Patala Bhairavi

Pathala Bhairavi (meaning “The Goddess of the netherworld”) is a 1951 fantasy film directed by K. V. Reddy, who wrote it with Pingali and Kamalakara Kameswara Rao, and produced by Nagi Reddi and Chakrapani of Vijaya Pictures. Shot simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil, it stars N. T. Rama Rao as a gardener’s son and S. V. Ranga Rao as a sorcerer, with K. Malathi. Ghantasala composed the music and Marcus Bartley shot it. The Telugu version, released on 15 March 1951, was a major success and the first Telugu film to run 200 days directly; it was the only South Indian film at the 1st International Film Festival of India, and CNN-IBN later named it among the 100 greatest Indian films.

What the story is about

The queen of Ujjain wants her daughter, Princess Indumathi, to marry her timid, unstable brother Surasena. When Ramudu, a gardener’s son, roughs up Surasena for pestering ordinary people at a concert and later declares his love for the princess, the king remembers an astrologer’s prophecy that only a brave man can save Indu from a wicked sorcerer, and sets Ramudu a challenge: he may marry her if he can amass wealth equal to the king’s. Ramudu’s search brings him to a Nepali sorcerer who has been told by the goddess Pathala Bhairavi that she will give him a statuette that grants any wish, in return for the sacrifice of a brave and intelligent young man, and the sorcerer has decided Ramudu is just the man.

Cast

• N. T. Rama Rao as Thota Ramudu
• S. V. Ranga Rao as the Nepali sorcerer
• K. Malathi as Indumathi
• C. S. R. as the King of Ujjain and Hemalathamma Rao as the queen
• Relangi as Surasena
• Valluri Balakrishna as Anji and Padmanabham as Sadajapa
• Girija as Pathala Bhairavi and Surabhi Kamalabai as Kanthamma
• Krishna Kumari and Savitri in uncredited debut appearances

How it was made

After their debut with Shavukaru (1950), Nagi Reddi and Chakrapani signed K. V. Reddy for a folklore film based on a story from Madhira Subbanna Deekshitulu’s Kasi Majili Kathalu, which Pingali adapted, also drawing on the tale of Aladdin, as The Hindu recounts. Reddy first thought of Akkineni Nageswara Rao and then Raja Reddy for the lead before casting N. T. Rama Rao, who became the first actor to act in two languages simultaneously. Wanting a villain without an established image, he cast S. V. Ranga Rao rather than Mukkamala; Ranga Rao modelled the sorcerer partly on Shylock, wore make-up to look 105 years old, and coined the catchphrase “Sahasam Seyara Dimbhaka”. Vijaya’s first big-budget film, it took a full year to shoot, from 5 February 1950 to 8 February 1951, largely on big sets with many of Bartley’s trick shots. K. Viswanath was one of the assistant directors.

Music

Ghantasala’s songs, with lyrics by Pingali (and Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass in Tamil), were released on 1 December 1950; a costly Hammond organ was imported for the score. For the Hindi dub, Jikki sang “Bindiya Chamke”, becoming, according to The Hindu, the first Telugu film singer to record for a Hindi film.

Release and box office

The Tamil version followed on 17 May 1951, and both were commercially successful. The Telugu version became the first Telugu film to run 175 days continuously, reaching that mark in 13 theatres, and the first to run 200 days directly; sources differ on how many theatres it ran 100 days in, with The Times of India giving 28. S. S. Vasan bought the Hindi dubbing rights and reshot two songs in colour, and that version was also a success. When the unit travelled to the 100th-day celebration at Bellary, crowds who had come to greet C. Rajagopalachari at Guntakal station rushed to the other platform for a glimpse of the film’s unit instead.

What critics said

A. Seshagiri Rao of Zamin Ryot called it a landmark for Telugu and Indian cinema. Andhra Patrika found it intelligently made and praised Ranga Rao’s sorcerer, but felt the other characters were underdeveloped. In his 1988 book One Hundred Indian Feature Films, Srivastava Banerjee was dismissive, calling it “an extraordinarily meaningless modern myth”.

Legacy

Pathala Bhairavi is regarded as a breakthrough for both Rama Rao and Ranga Rao and has a cult status in Telugu cinema; lines such as “Sahasam Seyara Dimbhaka” and “Naruda Yemi Nee Korika?” became popular, and words such as “dimbhaka” and “dingari” passed into everyday Telugu. The Surabhi theatre group still stages the story. A plan to colourise it after the success of the colour Mayabazar, reported by The Hindu in 2010, was later dropped over rights issues. It was remade in Hindi as Pataal Bhairavi (1985), inspired Bhairava Dweepam (1994), and was shown in the restored classics section of the 54th IFFI.

Where to watch Pathala Bhairavi

We do not have a confirmed streaming platform for Pathala Bhairavi on file. The OTT details on this page will be updated when a platform’s own listing confirms it.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Pathala Bhairavi and the reviews and articles it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.