1973: When Kannada cinema fired on all cylinders

The year 1972 is arguably the most significant in the history of Kannada cinema. While Rajkumar’s stardom reached new heights through ‘Bangarada Manushya’, the year saw him facing a potential challenger in the form of Vishnuvardhan. The latter debuted with ‘Vamsha Vrisksha’ but became a household name through ‘Naagarahaavu.’ A lot of films were based on novels and the industry was moving from black and white to colour films. 

The following year saw 23 releases — exactly the same as 1972. From the commercial point-of-view, ‘Gandhada Gudi’ was the show-stealer. It was Rajkumar’s 150th film and his first (and unfortunately last) with his new-found rival Vishnuvardhan. 

While Rajkumar is an upright forest officer fighting against sandalwood smugglers, the young Vishnuvardhan, still fresh from his angry-young-man image of ‘Nagarahaavu’, plays his bête noire. It is riveting to watch the clash of Sandalwood’s two biggest stars. However, it is much more than just that.

Produced by M P Shankar, whose love for wildlife was well-known, it is the first Indian film to be built around wildlife conservation. A 2022 documentary of the same name featuring Rajkumar’s son, the late Puneeth Rajkumar, carries forward the film’s environmental message.

With the Mysore state rechristened as Karnataka in 1973, it is only apt that the film contains the evergreen number ‘Naavaduva nudiye Kannada nudi,’ perhaps the most popular film song about Karnataka. It also marks the last joint venture of the legendary Rajkumar-Narasimharaju pair. 

The year also witnessed ace director Puttanna Kanagal’s return to direction with ‘Edakallu Guddada Mele’ after his magnum opus, ‘Naagarahaavu’. The director boldly based his film on an eponymous novel by Bharati Suta, which dealt with the theme of a woman’s ‘chastity’. It had engaging music and deft shot sequences that his films were popular for. However, film analysts have been skeptical of his handling of the theme.

“It was extraordinary in its making but quite conservative in approach. It looks at losing one’s ‘chastity’ as a sin and death as the solution,” says film historian K Puttaswamy. Though Kanagal was known for women-centric films, the film is his only major work in the genre with neither Kalpana nor Aarathi being the protagonists (apart from a few in his later years). “It is also a turning point in Kanagal’s career since from then he was quite conservative in his handling of women’s issues,” Puttaswamy adds.

My personal favourite from 1973 remains Y R Swamy’s ‘Bidugade’. A film well ahead of its time, it questions the need for capital punishment and confronts it from the perspective of the innocent victims trapped by the system’s incompetence. Rajkumar is splendid as a young and idealistic journalist, while Sampath, Rajesh and Bharathi play their roles with intensity. 

“It was the first Kannada film that had its ending changed, as the audiences disliked the tragic climax,” recalls Puttaswamy. Needless to say, the iconic interview scene at the film’s beginning was one of the inspirations for yours truly, who was then a science graduate, to study journalism and pick up the pen for a living.

Coming to off-beat cinema, ‘Sankalpa’ by professor P V Nanjaraj Urs was a landmark, bagging seven state film awards with the cerebral theme of the contradiction between rationality and spirituality. Anant Nag debuted in the film as a lead actor.

Though recent films such as ‘Kirugoorina Gayyaligalu’ and ‘Daredevil Musthafa’, based on writer K P Poornachandra Tejaswi’s works have been critically acclaimed commercial successes, ‘Abachurina Post Office’ from 1973 by N Lakshminarayan was the first film adaptation of Tejaswi’s works. Critics argue that the film’s focus is markedly different from that of the short story and fails to capture the writer’s real intentions. Nonetheless, the film is engaging and well-made.

‘Doorada Betta’ is another film from 1973 and the last venture featuring the celebrated team — Rajkumar, Siddalingaiah and Bharathi. The year is also significant as it saw an exponential rise in the number of colour films. They became the norm instead of being exceptions. Rajkumar never acted in black-and-white films again.