Ghantasala’s impeccable rendition

It was one of the most popular songs of Ghantasala, but for some unknown reasons he never rendered it at any of his public concerts. Why he did that could be anybody's guess, but the fact remains that he kept out from his numerous concerts the song — Sivasankaree Sivaanandalahari Sivasankaree — from Vijaya Productions’ 1961 film, Jagadekaveeruni Katha. An interesting fact was that while recording for the song, the maestro completed singing it at one go.

Though the movie’s story was based on the 1944 Tamil hit, Jagathala Prathapan, the film’s producer-director K V Reddy (incidentally, upon the insistence of K V Reddy, the Vijaya bosses Nagi Reddy and Chakrapani relented to credit him as the producer), and writer Pingali Negendra Rao made several changes in it, bringing in new characters and situations. For example, in the Tamil version, to get back his four wives, the Devakanyas, the hero (played by actor-singer P U Chinnappa) was put to test by Indra to sing and play four instruments simultaneously. While retaining the song situation for the Telugu version, K V and Pingali created a more convincing scene — that of a sage encased in a rock and the hero, by rendering a song, is able to melt the rock and release the sage. In the Tamil version, Papanasam Sivan wrote the lyric, Thaayai Paniven (Mother I bow before you), invoking Mother Goddess. Pingali too followed the same by praying to the Goddess to shower Her blessings on the hero to accomplish his task.

NTR in the song ‘Siva Sankari’  

It was music composer Pendyala Nageswara Rao’s first outing with the famed Vijaya Productions. While veteran Tamil music director G Ramnathan had taken the Carnatic route, Pendyala desired it to be more convincing as the situation given to him was a challenging one. He and Ghantasala held discussions for a week during which period Pendyala came up with several tunes which satisfied neither them, nor KV. Finally, Pendyala composed the tune in Durbari Kaanada raga, a mixture of Carnatic and Hindustani ragas, popularised by Tansen, the legendary composer in Akbar’s court.

Sivasankaree Sinvanandalahari Sivasankareee/ Chandrakalaadhari Eeswaree…aa aa Chandrakalaadhari Eeeswaree/ Karunaamruthamunu Kuriya Jeyumaa Manasu Karagadaa/ Mahima Choopavaa Deenapaalanamu Seyave/ Sivasankaree…/ Chandrakalaadharee…

The scene

Prince Pratap (played by N T Ramarao) succeeds in his desire to marry four Devakanyas — Indra’s daughter Jayanti (B Saroja Devi), Nagakumari (L Vijayalakshmi), Agnikumari (Bala) and Varunakumari (Jayanthi). However, they leave him and reach Indraloka. As per the directive of his father, the king of Udayagiri (Mukkamala), Pratap who has been banished from their kingdom, has to return only with his four wives.

To get back his wives, Pratap is given a few tasks by Indra. One of them is to melt a rock with his rendition to relieve a sage from a curse. Through this song, Pratap seeks the blessings of Goddess Parvathi to accomplish the task.

Ghantasala  

In the Tamil version, the song runs to 11 minutes, rendered by P U Chinnappa, who played the lead role too and enacted in the scene simultaneously appearing in five forms (brilliantly shot by V Krishnan). In fact, Pingali wrote a 13-minute song, but K V Reddy trimmed it to six and half minutes. Darbari Kaanada raga is considered one of the most difficult ragas to master and is also known to leave an emotional impact. “Ghantasala was committed to making the song a memorable one and he also knew that it should be sung in one go. He took off from other recordings for a week and practised the song with such dedication that he recorded it in one single take,” Pendyala revealed this to Ravi Kondala Rao, the founder of Sukumar Orchestra, and to singer G Anand on a train journey in 1981 on their way to Srikakulam to participate in the orchestra’s silver jubilee celebrations.

There is a misconception that J V Raghavulu also lent his voice for the song. But it is not true. Vallabhajosyula Sivaram, who recorded the song, has once revealed that it was Ghantasala’s solo rendition and, in a few frames, to give the impression that all the five forms assumed by the hero were singing it at the same time, he had reposted the track.

Listening to the song, NTR was greatly overwhelmed and, to perform it at his best, he requested Pendyala to be present on location to guide him with the nuances, if necessary. For a week Pendyala was on the sets at Vauhini Studios. K V Reddy’s vision, NTR’s performance, Pendyala’s mind-blowing composition, camera wizard Marcus Bartley and creativity of special effects genius Harbans Singh, and above all Ghantasala’s impeccable rendition made Sivasankaree, an immortal one.