Anveshana
| Anveshana | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Vamsy |
| Written by | Vamsy |
| Produced by | Kamineni Prasad, K. Chinni (presenter) |
| Starring | Karthik[a] Bhanupriya Kaikala Satyanarayana Sarath Babu Rallapalli |
| Cinematography | M. V. Raghu |
| Edited by | Anil Malnad |
| Music by | Ilayaraja |
Production company | Ramkumar Productions |
Release date | 22 May 1985 |
Running time | 133 min |
| Country | India |
| Language | Telugu |
| Budget | ₹15 lakh[1] |
Anveshana (transl. Quest) is a 1985 Indian Telugu-language mystery thriller film written and directed by Vamsy. It stars Karthik,[a] Bhanupriya, Kaikala Satyanarayana and Sarath Babu with music composed by Ilaiyaraaja.[1] The story revolves around an ornithologist and a police officer coming to a forest and trying to solve the mystery of a series of killings, allegedly by a man-eating tiger.
The film received positive response for its screenplay, performances, and music, and was commercially successful. It ran for 100 days in 11 centres.[1] It was also dubbed into Tamil as Paadum Paravaigal in 1986. Anveshana has attained a cult status over the years.[2][3]
Plot[edit]
Rao dreams of publishing a book on birds and the origin of music from their sounds. Pandu works as his driver. They stay in a forest house and prepare the thesis for the same. He calls his friend's daughter Hema from a city and appoints her to write the book. James is a forest ranger investigating the case of a man-eating tiger in that area. After Hema comes, Rao's manager Ghokale is brutally killed in the forest, allegedly by a tiger. Rao had to appoint another manager Amar for assisting his work. After he comes, a bullock cart owner Sooranna is also killed in the forest, supposedly by a tiger.
It is revealed that Amar is actually a police officer in disguise who comes to investigate the serial killings in the forest. When Sooranna dies, he follows the tiger's footprints and finds out that they actually belong to a human. He suspects that the murders are well planned by a criminal. He also learned that the victims were actually following Hema as she wandered in the forest. He seeks the help of Hema in solving the case, to which she agrees. How they find the killer forms the rest of the story.
Cast[edit]
- Karthik[a] as Amar
- Bhanupriya as Hema
- Kaikala Satyanarayana as Rao
- Rallapalli as Paandu
- Sarath Babu as James, Range officer
- Subhalekha Sudhakar as Chantigadu, mentally challenged
- Mallikarjuna Rao as Puliraju, Village president
- Y. Vijaya as Puliraju's wife
- Viswanatham as Sooranna
- Ponni as Sumathi
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
This is the third film for Vamsy as a director after Manchu Pallaki (1982) and Sitaara (1984).[1] After Sitaara, producer Kamineni Prasad approached Vamsy and gave him an advance for making the next film with him. He was fine with any story. He just wanted an outline of the story. Vamsy thought of making a suspense film. He was interested in this genre from his childhood.[3]
He recollected a Kannada film Aparichita (1978) he watched some time back. It was completely shot in a forest. He wanted to make a suspense film with a forest backdrop.[4] He had an outline of the story. He worked with several script writers including Yandamuri Veerendranath, but he was not satisfied with them.[1] Then he tried to write the story as a novel. At the same time, Indira Gandhi was assassinated and there was unrest in the country and all the shootings were cancelled. In this time period, he completed the novel and showed it to the producers, and they liked it.[5]
Filming[edit]
Art director Thota Tarani built a set in Talakona forest near Tirupati.[6] The film unit stayed in a nearby village, Nerabailu. The film was shot with a budget of ₹15 lakh in a schedule of 60 days. Bhanupriya dubbed in her own voice for the first time in her career in Anveshana.[1]
Music[edit]
Ilaiyaraaja composed the music for this film. Vamsi and Ilaiyaraaja went to Madurai to compose the music for the film. It took more than a week for Ilaiyaraaja to compose the re-recording for this film. The lyrics of all the songs were written by Veturi[6] and were recorded at the Prasad Deluxe Theatre in Madras.[1] The music rights of the film were acquired by Aditya Music. The song "Ilalo" was reused from "Uyire Urave Ondru Naan" from the movie Anbin Mugavari (1985).
| No | Song Title | Singer(s) | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Keeravani" | S. Janaki, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam | Veturi |
| 2 | "Ekantha Vela" | S. Janaki, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam | |
| 3 | "Edalo Laya" | S. Janaki | |
| 4 | "Ilalo" | S. Janaki, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam |
Reception[edit]
In his review for Zamin Ryot, Griddaluru Gopalrao appreciated Vamsy's screenplay and direction while being critical of the thin storyline. On the technical aspects, Gopalrao called M. V. Raghu's cinematography "marvellous", in addition to praising the score by Ilayaraja, and performances of Karthik,[a] Satyanarayana, Rallapalli, Bhanupriya and Vijaya.[7]
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b c d Karthik used the screen name Murali in Telugu initially.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g "Anveshana (1985) – A Retrospective". Telugucinema.com. 27 October 2015. Archived from the original on 1 November 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
- ^ "Like 'Goodachari', these four spy-thrillers in Telugu will amaze you: Anveshana (1985)". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
- ^ a b Arun (13 December 2018). "అన్వేషణ సినిమా" [Anveshana movie]. HMTV (in Telugu). Archived from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
- ^ "Best Kannada Thrillers from Different Eras Now Available on OTT". 24 September 2020. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
- ^ "Vamsy about his 'Anveshana'". Telugucinema.com. 30 March 2017. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019.
- ^ a b "Director Vamsy reminisces about Anveshana". Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 15 July 2016 – via Facebook.
- ^ Gopalrao, Griddaluru (7 June 1985). "కొండను త్రవ్వి కుందేలు పట్టినట్టుంది అన్వేషణ" [Anveshana is like digging up a mountain only to catch a rabbit] (PDF). Zamin Ryot (in Telugu). p. 9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
