Blast from the past
Sangeetha Lava Kusa (1934)
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‘Vidwan’ Srinivasan, Seetha Narayanan, Lakshmi
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A tale of twins Sangeetha Lava Kusa
During the 1920s, S. Soundararajan Iyengar, who preferred to be referred to in films as S. Soundararajan, wound up his metal vessels business due to adverse market conditions and his till was heavy with cash realised. . With his friend Kv. Al. Rm. Alagappa Chettiar as partner, he promoted Tamil Nadu Talkies (TNT) which soon occupied pride of place in South Indian cinema.
Tamil Nadu Talkies took up the popular story of the twin sons of Rama — Lava and Kusa — for filming. In keeping with the tradition of Tamil theatre, music dominated films then, and even now. Lava Kusa was no exception and it had over 60 songs! For this reason, the film was called Sangeetha Lava Kusa. To compose the music, a leading Carnatic musician, musicologist and composer Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavathar was brought in by the producer. In those days, classical musicians looked down on cinema as degrading, and Muthaiah Bhagavathar was perhaps the first serious musician to step into the ‘filthy’ film world. It was made possible thanks to the persuasive influence of S. Krishna Iyer. A nephew of the musician, and popularly known as ‘Raval’ Krishna Iyer, he was a brilliant civil engineer and his buildings with novel ‘corner windows’ were talked about in those days. He promoted ‘Raval Mosaic Tiles’ some 70 years ago when such tiles were a novelty and his ‘Preview Paradise’, the first of its kind in Madras city in T. Nagar, was a popular venue. Lava Kusa was produced in Bombay at Ranjith Studios in Dadar, directed by the producer himself. During its making, the actor who played Seetha, (Seetha) a schoolmistress from an orthodox background, refused to sit close to her hero Rama and would not allow him to put his arm around her even by accident! It was immodest and too brazen for a respectable teacher to do such things, she told the astonished director. Despite all efforts to change her mind, she never gave in. In the film, Rama and Seetha would soon part company, and an exasperated Soundararajan felt it was just as well! So he allowed her to sit far away from Rama creating a new kind of Seetha. Maybe not according to Valmiki, but that was the schoolmistress Seetha!
Reviewing the film, “Kalki” (R. Krishnamurthy, one of the finest writers), then working as an associate editor in Ananda Vikatan wrote, “idhu ‘talkie’ alla, ‘paatti’”! (A talkie which had too many songs, ‘paattu’ in Tamil means song and ‘paatti’ means grandmother. Kalki was famous for his puns.)
Even though it contained more than a fistful of songs sung by Rama (Srinivasan, a well known musician and musicologist of his day) and Seetha, the film was only less than 14,000 feet, while during that period most movies ran close to 18,000 or more. This indeed was an achievement for the directorial skills and talents of Soundararajan. The songs were rendered in many ragas, some of which were brilliant explorations and some a fusion, by the great composer Muthaiah Bhagavathar.
Later Soundararajan produced many hits in more than one language such as Rishyashringar, Bhaktha Naradar, Chenchulakshmi (Telugu) and Navvitthey Nava Ratnalu (Telugu).
Remembered for: Muthaiah Bhagavathar’s music and the controversy about the touch-me-not Seetha.
RANDOR GUY
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