Shankar is a contract killer who works under Kaka. Under Mama's orders, he murders a high-profile politician named Kasi Viswanath. Vishwanath's son Devendra and his brother in law Ramamoorthy swear revenge on Shankar. The film opens with Shankar escaping from jail while being chased by the police. He beats up the police and escapes in a truck where he recollects the past. While extorting money from an apartment builder, he encounters Chandni, who is a fearless girl and even goes to the extent of slapping Shankar. He gets impressed by this and falls for her. After a few altercations, she reciprocates. Once Shankar murders Kasi Vishwanath on Kaka's orders, he escapes to Goa with Chandni. However, the police find out his location and track him down. While escaping, Chandni is shot and killed. Shankar is beside himself with grief and swears to kill the person who killed her. In a parallel storyline, Sara is a neuroscientist who is working on memory transfer and has achieved successful results with rats. Her boyfriend, Arun is a CBI officer who is trying to crack the case of the murder of Kasi Vishwanath. He believes there is a higher force that planned and killed him. Shankar finds out that Kaka was ordered to kill him as well and murders Kaka when he plans to escape in Sarah's car. He flees while Sarah calls Arun. Arun catches a guy running but the guy is killed when a car hits him. Arun's higher-ups are after him to find the killer and while Arun is about to crack the case, he is shot and killed by goons. The CBI is desperate to know who the murderer is, so with Sarah's help, they transfer Arun's memory to Shankar, knowing full well doing so will remove his past. Shankar wakes up and experiences shocks and memories that aren't his own. He gets enraged when Sarah reveals the truth to him and realizes that he will not remember Chandni in a few days. He experiences brief flashes where he becomes Arun but reverts to being Shankar. He finds Arun's house and discovers a bag that has all the proof who the murderer is, who turns out to be Ramamoorthy and Devendra. Shankar then fully looses his memory becoming Arun. He then pursues them under the guise of Shankar and in the end, however, Arun suddenly reverts back to Shankar and he finds out that Devendra is the one who killed Chandini and he kills him. The film ends with Arun and Sarah going toHong Kong and proposing marriage to Sarah on 14 Feb, like Arun had planned with Sarah.
Lekha Prajapati as a festival song in "Bonalu" Song
Puri Jagannadh as himself in the song "iSmart Theme"
Production
The Hyderabad portion of scheduled filming finished in February. Filming in Goa completed in March. The action scenes of the film were shot in Varanasi during April. Filming completed in mid May.
Soundtrack
Marketing and release
The teaser of the film was launched on 15 May to coincide with the birthday of Ram Pothineni.
Reception
Critical reception
gave 3 out of 5 stars stating "iSmart Shankar is proof enough that Puri Jagannadh is back with a bang. It might not be his best film, but it’s certainly his most watchable film in years. And Ram is a ball of energy. iSmart Shankar might have its roots in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but Puri Jagannadh gives it his own spin and reimagines it as a quintessential Telugu mass film.". The Times of India gave 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "In this make-believe world, when rules change by-the-minute, it’s hard to give a damn". Sify gave 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "iSmart Shankar is aimed at frontbenchers. Despite the idea of transplantation of memories being new, the rest of the story and its treatment are over-the-top and too clichéd. This is a loud mass action-thriller".
