K. Vishwanath, A Telugu Legendary Director Options

[swarapriya]

K. Vishwanath - A Telugu Legendary Director

Vishwanath is a distinguished director of Telugu film industry who also made himself name with several good Hindi movies. For a long time, he was an assistant to the Telugu film director Adurti Subba Rao (director of “Doli” starring Rajesh Khanna). He got a major break with Annapurna Studio’s home production in 1965 as a director for the film “Aatma Gowravam”. Even though the movie was not a money spinner, it didn’t loose its investments.

From that time onwards Vishwanath started making movies on a regular basis, some of them big hits. But not until 1980’s his full potential was realized. This started with “Shankarabharanam” which dealt with disappearing classical music of India. This movie fetched him President’s Gold Medal as the best picture for that year. In 1985 he made “Saptapadi” which dealt with intercast marriage issues. He also made “Swati Mutyam” the same year that dealt with an adult with a child’s mind and how he deals with struggles in his life. He made a movie in 1986, “Sirivennela”, that dealt with a deaf woman’s relationship with a blind man. The film “Swayam Krishi” made in 1987 dealt with issues related to work attitudes. He continued to make other fine movies through rest of the 80’s and into 90’s. Currently he only makes movies occasionally. Instead he has diverted his efforts into acting.

Some of Vishwanath’s Hindi movies include “Sargam”, “Kaam Chor”, and “Eeshwar”. Altogether he directed 55 movies. Of these 44 were in Telugu, one was in Tamil, and ten were in Hindi. In 1985 alone, he made three Hindi movies and two Telugu movies! His complete filmography as a director is shown below (H is for Hindi and T is for Tamil in the table).

Most of the albums from the period when Vishwanath found his groove and hit the stride are currently available in the marketplace in one form or another. It is the early albums that everyone has problems procuring them. Recently a friend of mine gave several albums including now “never to be found again” LPs that cover some of this early work. I will try to share as much of this music as possible through this thread provided there is enough interest.

Because of the popularity it has gained, and being considered to be a landmark achievement in Telugu cinema history, I will start with uploading songs of “Shankarabharanam” first.

[swarapriya]

Shubha Sankalpam (1995)

Here is another offering by Vishwanath with Kamala Haasan in the lead. This is the third time these two teamed together. This movie was produced by Balasubramanyam (Balu). This may be one reason bulk of the songs were sung by his family members. Apart from Balu, his sister Shailaja sang several songs in this movie. His daughter Pallavi also sings one song. Only his son Charan didn't have a song in this movie.

Another interesting thing about this movie is that Vishwanath had a major role as an actor. His acting won many laurels and several awards.

There are quite a few songs in this movie. I am uploading these in two separate posts. I am also including two extended version songs. These are from a DVD. Their quality is kind of iffy. I couldn't get the information on the lyricists. There are four of them. These are CNR, Sirivennela, Vennelakanti, and Jonna Vittula. I believe Sirivennela wrote the lyrics of "Hailesso". I would wholeheartedly welcome if someone could delineate these songs associating them with their lyricist names.

Now for a description of the first set of songs and the songs themselves ...