Aswathama (film)

Aswathama is a 2020 Indian Telugu-language action thriller film directed by debutant Ramana Teja from a story written by Naga Shourya and produced by Usha Mulpuri under Ira Creations banner. The film stars Naga Shourya, Jisshu Sengupta and Mehreen Pirzada in the lead roles, while Sargun Kaur Luthra, Harish Uthaman, Prince Cecil and Jayaprakash play supporting roles. Ghibran scored the film with the soundtrack composed by Sricharan Pakala.

Aswathama was released on 31 January 2020 and received positive reviews from critics.

Plot
Gana returns to Visakhapatnam, India for his sister Priya's marriage but is shocked to see her trying to commit suicide One night, he learns that she is pregnant but does not know who impregnated her. Gana explains this to her fiancé Ravi, who understands the situation, helps Priya get aborted, and promises to keep this a secret. Gana further convinces Priya to move on and forget about the past, which she does, and she happily gets married.

After her marriage, Gana violently fights and interrogates men who troubled Priya in the past, only to learn none of them are behind her impregnation. Soon, another mysteriously impregnated woman named Sadhana commits suicide, and Gana reads her suicide letter, explaining she didn't know how she got pregnant without her knowledge. Gana meets her parents and discovers her hospital reports, according to which she fainted 3 months ago and was admitted by someone. Realizing Priya also fainted and was admitted, Gana goes to the hospital and finds out Sadhana was admitted in an emergency by an ambulance. He then learns that more girls named Lakshmi and Monica were also admitted by a similar ambulance.

The next day, Gana's girlfriend Neha informs him about her friend who fainted in the mall and was taken in an ambulance that hasn't arrived at the hospital yet. Gana rushes to the hospital and, with help from the technical department, chases after the ambulances equipped with trackers. He stops many ambulances but doesn't find Neha's friend inside. Soon, he reaches a dead end and abandons his bike. Using his parkour skills, he chases after an ambulance, only to find him looking at another one that isn't being tracked. He ambushes the ambulance, fights off the men inside, and rescues Neha's friend.

On the other hand, Dr. Manoj Kumar is a pathologist who is revealed to be the mastermind behind the pregnant girls. He selects random, beautiful girls in the city, targets them through the fishermen, and tactically abducts them unknowingly of the girls later he molests them and leaves in the hospitals. The girls were not recognized as they were abducted and raped. Being a pathologist and his serial abductions, he believes no one can even doubt him. But after knowing the brawl, he eliminates the fishermen, leaving no evidence against him. Later, Neha questions Gana's recent attitude towards her, forcing him to reveal his mission.

Soon, a minister's daughter named Sowmya is abducted by Manoj's grandfather later when Manoj molesting the girl she looks him then the feared Manoj kills her brutally and her corpse is dropped in front of the police station to challenge the Vizag police. Meanwhile, with Neha's help, Gana manages to access Sowmya's laptop and receives photos where he spots an older man, Manoj's grandfather. Further, Gana manages to access CCTV footage of Sowmya buying a perfume from a vendor who reveals the older man told him to sell the perfumes and paid him for it.

Since Sowmya was a drug addict, she wasn't unconscious despite being subject to anesthesia and thus knew about Manoj. Despite his friend's insistence not to do so, Manoj ended up killing her. Back to the present, the cops ask Manoj to perform an autopsy on Sowmya.

Gana then explains to Neha that all the victims, though unrelated, were admitted to the hospital because of hypoglycemia induced artificially by a banned drug called Hypomacene. Gana later visits the mall to view surveillance footage and discovers an address that leads him to Manoj's house. Having seen him talk about the autopsy on TV, Gana asks him for help with the case, while Manoj tells him to wait for coffee. Manoj explains to his friend that he'd kill Gana, but receiving a call from Neha about the older man dumping another corpse in front of the police station, Gana suddenly runs away.

A car chase ensues, resulting in the older man's death after Manoj drops a cargo container on his car. Gana then goes to Manoj's house, where he discovers dead bodies in separate vessels before Manoj arrives there with his friend.

Then Manoj's past revealed Manoj's friend, who turns out to be his father, removes his belt, and starts beating him for not making a perfect crime. It is then revealed that Manoj, at his young age who lusts over girls all the time and molests his maid's daughter, then his father manages the situation and beats him with the belt to make him disciplined. Later, he explains by saying, "Don't commit mistakes if you made a mistake. It wants to be perfect." This session made him a psychopath and eventually killed his father along with the maid and her daughter to make a perfect mistake. Later, he warns his grandfather not to reveal any of the facts and pleads for not making him an orphan. Since that day onwards, his grandfather became his Accomplice out of fear till he died. From that day since his father appears as a hallucination to him and warns him for his wrong deeds.

Back to the present, Gana fights with Manoj and beats him. He throws him into a wardrobe, and Gana drops a chandelier over him. Manoj is laughing, but he faints. The chandelier falls over Manoj, killing him. He then receives a call from his father, who pranks him into believing a man is trying to harass Priya. Gana arrives home and finds out Priya is now pregnant with Ravi's child.

Cast

 * Naga Shourya as Gana
 * Jisshu Sengupta as Dr. Manoj Kumar (Voice dubbed by Hemachandra)
 * Ankith Koyya as young Dr. Manoj Kumar
 * Mehreen Pirzada as Neha, Gana's love interest
 * Harish Uthaman as Kishore
 * Sargun Kaur Luthra as Priya, Gana's sister
 * Prince Cecil as Ravi, Priya's fiancée
 * Aadarsh Balakrishna as Jaga
 * Jayaprakash as Gana's father
 * Pavitra Lokesh as Gana's mother
 * Surekha Vani as Gana's aunt
 * Satya as Gana's cousin
 * Posani Krishna Murali as Police Chief
 * M. S. Bhaskar as Manoj's grandfather
 * Sony Sharma as Sony
 * Dimpi as Rita
 * Heena as Monica
 * Santhoshi Sharma as Sonali. Minster's daughter
 * Anita

Production
The shooting of the film finished during the last quarter of 2019.

Soundtrack
The music was composed by Sricharan Pakala, and released on Aditya Music label.

Release
The film was released on 31 January 2020.

Reception
Neeshita Nyayapati of The Times of India gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Aswathama delivers what it promises – a riveting story and oodles of action. Ramana Teja makes a good debut by sticking to the subject at hand without too much deviation". Y. Sunita Chowdhary of The Hindu praised the action sequences, but found the storyline being "ridden with a lot of predictability."

123Telugu gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Aswathama is an emotional thriller with a riveting first half. Naga Shourya leads from the front and is superb in his action avatar, but the film bogs down in the second half with predictable scenes and hurried up climax. It has some well packaged thrills and ends up as a decent watch this weekend." Hemanth Kumar of Firstpost gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Aswathama does have a lot going in its favour. It sticks to what it wants to say without meandering too much. If only it had found a better way to end the story, and not reveal its suspense in such a simple manner."

Home media
The satellite rights were sold to Gemini TV and was released digitally via Sun NXT and JioCinema