General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Mr. Pellam

Mr. Pellam (మిస్టర్ పెళ్ళాం; "Mister Wife") is a 1993 Indian Telugu-language comedy-drama directed by Bapu and starring Rajendra Prasad and Aamani. It follows a bank employee who loses his job and must run the household while his wife becomes the family's earner. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu at the 1994 National Film Awards.¹

Key fact	Detail
Title meaning	"Pellam" means wife in Telugu; the National Film Award catalog renders the title as "Mister Wife"²
Director / writer	Directed by Bapu (Satthiraju Lakshmi Narayana); story, screenplay and dialogue by Mullapudi Venkata Ramana³
Lead cast	Rajendra Prasad as Balaji, Aamani as Jhansi; supporting roles for A.V.S. Subramanyam, Tanikella Bharani, Gundu Sudarshan, and Dharmavarapu Subramanyam⁴
Music	Composed by M.M. Keeravani; playback singers S.P. Balasubrahmanyam and K.S. Chithra; lyrics by Arudra and Veturi⁴
Production	Sri Chamundi Chitra, produced by Gavara Partha Sarathi⁵
Award	National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu, 1994¹
Audience rating	7.8/10 on IMDb from about 196 votes⁶

Spoilers

Plot

Balaji (Rajendra Prasad) is a bank employee married to Jhansi (Aamani), who manages their home and two children. After his promotion to head cashier, he holds one key to the bank vault while the manager (Tanikella Bharani) holds the other. Through a scheme by the manager and another employee, Balaji is held accountable for a loss of one lakh rupees and is suspended on the day of his promotion; his negative record prevents him from finding other work.³

Jhansi, using her B.Com qualification, joins a company called Annapurna Foods and, after impressing a board meeting, becomes vice president of the sales division at 10,000 rupees a month, though she tells her husband the pay is only 3,000. Balaji insists that running a house is easy and takes over the domestic duties, but he cannot get the children ready for school, cook, or manage simple chores, and the couple quarrel over the reversal of roles.³

The conflict resolves when Jhansi, having received a 20,000-rupee bonus and borrowed 15,000 from her friend Gopal Krishna (A.V.S.), hands Balaji the one lakh to return to the bank. Balaji takes this as an accusation of theft and leaves the house, but he exposes the manager's scheme to the bank chairman, the couple reconcile, and the false case is settled.³

Mythological frame

The film operates on two levels, heavenly and earthly. In the frame story, Lord Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi discuss her contributions during the avatars she took on earth, and the human couple mirror the divine pair: streaming listings credit Rajendra Prasad as Balaji/Lord Vishnu and Aamani as Jhansi/Goddess Lakshmi, with Gundu Sudarshan's character doubling as Narada Muni.²^•⁶

Production and crew

Bapu directed the film from a script by his frequent collaborator Mullapudi Venkata Ramana, who wrote the story, screenplay, and dialogue. The crew included R.K. Raju on cinematography, K.N. Raju as editor, and M.M. Keeravani as music director. The soundtrack, released on Anand Audio, includes songs such as "Mullu Poyi Katti," "Maayadaari Krishnayya," and "Sogasu Choda Taramma," sung by S.P. Balasubrahmanyam and K.S. Chithra with lyrics by Aarudhra Sadasiva Shankara Sastry and Veturi Sundara Ramamurthy.⁴^•³

Moviebuff records that the film was inspired by the American movie Mr. Mom (1983), which also centers on a husband who becomes a homemaker after losing his job.³

Release and reception

Sources disagree on the release date: Filmibeat lists 4 August 1993,⁷ Moviebuff and Plex list 5 September 1993,³^•⁸ and Flixjini lists 1 January 1993.¹ Reported runtimes also vary, from 2 hours 3 minutes on Apple TV⁵ to 2 hours 25 minutes on JustWatch⁶ and 129 minutes on Flixjini.¹

At the 1994 National Film Awards the film won Best Feature Film in Telugu.¹ A Telugu film survey lists it among the notable films of 1993, describing its premise as "what if wife is the bread winner in a male dominated society?"⁹ A scholarly study of Bapu's films published in 2018 characterizes Mr. Pellam as centering on a middle-class housewife who, after her husband loses his job, goes out and finds employment of her own.¹⁰ The film remains available on streaming services including Sun NXT and Eros Now.⁶

Place in Bapu's career

A Telugu film retrospective credits Mister Pellam as a social drama ahead of its time that audiences received well and that challenges social misconceptions still prevalent in society, part of the long-running combination of Bapu, Mullapudi Venkata Ramana, and Rajendra Prasad.¹¹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Telugu films before 2000

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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