Jeevana Jyothi story at a glance
Jeevana Jyothi is the key film which established Sobhan Babu- Vanisri as the most sought after pair in the 70s decade. This film released along with Babu (K.Raghavendra Rao’s first film) which also featured the same pair during the days when casting Vanisri in a film ensured minimum guarantee. While Babu fetched average feedback, Jeevana Jyothi got brilliant talk right from the first day. During the film’s release , K.Raghavendra Rao went to Vijayawada to find out about his film’s talk and realized that Jeevana Jyothi scored over his film! He watched Jeevana Jyothi and realized that with the song ‘Ju Ju Ju’ the film attracted all his audience for it!
Story Details:
In a town, there existed a retired headmaster (Allu Ramalingaiah) and his wife Tulsamma (Nirmala). The couple has two sons and the elder son Panduranga Rao (Satyanarayana) married to Janaki (Subha). The younger son Vasu (Sobhan Babu) is a college student. He visits his friend Dharmaraju( Rajababu)’s village during holidays and falls for Srilakshmi (Vanisri) there. Vasu gets married to Srilakshmi on elders blessings and his friend Dharmaraju marries Chitti (Ramaprabha).
Srilakshmi earns the goodwill of everyone in her in laws house. She looks after Janaki’s son as her own child. The child also treats Srilakshmi more as a mother figure and stays with her all the time. Janaki feels very jealous of this. Meanwhile, Srilakshmi gives birth to a baby girl and they name her as Sobha (Vanisri after growing up). Meanwhile, a rathotsava event happens in the town. Srilakshmi takes Janaki’s son to watch the event. During a commotion, the kid falls under the ratha and gets killed. Srilakshmi goes through severe shock witnessing the horrific event. She refuses to digest that the kid is dead and imagines that he is still alive and calling her. She even leaves the house in mental imbalance. A rowdy (Bheemaraju) rescues her and she gets treated in mental hospital later. Vasu lives with fond memories of his wife and goes to visit her in hospital whenever possible. He looks after the daughter Sobha with utmost care and narrates all this story once she grows up (Vanisri). The film ends on a happy note when Srilakshmi, Vasu and Sobha reunite in the hospital.
Performances:
Vanisri does a brilliant job as Srilakshmi in the film. The emotional turmoil she goes through when the kid dies is fantastic. The subtle expressions, amazing appearance and lovely chemistry with Sobhan Babu work wonders. She looks equally good as Sobha, the modern woman. Subha gets a good role as a woman with jealousy and the eldest daughter in law of the family. Allu Ramalingaiah and Nirmala are adequate as husband and wife. Rajababu and Ramaprabha offer good comedy relief. Satyanarayana is decent as the elder son of the family.
Technical Aspects:
The film is based on Aadadhi novel by K.Ramalakshmi. Samudrala Senior does a good job in making it suitable for the feature film. Screenplay by K.Vishwanath is brilliant and this film proves his brilliant narration skills. His direction is emotionally captivating as well. Music by K.V.Mahadevan is melodious with songs like Ekkada Ekkada Daakkunnano Cheppuko, Chinni O Chinni became good hits.
Cast and Crew:
Srilakshmi/Sobha- Vanisri
Vasu- Sobhan Babu
Retired Headmaster- Allu Ramalingaiah
Tulasamma- Nirmala
Panduranga Rao- Satyanarayana
Janaki- Subha
Dharmaraju- Rajababu
Chitti- Ramaprabha
Rowdy- Bheemaraju
Based On- ‘Aadadhi’ Novel written by K.Ramalakshmi
Dialogues- Samudrala Senior
Lyrics- Kosaraju, Dr.C.Narayana Reddy
Music- K.V.Mahadevan
Producers- D.V.S.Raju
Screenplay and Direction- K.Vishwanath
Banner- DVS Productions
Release Date- 16th May 1975