Prema Lekhalu

<p>Raj Raibahadur ( ) lives a wealthy lifestyle with his father, a widowed businessman. One day Raj is sent to work in the countryside, Saraswati Dam. One day, his father visits to Raj his deceased mother wished for him to marry Chandra (Vijayalaxmi), the daughter of his rich family friend. Raj decides to write a letter to Chandra, which she completely ignores. But Chandra’s younger sister Neelu ( ) acknowledges the letter and responds to it in Chandra’s name. After few letters, Raj and Neelu fall in love, but Raj is still unaware that it is Neelu who writes to him. Just then Raj is diagnosed with , the same disease that killed his mother. Raj decides to pretend that he never loved Neelu and also insists that she should marry his physician friend, Dr. Kailash ( ). He also flirts with Chandra to make Neelu believe that he does not love her. Chandra decides to end the suffering of her heartbroken sister. Upon learning the truth, Neelu accepts Raj as he is. Miraculously, Raj also becomes well and both lead a happy life. The theme of the tragic hero and the sufferings of the heroine was inspired from ‘s famous novel , which has also served as an inspiration to various other Indian films. The end of the film originally showed Neelu marrying Dr. Kailash at Raj’s insistence; Raj dies while Neelu’s wedding procession is passing by. But at the premiere, Kapoor realised that this film would not work. Kapoor said The atmosphere in an auditorium is like a living, palpitating thing. It told me again and again: “Your picture is a flop.” The end of the film was then changed from a tragic one to the happy one, but the change destroyed the thematic unity of the text. , who wrote Kapoor’s biography , gives his rationale for the change: “The film had some of Shankar-Jaikishan’s loveliest music, and a ‘Devdas’-ian tragic ending which was changed to the conventional happy ending because the film didn’t do well in its first release.” The dubbed version of the film , was so well received that was elated and showed his gratitude for Telugu audiences by having a song in (1955) beginning with the lines “Ramaiya Vastavaiya” (Lord Ram, you will come). Composed by the musical duo . Hindi songs for the film are written by and . Tamil lyrics for the film are written by . Telugu songs for the film are written by . Amongst them song is an evergreen track played at many marriage functions even today.</p>