He made his film debut, by joining H.M reDDi (hanumantappa muniyappa reDDi, the father of telugu talkie films and "guru" to many leading directors of later days, including LV prasAd) in forming rOHiNi  pictures and producing "gRhalakshmi" (starring BN's old friend naagayya and kannAmba), which was a great success. But soon after he left H.M due to differences and developed his "vAhini" studios. The year 1939 was certainly a revolutionary one in telugu film history. It saw the release of gUDavalli's "raitubiDDa", Y.V.Rao's "maLLI peLLi", C.pullayya's "varavikrayam" (bhAnumati made her debut.) and BN's "vandEmAtaram". BN had done a novel on social problems in the society which was never published, but it became the foundation for his 1st film. The film  deals with the social issues; unemployment among the educated, ill-treatment of women and such. It was a big hit. Big starring, melodious voice of naagayya and glamourus kaanchanamaala (who could sing and became very popular with her songs in maalapilla) contributed their bit.

BNReddi, ?,Ramnath, AKSekar, Nagayya, Mrs and Mr.Marcus Bartley & KV Reddy

 

At the great success of his first film he took up the issue of child widows in the society in his next venture; "sumangaLi". kumaari played the child widow role, who had been married and widowed at yound age. Unaware of it she plans to marry a man of her choice. naagayya played  an unusual role (those days!) of an old man in the film and all his songs were big hits. His songs; pasupu kunkuma nIkU baalA!, dayAmayamugA, prEmamayamI jIvanamu and aadabratukE madhuram and mAlati's "vastADE mA bAva" are still cherished by elder people. In the end of the film BN had her married, breaking all social taboos and tradition. People found it a bitter pill to swallow and it was a flop.

In his next film he took up the issue of premarital pregnancy and caused an uproar among the conservatives. But he went ahead amidst opposition and "dEvata" took the world by storm. Even in non-Telugu speaking areas it ran to full houses and (financially) again gave life to BN. Naagayya and kumAri playing the lead roles, supported by TanguTUri sUryakumAri (TSK), bezawADa raajaratnam (BR) and viSwESwaramma. All the songs were big hits; starting with TSK's oogedA oogedA uyyAlA, raitu janamulA panDuga dinamidirA, BR's jAgEla verapElA, adigO andiyalaa ravaLi, rAdE chelI nammarAdE chelI and naagayya's ennALLunDedavihasukhamulalO. The first official (male) play-back recording was made (where the credits were given to the artist on disc) for this film, and the singer was M.S.rAmArAvu (sundara kAnDa fame!).

In the above three films one notices the strong influence of New Theatres, Calcutta :Songs/music of KLsaigal, pankaj mallik and pahari sanyaal. BN who was infact greatly inspired by their films, once went all the way to Bangalore to watch "vidyApati" for umpteenth time. nAgayya an exponent in music and on stage, who cut many, many discs much before he joined films and (fortunately) discovered under interesting circumstances provided unforgettable melodies.

B.N's next film: "bhakta pOtana" (1942) needs no introduction, considered to be a mile stone in telugu film history. Its not an exaggeration (IMHO) if I say that naagayya became legendary with that role. BN handed over the direction to K.V.Reddy, who had been working with him since vAhini's inception. The "scientific" director (with an honors degree in sciences) set many trends in his very 1st film and as far as success was concerned never looked back. Most of the success goes to naagayya and jandhyAla gaurInAtha SAstri playing pOtana and SrInAtha roles respectively. The songs are widely sung even today, like "sarva mangaLa nAmA rAmA", "pAvana guNa nAmA harE", "nannu viDachi  kadalakurA", etc. etc. A good number of pOtana's poems from "bhAgavatam" were also taken and sung excellently by naagayya.

Then came the war and with it the restrictions on film footage (< 11000feet). Gemini's vAsan felt that its not possible to make one for Indian audience. But, BN showed it making it in ~10,300feet. It gave fresh life to bhAnumati, and became "pAvuramA bhAnumati". SwargasIma was based on G.B.Shaw's _Pygmalion_, and according to music historian VAK rangaaraavu also on Rita Hayworth starrer "Blood and Sand" (1941). ghanTasAla sang his 1st song for Ch. nArAyaNarAvu, the first glamour hero of Telugu screen (debut in jIvana jyOti, '40) - a duet with bhAnumati. The other bhAnumati songs were manchi dinamu nEDE (traditional padam), Oh, tapOdhanA - RshyaSRnga. nAgayya's "hAyi sakhI" is another great song.

 

sketch of mallishwari templs

Then started a long break of 6 years for BN till he directed mallISwari (1951), for many the greatest film ever made in Telugu film history. [After "swargasIma" came "yOgi vEmana" and "guNasundari katha" ('47, '49), both films directed by K.V. reDDi.] IMHO, no other film matched the musical values in it so far. dEvulapalli made his debut and to say in tApI dharmArAvu's words "telugu sinimApATaku kAvya gauravam kaliginchina chitram". Let me also try to recollect VAK's words on this film: "rAmArAvu, bhAnumatila adbhuta naTana, BN reDDi hRdaya madhuramaina darSakatwam, pasumarti kRshNamUrti bharata pUritamaina nRtyam, ghanTasAla, bhAnumatula sumadhura gaLaswaram, sAlUri vInulavindaina sangItam, ..... annI yE apurUpa kshaNamlO EkamayyAyO, yE tathAstu dEvatalu dIvinchArO.... intakanna apurUpamaina chitram yintavaraku rAlEdu, vastundanna aasa kUDA lEdu". Musically, you have everything in it! The film begins with purandaradAsa's "SrIgaNanAtha sindhUra varNa" (in "malahari", 1st lesson to all music students!) followed by those sweet children’s songs (rAmakRshNa, Sakuntala; pillala pATalu), "hAsya gItam" (kOtI bAvaku peLLanTa),"prakRti gItam" (par''ugulu tIyAli), (a la)jAvaLi (pilachina biguvaTarA), "chATuvu" (bhaLirA ennaDu jArenI bhuviki), "jAnapada gItam" (nOmina mamallAla O mannalAlO sandAmAmA, sung none other than by "vinjamUri" sisters: sIta&anasUya) "mEghasandESam" tO pOlchadagga "aakASa vIdhilO", a classical "appagintala pATa" (pOyirAvE tallI), a dance drama (evarE pilachErallana ,nanda yaSOdA) "viraha/vishAda gItAlu"(nelarAjA, ounA nijamEnA, manasuna mallela), "yaxagAnam" (with sUtradhAri,etc.), .....

A truly complete musical picture. The tunes composed by sAlUri needs a special mention. He apparently worked for 6 months. addEpalli rAmArAvu was the co-music director, but who looked after orchestration (in  sAlUri's words), though he composed music for some films; adRshTadIpuDu, suvarNamAla, bangArupApa, etc. BN was life long proud of his great work.

To summarize, its an absolutely authentic, artistically glorifying and emotionally satisfying film.

bangarupapa poster

 

"bangAru pApa" (1954), A film based on Eliot's _Silas Marner_ and won international acclaim. Chaplin who had seen this film in London had  said that Eliot would have been the happiest man, if he could see. BN showed to make a movie without any big starring. Except SVR no one was a big actor in his own right. All, jaggayya, jamuna, kRshNakumAri and many others were at the beginning of their long careers. SVR's role is immemorable in it! addEpalli's tunes and mAdhavapeddi's singing are worth recalling; e.g "tAdhimi takathimi tOlu bomma". This film portraits the love and affection of a ruffian for an infant, brilliantely emoted by SVR. It fared badly at box-office, but brought fresh laurels to B.N.

BN's later films were: bhaagyarEkha (1957), poojaaphalam (1964, both films made for another banner), raaja makuTam (1960), rangula raaTnam (1966) and bangaaru panjaram (1968). Though he lived till 1977 he never directed any film.

BN is the first person to receive the prestigious “palke “ award from the south India. He also received prestigious “padmasri” before that. There are number of other awards and felicitations he received. Even though BN is not anymore with us his films will always be with us. He died on 8^th November 1977. 

Acknowledgements :

Source of this Article :
1. Randor Guy's monograph on BN Reddi, published by National Film Archives, Pune, 1985.
2. Various articles by VAK Rangarao; especially one published in "rajatakamalam" (Andjrajyoti - Silver jubilee special issue, 1985)

Photo 2: taken from S.Theodore Baskaran's _The eye of the serpent" (1996)
Photo 3: MalleeSwari - sinimaa navala, by Raavi konDalaraavu (1997)

We at Telugucinema.com thanks Sri Srinivasa parachuri for giving permission for using the article.