Apthamitra

Apthamitra (Kannada: ಆಪ್ತಮಿತ್ರ; English translation: Close friend ) is a 2004 Kannada movie starring Vishnuvardhan, Ramesh Arvind, Soundarya and Avinash. This was actress Soundarya's last film. This was inspired from a Malayalam movie Manichitrathazhu . It was a box-office hit and ran successfully for a year. It was followed by its sequel, Aptharakshaka. Apthamitra was later remade in Tamil as Chandramukhi starring Jyothika Saravanan and Rajinikanth in lead.

Story

Ramesh (Ramesh Arvind) and Ganga (Soundarya) are married couple who recently move into Mysore to buy an ancient palace, against the wishes of his uncles and elders (Dwarakish & Pramila Joshai) of the family. His uncle agrees to reside with them with his two daughters Vani and Rani, on one condition that the room on the first floor which is locked and sealed should not be visited by anyone in the family. They have their care-taker Rangajja (Shivaram) who lives in the outhouse with his grand-daughter Prema (Prema).
During their stay in the house they come to know that this palace earlier belonged to Raja Vijaya Rajendra Bahaddur. He had a court dancer named Nagavalli from Andhra Pradesh, whom he was in love with. But Nagavalli had an illicit affair with a fellow dancer named Ramanatha, who used to reside in a house just behind the palace. When the Raja came to know of their affair on an Durgashtami day, he be-headed Dancer Ramanatha and burned Nagavalli alive. Nagavalli vowed at the time of her death that she would seek revenge of her death from the Raja by burning him alive on very same Durgashtami day, as like her.
Strange things start to happen in the palace and everyone suspect Prema, who is always found at the place of the incident. So, Ramesh calls in his psychiatrist friend Vijay (Vishnuvardhan) to help him clear of the misconceptions regarding the palace and its history. Ramesh's uncle (Satyajit) is not happy with the way Vijay functions and is always very suspectfull of him. Vani, Ramesh's cousin is in love with a orphan-dance teacher who incidentally resides in the same house behind the palace. Vijay comes to know of this and tells Ramesh's uncle about this and the alliance is approved by all in the family and their marriage is fixed.
When the whole family is out of town to visit Mahadev, to decide his wedding with Vani, Ganga with help from Prema opens the room in the first floor with the key given by Prema. While she tries to enter the room prema comes running to tell not to open the door as the ket-maker who made the key had died. So Ganga returns without opening the door.
During this time there are attempts to kill Ramesh by someone unknown, which every time is foiled by Vijay. Even Vani is attacked once by someone unknown. So Ramesh's uncle calls upon a Acharya Ramachandra Shastri (Avinash) to perform some Shanti pooja upon the palace. Though Ramesh is not interested in all these proceedings he agrees on advice of Vijay.
On the eve of Engagement ceremony of Mahadev and Vani, Ganga accuses Mahadev of trying to molest her - which is refused by both Mahdev and Vijay. Upon hearing this Ramesh gets angry upon Vijay and shouts at him to get out of his house. Acharya stops the family from doing so and asks Vijay to tell them the mystery behind the strange incidents.
Vijay reveals to everyone that Ganga is behind all the strange incidents and she only tried to kill Ramesh and Vani. Ganga who visited the first floor room was enamoured by Nagavalli and her diary. Since Ganga suffered from Multiple personality disorder or Split personality disorder since her childhood, the mystery behind Nagavalli's story compelled her to assume herself as Nagavalli, compelling the spirit of Nagavalli to enter her body. She(Nagavalli inside Ganga) now intends to kill Vijay as he had posed in front of her as Raja Vijaya Rajendra Bahaddur, on the coming Durgashtami day as vowed by Nagavalli while dying. Vijay explains to everyone that since Nagavalli inside Ganga thinks that Mahadev is only Ramanatha, she is trying to kill Ramesh. She also tries to kill Vani who is marrying Mahadev and intends to woo Mahadev so to break the marriage she enacts the molestation drama against him.
Vijay informs Ramesh that he intends to cure Ganga by using new technique with the help from Acharya to drive out the spirit. He also asks Mahadev to assist him in the process. Vijay along with Ramesh and Mahadev, catch Ganga while Nagavalli has possessed her and sends Mahadev to get her into the room where pooja is being performed by Swamiji. There Vijay poses as Raja Vijay Rajendra Bahaddur and sets him ablaze in front of Ganga/Nagavalli now. But the Swamiji creates huge smoke in front of Nagavalli, simultaneously Vijay is replaced by a look-alike doll. This is not seen by Ganga/Nagavalli and she rejoices by thinking that she set the Raja ablaze and killed him. At this time the Acharya exorcises the demon out of Ganga. Vijay then brings Ganga back from her hypnotised state and she feels relaxed in her mind and heart. Both Ramesh and Ganga thank him for the same, while Vijay says he has to thank Prema who had agreed to act in front of everybodyto save Ganga. Vijay thanks Prema and asks her to marry him.

Box-Office performance

• The film collected Rs 12 crores,which was an all-time record for Kannada films at that time.^[2]
• This movie has been dubbed and remade into several Indian languages too.

Awards

Filmfare Awards

The film, won five Filmfare Awards that includes:^[3]

• Best Film: Apthamitra
• Best Director: P. Vasu
• Best Actor: Vishnuvardhan
• Best Actress: Soundarya
• Best Music Director: Gurukiran

Sequel

Apthamithra went on to become a blockbuster hit in Karnataka and the movie collected huge revenues besides completing a silver jubilee run. Vasu repeated the same magic with Vishnuvardhan once again in the sequel to the film, titled Aptharakshaka released in 2010 which was also the last film of Vishnuvardhan. The film proved to be a crowdpuller when it was released in Karnataka and went on to become one of the biggest grossers of the year 2010. Aptharakshaka was also remade as Nagavalli in Telugu.

Character map of Manichithrathazhu and its remakes

References

1. ^ http://popcorn.oneindia.in/title/3304/apthamitra.html
2. ^ Lucky for Kannada.
3. ^ News from Viggy.com [1] .