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''Manmadhudu'' () is a 2002 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
romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film directed by
K. Vijaya Bhaskar K. Vijaya Bhaskar is Indian film director who works mainly in the Telugu film industry. He won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu for ''Nuvve Kavali'' (2000). He is an alumnus of Sainik School, Korukonda. Filmography Awar ...
from a story written by
Trivikram Srinivas Trivikram Srinivas (born Akella Naga Srinivasa Sarma; 7 November 1971), often credited as Trivikram, is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema. In 2021, he became one of the highest-paid directors in Cinema of South ...
. Produced by
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 ...
on
Annapurna Studios Annapurna Studios is an Indian film production company, founded in 1976 by the actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR). Located in the heart of Hyderabad, India the studio mainly provides services for films including sound stages for set construc ...
, the film stars Nagarjuna,
Sonali Bendre Sonali Bendre (born 1 January 1975) is an Indian actress primarily known for her work in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films. She did modelling assignments prior to making her acting debut with '' Aag'' (1994), which won her the Filmfare Award for Ne ...
and Anshu, with music composed by
Devi Sri Prasad Devi Sri Prasad (; born 2 August 1979) is an Indian film composer, lyricist, singer-songwriter and performer. Popularly known by his initials DSP, he is best known for his work in Telugu-language films, and has also worked in a few Tamil films ...
. Released on 20 December 2002, the film was commercially successful. The film received
Nandi Award for Best Feature Film This is the list of winners of the Nandi Award for Best Feature Films since 1964. Best Feature Film - Gold Second Best Feature Film - Silver Third Best Feature Film - Bronze References See also * Cinema of Andhra Pradesh {{DEFAULTSORT:Nan ...
for that year. The film was later remade as ''
Aishwarya Aishwarya (Devanagari : ''ऐश्वर्य'') is a Hindu Indian or Nepalese male or feminine given name, which means "prosperity" and "wealth". Notable people named Aishwarya * Aishwariyaa Bhaskaran (born 1971), Indian actress * Aishwar ...
'' (2006) 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 ...
, and as ''Priyotoma'' (2006) in
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
. A
spiritual successor A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue the product lin ...
titled ''
Manmadhudu 2 ''Manmadhudu 2'' () is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy film directed by Rahul Ravindran. It is produced by Nagarjuna and P. Kiran under Annapurna Studios, Anandi Art Creations and Viacom18 Studios. It stars Nagarjuna and Rakul ...
'' was released in 2019.


Plot

Abhiram is a manager in an ad agency. He despises women and expresses his hatred every minute of the day. However, his workplace is populated by women, and he has to deal with it. Prasad, the chairman of the company and Abhiram's paternal uncle, appoints Harika as the new assistant manager, and Abhiram hates that yet another female employee has joined his office. He places a bug under her desk and uses it to steal her idea for a lipstick ad. He later accuses her of plagiarism, belittling her and questioning her originality. Eventually, Harika gets fed up with Abhi's verbal abuse and goes to Prasad to submit her resignation. Prasad asks her to think about it and tells her about Abhiram's past and why he despises women. Abhi lost his parents when he was only two years old and his grandfather raises him. Abhi is the only heir to their family business and he enjoys life in his carefree way. He meets and falls in love with Maheswari, who is the niece of an employee in Abhi's grandfather's company. Alarmed that Abhi is just playing around with his niece, Maheswari's uncle takes her away to his hometown and arranges her engagement with another man. Abhi goes to where Maheswari is and attempts to assure her uncle that he is going to marry her and that he's serious about their relationship. But on the way to his grandfather's home, they meet with an accident, leaving Abhi unconscious. When Abhi wakes up, his grandfather tells him that Maheswari has married someone else, showing him the invitation card. Abhi feels cheated and starts to hate all women, thinking that they are all superficial and treacherous. After listening to this, Harika feels sympathy towards Abhi's pain and his childlike mind. She decides to stay with the company and Prasad promotes her as manager and demotes Abhi to being an assistant manager for some time. Though infuriated, Abhi has no choice travel with Harika to Paris on a business trip. There they become close and Harika helps him with his phobia of water. Abhi starts to fall for Harika but is disappointed and distances himself from her when she reveals that she is engaged to be married. After they come back to India, Abhi behaves childishly to get over his disappointment. Harika reciprocates his feelings but is confused about getting married as Abhi won't express his feelings to her. Meanwhile, Abhi's aunt reveals that Maheswari died in the accident they were in and they hid that information fearing that Abhi might not be able to recover from the shock of hearing such horrific news. Abhi realizes it was foolish of him to hate women but is too shocked to express his feelings to Harika. At last, Harika tells Abhi that her future marriage was her parents' choice, not hers, indirectly indicating that she is ready to come to him if he asks. Prasad learns that Abhi and Harika have feelings for each other and encourages Abhi to reveal them. But Abhi says that it is Harika who should say it and not him because previously as he did everything as he wanted, he lost Maheswari. Finally, Harika confesses her feelings over a phone call but due to network disturbance, Abhi isn't able to reply. Thinking that Abhi rejected her, she continues to go for her marriage. But in the end, Abhi reaches her and asks her to marry him and she breaks her previous engagement and marries him.


Cast

*
Nagarjuna Akkineni Akkineni Nagarjuna Rao (born 29 August 1959), known mononymously as Nagarjuna, is an Indian actor, film producer, television presenter, and entrepreneur. Nagarjuna has acted predominantly in Telugu, along with a few Hindi and Tamil language fil ...
as Abhiram *
Sonali Bendre Sonali Bendre (born 1 January 1975) is an Indian actress primarily known for her work in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films. She did modelling assignments prior to making her acting debut with '' Aag'' (1994), which won her the Filmfare Award for Ne ...
as Harika * Anshu as Maheswari * Chandra Mohan as Maheswari's uncle *
Tanikella Bharani Tanikella Bharani (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, poet, playwright and director who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has worked as an actor in more than 750 films, including some in Tamil and Hindi; while he was ...
as Prasad, Abhiram's uncle * Sudha as Lakshmi, Abhiram's aunt *
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 Suribabu Lavangam *
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 Balasubrahmanyam * Sunil as Bunk Seenu *
M. Balaiah Mannava Balayya (9 April 1930 – 9 April 2022) was an Indian actor, writer, director and producer in Telugu cinema. He acted in 300 films. Early life and career Mannava Balayya, was born at Chavupadu, Amaravathi mandalam, Guntur district ...
as Abhiram's grandfather * Ranganath as Harika's father *
Tanish Tanish is an Indian actor and television personality known for his lead roles in Telugu films. He has starred in films such as ''Nachavule'', ''Ride'', ''Telugabbai'', ''Pandavulu Pandavulu Thummeda'', and '' Nakshatram''. He has also kickstar ...
as Harika's younger brother *
Jaya Prakash Reddy Jaya Prakash Reddy (8 May 1946 – 8 September 2020) was an Indian actor who predominantly appeared in Telugu films. Born in Sirvel of Andhra Pradesh, he came into the limelight with the film ''Samarasimha Reddy'' (1999) where he played the ro ...
as Seenu's father *
Melkote Melukote in Pandavapura taluk of Mandya district, Karnataka, in southern India, is one of the sacred places in Karnataka.It is built on rocky hills, known as Yadugiri, Yaadavagiri and Yadushailadeepa, overlooking the Cauvery valley. Melukote i ...
as Sundaram *
Ananth Babu Punyamurthula Anant, known by his stage name Ananth Babu, is an Indian actor and comedian, known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He is the brother of noted comedians Raja Babu and Chitti Babu. Personal life Ananth Babu was ...
as Subba Rao *
Rekha Vedavyas Rekha, also known as Akshara, is an Indian actress, who predominantly acts in Kannada films and also appears in Telugu and Tamil films. While pursuing modelling, she made her acting debut in the 2001 Kannada film '' Chitra'' and has since starre ...
as Shiva's wife (cameo) in the song "Don't Marry" *
Keerthi Chawla Keerthi Chawla is an Indian actress, who is working in Tamil, Telugu , Hindi and Kannada film industry. She has appeared in some well-known films, such as ''Aadi'', ''Aalwar'', '' Naan Avanillai'' and ''Uliyin Osai ''Uliyin Osai'' () is a 2 ...
as Malligadu's wife (cameo) in the song "Don't Marry" * Swapna Madhuri as Swapna * Anitha Chowdary as TV anchor * Siva Parvathi * Swetha * Sumalatha * Deepika * Devisri *
Kausha Rach Kausha Rach (born 15 August 1982) is an Indian Telugu-language film actress. She has acted in various Telugu films including ''Premaya Namaha'', ''Kuberulu'',, ''Bhagavantudu'', ''Prarambham'', '' Athili Sattibabu LKG'', ''Gautama Buddha'' and ...
as an
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 ...
* Ruthika


Soundtrack

The music for this movie was composed by
Devi Sri Prasad Devi Sri Prasad (; born 2 August 1979) is an Indian film composer, lyricist, singer-songwriter and performer. Popularly known by his initials DSP, he is best known for his work in Telugu-language films, and has also worked in a few Tamil films ...
. The audio was released on 6 December 2002. An audio release function was held at an open dais erected outside glass house in Annapurna Studios. Telugu singer Sunitha anchored the event, the music director of the film Devi Sri Prasad performed some of the songs from the movie. The people who attended the event include
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 ...
, director
K. Vijaya Bhaskar K. Vijaya Bhaskar is Indian film director who works mainly in the Telugu film industry. He won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu for ''Nuvve Kavali'' (2000). He is an alumnus of Sainik School, Korukonda. Filmography Awar ...
, lyricist Seetharama Sastry, actors
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 ...
and
Tanikella Bharani Tanikella Bharani (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, screenwriter, poet, playwright and director who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has worked as an actor in more than 750 films, including some in Tamil and Hindi; while he was ...
. Addressing the fans, Nagarjuna said, "I saw the complete movie yesterday and it came out really well. I can assure you that 'Manmadhudu' would become a super duper hit." All songs are composed by
Devi Sri Prasad Devi Sri Prasad (; born 2 August 1979) is an Indian film composer, lyricist, singer-songwriter and performer. Popularly known by his initials DSP, he is best known for his work in Telugu-language films, and has also worked in a few Tamil films ...
. Five out of six songs had lyrics by
Sirivennela Sitaramasastri Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry (born Chembolu Seetharama Sastry; 20 May 1955 – 30 November 2021) was an Indian poet and lyricist known for his works in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He acquired the stage name Sirivennela after writing the ...
. Music released was on SOHAN Music Company.


Reception

Jeevi of '' Idlebrain.com'' rated the film 4.5 out of 5 stating, "When director and hero have latest hits behind their back, the comparison is inevitable. This film is definitely better than '' Santosham'' (Nagarjuna's earlier film). ''Manmadhudu'' is as good as ''Nuvvu Naaku Nachav'' (Vijaya Bhaskar's earlier film). First half of the film is extremely entertaining (total comedy + flashback romance). And second half (comedy + story) is even better than first half. 95% of the scenes in the film are comedy dialogues. There are few sentiment scenes. But these very few sentiment scenes are bound to leave impact on you. Nagarjuna dominated the show and won accolades from audiences. It's a must recommended hilarious film for all Telugu film lovers." ''
Sify Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology company providing end-to-end ICT solutions including telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation in ...
'' gave an extremely positive review and wrote, "Though the story is wafer thin, the director has been able to package the film well with an innovative presentation. Nagarjuna and Sonali are excellent and have played their roles with conviction. The music of Devi Sri Prasad is hummable. The film is out to wallop some fun ‘n’ frolic." It gave a verdict that it is a "Rip-Roaring Entertainer". Kiran Nadella of ''Fullhyd.com'' rated the film 7.5 out of 10 stating, "Nagarjuna lends significantly to the character of Abhiram in one of his slickest cinematic performances ever. He perfectly captures the liveliness, complexity and frustration of Abhiram. Unquestionably, Manmathudu proves to be an enthralling vehicle for his crowd-pleasing comeback. Sonali gives a commendable performance as a young and struggling art director who is in love with Abhiram. Devi Sri Prasad's romantic and sometimes ominous musical score nicely complements the images on screen. The dialogues, penned by Trivikram, are chronically mind-boggling. Manmathudu gratifies on many levels. The direction maintains pace and intrigue, the performances are spot on, and the locations are simply sumptuous, be it Smokey Alps or a clean Hyderabad road. All things considered, if you can stomach the thirty minutes of echoing flashback, Manmathudu makes for one intense and rousing entertainment, and if you're on its quirky wavelength, it might just strike you as one of the funniest movies you've ever seen!"


Other versions

The film was later remade as ''
Aishwarya Aishwarya (Devanagari : ''ऐश्वर्य'') is a Hindu Indian or Nepalese male or feminine given name, which means "prosperity" and "wealth". Notable people named Aishwarya * Aishwariyaa Bhaskaran (born 1971), Indian actress * Aishwar ...
'' (2006) 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 ...
, marking the debut of
Deepika Padukone Deepika Padukone ( or ; born 5 January 1986) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. She is one of the highest-paid actresses in India, and her accolades include three Filmfare Awards. She features in listings of the nation's most pop ...
and also remade in
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
as ''Priyotoma'' in 2006. A
spiritual successor A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue the product lin ...
of the film titled ''
Manmadhudu 2 ''Manmadhudu 2'' () is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy film directed by Rahul Ravindran. It is produced by Nagarjuna and P. Kiran under Annapurna Studios, Anandi Art Creations and Viacom18 Studios. It stars Nagarjuna and Rakul ...
'', also starring Nagarjuna was released in 2019.


References


External links

* {{Trivikram Srinivas 2000s Telugu-language films 2002 films Telugu films remade in other languages Films set in Hyderabad, India Films shot in Paris Films shot in Hyderabad, India Films directed by K. Vijaya Bhaskar