A man of many seasons – Puttanna Kanagal
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No. This is not a upcoming movie title although it surely sounds like that. This is in reality a write-up on one of India’s less known and highly forgotten Film Director.
Puttanna Kanagal was one of the finest directors South Indian cinema had the benefit of having in its repository. He was at foremost a director in Kannada language and also did quite a few films in Malyalam & Tamil. He was one of the key aueters to have started off a concept of cinema that was both mainstream but touched topics that even acclaimed directors of today are petrified to take upon.
He was also the only director to have launched a high number of new faces who are now the super stars of the South like Rajanikanth, Vishnu Vardhan, Ambarish et al.
Well, I seem to have stroked some curiosity in all of you and so to put this write-up into perspective, let me just elucidate some of his movies
A young boy falls in love with a yesteryears heroine not knowing that she is his estranged mother.
The ineractions, life of an Actor, the larger then life montage, Man it left me spellbound when I saw it at about 12. I really did not understand the oedipal complex part of it till some more years later and when I saw this movie again, I was shocked to see such maturity and wisdom in a director who was from the past. It was such a complex subject and the movie had so many layers but this so called “Dumb Indian & particularly Kannada” Audience lapped it up thus proving an old adage that the audience are far more brainer than what the sodding film fraternity think they are.
The film’s name was Ranganayaki (Actress) . Sadly no DVD’s available and if any of you want to see it, check out the NFDC archives or am not sure where its available.
A gang of 5 villagers take on the evil chief of the village who is also being instigated by a goon.
A classic take on Mahabaratha and again stupendously told movie. This was shot so well and the story line so well thought out, that it keeps you thinking. A real competition for Kalyug (Shyam Babu’s) and well again a movie with so much clarity that you are pretty sure of the genius behind it as you are seeing the movie.
The film’s name was Padvarhalli Pandavaru. Sadly no DVD’s available at least in India.
A woman leaves her family and all her near and dear ones for the pursuit of music
Arathi is a actor who our generation (kids when this movie was released) cringe at her acting capabilities as she used to simper a lot but in Puttanna’s movies, she took on a completely different ability. She is the lead in this movie and in like Ranganayaki, Subha Managala, has acted extremely well and hold her own in a story which is quite nice. Her interactions with he family, her Guru and even her parents over music leaves you amazed
The movie’s name is Upsane – (Passion/Following) . A real look at passion and the world of a musician. Amazing movie with some really good songs. The heroine in the end does not go back to her family but goes off to Kanyakumari where she renounces her life for music. This is one thing that I love over Arth where Shabana at least too the little girl but in this movie, the heroine goes along with her passion for music. Heady STUFF.
The list of movies like this is pretty long. A list is available on Wikipedia and you can understand the genius of Puttanna Kanagal. I have seen all his movies and there are some that are quite ok and watch-able once but then there are these amazing gems like the ones I spoke about briefly above which are landmark movies and till date, am yet to see movies like this. These range from a young rebel with a no cause to the oldest profession in the world to the caste system, the complex circle of relationships et al. This was a Director who knew the meaning of Genre and the bloody importance of a story.
Most of his movies were based on stories written by authors in Kannada. Sadly this is no longer considered an option for making movies in India except for Vishal Bharadwaj, who has understood the benefit of this. (More on Vishal, a director, I am highly fascinated with)
The screenplay in current times is written by either the producer, his wife, the director, his son, cousin or some hack of a writer who only can only understand the “Audience” and hence the script is to be either a “Violent Love Story”, “A Fresh Story” or a “Family Tale”. For heavens sake, if the audience of the 70’s could understand the vision of Puttanna, why cannot the audience of today see stories with more flesh and blood and more in sync with the realities of the world. We really cannot have la la land movies being shown. Escapism is one thing but we cannot base life on a formula.
To get away from the tirade and to get back to Puttanna, only some viewers who see any and every movies would have heard his name and not many will know of this man who did movies in the south and only after seeing them can they feel the impact of his films.
We as movie buffs need to re-look at this genius within before we go off into an exploratory search of films from across the world. We need to pay homage to those who dared to take the “Road not Taken” as filmmakers and give us that urge to love this particular world of cinema more than Ma. 
Cheers, Deepak
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
nice article !! one correction though !!!
Padvarhalli Pandavaru was a remake of a malayalam film, starring the late actor Jayan in the central role of Bheema !
If my memory serves me right, the same film was remade in Hindi also, with Mithunda or nseruddin shah playing the role of Bheema. I think it was titled “Ashanti”, not sure though !!!
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Hello Rags,
I have heard this before but am not certain of the dates when these 2 movies were made and hence its up for discussion actually.
The article was more about the films of Puttanna and his diverse set of stories that he based his movies on.
Will also check on the Padvaralli Pandavaru and revert. In terms of the hindi film, you are spot on and there are quite a few of Puttanna’s movies made in Hindi also. “Nagara Haavu” was made with Rishi Kapoor in the lead in Hindi also. I am 100% ertain that nobody tired to make Ranganayaki as it would be too scary for directors to try looking at stories like that
Cheers, Deepak
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Hi Deepak,
It is heartwarming to see an article about Puttanna Kanagal’s contribution to Indian Cinema.
Thanks a ton for the post. Keep writing about the stalwarts of Kannada Cinema and lets hope that the golden days of our Cinema is back again.
Nithin
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@ Deepak, nice write-up on forgotten legend in Kannada cinema. I didn’t know that Puttana Kanagal had directed movies in Tamil & Malayalam. I’d read somewhere that, Mr.Kanagal had refused Prithvi Raj Kapoor’s offer to direct hindi movies.Prithvi Raj Kapoor worked with Puttanna Kanagal in “Saakshatkaara”. Actually, WB had replied long back in one of his posts that he will be writing on Mr.Kanagal. Anyways, this was long due.
BTW, what was the name of Rishi Kapoor’s movie that was a remake of “Nagarahaavu”? Can’t imagine Rishi Kapoor’s chocolate face in that intense role of Ramachari.
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The hindi version of
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It was remade first in Thamizh as “Raaja Naagam” with actor srikanth playing the lead role. Its rebel with no specific cause was so typical of the 70’s non conformist youth. PK was also the mentor of the legendary Thamizh director, Bharathi Raaja, superb director duo of Devaraj – Mohan and writer cum actor Vinu Chakravarthy.
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i think for rags,his memory is not serving properly,,,for sure,,,he says some body jayan,,,,,,,,,beema,,,,,,,malayalam,,,blah,blah,blah,,,lol,,,,,get life buddy,,
puttanna’s best trade mark was,his own stories,that he used for his movies,,,,,,and paduvaaralli pandavaru was no exception,,,,,,,,,
BTW,,,,,,,,i think your malayalam’chemmin’ was first made in kannada as karimeenu with kashinath as lead role,,,,,,,,,,.:o:d[-(
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Hi
Puttana is the only one director who gave different types of movies. He is the only person make the people to read novels by making the movie based on novel.He was giving the opportunity to the new actors and other cinema people.
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Padvarahalli Pandvaru’s hindi version was Hum paanch
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the fact is Puttanna first directorial debut was in malayalam . Yes Its true that padvarahalli pandavaru was first made in Malayalam, after which Putanna wanted it to be made in Kannada which he did.
cheers,
gm
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Hi,
The name of Hindi version of ‘Naagarahaavu’ is ‘Zahreela nsan” starring Rishi, Pran, Neetu singh and Moushumi chatarjee. However the movie bombed at the box office. Apart from Ranganaayaki his debut film ‘Bellimoda’ is an outstanding film. Puttanna who loved melodrama surprisingly has restrained himself to portray the emotions of a simple girl who was betrayed by his lover. The lover who agrees to marry her dicides to walk away from her. Yet the protogonist braves to carry her life severing her relationships with the kover. This black and white film is a pure gem from the stable of PUTTANNA
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Puttanna was a great director of kannada film Industry and I am proud that he is a kannadiga. Good information about him.
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Puttanna was truly an amazing director who did NOT get his due at the national (and international in today’s global world) level! His themes were so varied. His woman protagonists mostly played by Aarathi or Kalpana live forever. No kannadiga can forget Sharapanjara’s mad and much mauled Kaveri, Upasane’s devout Sharade to whom music is devotion, Shubhamangala’s bold Hema who realizes the meaning of love, film actress Ranganayaki who discovers her own son is in ‘love’ with her.. the list is endless
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Padvarhalli Pandavaru is a original story written based on Mahabharath. It’s remade in Hindi with title “Hum Panch” under his supervision. He never remade/remake movies.
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True, Puttanna was a true auteur within the limits of the Kannada mainstream cinema. He had his own themes – subjects that were considered bold for its time. He had a dramatic story telling style that at times bordered itself on the melodrama – a style that the audience lapped up readily, considering the number of days each of his films was shown in the theaters.
But at times, his films seem to be regressive in its nature. Thus, Kaveri is doomed to the confines of a mental asylum because her chastity is in question; Ramachari has to kill himself in the climax of Nagarahavu because he is a rebel; the heroine in Upaasane takes off to Kanyakumari as much to run away from her broken marriage as to fulfill her musical pursuit; Ranganayaki has to commit suicide for she has, although unknowingly, committed the ‘cardinal sin’ of falling in love with her own son.
True, it takes a lot of courage for any one to pick up themes that Puttanna has picked up, but these regressive climaxes seem to off set the bold thematic exposition of his films. Otherwise, the best thing about Putaanna’s films is the relationship that he has with his material – in terms of his screenplay, his angles, his camera movements, his lensing, his usage of music, his song picturisation and his entire mise en scene.
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