''Mantri Gari Viyyankudu'' is a 1983

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 film released directed by Bapu and stars

Chiranjeevi Konidela Chiranjeevi (born Konidela Sivasankara Varaprasad; 22 August 1955) is an Indian actor, philanthropist and former politician known for his work in Telugu cinema. Known as the "Mega Star", he is widely regarded as one of the most succe ...

in the lead role and

Poornima Jayaram Poornima Bhagyaraj (née Jayaram) is an Indian actress in Malayalam and Tamil films. She has also done a few Hindi and Telugu films. She is best known for her leading roles from 1980 to 1985. She married actor and director K. Bhagyaraj, who ...

Nirmalamma Nirmalamma (18 July 1920 – 19 February 2009) was an Indian actress in the Telugu cinema. She appeared in more than 1000 films and was well known for her grandmother roles in several films. She won two Nandi Awards. Early life She was born in ...

and

Allu Ramalingaiah Allu Ramalingaiah (1 October 1922 – 31 July 2004) was an Indian character actor, comedian, and producer known for his works in Telugu cinema. In 1990, he was honoured with the Padma Shri for his contribution to Indian cinema. In 1998, he rec ...

in important roles. This was actress Poornima’s first and only Telugu film as a leading lady, after which she made a comeback so many years later to supporting roles.

Plot

Kobbarikayala Subba Rayudu (

) is a self-made millionaire, who after attaining a high status, forgets the people who helped him initially and spends life counting his successes. A chance meeting several years later between his son, Siva (

Subhalekha Sudhakar Suravajhala Sudhakar (born 19 November 1960), known by his stage name Subhalekha Sudhakar, is an Indian actor who worked in Telugu and Tamil language films. Sudhakar's first Telugu film '' Subhalekha'' (1982) gained him wide recognition throug ...

) and his former friend Ravulapalem Rambhadrayya's (

Raavi Kondala Rao Raavi Kondala Rao (11 February 1932 – 28 July 2020) was an Indian actor, screenwriter, playwright, and journalist who worked in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He acted in over 400 films. He won Nandi Award for Best Story Writer for '' Pel ...

) daughter (

Tulasi ''Ocimum tenuiflorum'', commonly known as holy basil, ''tulasi'' or ''tulsi'' (), is an aromatic perennial plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is widely cultivated throughout the Southeast Asian tropics. It is native to tropical and subtropical r ...

) leads to both of them falling in love. Subba Rao invites his friend and his wife Annapoornamma (

) to his mansion and insults them reminding of their lower status in society. The rest of the movie is about how Annapoornamma- who challenges Subba Rao that he would one day come to her house begging for their help - gets it done with the main lead taken by her son Babji (

) with help from others.

Cast

Production

While Bapu-Ramana wanted to have

K. V. Mahadevan Krishnankoil Venkadachalam Mahadevan (14 March 1918 – 21 June 2001) was an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, and musician who won the inaugural National Film Award for Best Music Direction in (1967) for '' Kandan Karunai''. ...

(who was their usual choice) as the composer, producer Jaya Krishna insisted on having

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil cinema, Tamil in addition ...

as the composer, since

's first combination, '' Abhilasha'' (1983) was a major musical and commercial success. According to Ramana, the film was remade from a Malayalam film. ''Mantri Gari Viyyankudu'' was the only movie with Chiranjeevi-Bapu/Ramana combination. Heroine

was the top heroine in Malayalam and was introduced to Telugu movies through this movie. The budget was 22 lakh rupees .2 millionand

's remuneration was 1.5 lakh rupees. Both

and

were given 60,000 Rupees. Cinematographer

Lok Singh Lok Singh was an Indian cinematographer who primarily worked in Telugu movies mostly in the 80s and 90s. He worked for over 31 movies with Chiranjeevi Konidela Chiranjeevi (born Konidela Sivasankara Varaprasad; 22 August 1955) is an India ...

was paid 50,000 INR. The shooting was done mostly in and around

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

except for a couple of songs mani Ne Cheli Padudunoand one fight, which were shot in

Ooty Ooty (; officially Udagamandalam (), Anglicisation, anglicized: Ootacamund , abbreviated as Udagai, ) is a town and municipality in the Nilgiris district of the Indian States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north ...

. The shooting was completed in 40 days.

Soundtrack

All songs were composed by Maestro

. Ilayaraja later recreated "Emani Ne" as "Kaise Kahoon" for Hindi film ''

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

'' (2006).

Reception

The movie was both a critical and commercial success and completed 50 days in most of the centers it was released. While the movie was the first foray for Bapu/Ramana combination into pure commercial cinema, it was praised for still having the Bapu/Ramana touch. The movie became a rage among youth, especially the college scenes and the songs endeared the youth of Andhra to the movie. The movie would have done even better had it not released a week after '' Khaidi'', which was breaking all kinds of industry records at that time.

References

External links

* {{Bapu (film director) 1983 films Films directed by Bapu Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja 1980s Telugu-language films Films shot in Chennai Films shot in Ooty