Antha

<p>Sushil Kumar is an honest , who leads a happy life with his wife Sunitha and his mother. Kanwar Lal, a cold-blooded gangster, who is a of Sushil is in prison under , as he is the head of a crime syndicate. He controls dangerous gangsters headed by his partners Beg, Mekjee Topiwala and Ajab Singh, who are involved in and . The Chief Shankar hatches a plan to send Sushil in the place of Kanwar to catch Kanwar’s partners, who have high-level influence in the society. Sushil takes up the job by informing his family that he is headed for . Sushil masquerades as Kanwar and creates an impression that Kanwar has escaped from prison and succeeds in joining the syndicate where he starts collecting intel about the gang’s illegal activities. When Sushil’s mother dies of stroke, he is not in the position to attend his mother’s funeral. While being with Kanwar’s partners, Sushil confronts his lost-sister Shobha, whose circumstances have forced her to perform a . Both are unable to bear the pain and Shobha commits suicide. Sushil was unable to acknowledge his sister, fearing for his identity and purpose. Sushil succeeds in his mission of collecting information about the illegal activities of the gang, including the higher officials of the with evidence, but the partners capture him, after learning his identity. Sushil manages to safeguard the collected evidence. They keep him in their custody and torture him. They kidnap Sunitha, who is carrying Sushil’s child and kill her in Sushil’s presence. Sushil escapes and reaches the higher officials with evidence, but learns that they are helpless in arresting them. Sushil takes law into his own hands and kills Kanwar’s partners. He then surrenders himself to the with evidence. was based on the novel of same name by H. K. Anantha Rao which was serialised in Kannada weekly magazine which caught Babu’s attention and decided to adapt it. Singh Babu revealed even Dr. Rajkumar expressed interest in acting in this film but Babu felt the role will not suit him as the role “wanted somebody who didn’t have stardom”. After plans of casting , and in the lead role were dropped or failed, Ambareesh, who had until then mostly played supporting roles, was cast. The soundtrack was composed by , with lyrics by , and . When the film was submitted to the for certification, they denied giving any certificate. The Board advised deleting the torture scene of Ambareesh. But director stated that it is necessary to the story. Then the Board delayed giving a certificate for the film. The film also involved in controversy for its depiction of politicians. Ultimately the censor passed the film with an sans any cuts or muted dialogues. At the 1981–82 , the film received three awards: (Babu), (P. S. Prakash) and (Ambareesh). The film was remade in Tamil as , in Telugu as , and Rajendra Singh Babu directed the Hindi remake . announced in 2010 that he would direct the remake of the film with himself in the lead role. However, the project got shelved. made a sequel for the film called (1995), with Ambareesh reprising his role. The film became a breakthrough in the career of Ambareesh, who went on to become one of the top actors in . The dialogue from the film “Kutte, Kanwar Nahi Kanwarlal Bolo” ( ) became a famous catchphrase. included the film in their list “Top 5 films of Ambareesh”. Ambareesh reprised the character of Kanwarlal in (2010) also directed by Rajendra Singh Babu. who acted in the Hindi remake (1981) later went on to work in a gangster flick named after his role in this movie – (1988) which incidentally was a remake of Malayalam movie (1986).</p>