Decades back, before modernization and digitalization of art, Burra Kathalu were very popular in our native Telugu land. Burra Katha is a unique story telling technique, which served as a powerful medium to enlighten people about various contemporary social problems and it also had mythological stories as the other main genre. Of all the different genres of stories, Burra Kathalu mainly focussed on the heroic tales of mighty warriors who fought for a noble cause. To name a few Palnati Yuddam, Bobbili Yuddam and Alluri Seetha Ramaraju were very popular, which were made into films later on. But it was Palnati Yuddam that was made twice.
Palnati Yuddam was based on the battle of Palnadu, where people go beyond the extent of killing each other. They later suffer from the adverse effects of war and mayhem. Many people have lost their lives in the war, and this historic tale teaches man a lesson that wars do no good for the society. In the film, the characterizations of each character were brilliantly portrayed. Nagamma’s conspiracy, Brahmanaidu’s kindness and Balachandrudu’s valor were highlighted making it an interesting and tightly-structured plot.
The revolutionary legend Gudavalli Ramabrahmam right after the release of Malapilla, announced Palnati yuddam as his next film. But due to certain reasons he filmed another masterpiece Rythu Bidda. After Rythu Bidda, he did an extensive research on the issue and made sure that he didn't miss anything important from this real historic epic. With a very high budget, under the banner of Sarada Productions, he started the shoot of Palnati Yuddam. Unfortunately, half way to the completion of the film, Gudavalli Ramabrahmam suffered from a severe stroke of paralysis and L.V.Prasad took over the other half and successfully completed the film. The multi-starrer film had Kannanba in the role of Nagamma,Govindaraju Subbarao as Brahmanaidu and none other than ANR as Balachandrudu. Other stars like S. Varalakshmi appeared in the role of Manchala. While Samudrala Senior penned songs and wrote the dialogues, Gali Penchala Narasimha Rao composed the music. Interestingly, ANR happened to sing his own songs in the film. The film got released just after a month of independence, on 24.9.1947 and was a huge success.
Almost after 18 years, Palnati Yuddam was remade under the banner Anuroopa Films with the same title. It was directed by Gutha Ramneedu and the music was composed by S. Rajeshwar Rao. Though the film had a legendary star cast of NTR (Brahmanaidu), Bhanumati (Nagamma), Jamuna (Manchala), Harnath (Balachandrudu), it could not beat the original and was a mild success.
