''Criminal'' is a 1994 Indian

action thriller Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include lif ...

film directed by

Mahesh Bhatt Mahesh Bhatt (born 20 September 1948) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter known for his works in Hindi cinema. A stand-out film from his earlier period is ''Saaransh'' (1984), screened at the 14th Moscow International Film F ...

, starring

Nagarjuna Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...

Ramya Krishna Ramya Krishnan (born 15 September 1970), also credited as Ramya Krishna (in the Telugu and Kannada film industries) is an Indian actress. She has appeared in over 260 films in five languages: Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. Ram ...

and

Manisha Koirala Manisha Koirala (; born 16 August 1970) is a Nepalese actress who works in Cinema of India, Indian films, predominantly in Hindi and Tamil language, Tamil films and has also worked in few Telugu language, Telugu, Bengali language, Bengali, Mala ...

. Shot simultaneously in

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 ...

and

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 ...

languages, the film was 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 in Telugu, and by

Mukesh Bhatt Mukesh Bhatt (born 5 June 1952) is an Indian people, Indian film producer and actor who has produced several Bollywood films. He is the younger brother of Mahesh Bhatt, and also the co-owner of the production company Vishesh Films, set up in 19 ...

under the

Vishesh Films Vishesh Films is an Indian film company founded in 1986 and currently owned by Mukesh Bhatt. Vishesh Films is one of the most successful Indian film production houses. The production company is named after Vishesh Bhatt, the son of Mukesh Bhatt. ...

banner in Hindi with the music composed by M. M. Keeravani (credited as MM Kreem in Hindi). ''Criminal'' was inspired by the 1993 American film '' The Fugitive''. The Telugu version released on 14 October 1994, while the Hindi version released on 21 July 1995. ''Criminal'' was the last film of the Hindi film actor

Ajit Khan Hamid Ali Khan (27 January 1922 – 22 October 1998), better known by his stage name Ajit, was an Indian actor active in Hindi films. He acted in over two hundred movies over almost four decades. Ajit is also credited for starring as a lead ...

Plot

After witnessing the unfortunate death of a woman, who was unable to afford hospital treatment, Dr. Ajay Kumar cancels his planned immigration to the U.S. and instead sets out to develop a plan to open a hospital that will be accessible to people who cannot afford treatment in regular hospitals, called "Amma Hospital". This draws quite a lot of attention, and he becomes popular, especially with two young women, Dr. Swetha and ACP Ramya. He falls in love with Swetha, and both get married, breaking Ramya's heart in the process. Shortly thereafter, much to their delight, Swetha becomes pregnant. When Swetha discovers a frightening organ-smuggling operation in her hospital while going through a friend's diagnostic report, she calls Ramya. Soon after, Swetha is attacked by a killer and rings the police. Ajay enters their home to find Swetha, who soon succumbs to her injuries. The police arrive to find her dead body and arrest Ajay for murder. They deduce that Ajay's motive for killing Swetha was money, as Swetha was a wealthy heiress. Furthermore, she shouted Ajay's name as she was on the phone with the police. The court finds Ajay guilty, and he is sentenced to death. While being transported to the jail for the sentence to be carried out, the police bus meets with an accident as the other prisoners have staged a riot. Ajay escapes and changes his appearance. The police launch a manhunt for him but are unable to catch him. Ajay goes to Ramya's house to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, he used to know Ramya had a crush on him. Ajay catches the real killer and discovers the man behind everything - including the smuggling - was Ajay's friend Dr. Pratap. Finally, he reopens the hospital and puts a garland on Swetha's picture. He and Ramya remain friends.

Cast

Telugu version

as Dr. Ajay Kumar *

as A.C.P. Ramya *

as Dr. Swetha Kumar * Satyanarayana as Advocate Chandra Shekar *

Kota Srinivasa Rao Kota Srinivasa Rao (born 10 July 1942) is an Indian character actor known for his work primarily in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He has also starred in a few films in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam. As a former politician, Rao has s ...

as Srinivasa Rao *

Nassar Nassar ( ar, نصار, lit=helper, protector, supporter, victory-maker), is a given name and surname, commonly found in the Arabic language. Alternative spellings of this name, possibly due to transliteration include Naser, Nasser, Nasir, Naseer ...

as S. P. Teja *

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 and ...

as Dr. Pratap * Sudha as Yashoda *

Gulshan Grover Gulshan Grover (born 21 September 1955) is an Indian actor and producer who has appeared in over 100 films. He is popularly known as the "Bad Man" of Bollywood because of his ability to create an impact with his negative roles in films. Early ...

as Robert Rakesh Kumar *

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 Compounder Chitti Babu *

Dharmavarapu Subramanyam Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam (20 September 1954 – 7 December 2013) was a popular Indian actor, comedian and film director who worked in Telugu cinema. He was established as one of the highly paid and top most leading comedians in Telugu film in ...

as Inspector *

Johnny Lever Johnny Lever (born John Prakash Rao Janumala; 14 August 1957) is an Indian actor and popular comedian who is known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is one of the first stand-up comedians in India. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, inc ...

as himself *

Gundu Hanumantha Rao Gundu Hanumantha Rao (10 October 1956–19 February 2018) was an Indian actor and comedian who worked in Telugu films, theatre, and television. He first appeared in Jandhyala's film '' Aha Naa Pellanta'' in 1987 and gained popularity in comedia ...

as Compounder Tinku *

Devadas Kanakala Devadas Kanakala (30 July 1945 – 2 August 2019) was an Indian actor from Andhra Pradesh who predominantly appeared in Telugu language films and TV shows. Rajnikanth, Chiranjeevi and Rajendra Prasad trained under him. He was a very good tra ...

as Commissioner * Kota Shankar Rao as Lawyer * Garimalla Visweswara Rao as Servant * Husain as Prisoner *

Jenny Jenny may refer to: * Jenny (given name), a popular feminine name and list of real and fictional people * Jenny (surname), a family name Animals * Jenny (donkey), a female donkey * Jenny (gorilla), the oldest gorilla in captivity at the time of ...

as Inspector Nanda Gopal * Trishna as

item number In Indian cinema, an item number or item song is a musical number inserted into a film that may or may not have any relevance to the plot. The term is commonly used within Indian films (Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, and Be ...

Hindi version

The lead cast and the characters portrayed by Grover, Nassar, Babu, Subramanyam, Kanakala, Visweswara Rao, Husain, and Jenny were retained from the Telugu version in the Hindi version. Trishna performed an item number in both versions. *

as Dr. Ajay Kumar Varma *

as Dr. Shweta Varma *

as Changu *

Laxmikant Berde Laxmikant Berde (26 October 1954 – 16 December 2004) was an Indian Marathi language film actor who appeared in several Marathi and Hindi movies. He was known for his highly energetic slapstick performances. Berde started his career as an emp ...

as Mangu *

as Jagdish Prasad * Palav Vyas as Advocate * Gurbachan * Mukesh Pandey *

Zaheer Zaheer is a character in Nickelodeon's animated television series ''The Legend of Korra'' (a sequel to ''Avatar: The Last Airbender''). He serves as the main antagonist of '' Book Three: Change'', and his actions have lingering effects on Ava ...

as Advocate Varma (Ajay's father) * Beena as Ajay's mother

Soundtrack

All the music is composed by M. M. Keeravani. The track Telusaa Manasa/Tum Mile was partly inspired by the song ''

Age of Loneliness "Age of Loneliness" is a 1994 single by the musical group, Enigma. The song was released as the third single from ''The Cross of Changes''. Overview The song can be regarded as a remixed version of an earlier Enigma song, " Carly's Song", where ...

'' (1994) by the German group

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...

K. S. Chithra Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra (born 27 July 1963), always credited as K. S. Chithra or Chithra, is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic musician. In a career spanning over four decades, she has recorded over 25,000 songs in various In ...

recreated the same humming for all the versions, for which she practised for four days to sing it perfectly and making the song an evergreen hit. The song "Paapki Paapki/Keemti Keemti" is inspired by ''Lonely Monday Morning'' from ''

12 Inches of Snow ''12 Inches of Snow'' is the debut album by Canadian reggae musician Snow, released in 1993. Edmond Leary and MC Shan produced the entire album, apart from one track which was produced by John Ficarrotta. The album was produced shortly before Snow ...

'' (1993) by the Canadian musician

Snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

Telugu Version

Hindi Version

Hindi lyrics were written by

Indeevar Shyamalal Babu Rai, known professionally as Indeevar, (also credited as Indiwar and Indeewar) (1 January 1924 – 27 February 1997) was one of the leading Hindi film lyricists in the 1960s. Early life He was born in Barua Sagar of Jhansi di ...

. Original audio was released on HMV audio.

Release and reception

Alluru Rahim 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 newspa ...

'', reviewing the Telugu version of the film on 21 October 1994, described it as "the film which drives the audience out the theatres 'sic''" While appreciating the Nagarjuna's performance and the soundtrack by Keeravani, Rahim opined that the film lacked good story and screenplay. After the film's success, it was later dubbed and released in Tamil as ''Ellame En Kadhali''. K. Vijayan reviewing the Tamil dubbed version for ''

New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as ''The Straits Times'' on 15 July 1845. It was relaunched as the ' ...

'' on 3 July 1995, opined that Bhatt had made a faithful remake of ''The Fugitive'' (1993).

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1990s crime action films 1990s Hindi-language films 1990s multilingual films 1990s Telugu-language films 1995 action thriller films 1995 crime thriller films 1995 films Films about amputees Films about miscarriage of justice Films directed by Mahesh Bhatt Films scored by M. M. Keeravani Films shot in Mumbai Indian action thriller films Indian crime action films Indian crime thriller films Indian films about revenge Indian multilingual films T-Series (company) films