Chalisuva Modagalu

Chalisuva Modagalu is a 1982 Indian Kannada-language film directed by Singeetham Srinivasa Rao. The film stars Rajkumar, Saritha, Ambika and K. S. Ashwath and Puneeth Rajkumar as a child artiste. The movie is well known for its evergreen songs which were composed by the musical duo Rajan–Nagendra. The film was a major success at the box office upon its release. The movie was remade in Telugu in 1983 as Rajakumar starring Sobhan Babu with Ambika reprising her role.

Synopsis
Mohan and Sheela are in love, but due to circumstances, Mohan ends up marrying Leela. After several years, Sheela lands up in jail on charges of murdering her husband. Mohan is defending her and has to argue against Leela, who is the public prosecutor. The rift caused between Mohan and Leela form the rest of the plot.

Plot
Mohan is a young, jovial lawyer practicing under his father Vishwanath Rao. Once in his friend's marriage, Mohan comes across Sheela and develops instant liking for her. Mohan meets Sheela frequently and befriends her. Soon Sheela also begins liking Mohan. Leela is Vishwanath's niece and a lawyer who is also practicing under Vishwanath. Both the families and Leela want her to marry Mohan. One day all of a sudden Sheela behaves strangely, tells Mohan to forget her and breaks her relationship with him. Soon she is married to her family friend. Unable to take this, Mohan is depressed and falls sick. Leela tends to Mohan all this time. Looking at Leela's selfless service and pure love for him, Mohan agrees to marry and lives happily with her. One day in the newspaper an article is published about a woman who killed her own husband. Mohan looks into the article and discovers that the woman is none other than Sheela. Mohan decides to take up the case and fight for Sheela as he knew that something is fishy here and that Sheela can never do anything as such. With the help of Murthy and his sister, Mohan gets to know that Sheela one evening on her way home was raped by his brother's friend. Feeling that she has spoilt her chastity and is no more fit to marry Mohan, Sheela behaves rudely with him and makes him forget her later marries the one who raped her.

Now Mohan has to fight the case against his own wife, Leela. Both the lawyers try to prove their points. In one of the following court proceedings, Leela discovers that Mohan is Sheela's ex-lover. Furious Leela asks for a divorce from Mohan to which the latter disagrees. Vishwanath interrupts and explains why Mohan hid the truth from her and makes her realize how much love Mohan has for her. Now Leela too tries to understand from both the sides as to what has happened the night when Sheela's husband was killed. With the help of Ramu, both the lawyers discover that a lady who had been cheated by Sheela's husband had killed him. She accepts her crime and is imprisoned. Sheela is released from the jail. Sheela thanks the couple, Leela tells her that she would name her child Sheela if a girl is born in future.

Soundtrack
The music and background score was composed by Rajan–Nagendra and the lyrics were penned by Chi. Udaya Shankar. All the songs were received extremely well and were instant hits. The song "Kaanadante Maayavadanu" was remixed in Anna Bond (2012) starring Puneeth who also sang the remix version.

Box office
Chalisuva Modagalu garnered positive response from the people. The movie was a phenomenal success in A, B and C centres. The movie had a theatrical run of 40 weeks in Hubli and certain other parts of Uttara Karnataka while completed 175 days of run in several other centres. Chalisuva Modagalu became the first movie to complete 100 days theatrical run in two centres in Mysore city where it sold around 7.5 lakh tickets which would amount to 4 to 4.5 crores at the current rate breaking the previous record of Dr. Rajkumar's Haalu Jenu which had sold 6.5 lakh tickets. The movie completed 100 days of run in all the 16 first release centres and 100 days in Bengaluru. The movie which ran for 85 days in Sampige theatre held the record of longest running movie in that theatre for almost 15 years until the release of Nammoora Mandara Hoove.Chalisuva Modagalu earned a profit of ₹23.75 lakhs within the first five weeks which was the highest for a Rajkumar movie between 1982 and 1984 with Haalu Jenu, Kaviratna Kalidasa and Samayada Gombe being the other top ventures. The movie was an All Time Blockbuster at the box office.

Awards

 * Karnataka State Film Awards
 * Best Child actor - Master Lohith
 * Best Sound recording - N. Pandurangan