Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya
Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language comedy-thriller film written and directed by Swaroop RSJ and produced by Rahul Yadav Nakka. The film stars Naveen Polishetty as the titular character along with Shruti Sharma and Suhas. It follows a Nellore-based detective whose life runs into danger when he starts investigating the case of a dead body abandoned near a railway track.
Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Swaroop RSJ |
Produced by | Rahul Yadav Nakka |
Written by | Naveen Polishetty |
Screenplay by | Swaroop RSJ Naveen Polishetty |
Starring | Naveen Polishetty Shruti Sharma |
Music by | Mark K Robin |
Cinematography | Sunny Kurapati |
Edited by | Amit Tripathi |
Production company | Swadharm Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 143 minutes |
Country | India |
Language | Telugu |
Budget | ₹5 crore[1] |
Box office | est. ₹20 crore[2] |
The film was released theatrically on 21 June 2019, and received widespread critical acclaim. The screenplay, subject, dark humour and Polishetty's performance were highly praised. The film became a commercial success and was considered as one of the best Telugu films of 2019. The film recorded as blockbuster at the box office. The film now is considered as a cult classic of Telugu cinema.
Plot
Agent Sai Sreenivas Athreya (Naveen Polishetty) wakes up in the middle of the night to a personal tragedy, the death of his mother. He goes home to Nellore from his college in Bhopal, only to see his mother has already been cremated by his uncle.
Now story moves forward 3 years later he is now became a detective in Nellore with his assistant Sneha (Shruti Sharma) who helps him in cases for FBI (Fathima Bureau of Investigation) in Nellore. He solves many small cases such as solving a temple robbery and trying to see who removed a milk packet from someone's house. His writer friend Sirish informs him of an unidentified body in Venkatachalam. When he goes there, the police arrests him on suspicion of murder. In jail that night, Athreya meets a man who acknowledges himself as Maruthi Rao and tells him the story of his daughter Divya, who went to Ongole one night and did not return. He gives him 3 phone numbers of three people who were the last who had contacted Divya before she was murdered.Ajay, Harsha and Vasudha. Athreya and Sneha, upon investigation based on the phone numbers, confirm that Ajay and Harsha were in Ongole the day Divya was murdered, while Vasudha cannot be traced. Athreya and Sneha follow them both all day, who go to a car rental agency, mortuary and railroad. At the end of the day Athreya recognizes Divya somewhere along a highway, who doesn't speak Telugu and ignore his existence. Upon checking at the police station at Nellore, they find that no Maruti Rao was transferred from the rural station in the last three days. Upon checking at the rural station, they find that the person who had called himself Maruti Rao is actually Gopalam. Further enquiry with the station in Ongole reveals that on the day that Divya was claimed to be dead, there was a body found, but it was male. Later, at a Dhaba, Athreya discovers Ajay was brutally murdered and he is promptly arrested as the prime suspect.
Athreya gets out on bail due to CCTV Footage evidence that he was in Venkatachalam asking for Maruthi Rao, but he only has five more days to prove his innocence due to the overwhelming evidence against him. While Agent and Sneha investigate for clues at Harsha's house, someone tries to kill Athreya. He explains his theory to the police of the Nellore rural station, and it's discovered that Harsha wanted the details of Athreya after he saw him being arrested in Venkatachalam. Meanwhile, a father registers a complaint about his missing daughter, and the missing daughter is Vasudha who turns out to be dead. Athreya then catches Bobby (Suhas) who has been following Agent around, but in fact is a detective just like him fed with false information that Athreya is the real murderer. Athreya figures out that there is a huge conspiracy, and sees that various bodies have been dumped next to the railway track between Kakinada and Tadaddr railway stations. He deduces that the bodies are being loaded using a goods train. Using this information, he sees that the bodies are loaded into the goods train at Arambakkam in Tamil Nadu. With the help of a police officer, Bobby and Sneha, he goes to Arambakkam after faking his death to mislead the people following him. In Arambakkam he catches Gopalam, who reveals the whole plot: someone has been taking dead bodies from Hindu families on the pretext that they are taking the bodies to Kashi, a holy place to cremate the dead, for money, and then dump them next to railroads. With further investigation, he finds out that his mom's body has also been dumped like this too since his uncle sent his mom's body for Kashi. After an emotional breakdown, Athreya finds out that the finger prints of the dead man in Venkatachalam actually has the same fingerprints of a murderer in Gujarat, and deduces that they are stealing the fingerprints of dead bodies as well to use it in crimes.
Athreya and Bobby, after further investigation, find that the people behind this wanted to set them up so that they wouldn't find the Bethaballi Amman's (a religious NGO) talismans on the dead bodies that were supposed to be removed before the bodies are disposed of. Meanwhile, Sneha and the police officer find that Ajay, Harsha, and Vasudha collaborated on a college project about religious crimes in regional India and collect the material along with their photos. Looking at the photos, Athreya realizes that the dead body of Vasudha had a tattoo from childhood, while Vasudha in a picture does not. It is later revealed that Vasudha and her dad are running the whole operation. Ajay, Harsha and Athreya came across the body with the talisman and hence Vasudha wanted to kill Ajay and Harsha and set up Agent so that nobody could trace the dead body to her.
After going to Bethabali Amman NGO's office to find it empty, Athreya deduces that Vasudha went to Rajasthan and catches her and her father there and hands them over to the police, Bobby and Athreya say their goodbyes, while credits roll seeing how he and Sneha still continues to take up small cases.
Cast
- Naveen Polishetty as Agent Sai Srinivasa "Seenu" Athreya
- Shruti Sharma as Sneha
- Shredha Rajagopalan as Vasudha
- Appaji Ambarisha Darbha as Maruthi Rao, Vasudha's father
- Suhas as Agent Bala Venkata Subramanya Swami "Bobby"
- Ramdutt as Sub Inspector Vamsi
- Krishneswara Rao as Gopalam
- Viswanath as Burger CI
- Chanakya Tejas as Sirish
- Kranthi Priyam as PWD officer (LIC agent)
- Suri K Chaplin
- Lavanya as Ajay's wife
- Mahija as Harsha's wife
- Sandeep Raj as Ajay
- Vinu Varma as Harsha
Production
— Swaroop RSJ[3]
The lead actor Naveen Polishetty explained that when he was looking for some good scripts, the director Swaroop contacted him on Facebook and told him the film's title and about the protagonist. When he narrated the whole story, Polishetty agreed to do the film if they got to work together on the final version. Swaroop agreed and they met at Hyderabad, where Polishetty's 4-years of experience as a writer helped him and they together worked on the script for eight months.[4]
The soundtrack was composed by Mark K Robin and the cinematography was handled by Sunny Kurapati. The film was produced by the Malli Raava fame Rahul Yadav Nakka.[5]
Soundtrack
The soundtrack consists of a single song composed by Mark K Robin.[6]
No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Sherlock Holmes" | Anurag Kulkarni | 4:06 |
Release
The film was released theatrically on 21 June 2019.[7][8] The film was also dubbed and released in Hindi on YouTube as Agent Sai on 23 January 2021 by Goldmines Telefilms.[9]
Critical reception
Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya received widespread critical acclaim.
Film Companion gave it a positive review and called it the best comedy thriller of the decade.[10] Times of India gave it 4 stars out of 5, praising Polishetty's performance and the execution.[11] The Hans India gave the film 4 stars out of 5, praising the performances, music and screenplay while criticising the slow-paced narration in the first half.[12] Deccan Chronicle similarly gave it 4 stars out of 5 and praised the performances, background score and the cinematography.[13] The News Minute gave it 4 stars out of 5, and calling it a "textbook crime drama", praised the plot and cinematography but criticised some dubbing mismatches, Sharma's "undermined" character in the second half and editing towards the end.[14]
The film also received appreciation from several Telugu film celebrities like director K. Raghavendra Rao and actors Allu Arjun and Varun Tej.[15][16]
Box office
Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya opened alongside several films at the box office, and had highest collections among all other releases on its opening day. Following the positive word of mouth and due to low screening costs, the film became a commercial success in both India and USA.[17]
Home media
The film was digitally released on the Over-the-top media service Prime Video.
Awards and nominations
Date of Ceremony | Award | Category | Recipient(s) and nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
11 January 2020 | Zee Cine Awards Telugu | Best Film - Special mention | Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya | Won | [18] |
Best Debut director | Swaroop | Won | |||
Best Find of the year | Naveen Polishetty | Won | |||
Best Screenplay | Swaroop, Naveen Polishetty | Nominated | [19] |
Future
Following the film's success, the makers announced the film's extension into a franchise.[20] The movie is being remade in Malayalam starring Dhyan Sreenivasan.[21]
References
- Chowdhary, Y. Sunita (24 September 2019). "What ails the Telugu film industry?". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- "2019లో భారీ వసూళ్లు రాబట్టిన సినిమాలివే." Sakshi (in Telugu). 31 December 2019. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
- Bansal, Shiv (7 September 2019). "VoxTalks With Swaroop RSJ : A Visionary Director Who Is Here To Change The Game". VoxSpace. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
- Chowdhary, Y. Sunita (17 June 2019). "Wise choices". The Hindu.
- "'Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya': Naveen Polishetty and Shruti Sharma wraps up shooting". Times of India.
- "Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya to release on June 21". Telangana Today.
- "Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya Censor Report". The Hans India.
- "Detective Sai Srinivasa on the prowl". The Hans India.
- "Agent Sai (Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya) 2021 New Released Hindi Dubbed Movie - Naveen Polishetty".
- "Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya Review: The Best Telugu Comedy Thriller Of This Decade". Film Companion.
- "Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya Review". Times of India.
- "Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya Movie Review & Rating". The Hans India.
- "Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya movie review: Meet the Telugu Sherlock Holmes!". Deccan Chronicle.
- "'Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya' review: A crisp textbook crime drama". The News Minute.
- "Raghavendra Rao praises the team of Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya". Times of India.
- "Allu Arjun and Varun Tej bowled over by 'Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya' and 'Brochevarevaru Ra'". Times of India.
- "Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya Movie Latest Box Office Report". The Hans India.
- "Critics' Choice Film Awards nominations out: Ranveer Singh, Vijay Sethupathi among nominees". The New Indian Express.
- "Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya Bags 3 Awards At Zee Cine Awards 2020". pyckers.
- "Naveen Polishetty's Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya to become a franchise, more details inside". In.com.
- Sidhardhan, Sanjith (20 April 2020). "Dhyan Sreenivasan in the remake of Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya". The Times of India.