Gang Leader

Gang Leader
Directed by	Vijaya Bapineedu
Produced by	Maganti Ravindranath Chowdary
Written by	Vijaya Bapineedu(Story & screenplay) Paruchuri Brothers(dialogues)
Starring	Chiranjeevi Vijayashanti Rao Gopal Rao Anandaraj Murali Mohan
Music by	Bappi Lahari
Cinematography	Lok Singh
Distributed by	Shyam Prasad Arts
Release date	9 May 1991
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Gang Leader is a 1991 Indian Telugu crime film starring Chiranjeevi and Vijayashanti directed by Vijaya Bapineedu, with soundtrack by Bappi Lahari, and dance choreography by Prabhu Deva. The film emerged as a musical blockbuster, cult classic. It surpassed the box office collections of the blockbuster and industry hit Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari. Later it was dubbed in Tamil with same title. The film was later remade in Hindi as Aaj Ka Goonda Raj with Chiranjeevi and Meenakshi Seshadri in lead roles, and in Kannada as Kutumba starring Upendra.^[1][2]

Plot

Raghupathi (Murali Mohan), Raghava (Sarath Kumar), and Rajaram (Chiranjeevi) are brothers. Raghupathi is the only breadwinner of the family, Raghava is preparing for Civil Services Examination, and Rajaram is unemployed. Rajaram and his four friends are a gang and are searching for jobs daily. They roam in the city untl midnight. Rajaram comes home at midnight and sleeps until afternoon; his grandmother Sabari (Nirmalamma) yells at his irresponsibility and carelessness. One day, Rajaram makes Kanya Kumari (Vijayashanti) vacate the house on a payment basis as she is not paying the rent to the house. Subsequently, she changes her place to Rajaram's house.

At one situation, Rajaram goes to jail for money, because Raghava requires money as he wants to go to Delhi for IAS preparation. Ekambaram (Raogopal Rao) and his brother Kanakambaram (Anandaraj) kill Raghupathi when he gave a police complaint for a murder he witnessed. Rajaram was still in jail when this happened, but his friends know how Raghupathi died. Rajaram thinks his brother's death was an accident.

Raghava becomes an IAS officer, and marries Latha (Sumalatha), which was a scheme planned by Ekambaram and Kanakambaram. Latha hates Raghava's family members. Kanya Kumari loves Rajaram and his family members. Meanwhile, Rajaram comes to know about his brother's death and inquires who was responsible for his death. Even his friends were also murdered by Ekambaram and Kanakambaram at that time. Rajaram is framed by them for his friends' murder, and Raghava disowns him. With the help of Kanya Kumari, Rajaram escapes from jail and she reveals that she is Ekambaram's daughter. She ran away from home after her father killed her mother and began moving into other people's houses. After hearing this, Rajaram also falls for Kanya Kumari. The film ends with Rajaram taking revenge by killing the villains.

Cast

Soundtrack

The Music and background score was provided by Bappi Lahari and the Lyrics were penned by Veturi Sundararama Murthy, Bhuvanachandra. The audio was an instant hit and "Papa Rita" and "Vaana Vaana Velluvaye" were a rage in the entire state that time. Later the Song "Vaana Vaana Velluvaye" was re-mixed by Mani Sharma in the 2012 film Rachcha.

Reception

The movie was a huge success. It is considered to be one of the top movies in Chiranjeevi's career. Gang Leader did a 162-day run at Sudharshan theater in Hyderabad. The movie successfully completed 100 days in more than 50 theaters. The movie was dubbed into Tamil and Kannada. It was a success in those areas also.

References

External links

• Gang Leader on IMDb