SPB: A Musical History - Part 1 : A Legend called Ghantasala

Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao (Photo source: Quora)

I plan to do a multi part series on SPB, tracing his music career in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada film music. I will not be concentrating on other aspects of SPB like his acting or dubbing career. I will occasionally be making reference to some of the singing shows he did for different TV Channels.

You must be surprised as to why the first part of this series is titled, ' A Legend called Ghantasala'. The idea is to give you a picture about the Telugu film music scene when SPB made his appearance. He recorded his first song for 'Sree Sree Maryadaramanna' in Dec 1966 (according to Wiki). The movie is listed as a 1967 release. So we can say that people heard SPB first in 1967. In 1967, the leading stars of Telugu films were N T Rama Rao (NTR) and Akkineni Nageshwar Rao (ANR). Actor Krishna was making his mark. The popular music directors included K V Mahadevan, S Rajeshwar Rao, Pendyala Nageshwar Rao. Other music directors like Master Venu, T V Raju, Chalapathi Rao and S P Kodandapani were active during these times, the last mentioned being the one gave SPB his first break and later encouraged him a lot. As far as singers were concerned, the leading female voice was that of Susheela. P.Leela, Jiki, S Janaki were the other popular singers of those times. P.B.Sreenivas, Madhavapeddi Sathyam were some of the male singer but the man who dominated Telugu Film Music went by the name of Ghantasala.

Ghantasala, short for Ghantasala Venkateshwar Rao, was a singer whom Telugu listeners worshiped. His strong voice, combined by his felicity in rendering classical ragas as well as his amazing rendering of padyams, made him a demigod in Andhra Pradesh. Not only the listeners, the whole of film industry was in awe of his voice. Heroes wanted him to render their songs. He was 'the' voice of NTR and Nageshwar Rao. The music directors were ready to set challenging tunes, like 'Siva Sankari' of Pendyala Nageshwar Rao for example, because they were sure that Ghantasala would deliver it flawlessly. 

('Hayi Hayiga' from Swapnasundari. Music by Adinarayana Rao. You can observe Ghantasala's grip on Hindustani ragas)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ajXn9j1bM

The movies made in those times included Mythology, Historical, Social and Comedy. The Mythology movies were helped enormously by the presence of NTR, who became Lord Krishna for everyone and other stalwarts like S V Ranga Rao, who was incomparable in roles like Duryodhana, Keechaka, Hiranyakashipu and Ravana. Most importantly, the mythologies were served well by the voice of Ghantasala. His padyam renditions were much awaited by his fans. The bhakti songs he sang for these mythologies still reverberate all across Andhra and Telengana.

(Padyams are uniquely Telugu in nature. You don't hear these much in other languages (you may get slokas or viruthams but not padyams. Here are some padyams. Ghantasala singing for NTR)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyBUQalTQCA

To give you an idea about how important Ghantasala was to producers and directors, let me narrate an incident that SPB himself told in a TV program. Ghantasala, towards his end, was having lot of health issues. That affected his singing as well. Rama Naidu was producing a film called 'Prem Nagar', with Nageshwar Rao and Vanisri as lead actors. K V Mahadevan was responsible for the music. Ghantasala was called to render the songs. His health was not good and he had voice trouble. He told Mahadevan that he was unable to sing and that Mahadevan should get someone else to render the songs. This news reached the ears of Rama Naidu. He called Ghantasala and told him, "How can I produce a film where in the titles, against 'Playback Singer' I do not have the name of Ghantasala. Whatever it is, you must sing these songs for me". Ghantasala sang those songs. You can clearly hear the struggle. The songs became super hits. 

(Here is a song from 'Prem Nagar'. It is clear that Ghantasala had breathing problems. You can hear the sharp intake of breath in this song)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eLP693mWKo

Ghantasala's talent overshadowed everything else. It is funny to see to whom people attribute a song to. Sometimes they attribute it to a singer, sometimes to the music director, sometimes to the lyricist. In case of Ghantasala every song he sang became a Ghantasala song. The lyricist would have written lyrics with lot of passion. The music director would have loving crafted the tune. In the end, for the listeners, it was a Ghantasala song. The music directors were extremely talented people like K V Mahadevan, Saluri Rajeshwar Rao and Pendyala Nagaeshwar Rao. The lyricist were top class lyricists as well. Yet, Ghantasala ruled over all of them.

('manasuna manasai' from Dr. Chakravarthi for Nageshwar Rao. Music of S. Rajeshwar Rao)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W34q8Qp7al4

Starting from late 40s to the early 70s, it was the Ghantasala era in Telugu film music. You may think I am exaggerating the influence of Ghantasala. Believe me, I am not. I am quoting a small part of an article here, " "There is only one God in the whole universe and he has a surname. He is Venkateswara Rao and his surname is Ghantasala". This is a comment made by one of his fans. It may sound hysterical. But for many Telugu speaking music lovers in general and music buffs in particular and for the current generation of playback singers and musicians, erstwhile playback singer Ghantasala continues to be the God of Music. As Tanikella Bharani, famous writer, actor and director puts it, there is only one Godavari, one Tirupathi, and only one Ghantasala for Telugus" Link :  https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-life-story-of-Ghantasala

('mukkoti devathalu' from Sree Venkateshwara Mahatmyam. Music by Pendyala. Shows Ghantasala's felicity in Carnatic ragas)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KJo5pqOpeY

It is very difficult to convey the phenomenon of Ghantasala to non-Telugu people. Malayalis may understand it because K J Yesudas at his peak was one personality in Malayalam Film Music. Everything was a Yesudas song. More than one Tamilian friend of mine has told me that they could understand why Ghantasala was so famous in Telugu films. These are musically knowledgeable people. It is difficult to explain Ghantasala's magic. (To be very honest, when I was in school, I did not like Ghantasala's voice. It was much later that I came under the spell of his voice) 

('telugu veera levara' from Alluri Seetharama Raju. Music by Adinarayana Rao. Almost towards the fag end of his life. Not at his best but yet called to deliver the most important song of the movie)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oTbzver_c0

The reason I wrote so much about Ghantasala is for you to understand what SPB was up against. He was up against a giant of musician and a revered figure. The industry was beholden to Ghantasala. So SPB had to work extremely hard to become a famous singer and win the hearts of the people. He had to not only sing well, he had to sing in such a way as to change prejudiced minds. It took a lot of effort by SPB to slowly creep into the hearts of Telugu music listeners. Once he crept in, he became their close companion. 

In the next part we will see how SPB was progressing in the era of Ghantasala and how he slowly started making a name for himself. 

(SPB had great regard for Ghantasala and I am sure he would not mind me devoting the first part to Ghantasala)

[Some more info on Ghantasala here: http://www.ghantasala.info/theman/liner-notes.html ]

Part 2: https://sureshs65music.blogspot.com/2020/10/spb-musical-history-part-2-initial.html