Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Saptapadi, telugu film

from 1981; I just came across it via Minai's Cinema Nritya Gharana. By the time these films came I already got bored with repetitive themes and acting from the earlier Telugu films. Moreover I thought these were 'go back to our culture' kind of films. I watched recently three such because of they were mentioned in the above site. They seem pleasant and actually questioning some of the traditions, with quotes from scholarly sources (very nice sounding Sanskrit quotes with Vedic Sanskrit sounds rather than classical Sanskrit sounds, see Vedic Sanskrit: "Vedic Sanskrit had a retroflex lateral approximant (/ɭ/) (ळ) as well as its aspirated counterpart /ɭʰ/ (ळ्ह), which were lost in Classical Sanskrit, to be replaced with the corresponding plosives /ɖ/ (ड) and /ɖʱ/ (ढ). (Varies by region; Vedic pronunciations are still in common use in some regions, e.g. Southern India, including Maharashtra.)). Minai also links to an article in which the producer Bhimavarapu Bucchi Reddy explained their difficulties getting pundits to do the vedic chants for the film. Some of the personalities are too good to be true. The dances are not heavy and there seem some innovations to make them more palatable to the public (the main dancer seemed to more keen about classical dances and did not continue in films or dance but became a data base manager, according to the same article). The movie was made in Amaravati not too far from the director viswanath's native place Pedapulivarru which is also on the banks of the river Krishna. I was born on a small island in the river about two miles from Pedapulivarru. May be such things in the background helped in enjoying the movie.

4 comments:

harika said...

Need full blog
Nice Blog

G Raghavendra Sharma said...

Sir,

Thanks for sharing the information. Can you please let me know the shooting spots, like the temple, the river and especially the village. I would love to visit once.

Thanks
Raghu

gaddeswarup said...

Raghavendra Sharma garu, What all I know is in Minai's post which also linked to an informative article. The link I mentioned above is not working. mut Minai kept it in the archives. Please check the link in the last comment by her in http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/sabita-bhamidipatis-dances-and-film.html

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