Athidhi (transl. The Guest) is a 2007 Indian Telugu-language neo-noir action thriller film directed by Surender Reddy and produced by G. Ramesh Babu under Krishna Pictures Private Limited. The film stars Mahesh Babu, alongside Amrita Rao (in her Telugu film debut), Murali Sharma and Ashish Vidyarthi.
| Athidhi | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Surender Reddy |
| Written by | Story: Vakkantham Vamsi Surender Reddy Screenplay: Surender Reddy Dialogues: Abburi Ravi |
| Produced by | Ramesh Babu Ronnie Screwvala |
| Starring | Mahesh Babu Amrita Rao |
| Narrated by | Abburi Ravi |
| Cinematography | Sameer Reddy |
| Edited by | Gautham Raju |
| Music by | Mani Sharma |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | UTV Motion Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 179 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Telugu |
| Budget | ₹20 crore[1] |
| Box office | ₹35 crore[2] |
Athidhi was released on 18 October 2007 to mixed reviews from critics and completed 35 days in 400 centres. The film was remade in Bengali language in Bangladesh as Durdhorsho Premik.
Plot
editIn Delhi, Athidhi is released from prison and goes in search of his long-lost friend Amrita. Athidhi comes across a girl named Amrita, who is chased by stalkers from her college. Amrita and Athidhi meet many times and she soon starts to like Athidhi, but has to leave for Hyderabad before she can confess her feelings. When Amritha tries to tell him that she is leaving, Athidhi realizes that the goons, whose illegal operations were thwarted by Athidhi, are after him. Athidhi continuously tells Amrita to leave and soon slaps her after she doesn't listen. Later, Athidhi goes to Amrita to apologize, but meets her friend Madhavi, who tells him that Amrita wanted to tell Athidhi that she is leaving for Hyderabad, where they head towards the cemetery to meet her.
Madhavi explains Amrita's origin to Athidhi, who realizes that Amrita is his long-lost friend. Athidhi arrives in Hyderabad and decides to head back Delhi Amrita's family, but he learns about a dreaded gangster Kaiser wants to kill Amrita. Later, Athidhi realizes that Kaiser was the psychopath who framed him for the death of Amrutha's parents. It is revealed that Athidhi was adopted by Amrita's parents after he saved them from a dangerous path. While driving Athidhi to a hostel, they are stopped by a psychopath teenager who shot the parents. Athidhi managed to grab the gun from the teenager, but the cops misunderstand Athidhi behind the death of Amrita's parents and arrested him.
Meanwhile, Inspector Ajay Shastri is trying to track down Kaiser, but soon dies in an explosion in his house, which was planned by Kaiser. Athidhi soon figures out that Ajay is actually Kaiser. Before Kaiser's house blew up, Kaiser managed to escape and MLA Maccha Srinu realizes that Ajay and Kaiser are the same person and dies from a heart attack. Athidhi stops two attempts by Kaiser to kill Amrita, where he manages to kill Kaiser's men. Kaiser kidnaps Amrita and her younger sister, where he soon kills the sister.
Kaiser leads Amrita to a dungeon and calls Athidhi, where he tells him that he will kill Amrita if Athidhi does not rescue her in 12 hours. Athidhi kidnaps Kaiser's brother and agrees to release him in exchange for Amrita, but Kaiser kills his brother as he should not have any weakness. Kaiser reveals that he already killed Amrita, where Athidhi soon kills all Kaiser's henchmen and thrashes Kaiser. However, Kaiser reveals that he lied about killing Amrita and that she is severely cut in the nerves and stuck in a certain air tank. Athidhi rescues Amrita and finishes Kaiser. Athidhi reunites with Amrita who realizes that Athidhi is not behind her parents' death.
Cast
edit- Mahesh Babu as Athidhi
- Amrita Rao as Amrita
- Baby Annie as young Amrita
- Murali Sharma as Inspector Ajay Sastry / Kaiser
- Ashish Vidyarthi as Danny Bhai
- Kota Srinivasa Rao as Maccha Srinu, an MLA who works under Kaiser
- Ajay as Kaiser's brother
- Nassar as Amrita's Uncle, the Home Minister
- Brahmanandam as Shivram
- Sunil as Amrita's friend
- Ravi Prakash as Ravi, Athidhi's friend
- Pragathi as Amrita's sister in law
- Subbaraju as Ganni Bhai
- Maadhavi Latha as Madhavi, Amritha's friend
- Ashmitha Karnani as Amrita's mother
- Rajendran as Henchman
- Prabhakar as Goon
- Baby Karman Sandhu
- Hema
- Shankar Melkote
- Indrayudh Mandal (cameo)
- Venu Madhav (cameo)
- Rajiv Kanakala as Amrita's father (cameo)
- Malaika Arora Khan (Item number in the song "Rathraina")
Soundtrack
editThe music was composed by Mani Sharma and released by Aditya Music.
| Athidhi | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 27 September 2007 | |||
| Recorded | 2007 | |||
| Genre | Soundtrack | |||
| Length | 27:09 | |||
| Label | Aditya Music | |||
| Producer | Mani Sharma | |||
| Mani Sharma chronology | ||||
| ||||
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Khabaddarani" | Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry | Naveen Madhav, Rahul Nambiar | 4:27 |
| 2. | "Gona Gona" | Chandrabose | Rita, Naveen Madhav | 4:28 |
| 3. | "Satyam Emito" | Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry | Deepu, Usha | 4:49 |
| 4. | "Khiladi Koona" | Vishwa Deepak | Karthik, Rita | 4:17 |
| 5. | "Rathraina" | Bhaskarabhatla Ravi Kumar | Anushka, Ranjith, Naveen Madhav, Suchitra | 4:49 |
| 6. | "Valla Valla" | Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry | Rahul Nambiar, Darshana | 4:20 |
| Total length: | 27:09 | |||
All lyrics are written by Vimal Kashyap
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Woh Deewangi" | 4:27 |
| 2. | "Gona Gona" | 4:28 |
| 3. | "Tujhe Sach Kahoon" | 4:50 |
| 4. | "Kaatil Nigaahon Se" | 4:17 |
| 5. | "Valla Valla" | 4:20 |
| Total length: | 22:22 | |
Reception
editA critic from Rediff.com wrote that the film "is built up through a 'racy' screenplay which is gripping to an extent, but stretches to three long hours".[3] Jeevi of Idlebrain.com praised the film's first half while criticising the last thirty minutes of the film.[4]
Box office
editThe film was released worldwide with 500 prints in 820 theaters across the globe.[5] Athidhi grossed ₹6 crore on its first day, and ₹16.72 crore in four days worldwide.[6] It grossed ₹12.50 crore in eight days from Andhra Pradesh.[7] In 11 days the film grossed ₹25 crore (US$3.0 million) worldwide.[8] The film grossed ₹35 crore by the four-week run at the worldwide Box office.[9]
Awards
editReferences
edit- ^ Business Line : Today's Paper / ECONOMY : Telugu film industry enters new era. Thehindubusinessline.com (6 November 2007). Retrieved on 2012-01-04.
- ^ Shetty, Akshata (17 June 2016). "Happy Birthday Amrita Rao: The rise & fall of the Meri Awaaz Hi Pehchaan Hai star's Bollywood career!". india.com.
- ^ Rajamani, Radhika (18 October 2007). "Mahesh Babu does well in Athidi". Rediff.com.
- ^ Jeevi (18 October 2007). "Telugu Movie review - Athidi". Idlebrain.com.
- ^ "Atithi tots Rs 125 mn in 1st week – Andhravilas.com -Telugu Cinema, Telugu Movies, India News & World News, Bollywood, Songs". Andhravilas.com. 31 October 2007. Archived from the original on 1 October 2011.
- ^ "Prince Mahesh Babu scores hit with Athidi". Filmibeat. 25 October 2007. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
- ^ "UTV's Athidhi grosses Rs 12.50cr in Andhra". Retrieved 2 June 2022.
- ^ Sinha, Meenakshi. "Telugu film beats Saawariya in northern India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
- ^ "Happy Birthday Amrita Rao: The rise & fall of the Meri Awaaz Hi Pehchaan Hai star's Bollywood career!". India.com. 17 June 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
- ^ "నంది అవార్డు విజేతల పరంపర (1964–2008)" [A series of Nandi Award Winners (1964–2008)] (PDF). Information & Public Relations of Andhra Pradesh. Retrieved 21 August 2020.(in Telugu)
