Movie Stories
Chenchu Lakshmi Story
The film begins with the weddings of Vishnu & Lakshmi. During this, Durvasa is furious as he is uninvited and curses Mahalakshmi’s parents, Samudra & his wife, to be born as tribals. After a while, Vishnu kills Hiranyaksha, donning a Varaha avatar. Learning it, his brother Hiranyakashipu, a ferocious, performs a vast penance. Exploiting it, Indra kidnaps his pregnant wife, Leelavathi, to destroy his heir. Narada safeguards her and sculpts Prahlada in her womb as an ardent devotee of Vishnu. Meanwhile, Hiranyakasipa triumphs and gets a boon from Brahma: the absence of death of any weapon, human, animal, demon, or divinity.
Now, he trounces the universe and moves in search of Vishnu, who absconds with Lakshmi. He transforms Lakshmi’s glow into fruit and plants it on a tree. Samudra & his wife take birth as the tribals but are perturbed as childless. Narada tricks them by bestowing the fruit, and the couple is blessed with a baby girl, Chenchita. Besides, Prahlada’s worship of Vishnu reaches esteem, and Hiranyakasipa makes several attempts to bar him but in vain. He challenges to show his God when Vishnu appears from the pillar as Narasimha, half man & half lion, and slays Hiranyakasipa. Narasimha is still raging with fury here, and no one can make him calm, including Lakshmi, because she does not obtain the glow. During that plight, Narasimha is acquainted with fearless Chenchita, who subsides his anger and turns into the handsome Narahari, and they knit. Being aware of it, Lakshmi displays grievance and the two wives squabble. At last, Narada affirms Chenchita is her glows when they conjoin, and Samudra & his wife are also relieved from the curse. Finally, the movie ends on a happy note with the reunion of Vishnu & Lakshmi at Vaikuntha.

Director: B. A. Subba Rao
Cast (highlights): Akkineni Nageswara Rao (as Vishnu), Anjali Devi (as Lakshmi), S. V. Ranga Rao (as Hiranyakashapu), Master Balaji (as Prahlada)
Genre: Hindu mythological (bilingual Telugu/Tamil)
Notability: Produced & directed by B. A. Subba Rao (Lalitha Siva Jyothi Studios); music by S. Rajeswara Rao; released 9 Apr 1958; 145 min; remake of 1943 film of same name.
Critical Reception: Successful devotional; songs and SVR’s performance praised in retrospectives.
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List of ANR Movie Stories
Reference: Wikipedia
