Red (2021 film)

Siddharth, is a civil engineer while his lookalike Aditya, is a gambling thief who deceives people along with his sidekick Satya. Siddharth's love interest is Mahima, while a girl named Gayathri, loves Aditya, unaware of his real identity. One day, Aditya tries to help Satya pay his debt by extracting money from Gayathri through lies, but she helps him in spite of knowing the truth. After taking the money, Aditya is enraged and so is Siddharth after a party. That night, one of them breaks into a house and attacks the owner (Charandeep), stabbing him to death. The next day, Aditya frees Satya by paying his debt and wins Gayathri's trust by returning her money and telling her the truth. However, as the investigation of (Charandeep)'s murder proceeds, a selfie clicked by a couple nearby is found with either of Siddharth or Aditya in it. Both Siddharth and Aditya are brought in and investigated without their knowledge of each other's existence. Gopalakrishnan, an inspector who shares an old rivalry with Siddharth, tortures him. Siddharth reveals his car broke down, and a call taxi driver helped him. Aditya, on the other hand, cites various laws to escape torture. Sub-inspector Yamini, is assigned to solve the case. She reaches out to (Charandeep)'s friend and shows him the photograph of Siddharth/Aditya but he refuses to recognize him. She also questions Satya and tells him not to leave city without permission, but he secretly escapes.

Yamini then learns of the rivalry between Siddharth and (Sampath); Siddharth helped the latter's daughter elope with her lover, much against her father's wishes. The forensic expert informs Yamini about a hair sample recovered from the crime scene and how it doesn't match anyone else in Akash's home. At the police station, Siddharth tries to escape but is interrupted by Aditya. The two violently fight, hurting everyone and vandalizing the station in the process. Aditya and Siddharth are revealed to be identical twins after their DNA is found identical and both confess about the same; they parted ways when their parents divorced. Aditya went with his mother , who used to gamble a lot, but wouldn't refuse anyone who asks her help, and one day tried to convince him that she'd give up gambling, but instead committed suicide. Aditya was then taken in by his father but got into a violent fight with him and Siddharth. Growing up as their father died, Aditya became interested in studying the law but left studies due to his lack of college ethics. One day, when Aditya came home and left in front of Siddharth whose ring for Mahima went missing, Siddharth reported him to the police. The police beat up Aditya who himself told Siddharth to look for the ring in the drawer. Siddharth realized his mistake but Aditya, who came home for a photo of their mother, vowed to seek revenge.

On the other hand, Sampath still wants to frame Siddharth but the call taxi driver who helped Siddharth confirms he was really stuck on the night of murder. It also gets proved that Aditya paid Satya's debt with gambling money he won after playing all night. The court acquits both Aditya and Siddharth in order to protect the innocent one from punishment. A disappointed Yamini later calls (Charandeep)'s friend to inquire about the girl he was infatuated to. Learning it was Mahima, she is shocked. Siddharth is finally revealed to have murdered (Charandeep) for drugging, kidnapping and raping Mahima to death out of his childhood lust, while Aditya found out about (Charandeep)'s murder and helped Siddharth by getting arrested. Later, Aditya meets Siddharth on the highway and explains how Yamini can't reopen the case as she created a fake witness to help Siddharth, and could herself get into trouble. Siddharth hands him over a photograph of them with their mother and tells him he is going to Mumbai, and later to Copenhagen, never to return. Having sold all of his property in India, Siddharth gives 50% share to Aditya as a tribute. After his marriage with Gayathri, Aditya realizes his lack of trust in his mother prompted her to kill herself. At the end, one of the investigating officers in a documentary shooting calls the case unprecedented, before someone tells him similar cases occurred in other countries as well.

Red
Soundtrack album by Mani Sharma
Released	12 January 2021
Recorded	2020
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	18:23
Language	Telugu
Label	Lahari Music T-Series
Producer	Mani Sharma
Mani Sharma chronology
ISmart Shankar (2019) Red (2021) Seetimaarr (2021)
External audio Audio Jukebox on YouTube
Singles from Red
"Nuvve Nuvve" Released: 6 March 2020 "Kaun Acha Kaun Lucha" Released: 12 December 2020 "Dinchak" Released: 30 December 2020

The film's soundtrack album is composed by Mani Sharma, with lyrics written by Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry, Kasarla Shyam and Kalyan Chakravarthy. The film marks Sharma's first collaboration with Kishore Tirumala, and second collaboration with Ram, after ISmart Shankar (2019). The film's first song "Nuvve Nuvve" was released by Lahari Music on 6 March 2020. The song "Dinchak" had vocals featuring Saketh and Keerthana Sharma, who earlier sung a similar song from Ram Pothineni's ISmart Shankar, which was also composed by Mani Sharma.[26] It was initially slated to release as the film's second single, after the response for its promo which released on the occasion of Ram's birthday, 15 May 2020.[27] However, the makers released another song "Kaun Acha Kaun Lucha" as the second single track on 12 December 2020.[28] After request from fans, the makers released the full song of "Dinchak" as the third single on the occasion of New Year's Eve on 30 December 2020.[29][30] The full album was released on 12 January 2021.

A reviewer from Indiaglitz gave 3 out of 5 stating, "The lyrics are laced with meaning even though the wordings do sound a bit too familiar. Perhaps, it's also dated but that's how Mani Sharma chooses to do it sometimes. The lines reflect the greyish nature of the protagonist. The composer sets to tune a winner of a song, although the notes sound like a rehash."[31]

Red was initially scheduled to release theatrically on 9 April 2020,[32][33] but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were rumuors surfacing that the film might premiere on an over-the-top media service (OTT), however Ram confirmed the film will have a theatrical release.[34] In an interview with The Times of India, regarding the speculation on the film's release, he stated "There were very few OTT platforms which approached us with a good deal. But we refused to release it on OTT as the movie was meant only for the big screens, and we intend to give a fine movie watching experience to our audience."[35][36] Later the year, the film's release date was announced as 14 January 2021.[37]

On late January 2021, the makers announced that the film will be released in seven dubbed languages, which includes Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali and Bhojpuri apart from being released in the Telugu original. The Tamil version is scheduled for a direct premiere on OTT platform, whereas the Kannada version of the film will be released theatrically on 14 January 2021, along with the film's Telugu version. The Malayalam version was scheduled for a release on 21 January, with the Hindi version is scheduled for a release on 28 January. The release of the Marathi, Bengali and Bhojpuri versions were not finalized, with sources claiming that the film might be released on February 2021 in these three languages.[38]

• Red at IMDb