Rojulu Marayi

The film begins in a village where Zamindar Sagaraiah (C.S.R), a materialistic and devious man grants loans for the farmers at a high interest and grabs their lands with the help of Karanam Sambaiah (Ramana Reddy) and a goon Polaiah (Relangi). Kotayya (Perumallu), an honest peasant leads a happy family life with his wife (Hemalatha), son Venu (Akkineni Nageswara Rao) and daughter Bharati (Ammaji). Kotayya is most loyal to Sagaraiah but Venu always confronts his atrocities. Meanwhile, Kotayya decides to couple up Bharati with Venu's close friend Gopalam (Vallam Narasimha Rao) when his father Venkatadri insists dowry and helpless Kotayya requests a loan from Sagaraiah. Exploiting the situation, Sagaraiah wants to mortgage his property to which Venu refuses and a rift arises between father and son. Moreover, Venu loves Radha (Sowkar Janaki), the daughter of a retired army soldier Ratnam (Seetaram) who is ostracized from the village. Knowing it, Sambaiah aggravates Kotayya, as a result, Venu leaves the house and marries Radha. Right now, Venu collaborates all the peasants and decides to perform collective farming for which he sends a petition to collectorate. Keeping the grudge in mind, Sagaraiah suffers Venu a lot but he stands up with courage and moves forward. Thereafter, District Collector (A. V. Subba Rao) arrives for the inspection where Venu breaks out the offenses of Sagaraiah and Sambaiah and sanctions wastelands for cultivation. Nevertheless, Sagaraiah creates many obstacles to them which Venu gamely encounters. Distressed, Sagaraiah strikes and necks out Polaiah for his inability when Venu embraces and reforms him. At present, Sagaraiah ploys to spoil Bharati's match when Radha resolves the conflict with her amicable. So, as a home straight, Sagaraiah forces Kotayya to stop nuptial when he too revolts against him. During the time of marriage, Sagaraiah intrigues and attacks on the wedding procession and Venu rescues them. Just before, Sagaraiah also blasts the reservoir when the crop is about to flood out. At last, the entire village unites together safeguards it, cease Sagaraiah and get him arrested. The film ends with the marriage of Gopalam and Bharati and Kotayya inviting back Venu and Radha.

Film cast is referenced from the The Hindu article.[2]

• Akkineni Nageswara Rao as Venu
• Sowcar Janaki as Radha
• C.S.R as Sagaraiah
• Relangi as Polaiah
• Ramana Reddy as Karanam Sambaiah
• Perumallu as Kotaiah
• Seetaram as Ratnam
• Vallam Narasimha Rao as Gopalam
• A. V. Subba Rao Jr. as District Collector
• C. Hemalatha Devi as Venu's mother
• Ammaji as Bharathi[3]
• Waheeda Rehman as a dancer in the song "Eruvaaka Sagaroranno Chinnanna"

Sixteen years after making Raithu Bidda (1939), a film which dealt with the hardships faced by poor peasants under the zamindari rule, the production house Saradhi Studios decided to make another film dealing with similar issues, titled Rojulu Marayi. The producer of the film was C. V. R. Prasad, who also wrote the screenplay with Kondepudi Lakshminarayana and Tapi Chanakya, who was named director. The cinematography was handled by Kamal Ghosh, and editing by Tilak and Akkineni Sanjeevi. Filming took place prominently at the Dandumitta village. When shooting for the film was almost complete, Prasad felt that a celebration song set after the film's harvest scene would add colour to the black-and-white film. Lyricist Kosaraju Raghavaiah remembered a song he had written for producer Thottempudi Ramaiah's shelved film Paleru, that was composed by Venu. Chanakya and Prasad liked the lyrics and the tune,[2][4] and Vedantam Jagannatha Sarma suggested Waheeda Rehman, then a dancer, to the makers. She was signed on a remuneration of ₹500 (equivalent to ₹44,000 or US$610 in 2019) for being the dancer in the song, "Eruvaaka Sagaroranno Chinnanna",[2] and Rojulu Marayi thus marked her feature film debut.[5]

The soundtrack was composed by Master Venu.[6] "Eruvaaka Sagaroranno Chinnanna" was inspired by the folk song "Ayyo Koyyoda", popularised by Valluri Jagannatha Rao. It was later adapted into many other songs, such as "Summa Kidantha Sothuku Nashtam" from the Tamil film Madurai Veeran (1956) and "Dekhne Me Bhola Hai Mera Salona" from the Hindi film Bombai Ka Babu (1960).[2]

Rojulu Marayi was released on 14 April 1955.[2] The film ran for over 25 weeks in theatres, thereby becoming a silver jubilee film.[7] Its 100th day functions were held in the Hyderabad-based Rajeswar theatre and Konda Venkata Ranga Reddy, then the Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, presided over the function. The film was later remade in Tamil as Kaalam Maari Pochi (1956), where "Eruvaaka Sagaroranno Chinnanna" was re-used as "Yerupooti Povaye Anne Sinnanne", with Waheeda Rehman returning as dancer.[2]

• Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul, eds. (1998) [1994]. Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (PDF). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-563579-5.

• Rojulu Marayi at IMDb