Santha (1961 film)

Shanta (Anjali Devi) is a beautiful innocent village girl. Rangayya is a rich landlord. His eyes are on Shanta and he tries to molest her, in the process of protecting her, her father dies. While escaping from Rangayya, Shanta falls into the hands of a gangster, Dayanidhi but somehow she escapes from him also. On the way, she gets acquainted with Lawyer, Srinivas (N. T. Rama Rao), who gives her shelter in his house. Srinivas is a widower, his son Kumar thinks of Shanta as his mother. Shanta takes care of Kumar with love and affection. Srinivas also starts liking Shanta and marries her, they two are blessed with a son. On the occasion of the child's naming ceremony, Dayanidhi arrives, Shanta gets frightened, then she comes to know that he is Srinivas's friend so, she keeps calm. Dayanidhi bribes the maid Rajyam to poison Srinivas, but unfortunately, Kumar dies and the blame falls on Shanta. Fierce Srinivas throws Shanta out of the house. Dayanidhi again tries to catch Shanta, but she escapes and tries to commit suicide. At that time, she hears a cry of a small girl and baby's mother, Shyamala, who is deceived by Dayanidhi and is about to die. Before dying, Shymala hands over baby's responsibility to Shanta and she starts raising the baby by the name Saroja. One day, Srinivas sees Santha with the baby and suspects her chastity. Years roll by, Srinivas's son Venu (Chalam) and Syamala's daughter Saroja (Girija) study in the same college and love each other. Srinivas agrees to their marriage, but after seeing that Saroja is Shanta's daughter, he refuses. Shanta falls at Srinivas's feet and begs him by saying that Saroja is not her daughter. But he is not ready to listen. Saroja hears everything and asks Shanta regarding her parents. Shanta reveals the entire truth. The rest of the story is how the truth comes forward and the entire family is reunited.

• N. T. Rama Rao as Srinivas
• Anjali Devi as Shanta
• Kanta Rao
• Relangi
• Gummadi
• Chalam as Venu
• K. V. S. Sarma
• Balakrishna
• Krishna Kumari
• Suryakantham
• Chaya Devi
• Girija as Saroja
• Surabhi Balasaraswathi

Music composed by Ramesh Naidu. Music released by Audio Company.