''Anveshana'' () is a 1985 Indian Telugu-language

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

written and directed by

Vamsy Vamsy is an Indian film director, screenwriter and music director known for his works in Telugu cinema. In 1985, he received the National Film Award for ''Sitaara''. Vamsy has his own style of making the movie with art like the director Bap ...

. It stars Karthik, Bhanupriya,

Kaikala Satyanarayana Kaikala Satyanarayana (25 July 1935 – 23 December 2022) was an Indian actor, producer, director, and politician who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema. He appeared in over 750 films and served as the Member of Parliament in the 11th Lok Sa ...

and

Sarath Babu Sathyam Babu Dixithulu (born 31 July 1951), known by his stage name Sarath Babu, is an Indian actor known for his works predominantly in Tamil and Telugu cinema. He has worked in more than 200 films. He has appeared in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada a ...

with music composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The story revolves around an ornithologist and a police officer coming to a forest and trying to solve the mystery of a series of killings, allegedly by a

man-eating A man-eater is an animal that preys on humans as a pattern of hunting behavior. This does not include the scavenging of corpses, a single attack born of opportunity or desperate hunger, or the incidental eating of a human that the animal has kil ...

tiger. The film received positive response for its screenplay, performances, and music, and was commercially successful. It ran for 100 days in 11 centres. It was also dubbed into

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

as ''Paadum Paravaigal'' in 1986. ''Anveshana'' has attained a cult status over the years.

Plot

Rao dreams of publishing a book on birds and the origin of music from their sounds. Pandu works as his driver. They stay in a forest house and prepare the thesis for the same. He calls his friend's daughter Hema from a city and appoints her to write the book. James is a forest ranger investigating the case of a man-eating tiger in that area. After Hema comes, Rao's manager Ghokale is brutally killed in the forest, allegedly by a tiger. Rao had to appoint another manager Amar for assisting his work. After he comes, a bullock cart owner Sooranna is also killed in the forest, supposedly by a tiger. It is revealed that Amar is actually a police officer in disguise who comes to investigate the serial killings in the forest. When Sooranna dies, he follows the tiger's footprints and finds out that they actually belong to a human. He suspects that the murders are well planned by a criminal. He also learned that the victims were actually following Hema as she wandered in the forest. He seeks the help of Hema in solving the case, to which she agrees. How they find the killer forms the rest of the story.

Cast

* Karthik as Amar * Bhanupriya as Hema *

as Rao * Rallapalli as Paandu *

as James, Range officer * Subhalekha Sudhakar as Chantigadu, mentally challenged * Mallikharjunarao as Puliraju, Village president *

Y. Vijaya Yenigandla Vijaya (born 8 February 1957) is an Indian actress and classical dancer. She has appeared in more than 1000 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada languages. Early life and education Y. Vijaya was born on 8 February 1957 in Ku ...

as Puliraju's wife * Viswanatham as Sooranna * Ponni as Sumathi

Production

Development

This is the third film for Vamsy as a director after '' Manchu Pallaki'' (1982) and ''

Sitaara ''Sitaara'' () is a 1984 Indian Telugu-language drama film written and directed by Vamsy. The film marked the debut of Bhanupriya in Telugu film industry. The film was adapted from Vamsy's own novel ''Mahal lo Kokila'' (). The film deals with the ...

'' (1984). After ''Sitaara'', producer Kamineni Prasad approached Vamsy and gave him an advance for making the next film with him. He was fine with any story. He just wanted an outline of the story. Vamsy thought of making a suspense film. He was interested in this genre from his childhood. He recollected a Kannada film '' Aparichita'' (1978) he watched some time back. It was completely shot in a forest. He wanted to make a suspense film with a forest backdrop. He had an outline of the story. He worked with several script writers including

Yandamuri Veerendranath Yandamuri Veerendranath is an Indian novelist and screenwriter known for his works in the Telugu language. He influences younger generations with his socially relevant writings and youtube videos. In his writings he addresses many of social prob ...

, but he was not satisfied with them. Then he tried to write the story as a novel. At the same time, Indira Gandhi was assassinated and there was unrest in the country and all the shootings were cancelled. In this time period, he completed the novel and showed it to the producers, and they liked it.

Filming

Art director

Thota Tarani Thota Tharani is an Indian film art director and production designer who has predominantly worked in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam cinema and Bollywood. As of 2013, he has won two National Film Awards, two Filmfare Awards South and four T ...

built a set in

Talakona Talakona is situated in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is a resort with waterfalls, dense forests and wildlife. Talakona waterfall is in Sri Venkateswara National Park, Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. With a -fall, Talakona is ...

forest near

Tirupati Tirupati () is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirupati district. The city is home to the important Hindu shrine of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and other historic temples and is re ...

. The film unit stayed in a nearby village, Nerabailu. The film was shot with a budget of 15 lakh in a schedule of 60 days. Bhanupriya dubbed in her own voice for the first time in her career in ''Anveshana.''

Music

Ilaiyaraaja composed the music for this film. Vamsi and Ilaiyaraaja went to Madurai to compose the music for the film. It took more than a week for Ilaiyaraaja to compose the re-recording for this film. The lyrics of all the songs were written by

Veturi Veturi Sundararama Murthy (29 January 1936 – 22 May 2010), known mononymously by his surname Veturi, was an Indian poet, lyricist and journalist who is popular for writing Telugu songs. His career in the Telugu cinema spanned more than four de ...

and were recorded at the Prasad Deluxe Theatre in Madras. The music rights of the film were acquired by Aditya Music.

Reception

In his review for ''

Zamin Ryot ''Zamin Ryot'' ( te, జమీన్ రైతు, Jamīn Raitu) is an Indian Telugu-language weekly newspaper published from Nellore. It was started by N. Venkatrama Naidu in . It has been called the longest continuously running Telugu newspa ...

'', Griddaluru Gopalrao appreciated Vamsy's screenplay and direction while being critical of the thin storyline. On the technical aspects, Gopalrao called M. V. Raghu's cinematography "marvellous", in addition to praising the score by Ilayaraja, and performances of Karthik, Satyanarayana, Rallapalli, Bhanupriya and Vijaya.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1985 films 1980s Telugu-language films Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Films directed by Vamsy Indian mystery thriller films 1980s mystery thriller films Films set in forests