It revolves around two unemployed people — M. T. Rao and Mary — who pose as a married couple to obtain employment in a high school founded by Gopalam, a zamindar.
The bilingual film brought recognition to its cast and studio, and words and phrases from Missamma became part of Telugu vernacular.
Bapu, Mullapudi Venkata Ramana and Raavi Kondala Rao rewrote and adapted Missamma as Pelli Pustakam in 1991, with the premise of the original inverted: a married couple pretend to be unmarried to obtain employment.
Raju, Gopalam's nephew, who is in love with Sita, wants to keep Rao away from her and turns to Mary for help in teaching music, which ends in disaster.
After Gopalam's wife tells him that Mahalakshmi has a mole on her right foot, he and his assistant Govindan sneak into Mary's room at night to verify but the plan backfires when they awaken her.
[6][5][7] Prasad's relationship with Khan, a Muslim tailor near Kohinoor Studios in Bombay (now Mumbai), was the basis of the film's friendship between two men of different religions.
[11] After the release of Devadasu (1953), Akkineni Nageswara Rao wanted to trade his tragic-romantic-hero image for a comic role in Missamma,[12] and was cast as the detective A. K.
[4] Nageswara Rao reportedly accepted the role for financial reasons, until he said that Missamma was the only film of his career that he lobbied to participate in.
[7] The scene in which M. T. Rao and Mary lie to each other before boarding a bus to attend an interview after they were fired from their previous jobs was shot at the Chandamama office building, and the high-school set was built nearby.
[17] After they saw the final edited version, Nagi Reddi and Chakrapani gave Dodge automobiles to the film's principal cast.
[20] Andhra Patrika noted in its review that the character of Raju had the shades of Sherlock Holmes, but was portrayed as an amateur detective until the end keeping in view the film's comic tone.
[22] Chakrapani used the reception of Mary's modern dress and behaviour to depict the limitations of orthodox South Indian families.
[18] The lyrics of "Adavari Matalaku Ardhale Verule", as lip-synched by Rao's character, describe the complex behaviour of women with men.
[18] According to Pillai, Missamma shed light on the subtle, indirect way Telugu filmmakers dealt with the troublesome environment in Madras surrounding Tamil language and culture during the Visalandhra movement.
[23] Pillai wrote that the Krishna-Godavari River dispute between Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh enabled viewers to grasp the metaphor of Pushkaram as signifying loss.
[18][26] Gautaman Bhaskaran of Hindustan Times called it a "powerful social document" that spoke about the importance of religious tolerance with the help of its lead actors.
[16] Chakrapani chose P. Susheela to sing the two songs featuring Jamuna after he was impressed by her rendition of "Anuragam Virisena" in Donga Ramudu (1955).
He added that Rajeswara Rao was afraid of failure and rejection from filmmakers, and wanted to leave for Vizianagaram, until the soundtrack's success happened.
[16] For Swatantra magazine, Govindarama (Gora) Sastry praised the film's universal theme and clean, subtle comedy.
[21] In its February 1955 edition, Kinima magazine called Missamma a film made for everyone, praising Prasad's direction and the performances of the cast.
[38] Composer Hemant Kumar reused the melody of "Brindavanamadi Andaridi Govindudu Andarivadele" from the original as "Brindavan Ka Krishan Kanhaiya".
[40] A 70-minute long Telugu-language Off-off-Broadway version of Missamma, written by Athaluri Vijayalakshmi and directed by Rajeswari Udayagiri, was staged on 16, 17, and 18 September 2016 at Johnson and Community theatres in New York City.
[43] The phrase "Adavari Matalaku Arthale Verule" became a Telugu idiom and the word "Thailam", used by Devaiah in the film, became synonymous with "cash".
In their 2013 book, Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinemas, K. Moti Gokulsing and Wimal Dissanayake wrote that Appu Chesi Pappu Koodu, Missamma, Gundamma Katha (1962) and Ramudu Bheemudu (1964) "represented the scope comedy had in the 1950s and '60s.
"[45] The storyline of Marunnattil Oru Malayali (1971) was noted for its similarity to Missamma, since its female lead (a Christian) acts like a Brahmin girl.
According to B. Vijayakumar of The Hindu, this prompted Chakrapani to remake the film in Telugu as Sri Rajeswari Vilas Coffee Club in 1976.
[46] "Adavari Matalaku Arthale Verule" was remixed by Mani Sharma without altering its melody and lyrics for the Telugu-language film, Kushi (2001).
[49] Hyderabad-based Goldstone Technologies acquired the film-negative rights of 14 Telugu films produced by Vijaya Vauhini Studios in late November 2007, including Mayabazar (1957) and Missamma, to release digitally re-mastered versions in colour.
[52] Commemorating the centenary of Indian cinema, The Hindu listed Missamma, Pathala Bhairavi, Mayabazar, Gundamma Katha, Maduve Madi Nodu (1965), Ram Aur Shyam (1967), Julie (1975) and Shriman Shrimati (1982) as iconic films produced by Nagi Reddi.
[53] Hussain Sha Kiran, who co-wrote Sukumar's Nannaku Prematho (2016), entitled his directorial debut Meeku Meere Maaku Meme after a scene in Missamma in which Mary tries to teach Raju music.