Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry: The Conscience-Keeper Of Telugu Cinema

In the passing away of Chembolu Seetharama Sastry garu, popularly known as Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry, Telugu cinema lost its conscience-keeper and Telugus a great poet.

His vision and philosophy reflected the quintessence of Bharatiyata. To showcase this in a medium known to be increasingly inimical to such values was a tight-rope walk, and he excelled in doing so for three and a half decades.

He arrived with a bang in the movie Sirivennela, a movie that became his de-facto surname. Artists evolve in their craft, and their first work is rarely their best. But in that movie, it felt as if there was a fully mature poet writing his magnum opus. That readiness, vision, way with words was due to his genius and his upbringing.

There has been a hoary lineage of lyric-writers in Telugu cinema starting from Senior Samudrala (Sri Samudrala Raghavacharya), Dasharathi, Srisri, Arudra, Devulapalli, C. Narayana Reddy, Atreya and Veturi Sundararamamurthy. Many of them were known outside of filmdom as great poets and researchers. Dr C Narayana Reddy was a Jnanpith awardee. And Sirivennela garu was probably the last in this list and the most unique.

Unique because he brought a philosophical touch to the most mundane situations. And reigned at a time when the odd good lyric would be drowned in loud and clumsy music, and lyrics, in general, were giving way to degeneracy.

Many of the greats mentioned above did not take to writing lyrics as their profession, but Sirivennela garu did. He said he did not want to write free-verse (vachana-kavitvam). His upbringing rooted in traditional literature probably pushed him to do something rooted in rhythm. And on the other hand, he did not know enough Chandas (in his own words) to write metrical poetry. So the medium of song appealed to him.

Movies offered that much-needed space for songwriting, and it was a win-win for both Sastry garu and Telugu moviedom. The victory was not easy though. On one hand, there was this poet who would not compromise on his values and in his choice of words and on the other hand was Telugu cinema, where formulas for commercial success meant there was little respect for those.

This success story is a great lesson to people who find it difficult to compromise on their core values and give up blaming the medium they are working in.

It greatly helped that his journey began under K Viswanath garu, one of the greatest filmmakers in Telugu, who gave him a lot of freedom. The songs in the movie Sirivennela laden with Sanskrit samasas (compound words) fascinated many, including the youth.

Like the ‘sarasa-swara-sura-jhari-gamanamau sama-veda-saaramidi’. His akshara-shilpas enthralled us and taatvikata (philosophical touch) made us think. While questioning was a common feature in his songs, there would also be answers, and he would make the listeners look for them. Another hallmark of his genius is to showcase poetry and rasa in the most unlikely situations.

When the leading lady in the movie Bobbili Raja was swinging in a state of intoxication, he made the hero question ‘kanyakumari kanapadadaa daari?(can’t you see the way?) and goes on to say ‘paataalam kanipettela aakaasam panipattelaa oogake mari’ (don’t swing as if you are on a mission to find paatala or to take aakasha to task!)

Sirivennela garu was associated with RSS and proudly mentioned about it in his interviews and how it shaped his views in formative years. This was at a time when movie-woods across the nation leaned left and shied away from espousing Bharatiyata in the name of secularism and political correctness.

He was a nationalist with a great understanding of history and politics that shaped our country and was a motivational speaker. The myriad egalitarian and Dharmic ideas of our scriptures were his colours, Bharatiya Sanskriti was his brush and movies his canvas. And his geya-chitram always earned respect from Pandits and commoners alike. Many inspirational and patriotic songs were penned by him.

In the movie Maryada Ramanna where the protagonist is constantly running from trouble hopelessly, he gives hope by writing ‘aayuvu thiise apadha kuda alasata tho agela chei’ (keep running so that the life-threatening-trouble coming after you gets tired and stops).

In an era where many would think that the medium of cinema would put a heavy leash on a poet’s creativity and aesthetic expression, he consistently defied that notion. He said he could give that elevated expression in any song and in any situation as that was the way of his life due to his Samskara. He called it his Jeevana-Samvidhanam (framework of life). He made sure every song of his could be listened to by young and old alike.

Some of the popular questions he put in his songs are mentioned belo

The spring called Seetharama Sastry indeed came down through the wilderness of Telugu cinema to listeners who could not have otherwise reached such rare genius. Once it came, it not only gave Sirivennela (meaning splendorous-moonlight. Siri is a tadbhava of Sri and means Shobha. Vennela is moonlight) but elevated the listeners and the status of lyrics in cinema!

He is definitely one of the very few lyricists in the history of Indian cinema with that Bharatiya daarshanikataa/Indian vision. Words fail describing the greatness of this man of words.