Musings - Sreelakshmi's myriad characters Part 2

Last week, I had mentioned a few memorable characters of Sreelakshmi in Jandhyala's movies.  There are many more of such roles that I want to talk about this week.

A classic unforgettable role was that she played in the movie Chantabbai. Who doesn't know her famous dialogues "Bhangala Bhow Bhow" and her "Kavitwams" in the film? My favorite has to be this one "Nenu Kavini kadannavadni" You can watch the scene here. Another role which made the movie worth watching is Jayammu Nischyammu Raa, where she plays a mother who loses her young son and gets emotional every time she hears some one say anything that reminds her of him. She ends up hugging them no matter what their age is and cries out loud "babu chitti" watch and laugh here.

In Choopulu Kalasina Subhavela, she plays a role of mandodari (Kappa potta gala manishi) who loves her food and can spend hours and hours discussing and eating food. She marries Kukuteswar Rao (Bramhi) (Kukka choopu gala vaadu) and they are a match made in heaven. (Yet another piece of Jandhyala's brilliance) Watch here. In Hai Hai Nayaka, she plays Urvasi, a single middle aged teacher who is in love with an unmarried, middle aged principal in her school. She cannot get married because of an elder sister who is yet to get married and their father instead of looking for a groom, spends all day sleeping. Her trademark dialogue in the movie can be watched here.

Her roles weren't that effective in two other Jandhyala movies, Bava Bava Panneru and Vichitra Prema. In the former, she plays Kokila, who in order to escape marriage with her bava, pretends to have a vision of her former life where is married to a boy who stays in front of her house and tries to remind him of their two kids and family, much to his amusement. See here. In the latter, she plays a writer who calls herself Christie(after Agatha Christie) and in order to find inspiration for her novels, has her bava (brahmi in both) don various get-ups leading to him landing in trouble. See here.

She bounces back with an excellent role of a short tempered bank manager in Shh Gup Chup. Her bouts of anger, followed by the dream song sequences with Dharamavarapu Subramanyam, her ex-boyfriend (RIP) when he tries to pacify her are hilarious.So is the whole Titla dandakam sequence. I'll finish the post with my favorite role of her's in all time. The one she plays in Ladies Special. She plays a lazy housewife who had a lot of prospective grooms come see her while she was single. She remembers each one of them and also remembers what food her mother served when they came to her house. Hilarious here.

It's not to say that she didn't play other noteworthy characters in other director's movies. Some roles worth mentioning are the abba dabba jabba role in Subhalagnam,  role in Kobbari Bondam, the role in Chevilo Puvvu, the writer's role in Edurinti Mogudu Pakkinti Pellam to name a few. Do you have any roles of Sreelakshmi that stands out?

Musings - Sreelakshmi's myriad characters

In a world where movies are all about super hero like lead actors who carry the whole film on their shoulders, item songs are all that the actresses are good for, comedy equals double entendres and character artists have story lines that do not gel with the storylines; I crave for the good old days. Days where heroes were human, women dignified, music was melodious and character artists actually belonged to the storyline. A chilly rainy weekend and no social plans gave me some time to catch up and watch old favorites. Jandhyala and his movies has always been movies that are close to my heart. One thing that always struck me was how brilliantly he sketched the roles of the various artists in his films; mainly the sutti janta and Sreelakshmi.  I wanted to do a post on this after many conversations with fellow movie buffs and family where we always reminisced about that comedy scene which made you hold your stomach is pain as you laughed out loud.

I seriously believe that no one used Srilakshmi to her full potential as much as Jandhyala has. Picture this; a newly wed naive wife of a man who is a worry wart. They live in a section of a house where some bachelor boys live too. The husband is worried and tries to lock his wife indoors preventing her to associate with them. The wife however spends time with them leading to a series of funny suspicions (Rendu Jella Seeta). Or in another movie, a lazy wife who is married off to a simple husband who loves food and music but does not know that the wife can't cook to save her life and singing does not agree with her.  When he knows that he was duped into the marriage and lied to, the wife tries to make amends by trying to learn both arts and failing miserably. The husband is left to cook food everyday and tries to hypnotize her in order to make things better, leading to a comedy of errors. (Rendu Rella Aaru).

Or even better, a movie lover who watches a new movie every day and bites off her husband's ears narrating the whole movie, right from the credits to the end titles. When her husband isn't willing to listen, she makes a bargain with the vegetable vendor to buy vegetables from him if he is parlay to listen to her "narration". A couple of minutes into this, the vendor runs away, vowing to never step foot into that street ever again (Srivariki Premalekha). In another setting, she is a movie lover too but in this case she is so into the movie emotionally that every time some thing bad happens in it, she runs out of the theatre bawling and goes to her mom where she talks about who died in the movie and they cry together. (Babai Abbai)

A personal favorite role was one that she plays in Mogudu Pellalu. She plays the role of a pampered daughter who fights with her husband every day and runs off to her mother's house conveniently located next door. She plays Uttara who would buy an expensive saree if she knew she was going to get a spoon free vexing her husband Dakshina Murthy. (See Jandhyala's brilliance here, naming them uttara-dakshina, two opposite directions)

There are many more movies where Sreelakshmi's characters took the movie to another level and I think I should stop here and continue talking about them in Part 2, next week. If you have come across more such roles that you think are worthing talking about, feel free to leave comments!