Mutyala Muggu | |
---|---|
Directed by | Bapu |
Produced by | Maddali Venkata Lakshmi Narasimha Rao |
Written by |
Mullapudi Venkata Ramana Valmiki |
Starring |
Sreedhar Sangeeta Rao Gopal Rao Mukkamala Allu Ramalingaiah Kanta Rao |
Music by |
K. V. Mahadevan Sajjad Hussain |
Cinematography | Ishan Arya |
Distributed by | Sri Rama Chitra |
Running time
|
165 min |
Country | India |
Language | Telugu |
Mutyala Muggu is a 1975 Telugu drama film adaptation of Uttara Ramayana from the writer-director duo of Ramana and Bapu. The film stars Sreedhar, Sangeeta, Rao Gopal Rao, Mukkamala, Allu Ramalingaiah and Nutan Prasad. The film has garnered two National Film Awards.
Raja Rao Bahadur (Kanta Rao) is the head of a wealthy and charitable landlord family who has a young son Sreedhar. At his son's request, Rao helps his college friend (Hari) with the costs of higher education abroad. Hari is grateful and invites Sreedhar to his sister Laxmi's (Sangeeta) wedding in the village. Due to unusual circumstances, Sreedhar ends up marrying Lakshmi. This enrages Mukkamala who is the Raja's brother-in-law, who was hopeful of getting his daughter (Jaya Malini) married to Sreedhar.
What makes matters worse is that Laxmi wins over the royal household with her humility and good nature while Sreedhar falls in love with her innocence. She accidentally discovers a stash of the estate jewels in a well. Gurunatham and Mukkamala try to implicate the Priest. Laxmi suggests that since they do not know conclusively as to who stole jewels, they should spare the Priest. Mukkamala, at the suggestion of the estate manager Joginatham (Allu Ramalingiah), then approaches Contractor (Rao Gopala Rao). Contractor agrees to break up the couple. But Contractor eyes the entire estate and its valuables and he entraps Mukkamala. He uses Kishtaiyya (Nutan Prasad) and creates suspicion in Sreedhar's mind with a sinister plan. Sreedhar falls prey to his doubts, comes to the conclusion that Laxmi is cheating on him and is only interested in his wealth.
He sends off a pregnant Laxmi with all the family jewels. Laxmi gives the jewels off to Joginatham and decides to end her life. She is rescued by the Priest at whose house she gives birth to twins (a boy and a girl). Meanwhile, back at the estate, Sreedhar is depressed and loses interest in life and curses out Mukkamal when he proposes that Sreedhar should marry his daughter. Contractor then fixes up Kishtayya with Jaya Malini, and proceeds to squeeze Mukkamala out of his money. After that, he takes possession of several antiques that Joginatham was trying to sell.