Stalwarts from the world of entertainment live on forever

Hans India

29-05-2025

The art of acting has flourished across platforms, such as the silver screen or the movie world, the small screen or television and theatre or drama.
In addition, many extremely innovative forms of entertainment have taken shape in different parts of India and elsewhere in the world. The Tamasha in Maharashtra and the Burrakadha/Harikatha in Andhra Pradesh in India are, for example, very popular.
I remember attending a Burrakatha once, which was staged as a fundraising campaign for the victims of the unprecedented floods in the Godavari River in 1956.
The theme was the slaying of Abhimanyu, the son of the Pandava Prince Arjun, in the Kurushetra war in the epic Mahabharata. The manner in which the lead performer and his two assistants described the scene, with rhythmic movements and melodious singing, was most moving, and brought tears to one's eyes.
Elsewhere in the world, similar forms of street art and public performances, which do not require a formal stage, are in vogue. Busking, for instance, is a form of street performance, popular in parks, squares, and beaches, in countries like Italy and France. Likewise, London is known for its vibrant street art, as are San Francisco and New York, for a thriving street art scene, with many murals and public art projects. Similarly, the dramas and street plays, enacted in the rural roadsides, reflecting the arts and lives of countryside of the country, are a big attraction for tourists, in Indonesia.
For over a century, movies have remained easily the most popular form of all performing arts. The movie industry in America, popularly called Hollywood, traces its beginnings to the late 19th century. A galaxy of exponents of the art of acting, as Ben Kingsley, Alec Guinness, Lawrence Olivier, Doris Day and Julie Andrews have entertained audiences around the world with their unforgettable performances. Among those delighted the movie goers with their fun and laughter, Charlie Chaplin leads a memorable list, with Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers and the Bud Abbott and Lou Costello combinations, also finding a place in the august league.
Nearer home, the Hindi movie industry, also known as Bollywood, began in India in 1913. Great actors, such as Ashok Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar of yesteryears and Rajesh Khanna, Sunil Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan have carved a niche for themselves. And the dazzling list of their female counterparts includes unforgettable heroines like Meena Kumari, Madhubala and Waheeda Rahman of the bygone era, Vijayanthimala, Nutan, Rekha, Jaya Bhaduri and Hema Malini, in later years and Rani Mukherjea and Kareena Kapoor making a lasting impression on movie goers from the current generation. The rib tickling performances of comedians like Agha and Johnny Walker in Hindi films and Relangi and Nagesh in the Telugu and Tamil movie industries, will forever be cherished.
Down South, Shivaji Ganesan, MGR, Raj Kumar, NTR, Akkineni Nageswara, Rao, Sobhan Babu, Savitri, Anjali Devi, Jamuna and Bhanumathi from the earlier periods and Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun, Junior NTR and Sarada and Jayaprada, in later times, are some of the great actors and actresses, who adorned the celluloid world.
Perhaps the most difficult genre of acting is that of portyaing the role of a villain. People such as Pran, and K.N. Singh of the earlier generation were outstanding in this genre.
While heroes, heroines, villains, and comedians may come and go, it is the character artists who will remain forever in the hearts and minds of the audience, with their versatility in essaying a variety of roles with consummate ease and the ability to 'live' the character. The great actors in this category include Om Prakash in Bollywood and S.V. Ranga Rao in Tollywood.
The movie world has seen many exclusive, and highly talented, members of the tribe of artists known as playback singers, especially in Bollywood, and Tollywood, not to mention those from other regional languages. Indelible memories of Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar will remain immortal for the aficionados. As will be those of Ghantasala in Telugu and Soundara Rajan in Tamil.
In the western world, it has for long been the practice for actors to lend their own voice to songs enacted by them on the screen. In the Indian context, however, it is often the playback singer who does that for the actors. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard are some names that spring to mind as regards Hollywood. To the rare breed of actors who needed no playback support in the Hindi movies, belong the inimitable Kishore Kumar, Talat Mahmood, and Mukesh in Hindi films and Bhanumati in the Telugu field and other languages.
In Mahabharata, the epic which reference has been made earlier, the Pandava Princes lose in a game of dice against the princess of the Kaurava clan. As a result, they are required, in accordance with an agreement reached before the commencement of the game, to spend a year in exile.
They choose the court of Virata and spend that year, with each of the Pandava princes, in different forms of disguise. Arjuna, in the garb of Brihannala, a eunuch, teaches dance to princess Uttara, the king's daughter.
In modern times, institutes have come up in India, as well as other countries, which train the aspirants across disciplines. Many of them have proved fertile grounds for talent to blossom. Some of the finest in this genre are the remarkably gifted actors like Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, and Shabana Azmi.
Many distinguished Indian painters were also great teachers.
Names like Rabindranath Tagore, the Mullick genius, Raja Ravi Varma the artist par excellence in the field of painting, come to mind. And in providing humourous relief to readers, while simultaneously touching sensitive themes, Sankar, Mario Miranda and the Bapu-Ramana duo, excelled.
I had the privilege of knowing maestros who excelled in renditions of many musical instruments. A gifted guitarist Richard Gnanakan, for example, taught me to play the guitar. Likewise, the Mridangam maestro, Yella Venkateswara Rao, put me through my paces during the initial stages of my learning to play the instrument although it proved a futile exercise. As my father observed, in the case of my learning to play the guitar, enthusiasm was more in evidence, than expertise! Another great teacher, who taught singing to my daughter Aparna was Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana, the well-known exponent of Carnatic classical music. Likewise, my granddaughter Gayathri was fortunate enough to be a disciple of Rajeshwari Sainath, the famous danseuse and teacher, thanks to whose efforts she was able to reach the stage of an Arangetram, and go on to make public performances in India and abroad. And it was the legendary Vempatl Chinna Satyam, dancer and teacher par excellence, who had the honour of being asked to train NTR to portray the role of Brihannala, referred to earlier, in the runaway hit Telugu movie Nartanasala.
Very few playwrights have the ability to mould their works with an eye on the efficacy with which the script can be converted into a play. And it was undoubtedly William Shakespeare, who was a master of that art. The stage has also often served as an incubator for budding film actors. Several popular Telugu actors such as Akkineni Nageswara Rao were known to have started their careers on stage.
Readers will probably have read the story in this column earlier. Still, its relevance to the subject under discussion is so significant that it is impossible to resist repeating it. The story goes that Charlie Chaplin once entered, out of a sense of sheer curiosity, a competition he found being conducted for imitating him. And guess what? He came second!
(The writer was formerly Chief Secretary,
Government of
Andhra Pradesh)