Two maudlin sagas from the same director—one based on a famous English novel and the other, from a native story written by a popular Telugu author. The auteur went into a long rigmarole about the different jobs that he had executed with his hall mark precision and perfection. But they showed different results. While the first one, Bangarupapa based on George Eliot’s Silas Marner won critical acclaim, it did not evoke much interest from the audience. Whereas Bhagyarekha written by Palagummi Padmaraju was a box office hit. Both were dealt by the man who brought art into the craft — B.N. Reddi.
An ardent fan of B.N. and his films, P. Vasanthakumar Reddy founded a film company Ponnaluri Brothers (P) Ltd., and approached the artistic director to direct their debut production. B.N. gave him the script of Bhagyarekha which he intended to produce even before Bangarupapa but put it under back burner. Ponnaluri Brothers liked the story. It was B.N.’s first film for an outside banner.
The Story begins with Lakshmi’s childhood. Having lost her parents, she is brought up by her uncle Narayana Rao. His wife Jagadamba ill treats Lakshmi. Her grandfather Musalayya takes her away. Angry over his mother’s behaviour Jagadamba’s son Kotaiah too leaves home and joins the military. Years pass by. Musalayya dies and Lakshmi returns to her uncle’s house. Her travails begin again which lead her to Tirupati. When she was about to commit suicide, a missing child Sasi brings another turn to her life. Sasi’s mother Seethamma takes Lakshmi to her home. Her son Ravi falls in love with Lakshmi. But Jagannatham who planned to make Ravi his son-in-law succeeds in stopping their marriage with the help of Jagadamba and her brother Sambaiah. Lakshmi goes to Tirupati to work as a teacher. Her separation leaves Ravi a mental wreck. Meanwhile Jagadamba’s pampered daughter Kathyayini elopes with Pullaiah and through her Kotaiah finds the whereabouts of Lakshmi. He brings her back. Lakshmi prays to the Lord with an invocation song and Ravi becomes normal. The perpetrators seek pardon and Ravi’s marriage is performed with Lakshmi.
Cast & Crew: By showing the two sides of life through the female characters, B.N. wanted to establish that the one who is righteous suffers initially but finally returns to bliss and happiness while the other, the pleasure seeking and greedy ends up in misery. B.N. applied this formula successfully in his earlier films, Devata and Swargaseema . Jamuna played Lakshmi, around whom the entire drama revolves. She did a commendable job without an iota of over acting even in the highly emotion charged scenes. Janaki made her presence felt in a comparatively small role as the pleasure seeking Kathyayini. Suryakantham gave an effortless portrayal as Jagadamba. Perhaps out of respect for B.N., NTR signed for the character Ravi which has nothing much to do in a women-centric theme. But his presence added strength to the social drama. Relangi as the touring talkies owner Pullaiah and Nagabhushanam as Kotaiah impress. The other key players were – C.S.R (Narayana Rao), P. Hemalatha (Seethamma), K.V.S. Sarma (Ravi’s father), Govindarajula Subbarao (Musalayya), Dr. Sivaramakrishnaiah (Jagannatham), Ramana Reddy (Sambaiah), Allu Ramalingaiah (clerk), Lakshmikantha (Jagannatham’s daughter), E.V. Saroja (street dancer), Master Varma (child Kotaiah) and Baby Sasikala (Sasi).
With experienced actors and excellent technicians (camera: B.N. Konda Reddi, editing: Vasu, art directors: T.V.S. Sarma and Krishna Rao, choreographer: Vempati Peddha Sathyam, audiographer: A. Krishnan) in the team the director’s work is half done. Palagummi Padmaraju wrote the dialogues and Devulapalli Krishna Sastry, Kosaraju Raghavaiah Chowdhary, the lyrics. B.N. introduced a new lyricist Yeramakula Adisesha Reddy ( Lokam gammathuraa… rendered by Madhavapeddi Sathyam and Sathyavathi) but not much was heard about him later.
Pendyala Nageswara Rao scored captivating music and the super hit songs (penned by Devulapalli) includes the all time hit, Nee undedaa kondapai naa swamy… (P. Susheela), Tirumala mandira sundara… (Mallick) and the duet Manasooge sakha tanuvooge priya madilo… (A.M. Raja and P. Susheela). This duet was a straight lift from the popular Hindi film song, Man Dole Mere Tan Dole… from Nagin (Music: Hemant Kumar, singer: Lata Mangeshkar). Pendyala successfully made an experiment of sorts by playing similar tune for two different songs - Nee undedaa kondapai.. and Nee sogase bangarame…
Trivia: Suryakantham, Govindarajula Subbarao, C.S.R., K.V.S. Sarma and Pendyala Nageswara Rao worked for the first time with B.N. Reddi. Peketi Sivaram (as the photographer), Padmanabham and Balakrishna (as street dancers) made cameo appearances just to be a part of a B.N. film. Kasturi Narasimha Rao, the hero of Vipranarayana (1937) made a guest appearance as the bairagi. A good dancer too, ‘stunt’ Balaram acted in the hip gyrating dance number, O Naa mora vinaraadaa… along with E.V. Saroja.
The scenes shot on Tirumala hills showcase how the serene atmosphere of the Seven Hills was some sixty years ago. It was released as the inaugural film at Sathyagowri talkies, Kakinada, three months later, yet ran for 10 weeks.
Released on February 20, 1957, Bhagyarekha celebrated 100 day-run in four centres and won the national award, certificate of merit, in the regional film category.
