This song has to be treated as exceptionally great in reflecting the tender emotions of love. We find N.T. Rama Rao with Malathi performing on screen. In his own music direction, Ghantasala along with P.Leela, rendered this song, in such a memorable way that the song remains intact in the hearts of everyone forever.  He used a raaga known as ‘raagesri’ in the Hindustani tradition for tuning this song. Here an anecdote is worth-mentioning.

In 1948, a prominent Hindustani musician Badegulam Alikhan visited Madras and held a music concert. When a member of the executive committee of Madras Music Academy, G.N.Balasubrahmaniam, proposed his name for this concert, there was a strong resentment from several puritan Carnatic musicians. He convinced all of them by saying: ’Just listen to him once, and you will come to know his talent”, and arranged for the concert by Badegulam Alikhan. The audience went into a trance listening to him. Later Badegulam Alikhan could make the entire South India to move in flow with his music! Ghantasala was one among the lovers of his music. He invited Badegulam Alikhan to his home, and played host for two days. He has learnt the nuances of several Hindustani raagas during those two days. Many believe that the influence of Badegulam Alikhan on Ghantasala in employing ‘raagesri’ raaga in tuning this song.

‘Ghaatu prema’, ‘chaatu moham’, ‘theevra veekshanam’, and ‘kannu kaatu’ are some of the poetic words that spontaneously sprouted in the literary field of Pingali to enchant the hearts of all connoisseurs. It is really a great experiment to use ‘ghaatu’ as an adjective with ‘prema’. Even a great poet like Sri Sri made a parody like ‘entha ghaatu premayo intha letu vayasulo’ in Navaraathri. ‘Ghaatu prema’ has such a strong impact on our language.  Later in the movie Attagaaru-Kottakodalu… even though there is a song ‘ghaatu ghaatu prema nagubaatulaayene’… even when “Antha gaatu prema meedi?” has entered the language of common people… we are quite sure that the original inspiration for these expressions is 'enta ghatu premayo’ from Paathaalabharavi!

Translator: suryaprakash.mothiki@yahoo.com