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అతడు (2005)

fter the searing Malayalam gangster film Kammati Paadam, I wanted something lighter to watch. Someone had recommended to me Athadu as their favorite Mahesh Babu film and it's free on Youtube with subtitles. (Love you Telugu Cinema industry for doing that!). Athadu evidently means simply "He". athadu 2 It starts super violent. A young street kid murders someone, and then joins a gang. And then we see the now grown up Mahesh and there is more violence. I despaired at first as it was all this violence and blood " I"d had plenty of that with Kammati Paadam. Mahesh is Nandu, a killer " a stone cold hitman, and Sonu Sood is his getaway driver. He's hired to stage an almost assassination of a politician, and is double crossed and chased for the murder. During his escape on a train, an innocent person is killed. And he takes on that victim's identity, as the victim Pardhu was on his way to reunite with long lost family who hadn"t seen him in over a decade. Pardhu had been orphaned and his grandfather and family had been searching for him. Mahesh arrives in the village, and is welcomed as the prodigal son returned. No one had seen Pardhu since he was a child, so they just say, "My you'vegrown tall!" and the like. Nasser plays the grandfather, and Trisha Krishnan is Poori, Pardhu's cousin. Mahesh lays low and stays at the rural family compound for over a month. You can tell he's never had a normal family life and that this is all new to him. And that's when I realized, that this was going to totally be my catnip trope " killer disarmed by love and family!! With a heaping helping of taking on an identity and trying to blend into a family. It's like Witness crossed with The Professional crossed with Sommersby! (In a good way.) Read the rest of my review: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/06/05/athadu-killer-disarmed-by-love-and-affection-my-total-catnip/