Masterpiece (2015 film)

Masterpiece
Promotional poster
Directed by	Manju Mandavya
Produced by	Vijay Kiragandur
Written by	Manju Mandavya
Screenplay by	Manju Mandavya
Starring	Yash Shanvi Srivastava
Music by	V. Harikrishna
Cinematography	Vaidhy.S
Edited by	K. M. Prakash
Production company	Hombale Films
Distributed by	Jayanna Films
Release dates	24 December 2015 (2015-12-24)
Running time	2 hr 38 min
Country	India
Language	Kannada

Masterpiece (stylized as Master Piece, Kannada: ಮಾಸ್ಟರ್ ಪೀಸ್) is a 2015 Indian Kannada action-thriller film written and directed by Manju Mandavya. It stars Yash and Shanvi Srivastava in the lead roles. The supporting cast features Suhasini Maniratnam, P. Ravi Shankar and Chikkanna. The film was released on 24 December 2015.

Though the posters depicts Yash in Bhagat Singh costumes, the movie is not about the life history of Bhagat Singh.

"One portion of the film sees me as Bhagat Singh, but that does not make it a historic film. It is a pakka commercial film", says Yash in an interview.^[1]

Plot

Yuva is a character with negative shades. He aspires to become a boss from childhood. He finds that wrong routes are the best way to achieve it. He starts fighting in school itself. He inscribes "BOSS" on his desk. When he reaches college, he beats up a guy as he refused to acknowledge him as boss. Soon there is a fight with the college leader and the whole college recognizes him as "BOSS".

When his college is reputed for the production of gangsters and rowdies, his name is printed along with his photo on the newspaper with many others. Angred, Yuva injures the editor of the newspaper and demands him to print his name and photo on the first page. His mom, whom Yuva calls Durgi, hates Yuva. In a temple, Yuva's sight falls on a girl named Nisha. He follows and finds out she is testing Yuva. Yuva soon falls in love with her.

Meanwhile, Yuva has a student (apparently) named Bruce Lee. After he passed out, Bruce Lee stands for the student elections and wins with the help of Yuva (whom Bruce Lee calls Bhaiyya). Noor Ahmed, a politician who wants to contest in the elections seeks the help of Yuva after finding about Bruce Lee's win in student elections. Yuva makes a lot of money from Ahmed and helps him to win the elections.

Jealous by his progress, Guli Shankar visits Yuva's home and has lunch without permission. Yuva's mother is threatened by Shankar and Shankar states that he is angered that an unknown person has entered his field and is becoming the boss. He states the good deeds which Yuva has done for which Yuva's mother replies a "THANKS". Yuva is informed about this and goes to Shankar's place and gives him dinner which his mom has prepared. He fights with everyone except Shankar while having dinner.

The police are on the trail of a drug mafia Don. The Don moves into an elevator and points a gun at Nisha. Unknown to the Don that Yuva is in the elevator, Yuva fights him and renders him unconscious. Yuva gets publicity from this and all news channels screen his interview. One channel interviews his mother and the mother recounts all this. Yuva, however, uses his influence and changes the interview in such a way that Bruce Lee is the interrogator and he is a very good guy. Nisha's parents agree to marry her to Yuva believing all the lies.

Boss (drug mafia Don) awakes and his gang trouble Yuva. They kidnap his sister's son during a programme in the school and the child returns at night. His mother is kidnapped in the temple and found by Yuva. When Yuva goes to the police for protection, the police refuse to give him it as he is rowdy. Nisha gets kidnapped in a mall and Yuva gets a call stating that Nisha will not return like the others and will not be released unless the Don is brought back from hospital. Yuva finds a gun in Nisha's purse. He uses his talents and creates a fight in the hospital. He uses his gun to kill the power and brings the Don out of the ward (like a puppet, catching his shirt). The police and Yuva faceoff and Yuva escapes. All this is recorded in the CCTV. The Don is taken to Goa and Yuva demands the release of Nisha.

However, Yuya is attacked. But the Don does not want him dead and declares him the drug mafia Don. Because of this, the police are on his trail now and he will always be in hiding. However, Yuva gets angered when he sees his mom interrogated and attacked after she says he should be encountered. He kidnaps the Don's brother. The Don returns back to India from Dubai and demands a search for his brother. Yuva sends him a laptop where there is a recorded video of his brother and his other colleagues fighting and later Yuva beating him up. The Don sends a group out to search the island but he later realises that it is recorded video. Yuva returns, fights him and ties him up. Later Yuva loads all of them in a truck.

Yuva stops and asks Bruce Lee to record a video where the Don reveals that politicians and the police are helping him. He states that India can never change, he can't change India and Obama should just come to India and visit the Taj Mahal. He states that India has members tweeting "Come on India", but no one can change it. He says that his dream is to make drugs available in stores. Yuva understands nationalism (which his mom was trying to preach) and says that we think of an alternative and that we will never find out anything about the problem or solution. He says he wanted to become a superstar but he doesn't care if he becomes a villain now and shoots all of them stating that "He doesn't know what changes after this but drugs will not be available at provision stores". Yuva releases the video on Youtube and is arrested. The whole of Karnataka fights for his release and he becomes a star for his mother who sees him as Bhagat Singh. His mom had told him stories of freedom fighters and great men who served the country in his childhood. He is now happy as he has become one of them

Cast

• Yash as Yuva
• P. Ravi Shankar as Boss
• Shanvi Srivastava as Nisha
• Suhasini Maniratnam as Durga
• Chikkanna as Bruce Lee
• Achyuth Kumar as Noor Ahmed
• Avinash
• Ekta Rathod in a cameo appearance

Production

The film was announced on 21 October 2014, to coincide with the occasion of Deepavali, a Hindu festival, by film producer Vijay Kiragandur. The film would be titled Masterpiece and would be produced under his banner Hombale Films. Manju Mandavya made his directorial debut, who also wrote the screenplay and dialogues for the film.^[2] On titling the film as Masterpiece, he said, "Masterpiece was a spontaneous title that somehow clicked when I was getting into the structure of the story and when the hero's character was developing in my mind." V. Harikrishna was chosen to compose the music for the film and Vaidhy was chosen as cinematographer.^[3]

Casting

During the announcement, it was also announced that Yash would play the lead role in the film and that Suhasini Maniratnam would portray the role of his mother. The director said that two actresses, Anushka Shetty and Priya Anand were under consideration to play the female lead.^[4] Following speculations, Shanvi Srivastava was signed in late-December 2014.^[5] Chikkanna was cast in an important side role marking his 25th film in acting.

Filming and development

Filming was scheduled to begin in November or early-December 2014, following the filming of Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari, another Yash-starrer.^[3] While delayed, reports said filming was to begin in the second week of January 2015.^[6] In June 2015, it was revealed that model Ekta Rathod would make a cameo appearance in the film.^[7] In the midst of filming, The New Indian Express carried a report in July suggesting that Yash could be playing a negative role in the film, which however was not confirmed by the makers.^[8] In course of filming in September, it was revealed that the film would incorporate elements from the life story of a revolutionary leader of British India, Bhagat Singh. A schedule in Mysore was completed following which the song sequences were filmed.^[9]

During Shooting of a song

A celebratory song was filmed across Bengaluru, and the song appears in the movie when Yash's character falls in love. The song also features Chikkanna and Shanvi Srivastava, and over 1,500 backup dancers. This is a record-breaking number in Kannada cinema.^[10]

Director Manju Mandavya and the rest of the team were in Mysuru, completing the last schedule of the talking portions of their film. A lot of scenes related to Bhagat Singh have been shot in this schedule and coincidentally, the portions were shot on the freedom fighter’s birthday, which was on September 28.^[11]

Soundtrack

The background music and soundtracks are composed by V. Harikrishna, with lyrics for the soundtrack penned by Manju Mandavya, Narthan and Ghouse Peer.

The audio launch event of Masterpiece was supposed to happen in a unique way, For the first-time the team members of Masterpiece had planned for an interesting audio release. Masterpiece music album includes 5 songs and was supposed to be released on 5 different days, starting from December 2 as follows: "Annange Love Aagidhe" (Dec 2), "I Can't Wait Baby" (Dec 4), "KD NO 1" (Dec 7), "Jaago Re Jaago" (Dec 8), "Attention Please" and trailer (Dec 10).^[12][13]

References