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