Padamati Sandhya Ragam – A Classic
iView Author:
Srinivas N (Bombay, India)
Email:
srinivasn77 [at] gmail [dot] com
Padamati Sandhya Ragam, which means The Western Sunset Song or Sandhya’s western song is one of those movies that remains very close to my heart. A very simple but a sweet film, released in 1986, Padamati Sandhya Ragam is a milestone in Telugu Cinema, directed by the talented director “Jandhyala”.
Jandhyala directed many great comedies and also some excellent socially relevant movies. More to come on Jandhyala on a different post as this article is more about Padamati Sandhya Ragam”.
Starring a very young Vijayshanti and the american “cute” actor Thomas Jane, this is a story about a young girl Sandhya from a small town in India, who arrives in America along with her parents.
Even though her father was not keen to shift to a new country, he was convinced by his brother who was already working in the states as there were better opportunities there.
Now beings the fun ride. The ever nagging father (Gummaluri Satyam) refuses to let go of his customs and rituals even though he is in America. He demands a cow be brought for the Grihapravesh ceremony so they can shift to their new house while his shocked brother tries to tell him its very tough to arrange a cow there.
Then there is this poor Indian supermarket owner, family friend of Sandhya’s who has an over weight son who keeps gobbling all the food in his shop, driving him to ruin!
Once Sandhya’s father manages to bring in the fire engines while doing his morning puja, and insists he will take a bath on the front yard just like he does in his village. He even admonishes a woman smoking a cigarette in his office that woman should not smoke! All these scenes make you go ROFL!
Sandhya, on the other hand is fascinated by America. The supermarkets, the people, the atmoshpere totally amazes her. One day Sandhya gets lost in the city and is rescued by Tom (Thomas Jane) who incidentally is her neighbor. Tom falls in love with Sadhya and competes with a black man (hilariously played by drummer Sivamani!!), who stays in the same neighborhood and who also desperately wants to win Sandhya’s hand.
Sandhya reciprocates Tom’s love and a intense love story begins. When her father comes to know about their affair, he hits the roof and this forces Sandhya to run away from home.
Well, let me translate this dialogue from the movie spoken by Sandhya’s father…
Father: Don’t trust these white people – they look down upon us because we are dark.
And in another scene…
Father: Don’t trust these black people – they are jealous about us because we are whiter than them!
This movie is not just a sweet love story, but a movie that talks about the cultural challenges and the message of unity. The melodious songs in this movie, composed by the legendary SPB (SP Balasubramaniam) are a treat for our senses, especially the songs “Pibare Rama Rasam….”, “Muddagare Yasoda” and “Ee Toorupu, Ee Paschiman”. Also watch out for the hilarious song featuring both Tom and Sivamani “Gundello dhada dhada”!!!
After watching this movie, I fell in love with Vijayshanti and the America of 80’s. What prompted me to write about this movie was a news I read on the Internet that the producers of this movie, Gummaluri Sastry and Meer Abdullah starting another movie this year titled “Maro Sandhya Ragam” (One more Sandhya Ragam. They have already recorded one song in Washington D.C in february this year and I am waiting for more news about this movie.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
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
Srinivas:
Jandhyalagaaru definitely deserves to be written about,maybe another on Vishwanathgaaru also?
‘Maro Sandhya Ragam ‘ was shot here, my friend Kiran worked on it, will ask him for more news and get back.
k-3
When Sandhya and her family first land in the US, Sandhya’s uncle asks her father how was his journey…
This is what he says: “Naa Pindakudu Prayanam!! Mushti vedhava moodu ghantalu alasyanga dinchi chacchadu!!” hahaha!! Man…this is classic!!
Some of the memorable gaalis from this movie are…
->. Antla Vedhava
->. Pinjari Kunka
->. Daridrapu Peenugu
->. Mudhanashtapu Munda kodaka!!
->. Adda Gaadida!
->. Nela Takkuva Kunkalu
And many more!! These are magic words for every Telugu!! hahaha!!
By the way, this is the first Telugu movie that was totally shot in the US…
Is there some place where we can get such movies?
You know, I think may be PFC should also start hosting regional movies in some place from where we can all watch them rather than just read about them!
Srinivas, thats a good post on PSR, but honestly i really would not rate it as one of Jandhyala’s best, forget about being a classic. Yeah the theme was good, but some how to me just never had that emotional impact. At no stage did i really feel for the lead characters. Also fact was not using professional artistes, really lessened the impact. I felt that Veerabhadra Rao, would have been much better, in the father’s role.
For me i loved Jandhyala’s Sreevariki Premalekha, Rendu Rellu Aaru, Choopulu Kalisina Subhavela, Aha Na Pellanta a lot. I still feel while Jandhyala was excellent in comedy, his serious movies were not that good.
Ratnakar: See, Padamati Sandhya Ragam is not your regular classic but it is still a classic with a lot of people who “connected” with it. It is a classic because of the freshness. I myself felt while watching it that it was not a movie I was watching a 2 hour homemade video. That made it a classic for me.
Except for Vijayshanti, there was not a single other regular actor except “Sutti Velu” who comes in one scene. This worked for me. In spite of everyone’s acting was not like “acting”, the movie worked in total! That made it a classic!
See, there was more “laugh” factor in other Jandhyala movies like “Choopulu Kalisina Shubavela”, “Aha Na Pellanta” I agree, but somehow this movie stands out.
@Domagaru
To each his own i guess, yeah i did like this movie, but wud not rate it as among my favorites.:d
That reminds me Jandhyala made another US based movie with Krishna’s son Ramesh, i think its Chinni Krishnudu( or something like that). But that was a dud, i remember it coz it was the first Telugu movie for which Pancham Da gave the music, apart from that, have no clue about the movie.
Jandhyala was excellent as an actor in Vishwanath’s Apathbandhavudu, sadly his untimely death robbed us of another actor in the Viswanath mould.
A simple and sweet movie with some beautiful songs by SPB. It’s surprising why he does not take up more music direction assignments. Most of the movies he composed for, had lovely music. Mayuri is another example.
Gummulury shastry’s dubbing was done by Suthi veerabhadra rao, I think. Also Jandhyala lent his voice to Vijayasanthi’s US based uncle’s character. This movie has some lovely memorable lines that went on to become household gaalis so to speak.
- bayata vaana padthunte intlo godugu eskuni thirige edhava ( a fool that uses an umbrella inside the house when it’s raining outside)
many many more that I cannot recollect.
Chalam, that “gaali” was from Choopulu Kalisina Shubavela” with Naresh.
Naresh, Son of Vijayanirmala was one actor who had great comic timing! I admired him to bits! Sadly, he did not get the due he deserved.
Of all the Telugu star sons that I have ever come across, Naresh is the only one that has great talent. He had the ability to act, deliver dialogues with perfect timing and was reasonably good looking (atleast in the beginning). I agree with you 110% that he did not get his due, a problem that befalls star sons of heroines however successful they are (somewhat like Mohnish Bahl son of great actress Nutan). Says a like about the Indian film industry!
Wonder what Naresh is upto now-a-days.
When I was visiting Hyderabad a few months back…I was flicking through the channels and noticed Naresh in a Telugu Serial…In fact, could not recognize him in the beginning! He has put on a lot of weight…I felt very sad…He had the talent to become a top notch hero…In fact he was considered a great comic hero at one point of time…but later on….
PSR is definetly one of my most favourite movies. Its not because there are talented actors, huge sets, big budget, but rather becasue of its simplicity and the freshness and fragrance of our telugu even in a foreign land. It had definetly left a very uneraseble nostalgic stamp in my mind that makes me love this film even today. I dont miss any occassion of watching this film. May be its because its the first time I have seen a foreign place in my life and moreso with our telugu people associated with it. I simple love this movie and most most touching song “Ee toorupu Aa Paschimam”, nostalgic.
I saw 4 youtube clips of this wretched looking movie because i was curious how Thomas Jane acted in a Telugu movie. There was this song where Thomas Jane wears a Reagan mask and the idiots have SP Balasubramaniam sing a terrible song in a very bad accent for Thomas Jane. Whose genius idea was this? THe song was atrocious. This movie has nothing on Maro Charitra just judging by the clips I saw.
I hope they didn’t dub Thomas Jane’s voice with some telugu guy pretending to be an American. (none of the clips I found had him speaking, so I cant tell).
Another thing I noticed in the song I saw was the terrible cinematography with very few closeups and a lot of amateurish long shots.
This is an insult to the concept of a small art movie.