I have been looking for Pattabhi Rama Reddy’s Kannada film ,Chanda Marutha (Wild Wind) for a while now, to no avail. The reason for the hunt is because it is connected
to the democratic protests seen around the country since December 2019 and to the amazing revolutionary spirit of youth. Based on P. Lankesh’s beloved play, Kranthi Bantu Kranthi, Pattabhi Rama Reddy made the film just before the Emergency broke out.
It was the days of Jayaprakash Narayan’s 1974 call - “After 27 years of freedom, people of this country are wracked by hunger, rising prices, corruption, oppressed by every kind of injustice. It is a total revolution we want, nothing less.”
The cast was a veritable who’s who of Bangalore luminaries. Lankesh himself had previously acted as Narayanappa in Pattabhi’s Samskara. Bhaktavatsala Moola, producer of such Kannada films as Kanneswara Rama as well erstwhile company secretary of the leading newspapers of Karnataka, played the professor. Pattabhi’s wife, Snehalata Reddy, actress, writer, social activist, played the professor’s wife. Ashok Mandana, fresh out of National School of Drama and son of Congress MLC Jajie Mandana, played the student with Naxal leanings. Pattabhi’s children too were involved. Upcoming musician and guitar prodigy Konarak Reddy played a pacifist on hunger strike as well as composed the soundtrack. Nandana Ishbilya Reddy, trade union leader and social activist, both acted in and produced the film. Akumal Ramachandra, now well-known as the one who stunned the art world with his discovery of Harold Shapinsky played a role. Tom Cowan, the young Australian documentary cinematographer who Pattabhi had met through S.G.Vasudev at Cholamandal Artists Village and who previously shot the multi-award winning Samskara, would shoot the film. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, already a well-known director with many Hindi hits to his name, came on board as editor. The film was shot at their old house at 58, St.Mark’s Road, Bangalore. But Pattabhi Rama Reddy, decided to make a small change - for the sake of cinema, he had the Professor’s wife die at the end. Shortly after the film was made, on June 26, 1975, Indira Gandhi declared a national Emergency.
There is more backstory. George Fernandes who was then a firebrand, idealistic labour union leader, was a close family friend and had been hiding at their home, the same old house at 58, St.Mark’s Road where Chanda Marutha was shot. After June 26th, when he wanted to cross the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border to meet with Karunanidhi, he requested Sneha’s help. He disguised himself as a Sikh, carrying a tennis racket, she played his wife and they drove to Madras. The rest is history, as the whole family including Nandana and Konarak were arrested under the controversial Maintenance of Internal Securities Act (MISA) that was passed under Indira Gandhi, in 1971. Sneha asked for their release and allowed herself to be detained instead. She was illegally incarcerated for nine and a half months, was finally released on bail to avoid a custodial death and died, five days after her release, on January 20, 1977.
Back to the film. T.G Vaidyanathan from the Department of English at Bangalore University, on seeing it, wrote a brilliant essay about how life had imitated art, in this case. He observed that George Fernandes hid, much as Ashok Mandana’s character hid, in the same house. When there was a fake call of “Telegram!” post midnight and the cops barged in, ripped out books from shelves and telephone wires and Konarak was arrested, it echoed the quality of the film. And Sneha’s character dies as she did in real life. The year was 1977.
In the course of my hunt, I spoke to Indrajit Lankesh for help locating it within the Kannada film industry. Besides reading Kranthi Bantu Kranthi from a young age, Indrajit has seen innumerable productions of it all over the state. Kranthi Bantu Kranthi is to Karnataka, what Badal Sircar’s Micheel/Procession is to West Bengal. It epitomises vox populi because in ethos and form, it belongs to the people. Therefore Indrajit too joined the hunt for Chanda Marutha. He asked people who have worked for Lankesh Patrike since its inception, but none remembered it. Thus the film is yet to be found.
Then two days ago, while looking through archives for some shooting scripts and production notes ,I came upon a gem. Pattabhi Rama Reddy’s shooting script titled - The Wild Wind (Chanda Marutha). Based on P.Lankesh’s Kranthi Bantu Kranthi. Inside, I found written, in his handwriting, the following:
Advice to Oneself
1. Good days coming
Everything changes, the wheel
of the law turns without pause
After the rain, good weather,
In the wink of an eye
The universe throws off
Its muddy clothes
2. Without the cold and desolation of winter
There could not be the warmth and splendour of spring
Calamity has tempered and hardened me
And turned my mind into steel
Words to heed in these days of protest and solidarity, where our youth represent the
wild wind we so urgently need.