Arjun (2004 film)

Arjun

Movie Poster
Directed by Gunasekhar
Produced by G. Ramesh Babu
Written by Gunasekhar
Starring Mahesh Babu
Shriya Saran
Keerthi Reddy
Prakash Raj
Raja Abel
Music by Mani Sharma
Cinematography Sekhar V. Joseph
Edited by A. Sreekar Prasad
Release date
  • 20 August 2004 (2004-08-20)
Running time
 174 minutes
Country India
Language Telugu
Budget ₹18 crore (equivalent to ₹45 crore or US$7.0 million in 2016)
Box office ₹23 crore (equivalent to ₹57 crore or US$8.9 million in 2016) (Worldwide Share)

Arjun is a 2004 Telugu action drama film written and directed by Gunasekhar. The film starred Mahesh Babu, Shriya Saran, Keerthi Reddy, Raja Abel, Prakashraj, Saritha and Murali Mohan. Mahesh Babu and Saritha received the Nandi Special Jury Award. The film was screened at the International Film Festival of India in the mainstream section.[1] dubbed in Hindi as Maidan-E-Jung. The film recorded as Above Average at box-office.

Plot

Arjun (Mahesh Babu) and his twin sister Meenakshi (Keerthi Reddy) finish college, and their parents decide to look for a good man to marry Meenakshi. Meenakshi shows her brother a letter from their friend Uday (Raja Abel), who confesses his love for her and asks her to elope with him as his parents (Bala Nayagar (Prakash Raj) and Andal (Saritha)) are arranging his marriage with a different girl. Meenakshi tells her brother that she too is interested in Uday and Arjun goes to Madurai in Tamil Nadu, where Uday lives with his parents and is about to get married. Arjun makes a dramatic appearance, and tells Uday's parents about the letter their son has written and asks their consent for marriage. However, Uday dares to marry Meenakshi before their parents' approval comes. Uday's parents apparently agree for Meenakshi as their daughter-in-law, though they have different plans in mind.

Meanwhile Arjun meets a girl Roopa (Shriya Saran) who happens to be from Madurai too, and after some teasing, they fall for each other. Here in Meenakshi's house, Uday's parents secretly plan to kill Meenakshi, as they had lost a chance to grab a millionaire's property by the arranged marriage. They make multiple attempts to kill Meenakshi but she survives. Arjun comes to conclusion with multiple clues that they are trying to kill his sister, but Uday and Meenakshi don't believe him. At last she believes when they try to kill her while Uday was away and escapes with the help of her brother and gives birth to twins. In that fight, Bala Nayagar dies and Andal becomes paralytic. Uday watches how they tried to kill his wife and at last believes Arjun's version. They all reconcile and live peacefully.

Cast

Crew

Production

The film was produced by Mahesh's brother Ramesh. This was Mahesh's last film released before he tied the knot with Namratha Shirodhkar. On the other hand, this was the first movie (and the last as on July 2008) for Keerthi Reddy after her marriage. The film was launched at Padmalaya Studios in Hyderabad on 18 July 2003 to which the whole unit of the film attended. The Technical team, except for Art and Lyrics, were retained from Mahesh-Gunasekhar's previous film Okkadu. The Filming had a single schedule which started from 18 July itself.[2] Mahesh played a role similar to the one he played in Okkadu while Shriya Saran was roped in as the Heroine opposite him. Keerthi Reddy played the role of Mahesh's sister and paired with Raja in the film. Prakash Raj played the role of Bala Nayakar, the last heir of the Nayakar dynasty who were well known in the History of Madurai while Saritha made a comeback to Telugu Cinema after 16 years in the role of Andal, the wife of Nayakar. In an Interview, Saritha told that she felt that Mahesh Babu is cool and very friendly while she took it as a challenge to act with Prakash Raj.

The main attraction of the film was the colossal set of Madurai Meenakshi Temple created by art director Padma Sri Thotta Tharani. Its details were revealed on 29 September 2003 by the Production unit via a press meet. Thotta Tharani along with director and his team stayed in Madurai Meenakshi Temple for 15 days. He drew his sketches to the minute details and replicated it in Hyderabad. The initial estimate of the Temple set cost was ₹2.5 crores which was supposed to be built in 3 months. But, it took 6 months with over 500 workers constructing the set. The total cost of this set turned out to be ₹4 crores. This set was constructed in 5 acre space of Padmalaya Studios near Gandipet. This set consist of Gaali Gopuram, Pond and Garbhagudi. The set had a lifetime of 3 years with resistance to all types of climatic conditions. Thotta Tharani used 90 tons of iron in the construction of this temple set for longevity. 90 tons of iron itself cost around 42 lakhs. Pond in the temple has a depth of 3 feet. It took 5 days of continuous filling using 5 motors to fill the water. The Gaali Gopuram is of 130 feet, which is equivalent to the original Gaali Gopuram at Madurai temple. A set of temple priests from Maduri came to this set and installed a replica idol of Meenakshi Amman in the Garbhagudi. This traditional installation took 8 hours (from 6 am to 2 pm). Gunasekhar used 25 powerful generation sets for a song to be shot in the temple in night effect.

Another set for the exterior of Prakash Raj's house and the streets of Madurai were also created at Padmalaya studios of Gandipet. Shooting happened at Padmalaya Studios in these sets for 60 Days which was equivalent to 40% of the film's shoot. The song Madura Madura was shot in Day effect while Dum Dumaare was shot in Night Effect at Madurai Temple set.[3]

Soundtrack

Arjun
Soundtrack album To Arjun by Mani Sharma
Released 22 July 2004
Recorded 2004
Genre Feature film soundtrack
Language Telugu
Label Aditya Music
Producer Mani Sharma
Mani Sharma chronology
Yagnam
(2004)Yagnam2004		 Arjun
(2004)		 Gudumba Shankar
(2004)Gudumba Shankar2004

This film consists of 6 songs, all composed by Mani Sharma:

  1. "Okka Maata" – Shankar Mahadevan
  2. "Oh Cheli Nee Oyyarale" – Karthik & Chitra
  3. "Madura Madura" – Harini & P. Unnikrishnan
  4. "Raa Raa Rajakumara" – Udit Narayan & Swarnalatha
  5. "Aey Pilla" – S. P. B. Charan & Shreya Ghosal
  6. "Dum Dumare" – S. P. Balasubrahmanyam & Chitra

References

  1. ↑ "Directorate of Film Festival" (PDF). iffi.nic.in.
  2. ↑ "Muhurat of 'Arjun'". idlebrain.com. 18 July 2003. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  3. ↑ "Arjun's Madura Meenakhi Temple set". idlebrain.com. 29 September 2003. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
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