; Cinematographer: Lakshman Gore; Editor: M. Sundaram; Composer: Satyam Chellapilla; Lyricist: Dasaradhi, Veeturi, Thyagaraja Kruthi
Cast: Paluvayi Bhanumathi, Pramila, Ramaprabha, Gummadi Venkateswara Rao, Chandramohan (Telugu Actor), B. Padmanabam, Rajanala, Allu Ramalingaiah, Mukkamala, Thyagaraju, Master Sridhar, Baby Sarala, Neelu Iyer, Potti Prasad, Chalapathi Rao, Balakrishna, Satyavathi, Rajababu, Smt Rajababu, Master Nagababu, Master Mahesh Babu
Topic: Original Language, Released, Manasu Collection, Women Directors of Telugu Cinema
Release Date: September 28, 1973
IMDb ID: 0259718
Story: Paluvayi Bhanumathi; Screenplay: Paluvayi Bhanumathi; Dialogue: Paluvayi Bhanumathi, Samudrala Jr
Singer: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, Kovela Shantha, B. Vasantha, Paluvayi Bhanumathi
Art Director: V.V. Rajendra Kumar; Dance Director: Vempati Sathyam, A.K. Chopra, Chinni-Sampath
Paluvayi Bhanumathi (Director, Cast, Story, Screenplay, Dialogue, Singer)
(b. 1924) Aka Bhanumathi Ramakrishna. Born in Guntur Dist., AP. Actress-director and grande dame of the Telugu and Tamil cinemas. Her now legendary performances at the Vauhini and Gemini Studios were among their earliest post-WW2 bids for All-India Film industrial status. Major singing star of 40s/50s; later studio owner with her husband P.S. Ramakrishna Rao (Bharani Studios, 1947), scenarist, music composer, film-maker and popular author of ‘mother-in-law’ short stories (the Attagari Kathalu series). Film début as teenager in C. Pullaiah’s reformist melodrama Varavikrayam as Kalindi, a daughter who commits suicide because her parents cannot afford her wedding dowry. Her first major success came in the bizarre role of a village girl who grows into a ‘society lady’ in B.N. Reddi’s Swargaseema. Mid-40s Telugu films, in addition to conventional mythologicals by Balaramaiah and Babu (Krishna Prema), often cast her in comedies dealing with anxieties about traditional (sometimes rural) cultures assimilating aspects of Western modernity, a subject central to much popular reform literature: in Y.V. Rao’s Tehsildar she wears high heels and attends a British tea party; Prasad’s ‘feminist’ Grihapravesham opens with her playing badminton and confronting the misogynist hero.
This context, and her unique ability to function simultaneously in the reformist-social and the traditional mythological genres, was later used to remarkable effect in Nallathambi, the seminal DMK Film, and in the Gemini trilingual adventure drama, Apoorva Sahodarargal. Her incarnation of ‘tradition’, exemplified and stressed by her music, was later put to ideological use in the genre still most closely associated with her: ‘damsel-in-distress’ performances in MGR’s Robin Hood-derived vigilante films (Malaikallan, Alibabavum Narpatha Thirudargalum, Madurai Veeran). Her music drew on C. Ramchandra, Arabian folk (Swargaseema, Laila Majnu) and even Pat Boone, but she is best remembered for her versions of Thyagaraja’s kirtis and Purandaradasa’s bhajans, which led to her being nominated Principal of the Government College of Music in Madras in the mid-80s. Her songs and dances are featured in the compilation film, Chitramala (1985). Wrote her autobiography Naalo Neno (1993).
Songs:
1. Song: Nagarikatha Perutho నాగరికథ పేరుతోనవ్వలపాలయ్యేరు (Music: Satyam Chellapilla; Lyricist: Dasaradhi; Singer: Paluvayi Bhanumathi)
2. Song: Nalo Ninne Chudana నాలో నిన్నే చూడనా (Music: Satyam Chellapilla; Lyricist: Dasaradhi; Singer: Paluvayi Bhanumathi)
3. Song: Chilakamma Pata చిలకమ్మ పాట కాకమ్మనోట (Music: Satyam Chellapilla; Lyricist: Veeturi; Singer: Kovela Shantha)
4. Song: Shanthamuleka శాంతములేక సౌఖ్యములేదు (Music: Satyam Chellapilla; Lyricist: Thyagaraja Kruthi; Singer: Paluvayi Bhanumathi)
5. Song: Iddaru Okataithe ఇద్దరు ఒకటైతే అదేలే ప్రేమా ప్రేమా (Music: Satyam Chellapilla; Lyricist: Veeturi; Singer: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, B. Vasantha)
2. Song: Nalo Ninne Chudana నాలో నిన్నే చూడనా (Music: Satyam Chellapilla; Lyricist: Dasaradhi; Singer: Paluvayi Bhanumathi)
3. Song: Chilakamma Pata చిలకమ్మ పాట కాకమ్మనోట (Music: Satyam Chellapilla; Lyricist: Veeturi; Singer: Kovela Shantha)
4. Song: Shanthamuleka శాంతములేక సౌఖ్యములేదు (Music: Satyam Chellapilla; Lyricist: Thyagaraja Kruthi; Singer: Paluvayi Bhanumathi)
5. Song: Iddaru Okataithe ఇద్దరు ఒకటైతే అదేలే ప్రేమా ప్రేమా (Music: Satyam Chellapilla; Lyricist: Veeturi; Singer: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, B. Vasantha)
Dad in Guest-Cameo Role
Dad in Guest-Cameo Role
Dad in Guest-Cameo Role
Dad in Guest-Cameo Role
