Santhanam

Rangaiah, a poor labourer, loses his wife when she gives birth to their third child, and soon afterwards an accident leaves him blind. Unable to care for them, he is parted from his three children, and fate scatters them in different directions. Lakshmi, the eldest, finds shelter in a wealthy household; Ramu is lost on a train and grows up in a travelling drama company; and little Babu is raised by a kind-hearted wrestler. Years later the grown siblings cross paths without recognising one another, each caught up in a romance and a struggle of their own, while the song their family once shared waits to bring them back together. Akkineni Nageswara Rao plays Ramu, with Savitri, S. V. Ranga Rao as the father, Chalam as Babu, Relangi and Sriranjani Jr. Produced and directed by C. V. Ranganatha Das, with L. V. Prasad supervising, this 1955 family drama is remembered above all for Susarla Dakshinamurthi's music. It brought Lata Mangeshkar to Telugu cinema, and her lullaby "Nidurapora Thammuda" set the pattern for the lost-siblings theme song.