Gang Leader

Gang Leader is a 1991 Indian Telugu-language action crime film written and directed by Vijaya Bapineedu, and produced by Maganti Ravindranath Chowdary. The film stars Chiranjeevi and Vijayashanti, while Rao Gopal Rao, Anandaraj, Murali Mohan, and Sarath Kumar play supporting roles. The soundtrack was composed by Bappi Lahiri with dance choreography by Prabhu Deva. The film explores the concepts of exploitation of law enforcement by anti-social behaviour and the impact of mob psychology.

The film opened to highly positive reviews from the critics and was a major commercial success at the box office. It was screened at the International Film Festival of India. Later, it was dubbed in Tamil with the same title. The film was later remade in Hindi as Aaj Ka Goonda Raaj (1992) where Chiranjeevi reprises his role and in Kannada as Kutumba (2003).

Plot
Raghupathi, Raghava and Rajaram are brothers. Raghupathi is the only breadwinner of the family, Raghava is preparing for the Civil Services Examination, and Rajaram is an unemployed freelance dancer who spends time with his four friends in search of jobs. They roam in the city until midnight. Rajaram comes home at midnight and sleeps until noon; his grandmother Sabari yells at him for his irresponsibility and callousness. One day, Rajaram makes Kanyakumari vacate the house on a payment basis as she is not paying the rent to the landlord. Consequently, she barges into Rajaram's house for accommodation. At one situation, Rajaram goes to custody for money so that he can support Raghava, who is in need of funding for his IAS preparation.

Meanwhile, Ekambaram, a dreaded gangster known for contract killing and extortion, alongside his brother Kanakambaram, kill Raghupathi as he witnessed a homicide. Rajaram was spending time in prison when this incident happened. However, his friends are aware of Raghupathi's death. Rajaram, on the other hand, thinks that his brother's death was an accident. Raghava becomes an IAS officer and marries Latha, which was a scheme planned by Ekambaram and Kanakambaram so that they can escape cases with his support. Latha hates Raghava's family members, whereas Kanyakumari loves Rajaram and his family members. Meanwhile, Rajaram learns of his brother's death and begins to investigate, whereas his friends are also murdered by Ekambaram and Kanakambaram at the time.

Rajaram is framed for his friends' death, and Raghava disowns him. With Kanyakumari's help, Rajaram escapes from prison, and Kanyakumari reveals that she is Ekambaram's daughter, who ran away from home after her father killed her mother, and thus she began moving into other people's houses. After revealing this, Kanyakumari proposes to Rajaram, who accepts. Rajaram finds the evidence and goes to his brother's house, only to find that Ekambaram and Kanakambaram has held them captive. Rajaram and Kanyakumari arrives, where they kill Ekambaram and Kanakambaram, and the broken family finally leads a happy life.

Soundtrack
The Music and background score was provided by Bappi Lahiri and the lyrics were penned by Veturi and Bhuvanachandra. The soundtrack was an instant hit and "Papa Rita" and "Vaana Vaana Velluvaye" were a rage in the entire state at that time. The song "Paala Bugga" is loosely based on Bappi's own song "Tutak Tutak Tutiya" from Ghar Ka Chiraag.

Bhuvanachandra noted that "Vaana Vaana" was his first song on rain, he was initially apprehensive about writing this song since other songs of the same nature were popular. Bappi composed the tune at Suresh Guest House, initially, the tune was rejected however Bhuvan insisted that the tune should be retained. Later, the song "Vaana Vaana Velluvaye" was re-mixed by Mani Sharma for the 2012 film Rachcha.

Tamil version
Lyrics written by Vairamuthu.

Release and reception
Sold for inr 22000000, the film grossed more than twice that amount. It is considered to be one of the top movies in Chiranjeevi's career. This movie earned more than 70 million of Distributory Share. Gang Leader did a 162-day run at Sudharshan theatre in Hyderabad. The film successfully completed 100 days in more than 50 theaters. The movie was dubbed into Tamil and Kannada. It was a success in those areas also. The film was re-released in 4k quality in 4 March 2023.

Legacy
The classic car which was used in the movie "Citroën CX Pallas" was owned by Relangi Thirumalla Babu and was the only car of this model present in South India at that time. The car can be seen in the movie as Chiranjeevi and Vijayashanti are talking and the scene cuts to marriage and Vijayashanti commands Chiranjeevi to follow her to marriage. Video footage of the film's 100 days celebration was used in the Telugu comedy film Appula Appa Rao.