Munna (film)

Munna
Directed by	Vamsi Paidipally
Produced by	Dil Raju
Written by	Vamsi Paidipally Koratala Siva BVS Ravi
Starring	Prabhas Ileana D'Cruz Prakash Raj Kota Srinivasa Rao
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Cinematography	Ram Prasad
Edited by	Marthand K. Venkatesh
Production company	Sri Venkateswara Creations
Distributed by	Sri Venkateswara Creations
Release dates	27 April 2007 (2007-04-27)
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Munna is a 2007 Tollywood action film directed by Vamsi Paidipally and produced by Dil Raju. The film starred Prabhas and Ileana D'Cruz in the lead roles, with Prakash Raj, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Rahul Dev in other important roles. The film was postponed several times due to excessive post-production. The film released on 27 April 2007. The film was dubbed in Hindi as Bagawat - Ek Jung and in Tamil as Vetri Thirumagan and in Malayalam with same title. Later this film was remade in Bangladesh named Amar Challenge starring Shakib Khan and Shahara.

Plot

Munna (Prabhas) is a college student. His aim is to finish off mafia don Kakha (Prakash Raj) who keeps the entire city under his grip. Munna has a personal vengeance to take on Kakha. An honest politician Srinivasa Rao (Kota Srinivasa Rao) relentlessly works to expose Kakha but is killed. Meanwhile, Munna's classmate Nidhi (Ileana D'Cruz) falls in love with him. The twist in the tale is that Kakha is none other than his estranged father who tries to sell off his mother and was responsible for the death of his mother and his young sister. Another don in the city named Aatma (Rahul Dev), who is the opposition of Kakha asks Munna to join him but Munna refuses his proposal. Munna starts to beat Kakha and the mind game begins. Kakha's second wife, son and daughter leave him and join Munna. After some incidents including the death of his best friend, Munna finds out that Aatma was working for Kakha all along. The two of them plan on killing him in a factory when all of a sudden Aatma turns against Kakha and Munna. Kakha kills Aatma for the betrayal. Having lost everything Kakha worked for in his life, he commits suicide. Thereby, Munna succeeds in taking revenge against Kakha.

Cast

Ileana D'Cruz was selected as lead heroine marking her first collaboration with Prabhas.

• Prabhas as Munna
• Ileana D'Cruz as Nidhi
• Prakash Raj as Kamalakar/Kaka
• Kota Srinivasa Rao as Shrinivasa Rao
• Rahul Dev as Aatma
• Sukanya as Kaka's wife
• Kalyani as Munna's mother
• Posani Krishna Murali as Kishan
• Brahmaji as Purushottam
• Tanikella Bharani as Qasim
• Surya as Dr. Niranjan Chowdary
• Sudha as Nidhi's mother
• Sridhar as Prakash
• Medha Bahri as Shruti
• Sandra as Nidhi's friend
• Venu Madhav as Mohan
• Nalla Venu as Tillu
• Raghu Babu as Satti Pandu
• Chalapathi Rao
• Sameer as police inspector
• Uttej as gun seller
• Gundu Sudharshan as priest
• Shriya Saran in item number

Release

The film released on 27 April 2007.

Critical reception

Idle brain rated 3/5 stated The movie starts off on a dull note and meanders aimlessly till the dark secret is revealed before interval. The flashback episode is unappealing. There are a couple of surprises in the second half. The plus points of the film are Prabhas, stylish taking of the director and lavish budget. On the flip side, screenplay and narration should have been better. There is no holistic perspective in the film. Let us wait and see if Dil Raju's 'Midas Touch' works for this film or not!^[1] Fullhyd states Munna is perhaps worth a watch for those seeking a testosterone high. Its fate depends less on its own merit and more on the kind of competing attractions at the box office in future weeks.^[2] CineGoer.com rated 2.75/5 stated The movie has a lot of style, but lacks the necessary soul and substance. Swanky visuals, crisp narration, a demigod like hero and two major twists fail to elevate the movie's average viewing status.^[3] Telugu Cinema rates 2.5/5 stated There is not much entertainment in the film. The romance between Prabhas and Illeana was not properly developed. Too much of action is the undoing factor for this film.^[4]

Music

The film had six songs composed by Harris Jayaraj. Lyrics were written by Vishwa, Kandikonda, Anantha Sreeram and Bhaskarabhatla.The soundtrack received highly positive reviews with the song 'Manasa' topping the charts.Harris Jayaraj received a nomination for Filmfare Best Music Director in 2007.^[5][6]

Awards

Sadhana Sargam won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Telugu for the song "Manasa".

References

External links

• Munna at the Internet Movie Database
• Munna on Vendithera.com - All about Telugu Cinema
• Munna at BharatMovies.com