Raajakumara

Raajakumara is a 2017 Indian Kannada-language action drama film written and directed by Santhosh Ananddram and produced by Vijay Kiragandur under Hombale Films. It stars Puneeth Rajkumar and Priya Anand. R. Sarathkumar, Ananth Nag, Prakash Raj, Chikkanna, Sadhu Kokila, Achyuth Kumar and Avinash play supporting roles. The film's music album was composed by V. Harikrishna.

Raajakumara was released on 24 March 2017 and received positive reviews from critics where the film went to become sixth highest-grossing Kannada film at the time of its release until K.G.F: Chapter 1 surpassed it. The film became the first Kannada movie to complete 6000 shows in multiplex within six weeks of its release and also completed 7577 shows in multiplex within 87 days. The film had a theatrical run of more than 100 days in 45–50 centres across Karnataka and ran 150 days in few theatres also grossed inr 750000000 worldwide.

Plot
Siddharth is an helpful youngster and adopted son of Ashok, a kind-hearted corporate business magnate. He leads a happy life in Melbourne, Australia taking care of his father's business and fighting for his native country's pride. Siddharth meets and falls for Nandini, who is a salsa instructor and Ashok's friend Jagadeesh's daughter. Siddharth's life takes a tragic turn as he loses his whole family in a flight crash and returns to India to his orphanage headed by Krishna, who now runs an old-age home.

Through Jagadeesh, Siddharth discovers that Ashok was framed for the deaths of infant children due to the polio scheme introduced by Ashok for the poor people, where he decide to prove Ashok's innocence. He also looks after the old people in an old age home, like their son and solves all their problems, while also taking care of the children, purchasing medicines to the children affected by the polio scheme. One day, Siddharth comes across Vishwa Joshi in the hospital, who also stays at the old-age home.

Joshi reveals that the polio scheme was actually ruined due to the machinations created by his son Jagannath, who is the present-health minister of Karnataka. Joshi wants to expose the illegal acts done by Jagannath and was hiding in the old-age home for the right time to expose him. Siddharth also supports Vishwa Joshi and makes Jagannath to hand over the case to CBI for further investigation in an interview.

Jagannath tries to ruin their plans where he also gets the old age home and his father attacked by his henchmen. However, Jagannath has a change of heart where he saves his father and surrenders himself to the police and all the old people reunite with their children, after realizing their mistakes from Siddharth, who gave a speech at a news broadcast.

Cast

 * Puneeth Rajkumar as Siddharth aka Appu, Ashok's and Sujatha's adopted son
 * Priya Anand as Nandini, a salsa instructor and Siddharth's fiancée
 * R. Sarathkumar as Ashok, Siddharth's adoptive father
 * Ananth Nag as Vishwa Joshi, Jagannath's father
 * Prakash Raj as Jagannath, a corrupt health minister of Karnataka
 * Chikkanna as Chikka, Ashram's cook
 * Sadhu Kokila as Anthony Gonsalves, a guide at Goa
 * Achyuth Kumar as Krishna, Ashram's head
 * Honnavalli Krishna as Muniyappa
 * Bhargavi Narayan as Puttamma
 * Chitra Shenoy as Gayathri
 * Anil as Suri, Jagannath's assistant
 * Vijayalakshmi Singh as Sujatha, Siddharth's adopted mother
 * Rangayana Raghu as Venky, Siddharth's fun-loving uncle
 * Dattanna as Mohammad Rafi
 * Avinash as Jagadeesh, Nandini's father
 * Ashok as Murthy
 * Dany Kuttappa as Financier
 * M P Venkata Rao
 * Aruna Balraj
 * Rockline Sudhakar
 * Ravi Hegde
 * Sundar Ram
 * Goutham Karanth
 * Bank Suresh
 * Malathi Sudhakar
 * Ashok Dev
 * Veena Sundar
 * Vijay Koundinya as corrupt Inspector
 * M. K. Mata as Thangam
 * Mandeep Roy
 * Vijayanand as a press photographer
 * K. S. Shridhar
 * Jani Master in a cameo appearance "Appu Dance"

Development
In March 2016, it was reported that Director Santhosh Ananddram and Puneeth Rajkumar would work together for the first time together. V. Harikrishna was selected to compose the music for this film. The film was highly expected due to its marketing. "Rajakumara is a different subject which portrays two different stories & the two stories are bridged between Appu's character", said Santhosh. Pre-production work, location hunt and casting finalisation required almost a year.

Casting
Priya Anand was roped to play lead actress role which marked her debut in Kannada cinema, collaboration with Puneeth Rajkumar. The film has an ensemble cast starring Ananth Nag, Prakash Raj, Sarath Kumar, Achyuth Rao, Chikkanna, Datthanna, Sadhu Kokila, Rangayana Raghu and others.

Filming
The film went on the floors on 22 April 2016. The first schedule took place in Australia in various parts like Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne after which the crew did the rest of the shoot in Bengaluru, Chennai, Mysuru, Goa, Varanasi and later in Malaysia. The makers of his upcoming film, Raajakumara released the first look of the film on 17 March — to coincide with the actor's 41st birthday.

Soundtrack
V. Harikrishna composed the soundtrack album and background score for the film. The full album was released on 6 March 2017. The song "Bombe Helutaithe" samples the beat of the song "Aadisi Nodi Beelisi Nodu" from the film Kasturi Nivasa.

Reception
Raajakumara received positive reviews from critics.

Critical response
Sunayana Suresh from The Times Of India gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "The entire ensemble cast, right from comedians Rangayana Raghu and Achyuth Kumar to antagonist Prakash Raj and veterans like Ananth Nag, HG Dattatreya and Bhargavi Narayan have interesting characters sketched out that entertain you."

Indiaglitz gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "This is a good family watch; the youths think on their mistakes, the oldies get relief, fans of Puneeth Rajakumar thoroughly enjoy." Shashiprasad SM of Deccan Chronicle gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "If family sentiment is your preferred mode of entertainment, then ‘Raajakumara’ will not disappoint you."

Archana Nathan of The Hindu described the film as generic and wrote "There is very little that gives Raajakumara its identity or a clear storyline ... Achyuth Kumar and Ananth Nag perform well but their roles too are too simplistically written." Shyam Prasad of Bangalore Mirror gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "The constant reference to Puneeth’s career and films goes overboard at times. The film becomes a tribute to the actor and a personality building exercise mostly. But he manages to pull off the role with the subtlety that proves his acting prowess again."

Box office
The film released in over 350 screens across Karnataka, collected ₹75 crore and went on to become highest grossing Kannada film of all time until the release of K.G.F: Chapter 1.