Khaleja

Khaleja
Film poster
Directed by	Trivikram Srinivas
Produced by	Singanamala Ramesh C. Kalyan S. Satya Rama Murthy
Written by	Trivikram Srinivas
Starring	Mahesh Babu Anushka Shetty Prakash Raj Sunil Brahmanandam Amit Tiwari Shafi
Music by	Mani Sharma
Cinematography	Yash Bhatt Sunil Patel Special Thanks K. V. Guhan
Edited by	A. Sreekar Prasad
Distributed by	Geetha Arts
Release date	7 October 2010 (2010-10-07)
Running time	164 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

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. Sunil, Brahmanandam, Amit Tiwari, and Shafi play key roles. 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.

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 (2011), Bengali as Ekai Eksho and in Oriya as Abatar.^[4]

Plot

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

Meanwhile, Alluri Seetarama Raju (Mahesh Babu) is an eccentric orange cab driver who lives in Hyderabad with his grandfather (Kota Srinivasa Rao), a teacher. He is currently in Rajasthan in search of the family of a man named Bilavar Singh. In his journey, he meets a Gemini TV 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 the hospital one day when Subhashini mixes an epsom salt laxative in Raju's coffee, thinking it meets her at a coffee shop to collect the compensation for his taxi's damages from her, though this was meant for someone else. For this reason, he considers her 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 henchmen, and Bilavar falls out of a window and lands 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 (Amit Tiwari). 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 drop from his pocket and realizes his true intentions. GK finds out about it, 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 she is in Rajasthan. Subhashini, Baabji, Raju, and a botanist Tom Cruise (Ali) find Girdwala and hand over the check to Bilavar'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. 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 their God. He finds out from Subhashini that they are in Pali, and that the villagers see him as the supernatural godsend the Tantrik 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 Tom and Siddappa followed him to Hyderabad, Raju puts fate to the 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 GK's lawyer Miriyam (Brahmanandam), Raju discovers the plastic factory in Pali deposits its wastes in the drinking water source nearby, thus contaminating and killing the villagers. While Tom and Siddappa think this is the end of the story, Raju suspects 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 she has something to do with GK's plan as she did not get into his taxi along with Paranji, indicating 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, 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 and Govardhan for their failures. He then heads to Pali to kill all the villagers before the truth goes out to the public. The village head warns GK that Raju is their God, that he would bring death to GK, and keep Pali's population at 534, not letting any more die in the process. Raju arrives at Pali with Sidhappa. GK shoots Sidhappa and kills him, reducing the population to 533. Before dying, Siddhappa looks into Raju's eyes, dying after. Enraged, Raju kills 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 after Raju curses him to die. The village head reveals Raju fulfilled his mission as God to save the village, because although Sidhappa was killed, another baby was born to keep the village's population at 534. The film ends with a new flag being put up in honor of the new birth.

Cast

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]

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]

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_(actor)

References

External links

• Khaleja on IMDb