14th January 2005

Navvatam oka bhogam, Navvinchatam oka yogam, Navvalekapovatam oka rogam.

His full name was Jandhyala Venkata Durga Siva Subrahmanya Sastri but he attained name and fame as "Jandhyala garu". He left this world and millions of admirers on June 19, 2001 but no telugu movie lover can forget this name even in a hurry.

Jandhayala garu was born on Jan 14 at Narsapur and acquired his education in Vijayawada. He was a theatre buff and acted/directed in various plays during his school and college days.

Writer

He reached Madras and got his big break from the movie "Siri Siri Muvva" under the direction of legendary director Sri. K. Vishwanath. This director-writer combination saw masterpieces like Sagara Sangamam and one of the all time greatest movies of telugu Sankarabharanam. If you presume he only satiated the class audience, you are in soup as he savored to the tastes of the masses in a bigger way. His combination with another industry legend Sri. K. Raghavendra Rao gave us greatest commercial hits like Adavi Ramudu and Jagadeka Veerudu Atiloka Sundari in addition to many.

As a writer of 300 odd movies, he never entertained any grime language in his movies. His dialogs were crisp, simple and natural like real-life conversations.

An example to this can be seen in Padamati Sandhya Raagam:

Artist 1: Kulasaana andi
Artist 2: Kulaase…ante kumaridi valla loss.

This is a typical Jandhyala's stroke of genius; short, crisp but enough to create a laugh riot.

Director

There was a time when most telugu movies had a routine formula of a hero taking vendetta against the villain. Comedy was a separate track running parallel to the main course of the movie. Jandhyala's movies came as a whiff of fresh air. He gave the industry an avalanche of comedy movies starting with Mudda Mandaram. Of the 40 odd movies he made, mention must be made of Srivariki Premalekha, Aha Naa Pellanta, Vivaha Bhojanambu and Ananda Bhairavi, which won national and state awards.

He was the perfect choice for medium budget movies and attained great success with actors like Rajendra Prasad and Naresh. He introduced/encouraged lot of comedians to the industry including Brahmanandam (whom he introduced), Kota Srinivas Rao, Sutti Janta and many more. His protégé EVV Satyanarayana went on to become a successful director in the later years.

He also worked with stars like ANR, Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna with whom he had mixed luck. Amarajeevi with ANR was not a commercial success although it was critically acclaimed. Chantabbai with Chiranjeevi was a laugh riot and won the Megastar unchallenged following among kids. With Balakrishna, he gave a super-hit in the form of Sitarama Kalyanam and another hit Babai Abbai.

All his movies have an inner message which he conveyed through a neat comedy.

Srivariki Premalekha - Anti-Dowry

Padamati Sandhyaraagam - Concept of VASUDAIKA KUTUMBAM.

Chantabbai - Orphan children. Jandhyala garu mentioned that he read an article in a newspaper about rising number of orphans in India and made changes to the story.

As a big fan of Jandhyala garu, I pray that his soul rests in peace.

more about Jandhyala

Sreekanth Devarakonda

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