A board outside the floor in the Vauhini Studios prominently displayed ‘ Brahmandamaina nataka pradarsanamu’ with wire works and trick scenes starring ‘Ranga Maarthaanda’ Gadusumilli Ramaiah; the play was Sati Savitri . It was an open-air theatre set and the Ramaiah turned out to be N T Ramarao in Yamadharmaraja’s get-up. As the play was coming to its climax, Ramaiah’s elder brother, Chandram (played by Kaikaala Sathyanarayana) entered the theatre, spotted his brother and the washerman Tippaiah and his wife Yenki (Rajbabu and Vanisri) acting as Savitri and Sathyavaan. He shouted in anger “ Orey Ramudu .” Seeing his brother, Ramaiah panicked and, holding his moustache that had come out, ran away from the stage. This shot was taken in August 1966 by director Dasari Yoganand for Ramakrishna: NAT Combines, Vummadi Kutumbam produced by Nandamuri Trivikrama Rao.
An advocate of the joint family system, Nandamuri Taraka Ramarao (NTR) had written the story, upset at the way the joint families were disintegrating by 1960’s even in the rural areas due to urbanisation and also the influence of western culture. Besides penning the story, NTR also wrote the screenplay.
The story
Four brothers — the patriarch Nagaiah (Relangi) who works as a clerk in the nearby town, Chandram (Sathyanarayana), who looks after the family’s fields, Mukunda Rao (Prabhakara Reddy), a doctor, and Ramaiah (NTR), a theatre buff — live under one roof at Pendyala. Nagaiah’s wife Gowri (Suryakantham) is a greedy woman and Chandram’s spouse Kantham (S Varalakshmi) is a jealous character. Mukunda Rao’s wife Rama (Savitri) is devoted to the family. Mukunda Rao gets a job as a government doctor in the city and starts neglecting his wife after being wooed by a oomph girl Mohini (L. Vijayalakshmi). With no financial support from him and unable to bear the mounting costs in maintaining the family, Nagaiah decides to give the lands on lease despite the fact that such an act would render Chandram jobless. When Nagaiah goes out on the assignment, Gowri, tricked by the quack doctor Pasupathi (Allu Ramalingaiah), partitions the house. With her husband out of work, Kantham leaves for her parents' home. Chandram too follows her. When his attempts to lure Rama fail, Pasupathi casts aspersions on her character. She attempts suicide but her sick mother-in-law (Hemalatha) stops her. Ramudu vows to bring back Mukunda Rao and leaves for the city. On the way he meets Sarada (Krishnakumari), daughter of a zamindar (Nagabhushanam). With their support, he enacts a drama and brings his brother to his senses. Meanwhile, facing certain odds, Gowri and Kantham repent for their acts and the family reunites. The story ends with Ramudu marrying Sarada.
Cast and crew
Yoganand, with his deft direction, made a neat presentation of the 160-minute-long movie without an iota of boredom by doing full justice to NTR’s screen writing. Samudrala Jr. made a major contribution with his crisp dialogues bringing in the right emotions, replete with humour. An example is when Yenki breaks into local lingo while portraying Savitri and Seetha in the stage play. Ravikant Nagaich, well known for his trick photography, impressed the audience with his clean and neat camera work sans trick shots. Veteran editor GD Joshi with his crisp cuts helped sustain audience interest.With various get-ups to don in the role, NTR proved one more time what a versatile artiste he is. For S Varalakshmi as the envious woman, for Suryakantham as the money grabber, for Savitri as the devoted housewife, and for Krishnakumari as the bubbly girl, the roles were all a cakewalk. Known for his comic characters, Relangi this time gave a dignified portrayal as the solicitous patriarch. However, the man who walked away with honours at the end was Kaikaala Sathyanarayana, an actor till then known more for his screen-villainy. He scored in a sympathetic role, surprising the audience.
TV Raju composed the music for the songs and the poems. Popular among the songs were Sadivinodikanna o rannaa madelanna minna (lyricist: Kosaraju; singers: Madhavapeddi Sathyam, L R Easwari) and the lyrics by C Narayana Reddy for Kutumbam vummadi kutumbam (Ghantasala, P. Leela), Bhale mojugaatayaaraina o palletoori bullabbayi (Ghantasala, P Susheela).
Trivia
The song, Tassadiyyaa tassadiyyaa tamaashaina bandi (rendered by Ghantasala), was interspersed with NTR 's dialogues.
To get the fragrance of olden times mythological stage plays, yesteryear stage and cine actress Tilakam sang for Vanisri for the poems Povuchunnaavaa aurayamadharmaraja; Amarulaina santhaanamandavachhu; Vungaaramaa balevungaaramaa and the song Inthironanneluko, which she sang along with Ghantasala.
Vummadi Kutumbam was selected by the Film Federation of India to represent India as one of its entries at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1968.
Released on April 20, 1967, the movie celebrated a silver jubilee run.
