Puttanna Kanagal

Background and personal life Puttanna Kanagal was born to Ramaswamaiah and Subbamma into a poor family in Kanagal, a village in the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore. He hailed from a poor brahmin family, and had to endure hardships and struggled to get a decent job. He worked as a teacher, salesman and even as a cleaner. His job as a publicity boy brought him closer to theatre and subsequently to cinema.

In 1981, Puttanna's magnum opus Ranganayaki did not do as well as expected at the box office, even though it gained critical acclaim and later went on to become a cult classic. In addition to this, separation from Aarathi had impacted his health. He had no work in hand for 14 months starting from late 1980 to mid of 1982. Srinath whom Puttanna directed in blockbuster films like Shubhamangala and Dharmasere came to his help, and they made Maanasa Sarovara which became an average hit and helped Puttanna bounce back. Kanagal died on 5 June 1985 in Bengaluru while shooting Masanada Hoovu.

Starting his career as a publicity boy, Kanagal was drawn into independent filmmaking after a stint in theatre and working with film director and producer B. R. Panthulu as his assistant. Kanagal's assistants include Tamil directors S. P. Muthuraman, Bharathiraja, and T. S. Nagabharana.

Although a majority of Kanagal's films were on offbeat or taboo subjects, generally women-centric, He also directed a handful of films in Malayalam, Tamil Telugu and Hindi languages.

As a director Often credited as a movie-maker much ahead of his times, his first directorial venture was the 1964 Malayalam movie School Master, a remake of his mentor B. R. Panthulu's Kannada classic of the same name He then directed another Malayalam movie Poochakkanni (Cat eyed/Hazel eyed lady) based on the Kannada novel Bekkina Kannu by Triveni. Puttanna's first Kannada film as a director was Bellimoda (Silver Cloud) in 1967. Starring Kalpana and Kalyan Kumar, this movie was a critical and commercial success. Legend has it that Puttanna scouted for a week to find the perfect location for the mellifluous song "Moodala Maneyaa". Belli Moda is credited as the first Kannada movie to be shot exclusively outdoors. He directed many masterpieces like Gejje Pooje, Sharapanjara, Naagarahaavu etc. '. His last film was Savira Mettilu, which never released during his lifetime.

He also provided a platform for many actors such as Kalpana, Aarathi, Leelavathi, Jayanthi, Padma Vasanthi, Srinath, Rajinikanth, Vishnuvardhan, Ambareesh, Jai Jagadish, Chandra Shekhar, Gangadhar, Shivaram, Vajramuni, Sridhar, Ramakrishna and Aparna to showcase their talents.

In devotion to Puttanna, Vishnuvardhan said, "Puttanna Kanagal Sir was the God-sent teacher for me! And I have been made an actor. I am indebted to guru Puttanaji. He used to conceptualize scenes, narrate them to me, inspire me and extract the potential till then unknown to myself. Acting in a single movie under Puttanna's expertise is an experience of a lifetime."

Puttanna introduced most of the actors in the Kannada film industry. Tamil director Bharathiraja worked under him. Each of Kanagal's 24 Kannada movies had strong themes filled with unprecedented direction.

Tamil legendary film maker K. Balachander, winner of the 2010 Dadasaheb Phalke Award had great regard for Puttanna. In many of his interviews to the media, Balachandar has stated that he considered a much younger, Puttanna Kanagal, a director from Kannada(Karnataka) film industry to be his guru in film making. An excerpt from one such interview: revolved around strong characters and distinct themes, he added mandatory songs and emotions to distinguish from alternate cinemas. His mastery over symbolism is quite remarkable. He has effectively used effectively in almost all of his movies.

Puttanna was also considered as a pioneer in picturising songs. In general, his movies contained 4–5 songs. Even with respect to song picturisation, Puttanna had a strong sense of colour and imagery. He would go to great lengths to select the locations and costumes for a song. The songs generally reflected the inherent mood of the film. For instance, the song from the movie Manasasarovara, Neene saakida gini, a poignant song, was shot amidst the dust-filled mining areas, thereby reflecting the agony of a man who has lost his true love. Similarly the song sandesha megha sandesha from the movie Sharapanjara was shot in the Madikeri, with innumerable oranges strewn around.

He was well known for his effective use of freeze shots and negative images to heighten the introspective effect of key scenes. Although his films were accused of being too woman-centric, Puttanna personally felt that such notions were wrong.

He was the first director of the Kannada Film Directors Association after its inception in 1984. Poonam Theatre in Jayanagar, Bangalore was renamed in his honor after his last film debuted there. In 2004, the theatre closed until reopening after a 2011 campaign supported by Baraguru Ramachandrappa, V. Manohar and the Democratic Youth Federation of India and was scheduled for demolition in July 2012 but later saved and remodeled. In June 2015, the 30th anniversary of his death was honored with an event organized by the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy and guests and speakers included Ambareesh, Leelavathi, S. Shivaram, Jai Jagadish, Ashok, K. S. L. Swamy and Rajendra Singh Babu.

List of awards and honours Filmfare Awards South List of movies, showing the year (award ceremony), film(s), award(s) Year Movie Award 21st Filmfare Awards South Edakallu Guddada Mele Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada 27th Filmfare Awards South Dharmasere Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada 29th Filmfare Awards South Ranganayaki Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada

National Film Awards List of movies, showing the year (award ceremony), film(s), award(s) Year Movie Award 1969 Gejje Pooje Best Screenplay 1969 Gejje Pooje Best Feature Film in Kannada

Karnataka State Film Awards List of movies, showing the year (award ceremony), film(s), award(s) Year Movie Award 1967–68 Belli Moda Best Film (Second) 1967–68 Belli Moda Best Screenplay 1969–70 Gejje Pooje Best Film (First) 1969–70 Gejje Pooje Best Screenplay 1970–71 Sharapanjara Best Film (First) 1970–71 Sharapanjara Best Screenplay 1972–73 Naagarahaavu Best Film (Second) 1972–73 Naagarahaavu Best Screenplay 1974–75 Upasane Best Film (First) 1974–75 Upasane Best Screenplay 1975–76 Katha Sangama Best Film (Fourth) 1980–81 Ranganayaki Best Film (First) 1983–84 Amrutha Ghalige Best Screenplay

Filmography

Year Film Language