Rudraveena

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Rudraveena (literally “Strings of fury”, after the instrument) is a 1988 Telugu musical drama directed and co-written by K. Balachander and produced by Nagendra Babu’s Anjana Productions. Chiranjeevi, then at the height of his action-hero fame, plays the socially committed son of an orthodox Carnatic maestro, played by the Tamil star Gemini Ganesan, with Shobana as a dancer from a marginalised caste. Released on 4 March 1988, it was acclaimed by critics and won three National Film Awards, but it lost money at the box office.

What the story is about

An elderly MP, Satyanarayana, visits the village of Ramapuram and is struck by how developed and self-reliant it has become through the work of a reformer named Suryam. He asks Suryam to tell his story. Suryam is the younger son of “Bilahari” Ganapathi Sastry, a revered musician with rigid views on caste and tradition. Where his father puts pure art first, Suryam puts people first, and the two clash again and again. On his travels Suryam meets Lalitha Sivajyothi, a gifted classical dancer who is barred from performing in temples because of her caste, and he decides to marry her. The widening rift between father and son, and what Suryam builds after he walks out, is the story the film tells.

Cast and crew

• Chiranjeevi as Suryanarayana “Suryam” Sastry
• Gemini Ganesan as “Bilahari” Ganapati Sastry
• Shobana as Lalitha Sivajyoti
• P. L. Narayana as Varalayya
• Prasad Babu as Udayam, Suryam’s elder brother
• Sumithra as Gayathri
• Ramesh Aravind as Charukesa
• Devilalitha as Sandhya
• Brahmanandam as Kishtappa
• Kaikala Satyanarayana as Satyanarayana (cameo)

Director: K. Balachander. Dialogue: Ganesh Patro. Music: Ilaiyaraaja, lyrics by Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry. Cinematography: R. Raghunadha Reddy. Editing: Ganesh Kumar. Runtime: 170 minutes.

Making of the film

Nagendra Babu set up Anjana Productions, named after his mother, and wanted his first film to break away from his brother’s action image. He approached Chiranjeevi’s mentor Balachander, who had cast him as a villain in Idi Katha Kaadu (1979) and 47 Rojulu (1981). Balachander built the story around national integration and rural development, inspired by Anna Hazare’s work in Ralegan Siddhi and by a retired IAS officer who adopted his village in West Godavari. Ganesh Patro, his favourite dialogue writer, worked on the script for two months. The working title, Bilahari, after the raga, was changed to Rudraveena to reflect the characters’ anger. S. P. Balasubrahmanyam dubbed Gemini Ganesan’s dialogue as well as singing for him, and the film was shot over 70 days in Madras, Kanchipuram, Courtallam and Srinagar.

Reception and box office

The film was acclaimed on release (The Times of India) but failed commercially; Idlebrain lists it among its “best movies, yet box office failures”. According to Sakshi, it was made for ₹80 lakh and Nagendra Babu lost ₹60 lakh. Later writing has been warm: the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema calls it a reformist film that addressed caste “in a calculated effort” to win Chiranjeevi “greater critical respectability”, Mihir Fadnavis of DNA called it “possibly his best ever” performance, and C. V. Aravind of the Deccan Herald said Balachander drew an excellent performance from the star. K. Naresh Kumar of The Hans India praised Raghunadha Reddy’s images of the old Shaivite temples.

Awards and legacy

At the 36th National Film Awards it won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration, Best Music Direction for Ilaiyaraaja and Best Male Playback Singer for S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. Nandi Awards went to Ganesh Patro for dialogue, Ilaiyaraaja for music, Pandurangam for audiography, plus a Special Jury Award, which Wikipedia credits to Chiranjeevi in one place and to Nagendra Babu in another. Balachander remade it in Tamil the same year as Unnal Mudiyum Thambi, with Kamal Haasan in Chiranjeevi’s role. When Srimanthudu (2015) drew comparisons, Mahesh Babu told The Hindu his film was more mainstream in approach.

Where to watch Rudraveena

We do not have a confirmed streaming listing for Rudraveena on file. If we verify one with a platform, it will appear on this page.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Rudraveena and the reviews and reports it cites, linked above; our own cast and crew records.