He was simplicity personified, his poems elevated imagination to a higher plane, he was known for his felicity of expression and extraordinary combination of words and his poems defined clarity of thoughts. This was how Vizagites defined the character and personality of Chembolu Seetharama Sastry, who is popularly known as ‘Sirivennela’ Seetharama Sastry. Seeetharama Sastry died in Secunderabad on Tuesday and the music lovers and those associated with him were distraught, after the news of his demise trickled into the city by evening.
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“We have lost the best poet and lyricist in Telugu of this era,” said Raghavendran of Anandavanam, Bheemunipatnam.
He was one of the favourite disciples of our guruji Sri Sivananda Murthy. He would compose and sing in front of him and guruji would simply go into ecstasy, he said.
Born in 1955 at Anakapalle, Seetharama Sastry spent most of his early childhood in Kakinada.
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Literary traits
He picked his literary traits from his learned father Chembolu Venkata Yogi, who was polyglot. In those days Kakinada was a hub for literary activity and he honed his skills by rubbing shoulders with literary exponents such as Ismail and Godavari Sarma. His stay at Kakinada gave him the literary filip, recollected journalist Velcheti Subramanyam.
Many from various literary organisations in the city who were associated with him say that he was a conversationalist par excellence.
‘Spiritual man’
He was a highly spiritual man and we enjoyed the conversation with him, whenever he visited our ashram, recollects Raghavendran.
In the initial part of his career when he worked for BSNL, then known as Department of Telecom, he was a regular feature for all cultural shows.
It was director K. Viswanath who gave him a break after reading his poem ‘Ganga Avatarana’.
Although he made his debut as a lyricist for K. Viswanath’s film Janani Janmabhoomi (1984), it was Sirivennela, directed by the same director that propelled him to fame and he came to be known as Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry, said journalist Chintakindi Srinivasa Rao.
He is the pride not only for Anakapalle but also for Visakhapatnam district and the State. And most importantly he never forgot his roots.
His soothing lyrics will be missed for long, said Mr. Velcheti.