Nijam

Nijam
Nijam
Soundtrack album by R. P. Patnaik
Released	16 March 2003;
Recorded	2003
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	33:54
Label	Aditya Music
Producer	R. P. Patnaik
R. P. Patnaik chronology

Nijam
Nijam
	Movie Poster
Directed by	Teja
Written by	Teja ;
Produced by	Teja
Starring	Mahesh Babu; Rakshita; Gopichand; Raasi
Cinematography	Sameer Reddy
Edited by	Shankar
Music by	R. P. Patnaik
Production; company	Chitram Movies
Release date	23 May 2003;
Running time	196 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Budget	₹6.5 crore (US$780,000)
Box office	₹10 crore (US$1.2 million) (Share)

Nijam (transl. Truth) is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language action film produced & directed by Teja on Chitram Movies banner. The film stars Mahesh Babu, Rakshita, Gopichand, Raasi in the lead roles and music was composed by R. P. Patnaik. Initially Jyothika was considered as the lead role but later replaced. Mahesh Babu and Rameshwari won the Nandi Awards in Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories respectively. It was remade as Arjuna in Odia starring Anubhav Mohanty and Gargi Mohanty and also this movie was remade as Top Leader in Bengali Bangladesh starring Shakib Khan.

Plot

Sidda Reddy (Jaya Prakash Reddy) is a powerful mafia leader whose right hand is Devudu (Gopichand). Devudu has a lover called Malli (Raasi). Reddy, who also likes Malli, takes her to the bed, which is not liked by Devudu. In the process, Devudu kills Reddy and becomes the leader of the mafia gang. Venkateswarlu (Ranganath) is a fire officer. In an incident, Devudu sets a marketplace on fire and Venkateswarlu rescues it with his firefighting, and at the same time, Venkateswarlu slaps Devudu, as he continues throwing kerosene at the marketplace. Devudu holds a grudge against Venkateswarlu and sends him to jail on a framed charge of murder of Malli's brother Baddu (Suman Setty). G. Seetaram (Mahesh Babu), Venkateswarlu's son, tries to rescue his father from the jaws of police. But in the process, everybody starts asking him for bribe to do the work. At the end of the day, the police officer and Devudu kills Venkateswarlu. The rest of the story is about how Seetaram's mother (Talluri Rameswari) takes revenge on the people responsible for the death of her husband with the help of her son Seetaram. The criminals involved in the crime of his father's death are killed one after the other by the mother and son in a planned and scientific manner. This film tells about an innocent boy, who, along with his mother undergoes injustice and also loses his father in this process. The mother in this situation plays the role of a trainer and guide to her son, making him strong physically and emotionally, to fight back.

Cast

Mahesh Babu as G. Sitaram
Rakshita as Janki
Gopichand as Devudu / Devadaya Sharma
Raasi as Malli
Prakash Raj as ACP Raja Narendra
Jaya Prakash Reddy as Sidda Reddy
Ranganath as Venkateswarlu (Sitaram's father)
Rameshwari as Shanti (Sitaram's mother)
Brahmaji as C.I.
Vijayachander as DGP
Jeeva as DCP Murali Krishna
Kanta Rao as Social Worker Narayana Rao
Rallapalli as Butcher
Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam as Traffic Constable
Kondavalasa as Sitaram's neighbor
Suman Setty as Baddu
Duvvasi Mohan as Patil
Tirupathi Prakash
Shakeela
Mani Chandana as Rathalu
Alapati Lakshmi
Master Ghatamaneni Jaya Krishna as Young Sitaram

Soundtrack

Music was composed by R. P. Patnaik. Lyrics were penned by Kula Shekar. Music was released on Aditya Music.

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Chandamama Raave"	R. P. Patnaik, Usha	3:39
2.	"Rathalu Rathalu"	R. P. Patnaik, Usha	4:15
3.	"Neelo Unnadi"	R. P. Patnaik, Usha	4:01
4.	"Chi Chi Ante"	R. P. Patnaik, Usha	4:13
5.	"Dhandakam"	Gopichand, Gangadhara Sastry	1:53
6.	"Ilage Ilage"	R. P. Patnaik, Usha	3:54
7.	"Kakulu Durani"	R. P. Patnaik, Ravi Varma	1:48
8.	"Abhimanyudu"	Group Song	1:52
9.	"Chara Chara"	Usha, Murthy	4:04
10.	"Rangu Rangula"	R. P. Patnaik	4:08
Total length:			33:54

Legacy

The film was also dubbed into Tamil as Nijam, and then again in 2012 as Seerum Singam.^[1] The film was dubbed as Meri Adalat in Hindi in 2008, in Bengali as Aamar Protishodh and in Bhojpuri as Hamaar Faisla. It was remade as Arjuna in Oriya starring Anubhab Mohanty and Gargi Mohanty & Bangladesh as Top Leader starring Shakib Khan.

Reception and collections

Idlebrain Jeevi in his review gave a rating of 3 out of 5 for the movie with concluding remarks "Overall, it's an average film that has chances to become hit because of the Teja's mass-attracting episodes and Mahesh Babu's brilliant portrayal of the character".^[2]

Director Teja in an interview said "We made Nijam in a budget of 6.5 cr INR; We sold audio rights for 2 cr INR and movie initially were sold for a total of 26 cr INR. In total, we made a profit of 5-6 cr INR and Nijam was not a flop".^[3] He corroborated the same in an interview with The Hindu "I worked with Mahesh after he had a flop called Bobby; but Nijam released after Okkadu and people drew comparisons. I don’t argue when people say Nijam was a flop. The film was made with a budget of Rs. 6.5 crore and sold for Rs. 21 crore. I repaid money to whoever lost money and still made a huge profit".^[4]