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Melody and more in every frame
RANDOR GUYRANDOR GUY
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Some of the hits of the Thirties such as "Bhama Vijayam" and "Raja Bhakthi" were produced at the Sundaram Sound Studio in Adyar. A talented cast and fine music were the highlights of these films.
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Ratna Bai... a household name.
ANOTHER RICH and influential Nagarathar, P. S. Sathappa Chettiar, a mill-owner of Coimbatore, acquired the Meenakshi Cinetone Studio in Adyar and renamed it `Sundaram Sound Studio.' He was the patron of the famous sisters, P.S. Ratna Bai-P. S. Saraswathi Bai, known as the `Bai Sisters' or `Palayamcottah Sisters'. They were leading stars of the stage and household names in the Madras Presidency and surrounding areas. They entered movies thanks to Chettiar and acted in many films during 1930-1940 mostly made at the Sundaram Sound Studio. They always acted together, Ratna as heroine and Saraswathi as vamp. Rarely did they act for outsiders and when they did, they charged a fee of Rs. 25,000, a fortune in the 1930's. They would work only for 45 days and if the work spilled over for the 46th day they had to be paid extra in advance! If the producer failed to pay, the two would vanish in the night leaving no trace of even their perfume!
The Telugu-speaking Brahmin sisters of Tinnevelly (now Thirunelveli) were indeed tough `guys'! One of the few films they did for outsiders was "Ratnavali''(1935), an early AV. Meiyappan production made in Calcutta. One of the major hits made by P.S. Sathappa Chettiar with the `Bai Sisters' in partnership with another noted Coimbatore-based producer of the 1930's, A. N. Maruthachalam Chettiar, was "Bhama Vijayam'' (1934). A super bonanza, it introduced the Carnatic Music legend, G. N. Balasubramaniam -GNB- to cinema as Sage Narada. In the film credits, his name appeared as `Hutchins Plate Fame Sangeetha Vidwan' (Hutchins was a well known gramophone recording company of that period and 78 rpm discs were then colloquially known as `plates') Made at a cost of Rs. 80,000 it earned Rs. 1 million, a fortune in the early 1930's.
M. R. Krishnamurthy, popular singing stage and screen star of the 1930's, played Lord Krishna. He was the brother of the legendary Carnatic Musician, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer. Ratna Bai was Rukmini, while her sister, Saraswathi Bai played Satyabhama. " Bhama Vijayam '' has 59 songs — quite a common feature in that period — and GNB sang 10 of them. (One film of that period, " Sangeetha Lava Kusa'' had 63 songs!
In his review in " Ananda Vikatan'' `Kalki' - Ra. Krishnamurthy - called the film, `Paatti'! A brilliant word -play on `talkie' and paattu [song in Tamil]! Till December 1940 Kalki worked for the S. S. Vasan-owned magazine. Interestingly, GNB's first song as Narada was "Balakanakamaya...'' said to be the first composition of Saint Thyagaraja in raga Atana! That was not all. Narada and Krishna sang a duet, again a composition by Thyagaraja in raga Thodi, " Koti nathulu...Dhanushkotilo...'' Then came them icing on the cake. The film ended with all characters singing in chorus " Jana Gana Mana...!'' The first time that the later day National Anthem was sung on screen! Narada and Krishna singing the compositions of Thyagaraja and Rabindranath Tagore? Anachronism? Maybe, but nobody cared about such literary niceties then nor do they even today in Indian cinema. For the `Jana Gana Mana' song there was a very valid reason. To arouse and awaken the Indian to fight for freedom.
With a rigid scissors-sharp film censorship in force, the filmmaker had to resort to subtle and ingenious ways and means to spread the message to the masses.
"Bhama Vijayam'' was produced under the banner of `Chellam Talkies', a well-known name in those days. (`Chellam' was the `pet name' of Maruthachalam Chettiar!). The director was Manik Lal Tandon. Sadly forgotten today, M. L. Tandon was a successful Tamil filmmaker of the yester-decades and the first Tamil filmmaker to receive formal training in cinema in America. He studied filmmaking at the famous USC (University of Southern California), Los Angeles. He also worked in some of the major Hollywood studios and was `Indian Affairs Consultant' for Universal Studios and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His classmate and intimate pal at USC was Ellis. R. Dungan whom he `imported' to India! ( Dungan passed away recently in the U.S. He was ninety-three.
Soon after the release of the movie, GNB, much to his shock and surprise, became a victim of prejudice against cinema, which prevailed in that period. He was invited to sing at a festival in Thanjavur, and accompanists like the violin, and mridangam players refused to accompany him because he was only a film actor and not a pure musician! Several senior musicians were unwilling to attend the concert and stood ouside because GNB had polluted himself by acting in cinema and so he was no longer pure enough to sing classical Carnatic Music! The brilliant performance of his raga alapana brought them all rushing inside the hall to savour his soul-filling music!
Other noted films of Sundaram Sound Studio included "Raja Bhakthi'' (1937) and "Sairandhri''(1939. The noted Bharatanatyam critic and impresario, the one person, a lawyer-turned-Bharathanatyam activist and a trained dancer himself, who fought successfully against odds to get social acceptance for the much-condemned ancient dance art form in the 1920's, E. Krishna Iyer acted in this film. Iyer played `Brihannala'' (Arjuna in disguise as a eunuch in King Virata's court) and danced a classical number and created history. The present popularity of Bharatanatyam around the world owes much to this great soul. "Raja Bhakthi'' gave rise to one of the early `Copyright Infringement' cases of the Madras cinema world filed on the Original Side of the Madras High Court. The noted lawyer, playwright and stage actor, V. C. Gopalratnam sued for the infringement of the copyright of his popular play, `Raja Bhakthi'. The producers, Sundaram Talkies, denied the claims. They argued that the film was the Tamil version of the Marathi play `Rakshasi Mahatva Kaanksha' by well-known playwright, Veervaaman Rao. The screenwriter-cinematographer, and director, was Sundar Rao Nadkarni, a successful filmmaker between 1930 and the 1950's. A Konkani-speaking Mangalorean who had spent his early years in Bombay he was fluent in Marathi too. He had read the Marathi play and written the screenplay based on it. On his evidence, the producers won the case much to the chagrin of VCG! He felt that justice had not won... In the film songbook on every page, the title was printed as "Veervaaman Rao's `Rakshasi Mahatva Kaanksha' or `Raja Bhakthi'! The film had the Palayamcottah Sisters (Ratna and Saraswathi) appearing in major roles. B. R. Panthulu, later one of the key players of South Indian Cinema, took his bow in Tamil cinema in a powerful character role. Another little known fact of Tamil Film and Carnatic Music- history about this film is that the `background music' was by Prof. Sambamurthy's orchestra. A savant of Carnatic Music he was the first Professor of Music at the University of Madras. Not many are aware of his links with cinema. ``Raja Bhakthi'' had in its cast a talented Carnatic musician and later, famous film music composer, M.D. Parthasarathy. In 1941, he joined Gemini Studio as music composer. Earlier, he had served the All India Radio (AIR).
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