Ek Niranjan

Ek Niranjan
A film poster of Ek Niranjan featuring Prabhas
Directed by	Puri Jagannadh
Produced by	Adityaram
Starring	Prabhas Raju Uppalapati Kangna Ranaut Sonu Sood Makarand Deshpande Ali
Music by	Mani Sharma
Cinematography	Shyam K Naidu
Distributed by	Adityaram Movies
Release dates	29 October 2009 (2009-10-29)
Running time	155 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Budget	25 crore (US$4.0 million)
Box office	45 crore (US$7.2 million)

Ek Niranjan is a 2009 Telugu film starring Prabhas and Kangna Ranaut in lead roles. The film is directed by Puri Jagannadh. The film has been shot on a specially erected set in Hyderabad and shot in Bangkok and the songs have been shot in Switzerland. The film revolves around Chotu (Prabhas), who is a bounty hunter getting criminals to the police in exchange for money and how he reunites with his parents he never got to meet due to the fact he was kidnapped. The film released on 29 October 2009.^[1] The film was dubbed in Hindi as Ek Hi Raasta.

Plot

Viraiah's (Tanikella Bharani) younger son is stolen by Chidambaram (Makrand Deshpande), who abducts children and makes them beggars. He names him as Chotu (Prabhas) and makes him beg on streets to earn money for him. The police raid Chidambaram and Chotu helps the police to find him. The police reward Chotu for helping them. This makes Chotu realise that he can earn money by catching criminals for the police. From then on Chotu works for the police and catches hold of criminals whom the police are in search of and becomes as bounty hunter. He also is in touch with Chidambaram and communicates with him so that he can tell him who his parents are, but he never told him. While getting hold of a goon, Chotu comes across Sameera (Kangna Ranaut) who is a guitar teacher. Sameera is the sister of the goon who works for Johnny Bhai (Sonu Sood).

Chotu is asked by the police to nab her brother who is wanted by them for many crimes. When Sameera is feeding her brother, Chotu enters and forcefully arrests him after causing much havoc in the house. Chotu and Sameera fall in love. As her brother reels behind the bars, Sameera reciprocates her love to Chotu.

Veeraiah's elder son Kailash (Mukul Dev) also works for Johnny Bhai who will be arrested on charges of killing the minister (Posani Krishna Murali) which is planned by Johnny Bhai. Johnny Bhai wants to kill Kailash, who is arrested, fearing that he will reveal his name to the police interrogation. Kailash escapes from the police clutches and Johnny Bhai is in search of him. The police commissioner also asks Chotu to find Kailash and bag a handsome reward. Sameera's brother vacates his house and escapes to Bangkok fearing Johnny Bhai. Chotu also goes to Bangkok in search of Sameera and finds Kailash there. He catches Kailash who tells him that the minister was killed by his brother, and Kailash to the blame. Johnny Bhai kidnaps Sameera and her brother and threatens to kill them if Chotu does not hand over Kailash to him. The story ends with Chotu rescuing Sameera from Johnny Bhai and how he meets his parents.

Cast (in credits order)

• Prabhas as Chotu
• Kangna Ranaut as Sameera
• Sonu Sood as Johnny Bhai
• Mukul Dev as Kailash
• Brahmanandam as Guru
• Ali as Mantra
• Sunil as Chanti Babu
• Venu Madhav as Chitti
• Makarand Deshpande as Chidambaram
• Chalapathi Rao as Police Commissioner
• Brahmaji as Brahmaji
• Tanikella Bharani as Veeraiah
• Sathya Prakash
• Posani Krishna Murali as Minister's brother
• Sravan
• Gowtham Raju
• Erina
• Sangeetha
• Abinayasri

Development

Jagganadh and Prabhas worked together for the film Bujjigadu which was an average score in the box-office, Puri decided to do the duo again for Ek Niranjan. His character is dynamic, rough and tough guy and a loner.^[1] Kangna Ranaut, who is popular in Bollywood films, is making her debut in the Tollywood industry. Her character is said to be a guitar teacher. It was also said that she is acting in the film for a very big price of Rs.10 million.Puri, initially, approached her for Pokiri which Ileana D'Cruz has done, but she was unable to do the film due to the dates of Gangster. Sonu Sood will essay the villain in the film. The film is described to be a commercial entertainer mixed with romance and comedy to appeal to the audience.^[2]

Filming

(from left) Kangna Ranaut, Allu Arjun, Prabhas, Puri Jagannadh, Adityaram during the film audio release

Ek Niranjan began shooting on 31 March in Lahari resorts and on Road No. 25, Jubilee Hills, a part of Hyderabad which was recreated for the film. Art director Chinna and his team brought a natural look to their creations – a clock tower, a four road junction, by lanes, a Hanuman temple, and dhobi ghat including house sets for the lead pair.^[3] Around June, they left for Switzerland for the canning of two songs on Prabhas and Kangna Ranaut. After shooting in Switzerland till 30 June the film began to film the final phase of shooting in July in Bangkok and Pattaya where the climax was shot at. The film completed in September. The audio of the film was released on 25 September at Shilpakala Vedika and the music has already gotten good reviews and has been very successful so far with people loving "Evaru Lerani" and title track "Ek Niranjan". The music is done by Mani Sharma who also did the music for Billa.^[4][5]

Release

Reception

The film received mixed reviews. Rediff gave a two star rating commented "the film does not live up to the expectations. Technically, Puri ensures that the film is in place. He tries to earnestly build up a deft screenplay with a wafer-thin story (which is increasingly becoming his trademark). But the clichéd plot falls flat despite all the technical gimmicks (fights and all) and attempts to prop it up. However Prabhas is effortless as Chotu, he acts well and the movie is watchable for him although he has developed a similar style in all his films. Kangna's Telugu debut can't be really raved about. She looks pretty but as far as performance goes, there's nothing much to write about as the script doesn't have anything for her to showcase her acting skills".^[6] Sify gave a three star rating and said "Prabhas has come up with a good and lively performance in the film. He has improved a lot in his dialogue delivery. He also excelled in dance sequences. Bollywood beauty Kangna Ranaut makes her debut in Tollywood with this film and she is looking gorgeous. Sonu Sood comes up with another dazzling performance after magnum opus Arundathi. Director Puri Jagannadh just played a routine stuff in this film. The presentation and narration are very weak, lacking all seriousness. The dialogues are to some extent good. The screenplay was not impressive and there a lot many illogical threads.^[7] local review sites Greatandhra gave two and half rating and Idlebrain gave a three star says "On a whole, Ek Niranjan is a not a bad film. First half of the movie is entertaining and the second half should have been better".^[8]

Box office

Ek Niranjan was released all over Andhra Pradesh with over 350 prints in 700 theaters and the hype was outstanding due to the combination of Prabhas and Puri. Even before the release date of the film, the advance booking of the film was successful and houseful. The film had a wonderful opening with the masses loving the film despite the negative talk from critics. The film grossed Rs.210 million in its first week and is the biggest grosser of Prabhas' career.^[9] Even though the film is a good success, it has dropped tremendously during its 2nd week.

Awards

57th Filmfare Awards South

• Nominated - Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu - Prabhas

Soundtrack

The music is composed by Mani Sharma. The soundtrack contains six songs and will be featured throughout the film. The audio release was held on 25 September and was an elaborate event. Prabhas, Kangna Ranaut, Allu Arjun, Puri Jagannadh presented the music at the event.

References

External links

• Ek Niranjan at the Internet Movie Database