Vasu (film)

Vasu: Voice Of Youth is a 2002 Indian Telugu-language musical romantic comedy film co-written and directed by A. Karunakaran, and produced by K. S. Rama Rao under the Creative Commercials banner. It stars Venkatesh and Bhumika Chawla with music composed by Harris Jayaraj.

Vasu
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	A. Karunakaran
Written by	Story & Screenplay: A. Karunakaran Dialogues: Trivikram Srinivas
Produced by	K. S. Rama Rao
Starring	Venkatesh Bhumika Chawla
Cinematography	R. Ramesh Babu
Edited by	Marthand K. Venkatesh
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Production company	Creative Commercials
Release date	10 April 2002 (2002-04-10)
Running time	147 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu

Vasu marked Venkatesh's 50th film as an actor. The film won two Nandi Awards.

Plot

After graduation, Vasu runs a college canteen and a music school and teaches music for seven years to make his living. His father Rao is an IPS officer and wants him to appear for Civil Services examinations to take up an IPS career, but Vasu has different plans for his future: he dreams of becoming a musician and a singer.

One day, a young IPS officer Subramanyam comes to Vasu's place to seek the blessings of Rao. He admits that Rao is the source of inspiration for him to become an IPS officer. Vasu's father feels dejected that his son does not heed his advice to take civil service exams. Meanwhile, Vasu spots a beautiful girl Divya on the street. He plays every possible trick to woo her, but all his plans backfire and make him appear foolish in Divya's eyes.

Rao spots his son bashing up men in the streets and asks him to leave the house and stay outside, to which he does. Divya goes to Vasu's place along with her luggage when Vasu is about to leave the house. Later, Vasu learns that Divya is the daughter of Vasu's father's childhood friend and sees this as an opportunity to get close to Divya. He returns to his home and promises that he will not touch music again and concentrate only on his studies, but he secretly pursues his musical ambitions.

Vasu passes the preliminary auditions of the Music Talent search conducted by Sony Music Company. When Rao spots the letter from Sony, he argues with his son and asks him to either be there in the house and study for IPS or leave home to pursue his dream of becoming a musician. Meanwhile, both Vasu and Divya fall in love with each other, but they never express their feelings towards each other. Vasu's sister loves Divya's brother, and it is okayed by the parents of both parties. It is also revealed that Divya already okayed a man named Manohar by looking at his photograph (this is much before she met Vasu).

Vasu is on the stage to prove himself as a singer and musician in the final auditions of Sony Talent Search. Divya and Manohar are to marry on the same day, and Vasu's sister is to marry Divya's brother. Vasu wins the prize at the audition and sits in a park mourning his heartbreak. Then, his father and sister arrive, and his father apologizes for his opinion of Vasu's career. It is revealed then that Divya did not marry that day along with Vasu's sister as she loved Vasu. In the end, the lovers unite, and the two couples' marriages are rescheduled.

Cast

• Venkatesh as A. Vasu
• Bhumika Chawla as Divya
• Vijayakumar as Commissioner Rao (Vasu's father)
• Manjula Vijayakumar as Kamala (Vasu's mother)
• Sunil as Balu
• Ali as Bill Gates
• Dharmavarapu Subramanyam as Sony Music Company Manager
• M. S. Narayana as Mula Shankar Rao
• Ranganath as Srinivasa Rao
• Brahmaji as ACP Subramanyam
• Achyuth as Vignesh
• Varsha as Radhika
• Duvvasi Mohan as Doctor
• Subbaraya Sharma as Lecturer
• G. V. Sudhakar Naidu as Goon
• Chitti Babu as Beggar
• Raghunatha Reddy
• Tanish as Arun's friend
• Jogi Naidu as Vasu's friend
• Junior Relangi as Doctor
• Anilraj as Arun
• A. Karunakaran in a cameo appearance as a watermelon seller in the song "Naa Prema O Cheliya"

Soundtrack

Vasu
Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj
Released	March 2002
Recorded	2002 By Harris Jayaraj At Trinity Wave Station, Chennai
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	32:01
Language	Telugu
Label	Aditya Music
Producer	Harris Jayaraj
Harris Jayaraj chronology
12B (2001) Vasu (2002) Samurai (2002)

Music composed by Harris Jayaraj in his Telugu debut. The music was released on ADITYA Music Company. (The audio got unanimous hit talk all over airplay and within 4 days of its release it had sold over 2 lakhs.^[1] The peppy number "Sportive Boys" topped the charts for many weeks.) The song "Paataku Pranam" is inspired from Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean".^[2]

Telugu Track listing^[3][4]

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Nammave Ammayi"	Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry	Harish Raghavendra, K. S. Chithra	4:43
2.	"Paataku Pranam"	Potula Ravikiran	KK, Swarnalatha	6:11
3.	"Sportive Boys"	Sahithi	KK, Clinton Cerejo, Tippu	5:12
4.	"Padana Teeyaga"	Potula Ravikiran	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam	5:25
5.	"O Prema"	Potula Ravikiran	Devan Ekambaram	5:50
6.	"Vaale Vaale"	Potula Ravikiran	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chithra, Karthik (humming) (unc.)	4:40
7.	"Naa Prema O Cheliya (Montages Music But)"	(unc.)	Premgi Amaren (unc.)	4:47
8.	"Stick Dance Bit"	—	Instrumental	1:25
9.	"Music Bit"	—	Instrumental	1:25
10.	"Interval Bang Music Bit"	—	Instrumental	1:08
Total length:				40:46

Vetri
Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj
Released	2002
Recorded	2002
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	34:10
Language	Tamil
Label	Ayngaran
Producer	Harris Jayaraj

All tracks are written by Thamarai.

Tamil Track-List

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Sporty Boys"	Tippu	5:12
2.	"Paattukku Pattu"	Karthik, Swarnalatha	6:05
3.	"Kanavil Kandene"	Devan Ekambaram	5:45
4.	"Thene Thene"	Karthik, Gopika Poornima	4:22
5.	"Nanba Vendum"	Harish Raghavendra, Janani, Swarnalatha	4:40
6.	"Paadava"	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam	4:46
7.	"Vetri Theme 1"	Instrumental	2:12
8.	"Vetri Theme 2" (Instrumental)		1:08
Total length:			34:10

Reception

Jeevi of Idlebrain.com rated the film three out of five and wrote that "Karunakaran concentrated too much on the character of hero and did not really expand the role of heroine, which is very uncharacteristic of him (if we look the way he beautifully explored the roles of heroines in Toli Prema and Yuvakudu). That hero orientation for Vasu has robbed off the family story tag this film".^[5] Gudipoodi Srihari of The Hindu wrote that "Venkatesh is as ebullient as he has been in other films. Bhoomika has a limited role. But for the last part, where she encourages Vasu to take to music, her character remains passive. The comedy is worse, because of senseless and tasteless scenes".^[6] A critic from Sify wrote that "Director Karunakaran has tried to re-work his Tolliprema where career, love and affection to parents form the base of the story but in Vasu it has fallen flat! The only highlight of the film is the brilliant music of Harris Jayaraj. However Vasu lacks soul and style".^[7] Andhra Today wrote "Venkatesh in a novel get-up along with fine music and well conceived scenes make the movie special. Although the message is an old one, the director succeeds in narrating it neat and straight to the audience. The scenes with the hero and heroine are very entertaining. Major part of this success can be attributed to dialogues written by Trivikram".^[8]

Reviewing the Tamil dubbed version Vetri, K. N. Vijiyan of New Straits Times wrote "There are no surprises in the story and it is very predictable. The climax is also unbelievable".^[9]

Awards

Nandi Awards^[10]

• Best Home Viewing Feature Film - K. S. Rama Rao
• Best Male Playback Singer - S. P. Balasubrahmanyam for "Padana Teeyaga" song