Movie Retrospect
Retrospect: Manchu Pallaki (1982)
By Sri
Sep 10, 2008 - 3:04:02 AM

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

Suhasini with Vamsy in the sets of Manchupallaki

Director Vamsy speaks...
I met Vemuri Satyanarayana first time when I went to Jyothi Monthly office. As I already sent a novel to them, he thought I came all over from Andhra Pradesh to Madras to see if it'd be published! I clarified that I was working as assistant director with Madhusudana Rao gaaru, and he felt happy. When Prasad Rao gaaru and Vemuri gaaru planned to produce a movie, I showed place for their office near my house; it was previously the office for Sankarabharanam film. As it was near my house, I used to visit the office very often and used to participate in the discussions. For the director, several names came up: Bapu gaaru, Jandhyala gaaru, Vejella Satyanarayana, Relangi Narasimha Rao, Eranki Sarma, etc. were considered. For some reason or the other, none of them worked out!

...One early morning, Vemuri Satyanarayana gaaru came to my house and took me by utter surprise saying that he wants me to be the director for the film! I was not at all ready to do it at that time, and I was not at all happy with his decision because I never thought of directing a film before I turned 30. Also, I never wanted to do a remake! I tried totell him the same but he didn't listen to me and insisted that I should be the director or the movie will never be done! Seeing his confidence in me, I asked him to give me 1000 feet film roll and a day to shoot to ensure my own confidence levels, and he agreed. I exposed only 400 feet film and shot a mock film with Indian Oil Murthy gaaru and others. I got it developed in Prasad Labs, saw the rush in Apsara Preview Theatre near Kodambakam bridge down ...and well, I was confident enough! I agreed to do the film with one condition that the senior associate director had to be replaced, and they agreedto that too.

...It was Yandamuri who suggested the title Manchu Pallaki, also the name of my first novel, which was published in Andhra Jyothi weekly. Rajan-Nagendra and I didn't get along well as they felt I was too young and did not have much domain knowledge. This hurt me and I vouched to never work with them again. ...Chiranjeevi was very busy at that time and gave 16 days on the whole during twomonths, and thus we completed his shoot in that 16 days in Hyderabad. We thought of doing the film in and around Nallakunta actually, near Shankar Mutt since the locality has a residential colony and a local railway station nearby. But, we thought Nallakunta could be more crowded since it's near Osmania University. Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar, on the other hand, was considered city outskirts back then and it wasnot at all crowded like today, and thus we chose S.R. Nagar area for the shoot.

>>> Page 3: Suhasini and Chiranjeevi speak about Manchu Pallaki

Suhasini and Chiranjeevi in Manchupallaki

In Suhasini's words...
"The film is about a platonic friendship between five guys and a very special but simple girl! I played the role of the girl, and I die at the end. I was still at the film school when I acted in the Tamil version of the film! Rajeshekaran sir was my lecturer in the film institute and his brother Jayachandran was my classmate. When they were working on the script, it was Jayachandran who suggested my name for the movie. The film was produced by Vadivelu, the fitness master for my uncle Kamalhasan. I agreed to do the film on one condition: that I would still attend the school too. In order to accommodate that condition, they shot from 6 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. I used to start at 5:30 a.m. at my home to attend the shooting with makeup, albeit minimal. At 10 a.m. again, I used to clean the makeup in the car on the way to the school, attended the school at least after the first period. That's why one can observe most scenes either in morning or evening backdrop. I didn't take any remuneration for the film. All lead artistes in the Tamil version were newcomers, yet the film is a big hit. I did Robert sir's second film also, which was an experimental film too".

...In Telugu, this was my second film after Bharathiraja's Kottha Jeevithalu. Until my exams were completed in August '81, I was not concentrating on acting career seriously. When Manchu Pallaki was offered, I was done with my studies. Thus, I started taking my career more seriously with this film. Honestly speaking, I personally think that the Telugu version was much better than the Tamil version! Even, I think I look better in Telugu than in Tamil. I was paid almost equal - probablyten to fifteen thousand rupees less - compared to the hero's remuneration in Telugu! I still remember Chiranjeevi gaaru grumbling about it... "How come a new herione gets as much amount as an already established hero?" - This was his point, and it was genuine too, of course! ...If I shouldbelieve what I heard, his exact question was to know if I was receiving high remuneration because I wasKamal Hasan's brother's daughter. ...It was nice of him to do the role still, where his was one of the five male leads and the film actually revolves around the female lead!

...I met Chiranjeevi gaaru in the flight. He was sitting next to me in the flight and said "If you have any problems with food or accommodation, please let me know, since you're a newcomer in Telugu.", and after a pause, he added "I can only listen to your problems but cannot help in any way."(" meeku Emannaa samasyalu vastE cheppanDi... vinipeDataa kaanii Em cheyyalEnu!") (laughs). On the sets, he used to tease me in Tamil, singing a song, along with the other four male leads (Rajendra Prasad, Saichand, Narayana Rao, and Girish), which irritated me and I told them the same. Then, in order to tease me in another way still, he asked the other four to not talk to me so that I'll be annoyed and will say sorry (" aa ammaayiki chaalaa pogaru. manam maaTlaaDakunDaa unTE appuDu tagguntundi."). But the other four used to come to me when he was not there and used to give me Tamil magazines, offer a masala dosa, or interact in some other way. After four days, I revealed to Chiranjeevi that he was the only one who was not talking to me but rest of them became good friends. He was surprised first,but soon he became a good friend. ...My father liked the subject so much that he took distribution rights in Nellore along with a friend. This was not as a part of my remuneration, though.

Chiranjeevi about Vamsy and Manchu Pallaki:
"In [ Manchu Pallaki], [Vamsy] thought that I should play the main character which falls in love with Suhasini. Vamsy approached me through producer Edida Nageshwara Rao gaaru while I was working for his Subhalekha. I was also doing Intlo Ramayya-Veedhilo Krishnayya then. I agreed to do the role. ...Vamsy is a different kind of director altogether. He never used to go the conventional way. I was like, "Who's this guy? He's doing a good job!" His thoughts were novel, his approach was unique, his taking, shot division, and shot cutting were different, and his narration was too good. Also, he has a great sense for music. Songs in Vamsy's movies are all wonderful! I particularly like the song mEghamaa, dEhamaa!... sung by Janaki gaaru - it's one of my favorites!Not only this one film, he did so many other musicals with Ilayaraja. His editing sense is exceptionaltoo! ...He's someone who goes for innovation anytime!"

Release theaters

Vijayawada – Shailaja A/c
Guntur – Pallavi
Nellore – Kanaka Mahal
Elur – Venkatrama
Vishaka Patnam – Sharat A/c
Rajahmundry – Kumari & Venkateshwara A/c
Kakinada – Padmapriya A/c
Vijaya Nagaram – Leelamahal
Bhimavaram – Padmashri
Machili Patnam – Radhika

Nizam

Hyderabad – Shanthi A/c, Sridevi, Meera Delux, Konark & Satyam
Secunderabad – Paradise A/c (1 show)

Ceded

Tirupathi – D.R. Mahal
Anantapur – Venkateshwara
Bellary – Radhika

Acknowledgements : Sri Vemuri Satyanarayana garu, Vamsy Garu, Suhasini Garu and Chiranjeevi Garu.
Release Centers Info : Sri Vijayabhaskar
Edited by Nachaki
Article by Sri