Tarak (film)

Tarak is a 2017 Indian Kannada-language action drama film directed by Prakash and produced by Dushyanth. The film features Darshan, Sruthi Hariharan and Shanvi Srivastava in the lead roles. Devaraj, Kuri Prathap and Sumithra feature in important supporting roles. While the soundtrack and background score is by Arjun Janya, the cinematography is by A. V. Krishna Kumar. The first look of the film was released on 30 March 2017. and the film was released on 29 September 2017.

The project marks the first film in the combination of Darshan with Prakash of Milana fame and Darshan's 49th film to be released. The filming began on 1 March 2017 in Bengaluru. Further, the shooting took place in Malaysia and for the song sequences, the team moved to Switzerland and Italy.

Plot
Tarak meets Meera who falls for him. Later he too, reciprocates it. But one day, she challenges him to live without her for two months – while no one should learn about them. If he doesn't fall for others in that time, she will rebelieve him. He goes back to India to meet his grandfather, also Tarakram. Surprisingly his family fixes his marriage with Sneha who lives with them. Tarak must accept this because his grandfather would die soon. He tells Sneha about Meera and she accepts his decision. They then visit Meera. There they see that Meera is affected with cancer and will be dying soon. She had challenged him so that he would not know about her disease. She also gets her father remarried so that after her death, he would not feel lonely. Tarak and Sneha get emotional at this. Meera dies in the arms of Tarak. Tarak and Sneha return to India. Tarak says that he cannot marry her. So his family plans that Tarak will act like tying the Mangalsutra and Sneha's mother would tie it. While tying Tarak remembers Meera's words, "Other's happiness is important than ours". He feels a drop of tear fall on his hand, which is from the eyes of Sneha's mother. To everybody's surprise, Tarak himself ties the knot. Everybody is happy upon seeing this.

The film ends with Tarak, Sneha and Meera (Tarak's daughter) visiting Meera's burial place and making a video call to the family; his grandfather is alive because of his desire to see his great-granddaughter's wedding.

Cast

 * Darshan as Tarak Ram
 * Sruthi Hariharan as Sneha
 * Shanvi Srivastava as Meera
 * Devaraj as Tarak Ram, Tarak's Grandfather
 * Sumithra as Sarasamma
 * Sharath Lohitashwa
 * Kuri Prathap
 * Sangeetha
 * Avinash
 * Kuldeep
 * Aravind Rao
 * All Ok
 * Master Mahendra
 * Chitra Shenoy
 * Bhagyashri Rao
 * Rajesh Nataranga
 * Jasmine Kaar (in the song "Kudi Maga")

Filming
In November 2016, it was reported that the official launch for the Darshan's 49th venture with director Prakash would begin on 9 December 2016. Prakash, who was busy in the pre-production work, had already finalised the main technicians for the film. His brother-in-law Dushyanth who had earlier produced Milana and Shree was roped in to produce the film. Since Darshan was involved in the shoot for his previous venture, Chakravarthy, the team made the elaborate arrangements for the film to officially begin. The second schedule of the shoot took place in Malaysia. Following this, for some of the songs shoot, the unit moved to Switzerland and Italy.

Casting
After having worked with successful stars like Shiva Rajkumar, Puneeth Rajkumar and Vijay Raghavendra, Prakash had planned to work with Darshan and approached him with a new family entertainer script for which the actor readily agreed. His brother-in-law, K. S. Dushyanth, was ready to finance the project for the third time after Milana and Shree. Actress Sruthi Hariharan was approached to play one of the two female leads in the project. Newcomer Rashmika Mandanna was selected to play the second female lead role even before the release of her debut film, Kirik Party. Citing dates issues, Rashmika opted out from the project and Shanvi Srivastava was replaced in her place. Veteran actors Devaraj and Sumithra were selected to play the parent roles.

Soundtrack
Arjun Janya has composed the songs and the soundtrack. Soundtrack consists of 6 songs. V. Nagendra Prasad, Jayanth Kaikini and Hari Santhosh have penned the lyrics.