2005 film
Vennela (English: Moonlight) is a 2005 Telugu romantic comedy film written and directed by Deva Katta in his directorial debut. The film stars Raja and Parvati Melton, while Sharwanand and Ravi Varma play supporting roles.[1][2] The music was composed by Mahesh Shankar with cinematography by Raja Rathnam and editing by Kola Bhaskar.
The film released on 26 November 2005 and was well-received among the young, urban audiences and south Indian students in USA, mostly from Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, India. The film grossed ₹ 5.3 crore at the box office.[3][4] The film has a sequel Vennela 1½ (2012) made by Vennela Kishore.[5]
Plot
Pavani (Parvati Melton) is an independent woman who wants to pursue higher education in USA. She has been in a committed relationship with Ritesh (Sharvanand), the son of a millionaire and her classmate. Ritesh was an intelligent and popular guy in college. He draws hostility, jealousy, and enmity with his college mate Sayeed (Ravi Varma), who was also interested in Pavani, albeit secretly. Sayeed introduces Ritesh to smoking, drinking and college politics. Ritesh loses himself in those activities, which disappoints Pavani. She tries to make him responsible but fails. She decides to break up with him several times, but he convinces her to change her mind. At last, she decides to finally break up with him, and she moves to the US to keep away from him.
While celebrating her upcoming departure to the USA with her friends, Pavani meets Naveen (Raja) and his friends, who happen to get admitted to the same college as hers. Naveen and his friends go through culture shock and the troubles faced in studying in the US and trying for a part-time job, including an Indian restaurant owner, Pachadlla Paramanandam (Brahmanandam). Sayeed, also a student of the same university, is aware of Pavani’s strained relationship with Ritesh.
Sayeed tries to mess up with Pavani and Ritesh's life to satisfy his ego and provokes Ritesh by lying about Pavani's relationship with Naveen. As Naveen and Pavani become closer, Sayeed brings Ritesh to the USA on a student visa to sabotage their relationship. On the other hand, Ritesh's father tries to woo Pavani with the property that will be inherited by Ritesh upon her marriage to him, but Pavani rejects his father's offer. Ritesh becomes hostile towards Pavani: he believes he was used and cheated on and that he is innocent.
Ritesh's father advises him not to get involved with a woman like Pavani, who does not want anything to do with Ritesh. His father reminds him that he is lucky to be born in a wealthy family, get a good education, and can settle down with his father's inherited property. However, Ritesh ignores his father's advice.
The rest of the plot depicts situations that deal with Ritesh's agony at being rejected by Pavani and also on realizing that he is a victim of Sayeed's scheme when he chances upon morphed images of Pavani. Subsequently, Ritesh becomes psychotic. He kills Sayeed at the university campus and attacks Pavani and Naveen by hiding in their car while they return from work. Just as Ritesh shoots Naveen in the neck, the cops arrive with an ambulance and rescue Naveen and Pavani by shooting Ritesh to death.
The film highlights situations that leads people like Ritesh to dig their own graves by getting into bad company.
Production
90% of the film was shot in Michigan. The American university setting was shot at Wayne State University's main campus in Detroit and Oakland University in Rochester. Only 10% of the film was shot at City College Hyderabad.[citation needed]
