Kshana Kshanam

Kshana Kshanam (transl. “Every Moment”) is a 1991 Telugu road thriller written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma, starring Venkatesh and Sridevi, with Paresh Rawal and Rami Reddy as the men chasing them. An ordinary young woman and a small-time con man spend the film on the run from a gang of robbers and the police. Released on 9 October 1991, it won five Nandi Awards and two Filmfare Awards South, screened at the Ann Arbor and Fribourg film festivals, and has since gathered a cult following.

What the story is about

A gang working for the ruthless Nayar pulls off a ₹1 crore bank robbery in Hyderabad. One of the robbers, Narayana, double-crosses his boss to keep the loot and, moments before he is caught, hides a clue to where the money is inside an ordinary photo envelope at his brother’s studio. Before the gang can get it back, the envelope is collected by mistake by Satya, a middle-class working woman. Nayar’s men come after her, and in a frantic struggle at her flat a thug is stabbed, so the police now want her too.

At a roadside eatery Satya crosses paths with Chandu, a con man who likes to pass himself off as a policeman. When the police turn up, Chandu assumes they are after him, takes Satya at gunpoint, and the two disappear into the jungle, with Nayar’s gang and Inspector Yadav both on their trail. What follows is the chase, and a slowly growing affection between two very different people. We will stop there.

Cast and crew

• Venkatesh as Chandu
• Sridevi as Satya
• Paresh Rawal as Nayar
• Rami Reddy as Inspector Yadav
• Brahmanandam as a store manager
• Narsing Yadav as Narsing
• Hema as Sarala
• Horse Babu as Narayana

Writer-director: Ram Gopal Varma. Music: M. M. Keeravani. Cinematography: S. Gopal Reddy. Editor: Shankar. Production: Sri Durga Arts. Runtime: 158 minutes.

Making of the film

After the success of Siva (1989), cinematographer S. Gopal Reddy approached Varma about a film with Sridevi. Varma, a devoted fan, agreed and later called the film “a love letter to her” in a blog post published by Idlebrain. Takkari Donga Chakkani Chukka and 36 Gantalu were considered as titles. The film was shot in Hyderabad, the Nallamala forests and Mudumalai National Park, with the climax filmed at Nandyal.

Keeravani has said the background score took him 12 days, because this was the first Telugu film to use a 6-track sound system. The song “Jaamu Raatiri”, written by Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry and sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and K. S. Chithra, is still widely loved; a new version was released by Vel Records in August 2019 (The Times of India).

Reviews, then and now

Griddaluru Gopalrao of Zamin Ryot, reviewing on 18 October 1991, liked the performances and the action but felt the writing could have been better, arguing that the suspense suffered because the audience knew things the characters did not. A year later, on 16 October 1992, Malini Mannath of The Indian Express called it a “comic-thriller” and said “the climax scene on a train has been superbly directed”.

Looking back in 2020, Balakrishna Ganeshan of The News Minute called it a classic that tells its story from a woman’s point of view, rare in Indian cinema, though it still has a “male saviour” streak; he found Sridevi and Venkatesh “understated and subtle” and singled out Gopal Reddy’s top-angle chase shots. Idlebrain includes it in a series on very good films that were box-office failures, crediting Varma with bringing road-movie and noir styles to the Indian screen.

Awards and other versions

Nandi Awards went to Varma for Best Director and Best Screenplay, Sridevi for Best Actress, S. Gopala Reddy for Best Cinematographer and Shankar for Best Editor. At the Filmfare Awards South it won Best Actress – Telugu for Sridevi and Best Music Director – Telugu for Keeravani. The film was dubbed into Tamil as Ennamo Nadakudhu and Hindi as Hairaan, and Varma later remade it in Hindi as Daud.

Where to watch Kshana Kshanam

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

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