Golimaar

Golimaar (transl. “Shoot the Bullet”) is a 2010 Telugu action crime film directed by Puri Jagannadh and produced by Bellamkonda Suresh under Sri Sai Ganesh Productions, starring Gopichand and Priyamani. Chakri composed the songs and Mani Sharma the background score. Inspired by the life of Mumbai police officer Daya Nayak, known for his record number of encounter killings in the late 1990s, it released on 27 May 2010 to positive reviews and was a commercial success. Our record lists a running time of 145 minutes.

What the story is about

Gangaram is an orphan who grows up to be an honest police officer. Impressed by his combat and shooting skills, DIG Bharath Nandan makes him an encounter specialist, and Gangaram sets out to dismantle two gangster networks: Talwar’s in the city and Khalid’s, run from Malaysia. As his team racks up encounter killings and he becomes famous, a jealous ACP Patnayak starts working against him, and Gangaram slowly realises that the system he serves is not as clean as he is. The film’s twists, which turn the honest cop into something else, are best left for viewing.

Cast

• Gopichand as SI Gangaram
• Priyamani as Pavitra
• Roja Selvamani as Arundhati, Pavitra’s mother
• Kelly Dorji as Khalid
• Shawar Ali as Talwar
• Nassar as DIG Bharat Nandan
• Mukhtar Khan as ACP Patnayak
• M. S. Narayana as Hotel Babai
• Ali as Gopi
• Satyam Rajesh as Rajesh
• Pruthviraj as Laxmikant Reddy
• Prakash Raj as DGP Prakash Raj (extended cameo)

Making and music

After Ek Niranjan, Puri Jagannadh announced Golimaar with Gopichand as an encounter specialist. Hansika Motwani was first announced as the heroine but denied being part of the film, and Priyamani took the role. Shooting began on 21 December 2009 in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, and the film was certified A by the censor board. Chakri’s soundtrack, with lyrics by Bhaskarabhatla, was launched on 5 May 2010 at Club Jayabheri and released by Aditya Music; the hit “Magallu” is based on the Italian song “L’Italiano”.

Reviews

123Telugu gave it 3.25 out of 5 and called it a “typical ‘Telugu Film Style’ take on a cop story! Go watch it.” Fullhyd.com (3.5/5) praised Gopichand’s character, the action, dialogue and writing, but criticised the “done-to-death villainy and the predictability of the script”. Rediff summed it up as “a full on masala film”, while Telugucinema.com was cooler: “strictly okay. Nothing new, nothing exciting.”

Box office and awards

IndiaGlitz reported that it completed 50 days in 79 centres, and T2BLive, listing the top Telugu grossers of 2010, puts its distributors’ share at ₹12 crore. At the Filmfare Awards South it won Best Female Playback Singer for Geetha Madhuri (“Magallu”), Best Supporting Actress for Roja Selvamani and Best Lyricist for Bhaskarabhatla Ravi Kumar (“Gundello Edo Sadi”).

Where to watch Golimaar

According to the film’s Wikipedia article, which is the basis of our OTT record, the Telugu version streams on Sun NXT; Aditya Music released the Hindi-dubbed version on DVD, VCD and YouTube in 2011. We have not checked the Sun NXT listing ourselves.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Golimaar and the reviews and reports it cites, linked above; our own cast and crew records.