The film begins with a terrorist Nana abducting a group of school children. He holds them hostage and demands that his brother Chinna be released in exchange. DIG Benerjee rescues the children and in the ensuing fight Chinna dies. Nana vows to avenge his brother by wiping out DIG Benerjee’s entire clan.
Next, the story shifts to a village named Pudipalli adjacent to the river Godavari. Here, Balakrishna/Balaiah lives with his mother Annapurnamma. He constantly clashes with his maternal uncle Ramadasu. Ramadasu’s daughter Rani is in love with Balaiah and fights with any woman she suspects of getting close to him.
Priya, the daughter of Ram Mohan Rao who is Annapurnamma’s cousin, arrives in the village with her companion Tulasamma. Balaiah becomes infatuated with her much to the anger of Rani. Rani tells off Priya which irks her, and she ends up challenging Rani that she will make Balaiah fall in love with her. Priya and Rani compete with each other in drawing Balaiah’s attention to themselves. Balaiah falls for Priya’s act and begins to love her sincerely. Priya, to prove to Rani how intensely Balaiah loves her, asks him to recover her ring from an anthill. He does so, but is bitten by a snake. Seeing him suffer, Priya feels remorse and discloses how she and Rani have been playing with his affection. This enrages Balaiah and he forcibly ties the wedding chain Mangalasutram to Priya’s neck as a form of retribution. Priya does not want to be married to Balaiah and it is revealed that Tulasamma is a police officer who is actually here to protect Priya. She asks Priya to be patient for the time being. When Tulasamma is speaking to Commissioner Srikanth, Ramadasu overhears their conversation and starts to blackmail them, but he is imprisoned before he can cause any mischief. Rani is remorseful for her part in the situation and both she and Annapurnamma sincerely wishes Balaiah and Priya to be happy together.
Meanwhile, some miscreants come searching for Priya. They try to abduct her, but Balaiah protects her. Priya begins to fall in love with him, but he does not reciprocate. He soon grows suspicious of the true identity of Priya and Tulasamma. He eventually learns the truth form the latter that Priya is not his cousin. She is a member of DIG Benerjee’s family. Nana massacred the entire family to avenge the death of his brother, but Priya managed to survive the attack. Tulasamma, who was a friend of the family as well as being a colleague of Benerjee, took Priya away with the help of Commissioner Srikanth and hid her at Pudipalli which is incidentally Nana’s own village where he is unlikely to look for the girl. Balaiah swears to protect Priya and declares his love for her.
Nana, who is in the same jail as Ramadasu, finds out the whereabouts of Priya from him and breaks out of jail to complete his vengeance. It is also revealed that Commissioner Srikanth lusts after Priya and threatens to harm Thulasamma if she does not agree to his advances. Balaiah fights with both Nana and Commissioner Srikanth defeating them. The movie ends on a happy note with the official marriage of Balaiah and Priya wherein Priya squabbles with Rani over a glass of milk to be taken to Balaiah for their wedding night.
Music was composed by Raj–Koti. Music released on Lahari Music Company. Raj- Koti reused "Adivi deviya" from Kannada film Rayaru Bandaru Mavane manage for Manasu Agadu. The song "Swatilo Muthyamantha" was recreated in 2021 film of same name.
