Lava Kusa Telugu film that symbolises Indian Family Ethos
Ramayana is popular epic and well known across the country. People have appreciated Ramayana in all forms be it written word or illustrations or folk tale or dance or films or television series or even animated films on the subject. It continues to draw attention for its sheer magic in the story as well as it being the life of Lord Sri Rama.
NTR as Lord Rama
Though every language in India has seen a Ramayana film of its own, here we look at a classic made in Telugu language that narrates Ramayana from Lord Rama’s twin sons’ point of view, called Lava Kusa.
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Told interestingly and with performance by former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister NT Rama Rao as Lord Rama, Anjali Devi as Sita the film is considered to be a classic in all aspects.
First Telugu Colour Film : Mythological
Made in 1963, the film is one of the few first films made in Telugu language in colour. The mythological film Lava Kusa made cinematic history when it became the first Telugu colour film. The movie boasted of best talents from South India working including director C Pullaiah and CS Rao, NT Rama Rao, Anjali Devi, Nagaiah, Ghantasala, Kanta Rao and many others.
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But the true stars of the movie were the two child actors who played the movie’s title characters Lava and Kusa and captured the audiences’ imagination with their innocent and moving performances 58 years ago.
The Story of Lava Kusha
The crowning ceremony of Lord Rama (played by NTR) is celebrated on a grand scale with Sita (Anjali Devi) by his side and with Lakshmana (Kantharao), Bharatha (Sathyanarayana), Satrughna (Sobhan Babu) and Anjaneya (Arja Janardhana Rao) present, besides sages and citizens. A sarcastic comment by a citizen Veeranna (Relangi) makes Rama banish Sita to the forest. She takes asylum at Valmiki’s (Nagaiah) ashram where she gives birth to twins Kusa (Master Subrahmanyam) and Lava (Master Nagaraju). Years pass by. The twins challenge Rama during the course of his Aswamedha yaga. Sita averts a war between her sons and husband and unites them before ending her avatar.
Important facets
Just two years earlier to Lava Kusa production, NTR had won the audience hearts as Ravana in Sita Rama Kalyanam and with Lava Kusa he was literally worshipped by many as Lord Rama with his picture from the film adorning their puja room. Like Sr. Sriranjani who played Sita in the 1934 film, Anjali Devi too was held in reverence and was offered harati by womenfolk wherever she went.
Master Nagaraju, a popular child actor, was cast as Lava. Master Subrahmanyam from Kakinada was chosen to play Kusa, after watching his performance in the play Lava Kusa. He was nine years old then and by the time the movie was released he was 14. The result, in some scenes the boys looked short and in some scenes tall. However the audience did not mind the jumps as they were immersed in their extraordinary performance.
Five Years of Shooting and Production
The shooting of the film started in 1958 and it went on for five years, before Lavakusa released in 1963. After the film, both Subramanyam and Nagaraju became nothing short of celebrities.
Sankara Reddy also produced Lava Kusa in Tamil retaining NTR, Anjali Devi, Nagaiah, Kannamba, Sandhya and S. Varalakshmi and replacing Tamil actors for the other characters. The roles of Lava and Kusa were played by Baby Uma and Master Murali.
First full length colour film in Telugu
Released on March 29, 1963, Lavakusa, the first full length colour film in Telugu, broke all previous box office records. It won the silver medal as the best Telugu film at the National Film Awards. Its Tamil version, released on April 19, 1963 was also a massive hit. The dubbed Hindi version of Lavakusa too fared well.
An adaptation of the Uttara Kanda from the Mahabharata, Lava Kusa featured Sr NTR in the role of Lord Rama and set the box office on fire. The film, directed by C Pullaiah and CS Rao, played in most theatres for 75 consecutive weeks and redefined the meaning of commercial success. It was later remade in Telugu as Sri Rama Rajyam.
Record of Telugu Film
According to reports from film magazine of those days: The film ran for 75 weeks uninterruptedly. This is an unbroken record. It was released in 26 centres and had a 100-day run in all the centers, which was a record and ran 150 days in all those centers and 175-day run in 18 centres. Due to the huge demand for the film from other centres in Andhra Pradesh, most prints had to be shifted to other centres. It had run for 100 days in 62 centres and 175-day run in 18 centres, grossing more than 1 crore. It ran over 1111 days.
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