Hamsageethe: Standing the test of time

The Hindu

14-05-2025

The year 1975 was a culturally significant one for parallel cinema in Karnataka, with the release of MS Sathyu's Garam Hava, BV Karanth's Chomana Dudi, Pallavi by P Lankesh, Kankana by MBS Prasad and GV Iyer's Hamsageethe. While the first two films received a great deal of critical attention, Hamsageethe faded from public memory despite the two national awards it won.
A cut above
This year marks five decades of the film, (Hamsageethe was released on August 17, 1975) which won praise for its imaginative cinematography by Nemai Ghosh, absorbing music by M Balamuralikrishna and BV Karanth, artwork by P Krishnamurthy, stellar acting by Ananth Nag, BV Karanth and Rekha Rao, and direction by Iyer. Hamsageethe (which means swan song) tells of the circumstances that lead 19th-century Carnatic singer Bhairavi Venkatasubbaiah to defy royal patronage and declare, through self-mutilation of the tongue, that 'music is nobody's slave'.
Hamsageethe is based on Talukina Ramaswamayya Subba Rao's (TaRaSu) eponymous 1952 novel. The Hindi film, Basant Bahar based on the novel, was made in 1956. Directed by MV Raman, the songs composed for Basant Bahar are still counted among the most melodious, and the movie won Certificate of Merit for the Best Feature Film in Hindi at the fourth National Film Awards in 1956.
Insider's view
Hamsageethe marked a significant milestone in his career, says actor Ananth Nag, adding, 'My portrayal of Bhairavi Venkatasubbaiah was noted for its depth and sensitivity in portraying personal dilemma. It influenced my approach to subsequent roles and in understanding a character's inner conflicts.'
'The film underscored the importance of storytelling that resonated with audiences on an emotional and intellectual level,' says the actor.
According to Ananth, around the time Hamsageethe was released, the parallel cinema movement was slowly gaining acceptance in Karnataka, and encouraged Iyer to craft it along the lines of new wave cinema.
Rekha Rao, who plays Chandra, the female protagonist, recalls her experience in working with Iyer in Hamsageethe, saying, 'I was just 16 then. Iyer had watched my performance in a play and decided to cast me for the role.'
Following Hamsageethe, Rekha says she acted in films including Kuduremotte, Naalegalannu Maaduvavaru, VRK Prasad's Prema-Kama and S Diwakar's Ithihasa. 'It was a wonderful experience to work with Iyer, he was a master of filmmaking.'
Barefoot filmmaker
Director Ganapathi Venkatarama Iyer, popularly known as the 'barefoot filmmaker' because he renounced footwear, began his creative career in Kannada theatre. On entering commercial cinema, he acted, produced and directed, eventually gaining recognition for Vamshavruksha, which he jointly directed with Girish Karnad and BV Karanth. Hamsageethe came three years later, and was hailed for the fact that its dialogues lasted no more than 18 minutes.
Critics and film historians regard Hamsageethe as one of Iyer's best films, mainly for the appropriate use of classical Carnatic music. Iyer was convinced that the limitation of the spoken word could be overcome through the creative powers of music.
Musical hinge
Venkatasubbaiah, the protagonist in Hamsageethe, struggles to attain mastery over the Raga Bhairavi. Eventually, his prowess and fame increase and he is recognised as a court vidwan.
Blinded by royal favour and growing fame, Venkatasubbaiah belittles his teacher at a performance, and humiliated by this public demonstration of his musical shortcomings, his guru, Tirumalayya dies by suicide.
Disturbed and remorseful, Venkatasubbaiah goes in search of a new guru, whom he finds in a recluse living in the hills. He learns from his new teacher and attains perfection. Around the same time, he falls in love and is constantly in need of resources to maintain his life, causing him to pledge two of his compositions as surety to his creditors.
The film features a number of songs composed by musical greats including Purandara Dasa, Oothukkadu Venkatasubbayyar, Jayadeva, Shama Shastry, and Muthuswamy Dikshitar, and were sung by leading voices of the day such as M Balamuralikrishna, ML Vasantha Kumari, Ramamurthy P Leela, B Vasantha and BK Sumithra.
Hamsageethe is still loved for its use of tanam, Himadrisuthe, Chintam Nastikilam, Manamaye, Kalinganarthana Thillana, and Sri Saraswathi, as well as excerpts from Geetha Govinda, Nathahare, Thava Virahe Vanamali, and Amba Tavapadambhoja.
Celebration of dance
Apart from music, Hamsageethe was a celebration of classical dance forms — Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, and was choreographed by Radhakrishna and Adyar K Lakshman.
The film was shot to emphasise the barren, rocky backdrop of Chitradurga as an analogy for a musician's quest for aesthetic rigour. Art director P Krishnamurthy effectively made use of the Chitradurga fort with the support of cinematographer Nemai Ghosh.
In talks with Iyer
When GV Iyer passed away in 2003, at the age of 86, he was still actively pursuing his craft and one of his films remains unreleased.
This author met him in 1993, when Iyer was making Bhagavad Gita, the first Sanskrit language film with few dialogues in Hindi and Telugu.
When asked why he chose to keep the dialogues in Hamsageethe to a minimum, Iyer had said, 'People have failed to understand that cinema is primarily a visual medium. I believe that silence has a greater impact on the audience than spoken words.'
After multiple readings of the novel Hamsageethe, Iyer decided to translate the text through visuals supported by music and silences. 'I placed the camera on the upper part of the Hidimbeshwara temple to capture the basic ethos of the time. In the second shot, I presented a lantern with black-tinted glass. With these two shots, I narrated 30 pages of the text,' Iyer said.
The director was influenced by some of the great pieces of world cinema such as Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries and John Ford's How Green Was My Valley — a few scenes from Hamsageethe are a nod to these masterpieces.