Mangalya Balam

Zamindar Papa Rao resides in the town with his shrew wife Kanthamma that ill-treats her mother-in-law Parvatamma and they have two children Suryam & Saroja. In their village, Papa Rao's sister Seeta lives with her peasant husband Rangaiah, son Chandra Shekar and a rift erupted between families as Seeta nuptials against her brother's wish. Once Parvatamma learns that Seeta is terminally ill, and packs up with Suryam & Saroja. After looking at Saroja, Seeta aspires for the reunion of families and pleads with her mother to couple up Chandram & Saroja. Thereupon, Parvathamma gives a call to Papa Rao before he reaches Seeta is about to leave her last breath, so, to accomplish her wish Parvatamma jeopardizes and espousals the children. Being cognizant of it, furious Papa Rao quits with Suryam & Saroja when grief-stricken Seeta passes away. On transpired about it, an infuriate Kanthamma annuls via the court and deprives the wedding chain Mangalsutram of Saroja which is preserved by Suryam. Years roll by, and Chandra Shekar civilizes and backs when Parvatamma divulges the past and requests him to get back his wife. Right now, Chandram moves to get acquainted with Saroja as Shekar with the help of his friend Kailasam and they fall in love. Parallelly, in a glimpse, Kailasam secures Saroja's friend Meenakshi while committing suicide as she spouses to be wedlock an old man and Saroja gives her shelter. After that, they too crush. At that point, Suryam reveals Saroja her splice and handovers the wedding chain to her. At present, Saroja is in a dichotomy, but as an Indian woman complies with the wedlock and keeps Chandram a distance. Meanwhile, Parvatamma's health declines, so, Suryam brings her home. Besides, Chandram makes various attempts to meet Saroja and Papa Rao necks him out knowing his identity. Ultimately, Saroja enlightens the fact by Parvatamma and the couple rejoins. Here, stubborn Papa Rao & Kanthamma forcibly fix Saroja's alliance with Kailasam which Parvatamma opposes. At this juncture, Chandram enacts a play and escapes with Saroja, Papa Rao chases and in enrage tries to shoot them when, unfortunately, Parvathamma is wounded. Spotting it, Papa Rao realizes his mistake an rebukes Kanthamma. Finally, the movie ends on a happy note with the reunion of the entire family.

Poster of Tamil version

• Savitri as Saroja
• Akkineni Nageswara Rao as Chandrasekhar
• Rajasulochana as Meena
• Relangi / K. A. Thangavelu as Kailasam
• Suryakantham as Kanthamma
• S. V. Ranga Rao as Papa Rao
• Kannamba as Parvatamma
• G. Varalakshmi as Seeta
• Ramana Reddy as Achary
• Ramana Murthy / K. Balaji as Dr. Suryam
• A. V. Subba Rao as Rangaiah
• Dr. Sivaramakrishnaiah
• Vangara

The music was composed by Master Venu. He borrowed only one tune from the Bengali film's composer Anupam Ghatak, for the song "Penu Cheekataye Lokam" from its original version "Ke Tumi Amare Dako".[1]

Telugu songs
The Telugu songs were written by Sri Sri, except for My Dear Meena, Chekkili Meeda and Tirupati Venkateswara, which were written by Kosaraju. Playback singers were Ghantasala, Madhavapeddi Satyam, P. Suseela, Jikki & K. Jamuna Rani.

Tamil Track List

Lyrics were penned by Udumalai Narayana Kavi and A. Maruthakasi.[2]

Bhavanarayana, producer of Meghasandesham suggested to Dukkipati Madhusudhana Rao to watch the Bengali film Agni Pariksha (1954). Madhusudhana bought the remake rights after being impressed with the film and approached Atreya to write the screenplay and dialogues for the film. One of the major changes the maker brought in was while in the original version the girl's father dies of shock, in Mangalya Balam, his character was retained till the last frame. Mangalya Balam was said to be the first Telugu film to shoot in Ooty and it was also Savitri's first visit to the hill town. The Tamil version Manjal Mahimai was simultaneously made retaining all the leading actors and technicians with two changes to the cast – K. A. Thangavelu and K. Balaji replacing Relangi and Ramanamurthy respectively.[1]

Mangalya Balam was released on 7 January 1959 and for the first time in the history of Telugu cinema, the hundred days function was held in an open arena, the Municipal High School grounds, Vijayawada with thousands of cine-fans participating and presided over by the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy. Manjal Mahimai was released on 14 January 1959 and ran for a hundred days.[1]

National Film Awards

• National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu – 1959[3]

• Mangalya Balam at IMDb