Movie Retrospect
Retro : Jayabheri completes 50 years
By Sri
Apr 4, 2009 - 8:56:18 AM

Sarada Productions
Jayabheri (1959)

Technical: 35mm
Black & White
Reels: 18

Cast:
V. Nagayya ... Viswambhara Sastri
Akkineni Nageswara Rao ... Kasi (Kasinatha Sastri)
S.V. Ranga Rao ... Vijayananda Rama Gajapati
Anjali Devi ... Manjuvani
Raja Sulochana ... Amruthamba (Court dancer)
Ramana Reddy ... Bacchana Narayya
P. Santhakumari ... Annapurna
Suryakantham ... Rathnalu
Relangi Venkataramayya ... Bacchana Bangarayya
Gummadi Venkateswara Rao ... Viswanatha Sastri
Moparru Dasu ... harikathakuDu
Mukkamala Krishanmurthy ... dharmaadhikaari
Chadalavada Kutumba Rao ... Dappula Raghavulu
'Surabhi' Kamala Bai... Ranganayaki
Other Cast: Jandhyala Gauripathi Sastri, Raghunath Panigrahi, Peketi Sivaram, A.V. Subba Rao, etc.

Story, Dialogues: Acharya Athreya
Photography: P.L. Roy
Editing: R. Devarajan
Art: A.V. Subba Rao, S. Krishna Rao
Dances: Vempati Peda Sathyam
Sound: A. Krishnan
Music: Pendyala Nageswara Rao
Playback: Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao, Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, P. Susheela, S. Janaki, Madhavapeddi Sathyam, P.B. Sreenivos, Pithapuram Nageswara Rao, Raghunath Panigrahi, Saundararajan, M. L. Vasanthakumari, Mallik (a small bit)
Lyrics: Arudra, SreeSree, Kosaraju Raghavayya Chowdary, Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry, Narapareddi
Associate Directors: K. Raghavendra Rao, U.V. Rao
Producer: Vasireddi Narayana Rao
Direction: P. Pullayya

Songs:
Suklaam brahma vichaara saara paramaam (SlOkam)
Playback: Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna
Cast: V. Nagayya

madi SaaradaadEvi mandiramE
raagam: kaLyaaNi
Playback: Ghantasala, P.B. Sreenivos, Raghunath Panigrahi
Lyrics: Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry
Cast: Akkineni Nageswara Rao and others

unnaaraa jODunnaaraa, mammODinchE vaarunnaaraa?
Playback: P. Susheela, Madhavapeddi, Pitapuram
Lyrics: Kosaraju Raghavayya Chowdary
Cast: Relangi, Anjali Devi, Ramana Reddy, and others

sawaal sawaal-anu chinnadaanaa, sawaal pai sawaal!
Playback: Ghantasala
Lyrics: Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry
Cast: Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Relangi, Anjali Devi, Ramana Reddy, and others

raagamayii raavE, anuraagamayii raavE!
raagam: abhEri
Playback: Ghantasala
Lyrics: Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry
Cast: Akkineni Nageswara Rao

raavOyii, raasavihaarii! (yamunaa teeramuna sandhyaa samayamuna)
raagam: bEhaag (starting), kaapii (poopodalO daaganEla pOpOraa swaamii... onwards)
Playback: Ghantasala, P. Susheela
Lyrics: Arudra
Cast: Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Anjali Devi

Nageshwera Rao, Anjali Devi in Jayabheri

sangeeta saahityamE, mEmE, nava SRngaara laalityamE!
Playback: Ghantasala, P. Susheela
Lyrics: Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry
Cast: Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Anjali Devi

indralOkamu nunDi yidi tecchinaarayya
Playback: Ghantasala, Madhavapeddi Sathyam, S. Janaki (and ?)
Lyrics: Arudra
Cast: Relangi, Suryakantham, Ramana Reddy

hOy, vallO paDaaliraa pedda sEpa... hamsalle oogaali andaala paDava
Playback: Madhavapeddi Sathyam, P. Susheela, Ghantasala
Lyrics: Arudra
Cast: Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Anjali Devi

rasika raaja, tagu vaaramu kaamaa!
raagam: vijayaanandachandrika (A musical experiment by the music director Pendyala, combing the aarOhaNa of kaanaDa raaga and avarOhaNa of chakravaaka raaga)
Playback: Ghantasala
Lyrics: Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry
Cast: Akkineni Nageswara Rao

neeventa nerajaaNavauraa!
Playback: M.L. Vasanthakumari
Lyrics: Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry
Cast: Raja Sulochana

adhikulanii athamulanii (nanduni charitamu vinumaa!)
raagam: sindhubhairavi
Playback: Ghantasala
Lyrics: SreeSree
Cast: Akkineni Nageswara Rao

daivam neevEnaa? dharmam neevEnaa?
Playback: Saundararajan, P.Susheela  
Lyrics: Narapareddi
Cast: Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Anjali Devi

nee daananannadira, ninnE nammina chinnadira!
raagam: maanD
Playback: Ghantasala
Lyrics: Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry
Cast: Akkineni Nageswara Rao (This song is edited out of the movie.)

About the film:
The film is based on the 1947 production by renowned film-maker V. Shantaram, titled Lokshahir Ram Joshi in Marathi and Matwala Shayar Ram Joshi in Hindi.

Vasireddi Narayana Rao, T.V.S. Sastry (Thotapalli Venkata Sundara Sivarama Sastry), Pratibha Sastry, and Katragadda Srinivasa Rao (of Navayuga Films) were close friends. They made the first Telugu dubbing film Aahuti (1950), which was also the first film for the already popular writer SreeSree. The ill fate of Aahuti left Narayana Rao in deep financial troubles, seeing which Srinivasa Rao and Sastry wanted to do something to bring him out of the misery. Thus, they encouraged him to make another movie assured of their support. Thus, Jayabheri happened.

This film is a musical feast for everyone! And, it's one of the rare films which has over dozen playback singers! Songs such as rasika raaja, tagu vaaramu kaamaa!..., yamunaa teeramuna sandhyaa samayamuna..., raagamayii raavE..., madi SaaradaadEvi mandiramE..., nanduni charitamu vinumaa!... are evergreen hits. For a legendary singer like Ghantasala, songs from this films will surely count among the career's best renditions! The credit definitely goes to Pendyala gaaru as well as to Ghantasala Master, and Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry gaaru. According to Kovvidi Chinnam Raju gaaru who was close to Ghantasala, Pendyala gaaru initially thought of seeking renowned carnatic classical vocalist and guru Sree Nookala China Satyanarayana gaaru for the song rasika raaja, tagu vaaramu kaamaa!... since the song was a difficult one and that he'd be a better choice. However, Akkineni, producer Narayana Rao and director P. Pullayya came together to put pressure on Pendyala to work with Ghantasala Master instead. (When TeluguCinema.Com checked with Akkineni Nageswara Rao gaaru, he denied it saying it was a baseless rumor.) Ghantasala gaaru rehearsed the song over hundred times in ten days before recording the song finally.

Jayabheri Wall poster

Though Athreya gaaru worked for the film, he only provided the dialogues; he did an excellent job on it.

Jayabheri is made as a bilingual film in Tamil (as Kalaivannan) and Telugu simultaneously. Though the lead actors were same in both the languages, comedians in Tamil were replaced with Sarangapani, Thangavelu, and Sahasranamam. Thus, it took longer time to complete. While the Telugu version had no problem releasing (with Katragadda Srinivasa Rao of Navayuga backing the film even in production stage), the Tamil version  had troubles finding a good distributor. M.G. Ramachandran, who likes T.V.S. Sastry, helped him in getting the film released in Tamil, and even suggested the Tamil title for the film. The film didn't run so well in Tamil, compared to the Telugu version.

Akkineni Nageswara Rao speaks about Jayabheri...
I knew Pratibha Sastry gaaru from my initial days. Thus, So when he approached me for the film, I readily agreed. Another reason to accept the film was its director, Pullayya gaaru. I did many memorable films with him such as Ardhaangi before then. Shantamma gaaru (Shantakumari gaaru, actress and wife of P. Pullayya) is ammi to me. She has a very important role along with the hero, as the hero's sister-in-law. Be it the role of protagonist's brother portrayed by Gummadi gaaru or the protagonist's guru Nagayya gaaru, or even the little yet crucial role played by S.V.R gaaru... every character in the film has adequate prominence!

I practiced the songs many times before the shooting, to give the right lip movement, for the song rasika raaja, tagu vaaramu kaamaa!... and even madi SaaradaadEvi mandiramE.... I had to ensure that I give the right expressions while maintaining the rhythm and tempo. The musicians on both the scenes were actually professionals and thus they didn't need much practice, but my music sense is limited and I needed to work a lot with Pendyala gaaru and Ghantasala Master to get it all right! My efforts paid off at last! The songs were all time hits, and the film won the President's medal for that year. The film was a commercial success too, but it won more critical acclaim than most commercial successes could ever imagine, as the story goes around social elements prevalent then.

...Ghantasala Master and I started our careers about the same time - I knew him even before coming into the movies. He rehearsed the song rasika raaja, tagu vaaramu kaamaa!... so many times before recording. There is no way that we can even think of someone else rendering that song! All such rumors (that Sree Nookala was the composer's choice for the song) are baseless! There's another rumor too - that the song nee daananannadira, ninnE nammina chinnadira! was removed from the film as the censor board member G.T. Sastry gaaru objected and asked to remove the song. The song was actually removed as the film was already exceeding three hours of running time. It was also rumored that Shantakumari gaaru actually beat me in the climax. That's not true either! Of course, a slap or two on the back did hit me really, but not all of them!

Anjali Devi on Jayabheri:
Jayabheri was a critically acclaimed one and a commercial success too! I vividly remember that we all went to Delhi for the President's Award... I'm very proud to be part of the movie!

Edited by: NaChaKi
Article by: Sri Atluri