Ghantasala Bhagavad Gita Pdf
Irati Klute
If that were true, there is nothing more unfortunate than this to the
Telugu ear. I often wondered if Bhagavadgeeta is as popular as it is
in AP because of Ghantasala or because of Krishnadwaipayanudu. Note
that it is not that popular in north (at least my experience in
Kanpur, anyway).Please see if we can get together to do something. I am willing to
contribute my share in money/whatever.
Since you seem to have some touch with "bigshots" (from your line "I
invited pendyala to IITM"), can you find out if there is anything we
can do by talking to the guys in cinemaworld, please?>
> Prasad Jayanti
>
>
Kumar Vadaparty.
--
Ghantasala started his playback career with the movie "Swarga Seema"
in 1947. Nagayya was the music director of this film. Within a couple
of years, Ghantasala started composing film music - his first was
"Keelu Gurram". The song "Kadu suma, kala kadu suma" (with
Vakkalanka Sarala) was, according to my father, a very popular song
in those days. His career, both as a singer and as a music director,
got a boost with the famous "Pathala Bhairavi" directed by
K.V. Reddy and produced by Nagi Reddy and Chakrapani. The songs
"Kalavara maye madilo", "Enta ghatu premayo", "Hayiga manakinka swechhaga"
from this movie are dearly cherished even today. Ever since,
Ghantasala composed music to nearly 100 films, and sang about 10000 songs
until his death in 1974. The notable movies to which he gave music
are: Pathala Bhairavi, Pelli chesi chudu, Shavukaru, Maya bazaar,
Lavakusa, and Gundamma Katha. Apparently, Pendyala was first approached
to score music for "Lavakusa". But he demanded too high a remuneration,
and the producers decided to go for Ghantasala. Recalling this
(in a conversation I had with him when I invited him to IIT Madras in 1983),
Pendyala told me that he was happy about what had happened - he could
not have matched Ghantasala's performance for Lavakusa. Needless to say,
it reflects on the divinity and the serenity of the songs in Lavakusa, and
on the humility of Pendyala, unquestionably one of the best film composers.
Besides film music direction, Ghantasala composed music for Bhagavat Gita,
Pushpa Vilapam, Kunti Kumari, Goghosha, several devotional songs
on Venkateswara Swamy, songs on freedom movement (in which he participated),
and several Palle Patalu (e.g., Ravoyi bangaru mama, Atta leni kodalu).
In essence, Ghantasala had enough works to be put on par with the all time
great Indian film composers such as Pendyala, Rajeswara Rao, Naushad,
S.D. Burman etc. It may even be argued that he exhibited a greater versatility than some of them.There is hardly a need to elaborate on Ghantasala as a singer.
But, given my passion for his songs, I'll do it anyway. His voice
was his great asset. Added to that was his ability to blend
the right expression effortlessly and most naturally into the song.
Consider for instance "Kudi yeda mayithe" or "Jagame maya"
from "Devadasu", or "Kala kanidi, viluvainadi" from "Velugu needalu",
or "Manasuna Manasai" from "Doctor Chakravarthi". The expression of
sadness, despair, and detachment in these songs is most natural and real -
he finds no need for extraneous sounds or gimmicks to evoke the right emotion.
Consider "Enta Ghatu Premayo" from "Pathala Bhairavi", or "Evarivo Echata
nuntivo" from "Chandra Haram", or "Andame Anandam" from "Bratuku Theruvu".
I wonder whether there is ever a better expression of "Bhavukatha" than what
one can find in these songs. Consider "Edu kondala samy" (a private record),
or "Mahesa Papavinasa" from "Kalahasthi Mahatyam", or "Thaguna, Varameeya"
from "Bhu-Kailas". Can we think of songs in which "Bhakti" is
better expressed? Consider his private songs "Atta leni kodalu uttamuralu",
"Ravoyi bangaru mava", "Police Venkatasamy, ninnu nenu maruva lenura" -
these, more or less, define the once typical village atmosphere
and "Telugudanam" to the present-day city dweller. His grasp on
music, on Telugu Bhasha, and its culture are all simultaneously evident
from the way he rendered Karunasri's "Pushpa vilapam" and "Kunti Kumari".
I know people who stopped plucking flowers (in fact, even using them)
after they heard "Pushpavilapam". In general, he had an excellent
understanding of the old drama style. This is clear from his rendition
of Telugu Padyalu and Samskrita slokalu in Pouranika movies. Consider
"Siva Sankari, Sivananda Lahari" from "Jagadeka Veeruni Katha", or
"Rasikaraja thaguvaramukama" from "Jayabheri", or the "Ashtapadulu"
from "Bhaktha Jayadeva". These are all instances of classical music
in films. Ghantasala sang these as well as any classical musician
could have. With his voice and expression, perhaps he even sang
them better than most classical musicians. Last, but surely not the least,
are his relatively light-hearted songs, especially his duets with
Ganakokila Suseela. "Konda gali thirigindi" from "Uyyala Jampala",
"Idemi lahiri, Idemi garadi" from "Idu-jodu", "Vadinapule vikasinchele"
from "Mangalya Balam", "Madhuram madhuram ee samayam" from "Bharya-bhartalu" -
and of course many many more, are ever-greens.There have been many film singers - S.P. Balasubramaniam, Jesudas,
P.B. Srinivas, A.M. Raja, and T.M. Soundararajan in the south,
and Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Saigal, Mannade, Hemanth Kumar,
and Talat in the north - are perhaps the most notable ones among the males.
Although each singer in this list has his own charm and distinctive
style, they are hardly comparable to Ghantasala. For one thing,
none of them is accomplished as a music director (A.M. Raja, S.P, and
Hemanth Kumar did compose music to some films, but are surely a notch below
Ghantasala in this department). Even as singers, when you put together
the assets of Ghantasala - his voice, expression, range, ability for
pure classical music, and the lightness of voice when required, the rest are
hardly a match. In this context, it is gratifying that Andhras do take a lot of pride
in their Ghantasala and commemorate his birthday. I hear from my relatives
that every year music competitions are held in the name of Ghantasala
throughout the state during the period Dec 4 to Feb 11 (the date of his demise).
The AIR and Doordarshan used to devote these two days to play exclusively
his songs. I am sad to learn that AIR stopped this practice. Last year,
S.P. Balasubramaniam celebrated his 25th year as a playback singer
by installing a bronze statue of Ghantasala in Ravindra Bharati in
Hyderabad. He planned to have Lata Mangeshkar as the chief guest, but
I don't know what happened. There are a few things we all should collectively attempt to do.
I do not know the means, but may be you could suggest. To my knowledge,
unless we have his voice in a digital form, given the lack of care
for old and valuable treasures in our country, we will soon have
no access to the "original" voice of Ghantasala. Do any of you
know of any attempts to save us from such a situation? It should be nice
to have a discussion on what to do about this.Prasad Jayanti
Thanks a lot for the nice article on the 'Amara gayakudu'(Immortal singer)
Ghantasala.Sorry to nitpick but there are a few corrections.'SwargaSeema was
released in 1945 and is based on G.B.Shaw's 'Pygmalion'.Also 'Keelu Gurram'
if I remember correctly was his 'third' film as a music composer but I am
yet to find out the first movie for which he composed music. In this context I remember the words of Bapu on Ghantasala Geetalaku mundu Upodhghaathaalu
raagaalalo bhaavodvegaalu
svaraalato nityakhela
gonthu kanchu ghantaleela
asalu peru gaanalola
maaru peru ghantasala
Gopal
A very nice article Prasad;
one thing that I would like to add was the way in which Ghantasala
could mould his voice to suit the talking and singing style of the
leading actors in those days esp. NTR and ANR. I mean one could
really visualize who the actor was in that film sequence when one
of his songs was played on the radio. On another note I did listen to a CD which had most of the hit
songs of NTR (including some of his duets) and most of them were
sung by Ghantasala../Sandeep
I would like to thank the original poster for the info on Ghantasala.
I am an ardent fan and love all of his songs. I would like to point out that there are a few of his songs available
on CDs (not a lot, but maybe some 10 or so). I have a
catalog which lists them. They are mostly classified as ANRs popular hits,
or NTRs hits etc.These CDs are available from SHRIMATI's of Berkeley California.If there is interest, I will post info from the catalog.Yashodhar--
/* y...@alux2.att.com "All opinions are mine, not my employer's" "In the beginning, man created beer, and it was good. God was
created shortly thereafter." Gospel According to Brew, 1:1 */
>There have been many film singers - S.P. Balasubramaniam, Jesudas,
>P.B. Srinivas, A.M. Raja, and T.M. Soundararajan in the south,
>and Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Saigal, Mannade, Hemanth Kumar,
>and Talat in the north - are perhaps the most notable ones among the males.
>Although each singer in this list has his own charm and distinctive
>style, they are hardly comparable to Ghantasala. For one thing,
>none of them is accomplished as a music director (A.M. Raja, S.P, and
>Hemanth Kumar did compose music to some films, but are surely a notch below
>Ghantasala in this department). Even as singers, when you put together
>the assets of Ghantasala - his voice, expression, range, ability for
>pure classical music, and the lightness of voice when required, the rest are
>hardly a match.
..now..now ...aren't we getting carried away here....
ghantasala is good..maybe very good in composing..but..
..singing, voice, pitch, tone, depth, resonance....all
these are subjective and..err..err..therefore, you can't,
in absolute terms, say who is the best..
...my personal favorites are SPB, rafi and kishore..--satya prasad inampudi