Badrinath (film)

Badrinath (alternatively spelled as Badrenath) is a 2011 Indian Telugu-language romantic action film directed by V. V. Vinayak and produced by Allu Aravind. It stars Allu Arjun as the titular samurai, along with Tamannaah Bhatia, Prakash Raj, Kelly Dorji, Ashwini Kalsekar, Rakesh Varre, Rao Ramesh and Pragathi. The film centers on Badri, an Indian samurai trained by the religious Guru Bheeshma Narayan. As the protector of the Badrinath Temple, Badri strives to restore the faith of Alakananda, an atheist woman who falls for him. He clashes with her cruel uncle, Sarkar, while his Guru suspects him of breaking the rule against falling in love, jeopardizing his succession.

Badrinath was released on 10 June 2011 in 1,400 screens worldwide. While it received mixed to negative reviews from critics, it achieved moderate success at the box office. Prem Rakshith won the Filmfare Award for Best Choreography – South for the film's song "Nath Nath".

Plot
Bheeshma Narayan is a religious guru and martial arts expert, who selects Badri, a shepherd's son, and trains him into becoming an efficient samurai and the protector of Badrinath Temple. He soon meets Alakananda, an atheist woman whom he throws into the namesake river as a punishment for blowing a lamp at the temple, especially after he cured her ill grandfather. He rescues her after Bheeshma, convinced by her grandfather, orders him. Alakananda is ordered to light 1 lakh lamps as punishment, which Badri convinces her to do with devotion.

Alakananda's grandfather reveals that she became an atheist after watching her parents die in a temple fire. And Alakananda grew up to become the object of hatred from her aunt, as she wants to get Alakananda forcibly married to her son Nani as a form of revenge. Badri takes up the challenge to revive her faith in God. She falls for him after he performs Pind Daan for her parents. Later, Badri is summoned by Bheeshma to protect the Amarnath Temple whose protector has been killed. After killing a group of terrorists with his sword, Badri is introduced publicly by Bheeshma. Alakananda, whose faith in God has also been revived, meets Badri's parents who agree to their marriage, but are caught in a dilemma when Bheeshma tells them that Badri has to remain celibate in order to succeed him.

Alakananda is heartbroken, but Badri promises to unite her with her lover, not knowing it is him, by helping her offer a Brahma lotus, to retrieve which they travel into the mountains. On the other hand, Alakananda's cruel uncle Sarkar learns about Badri from the Amarnath incident footage and sends Nani to retrieve Alakananda after Badri dies. The gang attacks Badri and Alakananda as they race against time to reach the temple, but Badri guards her from them and allows her to enter the temple and make her wish. Alakananda demands Badri as her lover while Bheeshma demands him as his successor. While Badri is distracted, Nani throws a statue into the river, which Badri retrieves after jumping into it and killing the henchmen, but is stabbed by Nani upon reinstating the statue and is accused of being in love with Alakananda.

Bheeshma gets shocked and his suspicion further grows as he watches Akakananda being taken away and Badri gaining consciousness to call out her name. The temple is closed temporarily for six months, during which Badri recuperates and Alakananda is engaged to Nani after Sarkar kills her grandfather. Alakananda writes a letter to Badri for help, which Bheeshma receives and tears apart, but is found by Badri and replies with the same mountain soil he used to cure her grandfather. Sarkar and his family learn from a guru that the wedding is not destined to happen. Alakananda tries to escape along with her friend Razia, but is captured and only the latter escapes, convincing Badri to secretly go to Bellary and extract Alakananda.

In Badri's and Bheeshma's absence, Sarkar leads his henchmen to Badrinath and destroys the ashram, while Badri himself massacres the henchmen at Bellary railway station and impales Nani before rescuing Alakananda. Seeing the ashram in ruins and realizing Badri took along his sword meant only for religious protection, an enraged Bheeshma orders Badri to vacate Badrinath after the latter arrives with Alakananda. She thanks God for freeing Badri from Bheeshma's clutches, but Sarkar, his wife and henchmen arrive at Badrinath to kidnap Alakananda, Badri hands her over and reveals he only wanted to keep his promise and never had feelings for her, but dedicated his life to his mentor instead.

Bheeshma asks for Badri's apology and allows him to pray, before Alakananda reveals she loves none other than Badri, who is unfazed as she is being taken away. However, Bheeshma is moved by Alakananda's love for Badri and orders him to live for her. Badri kills the henchmen and defeats Sarkar after a knife duel, sparing him on the condition to never pursue Alakananda in the future. Badri and Alakananda are blessed by everyone at the temple, and before departing are asked by Bheeshma to hand over their future child for training.

Production
Allu Arjun played a modern-day Indian samurai in the film, for which he underwent intensive martial arts and swordfighting training in Vietnam. Cinematographer Ravi Varman revealed that the film was shot using a Panavision lens at a set in Kulaba on the way to the Rohtang Pass, as well as at locations in Hyderabad, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Austria, including the Badrinath temple set. Initially, there were plans for a dubbed Tamil version of the film featuring additional comedy scenes with actor Santhanam. However, this plan was abandoned due to the commercial failure of the Tamil dubbed versions of the Telugu films Sakthi and Magadheera.

Music
The grand audio launching event of Badrinath was held at Shilpakala Vedika on 7 May 2011. Allu Arjun, Sneha Reddy, Tamannaah Bhatia, V. V. Vinayak, Allu Aravind, his wife Nirmala, M. M. Keeravani, K. Raghavendra Rao, A. Kodandarami Reddy, K. S. Rama Rao, Chiranjeevi, his wife Mrs. Surekha, Srija, Sukumar, S. S. Rajamouli, Rama Rajamouli, Boyapati Srinu, B. V. S. N. Prasad, B. Gopal, Srinu Vaitla, Anand Sai, S. Gopal Reddy, Tagore Madhu, K. Atchi Reddy, Chandrabose, Chinni Krishna, Chaitanya Prasad, Pokuri Babu Rao, etc., were prominent figures in the audio function.

K. Raghavendra Rao and Chiranjeevi released the audio CDs and presented the first copy to S. S. Rajamouli and V. V. Vinayak. Allu Aravind released the trailers.

A reviewer from 123Telugu gave the soundtrack a positive review, praising Keeravani's attempt to create something different from Magadheera and describing the album as "unique, simple and entertaining".

Release
Certified A (adults only) by the Central Board of Film Certification on the account of graphic action violence, the film released theatrically along with its Malayalam dubbed version on 10 June 2011.

Home Video
Aditya Music released the film on DVD and Blu-ray formats.

Box office
On its release day, Badrinath grossed ₹7.25 crore, and by the third day, it had grossed ₹16.5 crore. The film's successful 50-day run in 187 theaters indicates a moderate level of success at the box office.

Critical response
Badrinath received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Noting it as a love story from a girl's point of view, Idlebrain.com gave the film 3 stars out of 5, praising Arjun, the music, cinematography, locations, art direction and production values. However, he felt the director failed to get a good script, action and emotional aspects right, further noting the film's unfolding and narration were "not gripping". 123Telugu.com gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5, singling several sequences between Badri and Alakananda, performances, visuals, a comedy track and some of the action sequences for praise. However, the reviewer felt disappointed with the story, screenplay, entire second half, criticizing the villain, a comedy scene involving conversation about Rajinikanth and Chiranjeevi, the random placement of songs and the climax. The reviewer also felt the railway station fight should have been banned due to excessively graphic violence.

The Times of India gave the film 2 stars out of 5, calling it a "disappointing ride". The reviewer found the love story against the temple backdrop unconvincing, action scenes, Tammannah's unnecessary belly show, music average and went on to state there was "not even a single interesting scene in the film". The reviewer, however, praised the art director Anand Sai for his work on recreating the Badrinath temple and other sets. Rediff.com responded more negatively with a 1.5/5 star rating, calling the plot unoriginal and feeling the romance was overshadowed by the action, cinematography and other aspects. More criticism was aimed at the script, randomly inserted songs and humor, while praise came towards the action sequences, technical aspects, art direction, production values and performances.

59th Filmfare Awards South

 * Filmfare Award for Best Choreography – South – Prem Rakshith – "Nath Nath"
 * Nandi Award for Best Audiographer – K. Devi Krishna

TSR-TV9 Awards-2011

 * Best Hero – Allu Arjun

CineMAA Awards

 * Nominated – Best Actor – Allu Arjun