Kathanayakudu (2008 film)

The plot tells the story of two childhood friends: Balakrishna (Jagapathi Babu) and Ashok Kumar (Rajinikanth). Balu stops at nothing to make his friend happy. As time passes by, they take different paths, and Balu becomes a barber in a small village called Siricilla. He marries Devi (Meena) and has three children and leads a happy life. However, his finances are poor and he is often led to the door of Dharmaraju (Dharmavarapu), the financier. He has tough competition from the smarter and more clever Shanmugam (Sunil), who has a salon opposite his shop. Balu is a man with self-respect and honesty. His life continues the same, until one day there is news that a film shooting is going to happen in a place near their village and the hero of the film is superstar Ashok Kumar. The news spreads rapidly, but Balu hesitates to reveal himself to be a friend of Ashok Kumar. However, people around Balu learn about their friendship, and suddenly those who have been ridiculing him start doing favors for him—only with the intention of meeting Ashok Kumar, or at least watching him from outside. Balu is hesitant to do what they want, and soon people start shunning him. Balu faces poor treatment even from his own children. At last, Ashok Kumar publicly acknowledges Balu as his childhood friend who made him a superstar, and he meets Balu.

Main cast

• Jagapati Babu as Balakrishna. Balakrishna, more commonly referred to as Balu, is a village barber. He lives care-free with his wife and three children, despite his financial struggles. His salon fails to earn profits due to his reluctance to accept assistance from others. Balu has a dilemma when his old friend Ashok Kumar returns to the village.
• Meena as Sreedevi. Sreedevi is the wife of Balu, who is commonly known for being rather boisterous and open-hearted despite her poor state of living. She shares great affection for her husband despite the villagers' hate towards him.
• Sunil as Shanmugam. Shanmugam is a rival barber in the village, whose business is more profitable than Balu's.
• Dharmavarapu as Dharmaraju. Dharmaraju is the financier who helps Balu manage the latter's money.

Supporting cast

Guest appearances

The soundtrack of Kathanayakudu was released on 30 June 2008. The soundtrack consists of five songs. The song Cinema Cinema commemorates the 75th anniversary of Telugu cinema. Footage of Suriya, Kushboo, and Sneha and archival footage of famous superstar actors N. T. Rama Rao (popularly "NTR"), Akkineni Nageswara Rao ("ANR"), M. G. Ramachandran ("MGR"), and Rajkumar are shown with each chorus of this song. The verse alternates between clips shot of an actual movie crew filming on location, intercut with real-life superstar actor Rajinikanth — who plays a fictional superstar actor in this film — spoofing blockbuster movies such as Zorro, Lawrence of Arabia, House of Flying Daggers, and the James Bond series.[1]

Following P. Vasu and Rajinikanth's film Chandramukhi in 2005, Vasu had been keen to cast Rajinikanth in another role. Before signing Kathanayakudu, he had narrated a story titled Vettaiyan, which would have been a sequel of a character featured in Chandramukhi.[2] Early in 2008, Rajinikanth signed up for S. Shankar's Robo, while Kathanayakudu was launched at the Taj Coromandel in Chennai on 14 January 2008, coinciding with Pongal. P. Vasu signed up Rajinikanth and Jagapathi Babu to portray the lead roles, while Aswani Dutt agreed to produce the film in Telugu.[3] The film is a remake of the Malayalam movie Kadha Parayumbol, which was written by Sreenivasan, who also played the lead role in the movie. The shooting lasted 82 days, with the versions being shot simultaneously. Most of the movie was shot inside the Ramoji Rao film city, with other destinations including Kerala and Pollachi. The promotional event took place on 19 July 2008 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.[4]

Vasu made it clear that Rajinikanth would not perform an honorary role in the film, which Mammooty had portrayed in the original, but would play a full role, stating that, "the whole story revolves around him [Rajnikanth]". The film's launch was on 7 March 2008 at the AVM Studios in Chennai with the leading artists present.[5] P. Vasu said that the shooting lasted 82 days, with the versions being shot simultaneously and that most of the movie was shot inside the Ramoji Rao film city, with other destinations including Kerala and Pollachi.[6]

Rediff gave the film two and a half stars (2.5 Star) and wrote: "P Vasu conceives everything in a larger than life canvas keeping in sync with the image of the superstar he is directing. And while he seems to have gone overboard by moving away from the original, Kathanayakudu is worth a watch for the touching last moments."[12]