Prasthanam

Prasthanam
Directed by	Deva Katta
Written by	Deva Katta
Produced by	Ravi Vallabhaneni
Starring	Sharwanand Sai Kumar Sundeep Kishan Ruby Parihar
Cinematography	Shamdat Sainudeen
Edited by	Dharmendra Kakarala
Music by	Mahesh Shankar
Release date	16 April 2010 (2010-04-16)
Running time	151 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Prasthanam (transl. Reign) is a 2010 Indian Telugu-language political action drama film written and directed by Deva Katta. The film was produced by Ravi Vallabhaneni under VRC Media & Entertainment banner. The film stars Sharwanand, Sai Kumar, Sundeep Kishan (in his career acting debut) and Ruby Parihar. The film received generally positive response upon release with praise for Sai Kumar's performance. The film won two Filmfare Awards South, two Nandi Awards and was also featured at the 41st IFFI in the Indian Panorama section.^[1][2] The film was dubbed and released in Tamil as Padhavi. It was dubbed into hindi as "Asteen Ka Saanp".

Katta remade Prasthanam in Hindi with the same title in 2019.^[3] This film is the first film in the Deva Katta's Quadriology of society which shows the perspective of a Politician on society. The film is considered one of the "25 Greatest Telugu Films Of The Decade" by Film Companion.^[4]

Ketti Lokanatham Naidu, alias Loki, takes over the reins of a rural political party from a dying Dasharatha Rama Naidu. On his deathbed, Rama Naidu requests Loki marry his widowed daughter-in-law, Savitri, whose husband and his son, Keshava Naidu, were attacked and killed by a rival political group. Loki complies. 25 years later in Vijayawada, Loki is now the next potential Chief Minister candidate.

Loki's stepson is Mitranand, and his biological son is Chinna. While Mitra is a devoted and loving stepson to Loki, his stepdaughter, Valli, hates him for marrying their mother and severs ties with them. Loki wants to see Mitra as his heir because he is a thinking and sensible man, whereas Chinna is hot-blooded with a negligent lifestyle. Chinna loathes Mitra because he receives less attention than Mitra from Loki and is constantly discouraged by his father from entering politics. Valli's sister-in-law, Latha, is Mitra's girlfriend. Chinna gets upset upon learning that Mitra is now the new youth president of the party.

That same night, in the intoxication of drugs, Chinna rapes Hameed Basha's daughter, Nadia, and injures her. Upon waking up, she throws a beer bottle at Chinna's friends, who try to defend themselves. As they drive her to the hospital, the car gets overturned due to driving at a high speed. Though Chinna and his friends get out of the car unscathed, Nadia is injured and barely alive. Chinna's friends convince him to leave the spot, because even if they admit Nadia to the hospital, a police case will be filed due to the extent of her injuries. Chinna and his friends leave as the car catches fire. The next day, Chinna hides in the hospital where Valli works. Upon finding him, he admits to her what happened. In return, she chastises and threatens him by calling the police. As news reporters telecast Chinna running away from the hospital, Basha tries to attack him, only to be stabbed by Chinna. All of this is caught on-live. The entire state gets to know about Chinna's actions as a result.

Mitra wants to punish Chinna for this act, while Chinna tries to get Mitra killed. Chinna then kills Valli and her husband for looking down on him. As a twist in the tale, Loki sacrifices his political goodwill to protect Chinna. By doing so, he and Mitra are forced to confront each other. Loki has Mitra beaten up when Mitra chases after Chinna to avenge Valli. Mitra leaves the house, moves to his old home in the village, and tries to kill Chinna but cannot bring himself to do it. That same moment, Basha shows up and finishes the deed. Loki orders both Mitra and Basha to be killed in the village. Basha saves Mitra from the goons and reveals to him that Loki had killed Mitra's biological father, Keshava Naidu, out of jealousy and greed, as they were taking him to the hospital after he got severely injured from the attack of the rival political party. Because he was next to the throne in his grandfather's political party, Loki had to gain goodwill from Rama Naidu. Mitra confronts Loki and tells him that no amount of reading puranas will absolve him of his heinous character.

Loki then tells him to go beyond the puranas, as there are no villains or heroes, but rather ordinary people committing sins to fulfill their goals. Loki then tries to kill Basha, but Mitra snatches the gun from him Then Loki asks to kill him because he is unbearable with the death of Chinna and having his most lovable son turned into a foe. He asks him to relieve him of the responsibilities he got by killing him. Then Mitra falls down on Loki's feet and admits that Loki is the only father he has ever known, and even if Keshava Naidu had lived, Mitra would not have loved him as much as Loki. Mitra tells Loki that he still loves him but does not hate enough to kill him, and he requests that he end this game by himself for the sake of his mother, who became depressed and lost hope in life by losing her children. Mitra and Basha leave. Soon after, Loki shoots himself out of disgrace. Finally, the film ends with Mitra's reign beginning.

The movie, on one hand, deals with politics at grass root levels that occur in villages of India, corrupt political system and the nexus between businessmen and politicians. On the other hand, the movie deals with themes like greed, ambition and devotion which are driving forces of the lead characters in this movie. A movie-buff argues that the central theme revolves around the quote from the Book of Exodus, Old Testament, –"The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the children."^[5]

The music was composed by Mahesh Shankar and released by T-Series.

Despite fierce competition from other big budget films, like Simha and Darling, it did modestly well at the box office.

Nandi Awards

• 2010 - Third Best Feature Film - Bronze - Ravi Vallabhaneni
• 2010 - Best Supporting Actor - Sai Kumar

Filmfare Awards South

• 2010 - Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor (Telugu) - Sai Kumar
• 2010 - Filmfare Critics Award for Best Telugu Film - Deva Katta

• Vennela
• Jilla

• Prasthanam at IMDb