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''Challenge'' is a 1984 Indian
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...
-language film directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy and produced by K. S. Rama Rao under the
Creative Commercials Creative Commercials is an Indian film production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio ...
banner. It stars
Chiranjeevi Chiranjeevi (born Konidela Sivasankara Varaprasad; 22 August 1955) is an Indian actor, film producer and former politician, who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. Chiranjeevi starred in over 150 feature films in Telugu language, Telugu, as ...
,
Vijayashanti Vijayashanti (born 24 June 1966) is an Indian actress, producer and politician. In a film career spanning 40 years, she has acted in 187 feature films in a variety of roles in various languages predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, in addition to Hi ...
,
Suhasini Suhasini Maniratnam (born 15 August 1961) known mononymously as Suhasini, is an Indian actress, director, producer and writer in the Tamil film industry. She has worked as an actress in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She made her ...
and
Rao Gopal Rao Raavu Gopala Rao (14 January 1937 – 13 August 1994) was an Indian actor and producer known for his works in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. In a film career spanning more than twenty five years, Rao starred in over four hundred feature film ...
with music composed by Ilaiyaraaja. This film is based on
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 ...
's novel ''Dabbu to the power of Dabbu'' (). The plot revolves around an unemployed youngster (Chiranjeevi) taking up a challenge of a successful business magnate (Rao) to earn in five years. ''Challenge'' released on 9 August 1984 and became a critically acclaimed and commercially successful film.


Plot

Gandhi steals medicine for his mother who is on her deathbed. However, by the time he reaches the hospital, his mother is dead, and he is left without any money to cremate her. Wardboy Prakasam demands money to preserve his mother's corpse in the mortuary. Business tycoon Ram Mohan Rao rushes to the hospital to have his sick wife cured. Gandhi plays a numerical trick with his daughter Harika. This impresses her and she pays Rs.501/- for his mother's funeral. However, the ward boy takes advantage of his situation and steals that money. After his mother's funeral, Gandhi, left with no home and money and wandering on streets jobless, saves a young woman, Lakshmi from drowning, when she jumps off a bridge. They both reach Lakshmi's house and Gandhi finds an advertisement in the newspaper for a job. Gandhi understands the trick behind that ad and walks into Ram Mohan Rao's house for an interview. Gandhi gives a tit-for-tat for publishing an ad to fool people and both enter into an argument. When Gandhi says that it is not so difficult to make money and he can make Rs.50 lakhs in five years lawfully, Ram Mohan Rao challenges him that if Gandhi succeeds, he will get his daughter married to him. Both sign an agreement on this and Gandhi leaves on 19 April. Ram Mohan Rao throws the agreement into a trash bin and forgets this incident, but determined Gandhi starts planning for his 50 lakhs. He wins his first Rs.100, through gambling and explains to Lakshmi, the difference between law and justice and that he won those Rs.100 lawfully. Meanwhile, Ram Mohan Rao tries to make marriage arrangements for his daughter Harika, but Gandhi learns of the incident by the information he received from Harika, Gandhi interrupts and spoils the marriage arrangement explaining that he had bet for a duration of five years with Ram Mohan Rao in which if he succeeds he would marry Harika. While Gandhi is leaving, Ram Mohan Rao sends goons to kill Gandhi, but Gandhi bashes all goons and tells them to inform Ram Mohan Rao that not only he is intelligent but also has the physical power to beat up such goons. Gandhi slowly progresses and buys a new house and moves in with Lakshmi, who now, is his secretary, Lakshmi gives Gandhi a letter which he must read only after completion of challenge duration of five years regardless of his success or failure in the challenge. Lakshmi's ill-charactered brother Hanumantha Rao enters their house with his wife Priyamvada, pretending to be homeless. Despite Lakshmi's warning, Gandhi lets them stay. Hanumantha Rao tries every possible trick to defame Gandhi and separate him from Lakshmi and Harika but fails. Also, Priyamvada tries to seduce Gandhi and realizes her mistake through him, at that moment Priyamvada reveals out that her husband Hanumantha Rao is the one who is leaking Gandhi's business secrets to Ram Mohan Rao. Gandhi plans to start a paper mill to compete with Ram Mohan Rao, and accidentally meets a young man named Vidyarthi. Gandhi learns that Vidyarthi worked for Ram Mohan Rao in the past and uses his experience and talent to promote his business. During his rise, Harika supports him by saving him from going bankrupt and starts adoring him. Hanumantha Rao manages to create problems in Gandhi's paper mill and Lakshmi revolts seeing Gandhi adamant about making money rather than bothering about his workers' welfare. Since the problems in paper mill don't seem to come to an end, Gandhi opts for another plan which is launching a new scooter into the market. Gandhi gets an immense response from the public for his new scooter launch and gets a lot of money in advance booking in the form of cash, cheques and Demand Drafts. On the last day of the bet, Gandhi is left with Rs.500 short of 50 lakhs and the ward boy, who is influenced by Gandhi's personality and thinking, brings about changes within himself and returns Rs.500. Jubilant, Gandhi tries to reach Ram Mohan Rao but realizes that he is leaving the country with his daughter. On his way to the airport, Gandhi is attacked by Hanumanth Rao and goons. Gandhi bashes them up and reaches Ram Mohan Rao to declare his victory. When Ram Mohan Rao tries to shoot Gandhi, Gandhi saves himself with the suitcase in his hand, which has all the cash in it. He throws away all the money, during which the letter given by Lakshmi to him falls down at the feet of Harika, he explains to Ram Mohan Rao that there is nothing impossible for a man who has self-confidence and there are few things in this world that money can't buy, like love and self-confidence. Gandhi says that Ram Mohan Rao is so arrogant that when they agreed to the challenge he did not consider his daughter's opinion before agreeing to get his daughter married to Gandhi if Gandhi succeeds. Ram Mohan Rao didn't even mention what Gandhi must give or do if Gandhi fails in the challenge. Meanwhile, Harika reads the letter (which has good wishes to Gandhi from Lakshmi for him to succeed in every matter of his life and expressing her love for him) and hands over it to Gandhi, before he leaves. Gandhi returns to Lakshmi and marries her.


Cast

*
Chiranjeevi Chiranjeevi (born Konidela Sivasankara Varaprasad; 22 August 1955) is an Indian actor, film producer and former politician, who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. Chiranjeevi starred in over 150 feature films in Telugu language, Telugu, as ...
as Gandhi *
Vijayashanti Vijayashanti (born 24 June 1966) is an Indian actress, producer and politician. In a film career spanning 40 years, she has acted in 187 feature films in a variety of roles in various languages predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, in addition to Hi ...
as Harika *
Suhasini Suhasini Maniratnam (born 15 August 1961) known mononymously as Suhasini, is an Indian actress, director, producer and writer in the Tamil film industry. She has worked as an actress in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She made her ...
as Lakshmi *
Rao Gopal Rao Raavu Gopala Rao (14 January 1937 – 13 August 1994) was an Indian actor and producer known for his works in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. In a film career spanning more than twenty five years, Rao starred in over four hundred feature film ...
as Rammohan Rao *
Gollapudi Maruti Rao Gollapudi Maruti Rao (14 April 1939 – 12 December 2019) was an Indian actor, screenwriter, dramatist, playwright, columnist and dialogue writer known for his works in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Telugu Literature. Rao acted in over 250 ...
as Hanumantha Rao *
Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...
as Vidyarthi *
Allu Aravind Allu Aravind (born 10 January 1949) is an Indian film producer and distributor in Telugu cinema under his banner Geetha Arts. He co-owns the Indian Super League club ''Kerala Blasters FC''. A part of the Allu–Konidela family, Aravind is t ...
in a cameo appearance *
P. Sai Kumar Pudipeddi Sai Kumar (born 27 July 1960) is an Indian actor, dubbing artist and television presenter who works predominantly in Telugu language, Telugu, Kannada, in addition to a few Tamil language, Tamil films. He has received three state Film ...
as Ward boy Prakasam *
Silk Smitha Vijayalakshmi Vadlapati (2 December 1960 – 23 September 1996), better known by her stage name Silk Smitha, was an Indian actress and dancer who worked predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. Smitha was part of ...
as Priyamvada


Soundtrack

Music was composed by Maestro Ilaiyaraaja. Lyrics 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 ...
. Music released on ECHO Audio Company.


Reception

The film received positive reviews and became a commercial success.


References


External links

* Movie Review at iqli

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Challenge (1984 Film) 1980s Telugu-language films 1984 films Films directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Films based on novels by Yandamuri Veerendranath Films based on Indian novels