Mallammana Pavaada

Mallammana Pavaada (pronunciation^ⓘ transl. The miracle of Mallamma) is a 1969 Kannada film, directed by Puttanna Kanagal. This was the debut movie of actor Vajramuni. This was Puttana's first collaboration with Dr. Rajkumar as an independent director.

The film is based on B. Puttaswamayya's Kannada novel Ardhangi which was a translation of Manilal Bannerjee's Bengali novel Swayamsidda.^[1] The screenplay was written by P. Pullaiah based on his 1955 Telugu movie with a similar story titled Ardhangi which was based on Maddipatla Suri's Telugu translation of the Bengali novel Swayamsidda by Manilal Banerjee. The novel Swayamsiddha was also adapted in Bengali in 1975 with the same title and in Hindi in 1981 as Jyoti.^[2] Ardhangi was remade in Tamil as Pennin Perumai ^[3] and in Hindi as Bahurani (1963). The Kannada novel Ardhangi also inspired the 1987 Tamil movie Enga Chinna Rasa which went on to be remade in Telugu as Abbaigaru, in Hindi as Beta, in Kannada as Annayya and in Odia as Santana (1998).

Chandrakanth (Rajkumar) is the dull-witted elder son of the village landlord. He is constantly harassed by his stepbrother Suryakanth (Vajramuni) with the approval of Chandrakanth's stepmother, Meenakshi (Advani Lakshmi Devi). Chandrakanth's father (Sampath) intervenes in his favor, but is unable to stop Suryakanth. Suryakanth also belittles the villagers for not paying taxes, until a villager - Mallamma - stands up to him. This surprises Suryakanth's father who goes to Mallamma's house to investigate. There, he learns that Mallamma is an educated girl with strong traditional values and decides she would be the perfect wife for Suryakanth. However, Meenakshi is disdainful towards the pairing because Mallamma comes from a poor village household. She convinces her husband to marry Mallamma to Chandrakanth.

During the marriage, Chandrakanth's antics nearly lead to the marriage being called off, but Mallamma insists on marrying Chandrakanth. After the marriage, Mallamma learns the reason for Chandrakanth's mental disabilities from his caretaker, Thayamma. As a child, when Chandrakanth lost his mother, his father married again and Meenakshi, his stepmother, fed him sedatives like opium to keep him quiet which stunted his development. Mallamma immediately asks her father, a physician, to send medicines to treat Chandrakanth. She also spends time educating Chandrakanth to make up for his lost formative years. Chandrakanth makes a full recovery and becomes a learned man. Meenakshi is jealous of Chandrakanth's recovery and complains to her husband about an altercation with Mallamma. Her husband goes to Mallamma to punish her for her insolence. However, he learns the full story of the altercation from Mallamma, and discovers the recovery made by his son - which he terms Mallamma's miracle (Mallammana Pavaada).

Suryakanth is deeply hurt by Chandrakanth's recovery because his father favors Chandrakanth and Mallamma instead of him, so he leaves the house and goes to his lover, Rajivi's home. Meenakshi is devastated by Suryakanth's departure and admonishes her husband and tries to leave; her husband, while trying to stop her, trips on the stairs and is bedridden. On his deathbed, he asks to see Suryakanth, but he refuses to come. After he passes away, Chandrakanth attempts to bring Suryakanth home for Meenakshi's sake, but Suryakanth says he'll return only if Mallamma leaves the house. Chandrakanth accepts and leaves the house with Mallamma, and Suryakanth returns to his mother's joy. However, he also brings Rajivi's family with him and forces his mother out. Meenakshi realizes her mistake of pushing Chandrakanth and goes and apologizes to him.

Back home, Suryakanth catches Rajivi's family looting his valuables and learns that they are tricksters who try to get in the good books of village heads, only to rob them and flee. His househelp - Shivalingi (Dwarakish) - sees these events unfold and informs Chandrakanth and the villagers, who come to Suryakanth's rescue. After apprehending Rajivi's family and recovering the stolen goods, Chandrakanth attempts to leave but Suryakanth, having understood his mistake, begs him and Mallamma to return, reuniting the family.

The story line has been inspiration for various movies and has had various remakes in Indian film industry.

• Rajkumar
• B. Saroja Devi
• Vajramuni
• Cinema of Karnataka