Anasuya

Anasuya is a 2007 Telugu thriller written, directed and produced by Ravi Babu under his Flying Frogs banner, in collaboration with Suresh Productions. Bhumika plays the title role of a young TV reporter drawn into a serial-killer case, with Ravi Babu, Abbas and Nikita in support. Shekar Chandra composed the music, N. Sudhakar Reddy shot it and Marthand K. Venkatesh edited it. It was released on 21 December 2007, and was remade in Kannada as Anu (2009).

What the story is about

Anasuya is an orphan with a postgraduate degree in criminal psychology who starts work as a reporter at NTV. She lives with her elderly landlord, Joseph. Her first big assignment exposes child labour in a local politician’s household; when the politician throws out the young orphan servant Lakshmi to avoid arrest, Anasuya takes her in. The story makes her name, and some enemies among her senior colleagues.

Meanwhile a string of gruesome murders is baffling the police. The killer removes organs from his victims and leaves a red rose at each crime scene. Sent to gather information from the task-force officer Anand, Anasuya finds herself personally caught up in the case, and soon the killer’s attention turns towards her.

Cast and crew

• Bhumika as Anasuya
• Abbas as Anand
• Ravi Babu as Govind
• Nikita as Pooja
• Shankar Melkote as Joseph Kurien
• Harsha Vardhan as Harsha
• Ankitha as Tulasi
• Chalapathi Rao as Dr. Mohan Das
• Baby Neha as Lakshmi
• Pavala Syamala as Nirmalamma

Writer, director and producer: Ravi Babu (Flying Frogs, with Suresh Productions). Music: Shekar Chandra. Cinematography: N. Sudhakar Reddy. Editing: Marthand K. Venkatesh.

Making the film

Ravi Babu combined his own idea, a serial-killer story built around organ donation, with Malladi Venkata Krishna Murthy’s psycho-killer novel Sanivaaram Nadi, in which a male journalist and a woman police officer trap a killer. He bought the rights to the novel and reversed the roles, making the journalist a woman and the officer a man. The debutant composer Shekar Chandra’s soundtrack also uses the song “Ye Theega Poovuno” from Maro Charitra (1978).

Reviews, box office and awards

Reviews were positive. Jeevi of Idlebrain gave it 3 out of 5, praising the performances, especially Bhumika’s, and called it “a unique film in the thriller genre”. Rediff, headlining “Bhoomika shines in Anasuya”, found the attempt “sincere” and a good respite from formula films, though it might not enthuse their fans. Wikipedia calls the film a box-office hit that ran 50 days, but its source for that is Ravi Babu’s own website. N. Sudhakar Reddy won a Nandi Special Jury Award for the cinematography.

Where to watch Anasuya

Anasuya is listed on Aha, according to our record of the platform’s listing. Availability can vary by region.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Anasuya and the reviews it cites, linked above; Aha’s listing; our own cast and crew records.