Vetagadu is one of the commercial blockbuster in 70s decade which established Sridevi as the most glamorous female lead in Telugu Cinema. Her ravishing looks, confidence levels in acting along with a senior artist like Sr.NTR amazed the audience. Apart from this, Jandhyala’s witty dialogues rendered by Rao Gopala Rao and Satyanarayana became the talk of the town then. The film redefined commercial glamorous cinema and was highly successful.
Story Details:
Bhupathi (Jaggaiah) is a rich gentleman who builds big estate in his howetown. He has a wife Gayathri who is into music and they have a daughter Roja. Their evil associate Diwanji (Rao Gopala Rao) plans to attack Gayathri in order to steal her valuable gold necklace. Gajapathi , the forest officer (Kantha Rao) tries to rescue her from this danger but get killed. She keeps the necklace safe in a tribal abode and in turn gets killed by Diwanji in confrontation. An upset Bhupathi orders Diwanji to search for his wife but the latter tells Gajapathi must have killed her in greed of the necklace. Bhupathi feels that the new house is unlucky and orders everyone to abandon the house and leaves for the city. He gives all the estate responsibility to Diwanji. Years pass by and Gajapathi’s son Raja (Sr.NTR) grows up to be a passionate hunter. He happens to meet Bhupathi’s grown up daughter Roja (Sridevi) and have sweet quarrels and funny interactions. Diwanji’s son (Satyanarayana) is a funny guy who is pushed by his father to attract Roja so that her property could be theirs. The rest of the story is about how Raja finds out about the treachery done by Diwanji and teaches him a lesson, thereby avenging his father’s death.
Performances:
Sr.NTR is highly energetic as Raja in the film. His funny lines and tantrums he shares with Sridevi are entertaining. Sridevi is excellent as Roja and highly glamorous in her performance. Her characterization is perfectly apt for a commercial masala entertainer. Rao Gopala Rao is amazing as the evil Diwanji who has a tinge of comedy as well. His delivery of Prasa dialogues became a rage those days attracting the class and mass audience alike. Satyanarayana is invariably funny as the son of Diwanji. Kantha Rao is adequate as Gajapathi. Jaggaiah delivers a good performance as Bhupathi. Nagesh and Allu Ramalingiah offer good comedy relief.
Technical Aspects:
Dialogues and Story by Jandhyala redefined an out and out commercial masala entertainer in Telugu Cinema. No Telugu Audience can forget the ‘East Stuartpuram’ dialogue which lasted for 3 minutes continuously having prasa rendered by Rao Gopal Rao in the film. Music by Chakravarthy is at its commercial best and the song ‘Aaku Chaatu’ became a chartbuster of the year. Direction by K.Raghavendra Rao is entertaining.