At the age of 14, she made her debut in films. And by the time she turned 18, after having acted in half a dozen films, Bhanumathi Ramakrishna quit her successful career as singer-actress, preferring a blissful married life with her husband, Paaluvaayi Ramakrishna, whom she had met on the sets of Krishnaprema . The couple fell in love and got married in August 1943. Her only connection with cine field from then on was watching movies with her husband at the theatres on Mount Road, Madras, after reaching there by bus number 11 from T Nagar, where the couple stayed. She was creating her own paradise at the outhouse on 12, Mahalakshmi street, never to return to acting again. However, providence willed it otherwise.
In early 1944, director B N Reddi was planning to make Swargaseema (released in 1945) with Nagaiah, Ch. Narayana Rao and Jayamma in stellar roles. Chakrapani had written the story, deriving inspiration from the English movie, Blood and Sand (1941), directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Rita Hayworth played a socialite who woos the hero, a bullfighter (played by Tyrone Power). Chakrapani in his adaptation converted the matador to a magazine editor (played by Nagaiah) and the socialite to a street dancer whom he transforms into a diva.
B N had only one artiste in mind for that role. But, having quit films, would she accept his offer was the big question. He sent his emissaries – writer Samudrala Raghavacharya and veteran actor Mudigonda Lingamurthy, whom Bhanumathi used to treat as her elder brother. Both Bhanumathi and Ramakrishna were in a dilemma. She was reluctant to don the grease paint again. Finally, B N himself descended on their home and convinced her that only she could do justice to the character of Subbi, which had three shades — Subbi, Subbalakshmi and Sujatha. At the suggestion of B N, she watched Blood and Sand and was bowled over by Rita Hayworth’s performance as the sultry socialite, Dona Sol des Muire. “She made my job easy,” Bhanumathi has written in her autobiography, Nalo Nenu . Bhanumathi was so much enamoured by her hair style that she preferred to have similar hair style for her role, Sujatha, in the movie.
BN engaged Nagaiah and Ogirala Ramachandra Rao to compose the music. Along with the film’s dialogue writer Samudrala Raghavacharya, Balanthrapu Rajinikantha Rao also wrote the lyrics under the pseudonym, Nalinikath.
The music session for Vauhini Pictures’ Swargaseema , commenced on the Ugadi day in April 1944. Bhanumathi rendered Kshetraiah’s Muvva Gopala Padam , Manchi dinamu nede … And the next day, the song that took the movie to packed houses Oho ho paavuramaa — written by Rajinikantha Rao was scheduled to be recorded. Nagaiah sat before the harmonium, composing various tunes for the lyric. None of them satisfied him or the director, his associate director Kamalakara Kameswara Rao, the dance director, Vedantam Raghavaiah or the film’s production executive KV Reddi.
It was then that Bhanumathi remembered the song, Varde Luna from Blood and Sand . Playing a guitar, Rita Hayworth sings the song (in the voice of Gracilla Pirrage). The song, the humming and her appearance appealed to Bhanumathi so much that she had decided to use it for Sujatha’s character. When Nagaiah was struggling to come up with a suitable tune, BN suggested to Bhanumathi to hum some tune to inspire his music composer. Bhanumathi seized the opportunity, held a white hand kerchief as if it was a pigeon, went to the window and hummed the Spanish tune putting an extra Oho ho before the lyric. Nagaiah said ‘excellent’ and with her assistance, he composed an almost original sounding melodious tune for the seductive lyric.
Oho ho paavuramaa…Verapela paavuramaa paavuramaa
Taruna youvvanamu pongi poralu naa valapu kougilini olalaada raave
Oho ho paavuramaa…
Tanaku taanai valachi piliche tanvi mohamani chulkana seyakumaa
Oho ho paavuramaa…
The scene
Murthy (Nagaiah) is the editor of Natya Bharathi magazine. Impressed by the performance of the street dancer Subbi (Bhanumathi), he recommends her to a drama company. Subbi becomes Subbalakshmi and soon transforms into Sujatha and starts her own troupe. She requests Murthy to write a play for her. To entice him, she sings the song.
When the song was recorded by veteran sound engineer, Dinshaw K Tehrani at Newtone Studios, listening to it in Bhanumathi’s alluring voice, KV Reddi remarked ‘kudel brother’ — a word he often used whenever he found something that made one sit and watch. Even the hard-to-please Chakrapani too said baagundi.
When released on June 6, 1945, the movie celebrated 200 days run not only in the Telugu land but in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka too.
Marcus Bartley, who made his Telugu debut with Swargaseema (incidentally, Ghantasala too made his debut with the movie rendering the duet Oho naa raja with Bhanumathi), shot the song sequence Oho ho paavuramaa with such panache that it attracted a young Sivaji Ganesan who was with the Boys Drama Company then, to watch it 40 times. In an interview he once said, “Just to see the vivacious Bhanumathi in the song, I watched the movie so many times.” And what a comeback it was for the legendary actor-singer. The rest is history.
