Quintessential silver screen Sita Devi

South Indian cinema lost an extraordinary artiste and a humanist with the death of legendary actress Anjali Devi on Monday. She became a household name in South cinema as she donned the roles of Sita, Sakkubai, Rukmini and other popular mythological characters. “She was a great woman who believed in human values and had immense respect for artistes,” said P Susheela, veteran playback singer who had been associated with her for the last four decades in building up Satyasai Baba Bhakthi Movement in Chennai.

Anjali Devi’s original name was Anjani Kumari. She was born on Vijayadasami (on October 23, 1928) at Kakinada. She debuted with the role of Lohitasya at the age of eight in Harichandra play. She always used to consider this opportunity as the wish and command of the Goddess of Learning. It was the heyday of theatre movement when Young Man’s Happy Club at Kakinada flourished to produce great artistes like SV RangaRao, musicians such as Adinarayana Rao (who later married Anjali and groomed her career), TV Raju and Satyam (who composed music for hundreds of Telugu films).

In 1943, at the age of 15 years, she had the opportunity to act in a play ‘Street Singers’ written and directed by her husband. Interestingly, it was presented for the-then Governor of Composite Madras State Sir Arthur Hope. Her performance won her a gold medal and a citation from him. It was just a coincidence that her granddaughter Anuradhasai also had an opportunity to present Bharatanaytam recital in front of the Tamil Nadu Governor P Rama Mohana Rao on July 10, 2003. Adinarayana Rao wrote a book titled ‘Adinarayaneeyam Bharatheeya Sangeeta Sastram’ which also released at the same time.

Her debut into movies was through the character of Mohini, an ethereal spirit, in the film ‘Gollabhama’ produced by Mirjapuram Raja and directed by C Pullaiah. The movie was a phenomenal hit and took her career to great heights. The director’s another film ‘Bhaktha Prahlada’ in 1960s also took her to immense heights. She always attributed her success to him. Perhaps she was the only artiste who acted as a heroine in 300 films right from ‘Balaraju’, ‘Keelugurram’, ‘Charanadasi’, ‘Srilakshmammakatha’, ‘Swapnasundari’, ‘Ilavelpu’, ‘Rechukka’, ‘Bhattivikramarka’, (Telugu) ‘Nagadevatha’, ‘Ladki’, ‘Prahlada’, ‘Satyavan Savitri’ (Hindi), ‘Mahatma’ and others in Tamil.

In 1950, she acted in 13 films as heroine and all of them proved to be blockbusters at the box-office. “I had the privilege to sing for Anjali Devi in all most all her films. She gave me good numbers which brought me fame,” said Susheela. According to her, she was a guide and philosopher to many heroines like Sharda, Kanchana, Vanisree and Lakshmi.

In 1950, she established Anjali pictures on Vijayadasami day. Under the banner, she produced ‘Paradesi’ with ANR in Telugu and Sivaji Ganesan in Tamil in the lead roles. It was ‘Paradesi’ which made Sivaji Ganesan a big hero in Tamil films. The film was directed by LV Prasad and Aadinarayana Rao was the music composer for the film with Kamal Ghosh as the cameraman. “It was Anjali Pictures which introduced slow motion picture techniques in Telugu film industry”, said Bhuvana Chandra, lyric writer and very close associate of Anjali Devi.

Anjali acted in many memorable characters and is always remembered for her roles in ‘Anarkali’ and ‘Suvarnasundari’. Suvarnasundari was remade into Hindi at the suggestion of singer Lata Mangeshkar. Lata was impressed by Ghantasala’s rendition of the song ‘Haai haaiga amani’. The movie was a musical hit in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi.

Anjali used to love making films with human values. Her films like ‘Bhakthatukaram’, ‘Mahakavi Kshetrayya’ also established her respect and passion of devotional and value-based themes. But she lost everything she earned as heroine in the production of ‘Phoolon Ke Sez’. “It turned out to be a kaaton ke sez,” said Bhuvana Chandra.

Not many know that she used to regard Chittoor Nagayya as her father took the responsibility of keeping his memory and conducted his anniversary celebrations. Anjali Devi is also the only heroine who acted with three chief Ministers - NTR, MGR and Jayalalitha. Her teleserial on Shirdi Sai proved to be a big hit and created a sensation in the history of television industry.

She was a roaring success both as a human being, an actress, a producer and every other reel and real life roles. Not many are as fortunate as her!