Arundhati (2009 film)

Arundhati
Directed by	Kodi Ramakrishna
Produced by	M Shyam Prasad Reddy
Written by	Chintapalli Ramana
Starring	Anushka Shetty Sonu Sood Arjan Bajwa Sayaji Shinde
Music by	Koti
Cinematography	K. K. Senthil Kumar
Editing by	Marthand K Venkatesh
Studio	Mallemala Entertainments
Release date(s)	16 January 2009 (2009-01-16) 16 October 2010 (2010-10-16) (Malayalam)
Country	India
Language	Telugu Tamil Malayalam Oriya
Budget	13 crores[1]
Box office	30 crores[2]

Arundhati (Telugu: అరుంధతి) is a 2009 Telugu fantasy film written and directed by Kodi Ramakrishna, starring Anushka and Sonu Sood in the lead. The The film released on 16 January 2009 to positive reviews and emerged as a commercial blockbuster and is one among the highest grossing Telugu films of all time.^[3] Owing to its success, it was later dubbed into Tamil and Malayalam with the same title and in Oriya as "Mantrasakti".

Plot

Arundhati (Anushka Shetty) is the great-granddaughter of the Raja of Gadwal, Mahasamsthan. Arrangements are being made for her marriage. Arundhati visits her native place before marriage. She receives a misleading phone call in her fiance Rahul's (Arjan Bajwa) voice asking her to come to the fort of Gadwal, where she faces a horrible revelation. Learning the story from an aged servant maid, Chandramma (Manorama), Arundhati comes to know that she is a look alike of her great-grandmother Arundhati/Jejjamma (Anushka).

Jejjamma is an expert in painting, dancing and martial arts (essential skills for princesses). She has an elder sister who is married to her cousin Pasupathi (Sonu Sood). Pasupathi, a womanizer, rapes the women he likes and kills those who object. Jejjamma's sister commits suicide and the people of Gadwal thrash Pasupathi severely and tie him to his horse. Though Gadwal celebrates his death, he is saved by Aghoras (saints who practice the dark arts). Pasupathi masters the Tantric arts and returns to Gadwal to exact his revenge.

Pasupathi unleashes carnage as he uses his powers to torture innocent people. Jejjamma performs a special dance imbued with martial arts to lull Pasupathi and then cuts off his tongue (thus ending the incantations) and pins his hands, ultimately cutting off the ropes of a chandelier and allowing it to fall on his body. She spares him from being killed to prevent him from becoming a 'pretatma' (a demonic poltergeist). Pasupathi is buried alive in a tomb and powerful 'yantras' (defensive spells) with inscriptions from Vedas and the holy scriptures are put on it to prevent the him from coming out. Jejjamma, as a final measure, sacrifices her own life by going through intense torture. She is killed, her body burnt, and her relics fashioned into a dagger - the one weapon that could destroy Pasupathi forever.

After this revelation through flashback, a worker in a trance, unknowingly breaks the tomb and releases the 'pretatma'. The revenge drama ensues again. Anwar (Sayaji Shinde) who treats patients through sorcery tells her that she is none other than Jejamma and asks her to fight Pasupathi. From the portrait of Jejjamma which was painted by Jejjamma herself during her last days in the fort, Arundhati comes to know that her great-grandmother had prepared a 'weapon' with her own bones and had kept it with siddhas(Sage). Anwar and Arundhati proceed to procure the weapon, and while doing so, Anwar meets with an accident and falls off a cliff.

Arundhati, believing that Anwar is dead, is left with no option but to return to the fort to surrender herself to Pasupathi, to prevent the death of her family members. Anwar, who survives the fall, collects the weapon and hands it to Arundhati. The siddhas who crafted the weapon for Jejjamma tell Anwar that the weapon has to be soaked in Arundhathi's blood before it can be used. Otherwise it will not know that the opponent is a villain. Arundathi tries to kill Pasupathi but it does not work. Before Anwar tells the secret about the weapon being soaked in blood, Pasupathi kills him. As a last resort to save herself from being tormented by Pasupathi, Arundhati tries to kill herself with the same weapon and in the process the weapon gets soaked in her blood. The dagger glows brightly and the power incantations inscribed on it glow with energy. Arundhati finally slays Pasupathi.

Cast

• Anushka Shetty as Arundathi alias Jettiamma
• Sonu Sood as Vadai Prasanth
• Arjan Bajwa as Rahul
• Sayaji Shinde as Anwar
• Manorama as Chandramma
• Kaikala Satyanarayana as Bhupathi Raja
• Anita Raichurkar
• Ahuti Prasad
• Chalapati Rao
• Siva Parvati
• Divya Nagesh as Young Arundhati

Awards

• Filmfare Best Actress Award (Telugu) - Anushka Shetty (2009)
• Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award (Telugu) - Sonu Sood (2009)

Though this film was released in 2009, it was registered for 2008 films for Nandi Awards, and took the lion's share. Nandi Awards won by the film are^[4]

• Best Villain - Sonu Sood
• Best child actress - Divya Nagesh
• Best editor - Marthand K Venkatesh
• Best art director - Ashok
• Best audiographer - Radhakrishna & Madhusudhan Reddy
• Best costume designer - Deepa Chandar
• Best makeup artist - Ramesh Mahanti
• Best male dubbing artist - P Ravi Shankar
• Best special effects - Rahul Nambiar
• Special Jury Award - Anushka Shetty

Reception & Box office

Rediff gave a three stars out of five said "The main plus points of the film are screenplay (creative director Rahul Nambiar and the Mallemalla Unit), art direction (Ashok), cinematography (Senthil Kumar), editing (Marthand K. Venkatesh), special effects and the performances of Anushka [Images], Sonu Sood and Sayaji Shinde. On the whole, Arundhati is a watchable film provided you don't have a weak heart and don't get into discussing logic, science and rationality. Just watch what unfolds on the screen -- for that's visual grandeur".^[5] Sify gave verdict as "Worth a watch" with four stars noted "The film has come across with some really mind blowing graphics and presentation, even the performances were top notch that helped. While the drums scene is a take from the Chinese movie 'House of Flying Daggers' it was well taken and presented. The shock points are high and one can say that the film is definitely not for the weak hearted. There are enough chilling moments to shake the audience off their chair. The film is one of the best made ever in the history of Telugu cinema in terms of technical values so it deserves to be a good hit".^[6]

The film grossed Rs.30 crores^[2] at the box office including 10 crore as Tamil version^[7][8] Satellite rights fetched another 7 crores.^[9]

References

1. ^ "'Arundhathi' made on 13 crores". IndiaGlitz. http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/telugu/article/43611.html. Retrieved December 13, 2008. 
2. ^ ^{a b} http://www.greatandhra.com/viewnews.php?id=15297&cat=&scat=4
3. ^ "Telugu Box Office: Arundhati is a blockbuster". Sify. http://www.sify.com/movies/boxoffice.php?id=14846231&cid=14625527. Retrieved 28 January , 2009. 
4. ^ http://www.idlebrain.com/news/2000march20/nandiawards2008.html
5. ^ "Arundhati is haunting and thrilling". Rediff. http://www.rediff.com/movies/2009/jan/19telugu-film-review-arundhati.htm. Retrieved January 19, 2009. 
6. ^ "Movie Review :Arundhati". Sify. http://www.sify.com/movies/telugu/review.php?id=14838969&ctid=5&cid=2430. 
7. ^ [1]
8. ^ http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-3/top-ten-movies/tamil-cinema-topten-movie-arundhathee.html
9. ^ http://www.lazydesis.com/movie-chat-news/51427-arundhathi-satellite-rights-rs-7-crores.html

External links

• Arundhati at the Internet Movie Database