Misplaced Pages

Poola Rangadu
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Adurthi Subba Rao
Written by	Ranganayakamma (dialogues)
Screenplay by	Adurthi Subba Rao
Story by	Mullapudi Venkata Ramana
Based on	Beyond This Place by A. J. Cronin
Produced by	D. Madhusudhana Rao
Starring	Akkineni Nageswara Rao Jamuna Sobhan Babu Vijaya Nirmala
Cinematography	P. S. Selvaraj
Edited by	T. Krishna
Music by	S. Rajeswara Rao
Production company	Annapurna Pictures
Release date	24 November 1967 (1967-11-24)
Running time	165 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Poola Rangadu is a 1967 Indian Telugu-language crime drama film, produced by D. Madhusudhana Rao under Annapurna Pictures and directed by Adurthi Subba Rao and produced by D. Madhusudhana Rao. It stars Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Jamuna, Sobhan Babu, Vijaya Nirmala, with music composed by S. Rajeswara Rao. The film, loosely based on A. J. Cronin's novel Beyond This Place, was released on 24 November and became a box office success. It was remade in Tamil in 1970 as En Annan and in Hindi in 1972 as Jeet.

Plot

Ranga Rao is a carefree jovial person and is better known as Poola Rangadu. He makes a living pulling horse carts and is in love with Venkatalakshmi. When both he and his sister were children, their father Veerayya used to work as a manager at a mill, owned by Purushotham. Purushotham was murdered by his business partners Dharma Rao and Chalapathi. Veerayya is framed by them and is sentenced to life imprisonment leaving his children completely helpless. Despite hardships, Ranga has managed to raise his sister Padma with great care and loves her very much. Venkatalakshmi's no-good brother, Narasimhulu, has an eye for Padma, but she falls in love with Dr. Prasad. Ranga gets her married to the doctor. However, he happens to be the son of Purushotham. A vengeful Narasimhulu uses the fact that Padma is Purushotham's alleged murderer Veerayya's daughter to poison her mother-in-law against her who promptly throws the now pregnant Padma out of the house. Ranga becomes furious at this and beats up Narasimhulu. This ends up getting Ranga arrested and he is sent to prison for a year. In jail, Ranga bumps into his father who tells him about how he was framed. Once his one-year sentence is up, Ranga decides to prove his father's innocence at all cost. With this intention, he makes his way into Dharma Rao's house where he cleverly stirs up trouble between Dharma Rao and Chalapathi. Through various schemes, Ranga finally manages to prove his father's innocence. Padma is reunited with her husband and Ranga marries Venkatalakshmi.

Cast

• Akkineni Nageswara Rao as Ranga Rao
• Jamuna as Venkata Lakshmi
• Sobhan Babu as Dr. Prasad
• Vijaya Nirmala as Padma
• V. Nagayya as Veeraiah
• Gummadi as Dharma Rao
• Allu Ramalingaiah as Police Punaiah
• Padmanabham as Bujji
• Chalam as Narasimhulu
• Bhanu Prakash as Chalapathi
• Suryakantham as Baby
• Malathi as Prasad's mother
• Geetanjali as Lilly
• Radha Kumari as Punaiah's wife

Production

Producer D. Madhusudhana Rao sought to work on the adaptation of the A. J. Cronin novel Beyond This Place, on the suggestion of Gollapudi Maruti Rao. He hired Mullapudi Venkata Ramana to write the story taking a basic plot point from the novel while Ranganayakamma provided the dialogues. Prisons scenes were shot at real locations at Chanchalguda and Musheerabad Central Prisons in Hyderabad with the permission of the state government. Though the film was predominantly shot in black-and-white, the "Nee Jilugu Paita" song sequence alone was in colour.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by S. Rajeswara Rao.

Release and reception

Griddaluru Gopalrao of Zamin Ryot, in his review dated 1 December 1967, criticised the film for its poor direction and performances. The film ran for more than 100 days in 11 centres in Andhra Pradesh.

Awards

Mullapudi Venkata Ramana won the Nandi Award for Second Best Story Writer (1967).

References

1. APK (11 October 2007). "Poolarangadu (1967)". CineGoer. Archived from the original on 22 April 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
2. ^ Narasimham, M. L. (6 July 2018). "Poola Rangadu (1967)". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
3. "Poolarangadu (1967)-Song_Booklet". Indiancine.ma. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
4. Gopalrao, Griddaluru (1 December 1967). "అభిప్రాయం: పూల రంగడు" [Opinion: Poola Rangadu] (PDF). Zamin Ryot (in Telugu). p. 9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
5. Ram (14 January 2007). "Sobhanbabu's 100 Days Films List". CineGoer. Archived from the original on 27 September 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
6. "నంది అవార్డు విజేతల పరంపర (1964–2008)" [A series of Nandi Award Winners (1964–2008)] (PDF) (in Telugu). Information & Public Relations of Andhra Pradesh. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2020.

External links

• Poola Rangadu at IMDb 

• 1967 films
• 1960s crime drama films
• 1970s Indian films
• 1970s Telugu-language films
• Films about miscarriage of justice
• Films based on works by A. J. Cronin
• Films directed by Adurthi Subba Rao
• Films partially in color
• Films scored by S. Rajeswara Rao
• Films set in India
• Films set in prison
• Films shot in Hyderabad, India
• Indian black-and-white films
• Indian crime drama films
• Telugu films remade in other languages