Padmanabham Presents
Rekha and Murali Productions
Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna (1967)
Technical:
Reels: 18
Black and White
35 mm
Cast:
Padmanabham ... Maryaada Ramanna
Geethanjali ... Madhuri Devi
Rajanala ... Veerabhadrudu
Prabhakar Reddy ... Kotilingam
Perumallu ... Minister
Mukkamala ....King
Rajababu ... Sukumarudu
Guest Artistes: Rajasree, Sobhan Babu, Harnath, Ramakrishna, Krishna, 'eelapaaTa' Raghuramayya, Mikkilineni, Satyanarayana
Other cast: Prasad, Balakrishna, Ramachandra Rao, Ganesh, Vallam Narashima Rao, Meenakumari, Malathi, Jyothi, Prameela, Annapurnamma, Anjani, Rathnakumari
Story, Dialogues, Lyrics, Verses: Veeturi
Playback: P.B. Sreenivos, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam (Debut), Madhavapeddi Satyam, Pithapuram Nageswara Rao, K.J. Yesudas, T.M. Sundarajan, P. Susheela, S. Janaki, 'eelapaaTa' Raghuramayya
Dances: Pasumarthy Krishnamurthy, K.S. Reddy
Associate Directors: K. Appalacharya
Camera: J. Satyanarayana
Music: S.P. Kodandapani
Producer: B. Purushottham
Director: K. Hemambaradhara Rao
Songs:
hari hari naaraayaNO aadi naaraayaNO karuNinchi mammElu kamalalOchanuDa! ...sepitE saanaa undi
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam
Cast: Padmanabham
Sreekarudu haruDu (Verse)
Playback: 'eelapaaTa' Raghuramayya
Cast: 'eelapaaTa' Raghuramayya
charrucharruna (Verse)
Cast: Padmanabham
Emi yee vinta mOham!
Playback: P. Susheela, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam (debut), 'eelapaaTa' Raghuramayya, P.B. Sreenivos
Cast: Rajasree, Krishna, Sobhan Babu, Harnath
mangiDeelu mangiDeelu O poolabhaamaa!
Playback: Pithapuram Nageswara Rao, P. Susheela
Cast: Padmanabham, Geethanjali
neeve neevE naa daivamu, neeve naa bhagyamu
Playback: P. Susheela
Cast: Geethanjali
vennelagaa undi
Playback: K.J. Yesudas, P. Susheela
Cast: Padmanabham, Geethanjali
Story:
A shepherd boy Rami (Padmanabham) becomes Rammanna with the blessings of a sage. The Minister and the Army Commander of the kingdom torture the people for more money on the taxes. Ramanna informs this to the King, and the King offers him to take the throne for three months and solve the problems. Ramanna takes the challenge and succeeds in that and also wins the heart of the princess in this process.
About the film:
The film is more famous as the greatly well-versed, popular Guinness record-holder playback singer Padmasri S.P. Balasubrahmanyam debuted with the film as a singer.
Padmanabham speaks:
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| Padmanabham |
Veeturi and I are very good friends. He was the permanent writer for our drama troupe 'Rekha and Murali Arts' (Rekha is Vallam Narasimha Rao's daughter and Murali is Padmanabham's son who acted in Pelli Kaani Thandri, a remake of the Hindi flick Kuvaaraa Baap). Though I was busy with films, I used to allocate ten days each month for dramas. My brother Purushottham, music director S.P. Kodandapani, Director K. Hemambharadhara Rao, Actors Perumallu, Dandu Venkataraju from Keshavaram were my partners in this troupe. Veeturi gave me a story for a drama but the herione had a double role and we thought it'd not suit a drama and put it aside. But then, Kodandapani pursuaded me to do it as a film, and I approached NTR for the film.
He agreed to do it immediately and that movie was eventually a big hit; yes, it's Devatha with Savithri in dual role. Then we did another film Potti Pleader-u based on Bhamidipati Radhakrishna's play "idEmiTi?" (Sobhan Babu's first dual role film) which was also a big hit. After getting success in two films, we started out third film Sree Sree Sree Maryaada Ramanna. As I had a comedian image, we chose the film with a theme that has scope for comedy as well as a message-oriented concept.
In both the previous films, several actors acted in guest roles, which was a good plus for these films. So we decided to do it the same way in this film too and we requested Krishna, Sobhan Babu, and Harinath to do a song in the film with Rajasree. We planned to get the song sung by Raghuramayya gaaru, P.B. Sreenivos, and Ghantasala maasTaaru, but maasTaaru was busy at the time of recording. It was then that S.P. Kondandapani gaaru showed me SPB and introduced him as a good singer.
So we thought to go ahead and record the song with him instead of Ghantasala gaaru. Today, I feel very proud to say that he was from our banner! The film became a landmark due in Telugu films to Balu's debut. The film was a huge success in itself, and we wanted to dub it into tamil too but it didn't work out due to some reasons. Out of my 400 movies, this film gave me utmost satisfaction, I should say.
The film's indoor shoot was done entirely at Golden Studio and Prasad Studios. For outdoor, Padamu village in Chittor district was our location. The tiger fight scene was also shot at Golden Studio. We used a real tiger and got its jaws stitched together for safety, but it was still too risky. S.P. Kodandapani appeared in a small role in the film also, as a person who brings to the King's court a complaint about a cat. (This is his second screen appearance, after appearing as a music conductor in the film Potti Pleader-u). The producer, and Padmanabham's brother, Purushottham shares the scene with Kodandapani.
SPB on his debut film:
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| S P Balasubramanyam |
This is my debut film. It happened because of Sree Kodandapani gaaru. He was one of the judges when I contested in a singing competition in 1963 in Madras. After the program, he came to me and said that I'd become a popular singer and will keep on singing for the next forty years! And, true to his blessings, I find myself still singing, even after forty years! He took me to S. Bhavanarayana gaaru, introduced me, and recommended me but nothing happened on that front. I was disappointed and went back to college to complete my second year AMIE.
Again, Kodandapani gaaru called me one day and took me to Padmanabham and asked me to sing a song. I sang the title song of mErE mehboob, pibarE raamarasam, etc. to Padmanabham, who liked my voice and assured that he'd definitely give me a chance. A part of the song Emi yee vinta mOham! was intially supposed to be sung by Ghantasala maasTaaru. He went to his native place to attend to his mother who fell ill and was thus unable to come to the recording. As the shooting neared, they made me sing it on an ad hoc basis, with an intention to replace it with Ghantasala maasTaaru's voice if it was not as good. Though I had only one charaNam to sing, I practised the whole song. On the day of recording, December 15, 1966, no car came to pick me up.
I waited for sometime and went the studio on my bicycle. Until I went to Vijaya Gardens, I had a feeling that they might not have liked my voice, but when I reached I was informed that the car had a mechanical problem. After waiting for some time, I got a call from Kodandapani gaaru and I recorded the whole song in twenty minutes. I was paid Rs. 300/- as the remuneration for this song. I mailed Rs. 100/- to my father. At that time, I used to get Rs. 80/- per month from my home to meet my expenses in Madras as I was staying in a room along with other friends for my studies.
While sending the money, I also wrote to my father that he need not send me money for another two months. My first song along with bigwigs like P.B. Sreenivos, Raghuramayya gaaru, and P. Susheela was a memorable experience. When Ghantasala maasTaaru returned from the village they showed the song to him. He said that my voice was good and insisted that the voice should be kept as is in the song. It was his blessings and S.P. Kondandapani gaari blessings, which I cannot forget even after forty years...
Tail piece: A temporary head of the Government who resolves people's problems - wasn't the same story remade lately?
Article by Pulagam and Sri
Compiled and Edited by Nachaki
