Inspired by the 1977 film Yamagola (also remade in Hindi as Lok Parlok (1979)), the plot follows Raja, a thief who is killed by his rivals. Raja's soul travels to Naraka (hell) to face the trail for his sins by Yama, the Hindu god of death and justice. The film began its production in January 2007 and was made on a budget of ₹16–18 crore (US$4.3–4.8 million).[a] Filming primarily took place in Hyderabad and Ramoji Film City. The film has music composed by M. M. Keeravani and cinematography by K. K. Senthil Kumar.
Yamadonga was released worldwide on 15 August 2007. Upon release, it received positive reviews from critics, it collected 29 crore, and emerged as a blockbuster.[5] The film was the highest grossing Telugu film of the year. It won four Nandi Awards while Jr. N.T.R. went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu. A year later after its success, it was dubbed in Hindi as Lok Parlok. It was also dubbed in Tamil as Vijayan (2016) and in Awadhi as Chor Raja and in Kannada as Yama Raj.
Plot
Raja, an orphan boy, is a thief in Hyderabad. Maheswari "Mahi", a young girl, falls in love with him. Raja manipulates her by gaining her sympathy. She gives him a necklace, which he throws away because it is worthless; however, it always comes back to him. 12 years later, Mahi's family treats her like a slave while they enjoy the money that her grandfather left behind. Mahi waits for her "prince" to come to rescue her. Raja is still a conman, but when he enters into the debt of Dhanalakshmi, a beautiful but not-so-innocent lender, he flees.
Meanwhile, Mahi's family wants Mahi out of the way so that they can inherit all of her money. They hire someone to kill her, only to find out that in the event of Mahi's death, all the money goes to charity. Raja saves Mahi and treats her like a princess, which she waited for since her childhood. Raja made a deal with Mahi's uncles, which goes wrong when they think that he has demanded a ransom of ₹45crores. They hire a goon to kill Raja. Raja reaches Yamaloka after his murder. He gets to know that Yama planned his death to take revenge on Raja who once made fun of Yama drunkenly and threatened him. Raja creates confusion by stealing the Yamapasam, since one in possession of Yamapasam becomes the King of Hell. Raja promises festivals and parties and to make Hell better than Heaven. Yama contests his claim. Narada enters the scene and proposes an election. Both Yama and Raja agree.
Yama, along with Chitragupta, tries to get the Yamapasam repeatedly and ultimately fails when Raja uses his trickery to implicate him in sexual harassment, leading to a protest against Yama to stop his alleged atrocities. Yama's wife gets frustrated with her husband's behaviour (which is not true) and she leaves his mansion. Chitragupta suggests to him that he must call the three celestial nymphs: Rambha, Urvashi, and Menaka, which he initially disagrees due to his wife's suspicion, but reluctantly agrees to defeat Raja in the election. Raja feels hopeless when Yama insults him and his late grandfather, Chitragupta tries to stop Yama and tries to tell him who Raja's grandfather actually is. Yama neglects Chitragupta's pleas and orders Raja's grandfather to appear in front of his grandson. Raja's grandfather appears in front of Raja and asks him why he's here, Raja answers that his time isn't good enough, so he's suddenly appeared here. Raja's grandfather motivates him and tells that he is blessed with the gift of dance, and he's the grandson of the man who made an alliance and won the elections with the support of the people. He tells Raja to dance, due to which all the people present in Yamaloka rejoice. Raja wins the elections; however, Yama angrily insults him. Raja decides to use the Yamapasam to make Yama a human; however, the plan backfires when Yama ends up with the Yamapasam and regains his powers. Raja flees back to Earth, challenging Yama. Raja soon finds out about the cruelty that Mahi has suffered since his death and decides to fight back against her cruel family. Raja steals a whip and thrashes her family with it, forcing them to become servants. Raja gets drunk and insults Yama again. This time, Yama decides that he and Chitragupta will enter Bhulokam to avenge his insult. Yama disguises himself as the beautiful Dhanalakshmi, and Chitragupta as her father.
Yama successfully manages to separate Raja and Mahi, whose love had prevented Yama from interfering. After Mahi's uncles call upon the goons that previously killed Raja, the chief hitman kidnaps Mahi for himself and hits Raja with his car. Raja is severely injured and falls off a cliff into the temple of Lord Narasimha in Simhachalam. Yama sends the Yamapasam after him to take his life, however, the divine power within the temple drives away the Yamapasam. Yama once again changes his form into Dhanalakshmi to lure Raja out, but Raja reveals that he knew it was Yama in disguise. Raja begs for only half an hour of life only to rescue Mahi and apologises to Yama for his sins and all he has said and done. Yama realises both of the errors caused him as well as his errors and becomes sympathetic but regretfully informs him and Narada that he cannot call back the Yamapasam. Raja fights off his enemies and is close to death, when suddenly, the chain that followed him his whole life was revealed to have been blessed by Lord Narasimha himself, and it saves Raja's life. Raja and Mahi decide to live together and get married. But Yama gets Raja in trouble when the original Dhanalakshmi appears, demanding her dues. Yama asks him whether he prefers Yamalokam or Bhulokam, at the same time Chitragupta and Yama's wife appear arguing with each other about whether Yama is having fun with other ladies or not, Chitragupta tells her that she misunderstood Yama because of Raja but she doesn't believe him. Raja uses his trickery over Yama again, this time he uses Dhanalakshmi's veil and ties it on the Yamapasam, implicating Yama as a lecher once again. Raja mockingly asks Yama whether he prefers Bhulokam or Yamalokam and cautions him to be safe from his wife.
Yamadonga is the third collaboration between S. S. Rajamouli and N. T. Rama Rao Jr. after Student No: 1 (2001) and Simhadri (2003). In an interview with Telugucinema.com, Rajamouli revealed that the basic plot — where the hero dies and goes to Yamalokam and comes back to Earth — is inspired by the films Devanthakudu (1960) and Yamagola (1977) which starred Jr NTR's grandfather Sr. N.T.R. Rajamouli mentioned that apart from the basic plot, Yamadonga has no similarities with earlier films.[7][8]
The film also features a scene with Jr NTR alongside his grandfather as an acknowledgement of Yamagola.[9][10][11] Rajamouli worked along with his father V. Vijayendra Prasad to develop the script. Rajamouli chose veteran actor Mohan Babu to play the role of Yama as he felt Mohan Babu was the "perfect and only choice" for the role.[8] Following the suggestion of Rajamouli, Jr NTR underwent extensive weight loss especially for the film.[12][8] Actress Priyamani is cast opposite Jr NTR. She slipped while walking on the stones and got her ankle sprained with a minor bleeding injury during shooting.[13]
Principal photography of the film began in January 2007.[14] Scenes related to Naraka (or Yama Loka) were shot at a specially erected set at Ramoji Film City.[8] A few sequences were filmed at Talakona forest in Andhra Pradesh.[15] A song was shot at Golconda Fort in Hyderabad, for which a waterfall was created at the location.[16]
Release
The film was initially planned to release on 9 July 2007,[15] but was ultimately released on 15 August 2007.[15] The Tamil version of the film was released on 29 November 2019 under the title Vijayan.[17][18] ARK Rajaraja wrote the dialogues for the Tamil version. The film was also dubbed into Hindi language as Lok Parlok, and in Odia as Yamraja.
Oneindia.in described as "The film is a visual treat for all ages and classes. Rajamouli has done an excellent job molding NTR Jr's character in the film much like his grandfather's and also for bringing NTR back on the screen in an animated form. NTR Jr's overall performance and his dialogue delivery are a joy to watch. Mohanbabu playing 'Yama' once again proved to be the versatile actor that he is".[22]
Sify gave an "average" verdict explained "This socio-fantasy film works, thanks to the new look of NTR and enigmatic performance of Mohan Babu. The songs and background score of MM Keeravani, the technical aspects and entertainer quotient in the first half make the film watchable".[23] Jeevi of Idlebrain.com gave 3/5 stars said "First half of the film is entertaining. The second half should have been better. The plus points of the film are Mohan Babu, NTR, sets, cinematography and music. On the flip side, the screenplay of the film is not gripping in second half (after NTR returns to earth). The runtime of the film is pretty lengthy (3.05 hours)".[24]
Box office
Yamadoga was a huge commercial success, earning a distributor share of over ₹29 crores.[11] It ran for 50-days in 405 centers and completed a 100-day run in 32 centres, becoming the highest-grossing Telugu film of 2007. It gave NTR Jr. a massive success after his previous blockbuster, Simhadri (2003), with S. S. Rajamouli.[25]
