Godavari (film)

Godavari is a 2006 Telugu, romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Sekhar Kammula and produced by G. V. G. Raju. Sumanth and Kamalinee Mukherjee played the lead roles. The film was a success at the box office in addition to receiving critical acclaim. It won several Nandi and Filmfare awards. The music of the film was composed by K.M. Radha Krishnan. The director said the movie carries a similar essence and feel of the 1973 movie Andala Ramudu directed by Bapu. We can note the similarity in the names of the protagonists and the cruise boat on the river Godavari .[3]

Godavari
Theatrical poster
Directed bySekhar Kammula
Produced byG. V. G. Raju
Written bySekhar Kammula
StarringSumanth
Kamalinee Mukherjee
Neetu Chandra
Music byK. M. Radha Krishnan
CinematographyVijay C. Kumar
Edited byMarthand K. Venkatesh
Distributed byAmigos Creations(India)
KAD Entertainment(USA)
Release date
19 May 2006[1]
Running time
160 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTelugu
BudgetRs. 70 million[2] (70 million) (estimated)

Plot

Godavari is a film about Sreeram, Seetha, and the river cruise, from Rajahmundry to Bhadrachalam, that brings them together. It is a love story set against the scenic backdrop of the Godavari river aboard a cruise boat also called "Godavari".[4]

Sreeram, aka Ram (Sumanth), is an MS graduate in engineering from the United States. He returns to India wanting to serve its people by entering politics. He is in love with his cousin Raaji (Neetu Chandra) and hopes to marry her. Raaji's father however trivialises Ram's idealistic nature and his modest financial status. For the same reason, he does not want Raaji to marry him.

Seetha (Kamalinee Mukherjee) is a fashion designer who runs an unsuccessful clothing boutique store. Her parents, who are not very keen about her business, want her to get married instead. Seetha, being an independent and career oriented woman , is not enthusiastic about their idea. However, circumstances force her to reluctantly agree with her parents. However, the marriage doesn't work out as the groom's family feels that she is 'too progressive and fast'. Frustrated and angry, Seetha decides to take a break from everything to go on the Godavari river cruise.

Meanwhile, Raaji gets a marriage proposal from Ravi (Kamal Kamaraju), a self-centred IPS officer, whom her father approves of. Raaji tells Ram that she's unsure about her feelings for him. Ram decides to prove his worth to her father and win her hand. However, he soon realises that she has agreed to marry Ravi. Disappointed and heartbroken, Ram is forced to join his family on the same Godavari river cruise to Bhadrachalam, where Raaji is to be married. It is on this boat cruise where Ram and Seetha meet. There are also several sub plots involving other characters on the river boat:

  1. The river boat captain Chintamani Tanikella Bharani, who harbours a romantic interest in Pullamma.
  2. Pullatlla Pullamma who prepares and serves Pullattlu, a variety of dosa. She has a younger brother along with her who sings well.
  3. an astrologer along with his caged parrot.
  4. Chinna, a 10-year old poor boy who sells balloons for a living. While once away, he sees a red shirted man cut his balloon threads causing all of them to fly away. Looking to collect the compensatory amount from that man, he boards the boat without a ticket.
  5. Kotigadu: A street dog who is often bullied by the other dogs around him. While escaping from them, he too follows Chinna and boards the boat. They both end up becoming good friends.
  6. A Rayalaseema factionist, along with his pregnant daughter, who gets on the boat to escape his enemies. Towards the end of the journey, his rivals catch up with him , but he's rescued by Ram in an ensuing fight.

Ram and Seeta meet each for the first time as she hesitantly walks on the ramp that leads to the boat. Noticing her difficulty, Ram picks her up suddenly, and carries her in his arms onto the boat. Ram feels he did her a favour, but Seeta angrily demands an apology from him for touching her without her permission. The easygoing Ram apologises and moves on. Their next meeting is on the boat deck, where both are reading their books while snacking on chips. Seeta mistakes Ram's pack of chips for hers and eats all of them, annoying Ram. Later she realises that her bag of chips are actually in her room. She realizes her stupidity and returns a new pack to Ram. This is where they formally introduce themselves to each other. During the journey, Pullamma's brother sings a song and gets a monetary tip from Ram. Pullamma gets offended by Ram's charity and refuses to serve pullattlu to him. Seeta, seeing this, brings extra pullattlu for him out of compassion. From here on, a friendship develops between them.

Seeta starts writing in a diary to record her memories of her trip, those especially with Ram. She tries her best to woo Ram romantically many times. During a halt in their journey, the boat captain organizes a treasure-hunt and they both team up. All through the event, Seeta tries to find out if Ram has feelings for her, but she doesn't succeed. When they are just a step away from winning the treasure hunt, Seeta asks Ram to let Chinna win since the latter is in financial need. Ram willingly agrees further winning her admiration. After the treasure hunt, Chinna finds out that the redshirted man is none other than Ravi, Raaji's fiance. He tries to teach Ravi a lesson but eventually moves on from the issue, because he feels that following Ravi had lead him to the cruise, which eventually led him to win the treasure hunt prize of Rs.50000.[5] Meanwhile, Raaji and Ravi, who are on the same team together, get lost during the treasure hunt as Raaji misguides him accidentally, thereby angering him. Raaji subsequently discovers the controlling and chauvinistic nature of Ravi, and starts having second thoughts about their impending marriage. Confused and disappointed, she suddenly asks Ram to marry her instead. Ram says he will pick her up at a specific location and time and sends the details on a piece of paper. This paper accidentally lands in the hands of Seeta. Chinna, who doesn't want Seeta to read it, suddenly swallows the paper as he is aware of Seeta's feelings for Ram. Hence the paper never gets to Raaji, and her meeting plan with Ram goes awry. Raaji, disappointed and hurt with Ram, confides in Seeta about eloping plan. Hearing this, Seeta thinks that Ram still loves Raaji. Heartbroken, she leaves the boat cruise abruptly without anyone's knowledge. Subsequently, the fickle minded Raaji decides to go through with her initial marriage plan to Ravi.

Ram, confused as to why Seeta left, starts to miss her. He comes across her diary, which was accidentally left behind. After reading it , he discovers Seeta's feelings for him. He goes to her home in Hyderabad hoping to reconcile with her. After a lot of convincing, she agrees to take a walk with him, where he suddenly proposes to her. Seeta is shocked and confused and demands an explanation from Ram regarding his feelings for Raaji. Ram tells her that he never had any plan of marrying Raaji, that the piece of paper he gave was infact blank, and that the whole plan was just a hoax. He then expresses that his feelings all along were only for Seeta. Hearing this, Seeta is happy once again, and agrees to marry Ram.

Cast
  • Sumanth as Sreeram "Ram"
  • Kamalinee Mukherjee as Seetha Mahalakshmi "Seetha"
  • Neetu Chandra as Rajeswari "Raji"
  • C.V.L Narasimha Rao as Seetha's father
  • Lalitha Sindhuri as Madhu, Seetha's sister
  • Madhumani as Seetha's mother
  • Kamal Kamaraju as Ravindra "Ravi"
  • Tanikella Bharani as Captain Chintamani
  • Shiva as Chinna
  • Shekhar Kammula voice for Kotigadu, the stray dog

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by K. M. Radha Krishnan. The track "Andamgalena" sung by Sunitha Upadrashta won her a Nandi Award for Best Female Playback Singer. The track "Manasa Vaacha" sung by K.S.Chithra, and P. Unnikrishnan was also nominated at the Filmfare Awards South in the Best Female Playback Singer. All tracks were written by Veturi Sundararama Murthy.

Track Listing
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Uppongele Godavari"S.P.Balasubrahmanyam 
2."Andamgalena"Sunitha Upadrashta 
3."Manasa Gelupu"Shankar Mahadevan, K.S.Chithra and K. M. Radha Krishnan 
4."Tippulu Tappulu"Shreya Ghoshal 
5."Manasa Vaacha"K.S. Chitra, P. Unnikrishnan 
6."Raama Chakkani"Gayathri 

Critical reception

This is what the Tollywood film makers had to say about the movie:[6]

  • Mullapudi Venkata Ramana, writer of Andala Ramudu: Godavari is a pleasant film. The climax seems to have been shot in a hurry though.
  • S. S. Rajamouli: It gives great pleasure when you dangle your feet in the flowing waters of the Godavari. The film renders the same feeling.
  • Krishna Vamsi: Godavari is a wonderful film. I was born and brought up in the Godavari district. I am feeling jealous that I did not get an idea to make a film like Godavari.
  • M. S. Raju: Excellent Movie. I am a hardcore critic. From other production houses, Godavari is the film I liked most after Arya. Some people are saying that the second half is relatively weak, but I liked it better than the first half.
  • Dasari Narayana Rao: This film will get many awards.
  • Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao: You made a good film. However, I do not see a need for the factionist sub plot.

Accolades
Ceremony Category Nominee Result Ref.
Nandi Awards Best Film G. V. G. Raju Won
Best Director Sekhar Kammula Won
Best Music K. M. Radha Krishnan Won
Best Cinematographer Vijay C. Kumar Won
Best Playback Singer – Female Sunitha (for "Andamgalena") Won
54th Filmfare Awards South Best Film G. V. G. Raju Nominated
Best Director Sekhar Kammula Nominated
Best Actress Kamalinee Mukherjee Nominated
Best Music K. M. Radha Krishnan Nominated
Best Lyrics Veturi Sundararama Murthy (for "Uppongene godavari") Won
Best Playback Singer – Female K. S. Chitra (for "manasavacha") Nominated
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See also

References
  1. "Release dates for Godavari (2006)". IMDB.
  2. "Box office/business for Godavari (2006)". IMDB.
  3. http://www.idlebrain.com/movie/postmortem/godavari.html
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. http://www.idlebrain.com/movie/postmortem/godavari.html
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