Sirimuvvala Simhanaadam a classic that we missed

Much celebrated film director and writer K Viswanath is known for his great films like ‘Shankarabharanam’, ‘Swathi Mutyam’ etc. In 1991, post ‘Sagara Sangaman’ he made a movie ‘Sirimuvvala Simhanaadam’, a gripping tale that has as the central character, a male classical dancer famous for his feminine roles on stage.

The bold movie that deals with not just the issue of male dancers, but feminism and women power – unfortunately, did not get out of the cans for some reason. Over the weekend, the movie ‘Sirimuvvala Simhanaadam’ was screened for select guests and friends at Film Chamber. Kalakrishna, exponent of Andhra Natyam and disciple of Nataraja Ramakrishna, plays the lead role in the film.

The film revolves around the Indian classical male dancer Sai Krishna (Kala Krishna). Sai Krishna’s cousin (Vaidehi) refuses to marry him due to his dance appearances as a woman all the time. She says she finds some female qualities in him. Vaidehi, as the bold woman who always speaks her mind is played by the later year television actor, anchor Madhavi Mala.

The movie is a great example of why the male dancers are not getting married and are discriminated for performing the dance form using feminine gestures – a real problem that continues to plague classical dancers even today – yet has all the cinematic qualities to make it a racy watch, intact.

As of now, we do not know the exact reason why the movie was stopped from screening on the release day. But we surely missed another classic from legendary director K Viswanath. Celebrities like director YVS Choudhary, actor and director Avasarala Srinivas, producer Raj Kandukuri and actress Madhu Shalini watched the movie and shared their experiences.

“Mostly, I watch movies to see how the characters in the movie are described. When I watched the interval scene I was shocked with how the girl behaved with the hero. I was nervous about how the movie would end. It was a heart touching climax. I also watched many male dancers who dance like females. Due to this they face problems in real life,” said Avasarala Srinivas, actor and director.

“He (K Viswanath) always depicts the life of a common man. He did many films based on his own experiences, from books. This film stands as an inspiration for many people. He greatly depicts the characters in his films. It’s unfortunate that the film has not been released,” said YVS Chowdary, producer and director.

“Viswanath sir approached me for this movie and said this movie is about a male dancer. He saw a couple of others too, but for some reason chose me for the role. I was going to travel to the US. And so he completed the shooting in 2 months. I too went to watch the movie on the release day in a theatre, but suddenly another movie started screening.

I realised that for some reason the movie was not released. However it was a great experience to have worked with such a director. We were shooting at his place and were staying with him. It did not feel like a film shoot at all, and so I had no problem,” Kala Krishna, shared his experiences.

By V Sateesh Reddy