Kannada ಬುದ್ಧಿವಂತ Written by K.Balachander | Directed by Ramnath Rigvedhi Music by Vijay Antony | |
Produced by SV Rajendra Singh Babu
A Mohan Starring Upendra
Pooja Gandhi
Natanya Singh
Brindha Parekh
Suman Ranganath
Saloni Aswani | ||
Buddhivantha (English: Genius) (also known as Buddhimanthudu in Telugu) is a 2008 Kannada language film starring Upendra and Pooja gandhi in the lead role. It was directed by Ramnath Rigvedhi. The film is a remake of the Tamil film Naan Avanillai which was itself based on the 1962 Marathi film To Mee Navhech (English: I Am Not He), written by Pralhad K. Atre and acted by Prabhakar Panshikar.
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The film was released on 26 September 2008. The film was supposed to be released on Upendra's birthday, 18 September 2008, but because of the delay in censor certification, the release date got postponed to 26 September 2008. It became the highest grossing Kannada film of 2008 and turned out to be a much bigger hit than the original Naan Avanillai, and went on to complete over 100-day theatrical run in main center's of Karnataka.
Synopsis
An intelligent story, the movie begins with Panchamrutha (Upendra) standing in the court facing charges of cheating four beautiful women and the public prosecutor (Siddaraj Kalyankar) heaping more and more charges against him. Panchamrutha who speaks in a typical Mangalorean Kannada denies having any links with these beautiful women and also argues his case to prove that he is innocent. Much to the dismay of the girls, police department and the PP, the judgement goes in favor of Panchamrutha and the judge (Lakshmi), who is mother of Pooja (Pooja Gandhi) and sets him free. As fate would have it, Panchamrutha again ends up in the court and this time it is due to cheating the beautiful daughter of the judge herself. The lawmakers are bent upon getting him convicted and they rope in his brother but then the smart man that he is, Panchamrutha gives his logic and yet again he emerges successful. The list of girls (Pooja Gandhi, Brinda, Suman Ranganathan, Saloni and Nathanya) are helpless but then the time for truth comes. Apparently, Panchamrutha is the man who donned the roles of Zakir Hussain, Samarasimha Reddy, Ashok Mittal, Shyamprasad, Rajneesh and all this he does with only one mission - to teach these arrogant and haughty women a lesson and cut them down to size. There is a very strong flashback connected to it that leads to the death of his sister in law and that's when the peace loving Panchamrutha becomes a skilled conman for greedy women. His flashback leads him to cheat girls, but he would not cheat any, he would be taught the reality of four girls except Pooja (Pooja Gandhi).
Zakir Hussain (Upendra) gets together with Pooja (Pooja Gandhi) and the pair walk away happily leaving the audience to assume they live happily ever after.
Cast
Critical response
Now running.com giving 3 out of 5 and writing "Upendra sparkles as an actor. Pooja Gandhi's performance is excellent. Veteran actors Lakshmi, Dharma, Sridhar, and Hema Chowdhary are all impressive in their respective roles".
Karnataka
The film was the highest grossing Kannada film of 2008, by collecting more than ₹150 million at the box office. It completed 100 days screening in more than 25 centres all over Karnataka.
Andhra Pradesh
The Telugu version of the film was released as Budhimanthudu in Andhra Pradesh. It completed 50 days of run and did decent business at the box office across Andhra Pradesh.
Sound track
The Soundtrack of Buddhivantha got an amazing response upon its audio release and turned out to be one of the best selling albums of the year. The official soundtrack contains seven songs composed by Vijay Antony with the lyrics primarily penned by Kaviraj and Upendra. The audio of the film was released on 18 June 2008, three months before the release of the film. The album was released by Times Music.