Peppy Songs of P.Susheela

Write-up Courtesy: Srividya Sanjay, United States 

  

                                               

                  Whenever one hears the name “ P.Susheela”, the immediate thoughts  that crop up in our mind  are  “What a great singer, what wonderful classics, devotionals and melodies she has rendered, what clear and sweet voice”. One goes way into that classic mode of thinking and hailing her as “Gana Saraswathi” (she has been awarded this title) etc. Also, our memories would go back to faces of heroines like savithri, jamuna, K.R.Vijaya, Padmini,kanchana, vanisri, chandrakala,Anjali, jayapradha, jayasudha ,sridevi etc until the heroies of early 90’s.

                     But can one imagine PS  with Silk smitha, Jayamalini, Jyothi Lakshmi, Disco shanthi? The immediate names that pop out are L.R.Eswari or S.Janaki isn’t it?  It is very hard to associate her with these dancers because a listener always has a conservative approach when it comes to P.Susheela. One would perhaps find it hard to digest that a singer of calibre like PS could render songs in that type!!!!!!!!

                        A genuine and successful singer is one who can handle any type of song and not be constrained or restricted to only certain genres. Otherwise he or she might be labelled or confined only to a particular type of songs and to break from that jinx is not easy. P.Susheela handled every song be it any genre, with dedication and presented it perfectly ,immaterial for who/what character it was rendered! It is of course very challenging for a singer who renders classics and melodies to jump into such seductive and sometimes erotic numbers with profane language and expressions. When one has to render such item numbers, we know of singers who just make use of horrible expressions and make it seem even more vulgar and indecent.

                           But if we look at PS way of rendition, she never oversteps , keeps her calm , expressions remain controlled,  in even saucy numbers. The rest is done by the dance artiste. By her execution, she does try to keep the number at hearing range for family oriented audience (not talking of the masses).

                        In this article we will be looking at songs which PS has rendered for the item numbers/ dancers of the 50’s to 90’s. We will be astonished to see that she has rendered 125 + songs for Jayamalini and 30+ for SilkSmitha, Most of the songs are hits! She has rendered not only for south Indian dancers, but also for actresses like Helen, Jayasri and Aruna Irani from Bollywood.

  

Helan :
             Let’s start with the beautiful Bollywood dancer of yesteryears Helen. PS rendered “Sundaranga andukora” from bookailas!  Helen plays the role of Rambha trying to disrupt Ravana’s penance.

A very very beautiful number both in terms of music as well as choreography. 

1956

Telugu

bhookalias

sundaranga andukora

Aruna Irani

        Aruna Irani who started her career as a dancer and then ventured into comedy roles with Asrani. PS rendered 2 numbers for her.

1)   A qawwali number “Bangaru guvvanu nenu” (she has expressions in hindi which are so cute) with Md.Rafi from “Bhale thammudu”.

Interestingly in the same movie she has rendered another vamp number for dancer Vijayagirija “Yeh maja”. It is beautiful when she says the words”That’s life”.

2)     “Ayyababoi” , a duet with SPB from the movie Babu.

. Even though Jayamalini was mostly a dancer, she has acted as second heroine or important roles in many movies.

1969

Telugu

Bhale Tammudu

Yeh Maja

Halam :

1978	Malayalam	kadathanattu Makkam	aanandha natanam apsara
1978	Telugu	manchivaadu	maapatikosthaavaa
1977	Telugu	ramba oorvasi menaka	nee pilupu vinalenu
1974	Telugu	manmadha leela	kushalamena kurradana
1974	Telugu	andaru dongale	gudu dudu gunjam
1975	Telugu	mutyala muggu	enthati rasikudavo
1978	Tamil	alavudenum arputha vilakkum(new)	kalaivanigale kiligale
1978	Malayalam	ThachOLi ambu	naanam kunungikale
1972	Tamil	kaase than kadavulada	intru vandha(movie_ver)
1973	Malayalam	football champion	mathyana venalil mayangum
1977	Telugu	seetha rama vanavasam	raavo raavana raviteja
1980	Malayalam	Bhaktha hanuman	ananda nadanam
1984	Tamil	anthappura marmam	aadum kalai raniyodu
1979	Tamil	Ennaippol oruvan	velale vizhigal

Vijaya Lalitha
      Vijayalalitha is one of the dancers of seventees. She was a heroine in many movies.

1968	Malayalam	viplavakaarikal	thampurattikkoru
1978	Malayalam	ThachOLi ambu	makara maasa pournamiyil
1974	Malayalam	ara kallan mukka kallan	panchabanan en cheviyil

CID Sakhunthala :

1976	Tamil	kadamai nenjam	night queen
1972	Tamil	karunthel kannayiram	panam venum panam venum
1972	Tamil	karunthel kannayiram	paRakkum vaNdaattam nadathu
1978	Tamil	mangudi minor	En kaiyil oruppathu kathi

Jyothi Lakshmi

Let’s now move onto Jyothi Lakshmi who was a sibling of Jayamalini. Both have danced together in many numbers. Actually it was jyothi Lakshmi who entered the films as a dancer and later  Jayamalini followed.

PS sang many numbers for jyothilakshmi too.

A few include

1)   “Chana channa mane” a very beautiful competition based dance duet with Jayamalini. PS rendered for jyothilakshmi while SJ for jayamalini. It is a song with semi classical background composed by satyam.

2)   Yentha sogasuga  is a beautiful melody by PS,Ghantasala (MD: Ghantasala) picturized on Harnath, jyothilakshmi ),

3)   Konte choopulu from Srimanthudu by PS,Ghantasala is a  mujra style dance on jyothilakshmi and ANR.

4)   A Very funny anthakshari type song “Sannayi vayinchu” picturized on both jyothilakshmi and jaymalini from the movie “Collector gari abbayi”.

Videos :

List of Songs :

1968	Tamil	poovum pottum	ennam pol kannan vanthan
1972	Tamil	yaar jambulingam	kani mutham pathinthadhu
1969	Telugu	vichitra kutumbam	naluguru navvara
1968	Telugu	ranabheri	vayasulona unnappude
1976	Telugu	amma naanna	noonoorgu meesalodu
1984	Telugu	babulugadi debba	cheppakaadu rammanu
1980	Telugu	bandodu gundamma	dikkula kavatala
1973	Telugu	jyothi lakshmi	kavvinchake nee kallatho
1980	Telugu	kothapeta rowdy	lotti bitta lotti bitta
1980	Telugu	kothapeta rowdy	paruvaalo lokam paduthola
1973	Telugu	panjaramlo pasipapa	naachanda neevunde
1973	Telugu	panjaramlo pasipapa	thottaloki raakura
1967	Telugu	peddakkayya	cheliya Kuruva madhuvu
1967	Malayalam	Nagarame nanni	kanni raavil kalaba kinnam
1968	Malayalam	kodunalloor amma	kaaveri poompattinathil
1971	Telugu	sreemanthudu	Konte choopulu
1984	Telugu	justice chakravarthi	seethammaku cheyisthi
1962	Telugu	punyavathi	Yentha sogasuga vunnavu
1967	Telugu	punyavathi	bale bagundhi

Jai Kumari
    Let’s now move onto Jayakumari who was also a dancer in the 70’s and early eighties.

One Video

1972

Tamil

kaase than kadavulada

intru vandha intha

Jayamalini
Even though Jayamalini was mostly a dancer, she has acted as second heroine or important roles in many movies.

Let’s have a look at a few numbers for Jayamalini:

1)“Oh cheli “is a wonderful melodious duet of PS with S.P.B for the movie “Devathalara devinchandi”. Jayamalini plays the role of kshudra naga devata who takes revenge.

2) “Pora Pokiri” is again a good number from the movie “Chakradhari”. Jayamalini dances to this song with folkish attire.

3) One of the wonderful Qawwali numbers and also a super hit one is “Medalo cherina chilakkamma” from the movie “Naa pere bhagawan”. PS shares this song with SPB and it is

Picturize don jayamalini and Ramakrishna.

     4) Some  raunchy number’s for jayamalini  include “Gudivada vellanu”(PS from Yamagola0, Puttintolu tharimesaru from vetagadu(PS,SPB), seemanunchi vachava(athmeeyudu(new)),

Ringu ringu(seetramulu).There are many more…………..

5)Some  semi classical dance numbers include “Charitra nayaka” from Sri anjaneya charitra, Natyamu navamohanam from Sri venkateswara vratha mahatyam,jayasiddhi vinayakam from Madana manjari, chai chali reyi from thandrapaparayudu.

6) Some melodies include Ramyam roopam from Gandharva kanya (PS,SPB),pranaya kavyamuna(with SPB ) in “Jayasudha”.

7) Some cabaret numbers include ”Oh subbarao Oh apparao” (with VJ) in Bobbili Puli, Kai raja Kai from “Rangoon rowdy”.

All these numbers are different in styles and shows PS adeptness in rendering them

Videos :
 See this  Link for her songs

Silk Smitha

While Jayamalini was ruling the roost in late 70’s, silk smitha gave her tough competition and dethroned he rto become the “Queen”.

Let’s have a look at some numbers for her.

1)   "Pesa koodathu" (PS,SPB), "Mella mella ennai thottu", "kalidasan kannadasan", azhagana pattampoochi" are evergreen hits in tamil.

2)   Sringara seemanthini, is a beautiful melody by PS,SPB and thadisinakoka(PS,SPB)   is a sizzling number and akesi  pappesi (PS)is a lullaby number from the movie “Abhimanyudu”. MD:KVM

     3)Some mischevious numbers include “SAcchi naa kadupuna” from Goodachari no 1 with chiranjeevi,naruda naruda from chattamtho poratam

Videos :

Here is the Link for her songs.

Anuradha

Anuradha tried to compete with Silk smitha during the eighties and let’s see a few  PS numbers for her

1)   Cheema anta from aakrandana

2)    maa amma kotimiraku from nippulanti manishi

3)   Hayi hayi form PAndenti kapuraniki panendu sutralu.

One Video 

Year		Language	Movie	Songs
1980		Telugu	pandanti kapuraniki panendu sutralu	intha hayiga intha
1982		Malayalam	kaaliyamardhanam	pushyaraaga theril
1983		Tamil	seerum singangal	pallakkai thookki paarkkka
1984		Telugu	bhola sankarudu	choostha choostha
1985		Tamil	mayavi	vitha vithamana nyabagamo
1985		Telugu	aakrandana	cheema anta
1986		Telugu	nippulanti manishi	maa amma kotimiraku
1986		Telugu	vikram	salamidigo savalidigo
1988		Tamil	simma soppanam	raava pagala

Disco Shanthi

Another dancer who made her way through the mid eighties and early nineties is Disco shanti. She is a daughter of Anandan, who acted in "Roja malare Rajakumari" song.  PS rendered a few songs for Disco Sahnthi also.

1)Love lo missu from Donga kollu

2)O guma gumamdi puvvu (a nice melody) by PS,SPB from kalyana thamboolam

3) sivarathri  from marana sasanam.

One video song..

1987	Telugu	marana sasanam	sivarathiri
1988	Telugu	donga kollu	lovullo missu
1986	Telugu	kalyana thamboolam	O gumma gummadi puvvu

Kuyili
  Kuyili was a Group Dancer and got intorduced as heroine through "Poo Vilangu" movie by K.Balachandar. Later she turned as a dancer.
  

One Video Song :

1989

Tamil

valadhu kalai vaithu va

sangeethak kuyile en

Bapitha
       Bapitha is a daughter of old Stunt actor Justin and She also did some glamourous roles in Eightees.  "Naan sirithal deepavali" is one of the famous songs for her.  The telugu version of that song is sung by P.Susheela and Jamuna Rani.

One Video :

1978	Tamil	achani	naan azhaikkiren then
1987	Telugu	naayakudu	Naa navve deepavali

Abhilasha

1992	Telugu	raakasi kona	oore ore
1992	Telugu	raakasi kona	aha adavi

To conclude , PS exhibited her versatility in enthralling the masses with  these colorful numbers and emerged victorious in this category too!