laila majnuLaila Majnu (1949) - A Classic Telugu FilmBhanumati and her husband Rama Krishna decided to make the story of "Laila Majnu" into a movie. Their first movie, "Ratnamala" in Telugu was a great success. Riding high on this they decided to make this movie on a grand scale. Akkineni Nageshwara Rao (ANR), who also appeared with Bhanumati in a smaller role in "Ratnamala", was cast as the hero. When ANR entered into the movies at the age of 15, Bhanumati was already an established star. The very first movie ANR acted in "Dharmapatni (1941)", Bhanumati also had a significant role. Incidentally, Bhanumati and ANR are of the same age. They were born in the same year and the same month, with only a few days apart. Apart from "Laila Majnu", the pairing of Bhanumati & ANR produced several great movies. Two of the greatest ones are "Vipra Narayana" and "Baatasaari", both made by Bharani, Bhanumati's home production.While "Laila Majnu" was in full production in both Tamil and Telugu, another producer entered into the fray to make "Laila Majnu" in Tamil. Undeterred Bhanumati went onto make the movie and release it almost simultaneously with the other movie. Bhanumati's movie proved to be a huge hit in both the languages whereas the other movie flopped. That other Tamil movie starred M.V. Rajamma and T.R. Mahalingam in the leads.Much of the success of Bhanumati's "Laila Majnu" was attributed to two factors; fine acting by the leading pair and great songs. Almost all songs were super hits. C.R. Subbaraman, who will eventually provide music for "Devadasu" in 1953, was the composer at the helm. He was brought in to compose music for Bhanumati's first own production, "Ratnamala". Encouraged with the success of its songs, Subbaraman was rehired to do the songs for "Laila Majnu". After the movie was released and the songs became phenomenal hits, Subbaraman became a household name.
The movie also gave a shot in the arm to the singing career of Ghantasala. Ghantasala sang his first song, a duet, with Bhanumati in B.N. Reddy's famous "Swarga Seema" movie. But after the success of "Laila Majnu", Ghantasala never looked back. By the way, Ghantasala also worked as an assistant music director to C.R. Subbaraman.Incidentally, Samudrala reworked on the "Laila Majnu" story and gave it a happy ending. This is the only "Laila Majnu" movie that had this type of ending because all others were tragedies. The movie was directed by Bhanumati's husband, Rama Krishna. He also edited the movie. It was photographed by B.S. Ranga. In later years, Ranga, started his own production company and made some fine movies such as "Tenali Rama Krishna" and "Amara Shilpi Jakkanna".The movie had a dance sequence by Lalita and Padmini, two of the three famous Travancore sisters (the youngest one was Ragini). This was the first movie appearance for Padmini. I am not certain about Lalita. Both went onto make several good movies on their own right. Lalita is fondly remembered even today for her role of "Chandramukhi" in Telugu "Devadasu (1953)". Padmini was the more successful one of the sisters as she appeared in several popular Hindi movies.Laila Majnu, an ancient epic of love, is an integral part of classic Sufi literature. Hashmet Shah has told it, so has Amir Khusro. Nizami Ganjavi's 12th century version in scintillating verse filled with allegorical flourishes has been translated into numerous languages. Mian Mohammad Bakhsh's interpretation of the epic is held as an acclaimed treatise in Pakistan till this day. The tragic tale of Majnoon and Laila is said to have its foundations in true events that occurred in the 7th century..
