Indra (2002 film)

In a village of Rayalaseema, two families of Bharatasimha Reddy and Veera Shiva Reddy respectively engage in constant violence leading to deaths of people from two clans. To end the violence, a Police inspector allies the families with a marriage proposal of Bharatasimha Reddy's brother Vijayasimha Reddy with Shiva Reddy's sister. On the night after wedding, Shiva Reddy's sister poisons Vijayasimha Reddy and poisons herself in the process. Shiva Reddy and Bharatasimha Reddy ends up fighting in which Bharatasimha Reddy succumbs to backstabbing and Shiva Reddy is arrested. Since no one is to take up the place over fear, Bharatasimha Reddy's child Indrasena Reddy 'Indra' takes up the role of leading heir for his clan.

In 2002, Varanasi, truthful and honest, Shankar Narayana makes ends meet, working as a taxi driver and owns a boat. During a singing competition held in his niece's college, her friend Pallavi, daughter of Uttar Pradesh's governor Chenna Keshava Reddy falls in love with Shankar and starts to live in his home acting as an orphaned girl. Upon finding his daughter missing, Chenna Keshava Reddy investigates and learns that she staying with a taxi driver and he sets out to Shankar Narayana's home and sends out an attack on his family upon seeing him, he drops his plans of attacking him and greets him by folding his hands, requesting him to marry Pallavi. However, Shankar Narayana refuses owing to the responsibility of getting his niece, married. Giri, Shankar Narayana's trusted accomplice who runs his boat confesses his feelings for Nandhini, Shankar Narayana's niece and the latter arranges a marriage between the duo. However, his trust goes in vain as a woman named Snehalatha Reddy gatecrashes the wedding and reveals that Giri is Veera Manohar Reddy, son of Veera Shankar Reddy, Shiva Reddy's elder son and Snehalatha addresses Shankar Narayana as Indrasena Reddy perplexing his adoptive family. After the latter and Pallavi confronts Indra, Valmiki, his trusted associate who is misunderstood to be a mute person narrates his past.

Indra / Shankar Narayana is held in high regard in his village where he used to work for the benefits of people and arranged a ritual to assure rains for the droughted village. Shiva Reddy was released from prison and received a letter from Indra, who warned him not to enter the village and cause violence. Enraged, Shiva Reddy gatecrashed the ritual and instigated Indra, who was compelled to kill him for good. Snehalatha Reddy, who happens to be Shiva Reddy's daughter returned from USA at the same time while Veera Shankar Reddy vowed vengeance for killing his father. One day, Indra saved a young boy from being overrun a truck and didn't regret his decision after learning that he is Veera Shankar Reddy's younger son. Unwilling to have a son saved by an enemy, Veera Shankar Reddy stabbed his son and had him at Indra's home. Enraged, Indra carried the boy's corpse to Veera Shankar Reddy's home and had the boy's mother look over her son for the last time, buried the boy in front of the home and had a Tulsi sapling planted on his grave representing the boy's memorial and asked the boy's mother to water the plant daily and warned Veera Shankar Reddy that he will be killed if something happens to that plant.

Snehalatha fell in love with Indra due to this and told him that she will marry none other than him. Since the town was suffering from drought, Indra consulted Chenna Keshava Reddy, ex-collector of their district and learnt that government needed the lands of Shiva Reddy's family to build a reservoir. Indra had a formal meeting with villagers and Veera Shankar Reddy's family where the latter demanded his whole property and asked him to leave the village forever after reservoir is built to which Indra accepted and Snehalatha asked him to marry her as compensation since she had a share in those lands. Indra eventually reciprocated her love after learning that she truly loved him. One the day of marriage, Veera Shankar Reddy had Indra's sisters and their husbands murdered in a bomb blast orphaning their children Nandhini and her brother Pradip unbeknownst to Snehalatha. Enraged, Indra murdered Veera Shankar Reddy's three brothers and stabbed him while Snehalatha was manipulated into believing that Indra staged the plan of marriage. To raise his nephew and niece, Indra left his village and came to Varanasi.

At present, Nandhini attempts to commit suicide since she is pregnant. Indra returns to his village, barges into Veera Shankar Reddy's home and warns Manohar Reddy to come to Nandhini. Upon learning that her brothers killed Indra's sisters and their husbands, Snehalatha regrets mistaking Indra and takes Manohar Reddy to Nandhini but is attacked in mid-path where they are saved by Indra, who fights off the goons but does not kill Veera Shankar Reddy to end the rivalry. Snehalatha and Pallavi tries to convince Indra to marry them but neither is successful since Indra wants to serve his people and does not want to get married.

The audio soundtrack of Indra was released on the evening of 14 June 2002 at a neatly erected set in the first floor of Annapurna Studios. This event was a private affair between Chiru fans and the Vijayanthi movie unit. The celebrities who graced this occasion were the Paruchuri brothers (dialogue writers), Aswini Dutt (producer), Chinni Krishna (story writer), VSR Swamy (cinematographer), Sirivennela Seeta Rama Sastry (lyrics writer) and Chiranjeevi. The function started off with a welcome by Raghu Kunche and Suma. Gemini TV covered this event and it was telecast as a 30-minute capsule on Gemini TV. Chiranjeevi selected a coupon from the lucky dip box and called the lucky fan to the stage. Chiranjeevi opened the audio box and handed over the first cassette to that fan, who was so elated that he tried to touch Chiranjeevi's feet, but Chiranjeevi stopped him from doing so. The audio hit the market on 17 June 2002. [5]

All lyrics are written by Dev Kohli.

Indra was released on 24 July 2002 in 268 screens, including 223 in Andhra Pradesh, 30 in Karnataka, three in Odisha and 15 in the United States.[4][6] It grossed more than ₹40 crore on a budget of ₹10 crore.[1] The film ended up becoming the highest-grossing south Indian film of that time.[4] It held the record of being the first Telugu movie to collect over ₹40 crores during the first week and until Pokiri broke the record in 2006.[3]

• The film had collected a distributors' share of ₹33 crore.[7]
• It had a 50-day run in 151 centres, including nine in Karnataka and two in Odisha.[8]
• It had a 100-day run in 122 centres, including four in Karnataka.[9]
• It had a 175-day run in 32 centres[10] including a 247-day run in Satyam theatre, Adoni.[10]

This movie was one of the biggest hits in Chiranjeevi's film career. Jeevi of Idlebrain had given a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stating, "First half is a perfect blend of mass and class elements. It's extraordinary. The interval scene gives the right finishing touch to the first half."[11]

• Indra at IMDb