Ave Kallu

Ave Kallu (“The Same Eyes”) is a 1967 Telugu crime mystery directed by A. C. Tirulokchandar and produced by AVM Productions. Krishna and Kanchana lead, with Rajanala, Gummadi, Padmanabham, Ramana Reddy, Nagabhushanam and Geethanjali, and Vedha composed the music. It was released on 14 December 1967, runs 152 minutes, and is noted as the first Telugu crime film shot entirely in colour.

What the story is about

On the night of a party, Vasantha finds her husband Ranganatham murdered and barely escapes a masked killer herself; the shock leaves her unable to speak or respond. Soon after, Susila, “Susi”, a college student from Madras, arrives with friends to spend her holidays at the family house, where the orphaned girl lives with her uncles, her aunt Vasantha and the butler Naganna, and which an old Ayurvedic doctor, Ramayya, often visits. The killings continue, each leaving a cigar stub at the scene, and the murderer starts phoning Susi to tell her she is next. A young man, Bhaskar, falls for Susi and sets out to unmask the killer, but the only thing anyone has ever seen of him is his eyes.

Cast and crew

• Krishna as Bhaskar
• Kanchana as Susila
• Rajanala as Rajasekhar
• Gummadi as the inspector
• Ramana Reddy as Naganna, with Nagabhushanam
• Padmanabham as Nityanandam and Geethanjali as Julie
• S. V. Ramadas as Chandrasekhar and Pushpa Kumari as Vasantha

Director and story: A. C. Tirulokchandar. Dialogue: D. V. Narasa Raju. Music: Vedha. Production: AVM Productions.

Making the film

Ave Kallu was shot alongside a Tamil version, Athey Kangal, with Ravichandran in Krishna’s role and Nagesh in Padmanabham’s; Kanchana and Geethanjali appear in both. S. P. Muthuraman was an assistant director. According to a Telugucinema.com retrospective, AVM founder A. V. Meiyappan put his energy into Bhakta Prahlada, made at the same time, while his sons backed Ave Kallu; and dialogue writer D. V. Narasa Raju asked for double his usual fee on the grounds that a flop would cost him future work.

Box office and legacy

The same retrospective reports that Ave Kallu got a mixed reception and was no big hit on first release, with some calling it average or a flop, but did better and earned more in later runs. The song “Maa Oollo Oka Paduchundhi” became a lasting favourite.

Where to watch Ave Kallu

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

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