Shamantakamani

Shamantakamani
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sriram Adittya
Written by	Venky Arjun-Carthyk
Screenplay by	Sriram Adittya
Story by	Sriram Adittya
Produced by	V. Anand Prasad
Starring	Nara Rohit Sudheer Babu Sundeep Kishan Aadi Saikumar Rajendra Prasad
Cinematography	Sameer Reddy
Edited by	Prawin Pudi
Music by	Mani Sharma
Production company	Bhavya Creations
Distributed by	Freeze Frame Films (Overseas)
Release date	14 July 2017 (2017-07-14)
Running time	127 mins
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Shamantakamani is a 2017 Indian Telugu-language comedy thriller film, produced by V. Anand Prasad on Bhavya Creations banner and directed by Sriram Adittya. The film stars Nara Rohit, Sudheer Babu, Sundeep Kishan, Aadi Saikumar^[1] Rajendra Prasad and music was composed by Mani Sharma.

The film marked the debut of Sudheer Babu's son, Darshan as a child artist, the grandson of the veteran actor Krishna and nephew to Mahesh Babu. The film's first look motion picture released on 28 May and teaser on 15 June 2017.^[2] The film was released on 14 July 2017 and was a good entertainer.^[3] In 2019, the film was dubbed into Hindi as Aakhari Baazi by Aditya Movies.

The film delves into the mysterious world of a ₹5 crore (US$600,000) vintage Rolls-Royce car called Shamanthakamani owned by a millionaire Jagannath, who had recently bought it in an auction. The vehicle is stolen from the parking lot of a 5-star hotel called Provotel, by Jagannath's son Krishna's error, setting off a chain of events. The Govt assigns a bent cop, Inspector Ranjith Kumar, to track it down. As the investigation unfolds, the plot thickens by introducing three suspicious characters: a car mechanic, Uma Maheswara Rao, a Kotipalli villager, Siva, and a middle-class youngster, Karthik, whom Ranjith arrests.

They all have sole stories: Uma Maheswara Rao is an age-bar bachelor who endears his neighbor, Bhanumati, a widow vegetable seller. He seeks to propose to her in various ways but is diffident, so Uma Maheswara Rao calls her for a date at the hotel. Siva schemes to elope from their village with his love interest, Sridevi. She backstabbed him, which devastates Siva, and he moves to the city when his pickpocket buddy intrudes into the hotel to alter his state. Karthik, the son of a bourgeois astrologer, has been in crush affluent Madhu since they were teenagers. Currently, she returns from abroad, and he walks to receive her when Madhu stares at his lifestyle. Whereat, Karthik enrages, declares to proceed to a classy party, and enters the hotel.

Amidst the unfolding drama, Krishna reveals a heartwarming secret to Ranjith. He is constantly the target of his father's scorn and his stepmother's mortification. The car holds a special place in his heart, as it carries memories of his late mother since she promised him to bestow in his childhood precisely what his father purchased on his birthday. So, he keenly feels it as his mother's boon from heaven. Krishna also confesses that he covertly lifted the vehicle to the party due to Jagannath's fear and pleads with Ranjith to retrieve it, adding a touch of emotional depth to the plot.

In his investigation, Ranjith discovers that three nonguilty Uma Maheswara Rao opened the car to take a water bottle for vomiting Bhanumati. Siva & a beauty, Smita, entered the vehicle for a failed one-night stand, smelling him as a rural dweller. Fortuitously, Ranjith's fate turns out when he detects their romance; he takes bribes from Siva, thinking he is the car owner. Later, intoxicated Karthik sneaks the car keys from Krishna and advances to flaunt before Madhu, as she reverts foreign for Master's by tomorrow. Later, he parked at the same spot and returned home. So, Ranjith closes the case with a lack of evidence and acquits them.

Here, as a flabbergast, Ranjith unveils to his acolyte constable Satyanarayana that the actual killer, Jagannath himself, has heisted the car by his P.A. Indeed, he got wind of I.T. rides because of buying the Shamanthakamani. Jagannath temporarily shifted the illegal documents, black money, and ornaments into the vehicle. Besides becoming conscious of Krishna's birthday party, he tactically spied on him and mandated P.A. to steal it with the spare key. Following this, Jagannath forged a false complaint by Krishna to divert the matter into the media, and the I.T. department may not suspect Shamanthakamani. Now, he offers a ₹.30 lakh bribe to Ranjith to settle the issue. After a successful ride failure, Jagannath returns for his wealth and then ruses to destroy the car for safekeeping. Astonishingly, he collapses into cardiac arrest and becomes paralyzed, viewing the vanish of all the assets.

At last, it opens that Uma Maheswara Rao steals the diamonds when opening the car. Siva notices the black money and picks it up while bribing Ranjith. Karthik observes that he hadn't returned the key, which contained a rare diamond. Finally, the movie ends happily with Krishna not bothered about the theft and decided to take care of his father; Siva had started a bar & restaurant in Kotipalli and found Sridevi's husband orders his friends to give drinks accessible to him all the time, Uma Maheswara Rao migrated to Dubai with his lady love, Karthik decided to go abroad for masters to Madhu. Ranjith is the subject of a departmental inquiry for his corrupt practices.

Jeevi of Idlebrain.com wrote that "On a whole, Shamanthakamani is an authentic thriller that entertains. You may watch it!"^[4] A critic from The Times of India wrote that "If it has to be called an experiment, the film doesn’t disappoint".^[3]

• Shamantakamani at IMDb