Athidhi

Athidhi is a 2007 Indian Telugu-language action romance film directed by Surender Reddy and produced by G. Ramesh Babu under their banner Krishna Pictures Private Limited. The film stars Mahesh Babu, Amrita Rao, Murali Sharma and Ashish Vidyarthi.

Athidhi was released on 18 October 2007 completing 35 days in 400 centres. The film was remade in Bengali language in Bangladesh as Durdhorsho Premik (2012), starring Shakib Khan, Apu Biswas, Misha Sawdagor and Shiba Shanu.

Plot
In Delhi, Athidhi is released from prison and goes in search of his long-lost childhood friend Amrita. Athidhi comes across a girl named Amrita who is chased by stalkers from her college. Amrita and Athidhi meet many times and she soon starts to like Athidhi, but has to leave for Hyderabad before she can confess her feelings. When Amritha tries to tell him that she is leaving, Athidhi realizes that the goons (whose illegal operations were thwarted by Athidhi) are after him. Athidhi continuously tells Amrita to leave and soon slaps her after she doesn't listen. Later, Athidhi goes to Amrita to apologize, but finds her friend Madhavi.

Madhavi tells him that Amrita just wanted to tell him that she is leaving for Hyderabad, where they head towards the cemetery to look for her. Madhavi explains Amrita's origin to Athidhi, who realizes that Amrita is his long-lost friend. Athidhi arrives in Hyderabad and decides to stay with Amrita's family, where he also learns about a dreaded gangster named Kaiser. Later, Athidhi realizes that Kaiser was the psychopath who framed him for the death of Amrutha's parents. It is revealed that Athidhi was adopted by Amrita's parents after he saved them from a dangerous path. While driving Athidhi to a hostel, they are stopped by a psychopath teenager who shot the parents. Athidhi managed to grab the gun from the teenager, but the cops misunderstand Athidhi to be behind Amrita's parents' death and arrested him.

Meanwhile, Inspector Ajay Shastri is trying to track down Kaiser, but dies in an explosion in his house, which was planned by Kaiser. Athidhi soon figures out that Ajay is actually Kaiser. Before Kaiser's house blew up, Kaiser managed to escape and MLA Maccha Srinu realizes that Ajay and Kaiser are the same person and dies from a heart attack. Athidhi stops two attempts by Kaiser to kill Amrita, where he manages to kill Kaiser's men. Kaiser kidnaps Amrita and her younger sister, where he soon kills the sister. Kaiser leads Amrita to a dungeon and calls Athidhi, where he tells him that he will kill Amrita if Athidhi does not rescue her in 12 hours.

Athidhi kidnaps Kaiser's brother and agrees to trade him for Amrita, but Kaiser kills his brother as he should not have any weakness. Kaiser reveals that he already killed Amrita, where Athidhi soon kills all Kaiser's henchmen and thrashes Kaiser. However, Kaiser reveals that he lied about killing Amrita and that she is severely cut in the nerves and stuck in a certain air tank. Athidhi rescues Amrita and finishes Kaiser. Athidhi reunites with Amrita who realizes that Athidhi is not behind her parents' death.

Cast

 * Mahesh Babu as Athidhi
 * Amrita Rao as Amrita
 * Baby Annie as young Amrita
 * Murali Sharma as Inspector Ajay Sastry / Kaiser
 * Ashish Vidyarthi as Danny Bhai
 * Kota Srinivasa Rao as Maccha Srinu, an MLA who works under Kaiser
 * Ajay as Kaiser's brother
 * Nassar as Amrita's Uncle, the Home Minister
 * Brahmanandam as Shivram
 * Sunil as Amrita's friend
 * Ravi Prakash as Ravi, Athidhi's friend
 * Pragathi as Amrita's sister in law
 * Subbaraju as Ganni Bhai
 * Maadhavi Latha as Madhavi, Amritha's friend
 * Ashmitha Karnani as Amrita's mother
 * Rajendran as Henchman
 * Prabhakar as Goon
 * Baby Karman Sandhu
 * Hema
 * Shankar Melkote
 * Indrayudh Mandal (cameo)
 * Venu Madhav (cameo)
 * Rajiv Kanakala as Amrita's father (cameo)
 * Malaika Arora Khan (Item number in the song "Rathraina")

Soundtrack
The music was composed by Mani Sharma and released by Aditya Music.

Reception
A critic from Rediff.com wrote that the film "is built up through a 'racy' screenplay which is gripping to an extent, but stretches to three long hours". Jeevi of Idlebrain.com praised the film's first half while criticising the last thirty minutes of the film.

Box office
The film was released worldwide with 500 prints in 820 theaters across the globe. Athidhi grossed ₹6 crore on its first day, and ₹16.72 crore in four days worldwide. It grossed ₹12.50 crore in eight days from Andhra Pradesh. In 11 days the film grossed inr 250000000 worldwide. The film grossed ₹35 crore by the four-week run at the worldwide Box office.

Awards

 * Nandi Award for Best Villain – Murali Sharma (2007)