When vigilante justice achieves its target

This is a movie, which can be called a pan-South India film with its original being from Malayalam, remade into Telugu and Tamil and its core plot adopted in Kannada. One is referring to the film ' Sri Mahalakshmi' released in 2007, adapted from the original ' Chintamani Kola Case' released a year earlier, a hit venture which ran for 100 days on release.

Produced by erstwhile item number specialist 'Disco' Shanti, directed by Fight master Vijayan, one of the best stunt masters of that time and starring Srihari, Suhasini Mani Ratnam and Sayaji Shinde, the film was classified a 'legal thriller'. Basing itself on the subject of vigilante justice, it showed how the protagonist under the garb of cosmic justice, eliminates the wrongdoers whom he frees from the law enforcers and remains a step ahead of the cops who are suspicious of his moves but cannot do anything owing to lack of substantive evidence.

The highlight of the film is the manner in which the main character Sri Mahalakshmi is killed and how a web of suspicion engulfs a lot of people, with the hero zeroing in on the actual assailants towards the final part of the film. This lady character was played by Shamna aka Poorna who was appearing in Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil films quite regularly during that phase.

Coming just weeks after the successful film ' Dhee', directed by Srinu Vytla where the late 'Real Star' played a much-appreciated supporting role, this film too found favour with the audience as such forms of crime thrills are usually liked for the suspense elements and cat and mouse games between the good and bad sides. Sri Hari himself went on to maintain a typical niche for himself in Telugu cinema till the time he was snatched away in 2013 before he turned 50.

Suresh Gopi- Shaji Kailas team which showcased the original in Malayalam too were considered a hit pair in Mollywood and this film reportedly reaffirmed their position in the local movie world which was seeing a lot of young faces coming up all over. The Telugu version helmsman, Vijayan, had gone on to direct one more film in Tamil which launched his son, having had the privilege of coming up with two earlier directorial ventures over the past 15 years till then. He played a part in the 2004 release of Superstar Mahesh Babu 'Nani' which is credited to S J Suryah, now a big actor in Tamil cinema, but back then churning out a disaster of a film.