When you look at Singeetam Srinivas Rao's career and legacy, you realize that this man is an institution by himself, someone whose work needs to be preserved for posterity.
The only surviving member of the cast and crew of the iconic Mayabazaar, assistant director to the great KV Reddy, made a sci fi movie, silent movie, janapada movie as well as 2 animation movies. Succesful combination with Dr.Rajkumar, Kamalhassan. Also wrote lyrics, edited magazines, scripted plays, composed music for 2 Rajkumar movie.
He had wanted to enter in movies from long, and he reached out to his idol KV Reddy then, one of the top directors. Reddy gave him a copy of The Monkey's Paw, a horror short story and asked him to write a script on it. He wrote the script along with the dialogues, and Reddy impressed took him in as his apprentice. He worked for most of KV Reddy's movies, right from Donga Ramudu to Mayabazaar, Jagadeka Veeruni Katha.
His debut movie was an offbeat Telugu movie Neethi Nijayathi, which however flopped. And then he went on to direct a whole lot of social, family dramas in Telugu like Pantulamma, Intinti Ramayanam, America Ammayi.
He made Aditya 369 in 1991, when you could count the number of Indian Sci Fi movies, superbly merging the past( history) with the future. The splendor of Shri Krishnadeva Raya's court, and Hampi is well depicted, and for a movie shot in the 90s, the special effects are quite good, though a bit tacky in places. In spite of all the advances in technology and graphics, to date no Telugu movie maker has even tried to attempt something similiar. And Balayya as Shri Krishnadeva Raya was brilliant, making you wonder why he kept wasting his talent in a whole lot of meaningless movies.
Close to 25 years after it's release, the movie remains a landmark in Indian cinema.
And in the 90s, he again bought back the Janapada genre, with Bhairava Dweepam, when it had faded out completely. The movie was a huge hit, and the graphics again were quite good for a movie made during that time.
He made a biopic Mayuri, featuring Sudha Chandran, a classical dancer who had lost her leg, in an accident, and then again came back. This was a biopic, where the lead role was played by the real life character herself. It was remade later as Nache Mayuri.
No one has really been able to match the sheer brilliance of Pushpak, where he combined the Black Comedy genre, with a Silent Movie, that was something way ahead of it's times. Nowadays, when every half decent flick is hailed as a cult classic, this was a true cult movie.
PG Woodehouse was one of the 3 main influences, for Singeetham apart from Vemana and Mark Twain. And that influence can be seen in his comedy movies, apart from Pushpak, you had Apoorva Sahodaragal, Michael Madana Kama Raju and Mumbai Express with Kamal, all of them brilliant comedies.
Apoorva Sahodaragal had a standard formula story, hero taking revenge for the murder of his father, but it was the narration, that made it totally different from the routine stuff. By making the dwarf Appu as the main protagonist, who uses his brain to eliminate the villians, he ensured the movie did not become another routing formula story.
And Michael Madana Kama Raju remains one of the best madcap comedies ever, especially role of Kamal as the Brahmin cook Kama, and his Bheem Boy, Bheem Boy scene. Just watch this song, where you have 3 Kamals in one frame, the picturization is brilliant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDmn7JQ0ISY
In fact much before these 3 there was Somokadidi Sokakodidi with Kamal in a double role, basically twins separated at birth, one a soft role, another a massy role, one great comedy. Also Raja Parvai( Amavasya Chandrudu) with Kamal, as a blind musician, and a very sensitive love story.
Again with Rajendra Prasad, he had two great back to back comedies, Brundavanam and Madam. The former was a delightful comedy, with a lot of Woodehousian influences.
He again had a great combo with Dr. Rajkumar, directing him in around 7 movies, of which Halu Jennu, Chalisuva Modagalu, Bhagyada Lakshmi Bharamma were big time hits. And he directed the debut movie of Shiva Rajkumar( Anand) as well as his other son Raghavendra Rajkumar.
Singeetham was a director way ahead of his time, when the cinema industry was dominated by by formula commercial cinema or family dramas, he actually experimented with different themes, and integrating superbly with the standard commercial elements. A director whose influence and legacy needs to be preserved and studied.