Sirivennela gave me sleepless nights

Director Viswanath gives a peek into many interesting experiences during the making of his films in an exclusive interview

If you pay a visit to Dr K Viswanath at his residence in Jubilee Hills, you can feel an oasis of serenity amidst the bustling city. A small statue of Lord Shiva and the fragrance of dhoop sticks in the drawing hall will give you a pleasant feeling.

You can find the ace director enjoying the evening of his life happily with his grand-children. I visited on a sunny morning recently and the legend has walked several miles down his memory lane during our conversation.

Excerpts

Viswanath before and after ‘Sirisirimuvva’; there is a marked difference. Artistic values took a prime seat after 1977. What happened?
Perhaps, I got more freedom in choosing the subjects. Earlier, I worked on the stories penned by someone else. From ‘O Seetha Katha’, I shot films on the stories, which I myself had written. This gave me ample freedom on every turn.

And, we cannot say that all the films that were shot before ‘Sirisirimuvva’ were just social movies and the ones from ‘Sankarabharanam’ have been loaded with music and dance. Most of movies were strong social-message oriented ones with good music and lyrics. Take for example, ‘Chelleli Kapuram’ or ‘Undamma Bottupedatha’, the songs were very mellifluous having excellent lyrical values.

Have you learnt classical music?
No, I can enjoy good music. I am not good reader of classics either. I showed aspects in my movies, which I could not do in real life personally.

Some say that legendary litterateur Viswanatha Satyanarayan had a profound influence on you and there is a striking similarity between his views and life and yours…

Not at all! In fact, I have not even read his magnum opus – ‘Veyi Padagalu’.

The traditional values and the cultural ethos have been very strong in your movies.

Perhaps, they might have been a result of my effort to show to the people and the world the greatness of Indian culture. Perhaps my thought process revolved around the values we imbibe through our parents more than anything else. I attribute this aspect to my upbringing and, my parents’ way of raising me.

But don’t you think that sometimes your experiments went awry and became highly controversial.. say ‘Saptapadi’?
‘Saptapadi’ had a different climax. And, rather difficult one too. Jandhyala and I had to do a lot of homework. My attempt was to convey that marriage is not between two persons but two hearts. When it is not properly brought together, the marriage will end up in disaster.

But, giving away a married girl to her fiancée was against our tradition. I don’t wish to give a cinematic ending for the sake of commercial success. That’s why I gave a lot of explanation in the end on the real meaning of marriage. But it courted controversy.

A group from Vizag questioned whether I would do the same if my daughter is there… It’s a movie, I worked on a theme and I tried to convey the strong traditional values as well in that movie. ANR used to say that ‘Saptapadi’ stands out to be the best out of all my films. ‘Mangalyaniki Maro Mudi’, which was made by me earlier, also goes on these lines.

What was your toughest movie?
It was ‘Sirivennela’. At one point of time, I thought why I chose this subject at all. It was very difficult to translate on to screen the emotions of a visually-challenged person. The female lead was also a dumb girl. The chat between the two had to be carefully written and picturised. Another key role was Moon Moon Sen, who was an anarchic. I spent many sleepless nights during the shoot of ‘Sirivennela’. It was a difficult task for me to achieve coordination between the main characters without obscenity.

Is it true that the story line for to ‘Sankarabharanam’ was decided during ‘Sirisirimuvva’ itself?
It was like a flash that appeared in my mind…I worked on it for well over six months. Later, after I finalised the script, I thought of giving the same name and wanted ratification from Dr Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna. But he was in a hurry attending a concert that day and he left for it without confirming to me. Of course, I continued with the same name.

After the release of the movie, I asked a rickshaw driver in Vizag for his reaction. He said he saw the film 11 times and wished to see it again. I asked him what prompted him to go repeatedly. He replied- “When I was watching the movie, I got a feeling of sitting inside a temple”. That reply really shocked me.

The credit goes to Veturi, the lyricist, Jandhyala, the dialogue writer and KV Mahadevan, the music director, and the star cast. They brought immortality to the movie and I owe a lot to them.

‘Sankarabharanam’ increased the expectations on you as a director?
It’s a fact. ‘Sankarabharanam’ took me to dizzying heights. So, people naturally expect good products from me. I had to do strenuous work before every film. I had to think thrice before every shot. The story, narration, star cast had to be worked out again and again before we went for shoot. That churning helped me greatly and finally classics like ‘Sagarasangamam’, ‘Shrutilayalu’, ‘Swarna Kamalam’, ‘Swati Muthyam’, ‘Sirivennela’ and ‘Swathi Kiranam’, ‘Swayam krushi’, Apadbandhavudu etc have come out.

Do you think you have made a late entry into acting?
Acting was not my cup of tea. It was at Kamal Haasan’s insistence that I acted in ‘Subha Sankalpam’. Direction was my choice and I remain committed to it.

By: Ramakrishna Bh