Sankranti (1952)

Uncharacteristic middle-class melodrama by mythological director Pullaiah, showing the ascendancy of melodrama in 50s Telugu cinema. Matriarch Annapurnamma’s (Shantakumari) joint family crumbles when her two sons do not stop their respective wives from quarrelling: one son is henpecked, the other ‘too busy’ to bother with matters domestic. The preachy film bemoans the loss of ‘traditional’ male authority required to control women in the family.