GUNASUNDARI KATHA 1949

Director:
Kadri Venkata Reddy
Written by:
Kamalakara Kameshwara Rao ,
Pingali Nagendra Rao ,
Kadri Venkata Reddy ,
William Shakespeare
Art Direction by:
Nageshwara Rao Kudaravalli
Music Director:
Rama Rao Adepalli ,
Ogirala Ramchandra Rao
Film Editing by:
M.S. Mani
Cinematographer:
Marcus Bartley
Other crew:
Siva Rao Kasturi ,
Leela P. ,
Krishnamurthi Pasumarti ,
Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao ,
Pingali Nagendra Rao ,
Kamala Devi T.G.
Sound Department:
A. Krishnan

Cast:
Sriranjani Jr- Gunasundari
Siva Rao Kasturi
Sivaram Vallabhajosyula
Govindrajulu Subba Rao
Santha Kumari P.
Relangi Venkatramaiah
Malathi K.
Venkateswara Rao Pamarti
Jandhyala Gaurinatha Sastri - Lord Siva
Kamala Devi T.G. - Goddess Parvathi
Hemalatha
Sadasiva Rao Kallakoori
Kanakam - Yakshini

Story:
Free wheeling adaptation of Lear by fantasist K.V. Reddy. The royal patriarch (Subba Rao) is offended by his youngest daughter Gunsundari (Sriranjani) when she pledges unconditional loyalty to her future husband. He has her married to a deaf and dumb cripple (Siva Rao) who is in fact a perfectly healthy youth living under a curse. The king is stricken with a mysterious illness and his three sons-in-law set out to discover the Mahendramani jewel which will cure him. When the youngest son-in-law finds it, the other two steal it and magically change the third into a bear. Gunsundari eventually succeeds in lifting the curse upon her husband, The music of the big-budget Vauhini film is particularly successful, with V.A.K. Ranga Rao claiming Ogirala's composition Eevanilo to be the most unusual song on the history of Telugu cinema. The scenarist K. Kameshwara Rao later remade it in Tamil (Gunsundari, 1955) starring Gemni Ganesh and Savitri