Eenadu (2009 film)

Plot

Eashwar Prasad (Daggubati Venkatesh) standing at the lakeshore, describes in a voice-over about his termination due to a common man walked into his life and turning everything topsy-turvy. This scene leads into the flashback. An unnamed man (Kamal Haasan) is shown strategically placing a travel bag within a train in a railway station, bus and in a multiplex at Hyderabad. He proceeds to place another bag, under the false pretense of lodging an FIR, in the toilet of a police station located at Lakdi-ka-pool, Hyderabad. He then arrives on the rooftop of a building under construction near Raj Bhavan road and sets up his base of operations, equipped with various modern technology gadgets and instruments. He calls up Eashwar and informs him that 5 bombs have been placed in different locations throughout Hyderabad, which are programmed to explode simultaneously within four hours. The common man demands that he would like to negotiate with a senior Government official. Eashwar seeks the services of the Chief Secretary(Lakshmi) to act as the negotiator. Eashwar also alerts his team involved in intelligence research and surveillance, tapping all the available resources in gathering preliminary information and tracing the location of the caller. Meanwhile, the caller tips off TV9 news reporter Shilpa Rajkumar (Anuja Iyer), telling her to reach Lakdi-ka-pool police station immediately as it is going to be "the most important day of her life".

Eashwar cleverly uses Shilpa to fake a report on live television that four terrorists are being relocated to an undisclosed common site, turning the caller's tool back onto him. Eashwar's men find out that the caller is using advanced software to switch the numbers and locations of his mobile phone SIM card every minute, rendering their manpower and the obsolete equipment useless and prompting them to employ the services of a young hacker, who turns out to be an IIT dropout. In the meantime, Eashwar is also able to obtain a facial composite of the caller with help of the police officer to whom the caller had approached to lodge the fake FIR during the earlier scenes of the film; but much of the time passes without any concrete results on the identity or the location of the caller. Ultimately, Eashwar agrees with the caller's demand and puts two of his best men, Arif Khan (Ganesh Venkatraman) and Gautham Reddy (Dr. Bharath Reddy), in charge of handing over the four terrorists along with cell phones at the old Begumpet Airport (end of Runway no. 4). The caller also demands reporter Shilpa to reach the nearest police station at Begumpet.

The caller calls up Eashwar, as he is on the way, for a final time to further reveal that he had not planted any other bomb in the city. At this point, Eashwar surprisingly declares he already knew there were no more bombs which make it clear that his decision to kill the last terrorist wasn't taken in fear but in confidence. Eashwar reaches the caller's location just as the latter is leaving the place, having destroyed all his gadgets and equipment, leaving behind no evidence. The two meet briefly when Eashwar, identifying the anonymous caller on the basis of the face sketch, offers the man a ride home and introduces himself. Both shake hands when Eeshwar's voice-over cuts back as he says the man told him his real name, but his name doesn't have any significance. The film ends on an idealistic note, with Eashwar admitting that they all knew the common man was disturbed because of the insecure environment and the incompetence of the governing authorities, but he never imagined him to go to such lengths and have the guts to do something like that. He also repeats that the facts of this incident cannot be found in any written record but only in the memories of those who actually witnessed it, and acknowledges that although the incidence has ambiguous moral significance, he personally feels that whatever happened, happened for the best.

Soundtrack

Music composed by Shruthi Haasan. Music released on ADITYA Music Company.

The music is composed by Shruti Haasan, daughter of Kamal Haasan. The album contains 4 songs and a remix. The songs are featured throughout the film. Kamal Haasan and singer Blaaze contributed lyrics. The audio launch was held on 6 September 2009 at Sathyam Cinemas.

Casting

While Kamal Haasan was cast as the lead role in the film, Venkatesh's confirmation of presence in the film followed. Ganesh Venkatraman who debuted in the 2008 film Abhiyum Naanum was later confirmed for a supporting role. Dr. Bharath Reddy who played as cop in Telugu Film Siddam is playing another a supporting cop role. Ajith Kumar was earlier rumoured to be given a special role in the film.

UTV Motion Pictures have been confirmed to distribute the film along with Rajkamal International, Haasan's home production company who is also producing the film. The film will be directed by Chakri, a US-based filmmaker and a close friend of Haasan. Chakri previously played the role of Govind's friend, Sai Ram in Dasavathaaram and the role of a child who takes stills photographs of Kamal in the 1983 Telugu film Saagara Sangamam. Neeraj Pandey provided the film's dialogue and screenplay. The music was composed by Kamal Haasan's daughter Shruthi Haasan.

The title was changed from Thalaivan Irukkiran to Unnaipol Oruvan in early April 2009.

Filming

The film started its first filming schedule on 6 February 2009. It was a quickie that completed shooting in 65 days. The movie was released on 19 September. The Telugu version opened with good reviews and was successful at the box office.

Awards and nominations