Khiladi () is an 2022 Indian Telugu-language action crime film. It is written and directed by Ramesh Varma who co-produced it with Satyanarayana Koneru under A Studios. It stars Ravi Teja alongside Arjun Sarja, Unni Mukundan, Meenakshi Chaudhary, and Dimple Hayathi. Initially scheduled to be released on 28 May 2021, it has been indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Soundtrack and score of the film is composed by Devi Sri Prasad. The film was released on 11 February 2022 in theaters.

Plot
Bala Singham is a mafia kingpin who sends a container of 10,000 crores to India to bribe the MLAs to make his minister father, Guru Singham, the next CM. Pooja is a criminologist who learns of Mohan Gandhi as a part of her research who was convicted of killing his whole family, except for his daughter. She meets him in the jail, but he refuses to talk to her. While seeing him and his daughter's bond, she promises to help him get bail if he narrates his story, to which Gandhi agrees.

Gandhi is an orphan raised by a successful businessman, Rajashekhar and became the General Manager of the company. One day Chitra is their new employee who comes to their neighborhood, and Gandhi falls for her. Unbeknownst to him, Chitra also had fallen in love with him. After some funny encounters, they get married and have a daughter.

Meanwhile, CBI officer Arjun arrests Rajashekhar in a money laundering case linked with the same 10,000 crores orchestrated by Bala Singam. Guru Singham places two choices for Gandhi: finding the money or letting his family get killed. Gandhi confronts Rajashekhar and learns that Rajashekhar did this to return the favor to Guru Singham, who helped him during his days.

David also wants a share of the money. Gandhi secretly meets Rajasekhar and decodes the location of the money. After confirming the same, Gandhi first informs the Home Minister and then David. The Home Minister orders to kill Rajashekhar inside the custody and transports the money. David robs the money, replaces it with fake currency midway, and burns down the container. Arjun finds a note and is proven fake after forensic analysis. David, who was constantly instructed over the phone via an unknown person, kill Gandhi's family, but the latter takes the blame to save his daughter.

After listening to his story, Pooja arranges a bail using her father's name, DGP Jayaram, to perform final rites to his father-in-law. After finding this, Arjun and Jayaram try to stop him, but Gandhi escapes. Pooja, to her shock, finds that Gandhi's supposedly dead family members are alive and are a part of his crew.

It is then revealed that Gandhi is a Dubai-based con artist whose sole aim is to fool everyone and rob the money. Arjun was sent to arrest him red-handed in Dubai. One day, Gandhi learned of the 10,000 crores and planned to steal it. He took club dancer Aditi (Chitra) onboard, whom Bala Singham intended to date and with the help of his gang and Aditi, Bala Singham's mobile was hacked where the location of the money was stored. Gandhi reached there and fought against the men and was about to get the money when Arjun arrested him, but he was shot.

Arjun passed the information to the government and was posted to the CBI. One day Gandhi came and surrendered himself and took the blame for the crimes he had not committed and was given 14 years of rigorous imprisonment. In the jail, he befriended Ramakrishna, and it was his story that Gandhi narrated to Pooja and used her to get himself released from jail. He also planned to forge the documents so that Pooja would believe what he was telling was true.

Arjun deduced a plan where they could catch David and Gandhi. Outside the court, there is a shootout, and Gandhi captured David while Singham's men captured Ramakrishna. While confronted, a badly heated David said he did all of this based on the instructions of an unknown person who was revealed to be Jayaram. Pooja does not believe this, but she finds that all the cash is cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, Singham was about to kill Ramakrishna after denying having any knowledge of the money. However, in the nick of time, Pooja calls Singham and strikes a deal to tell him the location and lets Ramakrishna leave. During a shootout, Aditi betrays Gandhi and shoots him for money. While hospitalized, Pooja learned from Gandhi's henchmen that Gandhi was after the money to make a charitable trust for needy people.

Pooja here said that she lied to them and her father had all the money in the hard cash. Singham and his men arrived at the location and killed Jayaram's men, but Gandhi arrived and killed all of Singham's henchmen and Singham. He is about to take the money but suddenly has a change of heart. He frees Ramakrishna, who finally meets his daughter. After a showdown with Arjun, he saw Gandhi as a changed person, which is why he let him go free.

In the final twist, Guru Singham was stripped of his ministerial post as the money he used to bribe the MLAs were bogus. It is revealed that Gandhi stole the real money and fooled Singham and everyone all along. At the same time, he was conversing with Arjun on the phone. Gandhi reveals that he is neither against him nor Singham and Jayaram, but was fighting against the corrupted system's responsibility towards people and wishes good luck to Arjun, who vows to arrest him again.

Cast

References 

2022 movies