Popular lyricist Jaladi Raja Rao (79), who carved a niche for himself in films for nearly two decades, passed away at his residence in Visakhapatnam today. Jaladi, who took the film world by storm with his unique presentation of songs was identified by this folk numbers mostly.
Born on August 9, 1932, Jaladi, as he was popularly known, made debut as lyrics writer with the film, Palle Seema (1977) but he got his first break with ‘Pranam Khareedu’ in which his song, ‘Yathamesi thodina yeru yendadu, pogili pogili yeddchina...,’ became very popular.
Though he penned 100’s of songs in more than 250 films, he remained popular for folk-oriented songs and patriotic songs like ‘Punyabhoomi Naa Desam’ from ‘Major Chandrakanth.’ He was the only lyricist who has taken an oath not to use some 60 odd most used words in Telugu film songs and could hold his identity throughout 70s and 80s. After Kosaraju, Jaladi became synonym to raw rural expressions.
Cinejosh prays for his soul to rest in peace.