Mangalya Balam

Mangalya Balam is a 1958 Telugu family drama film, directed by Adurthi Subba Rao. The film dealt with the institution of marriage. The film was made simultaneously with Tamil as Manjal Mahimai (Tamil: மஞ்சள் மகிமை) and released on 14 January 1959. In 1967 it was later remade with slight changes to the plot in Hindi as Choti si mulaqat starring Vyjayanthimala and Uttam Kumar.

Bhavanarayana, producer of Meghasandesham suggested Dukkipati Madhusudhana Rao to watch the Bengali film Agni Pariksha (1954). Madhusudhana bought the remake rights after being impressed with the film and approached Atreya to write the screenplay and dialogues for the film. One of the major changes the maker brought in was while in the original version the girl’s father dies of shock, in Mangalyabalam his character was retained till the last frame. Mangalyabalam was said to be the first Telugu film to shoot in Ooty and it was also Savitri’s first visit to the hill town. The Tamil version Manjal Mahimai was simultaneously made retaining all the leading actors and technicians with two changes to the cast – Thangavelu and Balaji replacing Relangi and Ramanamurthy respectively.

The music was composed by Master Venu. He borrowed only one tune from the Bengali film’s composer Anupam Ghatak, for the song "penu cheekataye lokam" from its original version "ke tumi amare dako".

Lyrics were by Udumalai Narayana Kavi. Playback singers are Ghantasala, S. C. Krishnan, P. Suseela, Jikki & K. Jamuna Rani.

Telugu songs
The Telugu songs were written by Sri Sri. Playback singers are Ghantasala, Madhavapeddi Satyam, P. Suseela, Jikki & K. Jamuna Rani.