Fruits of labour

The Hindu : Entertainment Bangalore / Personality: "Samskara not only brought international acclaim but also pioneered the parallel cinema movement in Kannada. It is only befitting that the 86-year-old director Pattabhi Rama Reddy has been honoured with the Puttanna Kanagal award, says MURALIDHARA KHAJANE. It is Pattabhi Rama Reddy who wrote the preface for experimental films in Kannada. Though he had predecessors who dealt with social issues on celluloid, Samskara has been recognised as a path-breaking attempt in Kannada as far as parallel film movement is concerned.

The director Pattabhi, was trained in Columbia, barely familiar with Kannada, writer-actor Girish Karnad, was Oxford educated, the cameraman, was an obscure Australian named Tom Cowan, the editor was an equally obscure Englishman Stevan Cartaw, the story was by U.R. Ananthamurthy, professor of English literature, and the music director, Rajiv Taranath was also a professor of English, who had spent six years learning the sarod from the legendary Ali Akbar Khan.

The film faced stiff opposition from the Madhwa community, and also met with resistance form the Censors. But it triumphed all odds to win critical and popular favour.

Pattabhi Rama Reddy was born in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, on February 2, 1919. Interestingly, he had for his passion, two conflicting subjects, poetry and Mathematics. Reddy was greatly influenced by Rabindranath Tagore in Shantiniketan, where he studied for two years. He joined Calcutta University for his master's degree in English literature and stayed in a dingy room on Lower Chitpur Road in Calcutta.

The clouds of world war in 1938, further unveiled harsh reality for him. The metaphors of Tagore's poetry suddenly lost its meaning. It had become difficult for him to concentrate on his studies in Calcutta and he returned to Nellore. He reluctantly entered his family business of Mica export at Gudur, and very often travelled between Madras and Nellore.

During his visits to Madras, he used to meet Sri Sri and Mallavarapu Visweswara Rao (both revolutionary poets). It is during this time he wrote Ragala Dozen (A Dozen Melodies), a collection that recorded his observations in Madras and Nellore. Reddy later went on to study Mathematics in Columbia University. By becoming an active member of Madras Players Amateur Theatres he produced and directed many plays. He founded Jayanthi Pictures in association with K.V. Reddy and P.N. Reddy and produced the Telugu film, Pellinaati Pramanalu, which bagged the National award.

The makers of Samskara were harassed rather cruelly by the government during the Emergency. Snehalatha Reddy, the leading actress in Samskara and wife of Reddy, was accused of concealing information about the whereabouts of George Fernandes (who later become Union Minister in successive Governments), a trade union leader, whose arrest had been ordered in the Emergency roundup. Snehalata Reddy known to be a friend of Mr. Fernandes, denied knowledge of Fernandes's whereabouts. She was jailed and interrogated for eight months. An asthmatic deprived of medicine; she fell seriously ill and was released just before her death. She died in January 1977, five days after her release.

The other films of Pattabhi Rama Reddy are Chandamarutha, Sringaramasa, and Devara Kaadu, all with serious concerns. "