''Chenchu Lakshmi'' is a 1958 Indian bilingual

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 language Hindu mythological film, produced and directed by

B. A. Subba Rao Bugata Venkata Subba Rao, better known as B. A. Subba Rao (died 1987), was an Indian film director and producer who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema. He is recipient of Raghupathi Venkaiah Award for his lifetime contribution to Telugu cinem ...

. It stars Akkineni Nageswara Rao 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

S. Rajeswara Rao Saluri Rajeswara Rao (11 October 1922 – 25 October 1999) was an Indian composer, multi instrumentalist, conductor, singer, and music producer known for his works predominantly in South Indian cinema.M. L. Narasimham"Trend-setter in Light Music ...

. It was simultaneously shot in Telugu and Tamil, most of the scenes and artists are same in both the versions, it was also made earlier in 1943 with different cast and crew.

Plot

The film is based on the Hindu puranic story which begins with the marriage ceremony of

Lord Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Prese ...

(Akkineni Nageswara Rao) & Goddess Lakshmi (Anjali Devi). During this, Sage

Durvasa In Hindu scriptures, Durvasa ( sa, दुर्वासा, ) also known as Durvasas (Sanskrit: दुर्वासस्), is a legendary rishi (sage). He is the son of Anasuya and Atri. According to some Puranas, Durvasa is a partial av ...

(Gummadi) becomes furious as he is uninvited. So, he curses Mahalakshmi's parents, Samudra (E. R. Sahadevan) & his wife (Sandhya) to born as tribals. After some time, Vishnu kills Hiranyaksha, donning Varaha avatar. Learning it, his brother Hiranyakasipa (S. V. Ranga Rao) a ferocious, performs a huge penance. Exploiting it, Indra kidnaps his pregnant wife Leelavathi (Pushpavalli) to destroy his heir. Thereupon, Sage

Narada Narada ( sa, नारद, ), or Narada Muni, is a sage divinity, famous in Hindu traditions as a travelling musician and storyteller, who carries news and enlightening wisdom. He is one of mind-created children of Brahma, the creator god. He ...

(Relangi) safeguards her at his ''Ashram'' where he sculpts Prahlada (Master Babji) on her womb as an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. Meanwhile, Hiranyakasipa succeeds in his penance and gets a boon from Lord Brahma that absence of death of any weapon, human, animal, demon, or divinity. Now, he occupies Indra the entire universe and moves in search of Vishnu who absconds along with Lakshmi. At present, Vishnu transforms the glow of Lakshmi into fruit and plants it on a tree. Parallelly, Samudra & his wife take birth as the tribals but they are perturbed as childless. So, Sage Narada makes a play, by bestowing them the fruit of Lakshmi's glow when the couple is blessed with a baby girl Chenchita (again Anjali Devi). Besides, Prahlada worships Vishnu reaches esteem and Hiranyakasipa makes several attempts to bar him but fails. Ultimately, he challenges to show his God when Vishnu appears from the pillar as Lord Narasimha ''half man & half lion'' and slays Hiranyakasipa. Here, Narasimha still raging with fury and no one could make him calm including Lakshmi because she does not contain the glow. During that plight, Narasimha is acquainted with the fearless Chenchita one that subsides his anger and turns into the handsome Narahari. Currently, they fall in love and couples up. Being cognizant of it, enraged Lakshmi displays grievance when both the wives squabble. At last, Narada affirms Chenchita as her glow when they conjoin and Samudra & his wife are also relieved from the curse. Finally, the movie ends on a happy note with the reunion of Lord Vishnu & Goddess Lakshmi at Vaikuntha.

Cast

Telugu Cast

* Akkineni Nageswara Rao as Lord

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within ...

as Goddess

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...

& Chenchita (Dual role) * S. V. Ranga Rao as

Hiranyakashipu Hiranyakashipu (; also known as Hiranyakashyap) was an Asura king of the '' daityas'' from the Puranic scriptures of Hinduism. His name literally translates to "clothed in gold" (''hiranya'' "gold" ''kashipu'' "soft cushion"), and is often i ...

* Gummadi as

* Relangi as Narada Maharshi * Nagabhushanam as Lord

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hin ...

*E. R. Sahadevan as Samudrudu * Vangara as Chandamarkula *

Rushyendramani Rushyendramani (1 January 1917 – 17 August 2002) was an Indian actress, singer, dancer, and playback singer from South India. She had more than 150 movies to her credit and acted in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi films from the 193 ...

*Sandhya as Queen of the Chenchus *

Pushpavalli Pushpavalli (3 January 1926 – 28 April 1991) was an Indian actress who predominently worked in Telugu and Tamil films. She entered the film industry as a child actress with a small role as young Sita in the film ''Sampoorna Ramayanam'' (1936 ...

as Leelavathi *

E. V. Saroja E. V. Saroja (1935 - 2006) was an Indian actress and dancer. She was born on 3 November 1935 as Engan V. Saroja. She belonged to Engan village of Thiruvarur district, Tamil Nadu. Her debut film was '' En Thangai'' in 1952 starring M. G. Ramacha ...

as Dancer *Master Babji as

Prahlada Prahlada () is an asura king in Hindu mythology. He is known for his staunch devotion towards the preserver deity, Vishnu. He appears in the narrative of Narasimha, the man-lion avatar of Vishnu, who rescues Prahlada by slaying his wicked fa ...

Tamil Cast

A. 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 ...

as Lord

as Goddess

/Chenchita * S. V. Ranga Rao as

as Leelavathi * K. A. Thangavelu as Saint Narada Maharshi *E. R. Sahadevan as King of the Chenchus *Sandhya as Queen of the Chenchus * Nagabhushanam as Lord

*C. V. V. Panthulu as

Vangara Venkata Subbaiah Vangara Venkata Subbayya, better known as Vangara, was an actor of Telugu cinema. He acted in more than 100 films and in some plays. Early life He was born in Sangam Jagarlamudi near Tenali. He started his acting career in 1901 in the play ' ...

as Chandamarkula *A. V. Subba Rao *Nalla Rama Murthy *K. S. Angamuthu *Master Babji as

Soundtrack

Music was composed by

. All the tunes for all the songs for both languages are the same.

Tamil Songs

Lyrics by

Papanasam Sivan Paapanaasam Raamayya Sivan (26 September 1890 – 1 October 1973) was an Indian composer of Carnatic music and a singer. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1971. He was also a film score composer in Kannada cine ...

, Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass & M. S. Subramaniam.

The 1943 film

Chenchu Lakshmi was made in 1943 directed by S. Soundararajan and starring C. H. Narayana Rao and

Kamala Kotnis Kamala Kotnis was an Indian actress who played roles in Telugu and Hindi movies during the 1940s. She is also notable for being Dev Anand's first heroine in '' Hum Ek Hai'', released in 1946. Early life Kamala Kotnis was born as Kamalabai in ...

.Chenchu Lakshmi 1943 film at IMDb.
/ref>

References

External links

* * {{YouTube, FsDDotRG_34, Chenchu Lakshmi Tamil Titles
Listen to Chenchu Lakshmi songs at Telugufm.com.

Chenchu Lakshmi songs at Raaga.com
1950s Telugu-language films Indian multilingual films 1950s Tamil-language films 1958 films Indian black-and-white films Films about Hinduism Films directed by B. A. Subba Rao