Athadu

Athadu
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Trivikram Srinivas
Written by	Trivikram Srinivas
Produced by	Duggirala Kishore M. Ram Mohan
Starring	Mahesh Babu Trisha Sonu Sood
Cinematography	K. V. Guhan
Edited by	A. Sreekar Prasad
Music by	Mani Sharma
Production company	Jayabheri Arts
Distributed by	Jayabheri Arts
Release date	10 August 2005 (2005-08-10)
Running time	172 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Athadu (transl. Him)^[1] is a 2005 Indian Telugu-language action thriller film written and directed by Trivikram Srinivas.^[2] The film features Mahesh Babu, Trisha, Sonu Sood, Prakash Raj, Nassar, Sunil, Sayaji Shinde, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Brahmanandam.^[3] It is produced by D. Kishore and M. Ram Mohan under the Jayabheri Arts banner. The soundtrack was composed by Mani Sharma. K. V. Guhan and Sreekar Prasad handled the cinematography and editing, respectively.

The film opened to positive reception and went on to become one of the highest grossing Telugu films and marked Mahesh Babu's career resurgence after a few unsuccessful films.

The film received several accolades including 3 Nandi Awards and a Filmfare Awards South in Best Director category. It was later remade in Hindi as Ek: The Power of One (2009)

At a remote dhaba near Suryapet, a young boy named Nandu pulls out a gun, kills the local gangster, and flees to Hyderabad, where Sadhu, a gangster, takes him in. Sadhu recruits Nandu to rob a local bank successfully, but is betrayed by his lieutenant and arrested by a corrupt police Sub-Inspector. While dividing the loot amongst themselves, Nandu creates a blackout and escapes with Sadhu and another kid, Malli. When Sadhu claims the SI will kill them if he finds them, Nandu calmly replies that he killed him. Years later, Nandu has become an assassin-for-hire. He and his partner Malli, who plans the escape, are hired for ₹15,000,000 to stage an assassination attempt on the state's opposition leader, Shiva Reddy, to ensure his win in the election on sympathy. However, on the day of the attempted hit, Shiva Reddy is instead shot dead, and the police surround the building immediately. Malli is killed in a car accident, and Nandu manages to escape onto a train, in which he meets Parthasarthy "Pardhu", who's going back to his hometown Basarlapudi. While the train stops at a station, the police, searching for Nandu, arrive. Spotting Nandu, the SI of the search party shoots at him but hits and kills Pardhu instead.

Nandu arrives at Basarlapudi and is mistakenly thought to be Pardhu. The family, including Pardhu's grandfather Satya Narayana Murthy, is overjoyed at his return, and he grows closer to them, falling in love with Poori, Pardhu's cousin. Nandu learns of and helps with the family problems, including withdrawing money for his cousin's wedding, while divulging his true identity to Pardhu's childhood friend Ramana. In the meantime, CBI officer Anjaneya Prasad is handed over the investigation into Shiva Reddy's murder. He notes the flaws in the evidence, which leads him to Basarlapudi where he attempts to find out Nandu's identity but fails. The evidence also points towards Malli, but due to his death, it is a dead end. Prasad then visits Sadhu in prison and shows him the evidence, and he hints at Nandu's identity. Searching bank records on Sadhu's suggestion, Prasad discovers the money withdrawn from Nandu's account, calls the household, and tricks Nandu into acknowledging his identity. He escapes just as Prasad arrives, and Prasad divulges the news of Pardhu's death to the family before leaving. Nandu returns amidst outrage and admits that he arrived to inform the family of his death, but he couldn't bring himself to tell them and chose to play along. Narayana Murthy takes Nandu into his study and informs him that he considers him his grandson as he has not only helped the family like one of them, but chose not to say or ask anything in return. He gives Nandu Pardhu's father's shotgun, which had killed him because of an obstructed barrel, and instructs him to find the person who framed him and clear his name.

Nandu calls Baaji Reddy, Shiva Reddy's partner, and threatens him with the recording of their earlier conversation to reveal the truth: Malli was alive and had faked his death to shoot Shiva Reddy dead and frame Nandu for ₹20,000,000 to help Baaji Reddy become the CM. Baaji Reddy discloses Malli's location to Nandu, who reveals he had not recorded the earlier conversation but has recorded the current one. En route to Malli's location, Nandu is spotted by Prasad and one of his officers fires at him but misses. Nandu uses the distraction to escape, leading Prasad to arrest his officer. Nandu arrives at the church where Malli is holed up, and the two are ambushed by corrupt officers sent by Baaji Reddy. Nandu dispatches the officers and has a standoff with Malli, ending up with Malli holding Nandu at gunpoint using Nandu's shotgun. However, Malli is killed when the round backfires due to a marble obstructing the barrel. Prasad arrives at the scene and is handed the tape, which he uses to confront Baaji Reddy over his role in the assassination. When Baaji Reddy gloats that the evidence is inadmissible in court, Prasad says he agrees, but says Shiva Reddy's son would kill him when the truth came out. Faced with no way out, Baaji Reddy commits suicide. Later, Prasad meets up with Nandu, who is performing Pardhu's last rites. He addresses Nandu as Pardhu, revealing he has exonerated him and decided to let him go. Nandu then leaves for Basarlapudi, having accepted the identity of Pardhu.

In an interview with the media about his film Julai, Trivikram shared his views on this film, stating :

I narrated the story of Athadu to Mahesh Babu before the start of Nuvve Nuvve shoot. Before making of Athadu, I fixed myself that I should not compromise at any cost. I wanted to make the film the way I envisioned it. I wanted to satisfy the audience in me after shooting every scene. I doubled checked each and every scene as an audience. I was able to achieve only 80% of what I had imagined when I wrote the script. If you look at the first 15 minutes of the Athadu movie, you will realize the level of intensity and technical finesse.^[4]

Initially, Trivikram wanted to do this film with Pawan Kalyan and narrated the script. But he did not show much interest in signing the film and also slept during script narration.^[3][5] Mahesh Babu listened to the script of this film in 2002 but Trvikram and the film's producers had to wait for him till he completed the shooting schedules of S. J. Surya's science fiction film Naani and Gunasekhar's family drama Arjun as they were his existing commitments then. The shooting started a month later after the completion of Arjun. For his characterization and the dialogues uttered by the character he played, Mahesh had to adjust to Trivikram's style of dialogues, which took 10 days. Trisha Krishnan was selected for the leading female role. In an interview with the media on 29 June 2005 at the event of audio release stated that she would be seen in a role with shades of comedy though she added that her role was a limited one.^[6]

Murali Mohan later revealed that he wanted his friend and former Telugu actor Sobhan Babu to play the role of Satya Narayana Murthy, which would have marked his comeback film which was busy with a highly profitable real estate business then. For the same, Murali Mohan even issued and sent a blank cheque to Sobhan Babu's residence at Chennai as the remuneration. But Sobhan Babu refused to do that role and rejected the offer politely. Later, Nassar portrayed that role with S. P. Balasubrahmanyam dubbing for him in frail voice and his performance was appreciated by critics.^[7]

For the film's shoot, 160 motion cameras were imported from London to shoot time-freeze effect shots in action sequences which were clarified by Mahesh himself as still cameras only. Because of non compromising, not more than 10 shots were shot per day. 4 to 5 complicated action sequences were shot under the supervision of Peter Hein with much finesse, and the climax sequence was shot indoors, which took enormous time to complete thus making the principal photography end after a span of two years.^[6] A big set was constructed at Ramanaidu Studios in Nanakramguda at Hyderabad where most of the film's family scenes were shot.^[8] On 7 August 2004, a scene featuring Mahesh and Sunil was shot on the bridge of the lake at ICRISAT campus in Hyderabad.^[9]

Mani Sharma composed the music for this film marking his first collaboration with Trivikram Srinivas and eighth collaboration with Mahesh Babu. The film's soundtrack was released by Mahesh Babu's father and prominent Telugu actor Krishna on 29 June 2005 at the house set of the film constructed at Nanakramguda through Maruthi Music label. This album consists of six melodies composed by Mani Sharma while Sirivennela Sitaramasastri and Viswa penned the lyrics. Apart from Krishna, the film's lead pair, producers, and Maruthi Music representatives attended the event.^[8]

The audio received moderately positive response from critics. IndiaGlitz wrote "Mani Sharma has tried to please all. If you are going to compare this one with his previous offerings for Mahesh, it does not do any one any good. On its own, the album has its moments."^[10] Upon the film's release, Mani Sharma's work was acclaimed by the critics and audience alike. IndiaGlitz wrote "Mani Sharma's music, especially the title song, is very good. His re-recording also fits the bill."^[11] idlebrain.com wrote "Music by Mani Sharma is good. The picturization of the first song which comes as background song for titles is wonderful. Neetho Cheppana song has got typical Mexican music. Background music and rerecording of the film is good."^[12] Sify.com wrote "The highlights of Athadu are the camerawork of K. V. Guhan and the melodious music and background score of Mani Sharma. The Neeto Chappana number picturised in the tea estates of Darjeeling is the pick of the album."^[13] Songs Sung By Eminent Singers Like S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chithra, Kavita Krishnamurti, Shreya Ghoshal, Mahalakshmi Iyer, KK etc

The film released in 79 centers in Nizam region in Andhra Pradesh and was distributed by Maruthi Movies in which 3 centers screened the film for only 2 days. The film released in 24 centers across Visakhapatnam and was distributed by Sri Venkateswara Films. Sri Bharathi Pictures released the film in Krishna district in 18 centers.^[14] The film was released simultaneously in 3 screens in Chennai and it was also the first Telugu film to do so.^[15][16]

The film was released with 6 prints in United States and was distributed by Vishnu Mudda and Soma Kancherla of Crown DVD distribution company. Because of the demand, another print was imported from India for screening.^[17][18] The film's first screening in USA happened at Cine Plaza 13 at North Bergen on the night of 11 August 2005.^[19] At Connecticut, a special screening was conducted on 19 August 2005. Initially one show was planned but because of the demand another show was screened. There at the theater, a turn out of 442 people was observed which included standing audience for 434 seats and about 60 could not be accommodated.^[20] Apart from USA, the film released in selected screens in United Kingdom, Singapore, Germany and Australia.^[18]

The DVD of the movie was released by Aditya Music under its Aditya Video Brand and won the best DVD award for its quality and is considered to be one of the highest sold DVDs in Tollywood history. After 7 years, Star Maa renewed the contract by paying an amount of ₹3.5 crores which was a record price for a 2005 Telugu film.^[21]

The film was remade in Hindi as Ek: The Power of One (2009).

The film received praise for its plot, slick screenplay, creative action sequences, the amalgamation of humor, emotional weightage, suspense music, dialogues, cinematography and the central performance of Mahesh Babu.

Sify stated, "The highlight of the film is Mahesh Babu who looks cool, confident and competent as a hit man with his expressive body language and mannerisms. Athadu just about makes it as a slickly packaged entertainer but only for want of a better alternative."^[13] IndiaGlitz gave a review stating, "The story sure has splendid potential, but the director does not use them to the hilt simply because he attempts to do too many things almost simultaneously. Yet, all things considered, Athadu is a good entertainer. The problem is you can't praise it as the best yet cannot rubbish it as being useless. It is somewhere in between with more pluses than minuses."^[11] Cinegoer.net gave a review stating, "True the film gives an image of a Hollywood base for the drama. Even the taking, screenplay structure and execution of scenes, less talk and more action – all add to this image. But there are elements in this film that only a Telugu man can do it originally. That is the love track. And the way Trivikram put to view the scenic structure between Mahesh Babu and Trisha is impressive and refreshing."^[22]

The film netted ₹ 1 million from 3 screens in Chennai in its opening weekend debuting at second position pushing Shankar's Anniyan down to the third place.^[16] It collected approximately ₹220 million (US$2.6 million) in its total run.^[23] The film had a 50 days run in 205 centers^[24] and a 100-day run in 38 centres.^[25] The film had a 175-day run in Sudarshan 35 mm, Hyderabad, grossing ₹ 1.40 crores from the theater.,^[23][26]

• Athadu at IMDb
• Athadu at AllMovie