# Sankham

Sankham (transl. Conch) is a 2009 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film produced by J Bhagavan, J Pulla Rao under Sri Balaji Cine Media banner and written and directed by Siva. Starring Gopichand, Trisha and Sathyaraj, the music was composed by S. Thaman.
The film follows a Chandu, an NRI living in Australia with his uncle and friend. When Chandu's girlfriend Mahalakshmi is forcefully taken to India by her violent family members, he arrives in India to marry her but is assigned a task that would eventually pull him into an ages-old feud with the rival village and lead him to the discovery of his true identity.
The film was released theatrically on 11 September 2009. The film was also dubbed and released in Hindi as Phir Ek Most Wanted (transl. Again a most wanted) in 2010, in Bhojpuri as Baghi Balma (transl. Rebellious Lover) and in Tamil as Sivappu Saamy (transl. Red God).

## Plot

Chandu (Gopichand) is a rich, rough youth brought up by his uncle Krishna Rao (Chandra Mohan) in Australia. Mahalakshmi (Trisha) stays in Australia along with her uncle Pichaiah (Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam), who runs a restaurant. Chandu is fond of martial arts, but he never gets a chance to exhibit them in real situations. Mahalakshmi is another martial arts freak. After a few misunderstandings, they fall in love. One day, Mahalakshmi is forced to come back to her hometown in Rayalaseema. Chandu comes in search of her. Meanwhile, Sivaiah (Sathyaraj) and his archenemy, Mahalakshmi's father Pashupati (Kota Srinivasa Rao) are the rich leaders of two neighboring villages, in Rayalaseema. They have longtime enmity. Chandu comes to Mahalakshmi's village and asks her hand in marriage. Though Pashupati's sister opposes this, Pashupati agrees based on one condition, that Chandu must escort his brother from railway station to home safely. The brother Rajappa (Supreeth), has been on a 23-year self-imposed exile from the district, due to his life being under threat of Sivaiah and his entire village. Chandu agrees and does so, beating 30 men of Siviah on the way. Then Chandu is challenged to go to Siviah alone to his house. While walking in Sivaiah's house, he is beaten up badly by Sivaiah's men that he laid at the door of the house. When Sivaiah saw his face, he recognized Chandu and rushed him to the hospital where he is saved. The incident reached to Chandu's uncle who flew to India. Uncle Krishna Rao is shocked to see Chandu with Sivaiah and proceeds to tell Chandu about his parents. Sivaiah is actually Chandu's father. 23 years ago, there was a big feud between village for sharing water, in which multitude of lives were lost in clashes. Sivaiah's wife pleads him to stop the fight, to which he pays no heed. She gives birth to twins, but one child and her parents are killed in a car-bomb, before her very eyes. This makes her to take Chandu and go to her native. After 2 years, she has a change of heart and comes to meet Sivaiah. As they are about to reconcile, Rajappa ambushes Sivaiah, and kills his wife before his eyes, despite his pleas. He sent Chandu with the uncle and has paid for all of his expenses since then. Chandu then joins Sivaiah as his heir, and the rest of the story is how he defeats both Pashupati and his brothers. However, Pashupati and his brother hatched up a plan and killed Sivayya. Just before he died, Sivayya requested Chandu to take over his legacy where Chandu accepted. In retaliation, Sivayya henchmen went to killed Pashupati henchmen. Chandu enter the factory where he fights and kills Pashupati's brother, thus avenging his family's death. He then leaves Pashupati to be lynched by the villagers and leave the factory. He then married Mahalakshmi.

## Cast

* Gopichand as Chandu
* Trisha as Mahalakshmi Naidu
* Sathyaraj as Sivaiah, Chandu's father
* Chandra Mohan as Krishna Rao "Kittu", Chandu's uncle
* Kota Srinivasa Rao as Simha Pashupathi Naidu, Mahalakshmi's father
* Ali as Saif Ali Khan
* Swathi as Katrina
* Dharmavarapu Subramanyam as Pichaiah, Mahalakshmi's uncle
* Tanikella Bharani as narrator
* L. B. Sriram as villager
* Venu Madhav as Prem Kumar
* Krishna Bhagavaan as Pashupathi's lawyer
* Raghu Babu as Dr.
* Supreeth as Simha Gajapati Naidu, Pashupati's brother
* Banerjee as Suri
* Prudhvi Raj as Pashupathi's brother-in-law
* Srinivasa Reddy as Seenu
* Raghunatha Reddy as M.P.
* Subbaraya Sharma as Dr.
* Chitti as collector
* Melkote as Feroz Khan
* Fish Venkat as Pashupati's henchmen
* Telangana Shakuntala as Pashupathi's sister and Prem Kumar's mother
* Seetha as Parvathi, Sivaiah's wife and Chandu's mother
* Rajitha as Pichaiah's wife
* Apoorva
* Devisri
* Ramya Chowdary
* Aruna
* Priya
* Usha Rani
* Anil Ravipudi (cameo)

## Soundtrack

Music composed by S. Thaman. Music released on Aditya Music Company.

## Reception

Sankham received mixed reviews from critics. Jeevi of Idlebrain rated it two out of five, calling it "a clichéd film". A critic from Rediff.com wrote that "On the whole, Siva churns out a mass movie which may fare well in the B and C centres. It can be watched for Gopichand if you can bear the tedium of time and action and a cliched storyline".