Victory (2013 film)

Plot

The film starts with Chandru (Sharan) marrying Priya (Asmita Sood) and on the very first night of their marriage they get separated. Dejected by this, Chandru attempts suicide several times, but in vain. He then hires a local Don (Ravishankar) and gives him a week's time to kill him. Meanwhile, Priya returns to Chandru realizing her mistakes and wants to live with him. But the don is reluctant to kill Chandru as per the contract and would not spare him. What follows is the comical twists and turns about how Chandru escapes from the don and re-unites with Priya.

Cast

Crew

Production

Actor turned debutant director Nanda Kishore, son of yester-year actor Sudheer, announced his maiden project and titled it as "Victory". He roped in Sharan as the main protagonist who tasted big success from Rambo released in 2012. One of the unit members reported that the film would be a comic-caper and would engage the audience for its complete length. Model-turned-actress Asmita Sood who was a Miss India finalist in 2011, was signed up for her first Kannada film to play the lead role opposite Sharan.

Soundtrack

Owing to the success of the previous venture, Rambo, the audio company Anand Audio, which also returned to film production, once again teamed up with music director Arjun Janya and actor Sharan for this film. Arjun composed four tracks for the film out of which one repeats in male and female versions. Well known lyricists such as Jayanth Kaikini, Yogaraj Bhat, K. Kalyan and Kaviraj wrote the lyrics for the songs. Popular yester-year playback singer L. R. Eswari made a comeback by rendering her voice for a dance song in this film.

The single "Khali Quarter" from the soundtrack sung by Vijay Prakash and written by Yogaraj Bhat went viral on the online video sharing sites and was widely considered as one of the most successful songs of 2013.

The Times Of India reviewed the music album and rated it 3.5 out of 5 and appreciated the tracks such as "Khali Quarter" and "Kanna Minche". The latter song was called the "anthem of the album" that highlights the composer's trademark style. It also predicted that the soundtrack would stay in top of the charts for longer time in the upcoming weeks.

Response

Victory opened to a tremendous response at the box office. All across the Karnataka State, the film was declared a blockbuster hit within the first week of its release. Even before the release, the film created a news by selling the satellite rights at a record price of ₹ 2.5Crores to a Kannada channel. This price itself was the total production cost of the film and further the distribution sales were at the record selling price which made the film a blockbuster all over. The first week collections mounted about ₹6Crores while the first weekend collections were about ₹2.6Crores.

Critical reception

Upon release, Victory was unanimously praised by all the critics for its neat screenplay and direction with adequate performances by the lead characters. Sify.com rated the film with 4 stars saying that the film has the "right mix of comedy, humour-laced dialogues, racy storyline, and songs that complement the script, including an item song, making the movie a clean entertainer". Chitraloka.com reviewed that the actor-turned-director Nandakishore and Sharan combination clicks big time and the film is one of the best Kannada films of the year.

Overseas release

Victory was released in all major centers all over the US. The film also gained from its overseas release from the Kannada speaking regions such as Seattle, Portland, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, New Jersey, Boston, New York, Florida, Tampa, Arizona and Chicago.