Antha (film)

Plot

Inspector Sushil Kumar (Ambareesh) is an honest Police Officer; he has a happy life with his wife Sunitha (Lakshmi ) who is Pregnant and his mother(Pandari Bai) and young sister(Jayamala). Kanwar Lal (again Ambareesh) is a smuggler, gangster, cold-blooded murderer, a rough & tough man looks alike Sushil who is at present in prison in the punishment of life imprisonment. Kanwar Lal is a very important person in a dangerous gang which is creating destruction in the country. CBI officials make a plan to send Sushil in the place of Kanwar to catch those dangerous gangsters who have high-level influence in the society; Sushil decides to take up the job by informing his family that he is going to special duty. Sushil changes his getup as Kanwar and creates an image that Kanwar has run away from the jail and finally he succeeds in joining the gang and starts collecting information regarding them. One day Sushil mother dies due to the heart attack, but he is not in a position go because his secret breaks out, he controls himself for the sake of his country. While being with the villians he confronts his sister Shoba who by circumstance has entered the job of cabre dancer for them. Both are unable to bear the pain by looking at each other and his sister commits suicide in front of him and the villians. Sushil was unable to save or acknowledge his sister fearing of his identity and purpose, he again controls himself for the sake of his country. He finally succeeds in his mission of collecting all the secrets of the gang including higher officials of the government with evidence but in the last minute they comes to know that he is a police officer but he safeguards the evidence he has collected. They keep him in their custody and torchers him, finally they kidnaps Sunitha and they kill her who is carrying a baby before him, even then he wouldn’t reveal the secret. At last he escapes from them and reaches the higher officials with evidence but they also cheat him, then Sushil decides to take revenge against all of them, he removes all the anti-social elements & evil in the society and surrenders himself before Judiciary with evidence and asks for Justice there ends the film.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by G. K. Venkatesh with lyrics penned by Chi. Udaya Shankar, R. N. Jayagopal and Geethapriya.

Awards

Controversy

When the movie submitted to Indian Censor Board for certification, the board denied to give any certificate. Censor advised to delete the torture scene of Ambareesh. But director Rajendra Singh Babu stated that it is necessary to the story. Then Censor delayed giving a certificate for the movie. Ultimately the censor passed the movie with A Certificate without any cuts or muted dialogues.

But in 1997, the DVD of the movie released by U Certificate with 30 cuts.

Sequels and remakes

Rajendra Singh Babu remade the film in Hindi as Meri Aawaz Suno with Jeetendra. Sudeep announced in 2010 that he would direct the remake of the film with himself in lead role. However the project got shelved. Upendra made a sequel for the film called Operation Antha (1995) with Ambareesh repeating his character.

Legacy

The film became a breakthrough in the career of Ambareesh who went on to become one of the top actors in Kannada film industry. The dialogue from the film Kutte, Kanwar Nahi Kanwarlal Bolo (English: Hey dog, don't call me Kanwar, call me Kanwarlal.) became a famous catchphrase. The Times of India included the film in their list "Top 5 films of Ambareesh". Ambareesh reprised the character of Kanwarlal in Thipparelli Tharlegalu (2010) also directed by Rajendra Singh Babu.