amaragAyakuDiki nA hRdayAnjali
Rajasekhar Velamuri (inside94@email.msn.com)
Wed, 3 Dec 1997 23:00:46 -0500
namaste,
"biDDa bhUmmida paDagAne chEse modaTi pani kyAr manTu yEDavaDam ghanTasAla
janminchina uttarkshamulo alla yEDchinappuDu aa kanThaswaramu telugu chitra
seemalo oka viSshThamaina sthAnAnni akramistundani evvaru
vUhinchivunDaru" -- anTU Srii aTlUri venkatrAvu choudari ghanTasAlapai oka
kAryakramAnni prArambhichchAru. A amaragAyakuDu ii bhuvini janminchi nETiki
(Dec. 4) 75 samvatsaramulu.
This article is my way of remembering that great singer of Telugu's, through
the words of some of his fans.
In one of the many radio programmes that I heard over the years one of the
presenters of the programme said like this: "telugu chalana chitra sangeeta
prapanchamulo nETiki varaku mUDu yugAlu vunnAyi avi
a) ghanTasAla mundu yugam b) ghanTasAla yugam and c) ghanTasAla taruvata
yugam." As SPB said in a programme the influence which ghanTasAla has on the
future generation singers and on lalita sangeetam is immense and it would
take centuries before a single person can influence singers, song writers
and listeners as ghanTasAla did.
With a 'bhAva prakaTana' which no other telugu singer was able to
accomplish, ghanTasAla gave life to many a songs and literally lived in many
many songs. Talking in a radio programme ANR once said something on these
lines, "pATa pADevADu kevalam tana gontutOne sannivESAniki jiivam poyyAli.
anTe manam kallu musukuni gAnam vinTe oka naTuDu terapaina naTistu
pADutunnADa anipinchagalagAli adi pATa pADevADiki #success#. ala chEsADu
ghanTasAla anduke marachi pOvAlani prayatninchina marachipOlEmu manamu
ghanTasAlani."
I honestly believe there is complete truth in that sentence. Take for
example (Well I can never pick just an example the number of songs will just
flow.) "ammA ani arachina AlakinchavEmammA" from pAnDurangamahatyam (1957)
or "pushavilApam" one feels as if the flowers are crying. If the above songs
move a listener in one way see the comedy in his tone in "sundari niivanti"
from mAyabajAr (1953), or "O maradala nii madilo" from appuchesi pappu
kudu(1958). To top it all who can sing the way he did the numerous padyAlu
and SlokAlu in movies and of course the bhagwadgeeta Just as an example the
range of padyAlu he sang consider, "dhAruni rAjasampada" from pAnDava
vanavAsam or "nii sakhulan sahodarulan ninnu" from viirAbhimanyu on one side
and "yE pAda tiirtham prayAgAdi " from pAnduranga mahatayam(1957) on the
other side to "ramaNi nA tappu mannicha" or "tanuvoto kalugu
bhandavyamulellA" from SrikrishNavataram. Or just consider, "kastUri tilakam
lalaTaphalake," even people who do not understand sanskrit or the poem sing
to the tune as ghanTasAla did and feel as if they are ghanTasAla. This
brings to my memory another sentence by aTlUri who, after playing "pelli
chesukuni" from pelli chesi chuDu says "iTuvanti pATalu pADukonTu prati
teluguvADu tananu tAnu oka ghanTasAla anukonTaDu." How true it is. Taking
another example, to show how ghanTasAla has lived in the hearts of every
telugu, aTlUri says, "rAtri padi ganTala vEla manasu vyAkulato vunnappuDu
ekkaDa nunDo dUranga ee pATa vinipiste elA vunTundi," (and plays),
"kalavaramAyE madilO nA madilO kannula lOna."
Coming to another aspect, two contrasting songs at different time in his
life are a) at an young age(~30) singing for old character (gummaDi) in the
movie jayasimha (1955), "jaya jaya SriirAma" b) with bad health and nearing
fifty singing for a young restless hero (krishNa) in jarigina katha (1969),
"lav lav lav mee ner"ajANa". In both these songs one can enjoy his ability
to adopt to the scene.
As suseela said in a programme, "lalita sangeeta prapanchamulo kotta
SakhAnniki nAndi palikAru Srii ghanTasAla. aa Sakhanni tana sontam chEsu
konnAru, diininE ghanTasAla yugam annAru. chitramulOni pAtra rAmuDainA,
bhiimuDaina, rAvaNuDaina, duryOdhanuDaina, krishNuDaina, arjunuDaina,
bhiishmuDaina, dronuDaina, chitram pourAnikamaina, sAnghikamaina,
chAritrakamaina, jAnapadamaina, pAtra nAyakuDaina, nAyaketara pAtrakaina,
hAsya pAtrakaina, oppi nappe riitiga prajalandariki nachchi mechchE riitigA
gAtra dAnam chesina ghanTasAla gAri pratibha, nirupamaina praj~na,
asAdharanam."
It is extremely difficult to write about ghanTasAla in just an article. As
aTlUri said(on these lines, "dAdApu pAtika muppaih yELLu tama jiivitalalO
kashTAniki, sukhAniki, yihAniki parAniki swarayuktanga antarliinamaina
ghanTasAla gurinchi prati telugu hRdayam ila anukuni murisi pOtundi kadU
(and played this song) "niili mEghAlalo gAli ker"aTalalo niivu pADe pATa
vinipinchunEvEla. niili mEghAlalo."
For all the ghanTasAla fans out there, I wanted to present them with few
songs from my collection. As a tribute to the great singer I opened a (sub)
home page in my web site. (http://members.tripod.com/~rvelamuri) A list of
songs sung by ghanTasAla is being deployed at this site. Right now, I have
about 300 songs listed there in telugu. In the coming weeks this list will
reach the 1516 mark.
For those of you who would like to remember his birthday by listenening to
some of ghanTasAla's songs, visit the site
(http://members.tripod.com/~rvelamuri/kendramu/amaravani.htm). (There are
three sub pages "archana", "janaranjani", and "teliste cheppanDi.") Enjoy
them. The songs at this site will be present only for about a week. I am
hoping that I can make this site a dynamic site in the near future, changing
songs every Sunday. May God help me to do this.
Regards,
-rAja
(rAjaSEKar vElamUri)
--
mailto:inside94@email.msn.com
http://members.tripod.com/~rvelamuri