Khaleja

Khaleja (also known as Mahesh Khaleja) is a 2010 Indian Telugu-language fantasy-action comedy film starring Mahesh Babu and Anushka Shetty and directed by Trivikram Srinivas.^[1] It is the second collaboration between Mahesh Babu and Trivikram after Athadu. Singanamala Ramesh and C Kalyan produced the film as a Kanaka Ratna Movies production. Mahesh Babu plays the role of a cab driver in the film, while Prakash Raj plays the lead antagonist. The film is based on illegal-mining in India, and related environmental damage.^[2] The film marks Mahesh Babu's return as an actor after a three year hiatus.

Sunil, Ali and Brahmanandam play key comedy roles. The film was released on 7 October 2010. The film won two Filmfare South awards for Best Male Playback Singer and Best Lyricist.^[3] The film was dubbed into Tamil as Bhadra /Bhiramma Buthiran, in Hindi as Jigar Kaleja, Bengali as Ekai Eksho and in Oriya as Abatar.^[4] It was declared as a hit at the box office.

Plot

A remote village named Pali in Andhra Pradesh is hounded by an unknown disease, and several villagers loose their life each month. The village Tantric (Rao Ramesh) predicts that a powerful man will come to their rescue as God. He assigns his assistant Sidhappa (Shafi) the duty to find a man with such unknown supernatural power, and bring him to their village.

Meanwhile, Alluri Seetarama Raju alias Raju (Mahesh Babu) is an eccentric Orange Cab driver lives in Hyderabad, with his grandfather (Kota Srinivasa Rao), who is a teacher. Raju is currently in Rajasthan in search of the family of a man named Bilavar Singh. In his journey, He meets a Gemini TV television reporter Baabji (Sunil) who comes to Rajasthan to shoot a travel documentary.

Raju introduces himself to Baabji and tells him the reason for him being in Rajasthan. He describes a woman named Subhashini (Anushka Shetty), whom he considers brings bad luck to him. Previously he encountered her in various occasions in which she damages his taxi due to her reckless driving. Raju lands in hospital one day when Subhashini mixes epsom salt laxative intended for someone else, in Raju's coffee thinking that it meets her at a coffee shop to collect the compensation for his taxi's damages from her. For this reason, he considers her a bad luck.

One day, he drives two men, Geology Scientist Dr. Paranji and his assistant Bilavar Singh, to their destination the Geological Survey of India. But he sees them getting gunned down by some hench men and Bilavar falls out of a window and lands straight on Raju's taxi, completely destroying it. Since Bilavar has insurance, Raju's boss tells him to deliver the insurance check of Rs. 5,00,000 to Bilavar Singh's family in Girdwala, Rajasthan and get Rs. 1,00,000 in return to pay for his car damages.

Meanwhile, Subhashini's father, business magnate Durga Prasad (Tanikella Bharani), brings her a match, another business magnate GK's (Prakash Raj) son. The main reason for the proposal is to establish a strong business partnership. GK's son takes her to Rajasthan for a date. But Subhashini runs away after she sees a condom packet drop from his pocket and realizes his true intentions. GK finds out about it and informs Durga Prasad and promises to bring Subhashini back. He sends his henchman, Govardhan (Subbaraju) to Rajasthan in search of Subhashini. To Raju's dismay, Subhashini finds Raju and Baabji and learns that she is in Rajasthan. Subhashini, Baabji, Raju, and a botanist Tom (Ali) find Girdwala and hand over the check to Bilavar Singh's family, but Raju refuses to ask for the Rs. 1,00,000 when he sees the family's poverty. Tom remains in the village as the villagers want to punish him for cutting a sentimental plant, Baabji goes away with his shooting team, but does not offer them a ride as he is scared of Subhashini's reckless behavior.

As Raju and Subhashini return, Govardhan's men attack, stab Raju, and take Subhashini after knocking her unconscious. But Raju survives, fights and kills almost all of Govardhan's men, while Govardhan escapes from the scenario leaving Subhashini behind. Just as Raju goes unconscious, Sidhappa finds him and believes he is the God after seeing the omens. Sidhappa and Subhashini take Raju to Pali, where the villagers treat his wounds. After waking up, he finds all of the villagers praising him as Man God. He finds out from Subhashini that they are in Pali, and that the villagers see him as the supernatural man God that the village Tantric was describing about, and who will rescue the village. Initially reluctant to help them out, he escapes to Hyderabad where he hands over Subhashini to her father. After realizing that Tom and Siddappa followed him to Hyderabad, Raju puts fate to test and when he understands the concept of deityhood and god, he makes it a goal to solve the mystical series of deaths in the village. After tracking down a doctor (who works for GK), the dean of the medical college run by GK (who set up the medical camp in Pali), Govardhan and Miriyam (Brahmanandam), GK's lawyer, Raju discovers that the plastic factory in Pali deposits it's wastes in the driking water source nearby, thus contaminating and killing the villagers. While Tom and Siddappa think this is the end of the story, Raju suspects that there is more to the story, that so many villagers are dying due to the plastic factory waste that is being contaminated with drinking water, and GK actually wants the villagers in Pali to die, which was why GK had the Government's medical camp removed periodically. He finds GK's assistant (Archana) and suspects that she has something to do with GK's plan as she did not get into his taxi along with Geologist Paranji, indicating that she knew beforehand that he was going to be killed. Raju inquires her about GK's intentions, who reveals that Paranji discovered earlier that there is a large Iridium deposit under Pali, which is worth billions, and informed GK about it.

Despite GK's warning to Paranji of not revealing it to anybody else, he tries to inform the Geological Survey of India about the deposits, which was why he and Bilavar Singh, who was with him, were killed that day. GK suspects that Raju might also know about the Iridium deposit because he was with Paranji when he was killed which was why GK sent Govardhan to kill him, not to retrieve Subhashini. Raju was lured to Girdwala under the cover of delivering the insurance check to Bilavar Singh's family (GK had the insurance documents planted) and was attacked by Govardhan. GK needs the strong plastic glass from the plastic factory to pack the Iridium. He wanted the Pali villagers to vacate (to dig the Iridium ore without trouble) on their own to avoid suspicion, which was why he poisoned Pali's environment using the plastic factory's waste.

GK kills his assistant because she revealed everything to Raju. GK then heads to Pali to kill all of the villagers before the truth goes out to the public. The village head warns GK that Raju is their God and that Raju will bring death to GK and keep the Pali's population at 534 and not let anyone die in the wrath of GK. Raju arrives at Pali along with Sidhappa. GK immediately shoots Sidhappa and kills him, reducing the population to 533. Raju angrily kills all of GK's goons, and severs GK's palm. A terrified GK starts escaping with Raju in pursuit. Raju catches up to him, and GK dies when a religious knife hanging from a nearby tree falls and stabs him in the neck. The village head finally reveals that Raju fulfilled his mission as God to save the village as, although Sidhappa was killed, another baby was born to keep the village's population at 534.

Cast

• Mahesh Babu as Alluri Seetarama Raju
• Anushka Shetty as Subhashini
• Prakash Raj as GK
• Amit Kumar Tiwari as GK's son
• Supriya Karnik as GK's wife
• Sunil as Baabji
• Brahmanandam as Miriyam
• Tanikella Bharani as Durga Prasad
• Ali as Tom Cruise
• Archana as GK's assistant
• Shafi as Sidhappa
• Kota Srinivasa Rao as Raju's grandfather
• Nassar
• Gundu Sudarshan
• Rao Ramesh as village head
• Penumatsa Subbaraju as Govardhan
• Raghu Babu as Sundaram
• Ananth Babu as Ananth
• Dharmavarapu Subramanyam as Taxi Owner
• M. S. Narayana as Villager

Critical reception

Sify rated 3 out of 5 explained "No doubt, Mahesh is the cynosure of the movie, shouldering the entire responsibility."^[5] MSN rated 2.5 out of 5 and described the film as "just an above average venture", commenting, "Mahesh Khaleja is worth a watch for Mahesh's strong screen presence and charisma. Mahesh carries off his role with elan and looks superb too. Anushka looks pretty but doesn't share a good on-screen chemistry with Mahesh. The first half of the film is dull. It does pick up pace in the second half but the narration is inconsistent and tedious. The climax is little better.^[6] Rediff gave a 2.5 out of 5 rating and noted "The duo of Mahesh-Trivikram delivers a product that is watchable, entertaining with good humour, couple of well-orchestrated action sequences and songs and with a bit to take home as well. It's Mahesh's show all the way, much to the delight of his fans. Mahesh is the soul of the movie, be it his dialogue delivery, his action, his dances or emotions, he is effortless.^[7]

CNN-IBN gave a negative review stating "The movie is all about Mahesh Babu and he occupies almost every frame in the movie. Back after a gap of 4 years, Mahesh looks great with stylish costumes. The movie deals with a serious theme but director Trivikram Srinivas mixes it with a lot of unnecessary situational comedy which dilutes the intensity of the movie."^[8] Local review sites Idlebrain and GreatAndhra gave a 3 out of 5 and praised Mahesh's performance. The Hindu said "The star looks leaner and handsomer and does his role with aplomb" adding "The film is a laugh riot from the word go. Trivikram, who is also the dialogue writer, skillfully blends comical situations into the script and Mahesh Babu's timing in delivering the one-liners is excellent".

Audio release

The soundtrack was composed by Mani Sharma. The music was released on 27 September 2010.^[9] The starcast of the movie, including Mahesh Babu, actress Anushka Shetty, music director Mani Sharma and director Trivikram Srinivas released the audio at Radio Mirchi FM radio station in the Hyderbad. Mahesh Babu's wife Namrata Shirodkar was also present. The album contains six songs and the lyrics are written by Ramajogayya Sastry and Sirivennela Sitaramasastri.^[10] The film's audio was a huge success.

Soundtrack

Awards

Filmfare Awards South

Won

• Best Lyricist – Telugu: Ramajogayya Sastry – "Sada Siva"
• Best Male Playback Singer – Telugu: Ramesh Vinayagam & N. C. Karunya – "Sada Siva"

Nominated

• Best Supporting Actor – Telugu – Shafi

References

External links

• Khaleja on IMDb