Aptharakshaka

Aptharakshaka
Promotional poster
Directed by	P. Vasu
Produced by	Krishna Kumar (Krishna Prajwal)
Written by	P. Vasu Bhaskar
Starring	Vishnuvardhan Avinash Vinaya Prasad Sandhya Vimala Raman Bhavana Lakshmi Gopalaswamy Komal Kumar Srinivasa Murthy Ramesh Bhat
Music by	Gurukiran
Editing by	Suresh Urs
Studio	Udaya Ravi Films
Distributed by	Krishna Prajwal
Release date(s)	February 19, 2010 (2010-02-19)
Running time	152 minutes
Country	‹See Tfd› India
Language	Kannada
Budget	30 crore
Box office	50 crore

Aaptharakshaka (Kannada: ಆಪ್ತರಕ್ಷಕ English: Dearest Savior) is a Kannada film released in 2010 starring Vishnuvardhan in his 200th Kannada film (the late actor has acted in about 220 films in total in 5 different languages) and posthumous film along with Sandhya, Vimala Raman, Avinash, Srinivasa Murthy, Bhavana, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy and Komal among others. The film is written and directed by P. Vasu and is a sequel to the 2004 blockbuster film Apthamitra that was directed by Vasu and starred Vishnuvardhan as well.

The film was released on February 19, 2010 to highly positive reviews.^[1][2] The movie got remade into Telugu as Nagavalli with Venkatesh Daggubati and it is said that it will be remade into Tamil as Chandramukhi 2 with Ajith Kumar.

Plot

The story starts off with an ancient painting of Nagavalli (Vimala Raman), distributed as a prize to bharathanatyam dancer Saraswathi (Lakshmi Gopalaswamy), her husband and her family. At the Engagement day of Gowri (Sandhya), one of her friends had fainted by encountering a huge thirty-feet Snake/Serpent, and the bridegroom/fiancé had ran away from the family house fearing of something. All strange incidents happen as the family called for a snake charmer to the house, but the snake charmer had died when he attempted to make the serpent appear. The members of the family are psychologically affected by the presence of Nagavalli's painting and things have not been going well in the house. they decided to contact Acharya Ramchandra Shastry (Avinash), an astrologer cum sage. The father of the three daughters had told the people and the Acharya that Saraswathi and her husband died suddenly after the bharathanatyam competition. The Acharya takes the help of Dr Vijay (Vishnuvadhan), a psychiatrist, to solve the problem. All directions point to the huge portrait of Nagavalli, and is observed that the portrait is the cause for this. So the father had warned everyone to not go to the outhouse or to the room where Nagavalli's painting is. One night, Dr. Vijay goes to the outhouse as he heard anklet sounds, and there was another smaller portrait of Nagavalli in the outhouse and the Doctor wondered how this portrait of Nagavalli had come here, and it was revealed that Saraswathi is still alive, but became mad after the truck accident in which her husband died while he was carrying the painting of Nagavalli, and that she said that no one accepted to marry the second daughter Geetha because Saraswathi was mad and so Geetha vowed that she wouldn't marry, and since they didn't want Gowri's situation to be like this, they lied saying Saraswathi was dead. In a few occasions, someone attempted to murder the Acharya twice. Suspecting Saraswathi, the acharya asks the family members to bring Saraswathi to the temple and that he will show everyone that Nagavalli is in Saraswathi's body, but as Saraswathi stepped the temple, all animals were running out of the temple. Suspecting each and every person in the family, Dr. Vijay starts to investigate everything so he goes to the library to read a book based on Raja Vijaya Rajendra Bahaddur's life and further information on Nagavalli too. The investigation also takes back to around 125 years when Raja Vijaya Rajendra Bahaddur (Vishnuvardhan) used to live and how his enmity with Nagavalli has been going on since centuries, and was revealed that he had attempted to escape as one of his men had spread a dirty rumour about him, which caused the whole Ramnagara Dominion and the people to go and slaughter and assassinate him... but the book didn't tell if he got assassinated, or if he really committed suicide or if he is alive. Dr. Vijay finishes reading the book and whilst signing the ledger, he reads the name above him: Nagavalli... and he understands that she had read the book before he had. To further investigate about Nagavalli, Dr. Vijay goes to Nagavalli's place in Peddapuram, Andhra Pradhesh and an old man told the Doctor that Nagavalli's family died back at around a hundred years and told him that he was the second person to enquire about Nagavalli's family, and as the Doctor asked who that person was, the old man told him that a girl came and inquired about Nagavalli, and he also says that she was fine whilst asking the questions, but when she returned from Nagavalli's place, she was holding a portrait of Nagavalli and ran away like a mad girl, so the Doctor goes to Nagavalli's house and realizes and understands that the portrait in the outhouse was the portrait of Nagavalli which had been taken, as he glanced at an empty wall with a rectangular marking outline. Dr. Vijay also investigates about Saraswathi's husband's death and the snake charmer's death, and he comes with information that the snake charmer's death and Saraswathi's husband's death had nothing to do with Nagavalli. Dr. Vijay reveals that Raja Vijaya Rajendra Bahaddur is still alive when he printed out an astrological profile of his and when the Acharya told Dr. Vijay that this person can still be alive. So Dr. Vijay goes to the Fort/Cage where the crumpled Raja is, and at the time, the Acharya performs a pooja to try to bring Nagavalli out of Saraswathi's body. The Doctor luckily escapes from the invincible Raja, and when the Acharya asks for Saraswathi's name, she says her name as Nagavalli Saraswathi, but is revealed that she is still mad, but not affected by Nagavalli. Dr. Vijay comes back to cure Saraswathi from her madness, and he succeeds, but the problem of Nagavalli is not finished yet, and he knows who is affected by Nagavalli. Later the Doctor reveals to everyone that Gowri is affected by Nagavalli as he makes her angry and change personality from Gowri to Nagavalli in front of everyone, then she swoons after she returns to her normal position. Then later, he explains to everyone that Gowri had written both the names while she signed the ledger: Gowri in English when she was borrowing the book, Nagavalli in Telugu when she was returning the book, and that it was also her who scared the bridegroom away on the Engagement day and sat downstairs like as if she didn't know anything. In order to know more about Nagavalli's lover Ramanatha (Vineeth), she wnet to Nagavalli's house as Gowri, and returned with Nagavalli's photo, completely as Nagavalli. Afterwards Gowri goes to the cage/fort where Vijaya Rajendra Bahaddur is, to kill him. Dr. Vijay, knowing Gowri would have definitely seek revenge goes to the cage/fort where the Raja almost gets burnt to death, but he survives when it starts to rain, then Dr. Vijay has a battle with him, and the Raja almosts decapitates Gowri/Nagavalli, but before he does so, the Doctor finishes off the Crumpled Raja, and it is the end of Raja Vijaya Rajendra Bahaddur's story. Gowri is no more affected by Nagavalli anymore and is going to marry the bridegroom she scared away, and Geetha is going to marry too and it all comes to a happy ending.

Cast

• Vishnuvardhan as Dr. Vijay / Vijayarajendra Bahaddur
• Sandhya as Gowri / Nagavalli (present)
• Vimala Raman as Nagavalli (past)
• Avinash as Ramachandra Acharya
• Lakshmi Gopalaswamy as Saraswathi
• Komal Kumar as Dr. Srinath
• Bhavana as Neetha
• Vinaya Prasad
• Suja
• Srinivasa Murthy
• Ramesh Bhat
• Rajesh as Veera Sena

Production

Casting

Initially there were speculations on the role of lead actress, after Soundarya, who starred in the original Apthamitra, died in a helicopter crash in 2004. It was later proposed that South Indian actress Sneha would play the lead role. But due to her busy schedule, Sneha was unable to join the sets and then she was replaced by Sandhya. Later Bharatha Natyam dancer actress Vimala Raman was selected for the role of Nagavalli, a dancer in the film. Vishnuvardhan died following a cardiac arrest on 30 December 2009. Vishnuvardhan had completed the voice dubbing before his death.

Filming

The film started filming in March 2009 in Tamil Nadu's temple town Palani.Then majority of shooting was done in Mysore.^[3]

Awards

• Dr.Vishnuvardhan won the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor for his scintillating and splendid performance in this film.

Filmfare Awards

Won

• Best Supporting Actor - Avinash
• Best Male Playback Singer - S. P. Balasubrahmanyam - "Gharane"
• Best Lyricist - Kaviraj - "Gharane"

Nominated

• Best Film
• Best Supporting Actress - Lakshmi Gopalaswamy
• Best Music Director - Guru Kiran

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film is extremely popular.^[4]

Reception

Critics

The film got almost good reviews from critics. Vishnuvardhan's performance was praised.^[2] And the created hype and curiosity around the film is justified. Gurukiran's background score also succeed in creating the desired effect. Vimala Raman is praised for her dancing skills as well as her acting in the role of Nagavalli.

Commercial

The film did extremely well in all released centres in Karnataka. Bangalore witnessed a grand opening as fans thronged theatres. Fans paid tribute by offering pooja and milk abishekas to the star's huge cutouts. The tickets were sold in black at high rates.^[2] The gross collections have already exceeded Rs. 25 crores in 50 days of its run,and the film has made more than 35 crores in theatres; considering its satellite rights, remake rights, by the end of its run it could easily cross 50 crores as still the film is running in 30 theatres in different parts of the state even after 125 days (at the time of writing this article).^[5]

References