Parati and Mangani: A Paddana Still Waiting for Its Story

Some Tulu stories are well documented, and some are known by name only. This is one of the second kind, for now.

A paddana is a sung epic or ballad of the coast. This one is said to remember something that really happened.

What is known

Wikipedia’s article on the film calls the Parati–Mangani Paddana a true story that took place 200 years ago in Bettampady, near Puttur, and says it was later made into a drama of the same name.¹ The film, it says, is based on the paddana.¹

Our research notes add that the name is sometimes written Parati Mangane, and that press coverage describes Parati Mangane as a character connected with the worship of a daiva. We could not read that coverage.

The film

The film is Nemoda Boolya, a Tulu-language drama written and directed by B. K. Gangadhar Kirodian and produced by K. Chandrashekar Mada. It was released on 22 September 2017. The music is by V. Manohar, who also wrote the lyrics.¹

The cast, as Wikipedia lists it, includes Rajani as Parati Mangane, Preetham Shetty Kadar as Mynda and Pradeepchandra Udupi as Annappa Ballala. Ramesh Bhat is also in the cast.¹

What we could not find

• The story. Neither the article on the film nor a web search gave an account of what happens in the paddana, or in the film. We have not tried to work it out from the names of the characters.
• Who the characters are. We do not know who Parati Mangane, Mynda and Annappa Ballala were in the story, or how they were related, or what happened at Bettampady.
• The daivasthana. Our notes mention a shrine at Bettampady connected with the story, and that Parati Mangane is linked with daiva worship. We found no source.
• A recorded or printed version of the paddana. Our notes suggest looking in Tulu paddana collections, such as those by Viveka Rai and Amrutha Someshwara, or asking the filmmakers. We have not seen any of these.
• A scholarly study. We found none.

If you know the story, or have a copy of the paddana or a synopsis of the film, we would like to hear from you.

Related

• The Koti-Chennaya Paddana: A Fourteen-Hour Epic, on how long Tulu paddanas are and where they are sung
• Kantabare and Budabare, the Twin Heroes of Mulki, another hero story from a paddana
• Agoli Manjanna, the Bhima of Tulunadu, another story of the coast’s folk heroes

Sources & further reading

The books and articles behind the numbered notes on this page.

1. Wikipedia, “Nemoda Boolya” (checked 9 October 2026): the paddana, Bettampady, the film, its cast and crew, and its release.

This is a short Wikipedia article. We found no other source that gives the story.