Laugh and let Laugh

November 1, 1956. A man sacrificed himself for the formation of a state-Andhra Pradesh. He is Sri Potti Sreeramulu.This article is dedicated to him.

This article is about a person who succeeded in entertaining people with his awesome works in a period which can be termed as golden era for comedy movies in Telugu. His famous words “Navvadam oka bhogam, Navvinchadam oka yogam, Navvalekapovadam oka rogam” (To laugh is a pleasure, You are lucky if you can evoke laughter, You are a patient if you can’t laugh). Most of you might have guessed already. Hes the legend Jandhyala or Jandhyala Veera Venkata Durga Siva Subramanya Sastry (January 14, 1951 - June 19, 2001). Died at the age of 50. But his 2-decade outstanding work keeps him with us forever .

You may like romance/action/suspense but the ultimate purpose of spending your time with moving frames is entertainment and arguably comedy claims the throne in this kingdom of entertainment. Jandhyala introduced many comedians like Naresh, Brahmanandam, Suthivelu and Suthi Veerabhadra Rao. How can anyone forget his famous works “Aha naa Pellanta”, “Jayammu Nischayammura”, “Padamati Sandhyaragam” and many more. Present day film makers find it easy to use dual-meaning phrases to virtually create comedy and the purity and serenity of Jandhyala time is clearly missing.

His creativity is unmatched. Some hilarious characters and their mannerisms: A character takes anyone who comes to him for a walk and a 30 km. milestone is shown in the next frame. He then takes a car back home and asks this person to meet him later. Another speaks every word in pure telugu and guess what he calls a bus stand! No, you cannot, coz its Chaturchakrashakatanivasasthanamu. :)… Another character, a miser , eats plain rice seeing a hanging hen. A woman catches every other word you speak and cries saying “babu chitti” and hugs you. One more character has this eating weakness and during his marriage talks he grabs a plate before its given to him and keeps eating. When asked to see the bride he simply says, “ Who cares about the bride!” and keeps doing what he does best. The hero in a movie calls himself Pand James Pand. His actual name being Panduranga Rao. :)

I can remember hell lot of other characters. Such is this man’s greatness that when directors are finding it difficult to induce healthy comedy in a movie he directed full length comedy ones for 20 years!

Took the help of Wikipedia for his actual name and dates. Anyone who is curious about knowing his movies, let me know. Just post your queries in comments and I can send collection of his movies too. Just drop your address in comments. Keep Laughing.Adieu.

- - An all time Jandhyala fan