Malliswari (Telugu Films)

MALLISWARI (1951) 

Malliswari is a 1951 Indian Telugu Language historical Romance film produced by B.Nagi Reddy under his banner Vauhini Studios. When the producer B.N.Reddy visited Vijayanagar (now known as Humpi) for shooting of his Directorial Debut film 'Vandemataram' (1939), he was awe struck about the grandeur of the architectural beauty of the place and the sanctity of The Virupaksha Swamy temple where Sri Krishna devaraya visited the temple with his family to worship the deity. He was so struck that he wanted to take a movie on the King and his period. From then on he was in search of a suitable story for the movie. The result is "Malliswari".It is a simple story well told and represented by excellence in all sectors of film-craft. Nagaraju and Malliswari, maternal cousins, are in love. Since Nagaraju hails from a poor family, Malli's mother is against the alliance. Nagaraju vows to become rich and marry her.He leaves the place to earn money, but when he returns, he finds that Malli has been sent to King Krishnadeva raya's palace (Ranivasam) by her ambitious mother. Silently suffering the pain, he turns a sculptor to do the work at the royal dance hall. There he meets Malli. Both are caught by the king's soldiers and imprisoned. The king learns about their love and unites them.
Being a stickler for perfection, B.N took care of every minute detail of story telling on the celluloid. BN' s ability to pull out a classic from such a simple story depended largely on his excellent technical team. The team consisted of the actors N.T.Rama Rao (as Nagaraju), Bhanumathi (as Malliswari), Sreevatsa (as Krishnadevaraya), Kumari (as Tirumala Devi), Nyapathi Raghava Rao (as Allasani Peddana), Rushyendramani (as Nagamma), Doraiswamy (as Narappa), Surabhi Kamalabai (as Govindamma), Vangara Venkatasubbaiah (as Hanumantappa).
Th official soundtrack of Malliswari was composed by S. Rajeswara Rao and the lyrics and the script were penned by Devulapalli Krishna Shastri. Bhanumati provided vocals for all songs featuring her character. Ghantasala recordered his voice for NTR. T.G.Kamala Devi was another singer.
Pasumathi Krishnamurthi was the choreographer..
The songs of the movie are evergreen and are favoutes of many even today.
Malliswari was released on 20 December 1951. Initially, it received a tepid response at the box office.However, ticket sales picked up due to positive word of of mouth and the film became commercially successful. Reddy re-released the film after a gap and it again received similar success.
Malliswari is an all-time classic of which the Telugu film industry is proud of.
LINKS:
Malliswari - Music Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist
Malliswari - Full Movie - https://youtu.be/2c4iaS4wxVs