Zamindar Papa Rao resides with his shrew wife Kantamma, that ill-treats her mother-in-law Parvatamma, and they have two children, Suryam & Saroja. In their village, Papa Rao's sibling, Seeta, lives with her peasant husband, Rangaiah, and the couple has a son, Chandra Shekar. A rift erupts between families due to Seeta's nuptial unwillingness to her brother. Once Parvatamma packs up with Seeta, conscious of her terminally ill state, with Suryam & Saroja. Whereat, Seeta aspires to reunite their families with Chandram & Saroja's wedlock and pleads with her mother. So, Parvatamma calls Papa Rao before he lands, and Seeta's condition worsens. Hence, Parvatamma accomplishes the eve by espousing the infants. Being aware of it, furious Papa Rao quits with Suryam & Saroja when grief-stricken Seeta dies. Upon transpiring about it, an infuriated Kantamma annuls via the court, depriving the wedding chain Mangalsutram of Saroja, which Suryam preserves. Years roll by, and Chandram civilizes and backs up. Then, Parvatamma divulges the past and requests him to retrieve his wife. Thus, Chandram acquaints Saroja unbeknownst with the aid of his bestie, Kailasam, and they fall in love. Parallelly, Kailasam secures Saroja's mate Meenakshi while committing suicide for forced marriage when Saroja shelters her, and he crushes with her. Following this, Suryam unveils Saroja's splice by handing over the wedding chain. Now, Saroja is in a dichotomy but complies with the wedlock and keeps Chandram distant. Meanwhile, Parvatamma's health declines, so Suryam brings her home. Besides, Chandram seeks to meet Saroja, and Papa Rao necks him out, knowing his identity. Saroja enlightens the fact by Parvatamma and rejoins the pair. Here, stubborn Papa Rao forcibly fixes Saroja's alliance with Kailasam, which Parvatamma opposes & quits. So, Chandram enacts a play and flees with Saroja. Papa Rao chases and, in enrage, shoots them when, unfortunately, Parvatamma is wounded. Spotting it, Papa Rao admitted guilt and reformed Kantamma. Finally, the movie ends happily with the family's reunion.
The music was composed by Master Venu. He borrowed only one tune from the Bengali film's composer Anupam Ghatak, for the song "Penu Cheekataye Lokam" from its original version "Ke Tumi Amare Dako".[1]
Bhavanarayana, producer of Meghasandesham suggested to Dukkipati Madhusudhana Rao to watch the Bengali film Agni Pariksha (1954). Madhusudhana bought the remake rights after being impressed with the film and approached Atreya to write the screenplay and dialogues for the film. One of the major changes the maker brought in was while in the original version the girl's father dies of shock, in Mangalya Balam, his character was retained till the last frame. Mangalya Balam was said to be the first Telugu film to shoot in Ooty and it was also Savitri's first visit to the hill town. The Tamil version Manjal Mahimai was simultaneously made retaining all the leading actors and technicians with two changes to the cast – K. A. Thangavelu and K. Balaji replacing Relangi and Ramanamurthy respectively.[1]
Release
Mangalya Balam was released on 7 January 1959 and for the first time in the history of Telugu cinema, the hundred days function was held in an open arena, the Municipal High School grounds, Vijayawada with thousands of cine-fans participating and presided over by the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy. Manjal Mahimai was released on 14 January 1959 and ran for a hundred days.[1]
