Utkarsha | |
---|---|
Directed by | Sunil Kumar Desai |
Written by | Sunil Kumar Desai |
Produced by | Sunil Kumar Desai |
Starring | Devraj Ambareesh Anjali Sudhakar Vanitha Vasu |
Cinematography | P. Rajan |
Edited by | R. Janardhan |
Music by | Guna Singh |
Production company | Rachana |
Release date |
|
Running time | 141 minutes |
Country | India |
Language | Kannada |
Utkarsha is a 1990 Indian Kannada psychological crime thriller film by Sunil Kumar Desai, starring Devraj, Ambareesh and Vanitha Vasu in the lead roles. The film was the second directorial venture of Sunil Kumar Desai after the 1989 film Tarka retaining much of the cast especially Devaraj (who played the role of a psycho in both the films) and Vanitha Vasu. Just like Tarka, Utkarsha didn't have any songs and had a thriller theme. [1] The background music of the film was scored by Guna Singh. The film received critical appraisal for Devaraj's portrayal of the psychopathic Rajesh. [2]
The concept of the movie is based on Jack the Ripper . The 2008 South Korean movie The Chaser which was unofficially remade in Hindi in 2011 as Murder 2 , [3] also had a similar plot line. The film was dubbed into Telugu under the same title. [4]
Rajesh Sharma, a talented artist specialising in nude paintings, is secretly a psychopath who upon seeing beautiful women meets them alone, gets them naked and slits their throat using his painting knife after making them laugh loudly. One of his victim's body is found in a vegetable lorry spearheading an investigation by Special branch Inspector Naveen who is clueless regarding the killer's motives. His second victim is one of his models, Priya, whom he met recently at a fashion show.
Meanwhile, Sunitha, a young woman meets him and develops a friendly relation with him. Rajesh treats her differently and believes her to be beautiful in a saree. He later kills Kalpana, Sunitha's friend, after the three of them have dinner together and this provides a hint to Naveen. Upon reaching his dwelling he realises that he has left his knife behind and after brief episodes of suspense and tension he manages to retrieve it and escape without Naveen noticing him. The pressure of the case mounts on the police department who give Naveen an ultimatum of ten days to catch the killer. A man is shown stalking Rajesh.
Rajesh targets his friend, Manoj's wife and proceeds to kill her when she is left alone in her home. However, Praveen, the murdered Priya's boyfriend and Anil, Sunitha's boyfriend, happen to discover a stranger breaking into the house while indulging in voyeurism. While Praveen goes to inform Naveen, Anil tries to save the woman but gets attacked by Manoj's dog. By the time Naveen arrives, Anil is left heavily injured while Manoj's wife is killed by Rajesh who escapes without anyone's notice.
A dejected Naveen goes to his superior's house so as to quit his job where he gets a vital clue from Rajesh's painting branding him as the killer. After collecting Rajesh's photo and address and confirming the identity of the killer with Anil, Naveen goes on a secret manhunt. Sunitha who is shocked upon discovering Rajesh's true identity has a vision of him slitting her throat.
Naveen breaks into Rajesh's mansion and comes across the mysterious stalker, Mahendra, who happens to be Rajesh's ex-wife, Hema's first husband. He reveals how he met Hema in Mangalore six months ago, who being sexually frustrated due to Rajesh not being involved physically with her, begins to sleep with him. However, for the past one month she has been missing and a desperate Mahendra began stalking Rajesh so as to find a clue. Naveen learns from Mahendra that Rajesh has been recently spending time with some unknown woman whose address he knows and together they travel to their house. In the meantime, Rajesh brings that girl Sheela to his house and tries to kill her only to be confronted by Sunitha who had followed them secretly. She strips and asks Rajesh to admire her but he refuses to do it since she closely resembles his mother. The story cuts to a flashback.
After parting ways with his ladylove Maya, Rajesh has difficulty coping with his wife Hema and is unable to satisfy her sexual appetite. Once he finds her cheating on him and the sound of her laughter drives him crazy causing him to make her laugh before killing her. However, this incident wounds his mind permanently and makes him a psychopath. The story cuts to the present with Rajesh beating Sunitha for trying to "manipulate" him. He tries to kill Sheila but gets stabbed by Sunitha causing him to attack her. However, before he can slit her throat he is killed by Naveen. As Naveen, Sunitha, Mahendra and Sheila walk away the camera turns to Rajesh face as he suddenly open his eyes.
Cast | Role |
---|---|
Devaraj | Rajesh Sharma |
Ambareesh | Inspector Naveen |
Vanitha Vasu | Sunita |
Avinash | Mahendra |
Ramakrishna | Anil |
K. V. Manjayya | |
Praveen | |
Abhilasha | |
Anjali | |
Akhila | |
Sithara | |
Anupriya | |
Amrutha | |
Varalakshmi | |
Kamalashree | |
Anjanappa |
Vijay is a 1988 Indian Hindi-language action drama film directed by Yash Chopra. It features an ensemble star cast consisting of Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini, Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Sonam, Anupam Kher in pivotal roles. Anupam Kher won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance.
Winter is an Indian Malayalam-language slasher film starring Jayaram and Bhavana released in 2009. The film was shot in 2003. It was written and directed by Deepu Karunakaran and produced by K. Radhakrishnan. The music is scored by M. R. Rajakrishnan.It has since gained a cult following. Later the film was dubbed into Tamil as Bhayam Bhayam released in 2012.
Hamraaz (transl. Confidant) is a 1967 Indian Bollywood suspense thriller film, produced and directed by B. R. Chopra and written by Akhtar-Ul-Iman. It stars Raaj Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Vimi, Mumtaz in lead roles, with Balraj Sahni, Madan Puri, Jeevan, Iftekhar, Sarika in other important roles. The film's music is by Ravi, while the lyrics were penned by Sahir Ludhianvi. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.
Tarka is a 1989 Indian Kannada-language mystery-thriller film, produced by Praveen and directed and written by Sunil Kumar Desai in his directorial debut which is based on Agatha Christie's 1958 play The Unexpected Guest. It is the first film noir in Kannada cinema, and the first Kannada film to be made without songs, dance, or stunt sequences. The film stars Shankar Nag, Vanitha Vasu and Devaraj. The film also features Avinash, Shivaraj and Praveen Nayak in supporting roles. The film revolves around an escaped convict who finds the body of a man in his childhood friend's house.
Yudh (transl. War) is a 1985 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film, produced by Gulshan Rai and marks the directorial debut of his son Rajiv Rai. The film features a large star cast including Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor, Tina Munim, Pran, Danny Denzongpa, Nutan, Shatrughan Sinha and Hema Malini.
Rishi is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Sundar C. The film stars R. Sarathkumar in a dual role alongside Meena and Sanghavi, while Arun Pandian and Prakash Raj plays the supporting roles. The music was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography by U. K. Senthil Kumar, and editing by P. Sai Suresh. The film released on 16 February 2001. The core plot was partially reported to be inspired by the 1989 Hong Kong film The Killer.
Ividam Swargamanu is a 2009 Indian Malayalam-language family drama thriller film directed by Rosshan Andrrews and written by James Albert. It was produced by Antony Perumbavoor under the company Aashirvad Cinemas. The film stars Mohanlal, Lalu Alex, Thilakan, Sreenivasan, Shankar and Lakshmi Rai. The music was composed by Gopi Sunder. It tells the story of Mathews, a farmer who has to fight the real estate mafia over selling his farmland which he refuses to give away.
Hello Darling is a 2010 Bollywood comedy film produced by Ashok Ghai and directed by Manoj Tiwari, starring Gul Panag, Isha Koppikar, Celina Jaitly and Javed Jaffrey in the lead roles. The film was released on 27 August 2010 under the Mukta Arts Films banner. Sunny Deol makes a special appearance in the movie. The film is an unauthorised adaptation of the American film 9 to 5 (1980).
The 22nd Filmfare Awards were held in 1975.
Yarigu Helbedi is a 1994 Kannada comedy-drama film directed by Kodlu Ramakrishna. It stars Anant Nag, Vinaya Prasad, Mukhyamantri Chandru and Vaishali Kasaravalli among others. The film turned out to be a box-office bomb at the time of release but later attained a cult following among Kannada film viewers. The movie was remade in Tulu in 2015 by the same director as Eregla Panodchi.
Vaadhyar is a 2012 Malayalam film directed by debutant Nidheesh Sakthi and written by Rajesh Raghavan, Produced by N Sudhish under the banner of Lakshminath Creations, and the music is composed by Manoj George and Rinil Gowtham. The film stars Jayasurya in the title role. The film is about an aided school teacher named Anoop Krishnan, his dream is to become an MBA holder, but circumstances force him to take up teaching profession. He is chosen to work at Kottapuram Saraswathi Vilasam U.P. School, he doesn't do his job properly as he works there with no interest and the problems that occur leads to the rest of the story.
Preethse is a 2000 Indian Kannada-language psychological thriller film starring Shiva Rajkumar, Upendra and Sonali Bendre. The film was directed by D Rajendra Babu and produced by Rockline Venkatesh. The film major part was shot in Australia as well. The film is a remake of the 1993 Bollywood film Darr. The film was dubbed in Telugu as Sadist. Preethse was the second highest grossing Kannada film of the year 2000 behind Vishnuvardhan's Yajamana. It ran for 25 weeks and became Upendra's third consecutive blockbuster after A and Upendra.
Vanitha Vasu is an Indian actress who has appeared in many Kannada films. She is best known for her roles in Aaganthuka (1987), Kadina Benki (1988), Tarka (1989), Utkarsha (1990) and Nagamandala (1997).
Raja the Great is a 2017 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film written and directed by Anil Ravipudi and produced by Dil Raju on Sri Venkateswara Creations banner. The film stars Ravi Teja as a visually impaired man, alongside Mehreen Pirzada and Radhika. Vivan Bhatena, Rajendra Prasad, Prakash Raj and Sampath Raj play supporting roles with music composed by Sai Karthik. The film marks the debut of Teja's son Mahadhan as child actor.
Genius is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language romantic psychological action thriller film directed by Anil Sharma. It marks the debut of his son Utkarsh Sharma as a male lead, who also featured as a child actor in Sharma's 2001 film Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. Ishita Chauhan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Mithun Chakraborty, with Ayesha Jhulka, and Malti Chahar play supporting roles in the film.
Srinivasa Kalyanam is a 2018 Indian Telugu-language romantic family drama produced by Dil Raju on Sri Venkateswara Creations banner and directed by Satish Vegesna. The film stars Nithin, Raashii Khanna, and Nandita Swetha, with music composed by Mickey J. Meyer. The film released on 9 August 2018. The film opened to lukewarm reviews upon release and was a commercial failure at the box office. However, the dubbed versions on YouTube however garnered immense popularity amongst viewers. Dil Raju and Nithiin worked together on this movie after 15 years.
Devarattam is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed by M. Muthaiah and produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja. The film stars Gautham Karthik and Manjima Mohan in the lead roles, while Vinodhini Vaidyanathan, Soori and FEFSI Vijayan play supporting roles. The soundtrack was composed by Nivas K. Prasanna, while the cinematography and editing were done by Sakthi Saravanan and Praveen K. L.
Kavacham (transl. Armour) is a 2018 Indian Telugu-language action thriller film directed by Sreenivas Mamilla. It stars Bellamkonda Sreenivas, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Kajal Aggarwal, Mehreen Pirzada and Harshvardhan Rane. Set in Vizag, the plot revolves around a police officer, who becomes a fugitive after being framed for a kidnapping, and must race against time in order to get his name cleared and catch the actual perpetrator.
Forensic is a 2020 Indian Malayalam-language psychological thriller film co-written and co-directed by Akhil Paul and Anas Khan in their directorial debut. The film stars Tovino Thomas, Mamta Mohandas, Saiju Kurup, Renji Panicker, and Reba Monica John. The film was released on 28 February 2020 in India and the rest of the world, and 4 March 2020 in GCC countries.
Nayattu (transl. Hunting) is a 2021 Indian Malayalam-language drama thriller film directed by Martin Prakkat and written by Shahi Kabir. It was produced by Ranjith and P. M. Sasidharan through Gold Coin Motion Picture Company in association with Martin Prakkat Films. The film stars Kunchako Boban, Joju George, and Nimisha Sajayan, with Jaffar Idukki, Anil Nedumangad, and Hakkim Shajahan in supporting roles. Vishnu Vijay composed the original songs and background score.