A thread for memories and his movies…
Farewell, K Viswanath
Posted on February 3, 2023
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Sri Prabhuram
February 3, 2023
I used to hear this song quite a bit. One of the best Ilaiyaraaja songs in a K. Vishwanath film.
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lakshmi
February 3, 2023
All his films had very good songs.
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Jayram
February 3, 2023
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hari prasad
February 3, 2023
One of my favorite scenes from a Kamal Haasan movie…
I’m damn sure no one can emulate the amazing performance that Kamal did in this scene….
Farewell , K Vishwanath..
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Naveen
February 3, 2023
Sagara Sangamam is the highest form of love and frndship. KV brought in some of the best characters on screen. be it for Kamal or Jayaprada or Sarathbabu or SP Shylaja this move is probably their best so far. defly one of the top for Ilayarja, woth 100 Oscars
RIP, Vishwanathgaru
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Satya
February 3, 2023
This is my favorite song from a K Viswanath film, following the way others here have chosen to give their respects here:
K Viswanath was a great writer and filmmaker, but was also an underrated actor. Within the limited roles he played, Viswanath brought a great deal of dignity to those characters. And his work in Rajapattai was a surprise for me.
Thanks for all the memories, sir. May God bless your soul on its journey onward and above to the next phase of life.
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Anu Warrier
February 3, 2023
Oh, no! 😦
My respects to the legend!
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Anand Raghavan
February 3, 2023
A legendary director, none had infused classical music and dance in movies like him
#sirisirimuvva #sankarabharanam #sagarasangamam #swathimuthyam are top gems in the crown
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priyazzillionthoughts
February 3, 2023
An ear for music, an eye for art was what he is known for but what I loved most was his characters that came with those small nuances–an endearing adamancy, a laughable pessimism, an unspoken supportiveness. That is what made them more real, no matter how talented the characters were as singers or dancers. Nobody can make films about music and dance the way he did, weaving them with life-like characters.
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kaizokukeshav
February 3, 2023
There’s no one like him..and no one that can match him.
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Aman Basha
February 3, 2023
The greatest Telugu director of his time, K Viswanath was also my first introduction to serious cinema through watching Sagara Sangamam on TV. To someone who loved (and still loves) Chiranjeevi’s dancing, Kamal’s dancing came as a pleasant surprise and it was only later that I understood the greatness of this film, or more importantly why Balu lost the passion for his art that he was so clearly gifted at.
Swayam Krushi was a movie that made me look at my favorite Megastar in a new light just as he entered politics. One of my favorite scenes in this film is the one where Chiranjeevi remembers his own humble origins as a cobbler while making slippers out of rage.
And Swati Muthyam. What can I say about this except call it the greatest Telugu love story on celluloid. The concept of a mentally challenged man marrying was in Ardhangi all the way back in 1955 but here Sivayya never gets cured, and the woman he marries is herself a widow with a child. The fascinating relationship between two social outcasts and how they build a life together, with even the physical act of love, is very unique and as Kamal himself said, ahead of even Hollywood releasing before Rain Man and Forrest Gump.
Viswanath gets a lot of acclaim for his depiction of artists in films, but he also explored a lot of unusual relationships: the love story of a blind man and a mute girl in Sirivennela and going all the way back to Sudigundalu in 1966 (a great, highly underrated film), the sexual tension between a stepmother and stepson.
He was not a technical director, but he was an actor’s director who brought career best performances out of actors like Kamal Haasan, Chiranjeevi, Raadhika, Jayaprada , not to mention being a damn good actor himself.
As for a favorite song, it’s impossible to choose but I binge listened Rama Kanavemiraa for a while mostly because of the way it works in the narrative but Suvvi Suvvi is a justly iconic song, which also continues the Rama song’s theme of comparing the heroine as Seetha abandoned first and then married in a subversion of the epic. Maybe it’s Mounamelanoyi that sounds like the flower of love blossoming:
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Rocky
February 3, 2023
Om Shanti Shanti , loved his Kamchor.
Just yesterday was listening to Smitha Prakash Podcast with Aruna Irani and she was praising K. Viswanath a lot.
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Rocky
February 3, 2023
What a song
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K
February 3, 2023
@BR,
I had a wish that you would do an interview with him, but unfortunately that’s not going to happen.
Wish you could make a video essay on him and his movies someday. Thanks
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Jayram
February 3, 2023
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Ravi K
February 4, 2023
I watched Sankarabharanam many times on VHS growing up. Somehow this unconventional, uncommercial film, in an unfamiliar language without subtitles, had a hold on me. I watched it with subtitles for the first time about two years ago and found that with the exception a few nuances, I understood most of the film as a kid, even though I didn’t know a word of Telugu back then. And I found it to be just as moving.
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Anand Raghavan
February 6, 2023
A good insight on K Viswanath’s movies and how myriad of relationships and social issues are seen through prism of classical music and dance.
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Anand Raghavan
February 6, 2023
https://swarajyamag.com/culture/no-end-for-k-viswanaths-art
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