''Badi Panthulu'' () is a 1972 Indian
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
-language
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
, produced by P. Perraju under the Triveni Productions banner and directed by P. Chandrasekhara Reddy. It stars
N. T. Rama Rao
Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (28 May 1923 – 18 January 1996), often referred to by his initials NTR, was an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who served as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for seven years over three terms. He starred ...
and
Anjali Devi
Anjali Devi (; 24 August 1927 – 13 January 2014) was an Indian actress, model and producer in Telugu and Tamil films. She was well known for her role as the Devi Sita in ''Lava Kusa'' as well as for the titular roles in movies like Chenchu ...
, with music composed by
K. V. Mahadevan
Krishnankoil Venkadachalam Mahadevan (14 March 1918 – 21 June 2001) was an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, and musician known for his works in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Telugu cinema, Telugu, Malayalam cinema, Malayalam, and Kann ...
. It is a remake of the
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
film ''
School Master'' (1958). The film was released on 22 November 1972 and became a commercial success, with Rama Rao winning the
Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu
The Filmfare Best Actor Award is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards South for Telugu cinema, Telugu films. The awards were extended to "Best Actor" in 1972.#Film world, Film world, p 43 The year indicates t ...
.
Plot
Raghava Rao, a noble school teacher, leads a happy family life with his ideal wife Janaki, two sons, and a daughter. Raghava Rao is transferred to his native village as a headmaster where he notices the children are completely undisciplined. He struggles hard and makes them straight including an impish boy Ramu who becomes his admirer and designates their school as ideal. Eventually, Raghava Rao's presence becomes a hurdle to the trespasses of school committee president Papa Rao, a fraudulent person. So, he sets fire to Raghava Rao's house when the school children unite together and built a house showing their adoration towards him. Years roll by, and Raghava Rao's children Satyam, Venu, and Lakshmi grew up, for their education, Raghava Rao forcibly takes a loan from Papa Rao. But they are not fair, Satyam marries Papa Rao's daughter Shanthi and Venu marries a rich girl Jaya without their parents' knowledge. After that, Raghava Rao strives hard, makes the marriage arrangements with a guy Pichaiah (Raja Babu), son of a miser Panakalu and for the expenses, hostages his house. During the time of marriage, Papa Rao lands and demands his debt, to keep up his honor Raghava Rao gives away the dowry amount. Learning it, Panakalu tries to stop the marriage, heretofore, it is completed. So, he takes a promissory note instead of a dowry and does not allow the couple to live together. Now the Raghava Rao couple is left alone, moreover, he retires when they have no other alternative except to live with their children. But their ungrateful children split the couple and leave the house for debts. Papa Rao brings it to auction when Ramu the old student of Raghava Rao purchases it. Meanwhile, the couple endures the separation, as well as horrible treatment from their children. Above Papa Rao reaches his daughter's house, attributes theft to Raghava Rao which he could not tolerate, and leaves the place. On the other side, Janakamma also abuses her daughter-in-law & her mother, so, she too proceeds. Both of them meet at the railway station, by that time, Papa Rao gives a police complaint, and Raghava Rao been arrested. Fortunately, there, Ramu appears as Police Officer who orders his men to take them to their village. Parallelly, Venu & Satyam realize their mistake, even Pichaiah teaches a lesson to his father, accompanies Lakshmi and all of them travel toward their parents. Therein, the Raghava Rao couple is surprised to see themselves in their house where Ramu gifts it to his beloved teacher. At last, Raghava Rao's children also arrive and seek their pardon. Finally, the movie ends on a happy note with the reunion of the entire family.
Cast
*
N. T. Rama Rao
Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (28 May 1923 – 18 January 1996), often referred to by his initials NTR, was an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who served as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for seven years over three terms. He starred ...
as Head Master Raghava Rao
*
Anjali Devi
Anjali Devi (; 24 August 1927 – 13 January 2014) was an Indian actress, model and producer in Telugu and Tamil films. She was well known for her role as the Devi Sita in ''Lava Kusa'' as well as for the titular roles in movies like Chenchu ...
as Janaki
*
Krishnam Raju
Uppalapati Venkata Krishnam Raju (20 January 1940 – 11 September 2022) was an Indian actor and politician. He was known for his works in Telugu cinema and was widely known as "''Rebel Star''" for his rebellious acting style. He was also the ...
as Venu
*
Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna Paramahansa ( bn, রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; , 18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886),——— — also spelled Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya,, was an In ...
as Satyam
*
Jaggayya
Kongara Jaggayya (31 December 1928 – 5 March 2004) was an Indian actor, littérateur, journalist, lyricist, dubbing artist and politician known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He was known as ''Kanchu Kantham J ...
as Ramu
*
Nagabhushanam as Papa Rao
*
Allu Ramalingaiah
Allu Ramalingaiah (1 October 1922 – 31 July 2004) was an Indian character actor, comedian, and producer known for his works in Telugu cinema. In 1990, He was honoured with the Padma Shri for his contribution to Indian cinema. In 1998, he rec ...
as Panakalu
*
Raja Babu as Pichaiah
*
Mikkilineni as Collector
*Dr. Sivaramakrishnaiah as Doctor
*
Raavi Kondala Rao
Raavi Kondala Rao (11 February 1932 – 28 July 2020) was an Indian actor, screenwriter, playwright, and journalist who worked in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He acted in over 400 films. He won Nandi Award for Best Story Writer for '' Pe ...
as Kanthaiah
*
Suryakantham
Suryakantam or Sooryakantam (pronounced sūryakāntam) is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the 17th ''melakarta'' rāgam (parent scale) in the 72 ''melakarta'' rāgam system of Carnatic music. I ...
as Rajamma
*
Sowcar Janaki
Sankaramanchi Janaki (born T. Janaki; 12 December 1931), popularly known as Sowcar Janaki (Tamil) or Shavukaru Janaki (Telugu) or Sahukar Janaki (Kannada), is an Indian actress who has appeared in over 300, films, predominantly in Tamil, Telug ...
as Radha
*
Vijayalalitha
Vijayalalitha or Vijaya Lalitha was an Indian actress who appeared in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films in the 1960s and 1970s. She is best known for her appearances in '' Rani Mera Naam'' (1972), ''Baazigar'' (1972) and '' Saaks ...
as Jaya
*
Jayanthi as Shanthi
*
Radha Kumari
Radha Kumari was an Indian veteran film actress who appeared in Telugu-language films. She acted in over 600 films in over four decades. She is well known for her humor and played mother or grandmother roles in most of her films.
Film career
R ...
as Panakalu's wife
*
T. Padmini as Lakshmi
*''Master'' Adinarayana as Young Ramu
*''Baby''
Sridevi
Shree Amma Yanger Ayyappan (13 August 1963 – 24 February 2018), professionally credited with her stage name Sridevi, was an Indian actress who worked in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada language films. Cited as the "First Female ...
as Raghava Rao's granddaughter
Production
''Badi Panthulu'' is a remake of the 1958
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
film ''
School Master'' (1958), itself based on the
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
novel ''Vaishnavi'' by
Kusumagraj
Vishnū Vāman Shirwādkar (27 February 1912 – 10 March 1999), popularly known by his pen name, Kusumāgraj, was an Marathi poet, playwright, novelist and short story writer, who wrote of freedom, justice and emancipation of the deprive ...
.
Soundtrack
Music composed by
K. V. Mahadevan
Krishnankoil Venkadachalam Mahadevan (14 March 1918 – 21 June 2001) was an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, and musician known for his works in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Telugu cinema, Telugu, Malayalam cinema, Malayalam, and Kann ...
.
Release and reception
''Badi Panthulu'' was released on 22 November 1972 and was a commercial success.
For his performance, Rama Rao won the
Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu
The Filmfare Best Actor Award is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards South for Telugu cinema, Telugu films. The awards were extended to "Best Actor" in 1972.#Film world, Film world, p 43 The year indicates t ...
.
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, tt0186847, Badi Panthulu
1972 films
1970s Telugu-language films
Indian black-and-white films
Telugu remakes of Kannada films
Films scored by K. V. Mahadevan
Films based on adaptations
Films directed by P. Chandrasekhara Reddy