Saakshyam

Saakshyam
Movie Poster
Directed by	Sriwass
Produced by	Abhishek Nama
Written by	Sriwass Sai Madhav Burra (dialogues)
Starring	Bellamkonda Sreenivas Pooja Hegde Sarath Kumar Meena Jagapathi Babu
Music by	Harshavardhan Rameshwar
Cinematography	Arthur A. Wilson
Edited by	Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Production company	Abhishek Pictures
Release date	27 July 2018 (2018-07-27)[1]
Running time	164 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Budget	₹35 crore (US$4.9 million)

Saakshyam (English: Witness) is a Telugu action romantic thriller film produced by Abhishek Nama on Abhishek Pictures banner and directed by Sriwass. Starring Bellamkonda Sreenivas, Pooja Hegde in the lead roles with Sarath Kumar, Meena, Jagapathi Babu in supporting roles and music composed by Harshavardhan Rameshwar.^[2],This Movie Also Dabbed Into Hindi As Praly The Destroyer By Astral Movie Network 2018.

Plot

The movie starts with a group of people forcefully taking away a cow, and it's calf trying to follow them. The scene then shifts to the house of Raju Garu ( Sarath Kumar), where the family has gathered for the naming ceremony of his son. The priest tells Rajugaru that his son is born to change the fate of a few people.

Just then a group of people come there with the calf and informs that Munuswamy's ( Jagapathy Babu) brother has kidnapped the calf's mother (who belongs to the temple) along with many other cows. This leads to Rajugaru bashing up the villain and bringing the cows back.

The news of his brothers' humiliation reaches Munuswamy and he and his 3 brothers go to Rajugaru's house where the celebration is going on. They brutally kill every member of the family, except for Rajugaru's wife who gets injured. Munuswamy also mangles the child's palm to get rid of the fate lines that says he would destroy Munuswamy. Rajugaru manages to distract the brothers while his wife runs away with the child, but becomes weak and unable to continue due to her deep injury. Being angry and sacred for her child's well being she challenges God to prove that he exists.

Just then the calf ( whose mother was saved by Rajugaru) comes and stands in front of her looking at her, as if it is waiting for something. Rajugaru's wife takes this as a sign, wraps the child in a shawl and ties him on to the calf. The villains come just in time to see the calf running away and a chase ensures.

The calf manages to evade all the villains and with the help of a Goddess idol manages to land the baby on a truck carrying soil ( It is implied here that the goddess saved the child from the villains). A knife thrown by the villains slices off a part of the calf's ear.

The villains saw the child falling down the cliff and believes him to be dead. In order to conceal their crime they set fire to the cow shed as the cows are a witness to the murders (Munuswamy says to his brother that 'every eye that has seen the incident that happened at Rajugaru's house should die so that there is no 'Saakshyam' aka witness).

The story then goes into a narration where the narrator explains that even though Munuswamy is happy that he has destroyed every witness to his crime, he has forgotten that the 5 elements of nature or the 'panchabhoota' that is present every where has witnessed his crimes and will surely take their revenge for his atrocities.

Then a song sequence is shown where the child is carried to a soil mine where the truck dumps him along with the soil. A passerby sees the child and takes him to Kasi, and leaves him the Shiva idol where orphan infants are left. A childless couple (Jayaprakash and Pavitra Lokesh) are there to pray for a child. Meanwhile the child's hand gets stuck in the Bell and starts ringing it. The priest tells the couple that this is a sign from Lord Shiva and gives the child to the couple. The couple is then shown to go to US with the child.

The story then shifts to 20 years later where Shiva Prasad and his wife ( the couple who adopted Rajugaru's son) are shown to be celebrating the success of their company. A reporter asks about their son 'Viswa' who would be taking over the multi billion dollar empire. But Siva Prasad states that Viswa is not interested in taking over the business, but is interested in developing games.

Viswa (Bellamkonda Sreenivas) and his friends are introduced who are in the process of developing a new video game, which they are sending in to a company to be released. But their video gets rejected due to lack of culture factor. He and his friend ( Vennela Kishore) are driving while discussing about how to get the culture factor, when they see a calf about to be hit by a car. Viswa saves the calf, which belongs to a temple.

There they run into Soundarya Lahari ( Pooja Hedge) who gives talking about Hinduism and culture in the temple, and Viswa is instantly smitten. So he and his friend follows her to take her help in developing the game with culture elements. But Soundarya is offended at their offer of money and says flatly that culture is not something to be sold.

So Viswa and his friend helps Soundarya's sister and brother-in-law to secure jobs, using his influence and this leads to reluctant Soundarya agreeing to help Viswa. She introduces the group to Valmiki (Ananta Sriram) who helps the team by giving a unique idea for game, which resembles Viswa's life story - about a boy whose entire family was killed by villains. The five elements of nature takes revenge on the villains through the boy (even though Viswa is unaware that the story holds similarity to his life).

Cast

• Bellamkonda Sreenivas as Viswa
• Pooja Hegde as Soundarya Lahari
• Sarath Kumar as Raju Garu, Viswa's father
• Meena as Viswa's mother
• Jagapati Babu as Munu Swamy
• Ravi Kishan as Munuswamy's brother 1
• Ashutosh Rana as Munuswamy's brother 2
• Madhu Guruswamy as Munuswamy's brother 3
• Kabir Duhan Singh
• Jayaprakash as Siva Prasad, Viswa's adopted father
• Vennela Kishore as Viswa's friend
• Rao Ramesh as Tagore, Soundarya's father
• Posani Krishna Murali as Defence Lawyer
• Ananta Sriram as Valmiki, game designer (Cameo appearance)
• Pavithra Lokesh as Viswa's adopted mother
• Brahmaji as Soundarya's brother-in-law
• Sameer as Rajavaru's brother
• Raghu Babu as Siva Prasad's assistant
• Krishna Bhagavaan as Soundarya's Paternal Uncle
• Kasi Viswanath as Advocate Murthy
• Annapoorna as Soundarya's grandmother
• Jhansi as Soundarya's sister
• Hema as Soundarya's Aunt

Production

The first look and motion poster was released on October 18, 2017.^[3]

The teaser of the film was released on April 18, 2018.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of this film is composed by Harshavardhan Rameshwar. All the lyrics are written by Ananta Sriram. Music released on Junglee Audio company. A single track 'Soundarya Lahari' was released initially on May 4, 2018, through the internet. The complete audio was released on 07 July 2018 in Hyderabad.

Release

Release 27 July 2018. Eros Now in association with Abhishek Pictures to Release worldwide. Golden Tree Entertainment Company in association with PVR Cinemas to Release North India.

References

External links

• Saakshyam on IMDb