Brahmanandam- The one and only

If you had watched Brahmanandam’s first TV (Doordarshan) appearance in ‘Pakapakalu’ more than two decades ago, you will appreciate the fact most of the roles he had enacted on the big screen later, drew some inspiration from those skits. A keen observer of the people and situations around him, he created enough material for himself to launch himself as a comedian and he was raring to go. As usual, he got his timing right when he met with Jandhyala which led to his participation in a string of comedy films and most notably the character of ‘Ara gundu vedhava’ in the movie of ‘Aha Na Pellanta’. (Interestingly, industry rumour has it that Sutti Velu was to play this role!)

While the contribution of Jandhyala to his career needs no mention, Brahmanandam owes his success to a lot of other producers and directors, who helped him to re-invent his image and persona. Speaking of directors, the pack of Jandhyala, Relangi Narasimha Rao, E.V.V.Satyanaarayana, SV Krishna Reddy, Ramgopal Verma and Trivikram Srinivas always tried to work a different angle. Beyond this pack, the rest of the popular directors like K.Raghavendra Rao, A.Kodandarami reddy, B.Gopal , Puri Jagannath, V.V.Vinayak, Surendra Reddy etc have merely used his abundant talent or his roles from other movies(sometimes their own), without making any extra effort to create something new. But it has to be said that these directors have played an important role in keeping the commercial value of Brahmanandam on the ascent and also keep the industry sentiment of “being a part of successful films” alive. Incidentally he also was a part of ‘Pokiri’ the biggest Telugu blockbuster ever J

Let’s congratulate Brahmanandam on his Guinness feat, and spring a celebration. What better way to do it then to feast on a variety of his performances?

Here are some clips from YouTube that captures some of his best moments and how he created laughs either all by himself or with the help of able directors.

Enjoy them while they last.

‘Ekkada ekkutarayyya…’ from Pellaniki Premalekha Priyuraliki Subhalekha