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Movie Retrospect
Retrospect : Illarikam completes 50 years
By Sri
May 2, 2009 - 5:53:32 AM

Jamuna, ANR in Illarikam

 Prasad Art Productions
Illarikam (1959)

Technical:
35 mm
Black and White
Reels: 17
Duration: 2 hrs 32 minutes

Cast:
Akkineni Nageswara Rao ... Venu
Jamuna ... Radha
Gummadi Venkateswara Rao ... Zamindar
Relangi Venkatramayya ... Brahmanandam
Hemalatha ... Sundaramma, Zamindar's wife
C.S.R. Anjaneyulu ... Govindayya
R. Nageswara Rao ... Sadanandam/Seshagiri
Bala ... Savithri
Girija ... Kanakadurga
T.G. Kamala ... Zamindar's sister
Allu Ramalingaiah ... Panakalu
Ramana Reddy ... Dharmayya
Boddapati ... Dancemaster
Other cast: Peketi Sivaram, Vijayalakshmi, Surabhi Kamalabai, Lakshmi, Leelarani, Paladugu, etc.

Story: Vempati Sadasivabrahmam
Dialogues: Arudra
Music: T. Chalapathi Rao
Playback: Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao, P. Susheela, P.G. Krishnaveni (Jikki), Madhavapeddi Satyam
Lyrics: Arudra, SreeSree, Kosaraju Raghavayya Chowdary
Camera: A. Vincent
Editing: A. Sanjeevi
Associate Directors: K. Pratyagatma, Koganti Gopalakrishna
Assistant Director: Tatineni Rama Rao (debut)
Producer: Anumolu Venkata Subbarao
Screenplay, Direction: Tatineni Prakasha Rao

Songs:
aDigindaaniki cheppi eduraaDaka praSnanu vippi...
Playback: Ghantasala, P. Susheela
Lyrics: Kosaraju Raghavaiah Chowdary
Cast: A.N.R., Jamuna, and others

ekkaDi dongalu akkaDanE gapchip!...
Playback: Ghantasala
Lyrics: SreeSree
Cast: A.N.R., Jamuna
(The tune was based on Rafi's popular song tumsaa nahi dEkhaa... from the 1957 Hindi film Tumsa Nahi Dekha featuring Shammi Kapoor and Ameeta.)

chEtulu kalasina chappaTlu, manasulu kalasina mucchaTlu...
Playback: Ghantasala, Madhavapeddi Satyam, P. Susheela
Lyrics: Arudra
Cast: A.N.R., Jamuna, Relangi, and others

nEDu Sreevaariki mEmanTE paraakaa?
Playback: Ghantasala, P. Susheela
Lyrics: Arudra
Cast: A.N.R., Jamuna

madhupaatra nimpavOyii...
Playback: Jikki, Chorus
Lyrics: Arudra
Cast: Girija

bhalE chance-lE...
Playback: Madhavapeddi Satyam
Lyrics: Kosaraju Raghavayya Chowdary
Cast: Relangi, Peketi Sivaram

niluvavE vaalukanula daanaa!...
Playback: Ghantasala
Lyrics: Kosaraju Raghavayya Chowdary
Cast: A.N.R., Jamuna

Story:
Venu (Akkineni Nageswara Rao) completes his studies with the help of his maternal uncle. He falls in love with Radha (Jamuna), the daughter of a zamindar (Gummadi Venkateswara Rao) and gets married to her eventually and stays in their house. The zamindar's wife Sundaramma (Hemalatha) does not like all this happening and insults him a couple of times indirectly. Govindayya (C.S.R.) creates problems between Venu and Radha enough to separate them. How Venu solves all the problems is rest of the story.

About the film:

  • This is the 74th film for Nageswara Rao, and the first straight Telugu film for the producer A.V. Subbarao. Being a good friend of the actor-director L.V. Prasad, he named the production house after his friend.
  • K. Pratyagatma, and Koganti Gopalakrishna (of Lakshmana Rekha), were associate directors for the film and Tatineni Ramarao was a debutant assistant director for this film - all of them later earned appreciable popularity as directors later. L.V. Prasad's brother Sanjeevi was the editor for this film. Later, he too turned a director and made films like Akka Chellelu and Jai Jawan with ANR, and a critically acclaimed yet flopped Illaalu with Geethanjali in the lead.
  • Surabhi Kamalabai, a popular stage artiste from the coveted 'Surabhi' theatrical troupe and erstwhile lead actress who also played NTR's mother in Pathala Bhairavi reappeared after a long time in this film.


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  • Bapu's cartoons of the film's scenes on the billboards was a new wave marketing technique. Arudra's dialogues were big assets to the film.
  • Another plus point of the film is its lilting music. The songs niluvavE vaalukanula daanaa... and nEDu Sreevaariki mEmanTE paraakaa?... are evergreen hits and are remembered to this day contextually or otherwise, even though 50 years passed since they were first heard!
  • The Hindi version Sasuraal, produced by L.V. Prasad and starring Rajendra Kumar and B. Saroja Devi, popular to this day for the Rafi's song tErii pyaarii pyaarii soorat kO..., grossed ten times that of the Telugu counterpart!
  • The film celebrated 100 days in 23 centers, out of which 17 recorded straight run of 100 days. Vijayawada, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Nellore, Rajahmundry, Machilipatnam, Kakinada, Amalapuram, Bhimavaram, Tenali, Eluru, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Warangal, Kurnool, Vijayanagaram, Chirala, Gudivada, Tanuku, Srikakulam, Kadapa, Ananthapuram, and Bellary were the 23 centers.
  • Jamuna even signed to repeat her role in Hindi, but she was replaced with B. Saroja Devi later, as she was facing troubled times then. As a compensation, Jamuna was offered five films!
  • The film was released in Andhra by Navayuga, and in Mysore by Rajashri Films.

    Jamuna, ANR in Illarikam

    ANR on the movie:
    The film was a big commercial success at that time. After completing the film, I didn't like the concept of the song niluvavE vaalukanula daanaa..., since it seemed to portray the film's hero in a Zorro outfit teasing his own wife, and that this was not appropriate. I even asked the producer Subbarao gaaru to cut that song out and that I'd compensate for all the expenses incurred for the song. The director was very insistent that people would like the song and pronounced that he'd not let it be taken off! His judgment proved right and the song became a super duper hit and helped the film's run a lot too, not to mention that it's still popular today! (The song was recently remixed too, in Gopichand-starrer Lakshyam. Also, the song daachaalanTE daagadulE... from the NTR-Krishnakumari starrer 1963 film Lakshadhikari is also based in quite a similar context and also has music score by T. Chalapathi Rao too, coincidental as it may seem.)

    •

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    Jamuna
    Jamuna recollects Illarikam...
    This film was my first on Prasad Arts banner. Songs like nEDu Sreevaariki mEmanTE paraakaa?..., ekkaDi dongalu akkaDanE gapchip!..., and niluvavE vaalukanula daanaa!... were super duper hits. My hairstyle and dresses in the film caught on at that time as a craze too! We had to go through a lot of trouble for (curly) hairstyling at that time when wigs were not used, and our troubles and long hours of makeup seemed worthy at last! 1959 was lucky for me with three super hits in a row in the form of Appu Chesi Pappu Koodu, Illarikam, and Maa Inti Mahalakshmi. I also worked for Sathyanarayana gaari debut film Sipaayi Koothuru in the same year! That film didn't fared well though but stayed as a good memory.

    Tatineni Ramarao speaks...

    I entered the film industry with this film. I joined as an assistant director to Prakash Rao gaaru in this film. He was very busy, and attended the story sittings now and then, but we three (K. Pratyagatma, K. Gopalakrishna, and I) attended the story discussions regularly with the writer Sadasivabrahmam gaaru. We shot three songs at Mahabalipuram: chEtulu kalasina chappaTlu..., niluvavE vaalukanula daanaa!..., ekkaDi dongalu akkaDanE gapchip!...)

    Edited by: NaChaKi
    Article by: Sri Atluri



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