''Kousalya Krishnamurthy'' is a 2019 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

sports drama A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the spor ...

film, produced by K. A. Vallabha 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 and directed by

Bhimaneni Srinivasa Rao Bhimaneni Srinivasa Rao is an Indian film director, producer, actor and writer from Andhra Pradesh. He is also known as a remake specialist. He had several hit films to his credit including ''Subhamastu'', '' Subhakankshalu'', '' Suswagatam'' a ...

. The film stars

Aishwarya Rajesh Aishwarya Rajesh (born 10 January 1990) is an Indian actress who works primarily in Tamil films, alongside Telugu and Malayalam films. She is a recipient of four SIIMA Awards, one Filmfare Award South and one Tamil Nadu State Film Award. Aish ...

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 ...

, Karthik Raju and

Sivakarthikeyan Sivakarthikeyan (born 17 February 1985), also referred to as SK, is an Indian actor, singer, film producer, lyricist, and television presenter, who works predominantly in Tamil films. He has also won a Tamil Nadu State Film Award, four Edison A ...

in a supporting role, with music composed by

Dhibu Ninan Thomas Dhibu Ninan Thomas is an Indian film music composer and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. He did his bachelor of engineering in electronics from JJ Engineering College in Trichy. Early life Dhibu Ninan Thomas was a music enthu ...

. This film is a remake of the 2018 Tamil film '' Kanaa'' and marks the Telugu debut of Aishwarya Rajesh. The film reused scenes involving Sivakarthikeyan from the original film. The film was released theatrically on 23 August 2019.

Plot

Kousalya Krishnamurthy, the daughter of Krishnamurthy, a farmer, is highly fascinated by cricket. In her childhood, Kousalya saw tears in her father's eyes when India suffered defeat in the

2007 Cricket World Cup The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was the ninth Cricket World Cup, a One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007. There were a total of 51 matches played, three fewer than at the ...

. Hence, she determines to become an international cricketer to get back the smile on her cricket-loving father's face. At the age of 11, she joins the local cricket team in the village who are mostly her school seniors when everyone appreciates her talent for off-spin technique getting

wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

s. She also earns the wrath of many villagers for playing cricket with boys, which Krishnamurthy does not care about and supports his daughter. At present, Kousalya appears for team selections. She gets rejected but does not give up. She works hard and gets selected for the Indian women’s cricket team Kousalya moves for training at

National Cricket Academy The National Cricket Academy is a cricket facility of the BCCI for the purpose of developing young cricketers who have been identified as having the potential to represent the Indian cricket team. It was established in the year 2000 and is loca ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, where she is humiliated by seniors due to internal politics, and even the coach demotes her to a large extent. However, the entry of a new coach named Nelson Dilipkumar, an ex-Indian cricketer, develops the team’s spirit and gets the players ready for the upcoming T20 world cup. Nelson discovers the spin

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

capabilities of Kousalya and trains her on the right path. He also locks horns with the committee and ensures Kousalya’s presence in the world cup. Meanwhile, Krishnamurthy faces a tough time with agriculture and is unable to repay the debt of the bank and ends up being in a rift with the bank manager. At one point, Nelson decides to rest Kousalya for the league matches as a strategy to hide her talent and give a surprise to opponents, which brings her down. Ultimately, Kousalya is selected for the semifinal against the strongest team,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. At the same time, Krishnamurthy’s house is auctioned by the bank; hearing it, Kousalya becomes anguished when Nelson motivates her to make her father proud by winning the match. During the match, Kousalya bowls a hat-trick and again bowls well leading to India’s win. At last, she is declared as ''Woman of the Match'', awarded Rs. 5 lakhs (from the same bank which was auctioning her house) when she gives an emotional speech describing the situation of farmers in the country. Finally, Krishnamurthy feels proud of his daughter.

Cast

as Kousalya Krishnamurthy *

as Krishnamurthy * Karthik Raju as Sai *

as Nelson Dhilipkumar *

Jhansi Jhansi (; Hindi: झांसी, Urdu: ) is a historic city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It lies in the region of Bundelkhand on the banks of the Pahuj River, in the extreme south of Uttar Pradesh. Jhansi is the administrative hea ...

as Savitri, Kousalya's mother *

Vennela Kishore Bokkala Kishore Kumar (born 19 September 1977), known professionally as Vennela Kishore, is an Indian actor and director who works in Telugu-language films. Known for his comic roles, he was given the moniker "Vennela" after his first feature f ...

as Inspector Balram *

as Bank manager *

Ravi Prakash Ravi Prakash is an Indian actor who primarily appears in Telugu and Tamil films. Career Ravi was born in Vijayawada and grew up in Visakhapatnam, India. After completing his secondary education, he chose to pursue a career in medicine and stu ...

as School P. E. T. Master *

C. V. L. Narasimha Rao C. V. L. Narasimha Rao is an Indian character actor known for his works in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre, theatre, television, and radio. Rao is one of the senior member, and legal advisor in the Movie Artist's Association of Hyderabad. Career ...

as Dhanakrishna *

Kali Prasad Mukherjee Kali Prasad Mukherjee (born 20 November 1966) is an Indian film and television actor who is best known for playing supporting roles in Bollywood films and Indian soap opera Indian television drama (in Indian English Indian serials) are tele ...

as Patel * "Rangasthalam" Mahesh as Sachin * "Taxiwala" Vishnu as Tendulkar * Natasha Parashar as Natasha Parashar * Nirali Oza as Gayathri Dixit * Shyla Alam as Anjali Sharma * Sushree Pradhan as Deepika Patel * Ramya Justin as Ramya * Sajana Sajeevan as Sajana

Production

K. S. Rama Rao, the presenter of the film, saw the trailer of ''Kanaa'' on the sets of ''

World Famous Lover ''World Famous Lover'' is a 2020 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film written and directed by Kranthi Madhav. The film stars Vijay Deverakonda, Raashii Khanna, Aishwarya Rajesh, Catherine Tresa and Izabelle Leite. It is produced by K. A. ...

'' and decided to remake it in Telugu. The remake, titled ''Kousalya Krishnamurthy'', was shot in the surrounding areas of

Rajahmundry Rajahmundry, officially known as Rajamahendravaram, is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and District headquarters of East Godavari district. It is the sixth most populated city in the state. During British rule, the District of Rajah ...

Release

The film was released theatrically on 23 August 2019.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was composed by Dhibu Ninan Thomas, who composed the original film. All of the film's tunes were reused from ''Kanaa''.

Reception

Critical reception

''123telugu'' gave 3 out of 5 stars stating "An emotional sports drama which has some good moments. Decent family emotions and some interesting cricketing scenes are basic assets. On the flip side, the lengthy runtime, predictable sports-based storyline play spoilsport. If you are okay with these small issues, you can easily give this inspiring film a shot". ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' gave 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "An emotional drama centred around cricket. We've seen a lot of Tollywood films based on cricket in recent times, but Kousalya Krishnamurthy has more cricket in it than an actual story". The ''

Deccan Chronicle ''Deccan Chronicle'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded by Rajagopal Mudaliar in the 1930s & currently owned by Samagrah Commercial Pvt Limited. It is published in Hyderabad, Telangana, by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited ( ...

'' gave 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "Kousalya Krishnamurthy has a thought-provoking subject but its clichéd presentation detracts from the film".

References

External links

* {{Bhimaneni Srinivasa Rao 2010s Telugu-language films 2010s sports drama films 2019 films Indian sports drama films Films about cricket in India Films about social issues in India Films about women in India Films about women's sports Films shot in Andhra Pradesh Films set in Karnataka Indian feminist films 2010s coming-of-age films Indian nonlinear narrative films Telugu remakes of Tamil films 2010s feminist films Films directed by Bhimaneni Srinivasa Rao 2019 drama films Films shot in Rajahmundry Films about farmers' suicides in India