This film redefined Nagarjuna as an actor and stands as an important career mileston for his acting career. His performance as the 90 year old man requesting the lord to take his life away- singing the song “Antaryami” is one of the best in his career.
He has changed every aspect of his usual stylish appearance into sober, simple and chaste look. The greatest aspect of his life is that- he led his life with music as pulse and sole purpose of higher living.Īkkineni Nagarjuna excels in the title role of the devotional composer- Annamayya. The film ends with Annamayya getting the darshan of Lord and his wives in the Temple’s sanctum sanctorum and leaving his life in the divine presence. One such composition “Brahmamokkate” is shown excellently in the film. Annamayya’s life takes a different turn with his wives dying at the same moment- apparently realizing that their husband is bonded to them and he cannot become a great poet with their presence and family chores.Īnnamayya grows to an old man and yet fights against caste system and human rights through his wonderful compositions. But with the grace of Lord, Annamayya is rescued again leading to shock of the king. When Annamayya refuses to sing in the praise of the King and Queen, saying that his music is dedicated to the Lord alone- the evil Saluva Narasimha subjects him to imprisonment. The story takes an interesting turn when the local King of the area Saluva Narasimha (Mohan Babu) comes to know about the songs of Annamayya and asks him to be in his court. After getting convinced by Lord himself about marrying his cousins, Annamayya gets married and settles in Tirumala hill- singing the praise of lord. Annamayya’s family who is obviously worried about his whereabouts come to know about this through Lord’s disguise as a fortune teller (Along with his wives) and they rush to the Tirumala hill. He starts singing the krithi “Podaganti Mayya” in ecstacy and remains in the temple premises- singing in the praise of lord. When Annamayya gets the darshan of Lord in the most scared Tirumala hill, he is lost for words. Goddess Lakshmi comes for Annamayya’s rescue- in the disguised form of an old lady, and explains him not to climb the sacred hill with footwear on.
When he attempts to climb the sacred “Mokalla Parvatham” (A steep hill which occurs at the end of the journey to Tirumala) with footwear on, Annamayya gets serious obstacles. It is when Annamayya sings the popular “Adivo Alladivo” krithi spontaneously- in the happiness that he is going to get darshan of his Lord. As if possessed by the tremendous power of devotion, Annamayya leaves to the sacred Tirumala temple by travelling on foot- without informing anybody in his family. He gets into his own admiring world of devotion and completely forgets about his family and his cousins. When Annamayya looks at the idol of Lord Venkateshwara, he is lost for words. In fact, Annamayya’s perception of beauty is just his cousins, and he believes there is nothing more beautiful than them has been created in this world.Īpparently the Lord realizes it is time for Annamayya to understand what his real purpose of life is about and he arrives in the form of a saint to show Annamayya about the real beauty in the World. But he does have the tinge of questioning the wrong happenings in the village and the director makes she it is shown in the film.
Initially having a very normal life and loving his two cousins Timakka (Ramya Krishna) and Akkalamma (Kasthuri), Annamayya never considers singing or devotion towards lord to be an important thing in life. The child is none other than Annamayya (Nagarjuna). It is when the Lord sends his sword Nandaka in the form of a child to a couple in Tallapaka village in Cuddapah district, who are desperately praying for a child. The film begins with a conversation between Lord Venkateshwara (Suman) and his wife Lakshmi (Bhanupriya) about not many people singing in Telugu language in the praise of the Lord. The lead character of Annamayya was to be played by Akkineni Nagarjuna- for the first time he was to appear in the role of a most influential musical devotee Telugu land ever witnessed. After nearly 15 years of this film, K.Raghavendra Rao- a director with commercial interests till then decided to make a musical epic on the journey of Annamayya with M.M.Keeravani in Music department. Though Bapu remade the film during early 80s with Shankarabharanam fame Somayajulu in the lead- the film could not gain viewers appreciation for reasons whatsoever. The film was highly popular right from the black and white era and the songs were sung by himself. Telugu Cinema ventured out to make a great Epic named Thyagayya which had Chitoor Nagaiah in the lead.