Movie Info

The film is set in the Nelakondapalli village of Adilabad district in Nizam Princely State of Hyderabad of the late 1940s. The feudal society is under the vice-like grip of an aristocratic family and its head, a Dorasani (Shwetha Menon). Mallamma (Baby Annie) is the darling of the village, who is living in perpetual humiliation. They seek solace in her songs. Brought up by Sambayya, an old man, she develops a mysterious attachment to a basil tree which is regarded as holy by the entire village.

She happens to sing a song in the Dorasani's house which enrages her. Since nobody can have a skill which her daughter has not been able to acquire, she decrees that Mallamma cannot sing if she wants to be alive. However, singing is in her very marrow. After all, she is the daughter of Rajanna, who had inspired hundreds of villagers to revolt against the evil lords through his revolutionary songs.

When the Dorasani finds Mallamma singing for another time, she decides to hound her and kill. The grandpa wants to take her away, but Mallamma refuses to oblige. It is then when she tells him that she cannot abandon the village where she Rajanna meets her every day. Dorasani, who overhears Sambayya telling her that she is Rajanna's progeny, kills him. A heroine that she is, Mallamma stages an escape with the help of the music teacher (Nassar) and sets off to Delhi to meet Nehru (Prime minister).

The Rajanna story

After killing over a hundred British officers, Rajanna (Akkineni Nagarjuna) is a proud son of a free India. Much to his dismay, he finds the villagers of Nelakondavalli still in servitude and radicalises them to massacre the oppressors. The revolution spreads to hundreds of villages and the nawabs are shaken. Unable to repress the warfare on their own, the local lords seek the help of the evil Razakars.

Ever at the forefront to save the village, Rajanna leads a guerrilla warfare with his four comrades (a Muslim, a Tamil Brahmin, a Punjabi and a Maharashtrian) and achieves martyrdom after fighting hundreds of Razakar desperadoes to the finish.

Rajanna lives on in the memories of the people of Nelakondapalli. His spirit arouses Mallamma to put up a never-say-die attitude and rid the village of the beastly doras.