Aata was released on 9 May 2007 and became a success at the box office. The film was remade in Bengali as Kellafate (2010).
Plot
Srikrishna (Siddharth) is a freak young chap who lives in a village along with his father (Sarath Babu), who runs a theater. Krishna wants to lead his life like a hero, just as in movies playing in his father's theater. He meets Satya (Ileana) in a carnival and immediately falls for her. He helps her to escape from hooligans and takes her to a safe place. They spent some time together, and Satya, too, gets connected with him. She reveals that she is escaping from a proposed marriage with a politician's son Vicky (Munna). She tells a flashback that tells: Vicky raped and killed her friend on New Year's Eve. He got released by the court as an innocent, using his political influence. Frustrated, Satya tried to hit him with a stone. But in return, when Vicky sees her, he becomes infatuated with her and wanted to marry her irrelevant of her consent.
He and his parents blackmailed Satya's parents and arranged their wedding. Satya narrowly escaped from a train and tried to get to her aunt's house when she meets Srikrishna. She asked him to marry her and go to some safe place where Vicky can't find them. But Krishna took her to Vicky and gained his confidence. He started his game using Vicky as a pawn and tells him to gain Satya's confidence. They play with him, and meanwhile, Vicky befriends Krishna and starts to tell his secrets. Finally, one day, while inebriated, Vicky reveals to Krishna that he killed Satya's friend and escaped punishment. Krishna records that and gives it to a commissioner who was waiting for a piece of evidence to convict Vicky. Finally, Vicky gets arrested, and Satya and Krishna get married with their parent's blessings.
Some critics noted that the plot closely follows the plot of the Pawan Kalyan's film Gudumba Shankar. Aata did very well commercially, however.
The film was dubbed into Tamil as Gillida[2], and in Hindi as Aaj Ka Great Gambler, and in Oriya as Hero.
Reception
Radhika Rajmani of Rediff.com rated the film 2/5 and called it "disappointing." "The second half has all the action, but somehow does not grab the attention of the viewer. Too many unnecessary songs distract the narrative. There is an attempt to keep suspense alive, but this too falls flat," she added.[3]Idlebrain.com's Jeevi rated the film 3/5 and wrote, "MS Raju is always known for putting a strong emotional content in all his films irrespective of their box office performance. For the first time, he attempted making a film that does not have any emotional depth."[4]
