Athadu

I think I watched a reel/short long long ago that said something along the lines of "if you want to make the audience cry, you yourself shouldn't cry, but you try to control your tears". I think that is exactly what Mahesh Babu did in this film with every emotion. From the beginning, you are kept engaged not only by the screenplay, but also by the actor. You are looking at what's happening, and what's going on in this guy's head. That I find wonderful. I strongly believe that if you don't have the opening of the film till Siva Reddy dies, if you weren't introduced to Nandu and we start the film with Nandu entering Basarlapudi, we wouldn't question it at all. We know the real Parthu would react differently only because we saw Parthu and we got an idea about what kind of a person he is. Without that, you wouldn't question anything. That I feel is the power of the performance Mahesh achieved. He is coming into an unknown territory, both physically and emotionally, so he has his guard on, but also is very lost as to how to react to something he has never seen or experienced before this way. Love. That is a powerful performance Mahesh delivers in that few minutes. His eyes are trying to process what is happening, not once does he smile (that is also because he came to deliver the news, as we later learn, wonderful layer). Everything he says to justify his actions at the end to Thatha, we can see all those thoughts in the film. If I can find a good copy, and remember that I wanted to do this once, I am very tempted to make this edit. His eyes convey emotion just so well. He doesn't have to speak to convey emotion. Such talent! Coming to Trivikram. This was a different Trivikram. I haven't seen Athadu completely in ages, always bits and pieces on YouTube. I never got to digest how technically brilliant this was, until now. Excellent cinematography. Excellent stylistic choices were made, which I shall talk about later. I need to talk about my Trivikram. Let's not get to dialogue yet and talk about the moments for a while. Beginning the film with the protagonist killing someone must have been an incredibly bold choice in 2005. Then the robbery. Everything is over, they get into their van and Narsing driving them to the police station. You don't know something is wrong as soon as the van stops. The van stops, they get down, and turn to see the police. Nice! There is a good amount of wit in the police station dialogues which needn't be discussed again, I'm not gonna go into that. After they escape, we get to know that Nandu killed the S.I. and then we see him shoot the people in the car because they spilled dirt on Saadhu. These moments during the childhood episode establish the kind of person Nandu is. He is loyal to the people who he feels are his. It's his way of showing love. This comes in later because of the betrayel Malli does. They are opposites, but professionals. We see the professionalism when they kill Narsing after the song. We learn later that Nandu does the murder and Malli plans the escape. After killing Narsing, Nandu gets chased and Malli sees that. He understands (probably) that the attempt was successful, so Nandu finished his part of the job. If he stayed in that car, he would have been safe. But he chooses to run with/to Nandu, and helps him escape. This could also be because there was no involvement of money in this job, but I choose professionalism. This was a good writing decision, because when the Siva Reddy murder happens and we see that Nandu didn't do it, we don't immediately suspect Malli. When Farukh comes to meet Siva Reddy, and he apologizes for making him wait, Siva Reddy replies "power kosam padhellu wait chesaanu, padi nimishaalu oka lekka kaadu". That was such a good writing decision, its not like a mark Trivikram dialogue or anything, but it establishes the desperation he is at and completely justifies him planning his own murder attempt. The framing of the phone call is just insane. It only gets parts of Nandu's face, but captures Baji Reddy completely. Like, Baji Reddy is completely exposed in this conversation, but he doesn't even know what Nandu looks like. Brilliance! One thing I always had a complaint about was the geography of that building. We are on the side with the windows. The windows face the meeting. One side is the road with the accident. So in my imagination, it is surrounded by road on atleast 3 sides, has the open ground on the side with the windows. Where the hell is the railway station coming from? There is a platform too? Where is it's parking? It doesn't bother me that much after he jumps, because he jumps really well, but yeah. It has been bothering me since atleast 2010, so it needs to be vocalized. Now that Nandu is in the train, we witness some brilliant writing in Parthu. He is a sweet and trusting person, who has been away from more people like him. Instantly lovable. He is this endearing person, who is loved, and is talking about all those things with Nandu, who cannot relate. Even in such a situation, we have a moment where Nandu smiles when Parthu says how he wished that his village had an airport. Maybe this made him want to go tell them that their Parthu cannot come to them. Now, Nandu enters into Parthu's house. The fear in his face, is clearly there for people who know the events that transpired, but for the people who don't, that's just Parthu. Incredible performance. Everything inside the house is just great. His interactions with the family are very limited. On a rewatch, it feels like he is trying to talk, but being faced with this new emotion, he doesn't know how to react. The expression on Mahesh's face really says it all. We see a lot of moments during the Pillagali song where he sees them being a family and is very happy for them, but is always carrying a guilt that he isn't one of them, so he never goes near them, always being an outsider. There is one moment where he smiles at Sudha gaaru feeding the family and he watches from a distance. Her feeding him when his hand is injured is like an arc completion for this moment and that is wonderful. Like RVS (or Hasith Goli) said in the video, when Mahesh says "illintha bavuntundani telidamma, telisthey eppudo vachesevaadni", that doesn't come from Parthu, that comes from Nandu, and only Mahesh can pull off that distinction, and only Trivikram can write something like that. Also, Nandu as Parthu is very upright, stiff, and alert. Even though he came to a remote village where he doesn't even have to step out of the house, his guard is still up. When he first sees Thatha and he asks him to bend a little and he gets on one knee, he is very stiff. He kind of loosens up a bit towards the end of the film, which is great. His guard is down. He is not Nandu anymore. He is Parthu. One more moment when Thatha says "Evaru?" and he replies "Parthu" instead of something like "Nenu" is something only Trivikram can think of. That is how much Trivikram cared back then. It is also an incredible stylistic choice to increase the contrast or something during the interval sequence. Anjaneya Prasad comes to find Parthu, and when Parthu thinks he is caught, the light just comes into the frame all at once, kind of a blinding feeling. That was an incredible choice. The guilt of Nandu coming to fix the lives of people Parthu might have cared about is also such a nice track in the film. Reminds me of that line from The Newsroom – "you are constantly thinking what would a good guy do". He doesn't consider the possibility that he can be a good person. He probably never can, too. But the film is about his domestication (there is probably a much more appropriate word to mean what I want to mean, but that word escapes me), and all the characters help with that. Great writing. The kiss between Nandu and Poori. While Poori is shocked, we hear no background music, but only Nandu's breathe. It felt like he still thinks he did something wrong, but that guilt isn't the only thing he felt. Nice! One more nice moment was when Nandu shares his past with Ramana. Ramana sits down, lights a cigarette and starts smoking, Nandu starts talking about his past and says "Avunu, nenu Parthu kaadu". We see a montage of what happened till then, and as we cut to the present, Ramana burns his hand with the cigarette, indicating the passage of time. I liked that very much. Anjaneya Prasad, and Ravi. I need to rewatch the film just to see all the possible ways Ravi might have ruined the investigation. I tried doing that on 10th Aug, 2025, when I went to watch it again with friends, but I was very distracted by Mahesh. The fight sequences in Basarlapudi deserve a special note. First fight with Naidu, and second fight with Nagasamudram Bujji. Both these fights, Nandu is aware of the damage he can cause, and he hits accordingly. The fight sequences are a show-not-tell of that line in Businessman – "Champaddu, kani manam champeyyagalam ani vaadiki teliyaali". That was an incredible directorial choice to have the fights like that. Also, there are a lot of callbacks in the film, which need their own rewatch to be noted down. For the people who didn't notice, Sailaja in this film and Anasuya in Malleswari are the same actress. Ee vishyam maa amma ki screenshots petti chepthey "Bane observe chesavu 👌" annaru. Prasthuthaniki inthakanna gurthuku raavatledu. Inkemaina unte 10th Aug, 2025 log lo vestha. Selavu🙏