Nijam () is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language action film written, directed and produced by Teja under the Chitram Movies banner. The film stars Mahesh Babu, Gopichand, Rakshita, and Raasi, with music was composed by R. P. Patnaik.

Nijam was released on 23 May 2003. It opened to mixed reviews and became a box office failure. Babu and Rameshwari won the Nandi Awards in Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories respectively. It was remade in Odia as Arjun (2005) starring Anubhav Mohanty and in Bangladesh as Top Leader (2005) starring Shakib Khan.

Plot Sidda Reddy is a powerful gangster. His right-hand man Devadaya "Devudu" Sharma has a lover named Malli. Reddy, who also likes Malli, takes her to bed, which enrages Devudu. Eventually, Devudu kills Reddy and takes over the gang. Venkateswarlu is a fire officer who slaps Devudu when the latter sets a marketplace on fire. Devudu holds a grudge against Venkateswarlu, and he sends him to prison on a framed charge of the murder of Malli's brother Baddu. Venkateswarlu's son G. Seetharam tries to rescue his father, but everybody starts asking him for a bribe to do the work. At the end of the day, CI Mohan and Devudu kill Venkateswarlu bloody. Enraged, Seetaram and his mother Shanthi plan to execute the people involved in Venkateswarlu's death and also finish Devudu, thus exacting their vengeance. ACP Raja Narendra is appointed to investigate the murders.

Cast

Mahesh Babu as G. Sitaram Gopichand as Devadaya "Devudu" Sarma Rakshita as Janaki Raasi as Malli Prakash Raj as ACP Raja Narendra Jaya Prakash Reddy as Sidda Reddy Brahmanandam as Rama Chandra Murthy Ranganath as G. Venkateswarlu, Sitaram's father Rameswari as Santhi, Sitaram's mother Brahmaji as CI D. Mohan Vijayachander as DGP Jeeva as DCP Murali Krishna Suman Setty as Baddu, Malli's brother Kanta Rao as Narayana Rao, social worker Rallapalli as butcher Kondavalasa as Sitaram's neighbor Duvvasi Mohan as constable Narsing Rao Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam as traffic constable Tirupathi Prakash as Sitaram's neighbor Shakeela as Sitaram's neighbor Alapati Lakshmi Master Ghatamaneni Jaya Krishna Mani Chandana as a dancer (cameo appearance in the song "Rathalu Rathalu")

Soundtrack

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

Release Reception Jeevi of Idlebrain gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "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". Vijayalakshmi of Rediff wrote "Only a couple of things salvage director Teja's Nijam -- the first is an excellent performance by lead star and teen sensation Mahesh. The second is cinematographer Samir Reddy's camera work. BVS Prakash of Screen wrote "Except for some good performance by Mahesh, director Teja’s much-hyped film Nijam (truth) is nothing but a rehash of Kamal Haasan’s Indian and it also lacks realistic characters with villain (Gopi) who calls himself God but behaves like a psychic. Teja, who rose to fame with love stories Nuvvu Nenu and Jayam, fails to dish out an interesting ‘star-centric’ film".

Box office In an interview, Teja said "We made Nijam in a budget of 6.5 crore; We sold audio rights for 2 crore and movie initially were sold for a total of 26 crore. In total, we made a profit of 5-6 crore and Nijam was not a flop". In an interview with The Hindu, Teja told "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 6.5 crore and sold for 21 crore. I repaid money to whoever lost money and still made a huge profit".

Dubbed versions and remakes The film was also dubbed into Tamil as the same title, and then again in 2012 as Nisam. The film was dubbed as Meri Adalat in Hindi, in Bengali as Aamar Protishodh and in Bhojpuri as Hamaar Faisla. It was remade as Arjun (2005) in Odia starring Anubhab Mohanty and Gargi Mohanty with Rameswari reprised her role from the original Telugu film. and Bangladesh as Top Leader (2005) starring Shakib Khan.

Awards

Won Nandi Awards(in Telugu) Best Actor - Mahesh Babu Best Supporting Actress - Talluri Rameswari

CineMAA Awards Best Villain - Gopichand

Nominated Filmfare Awards South Best Actor - Telugu - Mahesh Babu Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress - Telugu - Taluri Rameswari CineMAA Awards CineMAA Award for Best Actor - Male - Mahesh Babu CineMAA Award for Best Film - Teja

References

External links