Swarnakamalam

Swarnakamalam literally means "Golden Lotus". This was a movie directed by K.Viswanath which released on 15th July 1988. It had Venkatesh and Bhanupriya in the major roles. Savitri, Sakshi Rangarao, Sri Lakshmi were in the supporting roles. Story and it's narration were simple and mellifluous

Story as was the wont in Viswanath's movies revolved around art form i.e dancing. Bhanupriya is the daughter of a famous Kuchipudi exponent, who despite being well-known is not blessed with money. So she detests the art form and grows up admiring the good life. Her sister is an exponent in singing and is in love with the son of the house-owner, who happens to be a station-master. Venkatesh who is a painter comes as a tenant in the house adjacent to Bhanupriya's and immediately falls for her. Although he loves her, he is not too impressed with her conniving ways. One day Bhanupriya to sustain her family and in her quest for good life joins a five-star hotel. As her luck will have it Venkatesh is called for, to draw a potrait of a lady welcoming the Indian cricket team which is there to play a match. Venkatesh shows a picture of Bhanupriya dancing and the manager asks her to perform and makes her the head of classical art in the hotel

When performing on a stage against her wishes, Bhanupriya cuts the anklets and as the individual parts fly off the anklets her father breathes his last, allegorical to the fact that dance is his life. There develops a chasm between them both after her father's death. A well renowned exponent of Odissi dancing comes visiting to the hotel once and views Bhanupriya's performance. She invites Venkatesh and Bhanupriya to her performance the next day. Just before going back she tells Bhanupriya the base point with which the movie is made "Dance is an art-form that should flow from within and it should not performed in such a manner as to appease the audiences. Your attention should be on the moves but it's on the applause that you get from the audience"




Bhanupriya's life takes a turn after that and she concentrates on dancing. She gets the chance to fly abroad because of her dancing abilities. Before leaving she reads the letter Venkatesh sent her and immediately gives up flying abroad. The movie ends with Venkatesh and Bhanupriya in an embrace

Scenes I liked:

1) The scene where Bhanupriya throws her anklets into the well and Venkatesh retrieves them

2) The scene where Venkatesh comes to learn dance from Bhanupriya's father

3) The scene where Venkatesh stands up for the cause of Ganapati

4) The entire climax

Strengths of the movie

Illayaraja's music, picturesque locales, Strong performances from the cast and superb direction


Watchable with the entire family, an entire generation went crazy after Bhanupriya's catch phrase in the movie "Ardham Chesukoru"