Om Namo Venkatesaya

Om Namo Venkatesaya
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	K. Raghavendra Rao
Produced by	A. Mahesh Reddy
Written by	J. K. Bharavi (story / dialogues)
Screenplay by	K. Raghavendra Rao
Starring	Akkineni Nagarjuna Anushka Shetty Pragya Jaiswal Saurabh Raj Jain Jagapathi Babu
Music by	M. M. Keeravani
Cinematography	S. Gopal Reddy
Edited by	Gautham Raju
Production company	AMR Sai Krupa Entertainments[1]
Release date	10 February 2017 (2017-02-10)[2]
Running time	144 mins
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Budget	40 crores
Box office	11 crores

Om Namo Venkatesaya is a 2017 Indian biographical film, based on the life of Hathiram Bhavaji,^[3] produced by A. Mahesh Reddy on the AMR Sai Krupa Entertainments banner^[4] and directed by K. Raghavendra Rao.^[5] The film stars Akkineni Nagarjuna, Anushka Shetty,^[6] Pragya Jaiswal^[7] in the lead roles while Jagapathi Babu^[8] & Saurabh Raj Jain^[9] in the supporting roles and music has been composed by M. M. Keeravani. The film was dubbed into Tamil as Akilandakodi Brahmandanayagan.^[10]

Plot

Rama (Akkineni Nagarjuna) born in Ayodhya, India, leaves his house in childhood in search of God. Soon he meets a saint Anubhavananda Swamy (Sai Kumar) who assures him that he will definitely see God one day and also plays with him, so he teaches him to play the dice. Then he advises Rama to meditate to see the god. After 15 years Lord Venkateswara appears in a form of child and disturbs his meditation, Rama scolds the kid and asks him to go away. After that, he reaches back the hometown and his parents (Tanikella Bharani & Sudha) arrange the marriage with his cousin Bhavani (Pragya Jaiswal). Before the marriage one night Rama gets a call in the dream from his guru that time has arrived to play with god. So he cancels the marriage reaches his guru and he says that the boy appeared to him is none other than Lord Venkateswara. He immediately realizes his mistake and heads towards Tirumala Hills in search of God.

Krishnamma (Anushka Shetty) is another ardent devotee who believes herself as the wife of Lord Venkateswara and dedicated her entire life to his service. Govindarajulu (Rao Ramesh) a corrupt person who is representative of Raja Giridhara Raaya (Sampath Raj) looks after temple and pilgrim town’s maintenance who does a lot of corruption, misuses temple income for his personal use and makes the workers as slaves.

Rama reaches Tirumala and calls the Lord in the name of Balaji. But he is not allowed to see the god and thrown out of the temple by baddies of Govindarajulu. Rama sits outside seeing towards temple for 7 to 8 days without having any food or sleep. Govindarajulu orders his men to remove him up from the Tirumala, they beat him up very bad, but an elephant nearby comes to his rescue. Later Krishnamma treats him in her Ashram.

By Krishnamma’s guidance, Rama decides to begin a new horizon at Tirumala. He starts reading Sthala Puranam (History of the temple) and campaigns it to the pilgrims create awareness among the people about the true nature of the Lord. He also encounters Govindaraju by protecting pilgrims & employees of the temple from his illegal activities. Rama decides to construct his own Ashram’ at the hill top and starts cultivating their own flowers & fruits and growing byre (Goshala) for milk products to the temple. Govindarajulu takes this to Giridhar Raaya’s notice, he visits the temple when he recognizes the honesty in Rama he makes him as administrator of the temple and demotes Govindarajulu as a sweeper. From that day Rama changes entire attire of the temple by putting everything in order - a new form of prayers (Poojas), services (Seva), offering Harathi with butter (Navaneetha Harathi), everyday marriage (Nitya Kalyanam) to the god, amenities for devotees and make sure that the temple flourishes with all rituals are performed as per the Holy Scriptures.

All these things impress Lord Venkateswara (Saurabh Raj Jain) so much that he comes down to earth to play dice with Rama. From that time the god visits every day to spend some time with Rama and Rama starts calling Lord Venkateswara in the name Balaji. First god bets his ring which was given to him by Padmavati (Vimala Raman) as a token of love but eventually Rama won the game and the bet, but Rama fails to understand that the event which had occurred was real and he understands it as a dream, but later craves for another glimpse of lord, the exact moment Balaji appears before him and plays the game of dice with Rama, in the game Balaji Lord loses his entire jewelry in the bet. Next day, when the temple doors are opened, the statue of the Lord is found empty without jewelry which is found in Rama’s Ashram. King Giridhara Raaya arrives to conduct interrogation and Rama says the truth that God himself has given the jewelry to him. Everybody says that it's a cock & bull story, so King keeps a test to Rama to prove his innocence keeping him in a prison with full of sugar cane inside, and asks him to eat every bit of it before dawn. Lord Venkateswara arrives in a form huge elephant and finishes the sugar cane within moments, and disappears. In the morning, the king was surprised to see all the sugar cane eaten. He then realizes that the Lord himself had appeared to save his devotee. From that day Rama becomes famous in the name of Hathiram Bhavaji.

After that Lord Venkateswara, himself makes Rama more popular than him and all the pilgrims start visiting him before seeing the god, Rama gets fed-up with this and decides to leave the Tirumala. Lord rushes behind him and takes a promise that he will never leave the hill, Rama accepts it on one condition that he should be buried alive (Sajeeva Samadhi) with his own hands because of the vow Lord has to compulsorily do so. After that when he returns his wives Padmavati & Bhudevi (Ashmitha) angrily ask why he had done this thing. Finally, the Lord replies that Hathiram Bhavaji is immortal who lives forever in the day to day services offered to him at the temple.

Cast

Soundtrack

Om Namo Venkatesaya
Film score by M. M. Keeravani
Released	7 January 2017 (2017-01-07)
Recorded	2016
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	48:44
Label	Lahari Music
Producer	M. M. Keeravani
M. M. Keeravani chronology
Lacchimdeviki O Lekkundi (2016)Lacchimdeviki O Lekkundi2016 Om Namo Venkatesaya (2017) Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017)Baahubali: The Conclusion2017

The music was composed by M. M. Keeravani and released on Lahari Music Company.^[11] The Audio launch held at Hitex N-Convention Centre, in Hyderabad, on 8 January 2017, coinciding with the Hindu holy day Mukkoti Ekadasi. Akkineni Naga Chaitanya and Akhil Akkineni has launched the audio, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Amala Akkineni, K. Raghavendra Rao, M.M.Keeravani, Jagapathi Babu, Dil Raju, Anushka Shetty, Pragya Jaiswal and several other members of the film industry attended the event.^[12]

Box-office

Theatrical rights were sold for 36cr approximately but it collected only 11cr share in its full run. It's triple a disaster.

Critical reception

Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu said, Watch the film for Nagarjuna who comes up with another memorable performance. As you watch the story of a devotee who puts his love for the Lord above everything, it might make you go a little deeper and understand faith beyond rituals.^[13]

References

External links

• Om Namo Venkatesaya on IMDb