Mantri Gari Viyyankudu

Mantri Gari Viyyankudu (“The Minister’s Co-Father-in-Law”) is a 1983 Telugu comedy drama directed by Bapu, from the Bapu–Ramana team, and produced for Muddu Art Movies. Chiranjeevi leads, with Malayalam star Poornima Jayaram in her only Telugu lead role, Nirmalamma and Allu Ramalingaiah. Ilaiyaraaja composed the music. It was released on 4 November 1983 and runs 133 minutes.

What the story is about

Kobbarikayala Subba Rao is a self-made millionaire who, having climbed high, has forgotten the people who helped him on the way up. Years later his son Siva meets and falls for the daughter of Rambhadrayya, one of those old friends. Subba Rao invites Rambhadrayya and his wife Annapoornamma to his mansion only to humiliate them with reminders of their lowly status, and Annapoornamma vows that one day he will come to her house begging for help. The film is about how she makes good on that promise, with her son Babji leading the charge.

Cast and crew

• Chiranjeevi as Babji
• Poornima Jayaram as Anuradha
• Allu Ramalingaiah as Kobbarikayala Subba Rao
• Nirmalamma as Annapoornamma and Raavi Kondala Rao as Rambhadrayya
• Subhalekha Sudhakar as Siva and Tulasi as Suseela
• Kaikala Satyanarayana as Kappala Appa Rao, with Nutan Prasad, Rallapalli, Srilakshmi and Potti Prasad

Director: Bapu. Music: Ilaiyaraaja. Cinematography: Lok Singh.

Making the film

According to a Telugucinema.com retrospective, Bapu and Ramana wanted their usual composer, K. V. Mahadevan, but producer Jaya Krishna insisted on Ilaiyaraaja after the success of his first film with Chiranjeevi, Abhilasha (1983). It was the only film Chiranjeevi made with Bapu and Ramana. The budget was ₹22 lakh, of which Chiranjeevi was paid ₹1.5 lakh and Ilaiyaraaja and Poornima ₹60,000 each. The film was shot in 40 days, mostly around Chennai, with a song and a fight in Ooty. Ilaiyaraaja later reworked the song “Emani Ne” as “Kaise Kahoon” for the Hindi film Shiva (2006). The story has some similarities to the 1971 Tamil film Kumarikkoottam.

Reception

Wikipedia describes the film as a critical and commercial success that ran 50 days in most of its centres and was popular with college audiences, noting that its run was dented by opening a week after the record-breaking Khaidi; that section gives no source, so treat it as Wikipedia’s account.

Where to watch Mantri Gari Viyyankudu

We do not have a confirmed streaming listing for Mantri Gari Viyyankudu on file. If we verify one with a platform, it will appear on this page.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Mantri Gari Viyyankudu and the retrospective it cites, linked above; our own cast and crew records.