''Choodalani Vundi'' () is a 1998 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 action drama film written and directed by

Gunasekhar Gunasekar (born 2 June 1964) is an Indian film director and screenwriter known for his works in Telugu cinema. He has directed films in action, romance, mythological, and historical drama genres. He has won a National Film Award, multiple Nand ...

, and produced by

C. Aswani Dutt Chalasani Aswani Dutt (also spelled Ashwini Dutt; born 15 September 1950) is an Indian film producer known for his work in the Telugu cinema. He established the film production company Vyjayanthi Movies in 1974 which is one of the biggest produ ...

under

Vyjayanthi Movies Vyjayanthi Movies is an Indian Production company, film production company established in 1974 by C. Aswani Dutt. It is one of the biggest film production houses in Telugu cinema. Vyjayanthi Movies is especially known for its big-budget product ...

. This film 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 ...

Soundarya K. S. Sowmya (18 July 1972 – 17 April 2004), better known by her stage name Soundarya, was an Indian actress who worked predominantly in Telugu_cinema, Telugu films and has also worked in Kannada, Tamil language, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam f ...

Anjala Zaveri Anjala Zaveri (born 20 April 1972) is a British actress who has primarily appeared in Telugu and Hindi language films, as well as few films in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. Personal life Zaveri was born on 20 April 1972 in a Gujarati family in ...

and

Prakash Raj Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam-language films, he is the recipient of several ...

. The film has music composed by

Mani Sharma Mani may refer to: Geography * Maní, Casanare, a town and municipality in Casanare Department, Colombia * Mani, Chad, a town and sub-prefecture in Chad * Mani, Evros, a village in northeastern Greece * Mani, Karnataka, a village in Dakshina ...

with cinematography by

Chota K. Naidu Chota K. Naidu (born 1962) is an Indian cinematographer, best known for his distinct style of cinematography for films like, ''Matru Devo Bhava'', ''Choodalani Vundi'', and ''Kotha Bangaru Lokam''. Naidu is part of the Indian Society of Cinemat ...

. Released on 27 August 1998, the film was a success at the box office and became the highest grossing Telugu film of 1998. The film was featured in the ''Indian Panorama'' mainstream section at the 30th International Film Festival of India. It received two South Filmfare Awards and three state

Nandi Awards The Nandi Awards are the awards that recognise the excellence in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Telugu television, and Lifetime achievements in Indian cinema. Presented annually by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the award is named after ...

. In 2003, it was remade into

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

as ''

Calcutta Mail ''Calcutta Mail'' is a 2003 Indian action thriller film starring Anil Kapoor, Rani Mukerji and Manisha Koirala. It was directed by Sudhir Mishra. The film is a remake of the 1998 Telugu film ''Choodalani Vundi''. Plot Avinash (Anil Kapoor) c ...

''.

Plot

Ramakrishna (

) is a mechanic in

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises NT ...

whose life changes when he meets Priya (

) at a train station. She sees him and feels some inexplicable connection, and then runs away with him to flee her father Mahendra's (

) gangsters. They end up living in the forest with their son, but Mahendra, who is an underworld don, kidnaps her so that he can marry her off to another don's son. Ramakrishna confronts Mahendra, and in the ensuing struggle, Priya takes the bullet shot at Ramakrishna and dies. Their son loses his voice because of the shock, and Ramakrishna is imprisoned because the police have been corrupted by Mahendra, who is running a

mafia state In politics, a mafia state is a state system where the government is tied with organized crime to the degree when government officials, the police, and/or military became a part of the criminal enterprise. According to US diplomats, the expressio ...

. Mahendra kidnaps the boy and takes him to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, where the story started. Ramakrishna, with the help of Padmavathi (

), whom he falls in love with, reunites with his son, and kills Mahendra.

Cast

as Ramakrishna *

as Padmavathi *

as Priya *

as Mahendra *

Brahmanandam Kanneganti Brahmanandam (born 1 February 1956), known mononymously as Brahmanandam, is an Indian actor, comedian, impersonator, and voice actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He is particularly known for his comic performa ...

as House Owner *

Dhulipala Dhulipala Sitarama Sastry (24 September 1921 – 13 April 2007), known mononymously by the surname Dhulipala, was an Indian actor and thespian, known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He was noted for playing mythological roles, ...

as Mahendra's father *

Brahmaji Brahmaji (born 25 April 1965) is an Indian actor best known for his work in Telugu cinema. He is a regular actor in director Krishna Vamsi's films. Brahmaji appeared in an important role in Krishna Vamsi's debut film as a director, '' Gulabi''. ...

as Surya (Mahendra's assistant) * Venu Madhav *

Sajja Teja Teja Sajja (born 23 August 1994) is an Indian actor who mainly works in Telugu films. He started his career in 1998 as child actor in the film ''Choodalani Vundi''. Sajja made his debut as an adult in 2019 with the film ''Oh! Baby''. Teja's deb ...

as Ramakrishna's son

Soundtrack

The soundtrack and score were Composed by

. The film's single, ''Yamaha Nagari'' 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 ...

with the vocals of Hariharan, is a rendition of

Patnam Subramania Iyer Patnam Subramania Iyer (1845 – July 31, 1902) was a composer and singer of Carnatic music. Subramaniya Iyer followed the traditions of the great composer Tyagaraja. He has left behind almost one hundred compositions. Subramaniya Iyer was bor ...

carnatic music Carnatic music, known as or in the Dravidian languages, South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, an ...

composition '' Raghuvamsa Sudha''. The song depicts the culture and beauty of the city of

Reception

Giddaluri Gopalrao of ''

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 newspap ...

'' gave a positive review for the film. He praised Chiranjeevi for picking up a new theme and Gunasekhar for executing it. Christopher Domingo of ''Full Hyderabad'' opined that "''Choodalani Vundi'' is an entertaining masala movie that is worth watching". The film became a commercial success and had a theatrical run of 100 days. The film was dubbed into

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...

under the title ''Calcutta''.

Awards

;

Filmfare Awards The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Hindi-language film industry of India.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were first introduced by th ...

* Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Telugu

* Filmfare Award for Best Art Director – South

Thota Tharani 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 Tamil ...

;

* Best Music Director

* Best Audiographer Madhu Sudhan * Best Choreographer

Saroj Khan Saroj Khan (born Nirmala Nagpal; 22 November 1948 – 3 July 2020) was an Indian dance choreographer in Hindi cinema. She was born in Bombay State (present day Maharashtra), India. She was best known for the dance form mujra and the fir ...

References

External links

* {{Gunasekhar 1990s Telugu-language films 1998 films Indian romantic drama films Films directed by Gunasekhar Films set in Kolkata Telugu films remade in other languages Films about kidnapping Indian action thriller films Films scored by Mani Sharma Films shot in Kolkata 1998 action thriller films 1998 romantic drama films