Mullapudi Venkata Ramana

Mayor Sabbam Hari presenting the 1995 Raja-Lakshmi Literary Award to Sri Mullapudi Venkata Ramana

Mullapudi Venkata Ramana (te: ముళ్ళపూడి వెంకట రమణ; June 28, 1931 – February 23, 2011) was a Telugu story writer. He was especially known for his hilarious style of writing. He also created a child character called Budugu. Many other memorable characters like Radha, Gopalam, Contractor (in Muthyala Muggu), Tutti (in Mister Pellam) in Modern Telugu Literature/Cinema flown from the ink of this master writer's pen.

Mullapudi was also the dialogue, story and screenplay writer for many of the movies that came as a Bapu-Ramana combination. He was versatile in penning both heart-touching and rib-tickling dialogues.

Biography

Early life

Sri. 'Mullapudi Venkata Ramana' was born in a middle class traditional family and his childhood mostly spent in a tiny village called Dhowaleswaram near Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. Ramana had one elder sister and a younger brother. It was a happy family with no troubles until his father expired when Ramana was 9 years old.^[1] This turned their family status upside down and they shifted to Chennai (called Madras in those days) for better opportunities. Ramana's mother Mrs. Adilakshmi took all the pains to raise the family in such situation. Ramana's education and career happened in Madras itself. During his study days itself, Ramana had shown penchant for literature in Telugu and inclination in writing up short but effective storyline.

During the same period, he got a good friend in 'Bapu', their friendship was unconditional and mutually expending talents as Ramana is good at write ups where as Bapu, is good at painting and caricature drawing. Soon they excelled in their talents and gave some of the most admirable Telugu films later in their life.

'Katha Ramaneeyam' Part-1 each have around 40 stories off 8 chapters each of them representing one of Navarasams (Nine emotions each human has). Some of them were made Films later viz. Seetha Kalyanam, Bhogimanta, Swayamvaram etc..

'Katha Ramaneeyam' Part-2 having around 45 stories some of which representing Indian middle classes tryst with life but in hilarious way. While others pointing out the superstitions in our society, treatment of underprivileged in society which are definitely thought provoking.

'Runanandalahiri' is representation of average Indians, leading life in the times of inflation, joblessness, less privileged society and their tryst with their lives' problems. Sri. Ramana himself suffered such upsets in his life and even frank enough that some characters inspired from his own such sufferings but dealt in a humorous way.

Career

After completing SSLC in Madras, Ramana had to do many odd jobs before finally started as a reporter for then the popular news paper in Andhra Patrika in 1953^[2] Here he got opportunity to interact with eminent writers of Telugu literature like Nanduri Ramamohana Rao, Pilaka Ganapati Sastry, Surampudi Seetaram etc. who were working for the same news paper.

Sri. Ramana was first working for the "Daily" section of the news paper, and then shifted to "Weekly" section. While working here, his stories for children in the name of 'Budugu' (lil kid) - were published, became very popular. He authored these stories to present the views of the little kids off their elderly in the family. These stories are humorous, informative, knowledgeable to children and at the same time helping the elderly to know the thought process of their kids. Later, these stories were published in the form of a Book, which was well received one and all.

While writing up for "Cinema Page" section in the paper, Ramana's short and crisp writing helped him to gain popularity for his reviews of the films released then. That was the same time when he got introduced to film industry and befriended the famous stars of film fraternity. He got introduced to some great Film directors of those times Adurthi SubbaRao, Dundi who encouraged him to work for films. 'RakthaSambandam' was his first break as a writer, and since then he never lagged in his progress as story, screenplay, dialogue writer.

Films

Ramana's writing talent highlighted with his movie reviews and also stories he wrote for films. Some of the initial films for Story, screenplay dialogue 'Velugu needalu', 'Kanney manasulu' were run away hits, has kept Ramana in good stead. 'Mooga manasulu', 'Bharya Bharthalu', 'Velugu Needalu', 'Teney manasulu' films has firmly established him as Story writer. Some of these films had ANR (Akkineni NageswarRao) in the lead and their association brought their talent to the fore.

Soon, he became sought after film story writer and has given up his Journalist job at 'Andhra Patrika' for he concentrated fully on films. He partnered with his childhood friend 'Bapu' and co-produced their first film 'Sakshi' featuring actor 'Krishna' which got accolades for its storyline and direction.

'Bhakta Kannappa' (great disciple of 'Lord Shiva') with actor 'Krishnam Raju' who was till then doing villain roles, was a huge hit and gave him stardom. However, the milestone in his career is 'Sampurna Ramayanam' (Ramayan epic) which featured 'Shoban Babu' as Lord Rama turned out to be a major hit and is a masterpiece of Telugu films which is the best representation of the epic 'Ramayana' till today. The music of this film is ever popular and is still played in Festivals and functions.

Association with Bapu

Sri. Ramana’s association with Sri. Bapu on a career plane has added 60 years. They first met in 1942 in P.S. High School, Madras where they studied standards V and VI and then continued schooling at Kesari High School. Ramana’s first short story 'Amma Maata Vinakapothe' was published in 1945 in 'Bala', a children's magazine published by Radio Annayya (Nyayapathi Raghava Rao), he was 14 then. 'Bapu' illustraed the story. His paintings were liked and that was the beginning of their long standing association.

While Bapu achieved much of his fame sticking to a subtle style of artistic elegance, Ramana announced his entry through a bunch of talkative characters, who try to make no sense out of the sensible world around them, because of their askew point of view. Beginning as an illustrator-story writer team and then turning into a film-director-writer duo, they have contributed immensely to the enrichment of Telugu cultural ethos through literature and cinema

Sri. Ramana provided an able foil, providing script/dialogue that suited bapu's visuals and this celebrated friendship and professional associatioon made some very meaningful social films yet decent hits like 'Radha Kalyanam', 'Vamsa Vriksham', 'Pelli Pustakam', 'Mr. Pellam', 'Sundarkanda', 'Radhaagopalam'.

'MuthyalaMuggu' is one of the path breaking films of yesteryears but the characters, story is very relevant even today. This film launched 'Ravu Gopalarao' in a negative role who soon became most sought after actor in negative roles for next 20 years. The dialogues by Sri.Ramana for this film were run away hit with all generations alike and popular even now.

Electronic media (Television)

During the years 1985-90, Sri Ramana along with Sri Bapu made videos for school subjects for children thru Television media. At the behest of then the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Dr. N.T RamaRao, Bapu-Ramana made these education videos which were aired by 'Doordarshan' in Telugu were very popular and the same later dubbed and aired by National 'Doordarshan'. An element of surprise to know is that A.R Rehaman, the present day music maestro, then an upcoming drummer, provided background music for few of these videos.

In this millennium, the magic of Bapu - Ramana combination provided their expertise for the mega mythology serial 'Bhagavatham' aired on ETV, was well received by audience and firmly scaled up TRPs for the channel.

Autobiography

Kothi Kommachi, Inkothi Kommachi and Mukkothi Kommachi are Ramana's Autobiography in Books and Audio form. Just like the title, the story keep hopping different timelines and incidents. To put it in Ramana's own words, "it is like a monkey hopping from one branch to another branch" and hence the title.

Awards

Though Sri. Ramanas' career has many facades - Journalist, Story teller, Film critic, Film story writer, Dialogue writer and a popular film personality who represented a genre that produced finest work in Film arts, literature, Journalism, many has dissatisfaction that he hasn't been nominated for Padma awards, instituted by Government of India. His humble background, disinclination to associate with any political party could have been the reason for this.

However he received endless appreciation of the Telugu people for his excellent work, and has made a respectable place in their hearts. He is one of those who kept the flag of Telugu pride flying high.

• He was felicitated with Raghupathi Venkaiah Award for excellence in Films in the year 1986 instituted by the state of A.P
• Received Honorary Doctorate awarded by Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati
• He was awarded the Raja-Lakshmi Literary Award for the year 1995 from Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation, Chennai.

Death

Ramana died of old-age related illness in Chennai on February 23, 2011. At the time of the death, he just completed the work for another mythological film 'Sri RamaRajyam'

Filmography

This is partial list of his films. Kindly help expanding it.

References

External links

• Bapu Ramana
• IMDb entry
• Idlebrain Article
• Kothi Kommachi