Telugu Poets - Sanskrit Usage - And Film Songs
Ramakrishna Sanka
namastE !
Nice to see a mail from Sri Isukapalli after a looong time.
Keep 'em coming Sastri jI !
I would really like to know which of the sirivennela's songs
"sucked big time". I haven't come across a whole lot of
his songs that are bad. In fact I think that his bad songs are
often far better than some of the regular songs by others.
It's really my impression that is talking but I will try to
come up with some examples to backup my statements next time.
I believe he is one good thing that has happened to telugu film
songs in a long time. I think he salvaged the telugu film lyric
from the murky depths of vulgarity to which it was sunk by Veturi
(I am not saying it is Veturi's fault but he definitely was the
instrument).
He also has brought in a good amount of telugu-ness to film songs
writing in a language easily understood by the masses (without
compromising the poetic/lyrical/literary qualities). Granted, that
a song like - vidhaata talapuna ... is dominated by sanskrit phrases
but a song like ... aadi bhikshuvu vaaDi nEdi kOrEdi ... is in
reasonbly clear telugu ! While a song like - bOTanee paaThamundi
(I believe it is by sirivennela , isn't it ?) is even more down to
earth and captures the sentiments of the college student well !
It is thus that I am surprised you found some of his songs really
bad . Kindly let me know which , won't you ?
Sincerely
--
Sankaram
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| SANKA RAMAKRISHNA |
| e-mail : sa...@erc.msstate.edu |
| home page : http://www.erc.msstate.edu/~sanka/ |
| phone : 601-325-2526 (Work.) |
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Sastry Isukapalli
>I believe he is one good thing that has happened to telugu film
>songs in a long time. I think he salvaged the telugu film lyric
100% agreed...
>It is thus that I am surprised you found some of his songs really
>bad . Kindly let me know which , won't you ?
I stand corrected now. I take back all the words, and will rephrase
the situation. The song writers are obviously very good at poetry,
but what amazes me is that duets that are targeted towards the baser
instincts too seem to have great poetry, which the appropriate
audience wouldn't either understand or wouldn't care for. (I for one
wouldn't care :).
In that context, I felt that Sitarama Sastry, who is greatly
respected, also has a couple of such songs.. My complaint here is
against the directors/producers, and not the writers. (Since the
picturization and meaning don't seem to deserve that lyrical
sophistication).
So, in short, why would a director want complex lyrics when the sole
aim of the song seems to give some cheap thrills to the audience?
Anyway, my question seems to be ill-posed and vague. So if there are any
replies to this, I would consider it as a bonus..
nutana samvatsara hRdayapUrvaka SuBAkAxlatO,
Sastry.
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OB padyaalu (for hogging up a lot of bandwidth) - no offence meant in the
poems...
Vemana on caste:
A: | %% Translation
kulamu kaluguvAru gOtrambu kalavAru %% People who take pride in their
vidyacEta vir"r"avIgu vAru %% caste/ancestry/education.. are
pasidikalguvAni bAnisakodukulu %% still slaves of the rich guy.
vishwadABi rAma vinura vEmA
|
on business:
A: |
kOmati madigOru xAmamE yelleDa %% The businessman always hopes for
vaidyuDorulakepudu vyAdhigOru %% for famine, and the doctor for
UrivADu dhanikujEragAgOrunu %% disease. And the villager always
vishwadABi rAma vinura vEmA %% hopes to work for the rich man.
|
on the food I eat (Cereal or Spagetti):
A: |
kUralEni tinDi kukkatinDanipincu %% Any food without "curry", and
mAr"u lEni tinDi mAlatinDi %% second servings, is lowly-food.
dhAralEni tinDi dayyaputinDirA %% And food without "ghee" is like
vishwadABi rAma vinura vEmA %% the devil's food..
| %% (Any health freaks out there?)
Sreenivas Paruchuri
: from the murky depths of vulgarity to which it was sunk by Veturi
: (I am not saying it is Veturi's fault but he definitely was the
Is n't 'vulgarity' a relative word here? Vulgar songs existed always
in the past six and a half decades of Telugu cinema and also on disc.
Those discs were sold well, and the recording companies had
(e.g. Mangaraju of HMV, and some pirate lables like Sun records of
Kakinada etc.) capitalised the demand for such songs. Want to know
more about such songs? Even aatrEya and aarudra wrote "bootu paaTalu"
(in some peoples's opinion.). Producer, Director and Lyricist can't
be blamed. I personally have n't seen any post-1987 Telugu film release
and don't have any song of this period in my collection. But thats my
problem.
: He also has brought in a good amount of telugu-ness to film songs
: writing in a language easily understood by the masses (without
: compromising the poetic/lyrical/literary qualities). Granted, that
I don't think Seetarama Sastri brought Telugu-ness. It was always there
before. The lang. in film songs is quite simple in the past 3 decades.
malaadi and dEvulapalli set new trends in early 50s. SriSri followed.
I 'd like to know the songs which are written in a 'difficult to
understand' langauge. I can think of half a dozen Veturi's songs. Thats
all. Well, in earlier years (until 40s) the lyrics were more in
'graanthikam' and/or simply adapted from well-known stage-palys. Also
due to the heavy influence of Marathi, Parsi dramas on Telugu plays some
obscure words can be found. But even those days the mega-hit songs were
in simple langauge.
Regards,
Sreenivas
E-Mail: sre...@ktpsp1.uni-paderborn.de