The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : A legend no Telugu will ever forget

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Monday, Dec 26, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

A legend no Telugu will ever forget

K.V.S. Madhav

She was a singer, actress, director, music director, producer and studio owner, all rolled into one

HYDERABAD: She was light years ahead of her times yet so wedded to her present. At a time when women would refuse to come out of the four walls of the home, she was already ruling the male oriented Telugu film industry and conquering the Telugu masses with her sublime voice, the stories that she wrote, the films that she directed and her enduring images on the silver screen.

Tough and sweet

No sauntering Cinderella clueless about firm footing, Bhanumathi was the other name for substance as she strode like a colossus through the Telugu film and literary worlds. She was a singer, actress, director, music director, producer and studio owner, all rolled into one.

Bhanumathi was the enduring image of self-esteem, Telugu character and the alluring zeal for taking the road less taken though many dubbed it arrogance. She would not only call a spade a spade, but also shovel out the living daylights out of anyone. She was a woman of steel endowed with nerves of tungsten and the sweetest of voices.

Even at the ripe age of 70-something, when she rendered her immortal number from `Malleswari', "Manasuna Mallela maalalugene... " in that honey-dipped voice, there was no eye that did not turn moist at Ravindra Bharathi almost a decade ago.

City connection

Yet, despite the bright lights of stardom and the riches that came with it and that incessant glare of popping flashbulbs, she chose to lead life the only way she wanted -- the middle class way. Not for her the air-conditioned comfort of plush star hotels and exotic cuisines laid out in fine cutlery.

Her visits to Hyderabad would invariably bring her to West Marredpally where she would stay at a relative's house, a typical middle class first floor tenement, sipping filter coffee under a whirring fan! "I love it this way. I was born and raised a middle class woman, and I shall be one forever," was what she told this correspondent in an interview.

Veteran actor and Dadasaheb Phalke awardee Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who co-starred with her in several films, summed up the great actress and her times saying Bhanumati lived like a queen.

"There was no area of filmmaking which she did not know. And she had such great command on whatever she didWe all considered working with her a matter of great fortune in those days," he said. It was roles offered by Bhanumati's production house, Bharani, that went onto become steppingstones for his own success, beginning with `Vipranarayana'. Veteran character artiste Gummadi, describing Bhanumati as a versatile genius, said she had an inimitable screen presence. "One of the strongest and greatest chapters of Telugu cinema has come to an end," he said.

Actress Jamuna Ramana Rao said: "Bhanumathi was a `shakti swaroopini', symbolising woman power and an idol for generations of women to come.

She was so affectionate and compassionate, one only had to see and feel her real self."

This real side was also evident in her "Attha gaari kadhalu," a delightful romp through a Brahminical household tracing the antics of her old worldly mother-in-law.

She leaves behind millions of memories and a void impossible to fill.

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