A VISIBLY MOVED SHANKARA SASTRI utters these heartfelt words moments before he begins the final concert of his life.
That immortal climactic line from a classic of Indian cinema, Sankarabharanam (The Ornament of Lord Shankara) still endures as an idiom among the Telugu people. It remains eminently quotable because it has a timeless quality to it. The movie catapulted the career of its director Kasinadhuni Viswanath to artistic stratosphere and rewrote all the known rules of mainstream commercial cinema back then.
Also addressed with the honorific "Kala Tapasvi," K.Viswanath's fame as a legendary filmmaker rests even today on this 1980 masterpiece, although he had directed twenty-five films before it.
Sankarabharanam’s phenomenal and enduring success needs to be framed in the backdrop of the OTT and Instagram generation to understand its profundity.
It was released in exactly one theatre in Hyderabad on a contract basis. The initial run was pegged for a paltry seven days.
Made on a shoestring budget, Sankarabharanam opened to an empty hall, but as word spread, Viswanath's celluloid ode to Indian classical music became one of the biggest commercial successes in Telugu film history, running continuously for an entire year. To stretch an analogy, in his case, the squirrel had singlehandedly built the Sri Rama Setu.
The legacy of Sankarabharanam has stood the test of time, cutting across at least two generations. In contemporary parlance, its endurance can also be verified using a simple if pedestrian test: read the kind of comments below the movie, available on YouTube.
Its lasting impact continues to be felt in the scores of Telugu films that either incorporated or were inspired by its characters, situations, scenes, dialogues, and lyrical bits. Few Telugu films after Maya Bazaar have had this sort of impact.
CNN-India included Sankarabharanam in its 2013 centennial list of Indian cinema as one of the "100 greatest Indian films of all time", while Forbes put lead actor, J.V. Somayajulu's performance in its list of "25 Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema."
But the true and full impact of Sankarabharanam was felt among the masses. We can cite two instances.
The first: Sankarabharanam not only suddenly reopened the eyes of Indians to the greatness of their own classical music, but there was an overnight demand for its teachers; those like me who were attempting to learn classical music, asked our respective teachers to teach us traditional compositions used in the film - Brochevarevarura (composed by Mysore Vasudevacharya), Samaja Varagamana (by Thyagaraja), and Manasa Sancharare (by Sadasiva Brahmendra).
The second: when the movie's crew toured (undivided) Andhra Pradesh after it completed the 100-day run, the protagonist played by J.V. Somayajulu had to pay special attention to his attire and demeanour in public, which had elevated him to the status of a saint. The late lamented S.P. Balasubrahmanyam who played a central role in the film’s tremendous success narrates how, back in the day, these adoring masses looked strangely at Somayajulu wearing a shirt and trousers in real life, and how it could prove lethal for him to take a smoke-break in public.
The reason for this rather detailed account of Sankarabharanam isn't the fact that it was K.Viswanath's landmark work, but also because it heralded a clean break from the sort of films he had made till then. The even more important reason was how it singlehandedly inspired other filmmakers to venture into this territory regarded till then as commercially unsafe.
At the height of K.Viswanath's post-Sankarabharanam success, mainstream stars like Chiranjeevi vied with one another to act in his movies. For a straightforward reason: acting in his films would bring them honour, a lack of which they were keenly aware of. Telugu film stars of Chiranjeevi's vintage enjoyed widespread popularity, commanded huge fan bases and received princely salaries. Yet, when we recall the kind of films they acted in, three words come to mind: crude, vulgar and insipid. K. Viswanath's movies thus became the waters of the Ganga that they hoped would purify this stain.
A majority of Viswanath's movies until Sankarabharanam were mostly social dramas like Atma Gowravam, Undamma Bottu Pedata, and Nindu Hrudayalu, which had earned him acclaim as a director to reckon with. But four women-centric movies - Chelleli Kapuram, Sarada, O Seeta Katha and Jeevana Jyoti, also brought him recognition as a filmmaker embodying sensitivity, nuance, culture and refinement, apart from being a bankable director who assured commercial success.
Starting his career as a sound designer in 1957 at a studio in Madras, K.Viswanath went on to become a writer and assistant director to the acclaimed Telugu filmmaker, Adurthi Subba Rao.
Viswanath made his directorial debut with the 1965 hit Atma Gowravam (Self-respect) starring Akkineni Nageshwara Rao. It fetched him the Nandi Award for the year.
Viswanath also holds the distinction for having directed the leading stars of three generations of Telugu cinema - N.T. Rama Rao and Akkineni Nageshwara Rao, Shoban Babu, Krishna, Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh, and Rajashekhar. Artists from non-Telugu cinema that he has directed include Kamal Hassan, Rishi Kapoor, Rakesh Roshan, Mithun Chakbraborthy, Anil Kapoor, Girish Karnad and Mammooty.
But it was with and after Sankarabharanam that Viswanath carved out a niche for himself in Telugu cinema. This was roughly the period of vacuum after the eclipse of stars like Krishna, Shoban Babu and Krishnamaraju and before the rise of the Chiranjeevi brand of mindless, formulaic films.
After Sankarabharanam, K. Viswanath focused on the themes of classical music and dance set in a backdrop of fast-changing values and a rapid abandonment of ancient Indian traditions. These films reveal his deep knowledge of Indian aesthetics, classicism, and his experience and insights into Telugu culture all of which find their artistic expression on celluloid.
Pure classicism in Telugu cinema sputtered to death after the generation of actors, writers, and directors including N.T. Rama Rao, Akkineni Nageshwara Rao, S.V. Ranga Rao, Savitri, Jamuna, Samudrala Raghavacharya, K.V. Reddy, K Kameshwara Rao, et al.
Superstars like N.T. Rama Rao and Akkineni Nageshwara Rao eventually moved away from films based on our epics and Puranas, and concentrated more on contemporary themes that were devoid of classicism. At the time, classical poetry, music, dance, and dialogue were some of the inseparable features that characterised movies with epic and Puranic themes such as Maya Bazaar, Sri Krishna Pandaveeyam, Nartanashala, Lava Kusha, Pandava Vanavasam and Satya Harishchandra.
And so, when K.Viswanath made Sankarabharanam, the Telugu audience profile had changed almost beyond recognition. It could no longer understand or appreciate native classicism in its own language. The breed of actors who could match the stature of say N.T. Rama Rao and S.V. Ranga Rao were fast vanishing. In fact, N.T. Rama Rao had himself abandoned classicism in favour of crass movies like Adavi Ramudu, Gaja Donga, Eduruleni Manishi, Simha Baludu and Vetagadu. It was a tragedy of epic proportions that this titanic actor who had once played Sri Rama, Sri Krishna, and Duryodhana with such aplomb had now chosen to degrade his talent by indulging in vulgar rain dances with ladies young enough to be his granddaughters.
THIS BACKDROP is essential to understand the profundity of success that K.Viswanath achieved beginning with Sankarabharanam. It is in this backdrop that Viswanath distilled the essence of the various elements of the aforementioned cinematic classicism and served it through compelling onscreen narratives that the contemporary audience could appreciate. Most of his acclaimed classics have that inevitable quality to them: they linger long after the cinematic experience ends.
A sublime example of this narrative style is a poignant scene in Sagara Sangamam. A drunk and starving Kamal Hassan, defeated by life's circumstances, refuses to enter the house of his close friend Sarath Babu because it is Sri Krishna Janmashtami. At the gate, he tells Sarath Babu, "Sister-in-law has decorated the house with the footsteps of Bala (Baby) Krishna with great devotion. How can I enter this sacred home in this condition?"
The background music to the scene is set to a flute rendition of the Kannada devotional lyric "Krishna nee begane baaro (Krishna my child, come soon)" while the name of Hassan's character is Balakrishna. The use of the flute completes the unity of this magnificent scene.
This subtlety of Viswanath’s cinematic excellence is also elevated by his depictions of the natural rhythms rural life in the Telugu region. The tradition of Rama Katha in Swati Muthyam, the musical and lyrical beauty showcased in the Harikatha exponents in Sutradharulu, and the climax song in Swarna Kamalam, where the film's protagonist Bhanupriya, realises the true value of art through direct, immersive experience as a classical danseuse.
Interwoven with all this is also the manner in which Viswanath delineates the depth of the timeless Sanatana ethical and moral values of the "simple, common" rural folk. For instance, in a scene from his film, Sutradharulu (Puppeteers), the Harikatha exponent, Akkineni Nageshwara Rao tells his partner:
This is art.
Such nuance, subtlety and a high sense of culture characterise almost all his films. The other elements like dialogue, lyric, music, performance and scene composition are worker-bees that produce this Vishwanathan honey. His movies also don't allow aesthetics to descend to that crucial step that separates it from obscenity.
K. Viswanath had a formidable team without which he wouldn’t be able to translate his artistic and narrative vision into exalted cinematic reality. His eye for spotting talent matched his artistic temperament. Some names include Jayaprada, Balu Mahendra and lyricists Veturi Sundararama Murthy and Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry.
Viswanath's lifelong association with the iconic music director K.V. Mahadevan gave us the immortal music of Siri Siri Muvva, Sankarabharanam, and Swati Kiranam among others. His memorable collaborations with Ilaiyaraaja also gave us musical masterpieces in Sagara Sangamam, Swati Muthyam, and Swarna Kamalam. To this medley was added the voice of Viswanath’s cousin, the legendary playback singer, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam.
On a personal note, even if K.Viswanath had made no other movie but Sankarabharanam or Sagara Sangamam, he would've still occupied the same preeminent spot in our cinematic annals.
To borrow a line from Sankarabharanam, his contribution to Indian cinema is akin to the Shankaragala nigalamu — the glowing necklace called the Raga Sankarabharana, worn around Lord Shiva's neck.
The Dharma Dispatch is now available on Telegram! For original and insightful narratives on Indian Culture and History, subscribe to us on Telegram.
