Devadasu

Devadasu is a 1953 Telugu romantic drama directed by Vedantam Raghavaiah and produced by D. L. Narayana for Vinodha Pictures. Chakrapani adapted it from Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s 1917 novel Devdas, and it was the first Telugu film version of the story. It was made simultaneously in Tamil as Devadas, with Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Savitri and Lalitha in the lead roles in both versions. The Telugu version was released on 26 June 1953. It became one of the most successful and most quoted films in Telugu cinema, and it earned Nageswara Rao the title of the “Tragedy King”.

What the story is about

In the village of Ravulapalli, Devadas, the son of the wealthy zamindar Narayana Rao, and Parvati, daughter of a modest farmer, have been close since childhood. After years at school in the city, Devadas comes home and their friendship turns into love. When Parvati’s grandmother proposes a marriage, Narayana Rao humiliates her family and rejects the match over caste and status, and Parvati’s father vows to marry her into a family even richer. Devadas hesitates at the decisive moment. What follows, as he turns to drink and meets the courtesan Chandramukhi, is one of Indian cinema’s most familiar tragedies, and the film tells it with restraint.

Cast

• Akkineni Nageswara Rao as Devadasu
• Savitri as Parvati
• Lalitha, of the Travancore Sisters, as Chandramukhi
• S. V. Ranga Rao as Narayana Rao, C. S. R. Anjaneyulu as the zamindar of Durgapuram, and Surabhi Kamalabai as Parvati’s grandmother
• Peketi Sivaram, later a well-known director, as Devadas’s friend Bhagawan

How it was made

Vinodha Pictures first launched the film with Sowcar Janaki as Parvati, but shelved it after a week on the view that the story might not work in Telugu. When the company’s next film failed, partner D. L. Narayana revived Devadasu as an independent producer, with Savitri replacing Janaki. Samudrala Sr. wrote the Telugu dialogue, B. S. Ranga was the cinematographer and P. V. Narayana the editor. Nageswara Rao later recalled that Raghavaiah, a Kuchipudi exponent and stage actor, acted out scenes for the cast, and shot him only at night to get a “drunken, droopy” look; those night shoots ran over 50 days.

Music

C. R. Subbaraman composed the score but died before the film’s release, and his assistants M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy completed the remaining songs, including “Jagame Maaya”. Ghantasala’s “Jagame Maaya” and “Kala Idani” achieved cult status, and the soundtracks, released by His Master’s Voice, were a huge success. M. L. Narasimham of The Hindu wrote that “every song he composed is a hit to this day”.

Release and box office

The Telugu version opened on 26 June 1953 and the Tamil version on 11 September 1953. According to The Hindu, both ran for over 100 days in theatres. No gross figure is reported in the cited sources. The film was screened in a Devdas retrospective at the 33rd International Film Festival of India in 2002.

What critics said

Narasimham singled out Nageswara Rao’s performance, B. S. Ranga’s “excellent” cinematography and Subbaraman’s music. Reviewing the Tamil version, Randor Guy of The Hindu wrote that it is remembered for the “empathetically brilliant performance of Nageswara Rao in the title role and equally impressive acting by Savithri”. Film archivist P. K. Nair called it “one of Telugu cinema’s outstanding performances”, and Dilip Kumar, who played Devdas in Bimal Roy’s 1955 film, is quoted as saying, “There is only one Devadas (1953), and that is Akkineni Nageswara Rao.”

Legacy

Devadas’s line about drinking to forget, “Thaagithe maruva galanu, thaaganivvaru…”, became one of Telugu cinema’s most famous dialogues. The success typecast Nageswara Rao in tragic roles, and he took a comic part in Missamma (1955) partly to break the image. News18 included the film in its 2013 list of the “100 greatest Indian films of all time”. A sequel, Devadasu Malli Puttadu, followed in 1978, with Nageswara Rao returning in the role.

Where to watch Devadasu (1953)

We do not have a confirmed streaming platform for the 1953 Devadasu on file. The OTT details on this page will be updated when a platform’s own listing confirms it.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Devadasu (1953) and the reviews and histories it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.