Daana Veera Soora Karna

Daana Veera Soora Karna
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	N. T. Rama Rao
Produced by	N. T. Rama Rao
Written by	Kondaveeti Venkatakavi (dialogues)
Screenplay by	N. T. Rama Rao
Story by	N. T. Rama Rao
Starring	N. T. Rama Rao Nandamuri Balakrishna Nandamuri Harikrishna Sharada B. Saroja Devi Prabha
Music by	Pendyala Nageswara Rao
Cinematography	Kannappa
Edited by	G. D. Joshi
Production company	Ramakrishna Cine Studios
Distributed by	Mayuri
Release date	14 January 1977 (1977-01-14)
Running time	236 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Budget	₹10 lakhs
Box office	₹ 2 Crore

Daana Veera Soora Karna is a 1977 Telugu Hindu mythological film produced and directed by N. T. Rama Rao under his Ramakrishna Cine Studios banner. It is regarded as one of the greatest films of Telugu Film Indusrty. It stars N. T. Rama Rao playing three roles: Karna, Duryodhana and Krishna and also starred his sons Nandamuri Harikrishna and Nandamuri Balakrishna, who played the roles of Arjuna and Abhimanyu respectively. Music was composed by Pendyala Nageswara Rao. The film was recorded as a Blockbuster at the box office.

Plot

The story is based on the life of Karna from the Mahabharata. The film begins with a box containing a baby boy floating in river Ganga, rescued by charioteer Adhiratha (Chalapathi Rao), he adopts him and names him as Karna. Years roll by, Karna (N. T. Rama Rao) becomes a youth. Once he sees Dronacharya (Rajanala) taking off Ekalavya’s (Jaya Bhaskar) thumb so that no one else will be superior to Arjuna (Nandamuri Harikrishna). Karna accuses Dronacharya of this act and challenges that he will be the competitor for Arjuna forever. Seeing this Ekalavya’s sister Vrishali (B. Saroja Devi) loves Karna. After that, Karna reaches Parasurama (Gummadi), and asks him to be his mentor. Parasurama accepts his request and Karna becomes expert in all fields of archery. One day when Parasurama sleeps on the lap of Karna, Indra (again Chalapathi Rao) takes the form of bug and bites Karna, but Karna didn't disturb the sleep of Parasurama and bears the pain. Due to this blood of Karna flowing, it reaches Parasurama and he wakes up. Parasurama recognizes him as a Kshatriya and curses him that he will be incapable of using his arms and weapons in need. But afterwards he comes to know that he is Sutaputra, but unable to remove his curse and to compensate he gives his bow, couch and chariot. While Karna is returning to the capital city, Indra again takes the form lion killing a cow of a Brahmin, to protect it Karna throws an arrow but unfortunately, the cow dies and the Brahmin curses him that he will die helplessly in the same way that his innocent cow had died. After reaching the capital, a baby girl taking ghee accidentally slips in front of his chariot and the baby drops her ghee. Karna could not see the cry of baby tries to squeeze out ghee from the soil, where Bhudevi curses him that in his last stage he will be insulted by crushing his chariot wheel into her.

In the fort of Hastinapura, tournaments have been arranged to display the skills of the Kuru princes. Here, Dronacharya praises his student Arjuna as a master of archery. Karna arrives and challenges him in the contest. But Karna is insulted on account of his low birth when Duryodhana (again N. T. Rama Rao) saves his pride, by making him king of Anga. Karna dedicates his life to Duryodhana. Both of them become soulmates and they marry on the same day. Time passes, Duryodhana gets an invitation from Dharmaraja (Prabhakar Reddy) for Rajasuyayaga. The Kauravas, arrive at Indraprastha, Duryodhana visits the Mayasabha, where he is overawed with the beauty of the sculpture and architecture. However, when he is returning, he trips and falls into a pool. He hears some people laughing and sees Draupadi is among the crowd. He then concludes that she is behind all this and vows to avenge the insult in the presence of his brothers, Karna and Shakuni (Dhulipala). When they decide to announce the war, Shakuni calms him down and tells him that they can take revenge by inviting Dharmaraja to a dice game. Dharamaraja loses everything in that dice game including himself, his brothers and also Draupadi (Sarada). Draupadi is humiliated by Dushyashana where Lord Krishna (once again N. T. Rama Rao) protects her chastity. The Pandavas are forced into exile for 13 years after Dharmaraju loses again in the dice game. The Pandavas successfully complete Aranya & Agnathavasam, Lord Krishna moves as a mediator for negotiations before the battle, but it fails. After that, Krishna meets Karna and reveals his birth secret that he is the blessing of the Sun God (again Jayabhaskar) to his aunt Kunti (S. Varalakshmi) who has abandoned due to embarrassment. Krishna asks Karna to come and join with the Pandavas and he will make him as emperor to the world. Karna denies it because he is loyal and indebted to Duryodhana, neither he is ready to yield for power or lust. Krishna appreciates Karna’s loyalty and moves. Meanwhile Duryodhana and Arjuna move to Krishna for seeking support in the war. Krishna divides his entire force into two, he being on one side and his entire Yadavas army on other side and asked Arjuna to choose between. Arjuna chooses Krishna where Duryodhana feels happy that he got Yadava army for his support, but he did not understand the real significance of Krishna.

During the war, Bhishma (Mikkilineni) is appointed as a chief commander to Kaurava’s army where he insults Karna by declaring him Ardharatha. Furious, Karna takes an oath that he will not enter into the war until Bhishma is there on the battlefield. The war begins after the collapse of Bhishma when he is on his Alpaseyam arrow bed, he calls Karna, says sorry for his action and explains the reason that he has done such thing to protect the piety. Karna takes his blessing and enters the war field. Now Dronacharya becomes the chief commander and gives a boon to Duryodhana that he will capture Dharmaraja. Dronacharya plans for Padmavyuha when Arjuna is away from the war field because except him, no one can destroy it. At that stage, to save the honor of the Pandavas, Abhimanyu (Nandamuri Balakrishna) enters the war field. Abhimanyu defeats whoever came his way and vanquished many. Because it is difficult to defeat him, Duryodhana asks Karna to destroy his bow which is against the war principle. Due to loyalty, Karna has to do so. Finally, Abhimanyu was killed brutally by the Kauravas. That night, Karna visits the war field and near Abhimanyu's dead body he feels very low and says that in reality Karna is dead and Abhimanyu is immortal.

Next morning when Karna is returning after offering prayers to the Sun God, Krishna sends Kunti to request Karna to come and join the Pandavas or else take an oath that he should not kill any of them. Karna blames Kunti for her deeds as a result of which heavy destruction is taking place. Even then he gives her the boon that except Arjuna he will not kill anyone and tells her that if he dies, she will have five sons if Arjuna dies then also she will have five sons. Next day Karna enters into the war field even though he gets an opportunity to kill the remaining Pandavas. He uses Nagastram on Arjuna, but Lord Krishna protects him. It is difficult to defeat Karna, who has armor body protection Kavachakundalalu around his chest. Indra disguised as a Brahmin, approaches Karna and begs for his armor and earrings. Even aware of Indra's intention, Karna donates it without any hesitation. Pleased with Karna's generosity, Indra gives him a powerful weapon Vimalam, but states that he can use it only once. Karna plans it to use on Arjuna, but unfortunately, that night Ghatokacha attacks Kauravas camps and start destroying it, so, in that critical situation Karna has to use it on Ghatokacha. Next day Selya (Mukkamala), the maternal uncle of the Pandavas is appointed as the charioteer of Karna who demoralizes him during the war as per the instructions of Krishna. Finally, at the last stage of Karna’s fight, all curses work together and he collapses. When Arjuna feels as a great warrior, Krishna explains the glory of Karna. Krishna reaches Karna in the form of Bramhin and begs arms, Karna even at this situation, breaks his golden tooth and donates to Krishna with his blood. Kunti also arrives on the battlefield and reveals the birth secret of Karna to the whole world. Listening to this, angered Dharmaraja gives a curse to all women that they cannot hold any secret. Karna dies in Kunti's lap and his soul enters into the Sun god. Seeing the death of Karna, disheartened, Duryodhana leaves the battlefield and hides in a lake. Due to the provocations of the Pandavas, he comes out of the lake. Dharmaraja asks him to select any one of them as his equivalent to complete the war. Duryodhana selects Bheema (Satyanarayana). During the time of battle, Krishna secretly signs the life secret of Duryodhana is in his thighs. Bheema attacks it which is against the war principle. Before dying, he accuses Krishna that Is this a piety of a God?. Finally, the movie ends with Duryodhana and Karna meeting in heaven and showing the world that their friendship is immortal.

Cast

Crew

• Art: K. S. N. Murthy, Somanath
• Choreography: Vempati
• Fights: Sambasiva Rao, Swaminaathan
• Dialogues: Kondaveeti Venkata Kavi
• Lyrics: C. Narayana Reddy, Dasaradhi
• Playback: SP Balu, V. Ramakrishna, S. Janaki P. Susheela, Madhavapeddi Ramesh, Anand, M. Venkatrao
• Music: Pendyala Nageswara Rao
• Editing: G. D. Joshi
• Cinematography: Kannappa
• Executive Producer: Nandamuri Harikrishna
• Story - Screenplay - Producer - Director: N. T. Rama Rao
• Banner: Ramakrishna Cine Studios
• Release Date: 14 January 1977

Soundtrack

Daana Veera Soora Karna
Film score by Pendyala Nageswara Rao
Released	1977
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	32:55
Label	EMI Columbia Audio
Producer	Pendyala Nageswara Rao

Music composed by Pendyala Nageswara Rao. Music released on EMI Columbia Audio Company.

Production

The film was completed in 43 working days, which was a record, given that each of the three characters played by N. T. Rama Rao took at least three hours to put on the makeup and two hours to remove it. NTR never used to see the rushes before the release; thus they edited the film within days, without seeing the rushes. Kannappa, who earlier worked for NTR's Manushulanta Okkate worked for this film, too. As there was no time for the work to be checked, one can notice the wire work in a couple of scenes, but the audience never bothered about that. Mayasabha work was not completed by the time of the shooting. So, NTR took close-ups while the paintings were done and long shots once it was completed, in order to save time. However, this detail did not reflect on the screen. Harikrishna and Balakrishna also painted the sets along with the art department personnel.

Characterisation

Many films were based on the Mahabharata in Telugu; the difference between those films and this one is the characterization of Duryodhana. While making the Sree Krishna Pandaveeyam itself, NTR projected Duryodhana as "Suyodhana" with a positive touch to the role. In this film, he projected Duryodhana as a well-educated person who knew dharma and other things much better than anyone. Some people even say that the title of the movie could actually have been Maanadhana Veera Suyodhana — such is the importance and characterization of Suyodhana.

Location

This is the first film shot in Ramakrishna Cine Studios in Hyderabad that was started on 7 June 1976 by Tamil superstar M. G. Ramachandran. On the same day, he clapped the muhurta shot for this film. This is the 248th film for N. T. Rama Rao, the fifth film for both Balakrishna and Harikrishna, and the third film under the Ramakrishna Cine Studios banner.

Roles

Initially, N. T. Rama Rao wanted Akkineni Nageswara Rao to play the role of Lord Krishna as helm Chanakya Chandragupta if he was given a choice. NTR's original plan at that time was to make Chanakya Chandragupta with him in the role of Chanakya and Nandamuri Balakrishna in the role of Chandragupta Maurya. When ANR was offered to do the role of Chanakya, NTR made changes accordingly and did the role of Chandragupta. However, the script was not ready yet, and there was news that Kamalakara Kameswara Rao was planning the film Kurukshetram with a story line similar to Daana Veera Soora Karna. Thus, NTR started working on Daana Veera Soora Karna immediately with an intent to release the film for Sankranti at any cost.

Sharada, who worked with NTR in Jeevita Chakram many years prior, acted as Draupadi. She had a lot of doubts before agreeing to do the role. Most of all, she was nervous to work with NTR as she was aware of his strictness. On the first day of the shooting, she was so nervous that she took a lot of takes for her part. After the shooting for the day, NTR talked to her and made her more comfortable. After that film, she did many films with him. Actually, her re-entry into the films in her second innings was with the NTR's Chandashasanudu.

Chalapathi Rao did Four roles (Jarasandha, Atiratha, Indra, Dhristadyumna) and also appears in two other getups as disguises of Indra, while Jaya Bhaskar did a dual role (Surya, Ekalavya). It was NTR who gave a chance to Dhulippala as Shakuni in the film Sree Krishna Pandaveeyam. For this film also, he was chosen for the same role for a remuneration of Rs. 1116/-!

Balakrishna played the role of Abhimanyu, which got him very good recognition. Harikrishna did the role of Arjuna. After Tatamma Kala, this was the second and the last film where all the three of them worked together. This was the only film in which you can see NTR's daughters, even for a second, on the screen in the dance scene of "Jabili Kante Challanidi". Though the complete song was shot, ANR suggested that the scene should be deleted and NTR took out the song before the censor. However, one can still see his daughters on the screen for a moment.

The scene of Indra meeting Karna asking him his Kavacha Kundalas is also a famous scene in the movie.

Script and dialogues

After much mulling over and asking around, they finally zeroed in on Kondaveeti Venkatakavi to write the script and dialogues for the film. At that time, he was the principal of a Sanskrit college. Kondaveeti Venkatakavi (KVK) is an atheist, and he thus rejected the offer. When NTR personally went and requested, he was unable to say no and both NTR and KVK started working on the script. With this film, KVK got a lot of names.

Dialogues of the film became very popular. The film's dialogues were released as LP and audio cassettes and sold very well. HMV, the company that released the audio, claims that there are considerable sales of the cassettes, and CDs, even now. Particular scenes such as the first meeting of Karna and Suyodhana, Shakuni's encouragement to Suyodhana to go to the raajasUya yaagam, the Mayasabha scene and the subsequent mental upset of Suyodhana, the scene that precedes Draupadi's vastraapaharaNam, and the raayabaaram scene are all famous for their lengthy and complicated dialogues.

The dialogues were immensely popular even though they were in chaste bookish Telugu (graanthikamu). Notable is the "positive spin" that the dialogues give to Duryodhana's character without changing the original story any much, particularly in scenes such as vastraapaharaNam and raayabaaram, where he projects himself as the good guy and Pandavas and Krishna as crooked minds. While most mythological and folkloric movies since the 1950s were all in more or less colloquial tongue (vaaDuka bhaasha), this movie from the 1970s used graanthika bhaasha completely.

Audio

• Most of the verses in DVS Karna are taken from Paandavodyoga Vijayam and Sree Krishna Raayabaram by the famous poet duo Tirupati Venkata Kavulu. Pundareekakshayya had got the rights for these while making the film Sreekrishnaavataaram in the past. Krishna wanted to use them for Kuruskshetram and gave a blank cheque to Pundareekakshayya, who refused the offer and gave the rights to NTR for free.
• S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Peesapati Raghuramayya (who was famous on the stage for the role of Krishna) sang the Raayabaram verses initially, but NTR was not satisfied with that. He even thought of using the verses that originally rendered by Ghantasala for the film Shri Krishnavataram. It was Saluri Rajeswara Rao who suggested to use V. Ramakrishna for the verses. Once the film was released, Ramakrishna got a lot of name.
• Padmalaya Studios got the rights of Ghantasala's Bhagavadgeeta audio after his death and used those verses in Kurukshetram, while DVS Karna has "prosaic" Bhagavadgeeta for the most part.
• Initially, Saluri Rajeswara Rao was the music director for the film. The songs "Ye Thalli Ninu Kannadho" and the verses were all set to music by him. While he recorded the songs, rest of them were done by Pendyala Nageshwara Rao. However, the title card shows only Pendyala's name. The film has ten songs and 35 verses.

Release

The film was censored on 12 January 1977 and was released on 14 January. (DVS Karna was released with 30 prints in all, but Gemini was unable to print all 30 prints in the short time given, and thus the film was released in 14 centers on the first day and in 16 centers the next day.) The film ran for 100 days in 9 centers and 250 days in Hyderabad Shanti Theatre. DVS Karna's cost was less than ten lakhs. It earned more than one crore in the first run itself! Another record of the film was that it was sold for 60 lakhs for the repeat run in 1994 with 30 prints and earned more than one crore in the repeat run too! (The distributors invested ten thousand per area and got a one scope print per district from Gemini Labs).

DVS Karna can be claimed to be one of the lengthiest films in Telugu film industry and even in the Indian film industry on the whole. Its running time is 4 hrs 17 minutes. Out of this, NTR can be seen on the screen for nearly four hours, which is also a record. (Though Raj Kapoor's magnum opus Mera Naam Joker runs for 4 hrs 24 minutes, the film was later trimmed by forty minutes.) A Russian cultural group that visited India at that time saw the film and was wonderstruck with the film, and NTR's abilities that sustained and entertained a lengthy film.

Box office performance

• The film had a 100-day run in 9 centres.^[1]
• The film had a 250-day run in Hyderabad.^[2]
• The film collected huge amounts in its time and even in repeat runs.

DVS Karna was the second Telugu film after Lava Kusa to collect ₹1 Crores and first Telugu film to collect ₹2 Crores(with an average ticket price being ₹1)in 1977.^[2]

In the first twenty years after its release, DVS Karna sold the highest number of tickets beating all the new releases for the year in 13 different years. Lava Kusa is the only other movie with re-run value of three releases. Given the arrival of DVDs etc., it is unlikely that any Telugu movie ever made will sell as many tickets as DVS Karna sold over 16 crore tickets during a 15-year period.^[3]

Others

• VCDs and DVDs on - Universal Videos, SHALIMAR Video Company, Hyderabad

References

External links

• Daana Veera Soora Karna on IMDb