B.N. Reddi

A united family of two brothers and a sister along with their parents move to a town. Elder brother (Suryam - Ram Mohan) finds easy way to get rich and marries the daughter of a rich politician and abandons his family. After their father expires, tragedy hits the family. The younger brother Vasu (Chandra Mohan) sticks with the family to take care of his mother (Anjali Devi) and sister (Vijaya Nirmala).

Madhu, a wealthy and naive boy, meets Vasanthi and develops feelings for her. However, he gets depressed after knowing that Vasanthi only saw him as a brother.

Lakshmi is a child orphaned by the death of her parents lives in the house of her uncle. Her aunt (Suryakantam) loves her daughter Kathyayani (Janaki) and neglects and harass Lakshmi. Hence she goes to her grandfather's house. Her grandfather also dies, forcing her to go back to the uncle's house. Once the marriage proposal for Kathyayani turns towards Lakshmi. Taking the blame of her aunt, she left home and reaches Tirupathi to commit suicide.

Kotayya (Ranga Rao) is a kind man. He marries Rami. She succumbs to pressure from Gopala Swamy and elopes with him, leaving her husband. Rami and Gopala successfully plan and send Kotayya to jail. After returning from jail, Kotayya becomes a rowdy drunkard. He plans to take revenge and kill Gopala Swamy.

During the days of the Vijayanagara Empire there was a system to bring willing women to the royal palace and render them official residents. This was called 'Rani Vasam'. According to this royal tradition, they sent palanquins to their houses, after they presented the family with gifts and jewelry. These Rani Vasam women should never have any contact with any man or let any man see them without permission. If any one violated the law, they were beheaded. Malleswari (Bhanumathi) was taken to this Rani Vasam. She was forced to accept this, for lure of money and jewelry by her parents. But she was already in love with her 'Bava' Nagaraju (N.T. Rama Rao), a sculptor. He stealthily got into the garden of the palace to meet his beloved and was caught. He was to get the death penalty. Krishnadevaraya for once pardoned the hero and allowed Malleswari to go with him.

Murthy and Kalyani are happily married till Murthy watches a street play in his village and notices the beautiful Subbalaxmi in that troupe. He advises Subbalaxmi's father to take her to Madras, where she could possibly become a big theatre artiste. After traveling to Madras, Subbalaxmi is offered the lead role and changes her name to Sujatha. Murthy falls for Sujatha's charms and neglects his family.

Foreign-educated Venu falls for Lakshmi, his servant's daughter. However, he leaves for the city and forgets all about her only to discover that she is pregnant with his child.

An elaborate melodrama presenting the problems of uneven development through the separation of an innocent feudal rural wife from her well-educated, but unemployed urban husband.