Articles on Kannada film personages.
From the pen of A. N. Prahlada Rao, the crossword-smith whose puzzles reach readers of nearly every Kannada daily or magazine, comes “Belliterey Belagidavaru” — nuggets profiling 115 filmstars who twinkled on the Kannada silver scre en.

Prahlada Rao, whose first book “Bangaarada Manushya”, a biography of the late Rajkumar has been an avid collector of trivia on Kannada cinema, which he innovatively uses to compose crosswords. The book features everyone from patriarch Gubbi Veeranna to the golden oldies of the black-and-white era who reinvented the stage on celluloid, making the new medium a craze for first generation film-goers.

Subbaiah Naidu, Kannada cinema’s first hero in the first feature film “Sati Sulochana”, doyen director G. V. Iyer, legends such as Master Hirannayya, B. R. Panthulu and R. Nagendra Rao who donned the hats of director, producer or actor with ease and élan, the first superhero of Kannada cinema Rajkumar feature in this book.

Beauties who lent sparkle to the screen — B. Saroja Devi, Jayanti, Kalpana, Manjula and Bharati and latter-day heroes and actors including Srinath, Vishnuvardhan, Anant Nag, directors Hunsur Krishnamurthy and Puttanna Kanagal, and Girish Karnad who even shone briefly in Hindi films are celebrated in well-written, compact pieces that nudge the curiosity of the reader for more. Ravichandran, Malashree, Tara and other stars of the ‘90s also figure in the collection.

These short sketches of the folk of Kannada filmdom, are an easy, engaging read, and can be read in any order. The longest article is on Rajkumar, at three-and-a-half pages, but then this could be the shortest piece that captures the essence of the artiste as completely as possible.

With a foreword by director Girish Kasaravalli, who is also profiled, “Belliterey Belagidavaru” offers a pleasant ride through Kannada cinema and the famous names that people it.