Over six decades after its release, Vijaya Produtions’ Mayabazar is still viewed with admiration for its all round excellence.
KV Reddi found a perfect partner in Marcus Bartley, who with his legendary Mitchell camera, brought life into the scenes conceived by the veteran director. His creation of the moonlight (in a studio set) enhanced the beauty of the romantic scenes and is still talked about. It was even nicknamed ‘Vijaya’s moonlight.’ A fine example for his extraordinary craftsmanship can be found in the ‘Lahiri lahiri lahirilo’ song from Mayabazar (1957). The sequence gives an impression that the entire song was shot outdoors during the night. In reality, Bartley shot a few frames at Adyar River — not at Ennore Lake as written by some critics — in Madras (now Chennai), at noon using the night effect filters and the shoot lasted only for a few minutes. The remaining song was shot in the studio set for a week during the day time. An expert at lighting, Bartley maintained uniform lighting at both the outdoor and indoor locations. He had brilliantly ‘converted’ the noon sun at the river into a full moon and matched it with the artificial moon in the studio set. Art directors Madhavapeddi Gokhale and Kaladhar, created the river bed at Vauhini studios with rellu gaddi (Kansgrass) and it added to the feel of a moonlit night. Back projection technique was used to make one believe that the entire song was shot at one place, at the river.
The scene
It is a full moon night. As promised to Sasirekha (played by Savitri), Abhimanyu (A Nageswara Rao) comes to take her for a boat ride. Since she is kept under the surveillance of her maids in a locked room, Abhimanyu creates a ladder with his arrows for her to come down. They both sing a romantic song in banter (written by Pingali) in the melodious voices of Ghantasala and P Leela.
Spotting them, Balarama’s (Gummadi) soldier is on his way to convey this to his master. Sri Krishna (NT Ramarao) who is engrossed listening to Rukmini’s (S Varalakshmi) veena recital gets up and goes to the garden with Rukmini. Taking the place of Abhimayu and Sasirekha, they continue with the boat ride, singing the song.
Following his soldier’s information, Balarama who comes with his wife Revathy (Chayadevi), sees Sri Krishna and Rukmini in the boat and says that the soldier has mistaken them for Abhimanyu and Sasirekha. After Sri Krishna and Rukmini alight from the boat, kindled by the moonlight, Balarama and Revathy too get into the boat and sing the lines, Lahiri lahiri lahirilo...
The maestro quits, again
Saluru Rajeswara Rao who had played the role of the child Abhimanyu in PV Das’ Mayabazar (1936), was signed to compose the music for Vijaya’s Mayabazar. However, after composing the tunes for four songs – ‘Srikarulu devathalu’, ‘Choopulu kalisina subhavela’, ‘Nee kosame ne jeevinchunadi’ and ‘Lahiri lahiri lahirilo’ he opted out of the project like he had done earlier during the making of Missamma (1955) for the same banner, leaving the job of completing the work to Ghantasala.
The maestro was at the production office sitting on a mat with his harmonium and tabala and with writer Pingali beside him. He had composed the tune for the opening lines (pallavi) for the song, ‘Lahiri lahiri lahirilo’ and was in the process of setting the tune for the stanzas. The producers, the director and a couple of others from the unit were in the room discussing in low voices. Disturbed by their murmurs, Rajeswara Rao, left the room and headed home. When efforts to convince him to return failed, Ghantasala stepped in to compose music for the rest of the songs besides completing the remaining work for the maestro’s compositions. Later in an interview to Ravi Kondala Rao, then associate editor, Vijayachitra, Rajeswara Rao said, ‘it was like composing music, sitting in the apex court and not in a cinema company office.’
Two of Telugu film music’s most revered names — Saluru Rajeswara Rao (his name was not credited in the film’s titles) and Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao — associated with Mayabazar’s songs met with phenomenal success.