Drohi (1948)

Melodrama deploying the later New Theatres idiom of addressing the rise of a corrupt class of usurers in plots revolving around disease. The villain in the village is the wealthy and corrupt Gangadhara Rao (Rallabandi). His Westernised daughter Saroja (Varalakshmi) loves the crook Raja (Prabhakar). Driving her car, Saroja knocks down an old man who later dies of his injuries. The old man’s granddaughter Seeta (Lakshmirajyam) is adopted by Prakash (K.S. Prakash Rao), a local doctor, who marries Saroja. When Saroja finds out Seeta’s relationship with the accident victim, she has her thrown out on charges of theft. At this point an epidemic spreads through the village and the doctor has to work for long hours with the people. He also starts representing their interests to the political authorities. This threatens the villains Gangadhara Rao and Raja, who set fire to the village. The angry villagers are restrained by Seeta, but in the ensuing confrontation Seeta dies, accidentally killed by Gangadhara Rao. Saroja now turns over a new leaf and has her father and her ex-lover arrested, and she offers charity in the name of the dead Seeta. This is the first production of actor (and later director) K.S. Prakash Rao, and the debut of composer Pendyala. The other major director in the Prasad tradition, T. Prakash Rao, joined films here as assistant to Prasad, directing the scenes in which Prasad acted.