Kempe Gowda (film)

Kempe Gowda is a 2011 Kannada-language action film starring Sudeepa and Ragini Dwivedi in the lead roles. The film was directed by Sudeepa and produced by Shankar Gowda. It is a remake of the Tamil-language film Singam directed by Hari. Arjun Janya has composed the music. A namesake sequel titled Kempegowda 2 was released in 2019.

Plot
Kempe Gowda is a sub-inspector in the small hometown of Rona in the Gadag district of Karnataka, where he is adored. His bumbling colleague Pashupati is cheerful and always helps him with his work. His family business is provisional stores and Kempegowda wants to join it but he joined the police due to his father's wishes. He resolves most of the problems in his village with non-violence and mutual counselling. He uses force only when the situation demands it, thereby gaining much reputation and love from the villagers. Mahadev an industrialist based in Bengaluru and a friend of Kempegowda's father comes to the village along with his beautiful daughter Kavya. Eventually, Kempegowda and Kavya fall in love with each other.

Bengaluru-based Armugam, a big-time extortionist with shady mafia dealings who blackmails people by complaining to the Income Tax Department, is required to travel to Gadag to sign a conditional bail. He instead, sends one of his allies to do the formalities, much to the anger and rage of Kempegowda who demands that Armugam sign the bail in person. Humiliated, Armugam reaches Gadag but is unable to take any revenge on Kempegowda fearing the immense love and devotion of the entire village towards Kempegowda. Using his political contacts, he gets Kempegowda transferred to Bengaluru to teach him a lesson. Kempegowda, unaware of Armugam's hand behind his transfer, joins Magadi Road police station. His co-worker, Sub-Inspector Bose, hates Armugam for his crimes but is unable to take any action because of Armugam's political powers. The assistant commissioner, Kempegowda's senior, is on Armugam's payroll and takes care of concealing and eliminating the evidence of Armugam's crimes from the eyes of the law. The police commissioner also does not help Kempegowda as there is no evidence against Armugam and the assistant commissioner and in turn, warns him to stay away from Armugam's case.

Unable to take on Armugam in his stronghold, Kempegowda wants to return to his village but is stopped by Kavya who encourages him to fight against the evil and not run like a coward. Being mentally tortured by Armugam, Kempegowda arrests Armugam's brother Vaikunta in a fake case of illegally smuggling alcohol. He thwarts off the assistant commissioner in full view of the public when the assistant commissioner, bounded by his duties to Armugam, tries to protect the henchman. Meanwhile, Armugam kidnaps Kavya's younger sister Divya for ransom. Rescuing her, with unexpected help from the Home Minister Kempegowda successfully traces the origins of the kidnapping racket to Armugam. Kempegowda also gets promoted to Assistant Commissioner of the specially-formed Anti-kidnapping Task Force. Mahadev, who was hostile to Kempegowda following an altercation with Kempegowda's father back at Gadag, softens up and agrees to give him Kavya's hand in marriage.

The police officers, including the police commissioner, and the assistant commissioner, now on Kempegowda's side, decide to help Kempegowda fight Armugam. They manage to kill Armugam's brother in an encounter at a hospital and begins to target everyone and everything related to Armugam. In retribution Armugam starts targeting everyone close to Kempegowda including Kavya whom he shoots but is saved by Kempegowda and Bose who is hacked to death by Armugam's henchmen. Finally in a bid to escape the arrest warrant issued out to him, Armugam kidnaps the Tamil Nadu Home Minister's daughter. He falsely tells Kempegowda that he is going to Mangaluru with her when he is actually going to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh to put the police off the track. However Kempegowda manages to pursue them till Gudur near Nellore, where he rescues the home minister's daughter and kills Armugam in an encounter. In the end as the post credits roll, Kempegowda is seen with Kavya heading back to Mysuru, and as when Kempegowda is stopped briefly by the Home Minister who offers an undercover mission, to which Kempegowda willingly agrees.

Cast

 * Sudeepa as Kempe Gowda
 * Ragini Dwivedi as Kavya
 * P. Ravi Shankar as Armugam
 * Ashok Kheni as Home Minister
 * Orata Prashanth as Bose
 * Girish Karnad as Mahadeva, Kavya's father
 * Ashok as Kempe Gowda's father
 * J. Karthik as Vaikunta, Armugam's brother
 * Sharan as Pashupathi, constable
 * Tara as Kavya's Mother
 * Chitra Shenoy as Kempe Gowda's mother
 * Bullet Prakash as Thirupati
 * Chiranjeevi Sarja as Ram (cameo)
 * Jai Jagadish as ACP Shankar
 * Vaibhav Rao
 * M. N. Suresh as Armugam's lawyer
 * Patre Nagaraj
 * Arasu Maharaj
 * Shiva manju
 * Manmohan Rai
 * Mohan Juneja
 * Ba. Ma. Harish
 * Killer Venkatesh
 * Vinayak Joshi
 * Tharun Sudhir
 * Tarun Chandra
 * Rahul Inapur
 * Kiran Rao
 * Avinash Narasimharaju
 * Kishori Ballal as Kavya's grandmother
 * H. G. Dattatreya as Kavya's grandfather
 * Ravi Varma
 * Rajeev Gowda

Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Kempegowda was released by Anand Audio. The songs were composed by Arjun Janya with lyrics by V. Nagendra Prasad. This film marks the first collaboration of Arjun Janya with Sudeepa.

Release
Kempe Gowda was released in 100+ theaters on 10 March 2011 across the state.

Critical response
A critic from The Times of India scored the film at 4 out of 5 stars and says "Ragini does due justice to the role as the lively and exciting girl next door. Sharan as a cop excels in tickling your funny bone. Tara, Girish Karnad, Jai Jagadish and Ashok Kheny play their part to a T. Cinematography by Krishna of `Mungaru Male' fame is noteworthy. Equally good is music by Arjun Janya. Ravi Varma and Different Danny deserve special mention for their brilliant stunt works". A critic from The New Indian Express wrote "Ragini has done a neat job. She is very good in the song sequences. Sharan makes audience giggle for a while with his performance. The movie is worth watching and also proves to be a family entertainer with a number of scenes loaded with sentiment".

Box office
This film was a blockbuster at box-office becoming one of the highest-grossing Kannada movies of 2011.

Kempe Gowda earned inr 50000000in its first week.

Awards and nominations
59th Filmfare Awards South :-
 * Filmfare Award for Best Film - Kannada – Nominated
 * Filmfare Award for Best Actor - Kannada – Nominated – Sudeepa
 * Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Kannada – Nominated – Ragini Dwivedi
 * Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor - Kannada – Winner – P. Ravi Shankar

1st South Indian International Movie Awards :-
 * Best Actor (Male) – Kannada – Nominated – Sudeepa
 * Best Actor (Female) – Kannada – Nominated – Ragini Dwivedi
 * Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Kannada – Nominated – Tara
 * Best Actor in a Negative Role – Kannada – Nominated – P. Ravi Shankar
 * Best Playback Singer (Male) – Kannada – Nominated – Vijay Prakash for the song "Thara Thara Hidiside"
 * Best Lyricist – Kannada – Nominated – Ghose Dheer for the song "Thara Thara Hidiside"

Sandalwood Star Awards :-
 * Best Film – Nominated
 * Best Actress – Nominated – Ragini Dwivedi
 * Best Actor in a Negative Role – Nominated – P. Ravi Shankar
 * Rising Star (Female) – Winner – Ragini Dwivedi
 * Best Music Director – Nominated – Arjun Janya
 * Best Stunt Director – Nominated – Ravi Varma
 * Best Stunt Director – Nominated – Different Dyani
 * Best Cinematographer – Nominated – Krishna
 * Best Editor – Nominated – N.M Vishwa

4th Suvarna Film Awards :-
 * Best Editor – Winner – N.M. Vishwa

Bengaluru Times Film Awards :-
 * Best Actor in a Negative Role – Winner – P. Ravi Shankar
 * Best Film – Nominated
 * Best Music Director – Nominated – Arjun Janya
 * Best Lyricist – Nominated – Yogaraj Bhat for the song "Hale Radio"
 * Best Playback Singer Male – Nominated – Sudeepa for the song "Hale Radio"
 * Best Playback Singer Female – Nominated – Shamitha Malnad for the song "Hale Radio"

1st Kannada International Music Awards (KiMA):-
 * Best Composer (Film Album) – Nominated – Arjun Janya
 * Best Background Score – Winner – Arjun Janya