''Gang Leader'' is a 1991 Indian Telugu-language

action crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

written and directed by

Vijaya Bapineedu Gutta Bapineedu Chowdary (22 September 1936 – 11 February 2019), better known as Vijaya Bapineedu, was an Indian film screenwriter and director, known for his works predominantly in Telugu Cinema. He started his career as a magazine editor and ...

, and produced by Maganti Ravindranath Chowdary. The 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, as well as some fil ...

and

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 ...

, while

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 ...

, Anandaraj,

Murali Mohan Maganti Murali Mohan (born 24 June 1940) is an Indian actor, producer, politician, and business executive from Telugu cinema. In 1973, Murali Mohan debuted in ''Jagame Maya'', produced by Atluri Poornachandra Rao. He gained recognition with the ...

, and

Sarath Kumar Sarathkumar Ramanathan (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, and singer. He has acted in more than 130 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He has won two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and three Filmfare Awards S ...

play supporting roles. The soundtrack was composed by

Bappi Lahiri Bappi Aparesh Lahiri (born Alokesh Aparesh Lahiri; 27 November 1952 – 15 February 2022), also known as Bappi Da was an Indian singer, composer and record producer. He popularised the use of synthesised disco music in Indian music industry and ...

with dance choreography by

Prabhu Deva Prabhu Deva (born 3 April 1973) is an Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer and actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada language films. In a career spanning 32 years, he has performed and designed a ...

. The film explores the concepts of exploitation of

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules Rule or ruling may refer to: Education ...

anti-social behaviour Antisocial behavior is a behavior that is defined as the violation of the rights of others by committing crime, such as stealing and physical attack in addition to other behaviors such as lying and manipulation. It is considered to be disrupti ...

and the impact of mob psychology. The film opened to highly positive reviews from the critics and was commercially successful at the box office. It was screened at the International Film Festival of India. Later, it was dubbed in Tamil with the same title. The film was later remade in

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 ...

as '' Aaj Ka Goonda Raaj'' (1992) where

reprises his role, and in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

as '' Kutumba'' (2003).

Plot

Raghupathi, Raghava and Rajaram are brothers. Raghupathi is the only breadwinner of the family, Raghava is preparing for the Civil Services Examination and Rajaram is an unemployed, and freelance dancer who spends time with his four friends in search of jobs. They roam in the city until midnight. Rajaram comes home at midnight and sleeps until noon; his grandmother Sabari yells at him for his irresponsibility and callousness. One day, Rajaram makes Kanyakumari vacate the house on a payment basis as she is not paying the rent to the landlord. Consequently, she barges into Rajaram's house for accommodation. At one situation, Rajaram goes to custody for money so that he can support his brother Raghava, who is in need of funding for his

IAS IAS may refer to: Science * Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey, United States * Image Analysis & Stereology, the official journal of the International Society for Stereology & Image Analysis. * Iowa Archeological Society, Uni ...

preparation. Meanwhile, Ekambaram, a dreaded gangster known for contract killing, and

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

, alongside his brother Kanakambaram kill Raghupathi as he witnessed a homicide. Rajaram was spending time in prison when this incident happened. However, his friends are aware of Raghupathi's death. Rajaram, on the other hand, thinks that his brother's death was an accident. Raghava becomes an IAS officer and marries Latha, which was a scheme planned by Ekambaram and Kanakambaram so that they can escape cases with his support. Latha hates Raghava's family members, whereas Kanyakumari loves Rajaram and his family members. Meanwhile, Rajaram learns of his brother's death and begins to investigate, whereas his friends are also murdered by Ekambaram and Kanakambaram at the time. Rajaram is framed for his friends's death and Raghava disowns him. With Kanyakumari's help, Rajaram escapes from prison and Kanyakumari reveals that she is Ekambaram's daughter, who ran away from home after her father killed her mother, and thus she began moving into other people's houses. After revealing this, Kanyakumari proposes to Rajaram, who accepts. Rajaram finds the evidence and goes to his brother's house, only to find that Ekambaram and Kanakambaram has held them captive. Rajaram and Kanyakumari arrives where they kill Ekambaram and Kanakambaram, and the broken family finally lead a happy life.

Cast

Soundtrack

The Music and background score was provided by

and the lyrics were penned 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

Bhuvanachandra Bhuvana Chandra is an Indian lyricist, renowned for his work in the Telugu cinema. He served in the Indian Air Force for 18 years before turning into a lyricist. He penned lyrics for more than 2000 songs. He also wrote more than 100 stories, a no ...

. The soundtrack was an instant hit and "Papa Rita" and "Vaana Vaana Velluvaye" were a rage in the entire state at that time. Bhuvanachandra noted that "Vaana Vaana" was his first song on rain, he was initially apprehensive about writing this song since other songs of the same nature were popular. Bappi composed the tune at Suresh Guest House, initially, the tune was rejected however Bhuvan insisted that the tune should be retained. Later, the song "Vaana Vaana Velluvaye" was re-mixed 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 ...

for the 2012 film ''

Rachcha ''Racha'' (), also spelt ''Rachcha'', is a 2012 Indian Telugu-language masala film directed by Sampath Nandi and co-written by the Paruchuri Brothers. Produced by R. B. Choudary in association with N. V. Prasad and Paras Jain under their b ...

''.

Telugu version

Tamil version

Lyrics written by Vairamuthu.

Reception

The movie was a huge success. It is considered to be one of the top movies in Chiranjeevi's career. This movie earned more than 70 million of Distributory Share. ''Gang Leader'' did a 162-day run at Sudharshan theatre in Hyderabad. The movie successfully completed 100 days in more than 50 theaters. The movie was dubbed into Tamil and Kannada. It was a success in those areas also.

Legacy

The classic car which was used in the movie "Citroën CX Pallas" was owned by Relangi Thirumalla Babu and was the only car of this model present in South India at that time. The car can be seen in the movie as Chiranjeevi and Vijayashanti are talking and the scene cuts to marriage and Vijayashanti commands Chiranjeevi to follow her to marriage. Video footage of the film's 100 days celebration was used in the Telugu comedy film

Appula Appa Rao ''Appula Appa Rao'' is a 1992 Telugu-language comedy film, produced by B. Suresh under the Kamadhenu Creations banner, presented by Rama Prabha and directed by E. V. V. Satyanarayana. It stars Rajendra Prasad, Shobana and music composed by Raja ...

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0245911 Films scored by Bappi Lahiri 1990s Telugu-language films 1990s crime action films Films set in Hyderabad, India Films shot in Hyderabad, India Indian crime drama films 1991 crime drama films Indian crime action films Fictional portrayals of the Andhra Pradesh Police Telugu films remade in other languages 1990s action drama films Films about corruption in India Social realism in film Law enforcement in fiction Indian action drama films 1991 films Indian gangster films 1990s masala films