Aatagara

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Aatagara
File:Aatagara Promotional Poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed byK. M. Chaitanya
Produced byDwarakish
Yogish Dwarakish
Screenplay byK. M. Chaitanya, Kannan Parameshwaran
Story byKannan Parameshwaran
StarringChiranjeevi Sarja
Meghana Raj
Parul Yadav
Anant Nag
Anu Prabhakar
Achyuth Kumar
Dwarakish
Prakash Belawadi
Music byAnoop Seelin
CinematographySatya Hegde
Edited byHaridoss KGF
Production
company
Dwarakish Chitra
Release date
  • 28 August 2015 (2015-08-28)
CountryIndia
LanguageKannada

Aatagara (translation: Player) is a 2015 Indian Kannada romantic thriller film directed by K. M. Chaitanya and produced by Dwarakish Chitra in its 49th production.[1] The film has an ensemble cast with 10 main protagonists played by Chiranjeevi Sarja, Meghana Raj, Parul Yadav, Anu Prabhakar, Achyuth Kumar, Prakash Belawadi, Balaji Manohar, Pavana Gowda, Sadhu Kokila, Aarohitha Gowda along with Ananth Nag, P. Ravi Shankar and RJ Nethra in key supporting roles.[2] The music is composed by Anoop Seelin. The film released on 28 August 2015.[3] The trio of producer Yogish Dwarakish - director Chaitanya - hero Chiranjeevi went on to work again in Aake and Amma I Love You. The movie is based on Agatha Christie's 1939 mystery novel And Then There Were None.[4][5]

Plot[edit]

Mrutyunjay (Chiranjeevi Sarja) is a drug dealer. He loses drugs which were worth a lot of money. So his boss threatens to kill him if he does not return the amount those drugs cost. He gets into a reality show called 'Aaatagara' hoping to win it and win a lot of money to return to his boss.

He has a crush on Sakshi (Meghana Raj), a famous model. Apparently, she is in the show too. Many famous people like an actress Malika (Parul Yadav), a school principal Sandhya, a famous cook, Sadhu Maharaj, a journalist, Yashwanth, a doctor, Chetan Bhagwat , a wildlife worker, Anu, a model photographer, KP and a common woman, Bhavana are participants in the show.

Instructions of the reality show are that they will reach an island an no one can get off the island as there are no means of transportation, until the end of the show. There is a room in which groceries to cook are kept. Only the cook, Sadhu Maharaj is allowed in there. And a service room inside which no one is allowed.

They see a Ravana statue with ten heads.

Unfortunately, the next day on the island many people get killed. Anu, Sadhu, Yashwanth and Bhavana are killed. One telephone was in the house, which was not working. Suddenly, the television starts playing. The host of the 'Aatgara' channel says that they have regained all contact with the island where the players have gone. But, when they introduce the names of the participants, everyone is shocked as all the participants the host of the channel has mentioned are all different from those who are there on this island. Then, they get a phone call saying that all of them will die. They also find out that as each one of them die, one of the Ravana's heads will be cut off. Then, the remaining get to know that everyone was lured into the show.

Family members of these participants are tensed and they file a case against the 'Aatagara' channel. Inspector Ravi Gowdaand Sub-Inspector Rohitinvestigate the case.

Then, when all of them, tired, go to sleep, Jay wakes up and finds that the doctor, Chetan is not in the house. He feels that he has run away and follows him. He loses track of the doctor when he hears gunshots. He doubts if Chetan is the killer. He runs back to the house and convinces everyone that Chetan is the killer and he tried to kill him. They search Chetan's suitcase to see if they can find a gun to break open the control room to communicate with the channel host. They do find one and break open the lock of the control room. There a judge reveals, through a live webcam that all of them have committed crime, but have escaped from the law by showing false proof that they were innocent.

Jay killed the judge's grandson by supplying lot of drugs to him. Sakshi killed a small boy by drowning him for being in love with his father. A teacher in Sandhya' school had raped a six-year-old girl. To save the reputation of the school, she used Yashwanth, the journalist to turn the case against the father of the girl and made it looked as if he was the rape culprit. The father, then committed suicide. KP seduced a model for his own good and when she was of no use to him, he said he did not love her, causing her to lose her sanity. Malika got drunk and was driving a car, and by mistake she killed an old couple. She made it look as if her driver was driving the car. She gave the driver some money in turn for falsely confessing that he was driving the car and killed the couple. The judge also reveals that there is a spy on the island. After the webcam switches off, everyone is convinced that Chetan is the killer. KP, Malika and Sandhya are killed. At the same time, the Inspector, Ravi gets a letter from the judge, showing proof that the ones who went to this island were all criminals, but some of them were powerful, so they did not get arrested. Soon after, they leave for the island, even though the judge had told them that none of them are going to be alive even if the police ends up finding them.

Jay and Sakshi go in search of the doctor to kill him as the judge had said that if they would kill the spy, they will have a chance to escape from the island. They find Chetan's dead body and they start doubting each other. Sakshi shoots Jay, a little above his stomach, thinking he is the killer. Jay confesses his love for Sakshi and says that he is not the killer. Sakshi apologizes for shooting him. She sees hallucinations of the boy she killed and apologizing for the crime she committed, she shoots herself.

It is also revealed that Anu was the spy.

Jay is hurt very badly when the police reach. They instantly carry him back and hospitalize him. Ravi, seeing that the judge's intention was good, closes the case and gives Jay a new life of making cotton candies, not allowing him to do any more drug business.

At the end the judge, and the family members of the victims join a laughing club and laugh all that they can, happy, that they had received justice.

Cast[edit]

Controversy[edit]

The movie was accused as a remake of 2011 Tamil movie Aduthathu directed by Thakkali Srinivasan. However, director K. M. Chaitanya cleared the air saying that both the movies were based on Agatha Christie's mystery novel And Then There Were None which was about ten characters stranded on an uninhabited island. He also claimed that while some characters - Meghana Raj (a model who deliberately lets a child drown), Sadhu Kokila (a cook who has killed his owner) and Prakash Belwadi (a doctor who is always suspicious of others and acts strangely)- were directly based on the characters from the novel, others - Anu Prabhakar (principal of a multicoloured school where a child sex abuse case has been reported), Achyuth Kumar (aggressive TV news anchor who does not allow others to air their views) and Parul Yadav (a reputed cinestar who gets away from a drink & drive hit & run accident case by framing the driver) - were based on real life incidents.[6] However, questions were raised to similarity between the sudden introduction of the master-mind in the basement of the secret room in both Kannada and Tamil versions in spite of the character being anonymous and not making an appearance in the novel. Similarities were also found in the reality-show backdrop, ten faces of Raavana, the characterisation of the investigating officer and the one traitor among the reality-show participants (none of which were found in the novel). It was also argued that instead of ten faces of Raavana, the team could have tweaked it to Dashavathar with metaphoric reference but did not do so as it was straight away taken from the Tamil movie. At this point of time, the team of Aatagara arranged a special screening of the movie for Thakkali Srinivasan in Bangalore. Srinivasan clarified that it is not a remake of his film. He also praised Aatagara of being an extremely well made film. He also revealed that he had made a serial inspired from Agatha Christe's novel And Then There Were None in 1995. Later he made the film Aduthathu inspired by the same. For both these, Kannan Parameshwaran worked on the story. Kannan also wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay for Aatagara inspired by the same novel. Srinivasan also said that anything similar is to the novel and not his film. He also said anyone saying the movie a remake were ignorant and calling this movie a remake would be an absolute joke.[7][8]

Soundtrack[edit]

The soundtrack is composed by Anoop Seelin.[9] Initially Seelin composed a total of 4 songs and the film makers reportedly dropped out a song so as to not affect the film's pace. The team reportedly came up with a riddle song which celebrated the legendary artists of Kannada cinema.[10]

Track listing[edit]

No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Aatagara"Rohit PadakiShashank Sheshagiri 
2."Tharamayya"Rohit PadakiSanthosh Venky, Supriya Lohith 
3."Arooralli Uliyoryaaru"Rohit PadakiArchana Udupa, Anoop Seelin 

References[edit]

  1. "Dwarakish Chitra Next". Indiaglitz. 1 October 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  2. "Ten Protagonists In Aatagara". The New Indian Express. 20 August 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  3. "Aatagara Movie Review - Movie Preview". Indiaglitz. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  4. "Aboard the mystery train | Cinemaexpress". m.cinemaexpress.com.
  5. "Agatha Christie e il cinema: un amore mai sbocciato del tutto". ComingSoon.it.
  6. "Aatagara is not a remake". Bangalore Mirror.
  7. "Tamil Director Ends Aatagara Controversy - Exclusive - chitraloka.com | Kannada Movie News, Reviews | Image". www.chitraloka.com.
  8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dE2_8qw-_I
  9. "Aatagara 2015 Kannada movie songs". Southsongs4u. Archived from the original on 12 August 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  10. "A riddle song from the thriller Aatagara". Bangalore Mirror. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.

External links[edit]

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