Muse & Music, Music of the Golden Age Options

[swarapriya]

Muse & Music

Most film loving folks think that the music made for films from 50’s through 80’s represents golden age of music. This may be debatable. However, one thing is certain. Several great musicals emerged during this period and we saw the rise of many singing legends during this time.

One way to take a closer look at the music of the Golden Age is to look into the period through the female stars who were popular in this time frame. Because it is just about impossible to cater for all the stars, I came to a conclusion that probably the following 12 stars will sufficiently represent movies that are part of this golden era. These are:

Asha Parekh
Hema Malini
Mala Sinha
Mumtaz
Nutan
Rekha
Sadhana
Saira Banu
Sharmila Tagore
Vyjayanti Mala
Waheeda Rehman
Zeenat Aman

Others may come up with a different list. But for the music of the Golden Age I want to share with our fellow members these stars probably make a fair representation.

Let us look at filmographies of these actresses and see if we can come to some conclusions. I will present the filmographies in the order listed above.

[swarapriya]

Rangula Raatnam (1966) - A Telugu Movie

Rekha made her debut in this Telugu movie. This was directed by one of the greatest directors of the Telugu cinema, B.N. Reddy.

B.N. Reddy (Narasimha) was a Telugu film pioneer. When he first joined the film industry, B.N. worked under H.M. Reddy. H.M. is considered by many as the father of Telugu films. One of the famous directors who was with H.M. was L.V. Prasad who made many hit movies (“Hamrahi”, “Sasural”, “Milan”, and others).

After working for a while under H.M., B.N. soon decided to become independent and founded his own studio, Vauhini. His first movie was “Vandemataram (1939)” based on a book he wrote that was never published. The movie dealt with unemployment and ill treatment of women and became a huge hit. His next movie “Sumangali (1940)” dealt with child widows. In spite of protests and threats to his life he completed and released the movie where the child widow grows up and remarries. Revolutionary concept for those days. Audience entrenched in age old believes rejected the movie outright. His third movie “Devata (1941)” dealt with premarital pregnancy. The making and the release of this movie also caused much uproar. But this time the audience were kinder to B.N. The movie became a hit wherever it was released and gave him a new lease of much needed financial life.

He produced several other movies after the success of "Devata" but did not direct another film for a while. Most of these films he produced were directed by his assistant K.V. Reddy who made later several hit movies for B.N.’s younger brother, B. Nagi Reddy (of "Ram Aur Shyam" fame). B.N.’s next directorial venture was “Swarga Seema (1945)” that was based on Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion”. Several English movies were made based on this story, the most notable being the musical “Sound of Music”. The movie also has shades of another English movie that starred Rita Hayworth, “Blood and Sand (1941)”. In “Swarga Seema”, a new lease of life was given to Bhanumati who came into the movies earlier but was struggling to find her niche. Great crooner Ghantasala was also introduced in this movie.

In 1951, B.N.-directed “Malleeshwari” starring Bhanumati and NTR was released. By many, this movie is considered to be the greatest Telugu movie ever made. It has great performances by its leading stars, beautiful music and some unforgettable lyrics written by Devulapalli Krishna Shastry. Devulapalli, a great Telugu poet, was writing for movies for the first time.

Come 1954, B.N. made yet another great movie called “Bangaaru Paapa”. The story was based on an English (Eliot’s “Silas Mamer”) novel and its star was Telugu cine field’s one of the greatest actors, S.V. Ranga Rao. Rao gave astonishingly stunning portrayal of his life where he is transformed from an uncouth ruffian to a gentle giant all because of his love and affection for an abandoned girl he helped raise. This movie won international acclaim for B.N. Charlie Chaplin saw this movie and heaped high praise on B.N. for such deft handling of the subject.

“Rangula Ratnam (1965)” was the last movie B.N. directed. It introduced actor Chandra Mohan in the lead role. It also gave opportunities for up and coming stars Vanisri and Vijaya Nirmala. Interestingly it also had a small role for Rekha (her first film as well). Rekha’s mother, Pushpavalli, played a pivotal role in the movie. This movie has some memorable songs and was a modest success.

B.N. was the first person from south to receive Dadasaheb Phalke award. He was also awarded Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.

All the songs of "Rangula Raatnam" I am uploading came from either LPs or tapes. If you hear intensely, you can detect background “hiss” in some of the songs. I will upload these songs in two separate posts. Here is the first set. The song "Nadi Reyi" by Janaki & Ghantasala is a smash.