Bengaluru: 'Sampattige Savaal', Rajkumar hit from 1974, released again

Kannada movie buffs turned nostalgic with the re-release of Rajkumar’s 1974 movie ‘Sampattige Savaal’.

The film hit screens on February 20 at select theatres in Bengaluru.

It ran to packed houses at Prasanna theatre on Magadi Road last weekend.

Fans cheered as hit songs from the movie played out on the screen— ‘Yaare koogadali’, ‘Raja muddu Raja’. They also applauded the hilarious confrontation scene between Manjula and Rajkumar.

The year 1974 is known as the golden year of Kannada cinema. The industry experienced a watershed moment with many critically acclaimed and commercially successful films that year.

Directed by A V Seshagiri Rao, ‘Sampattige Savaal’ was an adaptation of the play ‘Saahukara’ by B P Dhuttharagi.

Rajkumar plays Veerabhadra, the carefree son of a woodcutter who rebels against the village landlord. The film was released when the Left movement was gaining prominence.

Rajkumar’s character was seen as representing the working class.

“In many ways, the film gave a commercial touch to the Bandaya (protest) literary movement. ‘Sampattige Savaal’ was discussed at many Leftist forums as a communist movie that questioned authority,” says film historian K Puttaswamy.

Fifty two years after its release, the film made its way back to theatres in a digitally restored, technically upgraded format.

Elders viewed the song ‘Yaare koogaadali’ as a reflection of Rajkumar’s simplicity—he was a towering star, but he did not hesitate to ride a buffalo and sing its praises.

Film critic N Manu Chakravarthy says the song was a significant juxtaposition, one that validated the desi tradition, long sidelined in favour of the more formal marga tradition.

When the film was still in production, in a hilarious turn of events, the owner of the buffalo, eager to make a quick profit from its fame, sold it off, prompting the makers to go on in frantic search of a similar looking buffalo.

With the song, Rajkumar became a full fledged singer. “It led to the displacement of P B Srinivas and pushed Rajkumar as a singer. He was groomed well in Gubbi Veeranna’s theatre troupe, which had helped him develop strong voice control,” says Chakravarthy.

At a time when daughters-in-law in movies were characterised as vile, ‘Sampattige Savaal’ brought in the attige-maiduna (sister-in-law and brother-in-law) sentiment, says Puttaswamy, who believes that the film mainly stands on dialogues and the Rajkumar-Manjula chemistry.

“Manjula plays a ‘bajari’ (a tomboy and loud mouth) and she was then typecast to such roles,” he adds.

Chakravarthy says the film’s narrative challenged wealth, ego and the feudal system.

“The transformation in Manjula’s character is also interesting. The film had an interesting but familiar narrative, which follows the ‘Taming of the Shrew’ model,” he adds.