The film is considered a landmark in both Telugu and Tamil cinema, with praise for its cast and technical aspects, despite the limitations of technology at the time.

Because of the Pandavas' ruined financial state, Balarama's wife, Revati, refuses to honor her commitment to marry Sasirekha and Abhimanyu and expresses her support for the alliance with the Kauravas.

Krishna, who is aware of Duryodhana and Shakuni's real intentions, orders his charioteer Daaruka to take Subhadra and Abhimanyu through the forests to Ghatotkacha's hermitage.

Assuming Sasirekha's form, he returns to Dvaraka and, with the help of his assistants Chinnamaya, Lambu, and Jambu, wreaks havoc on her wedding to Lakshmana Kumara, preventing the marriage from being carried out.

In addition to following other suggestions by K. V. Reddy, Rama Rao read the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata and other Puranas to understand Krishna's character and present it properly.

[21] In the Telugu version, Gummadi and Mikkilineni were cast as Balarama and Karna, respectively, whilst Sita had a supporting role as Sasirekha's maid.

Ramana Reddy portrayed Chinnamayya, a tantrik who teaches witchcraft at Ghatotkacha's ashram, with Chadalavada and Nalla Ramamurthy playing his apprentices Lambu and Jambu.

[12] For the Dvaraka set, 300 unique miniature houses were created in an approximately 50-by-60-foot (15 m × 18 m) electrified space at Vauhini Studios under the supervision of Madhavapeddi Gokhale and Kaladhar.

[g] Following his departure, Ghantasala orchestrated and recorded Rajeswara Rao's compositions with N. C. Sen Gupta and A. Krishnamurthy, and composed the rest of the film's score.

[1][12] The soundtrack album has 12 songs with lyrics by Pingali Nagendrarao and Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass for the Telugu and Tamil versions, respectively, and was mixed by A. Krishnan and Siva Ram.

[34] "Vivaha Bhojanambu" ("Kalyana Samayal Saadham" in Tamil) was heavily based on lyrics from Surabhi Nataka Samajam's 1950s plays, which were influenced by 1940s Janaki Sapadham harikatha records by B. Nagarajakumari.

In 2006, W. Chandrakanth of The Hindu wrote: The greatness of the director lies here – he successfully reduces all characters to ordinary mortals displaying all the follies of human beings except Ghatothkacha or Krishna.

[15] Vijaysree Venkatraman wrote for The Hindu in 2008 that the "special effects in this summer's Hollywood superhero movies were spectacular, but, for me, the mythological Maya Bazaar [sic] hasn't lost any of its magic", adding, "If watching the genial half-demon polish off a wedding feast single-handedly remains a treat, seeing the greedy duo from the groom's side get whacked alternately by the furniture and the wilful carpet has me in splits".

[44] The Hindu film critic M. L. Narasimham wrote: "Though there were several movie versions in various Indian languages, the 1957 Vijaya Productions' Mayabazar is still considered the best for its all round excellence".

But the performances and the beautiful songs and sets aside, the film also reveals an interesting feature of the Telugu mythological in its Golden Age—it is a story about something not very important from a doctrinal view of religion at all".

[6] In their 2015 book, Transcultural Negotiations of Gender: Studies in (Be)longing, Saugata Bhaduri and Indrani Mukherjee opined that Mayabazar "both breaks and perpetuates the stereotypes for masculine and feminine bhavas by making a single female actor Savitri perform both the set of emotions".

[50] In late November 2007 a Hyderabad company, Goldstone Technologies, acquired world negative rights to 14 Telugu films produced by Vijaya Vauhini Studios, including that of Mayabazar, to digitally remaster them in colour.

[48] The audio was restored, sound effects remastered, distortion eliminated, and the volume of the vocals increased, and musicians re-recorded the film's background music on seven tracks instead of one.

[48] Apart from colouring clothing and jewellery, Mohan said that the song "Vivaha Bhojanambu" and the wedding scene in the climax were the most challenging sequences, and that the food should look more realistic after colourisation.

[50] With an estimated digitalisation budget of ₹7.5 crore (valued at about US$1.7 million in 2010),[i] Mayabazar was released in colour on 30 January 2010 in 45 Andhra Pradesh theatres.

[54] M. L. Narasimham of The Hindu called the new version "laudable, but the soul was missing", adding, "Get a DVD of the original (Black & White) movie, watch it and you will agree with ANR [Akkineni Nageswara Rao] who while talking about Mayabazar once exclaimed, 'What a picture it was!'".

[55] Despite Mayabazar's success, Mohan decided not to remaster the remaining 14 films; according to him, most producers who sold negative rights to TV channels lost control of them, and he cited legal and copyright issues.

[15] The success of Donga Ramudu (1955) and Mayabazar prompted K. V. Reddy to produce the 1958 Telugu film Pellinaati Pramanalu (Vazhkai Oppantham in Tamil).

[61] Telugu comedian Mallikarjuna Rao considered Mayabazar to be the "greatest comedy film ever", adding that it represents "one of the most transcendental and joyful experiences any movie-lover can hope for".

[63] In January 2007, M. L. Narasimham of The Hindu listed Mayabazar with Mala Pilla (1938), Raithu Bidda (1939), Vara Vikrayam (1939), Bhakta Potana (1942), Shavukaru (1950), Malliswari (1951) Peddamanushulu (1954) and Lava Kusa (1963) as films that have influenced society and Telugu cinema.

[70] In February 2010, acting coach and director L. Satyanand compared Mayabazar to films such as The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Sholay (1975) and Avatar (2009), saying that they "are evergreen and never fade away from the mind", with continued appeal.

"[7] In commemoration of the centennial of Indian cinema, The Hindu listed Mayabazar along with Pathala Bhairavi (1951), Missamma, Gundamma Katha, Maduve Madi Nodu (1965), Ram Aur Shyam (1967), Julie (1975), and Shriman Shrimati (1982) as the iconic films produced by Nagi Reddy.

Later, while making Yamadonga, my VFX supervisor and I spent two days just to figure out how KV Reddy had pulled off such amazing special effects back then.

[84] Writing for DailyO, an online opinion platform from the India Today Group, actor Rana Daggubati opined that films like Mayabazar were "truly cutting edge" and added, "Considering the technological limitations technicians were working with back then, these were phenomenally commendable instances of the Indian cinema".

[85] In an interview with The Hindu in November 2015, actor Kamal Haasan noted, "Visual appeal has always gone hand-in-hand with content, since the days of Chandralekha and Maya Bazaar [sic], not just after Baahubali.