The first production of Kondandapani Films (produced by SPB) had great expectations to start with. The technical expertise poured into this movie is just the best in industry. Viswanath/Kamal/SPB/Sriram(camera)/Aamani (she is really promising).
The movie goes around a landlord called Rayudu (Viswanath) who is benovelent enough to give away all his riches to the laborers of his fishing farm. Kamal is a 'bestha' guy, who falls in love with Ganga (Amani), a carpenter girl. Rayudu gets them both married. Rayudu's son is a bad guy, a prey to Kota Srinivasa Rao's black-traps. Fearing his evil son, Rayudu leaves a big cash box, intended to construct a colony for fisher-men, with Kamal.
The baddies around the son spoil the son much more, and son lands in a debt running in lacs. They plot to snatch money from Kamal's house, when he is not there. In an attempt to safe-guard the money, Amani and Nirmalamma get injured badly. Hearing this Rayudu gets heart-attack. When he is being survived by doctors, Amani and Nirmalamma die in city. Kamal keeps the death news secret in his village. Everyone expects Amani to be back, including Rayudu. The D-day comes where the colony is fully built, and puja should be performed to give away the houses for the poor. Rayudu wants Kamal and Amani to perform the puja, and manage the rest from then. Now Kamal breaks his silence by performing puja with his wife's ashes. The villagers burst, and Rayudu is depressed (but understands soon). Rayudu's Grand daughter is in love with Kamal, but doesn't marry him as Kamal still loves Amani. The girl takes Kamal's baby boy to America till he is around 7 years old. She leaves back the boy with Kamal, who now is the main person managing Rayudu's farm, while still fishing with others.
The story misses grip immediatly after the first half when Amani dies. The Camera is fantastic, especially the boat chase for the money box, is made very well. Screenplay isn't very gripping, in a way we feel that the scenic drama/action part of it is overdone at times. Amani is good, Kamal is great as usual. Some dances are like pasted for no reason. Songs are good. All of the songs were first written, then tunes were composed. But, the literary musical sounds aren't used well in the songs. Most of the songs are finished in first half.
The film was expected to do like Swathi Muthyam, but obviously missing the quality and freshness in treatment. I guess it was a pass at box-office in class centers.
Article posted to Soc.culture.tamil by Balaji, Original poster : Pramod Kumar in soc.culture.indian.telugu
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