Night in the forest. The bandit chief asks for some entertainment. Under normal commercial cinema norms, it was time for a jaunty song and dance number. However thinking out of the box, producer-director S M Sriramulu Naidu made provisions for a traditional song and dance sequence at the unconventional surroundings in Pakshiraja Studios for Aggi Ramudu (1954). Perhaps he was conscious that the bandit chief in his script was not a remorseless, pleasure-seeking reprobate but a Good Samaritan, a Robin Hood type. That paid rich dividends for him, not only in Telugu but also in the Tamil version, Malaikkallan , which was made simultaneously at Pakshiraja Studios, Coimbatore.
Bhanumathi Ramakrishna figured as the leading lady in both the versions while N T Ramarao played the title role in Telugu and MGR in Tamil. The young dancers Sayee and Subbulakshmi stole the show with their scintillating dance for the song ‘Rara Yasoda Nandana’ penned by Athreya and set to tune by S M Subbaiah Naidu.
Athreya
It is interesting to note that besides the lead pair, a leopard with its trainer in the casting, also featured in the song sequence, to demonstrate how man co-existed with animals in the forests, undisturbed.
The song
Rara Yasoda nandana / Yadu vadhu janamadana / Rara...
Maaraa Raagaadhaaraa / Sukumaaraa raagaadhaara / Manaselu kora / Mariyaada kaadu raaraa / Marulukonna Maaninira / Rara..../ Kaalula gajjelu ghal ghalumana raara / Kannula vennela kaanthula kananeera / Ninnu vina yeru nannelajaalaru / Nanu jeri maaru baari baapumura Muralidhara / Rara Yasoda nandana...
The scene
Sarada (played by Bhanumathi), the daughter of a rich man Somanatham (D. Balasubramanyam), is kidnapped by the thug Kaalayya (R Nageswara Rao) at the behest of Somanatham’s nephew Veerraju (Sri Ram) who intends to marry her. However, Aggi Ramudu (NTR) saves her and takes her to his home in the forest. The senior Aggi Ramudu (K. Doraiswamy) expresses a wish to see Sarada. On that occasion, the classical song and dance program of his wards Kamala (Sayee) and Vimala (Subbulakshmi) is arranged.
The song was interspersed with a gamut of musical notes and was excellently rendered with an awesome range of rhythm by the renowned Carnatic singer Jayalakshmi of Radha -Jayalakshmi duo.
Jayalakshmi
The song was recorded by sound engineer Dorai at Pakshiraja Studios recording theatre.
What impressed the audience, apart from the rendition, was the sparkling dance recital by Sayee and Subbulakshmi under the choreography of dance master Thangaraju. Their symmetric dance movements earned them kudos. They were given the nickname, ‘speed dancers’ for their fast paced dance.
Sayee and Subbulakshmi were brought up by their close relative, veteran singer, P A Periyanayaki. It is interesting to note that Periyanayaki had rendered the song ‘Neeli magan nee allava’ for the same sequence in Malaikkallan . Sayee and Subbulakshmi won national recognition for their performance for the song, ‘Apalam chapalam’ (rendered by Mangeshkar sisters Lata and Usha, Music: C. Ramchandra) in the film’s Hindi version Azad .
It is interesting that Sayee and Subbulakshmi acted in all the five versions of the movie, including in Kannada ( Bettada Kalla ) and Malayalam ( Thaskaveeran ).
The song, ‘Rara Yasoda nandana’ , besides re-establishing Jayalakshmi’s prowess as a classical singer and S.M. Subbaiah Naidu’s versatility as a composer, also brought to the fore Athreya’s expertise in writing diverse lyrics. Aggi Ramudu was only his ninth movie, but the songs he penned for it, especially this one, are popular to this day.
