CINEMA PLUS
Dakshayagnam (1941)
m.l. narasimham SEPTEMBER 18, 2011 00:00 IST
UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 18, 2011 04:04 IST
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Vemuri Gaggaiah, Dasari Sadasiva Rao, T. Ramakrishna Sastry, Dasari Lakshmaiah Chowdary, C. Krishnaveni, Bezawada Rajarathnam, G. Varalakshmi.
Raja Meka Venkatarama Apparao Bahaddur, the zamindar of Mirjapuram bought a chunk of land at Alwarpet in the heart of Madras to build a studio complex with an office building, three floors and a black and white film processing laboratory. The Raja named the studio Sobhanachala after his family deity Agiripalle Sobhanachaleswara. He also rechristened his film company as Sobhanachala Pictures Ltd. (previously it was Jaya Films). The first film to roll under this banner was Dakshayagnam launched in 1940 and released in 1941. It was directed by the Raja's A sthana Darsakudu Chitrapu Narayana Murthy.
Buggapatnam Tirumala (B.T.) Narasimhachari was assigned with the job of writing the story, dialogues and lyrics. A scholar and a literary personality B.T., who had only one hand, was at that time editor of the popular magazine, Dhanka . He later edited the Bangalore-based Prajamata.
A regular with Mirjapuram Raja's productions, the versatile Vemuri Gaggaiah was the natural choice to play the title role of Daksha. Dasari Sadasivarao, famous for his portrayal of Lord Shiva on stage was asked to replicate the role on celluloid. C. Krishnaveni who had starred in the Raja's earlier movie, Jeevana Jyothi was taken for Daksha's daughter Sati's character. Interestingly, later Krishnaveni became the real life partner of Mirjapuram Raja. As was the vogue with the Raja, major technicians were brought from Bombay. For instance, D.B. Chavan, the ace cinematographer, music director Moti Babu, sound designer M.B. Walke and art director H. Shantharam who erected huge and opulent sets were all from the Hindi and Marathi film industries.
Gaggaiah played Daksha and Bezawada Rajarathnam acted as his wife Prasuthi. Krishnaveni stole a few hearts with her sensitive portrayal. Hailing from Guntur, he was originally named as Dasari Masthanayya. His first stage appearance was as Lord Sadasiva, a role that won him kudos. He refused to wear a rubber snake and wore around his neck a live snake of course with its mouth stitched but that thrilled the audience. From then on, Masthanayya changed his name as Sadasiva Rao. Dasari Sadasivararao lived in Madras with the attractive singer-actress Narimani of Swapnasundari fame. Years later their offspring Latha had acted as the heroine in actor- producer Padmanabham's Jathakarathna Midathambhotlu .
T. Ramakrishna Sastry played Narada. Ramana Rao (Lord Vishnu) and Samrajyam who acted as Goddess Saraswati were husband and wife in real life. Both were well-known dancers of the time. The short statured Kumpatla Subbarao and Kanchi Narasimha Rao played the comic roles of Visuna and Prasuna. Remember Lord Krishna disguised as the old man who stops Ghatothkacha by saying, Chiranjeeva Chiranjeeva Sukheebhava Sukheebhava atu vunnadi itu ledu.. itu vunnadi atu ledu… in Vijaya's evergreen hit, Mayabazar ? Thatold man was Kanchi Narasimha Rao!
It is interesting to note that Mirjapuram Raja entrusted the job of directing Bhaktha Prahlada (released in 1942) to Chitrapu Narayanamurthy simultaneously. If one day he shot for Dakshayagnam, the next day he shot for Prahlada . Here is a hilarious anecdote about another actor who starred in both the films. She was barely 14. One day she climbed a tree and refused to come down to don the make up until she was given some money to buy eatables. After the unit members failed to bring her down, the Raja himself went there, took out a few coins and showed her. She climbed down the tree, took the money and then only went into the makeup room to don the role of Kumudini, a friend of Sati in Dakshayagnam . Not just that, whenever a unit member was not fed or was not paid, she resorted to ‘strike.' Despite these tantrums the Raja signed her to act as the elder Prahalda in Bhaktha Prahlada . She was none other than the versatile G. Varalakshmi!
Despite expensive sets and production values, Dakshayagnam turned out to be an average grosser. It was remade by K.B. Nagabhushanam in 1962 with N.T. Ramarao as Shiva, S.V. Rangarao as Daksha and Devika as Sati. It met with similar fate at the box office.
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m.l. narasimham
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