K. VISHWANATH

K. VISHWANATH – Film Director

Kasinathuni Viswanath was born on 19 Feb 1930 to Sri Kasinadhuni Subrahmanyam and Smt Kasinadhuni Saraswatamma in a Telugu speaking family. His ancestral roots come from Pedapulivarru, a small village on the banks of River Krishna.

Viswanath began his career as a technician in a studio at Chennai and later assisted Adurthi Subba Rao in direction. He also worked as an assistant to director Ramnoth. He wished to work as an assistant to K. Balachander and Bapu. He debuted as a director with Aatma Gowravam, which starred Akkineni Nageswara Rao and won the Nandi Award for Best Feature Film of the year. These were followed by Chelleli Kapuram, Sarada, O Seeta Katha and Jeevana Jyoti which are powerful films centered around women.

It was in Siri Siri Muvva that the famed artistic touch of K. Viswanath first became visible to the people. This was followed by a series of films based on the themes of art, music and dance. Some of his later films discussed issues of social concern while others presented simple morals and facts of life to the common man in a palatable form.

K. Viswanath has made a mark in Telugu filmdom with his directorial style with most of his films rooted in Telugu nativity and tradition. With a judicious combination of artistic and commercial elements, he has created films that have appealed to the common cinema audience and to more discerning and selective ones. The films reflect the native forms of dance and music. With subtle narration added with judicial mix of comedy backed up by excellent music, his films glue audiences to the screen. His lead characters are never the regular stereotype hero roles but varied, very lively, situation-centric and thought-provoking. The fluency and the lyrical nature of his narration and the creativity in his ideas make his films thoroughly enjoyable and memorable.

The scenes and climax in Sagara Sangamam, the incidents leading up to the emotional bonding between Jayaprada and Kamal Haasan (a person born for dance withholding high artistic values) and the lifetime friendship between Sarath babu and kamal in SagaraSangamam, the manner in which Moon Moon Sen shows the beauty of nature to a blind man in Sirivennela stimulating his instincts to produce natural music, the way in which Bhanupriya comes to realize the significance of dance in her life in Swarna Kamalam are but a few examples of his directorial skill. His showcasing of ideal parental care in Swayam krushi is highly commendable. He is synonym for classics in Indian film arena. He brought the best out of the best actor kamal Hassan in 'sagara sangamam', 'swathi muthyam' and 'Subha sankalpam'. Most of the characters in his film are ideal and inspire us to live with values.

One of his career best (hard to pick as he is a perfectionist) 'Sankarabharanam shows the negligence of traditional Indian music with influence of western music, bringing out the best of efficacy in the traditional music towards the end. The film had until then a less-known actor J.V. Somayajulu in the lead, but it broke many commercial records by running for over one year in cinemas.

Chiranjeevi (Subhaleka, Swayamkrushi,Aapadbhandhavudu), Venkatesh (Swarna kamalam), Kamal Haasan (Sagara Sangamam, Swati mutyam,Subha sankalpam), though are all popular heroes of cinema, they further established stardom with their performances in K. Viswanaths' films.

Viswanath has made many films dealing with a wide range of human and social issues: Saptapadi, Sirivennela, Sutradharulu', Subhalekha, Shrutilayalu, Subhasankalpam, Aapadbandhavudu, Swayam krushi, and Swarnakamalam have lead characters representing different strata of society, meticulously etched to suit the larger picture.

In Saptapadi, he decries the evils of untouchability and the caste system. In Subhodayam and Swayam Krushi he emphasizes the dignity and respectability of manual labor. In Subhalekha, he deals, in a humorous way, with the dowry system — one of the major evils in today's society. While Sutradharulu urges present-day society to recognize the need to adopt the ideals of non-violence, Swati Kiranam depicts the harm that can be caused by the baser instincts of envy and anger in a man, however accomplished he may be.

In spite of the nature of these subjects, they are presented in a subtle manner with an imaginative story line, with just the right amount of emphasis on the intended message. Yet Viswanath's films were never offbeat cinema but wholesome entertainers those elevated the lead actors' image. He is a director with social-conscious mind and who believes cinema can bring out desirable changes in society if presented in a format liked by a cross section of audience.

Trivia has it that K. Viswanath's luck is with film titles starting with 'S', as most of the films with the prefix were wholesome entertainers and commercial hits. The exception is his latest venture Subhapradam, which had Allari Naresh in lead rold, was a dampener. K. Viswanath introduced lyricist Sitaramasastri through his film Sirivennela. The classical music composed by K V Mahadevan received tremendous praise, and so did the lyrics. Sitaramasastri became Sirivennela Sitaramasastri since then.

Poornodaya Creations contributed to K. Viswanath's dreams of making meaningful films. Sri. A NageswaraRao firmly stood behind and encouraged K. Viswanath to make films with Telugu nativity that have real characters with whom audiences can associate with.

Poornodaya produced some of not just the commercial hits but milestone films of Viswanath's directional ventures thereby richly contributing to Tollywood like Sankarabharanam, Swatimutyam, Saagarasangamam, Sutradharulu, Aapadbandhavudu. So we fondly remember Telugu films not just for formula ones with typical stereotype song-dance-fight.

Viswanath ventured into mainstream acting. His first movie as an actor was Subha Sankalpam. Later on he did many movies such as Swarabhishekam which he himself directed and acted and other movies like Pandurangadu, Narasimha Naidu, Lakshmi Narasimha, Seemasimham, Santosham,Tagore, Aadavari Matalaku Arthale Verule and Tamil films like Kuruthipunal, Kakkai Chiraginile, Mugavari, Bhagavathy, Pudiya Geethai, Yaradi Nee Mohini, and Rajapattai. He is playing a role in Siva Narayna Teertha in TTD's Sri Venkateswara Bhakthi Channel (SVBC). He also plays in serials like Chellamey which is the owner of an orphanage.

Viswanath is married to Jaya Lakshmi and has three children: Padmavati, Nagendranath and Ravindranath. He speaks fluent Telugu, Tamil, and English. He has four grandchildren. None of his children have ventured into the film industry but have chosen other careers.