This movie starts off with the assassination of Sanjeevayya, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. His last wish is for his son Arjun Prasad to become the next Chief Minister. However, Arjun's cousin Dhanunjay has his own dreams of becoming the Chief Minister. Arjun is approached by Ali, who has given 10 crores to Sanjeevayya to resolve a land dispute in Ali's favour. Arjun finds about his father's corruption, and his mother Rajeswari Devi validates it while sharing Sanjeevayya's desire for a casteless and corruption-less government. Arjun's uncle Mahadevayya, whom he refers to as Peddaina, tolerates corruption as long as it helps his family stay in power. Arjun decides to implement his father's dream and enrolls Ali and a news reporter named Ratna to quietly win support of his party's MLAs. Arjun bribes his way to win support from MLAs and ministers and is elected Chief Minister. An angry Dhanunjay attempts to assassinate Arjun and is asked to resign. Arjun encounters resistance from his own party in his drive to eliminate corruption and plots to win support of Alliance Party leader Munnuswami's daughter Archana by making her fall for him. His attempts to woo her are successful, and he saves his government while losing Archana's support when she realizes that she has been used. As a condition for Munnuswami's support, he lets an MLA's son go scot free, even though the son was accused of raping and murdering of young tribal girl. Rajeswari Devi rebukes Arjun's move and warns the step as compromises that lead to corruption. That same night, she dies. Arjun resolves to go ahead with his corruption elimination drive and resigns the same evening while creating sensation in the media for exposing corruption. Arjun wins the ensuing election after leaving his uncle's party and establishing a new party. His effort wins back Archana's support.
Cast
Rana Daggubati as Arjun Prasad, a man who wants to become Chief Minister against corruption
Priya Anand as Ratna Prabha, a news reporter whom Arjun sends to help him win support of his party's MLAs
Richa Gangopadhyay as Archana Prasad, TV channel reporter
Suman as CM Sanjeevayya, Arjun's father who gets assassinated at the start
Suhasini Maniratnam as Rajeswari Devi, Arjun's mother who dies after warning Arjun about his motives
Subbaraju as Dhanunjay, Arjun's cousin who attempts to assassinate him
Kota Srinivasa Rao as Mahadevayya, Arjun's uncle and Sanjeevayya's elder brother who tolerates corruption to help his family
Leader opened to rave reviews from critics. The Times Of India gave a three star rating noting "Another lineage star Rana Daggubati takes his first bow at the Box Office with an inspiring political saga, he puts in a surprisingly mature performance and shines in his role of a savvy young CEO of an US-based company who turns a conniving politician with effortless ease." Radhika Rajamani from Rediff also gave a three star rating and said "The film is a relevant take on contemporary politics in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Performance-wise, Sekhar scores. His choice Suhasini as Arjun's mother is good. She brings grace and dignity to her role. An impressive debut, indeed. Richa Gangopadhyay looks pretty and charming. Harshavardhan and Priya Anand are competent in their roles. Mickey J Meyer's music is good too." Sify explains "The technical aspects of the film are highly impressive with superb cinematography, excellent music and terrific background score. The first half is gripping, giving some promising moments to the audience. But, the second half slips into monotony thanks to the slipshod treatment to the political subject." However it praised the lead performances, saying "Rana has certainly lived up to the expectations of the audiences with his looks and thoroughly trained histrionics." The movie was an average grosser.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack has music composed by Mickey J. Meyer. The music was released on 22 November 2009.
