''Prema'' () is a 1952 Indian

romance film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

, produced and directed by P. S. Ramakrishna Rao under the Bharani Studios banner. The film is simultaneously made in

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 ...

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

languages, the latter titled ''Kaadhal''. It stars

P. Bhanumathi P. Bhanumathi Ramakrishna (7 September 1925 – 24 December 2005) was an Indian actress, singer, film producer, director, music composer, and novelist. She is regarded as the first female super star of Telugu cinema. She is also considered the ...

and

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 ...

with music composed by

C. R. Subburaman C. R. Subbaraman also known as C. S. Ram (1916–1952) was a famous South Indian film music composer and producer. He was born to Ramasamy at Chintamani village in Thirunelveli, in present-day Tamil Nadu. Music director Shankar of Shankar–Gan ...

. Bhanumathi wrote the story, for the first time.

Plot

Raja (Akkineni Nageswara Rao) accompanies his rich maternal uncle Sundara Rao (Doraswamy) to a hill resort to help the latter recoup his health. There he falls in love with Moti (Bhanumathi), a tribal woman, and she too responds. A tribal goon Parasuram (Mukkamala) is after Moti. One night, Sundara Rao suddenly develops chest pain and Raja rushes him to a city hospital. Moti's parents, Khaderao (K.V. Subba Rao) and mother Bansi (Surabhi Kamala Bai) fix her marriage with Parasuram. Moti manages to escape. Meanwhile, Raja returns to the village, and, on knowing that Moti's marriage is being performed with Parasuram, is dejected and leaves for the city. Moti, who is now in the city with the hope of meeting Raja, sees him with Latha (Sriranjani), daughter of Sundara Rao, and assumes they are married. Crestfallen, she runs madly in the streets and meets with a car accident. Sivaswamy (CSR), a beggar, saves her and takes her to his house. A drama contractor Raoji (Relangi) and his assistant (Sivarao) take Moti into their troupe and train her for the title role of Sakunthala in their drama. Raja and Latha attend the drama. The two lovers, Moti and Raja exchange notes about their single status, and their love blossoms again. Latha and Sundara Rao plot to separate them and succeed in their attempt. Moti sacrifices her love for Latha and leaves for her village. Parasuram kills her when she refuses to yield to him and is in turn killed by her friend Chimli. Raja gets to know the truth from Latha and rushes to the village to meet Moti. Latha follows him. Both pay their homage to Moti.

Cast

* Bhanumathi as Mothi * Nageswara Rao as Raja ;Telugu * C.S.R as Sivaswamy * Relangi as Raoji * Mukkamala as Parasuram *

Kasturi Siva Rao Kasturi Siva Rao (6 March 1913 - 24 February 1966) was an Indian actor, comedian, playback singer, producer and director known for his works in Telugu cinema. He was one of the first star comedians of Telugu cinema.26lettersto24frames.wordpress. ...

as Raoji's Assistant *Doraiswamy as Sundara Rao * Suryakantham as Chimlli *

Sriranjani Sriranjani is a ragam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is a hexatonic scale (''shadava'' rāgam, which means "of six"). It is a derived scale (''janya'' rāgam), as it does not have all the seven ''swaras' ...

as Latha * Surabhi Kamalabai as Omvssi ;Tamil * Mukkamala as Parasuram * Sriranjani Jr. as Latha * Relangi as Raoji * C. S. R. as Sivaswami * Siva Rao as Assistant * Sooryakantham as Chimili *Duraiswami as Sundara Rao * Surabhi Kamalabai as Bansi *K.V. Subba Rao as Kate Rao *A. L. Narayana as Watchman *K. S. Angamuthu as Jagathambal

Soundtrack

Music was composed by

. Lyrics were by Kondamudi Goparaya Sarma. ;Telugu ;Tamil Lyrics were by K. D. Santhanam.

References

Bibliography

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 0263548, Kaadhal 1950s Tamil-language films 1950s Telugu-language films 1952 films Films directed by P. S. Ramakrishna Rao Films scored by C. R. Subbaraman Indian black-and-white films Indian multilingual films Indian romance films