Pushpa: The Rise (2021)
In the 1990s, Pushpa Raj, a labourer, decides to smuggle red sandalwood, a rare wood in high demand that only grows in the Seshachalam Hills of the Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh with his friend sidekick Keshava. When DSP Govindappa and his team raid the forest for apprehending the coolies and seize the stock, Pushpa hides it, gets arrested and brutally beaten for revealing the location of wood. Pushpa's employer, smuggler Konda Reddy and his brothers bail Pushpa out for the stock's location and he eventually rises through the ranks by suggesting novel ideas to smuggle the stock earning Konda Reddy's trust and becoming his 5% partner, while also simultaneously receiving hatred from Konda Reddy's youngest brother Jolly Reddy.
Pushpa: The Rise (2021)
Allu Arjun played the titular character Pushpa Raj, a red-sanders smuggler, and sported a bearded look for his role in the film.[42] Rashmika Mandanna was cast as the film's lead actress,[43] with an official announcement made on Allu Arjun's birthday (8 April 2019).[44] Mandanna in an online interaction confirmed that she will be learning a new dialect for the film, which is slightly based on the accent of Chittoor.[45][46] Jisshu Sengupta was originally offered to play the antagonist but he refused due to pandemic and time constraint.[47][48] Vijay Sethupathi entered in talks to play the antagonist in October 2019, after working with Sukumar in the director's production venture Uppena (2021),[49][50] and was confirmed to be part of the film in January 2020.[51] However, in July 2020, Sethupathi left the film citing scheduling conflicts.[52] Post Sethupathi's exit, Vikram,[53] Bobby Simha,[54] Madhavan[55] and Arya[56] were reported to play negative roles in the film, but Malayalam actor Fahadh Faasil was announced as the film's antagonist in March 2021, thus marking his debut in Telugu cinema[citation needed].[57] For his role in the film, Fahadh sported a bald look and a rough moustache.[58]
Sukumar and the makers were accused of copyright infringement by the writer Vempalli Gangadhar.[175] In a Facebook post dated 27 August 2020, Gangadhar stated that the storyline which is based on red sandalwood smuggling, was plagiarised from his short story titled Tamil Coolie written for Sakshi newspaper which was published two years earlier.[176][177][further explanation needed]
Although I am an Allu Arjun fan since long and have loved all of his films I have watched, I didn't expect to be surprised this much when I began watching Pushpa: The Rise. The visuals are picturesque, the action choreography is outstanding and the world-building is phenomenal. Although it could've been a bit shorter, director Sukumar has backed his film with enough positives to justify the existence of almost every scene. And Allu Arjun's shockingly outstanding performance proves why he is loved by audiences. 041b061a72