Padamati Sandhya Ragam (1987) — Ee Toorupu Aa Paschima

After The Interval (Interval Ke Baad) — America's 250th Birthday Special

1987. A Telugu film was shot not in Hyderabad or Madras, but in Missouri and Washington DC. In the living rooms and shops of Indian families who had made America their home. On a $25,000 budget, with a 17-year-old American actor who was making his film debut.

Bharath and Neelima rewatch Padamati Sandhya Ragam — the film that understood the Indian diaspora experience in America before the diaspora even had a name for itself. Directed by Jandhyala, the same man who wrote the dialogues for Sankarabharanam and directed Aha Na Pellanta in the same year. And a story about a Telugu father in Missouri who never learns English, never assimilates, never stops being exactly who he was in Andhra Pradesh, and whose American son-in-law lights his funeral pyre.

This is America. The country that takes everything you bring to it — your language, your music, your love, your grief — and makes room for all of it. Not by asking you to become someone else. But by letting you become more fully yourself.

250 years of people arriving with everything they carried and building something new without letting go of what they came with. The Indian diaspora is part of that story. And this film understood that in 1987.

Dropping on July 4th — America's 250th birthday. This one's for everyone who landed at an American airport with two suitcases and a lifetime of home packed inside them.

Because the best part of any movie isn't the movie — it's always the conversation after.

New episodes every week.

Interval ke baad, the real conversation starts.

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Email us: aftertheintervalpodcast@gmail.com

Produced by The LuminACE Group, LLC

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:41

Uh today we are going to have a lot of fun, Nilma. I can just sense it. Folks, July 4th, America is going to celebrate its 250th birthday. And right now, as we record this, the FIFA World Cup is happening on American soil. And one of the most wholesome things happening on the internet right now is the Europeans arriving in their thousands and discovering Houston and Kansas City and Seattle for the first time. And learning that America is not just New York and Los Angeles. And for every Indian who has ever moved here, every Telugu person who's packed their bags and landed at JFK or DFW or IAH, as they're watching these Europeans discover Americans, they're smiling. We are smiling because we know we've been here, we did this. Decades before the World Cup brought the world to America's doorstep. We came, we built our lives, we raised our children, we carried our language and our music and our films with us. We proudly call America home. Hello, friends. I am Bharat. This is Neilima, and welcome to another episode of After the Interval.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Interval Kibad.

SPEAKER_03 2:03

Today is a very special day. We are celebrating that with a Telugu film made in 1987, almost 40 years old. Shot not in Hyderabad or Madras, but in Washington, DC and Missouri. And as we tell the story today, in many ways responsible for Neilima and I coming to this great country, shot in the living rooms and shops of Indian families who had already made America their home. A film that truly understood the diaspora experience before the diaspora even had a name for itself. And here is the connection with all the other episodes we've done so far. This film exists in many ways because of Sankara Bharanam. We will get to that. And Neelima the cast.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Vijay Shanti as Sandhya, Thomas Jain as Chris, Shiromani as Ronald, Gummalu Rishastri as Adina Rana, Meer Abdullah as Ramara.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

I did not know that Meer Abdullah actually played the role of Ramara. Oh. Nice detail there. Folks, the movie we are going to rewatch today is Padamati Sandhyaragam because the best part of any movie is not the movie.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

It's the conversation after.

SPEAKER_03 3:18

Today we are going to just talk a little bit about the diaspora in 1987. These were not the Indian Americans of today, visible, celebrated, controversial in some ways, occupying many corners of medicine, technology, finance, and to some extent the government. In 1987, the Indian community in America was small, scattered, and largely invisible to the mainstream American culture. They had come mostly in the 60s and 70s on student visas, people who had left everything familiar back home and were building something new in a country that did not yet know who they were or what to do with them. They carried India with them in their kitchens, in their temples, in their language and in their films. VHS tapes of Telugu and Hindi movies passed from family to family, watched in living rooms on weekend nights with other Indian families who had gathered not just to see a film, but to feel for a few hours like they were home. Nilma, what are what were your initial thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

My parents lived in America from the late 60s to the early 70s before I was born. I have been exposed to their life in America through many anecdotes, photos, and books since my childhood. It was fascinating and aspirational for me as a kid. The Manhattan skyline, the chaise sequences, the fantasy. This was the America that Indian families actually lived in. The regular neighborhoods, supermarkets, Sunday afternoons, the completely recognizable texture of immigrant life. Adana Arena walking around Missouri, experiencing culture shock and yet completely certain that his values, his traditions were worth protecting was not a comedy character. That was the average first-generation immigrant who came to America and refused to become someone else. This film saw them, and in seeing them, it saw all of us.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

I'm thinking back to my first recollections of the movie. I saw it one of the summers right before I came to America. And I still remember, I I might have seen it in 91 or 92. So it's been, it had been a few years since the movie had come out, and I saw it saw it on a VHS day. But I still remember seeing a station wagon for the first time and going, Oh my god, how big is this car? How big are these homes? How big are these buildings? Everything seemed larger than life. And I would say, in many ways, Padamati Sandyaragam was a big reason or a big inspiration for wanting to come to America, build a life for myself here, and I've lived here for 30 plus years. I proudly call America home. When I first saw the movie, the first inklings of that desire to come here to build something like these folks had done, that that lit a fire in me.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

And the American dream seemed doable, yeah, by watching all these people.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

And we are very lucky that way, Neilmark, having come in the mid-90s, uh, Y2K, just the technology boom started in that mid-90s with Windows 95. So certainly we stand on the shoulders of your parents, other parents that have cut had come to America in the 60s and 70s, and with their grit, the determination, and the hard work, made a name for themselves. Today is a tribute to this great country, but it's also tribute to all the parents, grandparents, family, and friends that made America home and allowed Neilima and me and so many others to come and uh experience and settle in this great country. So thank you all for that. So I want to spend a few minutes just talking about uh Jandyala Garu. So, born in Arsapuram, not too far from where you and I went to college. Yeah. And um, he was known as Hasya Brahma, the Brahma of comedy. Died too young at the age of 50 in 2001. But he wrote dialogues for over 300 films. He directed over 40 of those. He made one of the greatest contributions to Telugu cinema by introducing the comedy legend Brahman and the Mare Varsaya. And in many ways, Jandiala's directorial movies, he had a range that almost no other filmmaker in Telugu Sinma has matched. He wrote dialogues for Shankara Barnam, the gravest, most philosophically dense movie ever made. Radha and I rewatched that a few episodes ago. He directed Ananda Bhairavi in 1983, won the National Award for Best Director. That was a movie about classical dance and again, artistic devotion. The screen at the International Film Festival of India. I think your folks will love that.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Certainly, certainly.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

And then later in 87 comes the all-time blockbuster Ahana Pellanta.

SPEAKER_06 9:49

What is this? Huh? What happened? What happened to my again?

SPEAKER_03 10:04

Just in 1987, two of our favorite movies, he just releases them back to back. Parmatisandi Aragam shot in Missouri about the Indian diaspora and Anna Pelenta. I guess inarguably one of the greatest Telugu comedy movies ever made. Wrote a wedding gone completely wrong. So same director, same writer, two completely different movies, and that is Jandi Alagaru for us.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Yeah. And now the most extraordinary detail in the entire story finding a young American actor willing to be in a Telugu movie in 1987 was not straightforward. An actor was cast initially and then he dropped out under mysterious circumstances. And then came Thomas Jane, 17 years old, dropped out of high school, was working at a hardware store, taking acting classes above a liquor store. His acting coach called him and said, There are this Indian filmmakers in town looking for a blue-eyed blonde guy. Thomas Jane told him, Ralph, I don't have blue eyes. His coach said, Well, you have rude blue eyes now. He trusted his coach, went and got the part. That 17-year-old went on to appear in Boogie Nights, Magnolia, The Thin Red Line, and The Punisher. One of Hollywood's working actors for three decades. His first film ever was Padamidisandhyaragam.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. And Thomas Jane, I actually remember seeing him in Hollywood movies, but I just did not make the connection.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Me too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Till I went back and watched uh PSR again. I I think I remember seeing him in Face Off, Boogie Knights. But I bet no one knew that his first movie was Paramat Sandya Ragam.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

A Telugu comedy romantic movie.

SPEAKER_03 11:52

Amazing. And then I just want to quickly touch on three other key folks before we get into the core core of the story. So SPB as music director, Sivamani, who we all love as A.R. Raman's percussionist, and of course, the living legend Vijay Shantigaru. So one of those rare movies where SPB was both singer and composer. And it was SPB who actually suggested the title Padamati Sandya Raga. Evening Raga of the West. And then, of course, Sandhya is the heroine's name in the movie as well. Jandiala loved it so much that he gave SPB Notapadharlu $116 as a token of gratitude. And then SPB also suggested Sivamani for the Rora. Ronald, we'll talk about it, you know, some of the things that didn't age that well with the movie. One of the greatest percussionists, no doubt, in the history of Indian music, playing a fictional character. And I had to look this up, but Sivamani is actually acted in a few more movies. But this is one of his one of the movies where he's well known. And then Vijay Shanti as Sandhya. Vijay Shanti was maybe 20 years old when this movie came out. Her performance.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

What a mature performance, Bharat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

For such a young actor at that stage, maybe 20 years old, because without her story, there is no movie.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Yeah, I mean, she started off as a small supporting actress and went on to do such impactful movies, collaborating with uh T Krishna Garu, uh Neti Bharatam, Pratigratana, Repati Pavrulu. And then uh went on to do, you know, one of the some of those dishumbish movies where they used to even call her Lady Amikam because I mean her name herself would sell so many tickets, right?

SPEAKER_05 14:09

Yes, ma'am. Okay, madam.

SPEAKER_08 14:14

The manifestry.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

It's in the group. She rose to unimaginable heights. She was charging on par with the heroes, from what I heard around the around that time. So what a what a fantastic career she's had. I don't think we have seen any other, you know, at least Telugu heroine achieved that much fame after uh Vijay Shanti did.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

Yes, and this was 30 years ago. So full credit to Vijay Shanti Garu. We want to just talk a little bit about the story itself. What holds up is the foresight, the vision that Jandiala Garu had, the way he's portrayed the scenes, the way the characters discuss it, especially in the beginning when Chris performs the last rites. Even 40 years after the movie was made, some of the core lessons we do not seem to have learned those. So the story in that sense certainly is true today as well. What is not aged well, I would say, Milma 1, Sew Mani playing a black African-American character. I think the intent was warm because he's not portrayed as a caricature at all. But if you made the movie today, the casting would read differently. I'm almost certain a black American character would play that role versus trying to force fit an Indian. The other piece is Vijay Shanti, yes, I get the story. I get that these two guys are in love with you, but girl, come on. You're living in America, you're not really trying hard enough to learn English.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

What do you say?

SPEAKER_09 17:19

Our wedding?

SPEAKER_03 17:20

Um I guess we could call that when it was made in 87 charming. I think today you would call it a missed opportunity to show what the real experience looks like. The language acquisition, the code switching, the way you become someone slightly different, the way you try to assimilate. I think those things perhaps haven't aged that well. What what's what's your take, Neilima?

SPEAKER_00 17:46

In my opinion, what has aged well is Sandhya's opinion on Asudaika Kutumbam that she refers to towards the end of the movie, that's timeless. He got a job here for God's sake. And him talking lightly about his woman's colleagues, women's colleagues, bursting to the prospective bridegroom. Sandya is educated enough to just read a letter written by her husband. I found that so infuriating. Him blaming his wife for Sandy Eloping and abusing Chris's dad in Achitulu.

SPEAKER_06 19:56

I cannot understand a word you say.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

I also agree with your observation on Sandhya. Why is she not going to school for someone whose pinny and Babai work? We don't see her even planning to become independent or educated.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

For sure. I can't disagree with any of those. I think there were some uh what what we can say is in trying to keep the essence of the story together, maybe Jandy Alagaru intentionally did not develop certain characters completely. But it's also easy for you and I 40 years later, having lived in America for 30 years. Exactly, in hindsight, to be able to say, oh yeah, he should have she should have done this, she should have done that. I think it's really hard for us to imagine living in America in 1987 and coming here because your brother lives here, and then if the movie were shot in the first few months after someone's come to America, I think those faults may relate to that experience more. Alright, we want to quickly cover uh some of the musical elements in this movie. With Parmati Sandyaragam, SP Balasubramangaru was not only the singer, but he was also the composer. So creating the melodic world that the film lives inside. And what he created is unlike anything else in his composing career because the film demanded something completely unique and specific. Music that could hold two worlds, India and America, simultaneously. The concept of Indian classical tradition in an American setting, and then some of the Telugu lyrics used in the movie rooted in centuries-old poetry. And then, of course, he composes an English pop song as well. So sacred compositions and romantic elements all in that same soundtrack. Only SPB could have held us together. And the lyrics, Vedur Sundana Murtigaru, one of our favorites. And then some of those ancient Anamaya Charya compositions for Mudagare Yoshoda. Sadashi Ubrahmendra's classical poetry for Ibarai Ramrasam, which even today in so many households on Sri Ramanami Day, we play that. Life is shabby without you, baby. Again, we think about this in hindsight, and uh it's funny now, but kudos to him for trying to write an English pop song 40 years ago, composing it and delivering it in a movie.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

And it sounds so good. I mean, yeah, for the time that it released in, it was yeah, pretty contemporary.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

Yes. And I wanted to just continue this uh discussion on the music as we pivot into the next section. So, one more thing on the music, uh Neilima is worth mentioning is the two wedding ceremonies that happen. So there is this beautiful scene where Chris and Sandhya are discussing and debating what kind of uh marriage should take place. And uh they both then agree on what's what's such a beautiful take, which is they get married twice, uh once at a church and once at a temple, and the music playing at each ceremony is completely both different and specific to that tradition. Foresight that Jandyalagaru had is when the uh Hindu wedding is taking place, they're playing uh Christian music or Western music or music that you would associate with someone getting married in a church. And then later, when the church wedding happens, the music that's played is your typical Hindu wedding music. Nadaswaram.

SPEAKER_11 25:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Nadaswaram. And so it's just just the foresight, the beauty of being able to do that. So this is my first uh one of the scenes that I loved in the movie Nilma. And when I was thinking about this movie, I also thought about uh Bombay that uh Maniratnam made. And I remember in Bombay that uh Kiti, so Raja Krishnamurti, he is a Brahmin and he plays Bashir, who is uh Shela Bano or Manisha Koirala's dad. And then Maniratnam cast Nasser, who's a Muslim, as Narain and Pille, who plays Arvind Swami's father. Maniratnam thought of that a few years ago. There is a story that there was a movie made right after independence where Gandhiji had suggested that they switched the characters for national integration. But I just love how Jandialagaru thought and shot that scene. Nilma, what's what's one of your favorite scenes?

SPEAKER_00 26:47

My first favorite is the Shriram Naomi scene. Adina Rana's frustration when he realizes he forgot what day it was.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

That rant is an all-time great rant in the history of Telugu cinema.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

That's all of us, Barat. That's all of our angst into that rant. I'm sure all of us individually would have felt the same feeling sometime or the other.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

I mean, I just cannot get enough of it. I mean, just the guy goes such such an amazing classical rant. Dilma. Thousand percent one of the great scenes in the movie, no question. Fantastic pig. Um, my next one is the hypocrisy that Adina Rena shows. So Chris comes to Sandhya's house and uh Adina Rainer says, And then a few scenes later, Ronald, the African American guy, he comes home to see Sandhya and he says, and then immediately Vijayashanti outs him. She's like, now you're just making stuff up, and he yells at her and he pushes her off. But that is such a cool scene because it is both funny and deep at the same time, which is Jandyala's genius, right? To make us pause and think about our own hypocrisy within a few scenes of each other.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

One of my other favorites is Suttivelu's speech on how bad things are in America smoking, drinking, womanizing. Jandiala Garu's tongue-in-cheek humor on the hypocrisy of some people who point fingers at America. And he's doing the same thing, and then he'd be smoking, drinking, and latching at this woman. So that is, yeah, that is also something uh I love about Jandiya Lagaru. Like he's he just says it like it is.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

Like it is, and that is such a phenomenal pick, Nilmo, because when I was seeing that scene, the first thought that entered to me was uh that Suttivela's character looks like so many of the Babas that are now in jail in India, right? Yeah, so he talks, the way he's smoking, the way he's letching at that woman, and it's a short character. It's a CTMR moment. The character lasts 30 seconds, the CTMR moment lasts 30 seconds, but it is forever etched in our memories because the message is so deep. All right, my next one is a combination of a couple of things. As our kids grow up, Neilema in America, and it is such a cauldron of various cultures and races. We don't we won't think twice, or some of us may when our kids are dating folks from other countries, other races. But in 1987, both the depth and the cuteness of a black American and a white American falling in love with an Indian girl. I think just the cuteness of that romance, the way all three characters were handled, that was so beautifully done. She puts her foot down because he refuses to go to Chris and Sandhya's wedding. But when I re-watched it, she's right there. So she says, if you don't want to come, you don't agree to this marriage, that is your problem. Husband educated, has a job, wears a suit and die, goes to the office, is not able to grow because of his long-held convictions. And she has already demonstrated one of the many pillars of Americanism, which is openness to other cultures, openness to other ideas, the willingness to learn and grow. And it is such a it's a quick scene, but just the fact that he's there and Jandella shorter in being right behind behind Vijay Shanti, hats off to him.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's uh yeah, very minute but cool observation, Barat. Yeah, wonderful scene. My next favorite is Vijay Shanti's speech at the end, the limitations man has set for himself after analyzing and summarizing lessons learned from his past experiences. That is such an amazing take on religion. And she and then she says, elevate yourself and look at the world. Just the truth stated simply, directly, and without apology. Also, when their daughter refuses to come to America, Chris interprets Vasudaiva Kutumbam that you know everyone around them is like their child. So what if their own child is not accompanying them? They can see their child in everyone around them.

SPEAKER_04 34:08

I love that word.

SPEAKER_03 34:20

That is the beauty of Padbati Sandya Ragam that 40 years later, some of the core messages of that movie perfectly intact.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Still relevant, yes.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

What a great, great scene, Nilema. And uh in some ways, I feel like in uh Sankara Barnam through Shankara Shastrigaru, Jandyala came across or conveyed the points around caste and with uh Padmati Sandyaragam, he's conveying the same messages around religion and race.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Race, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 34:58

Brilliant writing.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Yeah, wonderful, wonderful analogy, Gharat. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 35:03

So Nilma, what's what's your closing take?

SPEAKER_00 35:05

Padmati Sandhyaragam is the first Telugu movie to be shot 90% in the USA. Another first is that an American actor played the lead in the film. Other than Vijay Shanti and Shivamani, the rest of the cast was based in the US. Gumalur Shastri and Neer Abdullah, who performed on stage as a hobby, put together a team of amateur artists and crew, all holding full-time jobs, willing to work odd hours in making the film. That was also a first in Telugu cinema. From a movie depicting everyday life of the Indian diaspora in America to dishing some universal truths about Vasudeva Kutumbam, Vadimata Sandhyaragam remains relevant today and for the years to come.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

My closing take is the movie was made in 1987 on a budget of $25,000. The depth of thought, the depth of explaining the diaspora experience, I think they get the diaspora experience more right than many films that have been made with 100 times or thousand times their budget. And it's not because PSR is a perfect film, it's not the production values clearly show their age. We've talked about some of the scenes that don't age well, some of the casting choices don't hold up. But it understood something true at a very deep level, which is that the Indian immigrant that comes to America can really become more fully themselves. Adhina Rana never assimilates, never stops being exactly who he is. But his son-in-law really understands the meaning of, like you said, Vasudeva Kutumbakam and still lights his funeral pyre. So that is not a compromise, that is a conversation that Jandiala forced on us. One of the more honest movies that you and I are going to re-watch. And one of the most honest movies made about the Indian diaspora. America turns 250 in the next week, and somewhere in Missouri, 1987. A Telugu film was already showing you what it was truly about to have the opportunity to become a better version of yourself, to learn and to grow. So wonderful Neilima. Thank you so much for your time. As always, the conversation was phenomenal. Friends, next week, after the interval, gets an interval. We are 10 episodes in. Not in our wildest imagination, did Neilima and I think that in 10 episodes, we would have close to 30,000 subscribers, almost a million views on YouTube. So we're gonna take some time off next week. We'll post some of the shorts, some of the favorite scenes we've done over the first 10 episodes, and then we'll come back in two weeks. Happy birthday, America!

SPEAKER_00 38:06

See you soon. Thank you all.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

And please keep the feedback coming. Uh, if you have any suggestions for movies, you can always reach us at after the interval podcast at gmail.com. Alvida, goodbye. See you all in two weeks.