''Illarikam'' () is a 1959 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 comedy drama film directed by

T. Prakash Rao Tatineni Prakash Rao (24 November 1924 – 1 July 1992) was an Indian film director and screenwriter who worked in Telugu cinema, Telugu, Hindi cinema, Hindi, and Tamil cinema, Tamil films. In a career spanning nearly four decades, he directed ov ...

. It stars

Akkineni Nageswara Rao Akkineni Nageswara Rao (20 September 1923 – 22 January 2014), widely known as ANR, was an Indian actor and producer, known for his works majorly in Telugu cinema. He starred in many landmark films in his seventy five-year career, and became on ...

and Jamuna, with music composed by

T. Chalapathi Rao Tatineni Chalapathi Rao (22 December 1920 – 22 February 1994) was an Indian music composer who worked in Telugu cinema. His career spanned more than three decades from early 1950s, till 1980s. He was the cousin of T. Prakash Rao. Early life ...

. It was produced by A. V. Subba Rao under the

Prasad Art Pictures Prasad Art Productions or Prasad Art Pictures Private Limited is a movie production house in South India. They produced about 20 films, mostly in Telugu language, Telugu. The company headed by Anumolu Venkata Subba Rao. Their first film was '' ...

banner. The film had a Silver Jubilee run and was recorded as a ''Blockbuster'' at the box office. Illarikam literally means a bridegroom going to the bride's family and living permanently with them (

matrilocality In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Thus, the female offspring of a mother remain ...

); as against the custom of the bride going into the groom's family (

patrilocality In social anthropology, patrilocal residence or patrilocality, also known as virilocal residence or virilocality, are terms referring to the social system in which a married couple resides with or near the husband's parents. The concept of loca ...

). This custom is observed in some rich families where the bride is the only child to their parents. ''Illarikam'' was remade in four languages.

L. V. Prasad Akkineni Laxmi Vara Prasada Rao (17 January 1907 – 22 June 1994), known professionally as L. V. Prasad, was an Indian film director, producer, actor, and businessman. He was one of the pioneers of Indian cinema and is the recipient of the Dad ...

produced the Hindi version titled '' Sasural'' (1961), which T. Prakash Rao directed. A. V. Subbarao himself remade it in Kannada as ''

Mane Aliya ''Mane Aliya'' is a 1964 Indian Kannada-language film, directed by S. K. A. Chari and produced by A. V. Subba Rao. The film stars Kalyan Kumar, Jayalalitha, K. S. Ashwath and Balakrishna in the lead roles. The film has musical score by T. Ch ...

'' (1964), in Malayalam as ''

Kalithozhan ''Kalithozhan'' is a 1966 Indian Malayalam film, directed by M. Krishnan Nair and produced by A. V. Subbarao and L.V Prasad. The film stars Prem Nazir, Sheela, Sukumari and Adoor Bhasi in the lead roles. The film had musical score by G. De ...

'' (1966) and in Tamil as ''

Maadi Veettu Mappilai ''Maadi Veettu Mappillai'' () is a 1967 Indian Tamil-language comedy film, directed by S. K. A. Chari. A remake of the Telugu film ''Illarikam'' (1959), it stars Ravichandran and Jayalalithaa, with Nagesh, Rama Prabha, V. K. Ramasamy, Balaj ...

'' (1967). All these versions were box office hits.

Plot

Venu (Akkineni Nageswara Rao) is an orphan brought up by his maternal uncle Dharmayya (Ramana Reddy). He falls in love with the

Zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

's (Gummadi) daughter Radha (Jamuna). He married with a condition that Venu should live in their house, called ''Illarikam''. Due to status-consciousness, Sundaramma (Hemalatha), wife of the Zamindar, looks down on Venu and insults him indirectly. Govindayya (C. S. R. Anjaneyulu), cousin of Sundaramma and also manager of their mica factories creates problems between Venu and Radha because he plots to usurp the wealth. So, he brings his wayward son Seshagiri (R. Nageswara Rao) weaning him away from Kanakadurga (Girija), whom he had secretly married. Venu spots Kanakadurga, his presumed to be dead sister, while she was performing on stage. Not knowing they are siblings, Radha suspects Venu's fidelity. The villains try to cash in on their rift. When things are getting worse, Venu wears a Zorro-like guise, teaches Govindayya and his son a lesson, and paves the way for a happy family reunion.

Cast

as Venu * Jamuna as Radha * Gummadi as Zamindar * Relangi as Brahmanandam *

Ramana Reddy Ramana Reddy (1 October 1921 – 11 November 1974) was an Indian character actor, comedian and producer known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. In a career spanning 24 years, he acted in more than 200 movies. Ramana Reddy and Relangi ...

as Dharmayya * C.S.R. as Govindayya * R. Nageswara Rao as Sadanandam/Seshagiri *

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 r ...

as Panakalu *

Peketi Sivaram Peketi Sivaram ( Telugu: పేకేటి శివరాం) (8 October 1918 – 30 December 2006) was an Indian actor and director.http://www.cinegoer.com/archives/december2006/peketi.htm Life sketch He was born on 8 October 1918 in Peker ...

Hemalatha Hemalatha, often credited as Hema, is an Indian actress and dancer. She is acclaimed for her roles as Raghavi in the popular soap opera '' Kana Kaanum Kaalangal'' on STAR Vijay and as Deepa in the superhit Tamil drama serial on Sun TV ''The ...

as Sundaramma * Girija as Kanakadurga *

T. G. Kamala Devi T. G. Kamala Devi (born Thota Govindamma; 29 December 1930 – 16 August 2012), also known as Kamala Chandra Babu, was an Indian dubbing artist, playback singer and actor who primarily contributed to Telugu cinema as well as a few Tamil film ...

as Zamindar's sister *Bala as Savithri * Surabhi Kamalabai * Boddapati

Production

After releasing the dubbed version of the Tamil film ''Uthamaputhiran'' in Telugu, A. V. Subbarao announced his next project ''Illarikam'', with Nageswara Rao, based on the story of Vemapti Sadasivabrahmam. Jamuna was selected to pair with ANR. The pair had earlier collaborated in ''

Nirupedalu ''Nirupedalu'' () is a 1954 Indian Telugu-language drama film, produced by Donepudi Krushna Murthy under the Gokul Pictures banner and directed by T. Prakash Rao. It stars Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Jamuna, with music composed by T. V. Raju. Plot ...

'' (1954). Nageswara Rao suggested to remove the song "Niluvave Vaalu Kanuladaana" as he felt the audience may not like the teasing song, as by then the heroine had realised the truth, but the producer and the director felt otherwise. After its release, seeing the audience response to that song, Nageswara Rao conceded that he was wrong. T. Rama Rao started his career as an assistant director with ''Illarikam''.

Music

Music was composed by

Remakes

''Illarikam'' was remade in four languages. L. V. Prasad produced the Hindi version titled '' Sasural'' (1961), which T. Prakash Rao directed. A. V. Subbarao himself remade it in Kannada as ''

'' (1964), in Malayalam as ''

'' (1966) and in Tamil as ''

'' (1967). All these versions were box office hits.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0254403 1950s Telugu-language films 1959 comedy-drama films 1959 films Films directed by T. Prakash Rao Films scored by T. Chalapathi Rao Indian black-and-white films Indian comedy-drama films Telugu films remade in other languages