Abhilasha


Abhilasha is a 1983 Telugu language film, directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy and produced by K. S. Rama Rao. It is the film adaptation of Yandamuri Veerendranath's novel of the same name. Chiranjeevi, Raadhika, Rao Gopal Rao and Gollapudi Maruthi Rao played vital roles. The super hit music for the movie was scored by Ilaiyaraaja.
The film was remade in Tamil as Sattathai Thiruthungal, with Mohan.
In spite of being an adaptation of a novel, the core plot had similarities with the 1946 movie The Man Who Dared and the 1956 movie Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. This film was reported as a blockbuster at the box office.

Plot

Struggling lawyer Chiranjeevi lives with his roommate and strives for removing IPC Section 302. The reason behind his determination is his father's death sentence under 302 for rape and murder, which he didn't commit.
Sarvothama Rao, a famous criminal lawyer in that city, sends an invitation to every famous lawyer for a party at his place. By his secretary's mistake, one invitation reaches Chiranjeevi, and he gets a chance to meet Sarvothama Rao at his house. As Chiranjeevi reaches Sarvothama Rao's house he is first nervous & confused but firmly believes to express his idea about IPC 302 to Sarvothama Rao.
There at party Chiranjeevi starts drinking shots one by one & gets into a hysteria & thinks that he is explaining his proposal to everyone out their in the party. Chiranjeevi later begins to experience nausea & feels uncomfortable. Meanwhile while he is talking with his colleagues suddenly he belches & makes retching sounds, in an embarrassing situation he covers his mouth tightly with his hands & moves away from there.
As his hysteria gets down he realises that he has been in an illusion & he has been in a bad hangover. Immediately he even realises that he has developed severe vomiting sensation too & goes in search of a restroom. While he is struck by the door of a room at Sarvothama Rao's house, he tries to open it with difficulty as he is unable to hold his mouthful of vomit & he keeps retching all the way. Finally he opens the door gets into it with loud screeching vomit sounds. Ultimately he finds a restroom there & gets into it without any hesitation.
Chiranjeevi with hefty vomiting sensation leans his head down into a sink & begins to retch the entire contents in his stomach with blaring sounds, yet feels nauseous. Chiranjeevi tries to open a tap valve but in nauseous condition he wets himself under a shower. After bouts of vomiting he then feels relieved from a bad hangover & this is where he also accidentally meets Sarvothama Rao's niece Archana at the party & when Archana enquiries about his whereabouts suspiciously, Chiranjeevi tells that he has unknowingly entered her room out of vomiting sensation & hangover & he apologizes her for using her restroom with out ber permission. Once Archana is clear with her doubts, they began to converse more and this is where Chiranjeevi falls in love with her. When their love starts blossoming, Archana has to attend a meeting in another country and she leaves for a few days.
During this time, Chiranjeevi comes up with an idea: to plan a fake murder in which he will implicate himself and receive a death sentence. According to his plan, Sarvothama Rao will show original pictures of the dead body to the governor at the last moment and rescue Chiranjeevi. Then, both intend to file a petition with the Supreme Court against IPC 302. They manage to frame him with the body of a woman, and Chiranjeevi is sentenced to death, just as he planned. In jail, guard Vishnu Sharma is surprised to see Chiranjeevi happy before his death. Archana returns from abroad and finds out that Chiranjeevi will be hanged the next day. She goes to meet Chiranjeevi in prison, and he acts like he actually did commit the crime out of lust. Archana does not know Chiranjeevi's plan and leaves in disgust. On the night before Chiranjeevi's hanging, Sarvothama Rao, who is on his way to meet governor to rescue Chiranjeevi, has an accident.
A tense Chiranjeevi reveals to Vishnu Sharma that this was all fake and that he did not kill the woman, pleading for his help. Vishnu Sharma runs to Archana's house to tell her the truth. After a night-long struggle, they manage to get in touch with Sarvothama Rao, who is alive in the hospital. They get the original negatives, and Chiranjeevi is saved from being hanged.
Sarvothama Rao throws a party to celebrate Chiranjeevi's success and announces Chiranjeevi and Archana's engagement. Paidithalli, a drunk, drags Chiranjeevi out of the party, and Archana gets suspicious about their secret talk. She follows him. Meanwhile, Chiranjeevi believes that the dead body of the woman he used did not die a natural death. A postmortem report shows that she was killed by a man with 4 fingers on one hand. Archana remembers a goon who attacked her on the night she saved Chiranjeevi. Chiranjeevi reveals that he bought the body from that 4-fingered goon. It slowly unfolds that the dead woman was Sarvothama Rao's daughter from his extramarital relationship. Sarvothama Rao is arrested, and in court, the judge sentences him to death. But Chiranjeevi objects. He finds that the death penalty is ridiculous and that it is not a punishment to kill someone. To punish, one must suffer for his/her actions. After a short speech, the judge agrees and instead gives him 7 years to prison.

Cast

All songs were composed by Maestro Ilaiyaraaja.

Production

After the super success of his horror novels in late 1970s Yandamuri Veerendranath came up with the novel Abhilasha, based on original idea from O.S.R. Murthy. Being a fan of Yandamoori's novels, K.S. Rama Rao wanted to make his first movie based on this novel. K. S. Rama Rao until than had been dubbing Tamil movies into Telugu and also distributing movies and was involved in publicity for movies as well. He brought together the combination of actor Chiranjeevi, writer Yandamuri Veerendranath, composer Ilaiyaraaja and director A. Kodandarami Reddy together for the first time with this movie. This combination later went on to make many successful movies in the 1980s.

Reception

The movie was a critical and commercial success and became a blockbuster, which gave a boost to the careers of all involved with the movie. Ilaiyaraaja's songs became immensely popular and are still played regularly even after 3 decades. The movie was praised for sticking with the basic plot line of the novel which had a very unique story and had already become a huge success.