Chengumani is commander-in-chief in the 18th-century Coorg region of present-day Karnataka. He becomes the king's commander-in-chief after saving his life, but his life gets complicated when he falls in love with Poovi and marries her in disguise. The movie was dubbed in Telugu as Prachanda Bheri. This was also Rajkumar's first cinemascope movie.
Bhale Jodi is a 1970 Indian Kannada language drama film written and directed by Y. R. Swamy. It stars Rajkumar in dual roles with Bharathi and Dinesh in other lead roles. The film was based on the story written by Jawar Seetharaman and was produced under Rajkamal Arts banner. The movie was remade in Telugu in 1972 as Bullema Bullodu starring Chalam and in Hindi in 1973 as Jaise Ko Taisa. Rajkumar appeared as Echchamanayaka in a small drama sequence in the movie.
Babhruvahana, like Arjuna at the beginning of the Kurukshetra war, faces a moral dilemma. Can he risk harming his parents? While Chitarangada alerts Arjuna to shoot an arrow at their son and take advantage of Babhruvahana’s momentary lapse due to a sense of devotion towards them (as Arjuna did with Karna), Uluci, the Naga princess and yet another abandoned wife of Arjuna’s, reminds Babhruvahana of the teaching of the Kurukshetra battle that in the battlefield there is no space for feelings even towards parents. What Babhruvahana must do is to establish his mother’s good name and thereby his own character. This film captures this conflict spectacularly. The eerie parallels with the moral dilemmas of the great Mahabharata battle aside, here all the familial relationships (in particular, strong mothers and dutiful sons) become exaggerated and demand our attention.
