Whenever Penchal Das comes up with a number, it sounds unique and interesting. The last number he sang was the chartbuster Dhaari Choodu Dhummu Choodu Mama for Krishnarjuna Yuddham . Though that film tanked at the box office, the folksy song was on everyone’s lips for months. Now, after a considerable gapDas and Nikitha are singing Yeda Poyinado for Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava .
Penchal Das is an unassuming and down-to-earth person, and that reflects in his songs. Ask him how Yeda Poyinado came about he elaborates, “A father in a village dies and a song was needed for that situation. Trivikram Srinivas said Vairagyam undali . I wrote a big song. A lot of it has been chopped and a little bit was retained. Some addition was made by Seetarama Sastry. The high pitch sruthi in this song is what moves the listeners to tears.”
Director Trivikram Srinivas apparently heard Dari chudu dummu chudu mama and called Penchal Das the very next day to ask him to write a song based on Rudali tradition for a film he was making with NTR. Penchal Das talks about the custom of singing a song after a person’s death. “My forefathers in Nellore and Chittoor would hold ‘Garuda Sthambham’ and render pogidimpulu songs (eulogies). My brothers are writers of folklore; we researched on our forefathers and spoke to a couple of them who are fortunately surviving and wrote the song. Our generation has become modern, we dress in trousers and shirts but there are a few who are traditional in our family. When a high caste person dies, a priest conducts rituals for him and people sing the person’s glory. There is another man from a different community doing it for low caste people. For the former, it goes like this… pandanga ravala, pabbaana ravala, nee vaalu nee gurinchi kanukula icchinaaru... This tradition in Rayalseema is also viewed as an art.”
Penchal Das is a drawing teacher in a school, he hails from Devamachapalli village in Kadapa. He picked up singing from his father and uncle who are very good singers. They would perform ‘Veedhi Bagavathalu’ in Dalitavada. Das talks of his flair for writing, “I am also a writer in my mandalikam, some were published but some were kept aside as it was controversial. I write poetry too. I am collecting and researching folksongs seriously. Anyone can write but you should have content and material to write about something like folklore. Whatever word you say, a story can be formed from Janapadam.”
While Penchal Das writes and sings, the people in his village treat him as a celebrity. He won a State Award for his Batik art. He wrote mandalikam dialogues with Trivikram Srinivas for Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava . For the past six years he’s been working in a school and says God has been kind to him and he has enough to eat and a roof to live under.
