Mutha Mestry

1992 163’ col Telugu d A. Kodandarami Reddy pc Kamakshi Devi Kamal Combines p K.C. Shekhar Babu,

4. Sivaprasad Reddy st Bhupati Raja

sc/dial Parachuri Bros. c S. Gopal Reddy m Raj-Koti lp Chiranjeevi, Meena, Roja, Sharat Saxena, Srihari, Brahmanandam, Allu Ramalingaiah, J.V.V. Somayajulu, Gummadi Venkateshwara Rao, Sunita

A vegetable market worker with the unlikely name of Subhash Chandra Bose (Chiranjeevi) protects its denizens when the city Mayor and other politicians support the villain Atma Ram (Saxena) in his effort to convert the marketplace into real estate. Bose’s honesty and efficiency leads the good Chief Minister (Rao) to offer him a State Assembly seat on behalf of the ruling party. A reluctant politician, forced to embark on his new career by his lover Buchamma (Meena), Bose initiates reforms in favour of the landless poor and even leads a commando-type raid on Atma Ram’s men. When his sister commits suicide after being accused of prostitution by the villain, the hero resigns his ministerial post and launches a vigilante attack that ends with the extermination of the villains. Having generally cleansed society, he returns to his earlier profession, spurning the offer to become the political leader of the state’s ruling party. Although only moderately successful by Chiranjeevi’s standards, the film fuelled intense speculation about the star’s potential entry into Andhra politics. Aspects of his performance as the minister evoke the popular Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.

Film