Prasthanam


Prasthanam is a 2010 Indian Telugu-language political action drama film written and directed by Deva Katta. The film was produced by Ravi Vallabhaneni under VRC Media & Entertainment banner. The film stars Sharwanand, Sai Kumar, Sundeep Kishan, and Ruby Parihar. The film received generally positive response upon release with praise for Sai Kumar's performance. It won three Filmfare Awards and was also selected for screening in the Indian Panorama section at International Film Festival of India, Goa. The film was dubbed and released in Tamil as Padhavi. It was dubbed into hindi as "Asteen Ka Saanp".
Prasthanam has been remade in Hindi under the same title by Deva Katta, with Sanjay Dutt as Loki and Ali Fazal as Mitra. It is also being remade into Bengali starring Arifin Shuvoo as Mitra and Ilias Kanchan as loki.

Plot

Ketti Lokanatham Naidu alias Loki takes over the reins of a rural political power from a dying man named Galla Dasharatha Rama Naidu. On his deathbed, Rama requests Loki to marry his widowed daughter-in-law Savitri, whose husband Galla Keshava was murdered by a rival political group, and Loki complies. Loki's stepson is Mitranand, and his son is Chinna. While Mitra is a devoted and loving son to Loki, his stepdaughter Valli hates him for marrying their mother. Loki wants to see Mitra as his heir because he is a thinking man, whereas Chinna is hot-blooded with a bad lifestyle. Chinna loathes Mitra because he receives lesser attention than Mitra from his father and is constantly discouraged by his father from entering politics. Valli's sister-in-law is his love interest. Chinna gets upset on learning that Mitra is the new youth president of the party. That night, he sexually assaults Hameed Basha's daughter Nadia, and she dies. Mitra wants to punish Chinna for this act, while Chinna tries to get Mitra killed. Chinna then kills Valli and her husband. Loki sacrifices his political goodwill to protect Chinna. By doing so, he and Mitra are forced to confront each other. Loki has Mitra beaten up when Mitra chases after Chinna to avenge Valli. Mitra leaves the house, moves to his old home in the village, and kills Chinna. Loki orders Mitra and Basha to be killed. Basha saves Mitra from the goons and tells him that Loki had killed Mitra's biological father. Mitra confronts Loki and tells him that no amount of reading puranas will absolve him of his heinous character. Loki then tells him to go beyond the puranas as there are no villains and heroes, rather there are ordinary people committing sins to fulfill their goals. Mitra then falls down on Loki's feet and says that Loki is the only father he has ever known, and even if his biological father had lived, Mitra would not have loved him as much as Loki. Mitra tells Loki that he still loves him but does not hate him enough to kill him. Mitra and Basha then leave. Soon after, Loki shoots himself.

Cast

The movie, on one hand, deals with politics at grass root levels that occur in villages of India, corrupt political system and the nexus between businessmen and politicians. On the other hand, the movie deals with themes like greed, ambition and devotion which are driving forces of the lead characters in this movie.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Mahesh Shankar and released by T-Series.

Reception

Despite fierce competition from other big budget movies such as Simha and Darling, the movie did modestly well at the box office.

Awards

;Nandi Awards
;Filmfare Awards South