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Arundhati is a 2009 Indian Telugu-language horror fantasy film[3] directed by Kodi Ramakrishna, and produced by Shyam Prasad Reddy, under his banner, Mallemala Entertainments. The film stars Anushka Shetty in the titular role with Sonu Sood, Deepak, Sayaji Shinde, Manorama, and Kaikala Satyanarayana. The music is composed by Koti with cinematography by K. K. Senthil Kumar and editing by Marthand K. Venkatesh.

Arundhati
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kodi Ramakrishna
Written by	Mallemala Unit Chintapalli Ramana (Dialogues)
Produced by	Shyam Prasad Reddy
Starring	Anushka Shetty Sonu Sood
Cinematography	K. K. Senthil Kumar
Edited by	Marthand K. Venkatesh
Music by	Koti
Production company	Mallemala Entertainments
Release date	16 January 2009 (2009-01-16) (India)
Running time	131 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Budget	₹13.5 crore[1]
Box office	est. ₹70 crore[2]

Released on 16 January 2009, the film was a major commercial success and went onto become one of the highest-grossing Telugu films in history at the time.[2] The success of the film turned Anushka into a major movie star in Telugu cinema.[4] The film received several accolades, including ten Nandi Awards, and two Filmfare Awards South. The film is remade in Bengali with the same name in 2014.[5]

Plot

Arundhati, a modern-day princess and descendant of a royal clan of Gadwal is engaged to Rahul and is revered by her family and believed to be the re-incarnation of her grandfather's mother Jejamma as she is the first female progeny born in the family after 3 generations. An abandoned palace in Gadwal's outskirts is haunted by a mysterious and deadly spirit imprisoned by divine powers and yearns to be freed. Arundhati arrives at Gadwal to meet her wounded grandfather and receives a misleading phone call from fake Rahul, who invites her to the abandoned palace. Upon reaching the palace, she is warned by a gentleman but she ignores the warnings and continues to proceed with entering the mansion believing that Rahul is in there. Inside the palace, she faces a horrible revelation as Anwar, a Fakir and exorcist exposes the spirits haunting the abandoned palace and advises her to leave Gadwal. Arundhati further discovers that the one who warned her before entering the mansion is her grandfather's late elder brother.

Keen, Arundhati enquires the family's loyal servant from generations named Chandramma, who is treated as the family member about the abandoned palace. Chandramma narrates that the abandoned palace was emblematic of riches, bravery, happiness and generosity during the rule of Chinavenkata Rangarayudu when it was a princely state. Rangarayudu had two daughters Bhargavi, who is married to her cross-cousin Pasupathi: son of Jalajamma, sister of Rangarayudu and the other was Jejamma. Pasupathi was womanizing, raped several women and domestically abused Bhargavi. When Pasupathi brutally molested and killed Arundhati's blind dance teacher Kanchana, a teenaged Jejamma ordered him to leave the state but her father resisted as Bhargavi's life would be spoiled. Overhearing this and presuming herself to be an obstacle for her maternal family's reputation, Bhargavi committed suicide leaving the state and public devastated. Furious, Jejamma banished Pasupathi from the state, had him beaten up by the furious citizens and tied him to his horse which took him to a forest and he presumably died.

Jejamma grew up to be a beautiful woman and excelled in martial arts, dance, painting and political affairs and was adored by the public for her generosity and her steps to preserve justice. Pasupathi survived and was taken in by Aghoras, who practice black magic. Pasupathi masters the dark arts to take revenge against Jejamma and entered Gadwal on Jejamma's wedding day. Creating havoc, he partially disrobed Jejamma, who lured him away into a room using a dance imbued with martial arts to lull Pasupathi. She cut off his tongue to end the incantations, pinned his hands preventing him from performing Blackmagic and commanded a chandelier to fall on his body. Upon the advice of sages, she spared his life and imprisoned him under a tomb protected by divine locks and powerful yantras to prevent his Pretatma from unleashing out of the tomb post his demise. The palace was abandoned and the royal family shifted to another palace.

However, his curse had continued to haunt Gadwal resulting in drought, deadly diseases and deaths. Jejamma visited several sages and temples for solution but to no avail until she met few Aghoris, who state that Pasupathi's Pretatma could be permanently destroyed a weapon made out of her bones and her re-incarnation would use the weapon to finish him off in future. As a result, Jejamma bid adieu to her family and kingdom and was beaten to death ritualistically and after being skeletonized by burning at stake, her remains were fashioned into a dagger that was safely hidden by Aghoris. A distant relative of Arundathi breaks the grave of Pasupathi in the hope of getting his dead wife back, which releases Pasupathi's spirit that haunts Arundhati and tortures her but prevents her from death to fulfil his desires. Anwar asks Arundhati to fight Pasupathi. Arundhati learns that her great-grandmother had prepared a weapon with her own bones and had kept it with the sages by reading hidden inscriptions on a painting by Arundhati. Their family is threatened during their attempts to procure the weapon, and Pasupathi's spirit kills Chandramma. Later, the spirit seems to have killed Anwar by throwing him off a cliff.

Arundhati, believing that Anwar is dead, returns to the fort to surrender herself to Pasupathi to prevent the death of her family members. Pasupathi takes his human form to rape and kill her as he desired. However, Anwar, who had survived the fall, hands the weapon to the maiden after many unsuccessful trials. The weapon has to be soaked in Arundhati's blood before it can kill the evil spirit. Before Anwar can tell her this, Pasupathi kills him. As a last resort to save herself, Arundhati stabs herself with the same weapon, but the dagger begins to glow from her blood, indicating Jejamma's presence. The brave maiden kills Pasupathi, and the building burns and explodes. Arundhati walks out as Jejamma.

Cast

Production

Development

Shyam Prasad Reddy revealed that he got the idea of Arundhati while receiving National Awards for the film Anji (2004).[1] Being inspired from films like Chandramukhi and The Exorcist, he made it a female-oriented story "for a bigger appeal so that the entire family could watch it. I added classical dance to it. I wanted to mount the film on a grandeur scale.[sic] I wanted to play the film on 'fear of the evil spirit'. Arundhati is about good fighting evil. Hence I had to make sure that both the characters of Arundhati and Pasupati equally powerful [sic]".[1][6]

Casting

Shyam Prasad Reddy wanted somebody with a 5'10" (5 feet 10 inches) height and "should look royal because she is the queen, and she rides on horses and elephants". Gemini Kiran suggested Shyam Prasad Reddy to choose Anushka for the role. After conducting her photoshoot, Shyam Prasad Reddy explained the story and Arundhati's characterisation.[1] Reddy wanted Tamil actor Pasupathy to enact the role of an antagonist of the same name but since the character has "a royal side to the character where he has to look princely", he had chosen Sonu Sood for the role after seeing his performance in Ashok (2006).[1]

For the characterisation of Fakir who helps Anushka's character in the present era, Shyam Prasad Reddy drew inspiration from the priest character in the 1976 American horror film The Omen.[6] He considered Naseeruddin Shah, Nana Patekar and Atul Kulkarni for the role; however, none of their dates were available. Sayaji Shinde was finally chosen for the character.[1]

Principal photography

Filming took around 250 days, in Hyderabad and other places. The interior of the place is shot at the Annapurna Studios, while the exterior was at Banganapalle fort. Filming also took place at Ramanaidu Studios.

Post production

Dubbing

Sowmya Sharma had dubbed for the character of modern-day Arundhati and Shilpa for Jejjama. Dubbing voice for Sonu Sood was provided by P. Ravishankar. Ravishankar completed the dubbing within 14 days and found it to be "most challenging work" and his voice "has gone sore for 5 times during this process".[7]

Visual effects

Rahul Nambiar was appointed as Creative Director and Visual Effects Supervisor by Shyam Prasad Reddy for this feature film. Nambiar felt that showcasing a ghost as the main villain, throughout the film was challenging. With help of some dedicated scenes written, visualization, and visual effects, Nambiar and his team could achieve and what they had planned with Reddy.[8][9]

Nambiar also stated "We created all the action in computer dolls, animated all of them and added all the film cameras and made it like a film. We saw it as a rough edit and then we shot it. There was a lot of meticulous work. The pre-production itself took about seven months".[10]

Music

The music and background music of this film was composed by Koti. The soundtrack was critically acclaimed. Especially the tracks "Jejamma", "Chandamama" and "Bhu Bhu" and in Tamil "Bhoomi Kodhikum" , "Gummiruttil Kudamkizhithu kundril ezhum" , "Enna Viratham Ettrai Neeyamma" were huge hits. The album featured eminent singers like K. S. Chithra, Kailash Kher, Kalpana Raghavendar and N. C. Karunya. Koti, while speaking said that this film helped him to prove himself and in his career of 30 years this was his personal best. The track "Jejamma" required a majestic and ambient grandeur, so Koti selected Kailash Kher. The track "Bhu Bhu" took many days for Koti to compose and he felt it should be sung by an amazing singer who could aptly give the ferocious feel and hence went with Chithra. Lyrics were written by Veturi for "Bhu Bhu Bhujangam", Anant Sriram for "Chandamama", and C. Narayana Reddy for "Jejamma". This album features four songs and three instrumentals.[11]

Release

The Tamil dubbed version of the film, which was launched by Sri Thenandal Films, was released on 20 March 2009.[12]

Home Media

The film satellite rights was bagged by Gemini TV

Reception

Critical reception

Rediff gave it three stars out of five and said, "The main plus points of the film are screenplay (creative director Rahul Nambiar and the Mallemalla Unit), art direction (Ashok), cinematography (Senthil Kumar), editing (Marthand K. Venkatesh), special effects and the performances of Anushka [Images], Sonu Sood and Sayaji Shinde. On the whole, Arundhati is a watchable film provided you don't have a weak heart and don't get into discussing logic, science, and rationality. Just watch what unfolds on the screen – for that's visual grandeur".[13] Sify gave its verdict as "Worth a watch" with four stars noted, "The film has come across with some really mind-blowing graphics and presentation, even the performances were top-notch that helped. While the drums scene is a take from the Chinese movie 'House of Flying Daggers' it was well taken and presented. The shock points are high and one can say that the film is definitely not for the weak-hearted. There are enough chilling moments to shake the audience off their chair. The film is one of the best made ever in the history of Telugu cinema in terms of technical values so it deserves to be a good hit".[14] Behindwoods reviewing the Tamil dubbed version, gave 3 out of 5 stars and stated "Old school horror, new age film making".[15]

Box office

The film grossed ₹70 crore[2] at the box office with ₹3 crore from overseas markets.[16] The satellite rights of the film were sold to Gemini TV for ₹ 7 crore.[17]

Accolades

Nandi Awards 2008

Though the film was released in 2009, it was registered for 2008 films for Nandi Awards. The film received a total of 10 Nandi awards.[18]

• Best Villain – Sonu Sood
• Best Child Actress – Divya Nagesh
• Best Editor – Marthand K Venkatesh
• Best Art Director – Ashok
• Best Audiographer – Radhakrishna & Madhusudhan Reddy
• Best Costume Designer – Deepa Chandar
• Best Makeup Artist – Ramesh Mahanti
• Best Male Dubbing Artist – P. Ravi Shankar
• Best Special Effects – Rahul Nambiar
• Special Jury Award – Anushka Shetty

Filmfare Awards South - 2009

• Best Actress – Telugu – Anushka Shetty
• Best Supporting Actor – Telugu – Sonu Sood

Santosham Film Awards

• Best Director - Kodi Ramakrishna
• Best Producer - Shyam Prasad Reddy
• Best Actress - Anushka Shetty
• Best Villain - Sonu Sood
• Best Dubbing Artist Male - P. Ravi Shankar
• Best Cameraman - K. K. Senthil Kumar

Legacy

Arundhati's success turned Anushka into one of the most sought-after actresses in Telugu and catapulted her into the foray of leading Telugu actresses.[19] Sonu Sood attained stardom with this film and went on to work in several South Indian films as an antagonist. After the release of Arundhati, people began recognising him as Pasupathi. P. Ravishankar who dubbed for him also became popular and was referred to as 'Bommali or Bommayi Ravi Shankar' by the media thereafter.[20]

According to writer Gopimohan, Arundhati made audience to "welcome creative content" and Magadheera started a trend of experimentation with period, socio-fantasy and spiritual themes that was continued in films like Panchakshari (2010), Nagavalli (2010), Anaganaga O Dheerudu (2011), Mangala (2011), Sri Rama Rajyam (2011) and Uu Kodathara? Ulikki Padathara? (2012).[21] Tammareddy Bharadwaja said "Ever since Arundhati and Magadheera did well at the box office, the rest of the industry started following their footsteps. Also, since there is an irrational craze to make high budget films right now, producers are turning towards mythological films. It is the only genre where you can boast of spending crores for creating the sets and the look of the film. But what they don't realize is that if these films flop, the blow to the producer will be severe." Films like Anaganaga O Dheerudu (2011) and Sakthi (2011) were commercial failures and Badrinath (2012) was an average grosser; all being fantasy films in which the protagonist is a warrior.[22][23]

See also

• Arundhati

References

External links

• Arundhati at IMDb

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