Part 6

Continued from Part 5
"tammuDoo bharataa! pitruvaakya paripaalanaa dakshuDigaa, aaDina maaTa tappani oka baadhyayutuDaina koDukugaa, prajala samskhaemam ellapuDoo kOrukunae aadarSavantamaina oka raajugaa, dharmam naalugu paadaala naDapavalsina mugguru tammula annagaa, naenu aa raajya padavi teesukOlaenu tammuDoo, teesukOlaenu", "annayyaa! raanu ani okka maaTa chebitae saripOdaa, deeniki anta SUTTHI enduku" - thus was done the coining of the term "SUTTHI" by Bharata in the days of traetaa yugam, explains Sutthi Vaelu in the words of Jandhyala in "naalugu sthambaalaaTa". Looking at the popularity of the word "Sutthi" that has permeated all walks of life with the ease of air gushing into a low pressure region from a high pressure area, fast, quick and complete - "sutthi sinimaa, sutthi vaestunnaaDu, sutthi aapu, chaalaa sutthigaa undi and the like" - it appears as though the term has been in vogue since time immemorial. Pingali Nagendra Rao, the famous writer for Vijaya banner in the erstwhile golden era of telugu cinema, was famous for coining words/phrases, making them feel and appear as though they indeed were a part of the people's colloquial/cultural lexicon - asmadeeyulu/tasmadeeyulu, alamalam, gilpam. Since Pingali, Jandhyala remains as the only writer who carried forward that tradition and coined a phrase, that has no literary or colloquial bearing whatsoever and yet was tweaked in such a way as to become one of the greatest placeholders in conversational telugu, ever since 1982. Call it typecasting, call it pigeon-holing - at the end of the day, a career inevitably locks into a genre with which it is most identified with. Sensitive filmmaker, sensible director, great artistic mind, good ear for music - all these phrases tend to remain as attributes to that singular quality that defines a director completely. In Jandhyala's case, his title says it all - Haasya Brahma. If K.Viswanadh is responsible for renewing the interest of a generation in classical arts and traditional culture among other things through his movies, Jandhyala is best known for resuscitating the dying art of healthy comedy, rescuing it from the clutches of slapstick and extending its life through the only way he knew and was known for - play of words.

"poddunae laechi paragaDapuna oka chuTTa muTTinchi, varsham vastae whiskey, raaka pOtae rammu pucchukunTaaDae tappitae marae maadaka dravyaala jOliki pODayya, saayamkaalam pooTa saradaagaa oka silku jubba vaesukuni alaa Saani vaaDala gunDaa raatriki inTiki chaerukuntaaDae tappitae pilla vaaDiki elaanTi duralavaaTlu laevanDayya.". "adaenTayya, pilla vaaDu chooDaDaaniki manchi vaaDi laagaanae kanipistaadu", "daani daemundanDayyaa, meeru kanapaDaru" - Comedy in cinema can be broadly classified as being physical, situational and conversational. Physical comedy, which is mostly slapstick, depends on the ingenuity of the performer to deliver the comedic situation - stepping on a banana peel, acts involving mutilation (self or otherwise), physical harm – all these require actors with good physical timing (ex: Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton) to hit the right marks at the right time. Situational comedy, which has become quite popular of late, depends more on the setup part than the actual delivery of the moment. A character (preferably a comedian) going to a quack doctor for some treatment is funny in the setup part itself. Anything that happens in that particular situation, within reasonable limits, ensues a continuous stream of laughter mainly on the strength of the setup alone. The most interesting and the toughest of all, the conversational comedy, lies purely on the ability of the writer to produce comedy out of thin air. He has nothing to rely on - neither great actors capable of performing funny antics, nor great or outlandish situations to help his cause.

"amma, idigO Suri baabu gaaru vacchaarae", "evaramma suryaakantamaa aa" asks the deaf mother, "abba! naenanDee suri baabuni, maree linga bhaedaalu kooDaa teliyakapOtae elaaganDee". In here, the writer does not take the aid of the handicap of one of the characters, instead he chooses to depend on the word play to deliver the frustration of the character arises out of the deafness. "aem maavayya, idaenaa raavaDam, saamaanlu evanna unnaayaa", "laevuraa, unnadi ee okka sancheenae, indilO kooDaa unnavi, mee akka chaesina vidaeSee aTlu, mee naanna tiTTina daeSavaaLee tiTlu, aa aTlu tinalaekaa, ee tiTlu vinalaekaa chachaananukO" laments another character. When in doubt, trust the language..

Jandhyala's ability to churn comedy in any situation lies in his command over the language - not the colloquial version, but the literary one. And his knack of applying one to the other, meaning applying the literal and the loquacious aspect of literary telugu, to a very commonplace regular situation of everyday life, is what that makes his brand of comedy unique and refreshing. "ayyaa! prabhuvu vaari vyaakaraNamlO truteeya tatpurusha (third person - he, she, it, they) laedu. macchukki, monna vaarini karichina kukkaki picchi paTTi chacchindanukOnDi. nannu karichi nuvvu chacchipOyaavanTaaru". Completely leaning on the language is quite a dangerous feat when it comes to generating comedy, and that too, the chaste version of the language - "uraey, uraey, alaa chaetulu vaNikinchaavanTae nee nava randhraallOnoo mainam koorutaanu raa kunkaa", "uraey, mee aidu tommudulu nalabhai aidu pinDaakuLLu picchikelaki peTTa" to which instantly comes the retort "arae naa antima kOrika meerela telusukOgaligaaru". Each emotion has a specific language (in his own words - okka anubhooti okkokka nirdushTamaina Sabdam undi). Stray away from the language and the emotion falls flat and the effect becomes counter-productive.....except in comedy. Comedy has a language and a vocabulary of its own. It counts on pairing the mismatches and the misfits. Consider a revered epic like Mahabharata, which can only be imagined in the purest of words and the grandest of phrases. Now take the same Mahabharata and apply it to the telangana dialect. The result is just comedic gold - "savitrammani joosi mikkilinaeni gaaDu raayae annaDu, naenu raaru pOru annadi, maLLee raayae annadi, maLLee raanu pOraa annadi, gantae bhai, savitramma juTTu baTTukuni bara bara bara eeDchukocchaesinDu. jakkaDa mana bheemuDu, adae mana enTeevODu bhai, gada pisakataa unnaaDu pisakataa unnaaDu. aem jaestAm. anna aana." Jandhyala's craft of finding these moments out of ordinary situations found a great deal of help in the publishing world - first with the movie that redefined comedy in telugu cinema, and arguably its funniest, "Srivaariki Praemalekha" (based on the novel by Putturi Vijayalakshmi) and then in the floodgates that he collectively opened with another writing dabbling the same genre - Malladi VenkataKrishna Murthy.

P.S. If Veturi defined the art of letter writing between two people in such a delicate and tender way as "Sreeman mahaaraja maartanDa taejaa priyaananda bhOja.... mee gurinchi ennO kalalu kanna kanne bangaaru...", then Jandhyala redefined it in his own inimitable comedic way in a letter from a father to his friend using the same chaste language this way -

"Kharmaa kaali ninnu kanna dikkumaalina tanDri vaeyi chaetulatO vraayunadi. mee amma kulaasaa gaanae aghOristOndi, naa kaaLLu chaetulu baanae kadili chastunnaayi...

Itlu,
ShunTa parandhaamayya"

Continued in the next part

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