Hamsa Geethe (1975)

 ●  Kannada ● 2 hrs 30 mins

Where did you watch this movie?

Veteran director Iyer’s first art-house film is a musical version of the legendary tale of the 19th C. Carnatic singer Bhairavi Venkata Subbaiah (Nag, in his first major screen role), who received the patronage of Chitradurga royalty and at one time defied Tipu Sultan. The singer apparently cut out his tongue to prove that ‘music is nobody’s slave’. The film presents the singer according to the conventional Romantic model of the artist: a musician who rebels against his teacher, wanders aimlessly and asks a beggar to become his new guru, attains glory, falls in love and ‘sells’ two of his compositions to survive. With less than 15’ of dialogue, the film’s sequence shots emphasise the barren, rocky outback of Chitradurga as an analogy for the musician’s quest for aesthetic rigour. One of Iyer’s first attempts to fulfil the old Mysore royalty’s search for a brahminical classicism to legitimate their British-backed rule. In this respect, Iyer’s film is at the opposite pole, in contemporary Karnataka politics, of anti-brahminical films such as Samskara (1970). Iyer’s revivalist project, which led him later to make Saint films, is repeated by K. Vishwanath’s Telugu films after Shankarabharanam (1979).

Cast: Anant Nag

Crew: GV Iyer (Director), Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna (Music Director)

Genres: Drama

Release Dates: 01 Jan 1975 (India)

Kannada Name: ಹಂಸ ಗೀತೆ

Movie Rating
Based on 0 rating
0 user 0 critic
No reviews available. Click here to add a review.
Actor
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actor

Direction

Director
Film Type:
Feature
Language:
Kannada
Colour Info:
Color
Movie Connection(s):
Bilingual of: Aakhri Geet (Hindi)