''Martin Luther King'' is a 2023 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 political satire film directed by Puja Kolluru in her directorial debut. It was jointly produced by

YNOT Studios YNOT Studios (stylised as Y?NOT) is an Indian film production company in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, established by producer S. Sashikanth. As of 2020, the company has produced 18 feature films, which includes productions made in the Tamil, Telugu, ...

, Reliance Entertainment, and Mahayana Motion Pictures. This film's story is a remake of the Tamil movie '' Mandela'' where Yogi Babu acted in a lead role. The film, titled after the prominent American civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr, stars Sampoornesh Babu in the titular lead role while Naresh,

Sharanya Pradeep Sharanya Pradeep is an Indian actress who works in Telugu films. In the past she worked as a news anchor for the Indian news channel V6. Career Sharanya Pradeep made her debut with '' Fidaa'' (2017) portraying the character of Sai Pallavi's cha ...

and

Venkatesh Maha Venkatesh Maha is an Indian film director, screenwriter and actor who works in Telugu cinema. He's known for directing films such as '' C/o Kancharapalem'' (2018) and ''Uma Maheswara Ugra Roopasya'' (2020). Career Maha left his house at the ...

play supportive roles. The music for the film was composed by

Smaran Smaran (aka Smaran Sai) is an Indian music composer who works in Telugu cinema. He made his debut with Ajay Bhupathi's ''RX 100'' in 2018 and worked on Krish's ''Masti's'' and Anvesh Michael's ''Kotha Poradu'' that released on aha in the yea ...

, and the cinematography was handled by Deepak Yaragera. In addition to directing, Puja Kolluru handled the editing of the film.

Plot

A man without a name or identity is suddenly wooed by two warring groups when he gets a Voter ID. Will he reap the benefits of his privilege or use it as a tool for social change

Cast

* Sampoornesh Babu as Smile aka Martin Luther King * Naresh as Jogi *

as Vasantha *

as Loki *

Goparaju Ramana Goparaju Yagneswara Venkata Ramana Murthy (born 5 April 1952), known popularly as Goparaju Ramana, is an Indian actor who works in Telugu cinema, theatre and television shows. He made his feature film debut with '' Grahanam'' (2004), with his ...

* HMT Hanmantu

Production

came up with the idea of a Telugu adaptation of the Tamil film ''Mandela'', and as Baradwaj Rangan suggested, they approached

. Venkatesh Maha neglected doing another remake because he has already remade the Malayalam film ''

Maheshinte Prathikaaram ''Maheshinte Prathikaaram'' () is a 2016 Indian Malayalam-language comedy drama film directed by Dileesh Pothan, in his directorial debut and produced by Aashiq Abu. The film stars Fahadh Faasil in the titular role alongside a supporting cast i ...

'' in Telugu as ''

Uma Maheswara Ugra Roopasya ''Uma Maheswara Ugra Roopasya'' () also known by the initialism ''UMUR'', is a 2020 Indian Telugu-language comedy drama film directed by Venkatesh Maha, and produced by Shobu Yarlagadda, Prasad Devineni and Vijaya Praveena Paruchuri for thei ...

''. Later, they chose Venkatesh's associate director, Puja Kolluru, as a director. Venkatesh wrote the screenplay and dialogue for the film. The story of the film is set to happen around the place of

Markapur Markapur is a town in Prakasam district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a Municipality and the headquarters of Markapur mandal in Markapur revenue division. Markapur is known for the Chennakesava Swamy Temple built by King Sri K ...

. Later, Sampoornesh Babu was chosen as the lead actor in the film. Sampoornesh went through a forty-day workshop to fit him into the role of Smile.

Music

The music for the film was composed by

Release

Theatrical

The film was released on 27 October 2023.

Home media

The film premiered on SonyLIV on 28 Nov 2023 in Telugu and dubbed versions of Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi.

Reception

A critic from '' Sakshi'' gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote a mixed review. Srivathsan Nadadhur of '' OTTPlay'' gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Director Puja Kolluru’s ''Martin Luther King'' is a sharp social commentary with a good dose of drama and humour."

References

External links

* {{YNOT Studios 2020s Telugu-language films Indian political comedy-drama films Indian satirical films Telugu remakes of Tamil films Films scored by Smaran