Veera is a 2011 Telugu-language action comedy film directed by Ramesh Varma and cinematography by Chota K. Naidu which features Ravi Teja, Kajal Aggarwal and Taapsee Pannu in the lead roles. The film featured music by Thaman and was released on 20 May 2011. The film had completed 50 days in 60 centres and a 100-day run at the box office according to Zee 24 Gantalu. The film was released in Tamil as Veeraiyaah, in Hindi as The Great Veera in 2012 and also in Malayalam as Veera.
Plot
Shyam Prasad is an honest ACP who comes into conflict with the local don, Dhanraj. The goons kill Shyam's son,Moksha, and Shyam does not reveal this to his family but fears the villains may kill his daughter also. Dhanraj threatens Shyam's family so the police department arranges for an officer to provide security for them. Deva arrives and saves Shyam from Dhanraj's men and introduces himself as the security officer. Shyam's family still believes that their son is in the boarding school and waits for his call a Sunday, but instead, they are told their son went on an excursion. Shyam gets tensed and reveals everything to Deva. When he goes to drop Anjali to school with Tiger with whom he shares his room, on their way he met Aiki,who falls for him. Shyaam's wife Sathya dislikes Deva and doesn't want him involved with her family while Aiki falls in love with him. Shyaam learns that Deva is not the security officer appointed by the police department. It is revealed that Deva is Veera, a person who is like God to the whole village, he actually kills security officer Deva and replaces him. Sathya is his step sister. In the pre-interval scene, Dhanraj comes to kill Shyam and his family, and Veera bashes them badly and protects his sister's family. But, suddenly there appears a mystery man who introduces thyself as a great enemy of Veera, and shoots him. Veera loses his consciousness. A police officer sends Veera to Shyam's family. After the interval, the flashback begins. Veera was a powerful and kind-hearted landlord of a village. Every villager loved him very much. He lived with his younger brother, friends and a beautiful wife Chitti. But there is another landlord Peddarayudu who wants to vacate the whole village to build a factory. But, Veera opposes him. Pedda tries to torture on the villagers, and Veera beats him badly. Veera's younger brother marries the daughter of the officer who is the one who later sends Veera to Shyam's family. In that shame, the wife of Pedda suicides. Pedda becomes angry and kills the whole family of Veera, including his wife Chitti, when Veera is not present. Knowing this, Veera kills all of Pedda's henchmen. Pedda was supposed to die in an explosion, but he survives. Veera doesn't know that Pedda survived. Sathya blames Veera for the death of their family. That's why Sathya disliked Veera. Later, Veera comes to the city to save his step-sister's family. The flashback episode ends. Then the climax starts. Pedda challenges Veera and after a long fight between the two, Veera kills Pedda and takes his revenge. Then Aiki proposes to Veera and he agrees. And, he unites with his sister happily.
In January 2010, the first look of Veera was released by Sanvi Productions, the producers of the film, with Ravi Teja in the lead role and Ramesh Varma as the director. Furthermore, a leading technical crew was announced with Devi Sri Prasad as music composer, Chota K. Naidu as cinematographer, Marthand K. Venkatesh as editor and the Parachuri brothers as writers. The casting process began in June 2010 with Anushka Shetty was signed on to play the lead female role with Taapsee Pannu selected to play a supporting role in the film. Anushka walked out of the project before filming began and was subsequently replaced by Kajal Aggarwal, whilst Devi Sri Prasad was also replaced by Thaman. Kick Shaam and Sridevi Vijayakumar were also signed on to play a supporting roles in the film. After further delays, the film began its first schedule in November 2010 at Madhapur Art Gallery in Hyderabad. The filming was wrapped in May 2011 at Switzerland after shooting couple of romantic songs.
Soundtrack
The audio release of the film was done in a very simple manner. Music director S. Thaman, director Gopichand Malineni, Aditya Music CEO Dayanand,B.A. Raju were present at the function. S. Thaman released the CD and handed it over to Gopichand Malineni. S. Thaman said that since the entire unit is present at Switzerland as of now busy with the shooting he was organising this audio release and songs in the movie are according to the body language of Ravi Teja and also informed that NTR old classic Mavilla thota kada was remixed in the movie according to the requirement. The movie has celebrated its triple platinum disc function in Taj Deccan. Ravi Teja, Brahmanandam, Sridevi Vijaykumar, Ali, Chota K Naidu, Ram-Lakshman, Dayanand, S. Thaman and others were present at the function.
Reviews
The film received mixed reviews. Supergoodmovies wrote:"Veera is for die hard mass fans who like to see severed limbs and arms flying all over the screen. Audience with sensibilities won't like it a bit". Indiaglitz wrote:"An absolutely predictable and irritatingly boring film". 123telugu wrote:"Watch it, if you are a big fan of Ravi Teja". Rediff wrote:"tedious watch". Fullhyd wrote:"Veera, well-rounded in its lousiness, does neither. And yet, it audaciously traipses on, firm in its faith that this is the blockbuster you've been waiting for all summer". sify wrote:"Veera is only fine in parts wherever Ravi Teja is shown in a mass dimension. There is unnecessary violence and the screenplay is hackneyed. Director Ramesh Varma was purely focusing to showcase Ravi Teja on the lines of a superhero but he failed miserably". Cinegoer wrote:"Veera is an extremely ordinary or routine subject with the regular thrills, frills, love and romance bereft of reality, logic, nevertheless it has its share of twists here and there that could take you by surprise". Greatandhra wrote:"this is a film which gives a stale taste of boredom even to the masses".
