Kalidasu

Kalidasu is a 2008 Telugu action drama directed by G. Ravicharan Reddy that marked the debut of Sushanth as a leading man, opposite Tamannaah Bhatia. Wikipedia credits Chinthalapudi Srinivasa Rao and A. Naga Suseela as producers under Sri Nag Corporation (our record lists Annapurna Studios). Chakri composed the music, with lyrics by Chandrabose, and the film was released on 11 April 2008.

What the story is about

Kalidasu is the son of an honest police officer killed by a Rayalaseema factionist. After avenging his father, the boy flees to Guntur, where Kanakadurga raises him alongside her own son, Jai Dev. To pay for Dev’s studies in Hyderabad, Kalidasu becomes a car-lifter, selling stolen cars to a man called Baba, whose son Basha becomes his friend.

One day Kalidasu steals a car and finds a girl hiding inside. She calls herself Mirchi and acts as if she has lost her mind, but he suspects she is pretending. When armed men come to Guntur looking for her, Kalidasu is pulled into a much bigger fight, and the trail leads back to Hyderabad and to Dev. The rest of the film is a revenge drama in which he outwits his enemies rather than simply overpowering them.

Cast and crew

• Sushanth as Kalidasu
• Tamannaah Bhatia as Archana (“Mirchi”)
• Jayasudha as Kanakadurga
• Sunil as Basha
• Ajay as Ajay
• Vinod Kumar Alva as Pratap
• Rajan P. Dev as the Home Minister
• Nagababu as Kalidasu’s father
• Ravi Babu as a police officer
• Tanikella Bharani as the college principal

Director: G. Ravicharan Reddy. Producers: Chinthalapudi Srinivasa Rao and A. Naga Suseela (Sri Nag Corporation). Music: Chakri. Lyrics: Chandrabose.

Music

The soundtrack was released on 31 March 2008 at Annapurna Studios, at a function kept exclusive to Nagarjuna’s MAA TV, without the press; photographs were handed to the media afterwards.

Reviews and box office

Most reviews treated it as a formula film that served its purpose of launching a new hero. Telugucinema.com gave it 3 out of 5, calling it “a very formulaic story but decent film for a debutant”. IndiaGlitz praised Sushanth’s “excellent ease in dances and action scenes”, and Oneindia felt it did not look like a debutant’s film. Cinegoer was cooler: “nothing new or good to offer, but it isn’t an unbearable affair either”. Sify called it watchable.

Wikipedia describes the film as a success that ran more than 50 days in a number of centres, but its only source for this is the producer’s own company website; we have not found an independent box-office report.

Where to watch Kalidasu

We do not have a confirmed streaming listing for Kalidasu on file. If we verify one with a platform, it will appear on this page.

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