Upendra

About the film

Upendra is a 1999 Indian Kannada-language psychological drama thriller film written and directed by Upendra. It stars Upendra, Raveena Tandon, Prema and Damini. It is an allegorical film, which explores three human emotions through the relationship between the main character and the three heroines and touches upon Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The lyrics were written by Upendra and the music composed by Gurukiran. The film developed a cult fanbase and it is said that the director named it Upendra with the thought that the name includes the names of the main characters of the film (U for Upendra, P for Prema, D for Damini, and Ra for Raveena).

The film won Filmfare Award for Best Film (Kannada) and Filmfare Award for Best Director (Kannada). It was screened at the 30th International Film Festival of India in 1999 and the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Japan in 2001. A sequel titled Uppi 2 was released in 2015.

Plot

Betala begins to narrate one of his puzzling tales to Vikramāditya which is the story of Naanu (meaning I/Me/Myself), an ego-driven selfish rogue and the three women in his life. Naanu since childhood hates hypocrisy and always speaks the truth. In the process, he exposes the truth behind everything. A young woman, Rathi whose father, a swami is accosted by Upendra, exposes the hypocrisy of religion and his teachings. Thus, revealing his actual hatred towards his daughter. During this, Rathi falls in love with Naanu. However, she finds out that Naanu wants to marry a billionaire, Keerthi whose deceased father decides that her husband would inherit her entire wealth. He prints wedding cards and distributes them to all, including employees working in Keerthi's establishments. This angers Keerthi who orders her guardian, Marimuthu's son (who wants to marry her for the same reason) to attack Naanu. They bring a woman, Swathi, who lives in Naanu's house, and torture her. Naanu comes to her rescue and it is revealed that Swathi is Naanu's wife.

Rathi meets Naanu in person and confirms that Swathis is indeed his "wife". She threatens to kill both Swathi and Keerthi and herself if Naanu leaves her for either of them. He agrees, and Swathi leaves. Swathi later rescues the couple from Keerthi's henchmen and in turn, Naanu persuades her to return. She too threatens to kill Rathi and Keerthi if Naanu leaves her for any of them, to which Naanu agrees. He continues to be in a relationship with Rathi and hides it from Swathi and vice versa. However, his obsession with Keerthi never dies. He traps Marimuthu and after a turn of events, Keerthi eventually agrees to marry him. While they both are jubilant, Rathi and Swathi learn of his marriage to Keerthi and reach the harbor where the pair is currently hiding from the henchmen of Marimuthu. When they reach the harbor, Keerthi is informed about Naanu's plans and she drops her marriage plans with him. He then kidnaps all three women and kills Marimuthu and his son.

Naanu and the three women reach an old building where an injured Naanu threatens to kill all of them and forces all to be his life partners to which they do not agree. They are interrupted by a rich person who plans to have a party in the building, Gopala.

Production

The first schedule was held in Mangalore and the second schedule was held in Bangalore in March 1999 where the press conference scene with Raveena Tandon was canned.

Themes and influences

The movie is a metaphorical reference to a man‘s quest for lust and fame without willing to assume any responsibilities. This theme is depicted in the form of assigning human forms to four feelings - ego (protagonist), commitment, lust and fame. The three heroines represent three stages in a man’s life - responsibilities, lust and fame while the hero himself is a representative of human ego.

It makes use of a concept Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - a person’s ego, once satisfied with basic needs, longs for companionship and when they gets that, they desire for recognition in the society only to leave everything for self-realization. The three feelings are further compared to three seasons - responsibilities to rainy season, lust to sunny season and fame to winter. This is only a broad outlook and each scene in the movie speaks about worldly life purely from the point of view of human ego satisfaction.

Further, the inter-relation between these feelings is depicted through interaction between the characters. Various issues relating to these feelings are used as sub plots - how the human ego yearns for fame to boost itself or how it is hurt when someone taunts that achieving fame is impossible or how commitments comes in between while running behind fame or how fame is not something unachievable or how people run behind fame only for the monetary benefits it offers. These ideas are represented by following sequences which happen with one of the heroines (who is wealthy) representing fame who is named Keerthi (literally meaning fame):

Soundtrack

Upendra wanted A.R. Rahman to compose for the film, so much so, that he met him and Mani Ratnam in the year 1997 - 98. Since he was busy after the success of Roja, Bombay and he was busy composing for Rangeela, Dil Se, Upendra then opted for Gurukiran. The music was composed by Gurukiran and lyrics penned by Upendra. After a decade he made A.R. Rahman to compose for his movie Godfather in 2012.

Key details