Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar donated his earnings to his village temple

Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar was shocked to the core when Chowdaiah approached him with a film proposal. Indeed Chembai had always expressed his strong disapproval of classical musicians like GNB, Musiri, and Maharajapuram for polluting themselves and divine music by acting in films. However, the Mysore master of the violin did not give up. At last, Chembai relented. After all, he was not asked to sing duets with young women chasing them in wet saris and act in love scenes!

In the film ‘Vani’, Chembai gives a Carnatic music performance accompanied by Chowdaiah on the violin. The mridangam is by ‘percussion pasha’ Palakkad Mani. Chowdaiah wrote the lyrics for the song, “ Nikhila paapa vinaasini...! and set it to tune in raga Shanmughapriya. Chembai sang the song in his usual style and verve and the song sequence was shot in Chembai village, now in Kerala. Large crowds gathered to watch the shooting. The scene was a reel- long, running to over ten minutes on screen. (In 35 mm, sound film runs at 90 feet per minute.) Maybe it was not pure cinema, but it certainly was a rare musical treat.

Chowdaiah offered Chembai a remuneration of five thousand rupees, a fortune in the early 1940s. However, the rigidly orthodox musician refused to touch the money for in his opinion it was tainted and as dirty as cinema itself! After much persuasion by Chowdaiah, Chembai donated the entire sum to the Parthasarathy Swami temple in his village for making a gold armor for the presiding deity.

“ Vani” was about a musician (Chowdaiah) and the problems and pressures, tensions and troubles a serious artiste wedded to his art invariably underwent in his life. Chowdaiah also sang in the film, besides playing on the violin. However, “ Vani” did not fare well at the box-office. Chowdaiah lost heavily. (He would joke to his good friend VC Gopalratnam (this writer’s guru-in-law) that while others bought cars after they made films, he had to sell his! )

“ Vani” a musical treat and film of historical interest has found a niche in Kannada cinema. Interestingly a print of this rare historic vintage movie was traced in Karnataka some two years ago by the noted stage star ‘Master’ Hiranaiah (real name H. Narasimhamurthy), son of K. Hiranaiah. A good friend of this writer, ‘Master’ told him that the print was cleaned and made fit for screening. The film was screened at Madras (now Chennai) by A.S. Ramakrishnan at his auditorium Aarkay Convention Centre near Luz Corner and drew huge crowds. This writer gave an introduction before the screening.

Next :  Musiri Subramania Iyer

(The writer is renowned film historian)

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