Godavari Cine Chitra
Manchu Pallaki (1982)
Technical:
Color
Reels: 14
Release Date: Nov 19, 1982
Cast:
Chiranjeevi ... Sekhar
Suhasini ... Gita
Narayana Rao ... Vasu
Saichand ... Kumar
Rajendra Prasad ... Hari
Girish ... Gandhi
Saskhi Rangarao ... Gita's father
P.L. Narayana ... Vasu's colleague
Bhimeswara Rao ... Doctor
Devadas Kanakala ... Sekhar's colleague
Mallikarjuna Rao ... Cine director
Master Ali ... Vasu's brother
Annapurna ... Samalamma
Other Cast: Raja Reddy, Madhavilatha, Pushyami, Lakshmi Devadas, Sonia, Jayalatha
Story: Rajasekhar
Dialogues: Yandamuri Veerendranath
Music: Rajan-Nagendra
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki
Lyrics: SreeSree, Veturi Sundararamamurthy, Gopi
Art: Chandra
Associate Director: Madhuchuri Doraswamy Reddy
Editing: Anil Dattatreya
Camera: Hari Anumolu
Presenter: Vemuri Satyanarayana
Producer: M.R. Prasad Rao
Screenplay, Direction: Vamsy
Songs:
pagalu rEyilO jaaraka mundE, velugu cheekaTiga maaraka mundE kalusukunTaam
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam
Lyrics: SreeSree
Cast: Chiranjeevi, Rajendra Prasad, Narayana Rao, Saichand, Girish
nee kOsamE mEmandaram
Lyrics: Gopi
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki
Cast: Chiranjeevi, Rajendra Prasad, Narayana Rao, Saichand, Girish
manishE maNideepam
Lyrics: Veturi Sundararamamurthy
Playback: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam
Cast: Chiranjeevi, Rajendra Prasad, Narayana Rao, Saichand, Girish
mEghamaa, dEhamaa, meravakE ee kshaNam!
Lyrics: Veturi Sundararamamurthy
Playback: S. Janaki
Cast: Chiranjeevi, Suhasini, Rajendra Prasad, Narayana Rao, Saichand, Girish
 |
| Vamsy with Suhasini and Chiranjeevi on the sets |
Story:
Sekhar (Chiranjeevi), Rajendra Prasad (Hari), Narayana Rao (Vasu), Saichand (Kumar), and Girish (Gandhi) are friends. Gita (Suhasini) enters into their life like a breath of fresh air, but their joy is short-lived when they learn about their terminal illness. How the entry of her made difference in their life is shown in a beautiful, poetic way through the rest of the story.
About the film:
Manchu Pallaki
is a remake of the Tamil film
Paalaivana Cholai (01.05.'81) directed by Robert Rajasekharan. Chandrashekar played the role of Chiranjeevi in Tamil, while Suhasini played the same role in the original. Shankar-Ganesh provided music for the Tamil film.
Manchu Pallaki
is the debut film for director Vamsy, cinematographer Hari Anumolu in Telugu, and Late Mallikarjuna Rao who appears as a film director in a two-minute role. This film is 49th in Chiranjeevi's career, and was the 12th one to release in 1982! This film is the first for two combinations that became popular later: Chiranjeevi-Yandamuri, and Chiranjeevi-Suhasini. Born on 15.08.'61, Suhasini was 19 when she did this film. Chiranjeevi and Suhasini did nine films together:
Manchu Pallaki (19.11.'82),
Maga Maharaju (15.07.'83),
Challenge (09.08.'84),
Kirathakudu (10.01.'86),
Chantabbai (22.08.'86),
Rakshasudu (02.10.'86),
Aaraadhana (27.03.'87),
Manchi Donga (14.01.'88), and
Marana Mrudungam (04.08.'88).
Most of the film was shot in and around Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar and Journalist Colony (
Happy new year... song) in Hyderabad. The paintings which are shown as done by Chiranjeevi in the movie were actually done by artist Chandra who is also the art director for the movie. The film was released by Usha Pictures in Godavari, Lakshmi Films in Andhra, Vijayasuresh in Nizam, and VMC in Ceded. Suhasini's father Charuhasan distributed the film in Nellore through Charuhasan Enterprises. Through the film's titles, the moviemakers offer special thanks to Charuhasan, K.S. Ramarao, Jandhyala, and Kranthi Kumar.
Presenter Vemuri Satyanarayana speaks...
The Prelude:
While working in Rajahmundry for Bapu's
Rajadhiraju as the PRO, M.R. Prasad
gaaru came to the shooting spot regularly. When we were done with the shooting, he approached me and introduced himself as the owner of the finance company Godavari Finance in Rajahmundry. He revealedthat he wanted to make a movie and asked him to join him as a producer. When I said I didn't think I was experienced enough, he convinced me saying I was surely more experienced than he was. I agreed finally, and the banner was named Godavari Chitra, based on the name of his finance business.
Who's the Captain?
We initially thought of doing the film under the direction of Bapu
gaaru, but it didn't work out. Jandhyala
gaaru was our next choice, but that didn't work out either - they wereboth quite busy at that time! We considered approaching Eranki Sarma (of
Chilakamma Cheppindi,
Naa Laagaa Endaro) but Kranthi Kumar, who was close to me, cautioned me that the budget might go overboard with Eranki Sarma. That was when I thought of Vamsy! I knew Vamsy for three years, from the time I worked in
Jyothi monthly magazine - we even published his novel
Bharathi! His frequent visits brought us so close that he was always with me when we were on our hunt for directors.When I asked him to do the film after each one - Bapu
gaaru and Jandhyala
gaaru - could not be penciled in, he rejected. But, I went to him directly and told him this time - without evenapproaching Eranki Sarma - that he should do this film for me. He agreed reluctantly upon one condition: He wanted a roll of raw film for a day's shoot with local artistes to check whether he'd be comfortable doing a film. I provided him what he needed, and he returned the next day saying he'd dothe film. ...Vamsy was paid only Rs.650 per month as his remuneration! The film was completed in three months butI think Vamsy was paid for six months.
Hari Anumolu steps in:
Vamsy and M.V. Raghu were very close friends and Vamsy promised Raghu that his first cameraman would benone other than Raghu, but then Vamsy was in a fix as Hari Anumolu was the person he recommended earlier, when we considered Jandhyala
gaaru. It was Vamsy who took us to the film
Vadagai Veedu for which Hari Anumolu was the cinematographer and recommended him to us. Producer Prasad immediately liked Hari Anumolu's work and gave him advance on that instant! So, when things turned roundand Vamsy became the director, he was in a fix and could not insist on taking M.V. Raghu, thus going along with Hari. Later, Hari too became very close to Vamsy! I recommended him for Sravanthi banner and he did nearly all the films of Sravanthi - except a couple of films like
Nuvvu Naaku Nacchaav! and
Ready.
The lead artistes:
We knew Edida Nageswara Rao through Vamsy who worked for their Purnodaya Creations banner. Chiranjeevi lived upstairs in Edida Nageswara Rao's house, and that's how we approached Chiranjeevi. However, since Kranthi Kumar introduced Chiranjeevi through
Praanam Khareedu, Chiranjeevi always checked with KranthiKumar before signing a film. Thus, my friend Kranthi Kumar was the one who helped us get him as ourhero for a remuneration of Rs.70,000.
We chose Saichand since he already made a name for himself through his roles in films like
Maa Bhoomi; also, his brother Late Dr. Ramesh Babu was a good friend of mine. Girish made a mark in the film
Saptapadi, and thus we chose him too. Suhasini was our choice for the heroine right from the beginning. We approached her dad Charuhasan and requested him. He agreed when he heard that we were remaking a film in which she acted in Tamil already. Suhasini was really down to earth and came only with one friend Lakshmi who used to help her with makeup. She also used to assist Hari Anumolu whenever possible, as they were both colleagues when she was working as an assistant of Ashok Kumar. For example, we used to shoot the
Happy New Year... song until midnight. Though she was not required for shoot on all the days, she used to be around all the time to help Hari Anumolu.
Choosing the music directors:
I liked the work by music director duo Rajan-Nagendra in Navata movies, and we chose them for our film.They were not at all happy with the song
mEghamaa, dEhamaa!... since that'd be a copy of the original tune from Tamil. They wanted to do a different composition, but we felt it would be okay to reuse the same tune again - the song was actually lifted from a Jagjit and Chitra Singh's
ghazal! The song became a huge hit in Tamil as well as Telugu. We however chose Janaki
gaaru instead of Vani Jayaram who sang the Tamil original version.
Yandamuri Veerendranath for the dialogues...
Since Jandhyala
gaaru was our choice for our director at one time, we didn't think of taking inanyone for dialogue-writing. After Vamsy was finally chosen, we thought of approaching Yandamuri Veerendranath, whom also I knew from the days of my employment with
Jyothi monthly. He was about to leave to the Calcutta Film Festival for the screening of Mrunal Sen's film
Oka Oori Katha, a film that he worked for. Upon hearing from us, he came to Madras first. We had the scripttranslated into Telugu by Vamsy already, based on which he completed his work in merely two days and left to Calcutta from Madras directly! ...Jandhyala
gaaru was the kind enough to give voice-over for character introduction in the film's beginning.
The Distributors:
Upon completion of the film, we arranged previews of the film to industry people. Ramanaidu
gaaru, who was among our audience, was so impressed with the film that he bought the rightsin all of Nizam region. K.S. Ramarao
gaaru, who was close to Lingamurthy
gaaru of Lakshmi Films, recommended our film to Lingamurthy
gaaru. Impressed thoroughly after watchingthe preview, Lakshmi Films took the rights for whole of Andhra region. ...The film's budget was Rs.14,00,000 in all. The film ran well alright, but not well enough to make money. We lost around 3-4 lakh rupees on the whole in this project!
>>> Page 2: Vamsy remembers his debut
