Tagore (film)

Tagore
Directed by	V. V. Vinayak
Produced by	B. Madhu
Written by	A. R. Murugadoss
Starring	Chiranjeevi Shriya Saran Jyothika Sayaji Shinde Prakash Raj
Music by	Mani Sharma
Cinematography	Chota K. Naidu
Edited by	Gowtham Raju
Distributed by	Leo Projects Private Limited
Release dates	24 September 2003
Running time	176 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Tagore is a 2003 Telugu crime-drama film directed by V. V. Vinayak. Chiranjeevi, Shriya Saran and Jyothika play the lead roles. The film was a remake of the 2002 Tamil film Ramanaa directed by A. R. Murugadoss with Vijayakanth in the lead. It was screened at the International Indian Film Academy Awards, along with Pokiri. Tagore was a blockbuster and was the highest grossing south Indian film after Indra. This film is considered to be the biggest hit in Chiranjeevi's career.

Plot

The film is about a common man who decides to abolish corruption altogether in the society at various levels.

15 Tahsildars are found missing, and then the police find that 14 of them have been released after three days, but one of them has been killed. They find some files and a tape along with the body of the dead Tahsildar. These files carry details of why the kidnapping of the 15 Tahsildars had been done and the reason for the murder of one of them, and have the words ACF written on it. It is understood by the police that these men were the Tahsildars who had indulged themselves in bribery and that they were the top 15 of the list of the corrupt Tahsildars. The ACF sends the tape, with the message that they shall continue the kidnap of the corrupt officers in all the departments and that the No. 1 corrupt shall be sentenced to death according to the law of the Anti Corruption Force. The ACF similarly kidnaps officials from PWD and police department and kills the top corrupt official.

There is fear among the corrupt officials. They come forward to file their returns. For a while there are no illegal transactions done, but the corruption soon continues in the society due to the threatening of the local mob to sign illegal documents and accept bribes. Meanwhile, the ACF finds that it is Badrinarayana (Sayaji Shinde), who is the real reason behind this corruption scenario. Then the kidnapping continues. The case is investigated by group of several old-aged senior level officials who are very slow-moving in their progress. However, Suryam (Prakash Raj), an IPS-passed guy who is working as a constable (unable to pay the bribe to get the officer-level job) takes up the case in order to get promotion in the department and moves ahead of those officials in a short time. He investigates the case starting with finding of the non-corrupt official in every government office assuming that official would have collected the information of other corrupt officers and passed it to ACF. He tries to figure out what is the common thing which unites them under one roof. He gradually finds out that they are alumni of National College and working for the ACF under their professor and the leader of the ACF, Professor Tagore (Chiranjeevi).

Tagore is a simple man who leads a simple life during the daytime along with his adopted kids from different cultures (one is a Muslim, one is an American, one is Hindu, etc.). He looks like a timid character, but brave in terms of his actions, and he is loved by all of his peers. Tagore once takes one of his kids to the hospital for treating an injury and finds that the hospital is a place full of corruption who play with the lives of people for the sake of money. Tagore decides to expose the truth and catches them red-handed by faking a dead body as a patient. The hospital, unaware of his plans, continue their treatment even though they know that the person is dead and demand lakhs of money for treatment. Tagore produces the documents and receipts related to their fake treatment and gets the hospital sealed by the government. The hospital dean is arrested but he commits suicide. The father of the dean, Badrinarayana, is enraged by this and attempts to take revenge on Tagore. He finds Tagore in the CCTV camera and is shocked as according to him he was dead several years ago.

Tagore is a happy professor with his wife Nandini (Jyothika), who is expecting a second child and daughter. On a Deepavali day, when the whole apartment is celebrating the festival, the entire building collapses due to some fault in the construction of a nearby highway, and many of the residents, including Nandini and Tagore's daughter lose their lives. Tagore rushes to the government officials, and he comes to know that all this was due to one person, namely Badrinarayana, the owner of a construction company and builder of that highway. Tagore finds that the highway was constructed on loose soil by which the contractions caused to collapse was very well known to him. Badrinarayana and his men thrash Tagore heavily and beat him to death. However, Tagore escapes from them. The incidents that he faced at the office and seeing corrupt puppets in the hands of Badrinarayana, he gets frustrated and he forms the ACF (Anti Corruption Force) to fight against corruption. He also kidnaps Badrinarayana and kills him like he killed other corrupted officials.

The constable finally finds out the people working for ACF are the ex-students and the police force capture all of them. Police men torture them to open the identity of their leader; however, they refuse to do so. Tagore, on seeing his students suffer, surrenders to the police and requests the Indian police to release his students. The rising support for Tagore makes the Chief Minister (K. Vishwanath) to meet him for higher appeal. Tagore refuses to appeal as he wants to stress the concept in the minds of everyone that if we make mistakes, we will be punished and he himself doesn't want to violate it as he did a crime of killing four people. Tagore gives a speech in the court explaining what a student power the country has but corruption is what is letting it down. In the end, Tagore is given a normal punishment of five years and is to be released by then.

Cast

• Chiranjeevi as Tagore
• Shriya Saran as Devaki
• Jyothika as Nandini
• Prakash Raj as Suryam
• Sayaji Shinde as Badrinarayana
• Puneet Issar as Balbir Singh
• Suneel as Boost
• K. Vishwanath as Chief Minister
• Kota Srinivasa Rao
• V. V. Vinayak as Gopi
• Rama Prabha as Tagore's Grandmother
• Narsing Yadav as Goon
• Ahuti Prasad
• M. S. Narayana as Tagore's Uncle
• Raja Ravindra
• Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam
• Jeeva
• Uttej
• Venu Madhav

Remakes and character map

Box office

The film opened in 605 screens^[1] and collected a distributors' share of Rs. 95 million in its opening week. It collected Rs. 150.4 million in 2 weeks and Rs 25.35 crores in its full run. The film had a 50-day run in 253 centres^[2] and a 100-day run in 191 centres.^[3]

Soundtrack

All music composed by Mani Sharma.

DVD

The DVD of Tagore was released by KAD Entertainment with exclusive interviews.

References

External links

• Tagore at the Internet Movie Database