''Ammalakkalu ''() is a 1953 Indian

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

-language

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

that was produced by

Lena Chettiar Lena Chettiar (born S. M. Letchuman Chettiar) was an Indian film producer known for his works in Tamil cinema. Career S. M. Letchuman Chettiar hailed from the Nattukottai Nagarathar clan in Chettinad. Early on in his career, Lena was known fo ...

on Krishna Pictures banner and directed by

D. Yoganand Dasari Yoganand (16 April 1922 – 23 November 2006) was a South Indian film director. Early life Yoganand was born in Madras under British India. His parents were Venkata Das, estate manager under Nawaab Raza Ali Khan of Machilipatnam, and La ...

. The film stars

N. T. Rama Rao Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (28 May 1923 – 18 January 1996), often referred to by his initials NTR, was an Indian actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, film editor, philanthropist, and politician who served as the Chief Minister o ...

, Padmini and Lalitha, with music composed by C. R. Subburaman. It was simultaneously shot in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

as ''Marumagal'' (). The Tamil version was released on 14 April 1953.

Plot

''This is the plot of the Telugu version''. Ramaiah (B. R. Panthulu) and Kistaiah (D. Balasubramanyam) are close friends and farmers. Ramaiah's family consists of his wife, Sugunamma (Rushyendramani), and two sons, Sundar (Amarnath) and Kumar (N. T. Rama Rao), and a daughter, Rupa (Surabhi Balasaraswathi), who are struggling for their daily needs. Under the guidance of Kistaiah, Ramaiah starts a small contract business in the town, for which Kishtaiah organizes the amount by mortgaging his wife's jewelry. Ramaiah settles in the town, pays the debt, and also promises to couple up Kishtaiah's daughter Usha (Padmini) with his son Kumar. Meanwhile, Ramaiah's sons move to town for education when Ammalakkalu heckles Usha, which offends Kistaiah, so he too joins Usha in the same school. Years roll by, Kumar and Usha grow up together, and they love each other. At the present, Ramaiah arranges his elder son Sundar's marriage with a shrew woman named Shanta (Lalitha). During the time of the wedding, Ammalakkalu provokes Sugunamma, and she insults Kistaiah's wife when a rift arises between families. Then Kistaiah became furious; he left the venue and even broke up the marriage of Usha and Kumar. So, Usha and Kumar proceed with a registered marriage, while soft-hearted Ramaiah welcomes the couple into his home. But Sugunamma and Shanta are very cold towards Usha. During this plight, Kumar leaves abroad for higher studies, and Usha faces a lot of difficulties in her

in-law In law and in cultural anthropology, affinity is the kinship relationship created or that exists between two people as a result of someone's marriage. It is the relationship each party in the marriage has to the family of the other party in th ...

's house. The rest of the story involves how she gets rid of these problems and reunites the family.

Cast

as Kumar * Padmini as Usha * Lalitha as Shanta *Surabhi Balasaraswathi as Rupa ;Telugu version * Relangi as Riyo *Amarnath as Sundar *Dr. Sivaramakrishnaiah as Achchaiah * B. R. Panthulu as Ramaiah * D. Balasubramaniam as Kishtaiah * Suryakantham as Seshamma *

Rushyendramani Rushyendramani (1 January 1917 – 17 August 2002) was an Indian film actress, playback singer, and dancer from Andhra Pradesh. She had more than 150 films in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi films from 1935 to 1986. Her notable films ...

as Sugunamma *

Surabhi Kamalabai Surabhi Kamalabai (1913–1977) was an Indian actress who worked in Telugu theatre and Telugu cinema. She has the distinction of being the first Telugu actress in a Sound film, talkie film with ''Bhakta Prahlada (1932 film), Bhakta Prahlada'' (1 ...

as Parvathi ; Tamil version *

S. V. Sahasranamam Singanallur Venkataramana Iyer Sahasranamam (29 November 1913 – 19 February 1988), also known as S. V. S., was an Indian actor and director. Primarily a theatre actor, he also worked in over 200 films, mainly in Tamil cinema. Early lif ...

* T. R. Ramachandran * B. R. Panthulu * M. Saroja *M. Lakshmiprabha * D. Balasubramaniam * S. D. Subbulakshmi * V. K. Ramasamy *

Kallapart Natarajan Kallapart Natarajan was an Indian actor who works in Tamil-language films. He received the moniker 'Kallapart' from his role as a thief (Kallapart) in stage dramas. Selected filmography *'' Marumagal'' (1953) *'' Nalla Idathu Sammandham'' (19 ...

* C. T. Rajakantham *K. S. Angamuthu *"Master" Sudhakar *Indra Acharya *K. S. Adhilakshmi * V. Suryakantham * Baby Saraswathi ;Dance *

Ragini Ragini may refer to: *Rāgini, the feminine counterpart of a raga, a melodic mode in Indian classical music *Ragini, an Indian feminine given name from the above People *Ragini (actress) (1937–1976), Indian film actress, one of the Travancore si ...

* Padmini *

Kusalakumari Thanjavur Damayanthi Kusalakumari (6 December 1937 - 7 March 2019) was an Indian actress and dancer. She featured in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam language films. Early life Born in Thanjavur, Kusalakumari is a niece of T. R. Rajakumari. Her bi ...

Soundtrack

The music was composed by C. R. Subburaman with background music to be completed later by

Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy were an Indian music composing duo composed of M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy. They worked together on over 100 films, from 1952's '' Panam'' to 1965's '' Aayirathil Oruvan''. After their split, Ramamoorthy w ...

and party after the untimely death of C. R. Subburaman. T. K. Ramamoorthy acted as his assistant in several films and was asked by the producer to complete the music for the film. Tunes for both languages are the same. However, there was one song in the film, "Undaloi Undaloi"/"Aanukkoru Penn Pillai," that was composed by

G. Ramanathan Gopalan Ramanathan was an Indian music composer for Tamil movies. He is also known as ''Isai Methai'' (Genius of Music) or ''Sangeetha Chakravarthy'' (Emperor of Music) and is considered to be one of the influential Tamil music composers to ...

. ;Telugu soundtrack ;Tamil soundtrack

Reception

Reviewing ''Ammalakkalu'', a critic from ''

Zamin Ryot ''Zamin Ryot'' is an Indian Telugu-language weekly newspaper published from Nellore. It was started by N. Venkatrama Naidu in . It has been called the longest continuously running Telugu newspaper. It is one of the notable district newspapers ...

'' wrote that the story is not smooth, and turns into an unprofitable whorehouse with seams. The film fared well at the box office in both languages, but ''Ammalakkalu'' was more successful. In ''Ammalakkalu'', the duet song sung by Relangi became popular in Telugu districts of the then-

Madras State Madras State was a state in the Indian Republic, which was in existence during the mid-20th century as a successor to the Madras Presidency of British India. The state came into existence on 26 January 1950 when the Constitution of India was ad ...

. ''Ammalakkalu'' became popular through theatrical re-runs.

References

External links

* * {{D. Yoganand 1950s Indian films 1953 multilingual films 1950s Tamil-language films 1950s Telugu-language films 1953 directorial debut films 1953 drama films 1953 films Films directed by D. Yoganand Films produced by Lena Chettiar Films scored by C. R. Subbaraman Films scored by G. Ramanathan Films scored by Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy Indian black-and-white films Indian drama films Indian multilingual films Tamil-language drama films Tamil-language Indian films Telugu-language drama films