Revisiting Chirutha (2007): Review + Interesting Facts

Credits

Banner: Vyjayanthi Movies

Cast: Ram Charan Teja, Neha Sharma, Asish Vidyardhi, Prakash Raj, Ali, Dharmavarapu, Brahmanandam, MS Narayana, Surya, Sayaji Shinde, Tanikella Bharani, Uttej, Pragathi, Daniel Balaji

Cinematography: Shyam K Naidu
Music: Mani Sharma
Art: Chinna
Editing: MR Varma

Fights: Vijayan
Story - screenplay - dialogues - direction: Puri Jagan
Producer: C Aswini Dutt
Release date: 28 September 2007

Context and thoughts: Saw it on VHS, remember hearing about it and seeing Charan’s headshot on idle brain and was like he looks like a dongodu. Remember seeing a poster for it in Edison I think I was in NJ when it released. When I saw it I loved it and became a fan of Charan after watching Yamaho Yama, it was very entertaining and typical Puri Jagan movie and listened the songs a lot before release. Childhood one of the greatest albums. Mani Sharma mass. Holds up well due to pacing and overall entertainment.

Interesting Facts:

• Talk in industry at the time was that Shankar was gonna direct Charan in his debut
• VV Vinayak, Sreenu Vaitla, VN Aditya, K Vijay Bhaskar, Jayant C Paranji,
• Called Rajamouli and despite his interest, he felt the expectations were too high and didn’t know what Charan’s strengths and weaknesses were
• That same time, Pokiri released and Puri Jagannadh became a superstar director. Chiru watched it and wanted Puri Jagan to make the movie. VV Vinayak was almost certain.
• Eenadu paper released a statement saying Charand but in Puri Jagan direction in production of Aswini Dutt
• August 22nd, 2006 Stalin audio function Chiru introduced Mega fans to Charan and confirmed his debut.
• Puri jagan narrated a line which Chiru liked and then developed it into full script in Bangkok. Harish Shankar worked as a script consultant for the movie and gave a lot of inputs.
• Movie launched in December 2006 with Pooja ceremony, Kangana Ranaut as heroine but didnt have dates so finally Neha Sharma was cast marking both her and Charan’s film debuts. And Mani Sharma was the music director coming off Pokiri
• Filming started in February 2007 in Bangkok where most of the movie was shot in addition to Annapurna, Padmalaya, and Ramanaidu studios for other portions.
• August 22nd, 2007 audio was launched. Audio rights were sold to Aditya Music for 1 crore which was an all time record at that time. And the audio became a super hit, one of the classic albums ever in TFI.
• All mega fans united to celebrate Charan’s debut. Raghava Lawrence composed Yamaho Yama and it’s next level.
• Released in 720 centers, and collected 4 crores share opening day all time record for a debut movie until Akhil the power of Jua, ran for 50 days in 178 centers, 100 days in 38 centers, and collected 25 crores share all time record for debut movie until it was beaten by Uppena in 2021 with a collection of 50 crores share.

Writing/Direction: This is actually a love story masked as a revenge story. Only in the 2nd half do you get to know why Daniel Balaji is in the movie but first things first, hthe movie is so entertaining even after 16 years. Puri Jagan understands pacing like no other director does I feel. One;y Rajamouli, Trivikram, Vijay Bhaskar, and VV Vinayak come close to him.

It’s a basically a highlight reel for ram Charan to show that he can act, he can dance, he can fight, he can romance the heroine, everything. And Puri Jagan hysteria was running at the time due to Pokiri and Desamuduru becoming career defining movies for Mahesh Babu and Allu Arjun.

Music by Mani Sharma is MASTERPIECE. BGM for the intro is unlimited goosebumps and everybody remembers it today. The songs are my childhood and middle school on repeat. Each and every song is classic. Yamaho yama greatest debut hero intro song and then this is the greatest debutante album ever made in present gen and oprobably all time. Favorite songs are Yamaho Yama and Enduko Pichi Pichi and then of course Chamka Chamka, Geetha Madhuri first song.