B. Narsing Rao

The story is of Kamalakshi (Archana), a bonded woman known as Daasi in Hyderabad State in the 1920s in Telangana region. She has been sold by her family for money to be the servant of a wealthy couple. She is expected to do every chore imaginable in their house. She is also required to be the sexual toy of the man of the house (Dora) and his guests - anywhere and at any time of the day or night. When she becomes pregnant, she endures and hopes to keep the baby. However she is forced to have an abortion.

Set between 1945 and 1951 in the pre-Independence state of Hyderabad, the film tells the story of a young peasant, Ramiah, who rebels against the corrupt rule of the Nizam. Baring witness to the oppression and hardship faced daily by those around him, Ramiah leaves his village. However, after befriending a Marxist activist and participating in the Independence struggle, he eventually returns to wage guerilla warfare against the landlord class.

The story of a peasant couple who migrate to the city following drought in their Telangana village and become construction workers. The husband becomes an alcoholic and abandons his wife who is harassed sexually and financially until she dies a pauper, leaving her orphaned child behind.

This 2003 film is based on the story of a child suffering from cancer and his desires of love and friendship.

Narasinga Rao’s debut is an existential melodrama with the director playing a romantic painter, Ravi, whose friends include a trade union leader (Kakarala), an autorickshaw driver, a Marxist journalist (Narayana Rao) and a glib, successful painter (Saichand) whose success contrasts with Ravi’s inability to sell his own work. His neighbour Kankamma, who rejects an evil landlord’s advances, is evicted from her house; the trade unionist is killed in police custody; and Ravi starts exhibiting his work on the streets to indicate his growing politicisation to the satisfaction of his Marxist friend. The film is geared to the CPI(ML)-led political movements in Northern AP and included the compositions and songs of the region’s best-known radical poet and performer, Gaddar.

Maa Ooru is a 1987 Telugu non-feature film written and directed by B. Narsing Rao. The film won the National Film Award for Best Anthropological/Ethnographic Film The film also received the Media Wave Award at the Hungary International festival of visual arts.