1961 celestial wedding song mesmerises even now

Bhadrachalam : The 63-year-old song ‘Sree Seetharamula Kalyanam Chothamu Rarandi’ is a popular tune in all the Telugu households and temples which is sung and played on various instruments, including Nadaswaram during marriages.

This song is from the popular Telugu film ‘Sita Rama Kalyanam’, which was written and directed by Samudrala. The inimitable legendary actor N T Rama Rao played the character of Ravana.

Another senior actor Harinath was Rama, and actress Geetanjali played the role of Sita in this film which had hit the screens on January 6, 1961. This film was awarded 8 National Film Awards and remained as the finest Telugu feature film.

It was such a big hit that the film was dubbed in Tamil, which premiered on February 3, 1961.

To this day, the song "Sree Seetharamula Kalyanam Chothamu Rarandi" has been unbeatable. The connoisseurs of music call it as “Na Bhooto, Na Bhavishyati” (Never before, Never again). There is no single temple where this song is not played during celestial weddings and marriages across the Telugu states. The song is also broadcast on radios and could be heard in every hamlet during Lord Rama's celestial wedding to his consort Sita in Bhadrachalam. Even television channels play this song on special programmes on Sri Ramanavami.

One of the devotees of Lord Rama, K Shankara Chary describing the song, said, “it is a simple song which has the best lyrics penned ever by Gali Penchala Narasimha Rao and the music which is soothing to the ears.”

Whenever the song is played it brings back the magic of the moving images from the film to the listeners’ imagination. It describes the total process of wedding starting from inviting for the celestial wedding to the description of the bride, the importance of every aspect of the marriage, including bridal make up.

Even technological developments like re-mixing songs could not recreate the melody and richness of the song which was recorded with a host of musical instruments unlike the present times when consoles are used for creating instrumental effects. This song gets another boost once again now thanks to the consecration of Bala Rama’s idol at Ayodhya. This song is not only being displayed as status in social media platforms but also is being used as ringtones on mobile phones. Devotees hope that only if the song is dubbed in Hindi, it would reach a greater audience from Ayodhya.