Changes between Version 3 and Version 4 of Paluvayi Bhanumathi

Timestamp:

Jun 11, 2013, 8:56:51 AM (11 years ago)

Author:

UshaR

Comment:

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Paluvayi Bhanumathi

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 '''Paluvayi Bhanumathi (b. 1924)'''
 
-Aka Bhanumathi Ramakrishna. Born in Guntur Dist., AP. Actress-director and grande dame of the Telugu and Tamil cinemas. Her now legendary performances at the [[Vauhini]] and [[Gemini Studio]]s were among their earliest post-WW2 bids for [[All-India Film]] industrial status. Major singing star of 40s/50s; later studio owner with her husband [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.S._Ramakrishna_Rao|P.S. Ramakrishna Rao]] (Bharani Studios, 1947), scenarist, music composer, film-maker and popular author of ‘mother-in-law’ short stories (the Attagari Kathalu series). Film début as teenager in [[C. Pullaiah]]’s reformist melodrama [[Varavikrayam]] as Kalindi, a daughter who commits suicide because her parents cannot afford her wedding dowry. Her first major success came in the bizarre role of a village girl who grows into a ‘society lady’ in [[B.N. Reddi]]’s [[Swargaseema]]. Mid-40s Telugu films, in addition to conventional mythologicals by [[Balaramaiah]] and[[ Babu]] ([[Krishna Prema]]), often cast her in comedies dealing with anxieties about traditional (sometimes rural) cultures assimilating aspects of Western modernity, a subject central to much popular reform literature: in [[Y.V. Rao]]’s [[Tehsildar]] she wears high heels and attends a British tea party; [[Prasad]]’s ‘feminist’ [[Grihapravesham]] opens with her playing badminton and confronting the misogynist hero. 
+Aka Bhanumathi Ramakrishna. Born in Guntur Dist., AP. Actress-director and grande dame of the Telugu and Tamil cinemas. Her now legendary performances at the [[Vauhini]] and [[Gemini Studio]]s were among their earliest post-WW2 bids for [[All-India Film]] industrial status. Major singing star of 40s/50s; later studio owner with her husband [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.S._Ramakrishna_Rao|P.S. Ramakrishna Rao]] (Bharani Studios, 1947), scenarist, music composer, film-maker and popular author of ‘mother-in-law’ short stories (the Attagari Kathalu series). Film début as teenager in [[C. Pullaiah]]’s reformist melodrama [[Varavikrayam]] as Kalindi, a daughter who commits suicide because her parents cannot afford her wedding dowry. Her first major success came in the bizarre role of a village girl who grows into a ‘society lady’ in [[B.N. Reddi]]’s [[Swargaseema]]. Mid-40s Telugu films, in addition to conventional mythologicals by [[Balaramaiah, G|Balaramaiah]] and[[ Babu]] ([[Krishna Prema]]), often cast her in comedies dealing with anxieties about traditional (sometimes rural) cultures assimilating aspects of Western modernity, a subject central to much popular reform literature: in [[Y.V. Rao]]’s [[Tehsildar]] she wears high heels and attends a British tea party; [[Prasad]]’s ‘feminist’ [[Grihapravesham]] opens with her playing badminton and confronting the misogynist hero. 
 
 This context, and her unique ability to function simultaneously in the reformist-social and the traditional mythological genres, was later used to remarkable effect in [[Nallathambi]], the seminal [[DMK Film]], and in the Gemini trilingual adventure drama, [[Apoorva Sahodarargal]]. Her incarnation of ‘tradition’, exemplified and stressed by her music, was later put to ideological use in the genre still most closely associated with her: ‘damsel-in-distress’ performances in [[MGR]]’s Robin Hood-derived vigilante films ([[Malaikallan]], [[Alibabavum Narpatha Thirudargalum]], [[Madurai Veeran]]). Her music drew on [[C. Ramchandra]], Arabian folk (Swargaseema, [[Laila Majnu]]) and even Pat Boone, but she is best remembered for her versions of Thyagaraja’s kirtis and Purandaradasa’s bhajans, which led to her being nominated Principal of the Government College of Music in Madras in the mid-80s. Her songs and dances are featured in the compilation film, Chitramala (1985). Wrote her autobiography Naalo Neno (1993).