Star Cast: Krishna, Jayapradha, Jagayya, S. Varalakshmi, Padmanabham, Allu Ramalingayya, Ramaprabha

Crew:

Music: Pendyala

Cinematography: Marcus Bartley

Written by Chakrapani, Palagummi Padmaraju

Director: Bapu, Chakrapani (deceased during filming)

Producer: Chakrapani, Nagi Reddy

We know many films from Telugu and Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada that have achieved classic status. Many of you might have watched them and with OTT platforms taking over Satellite, we have access to Hollywood and World classics too. But we forget few films that can be regarded as classics too. They have good entertainment value, story and drama that engages us even today. Why shouldn't we talk about such films?

We decided we should by starting with Telugu films and this will be a weekly once affair. For this week, we are starting with Sri Rajeswari Vilas Coffee Club.

When you list out classics from TFI you definitely miss out on this film as it is not huge hit like Mayabazaar, Pelli Chesi Choodu, Missamma, Gundamma Katha, Jagadeekaveeruni Katha, Appu Chesi Pappu Koodu from the same production house - Vijaya Productions. This film released in 1970's after Vijaya produced some box office flops like Satya Harischandra, Uma Chandi Gowri Shankarula Katha. They recovered from Ganga Manga starring Krishna, Vani Sri, Sobhan Babu and Chakrapani decided to direct a film with Krishna about National Integrity.

He couldn't complete it due to ill-health and Bapu, the director, completed the film. The movie became a box office hit but did not create a sensation or box office records. It was more a light hearted comedy like Appu Chesi Pappu Koodu and hence, people did not flock to the theaters with mass, commercial movies taking over. Does box office performance determine a movie's success or it's value? Just success at that time period and records don't have significance after point of time.

This film tells the story in such realistic yet dramatized narrative that we tend to admire the quality of the filmmaking and writing even today. Movie has a Christian faking his identity as a brahmin and a brahmin boy falling in love with a christian lady. Even during a comedy track, the film doesn't move away from the point it wants to drive home.

You get a song like, "Naa Peru Bhikari" in the midst of some funny sequences showing the depth of hero's character. We get a song like, "Aakaasa Pandirilo", to show how deeply a girl thinks about her future life and partner based on the stories, fantasies fed from the young age. The entire story revolves around one person trying to hide their true identity from the other to survive but then unable to give up the culture and traditions they believe in. And the climax in a very simple way resolves every conflict as the main person from whom everyone tries to hide the truth, just accepts them without a second thought.

This shows the kind of maturity that a person posses behind hard exteriors. The inner softer and matured person comes out when tested. But to achieve that they might have gone through a lot of turbulence in their lives. Movie doesn't try to over dramatise or sell the point in melodramatic way. More films that tend to over-dramatise their point ruled the roost at the time and hence, we forget a true simple satire on religious beliefs from Telugu Cinema to more dialogue related loud theatrics.