Rebel (2012 film)

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Rishi is the happy-go-lucky son of Bhupathi, a powerful dictator of the village, who is respected by the villagers. Rishi is influenced by his father's ideals and grows up just like him. However, Bhupathi does not want his son to take up violence and sends him to Bangalore to study and also learn music. While in Bangalore, Rishi falls for an orphan named Deepali and brings her to his house in disguise of his old music teacher as he wants his father to be happy about him not taking up violence. During the festival held in their village, a politician named Simhadri sends 100 thugs to kill Bhupathi and his family, but Rishi eliminates all the thugs.

Bhupathi's brother Jayram joins hands with Simhadri so that they can kill Bhupathi as he has exiled his son permanently from his house. Bhupathi, his wife Lakshmi and Deepali are killed by Jayaram and his son. Simhadri tells Rishi that a local goon helped Jayram kill Bhupathi and his family. Simhadri soon kills himself. Rishi along with Bhupathi's bodyguards assist him in exacting revenge. Two years later, Rishi discovers that a goon named Stephen is doing illegal business in Hyderabad since a long time and also discovers that Robert is none other than Jayaram. Robert started working with Stephen right after Bhupathi's death and the duo became powerful gangsters.

Rishi suspects that Jayaram's new identity is Robert, where he leaves to Hyderabad and finds that Stephen and Robert have an assistant named Nanu, who works in Bangkok. Rishi meets Nanu's daughter Nandini and the two fall in love with each other. Nanu shows his phone to Nandini as she wants to see the photos of Stephen and Robert. Rishi sees the photos, where he confirms that Robert is indeed Jayaram's new identity. Later, Raju reveals Rishi's tragic past to Nandini, after hearing which Nandini decides to help Rishi in locating Stephen and Robert.

Rishi bribes Nanu's henchmen to stop protecting Nanu and tortures Nanu until the latter agrees to lure Stephen and Robert into a trap. It is revealed that Stephen and Robert sent two henchmen to disguise themselves as Stephen and Robert. Robert tells Rishi that he sent his henchmen to kidnap Raju, Nandini and Rishi's bodyguards. Rishi gets taken to his old house, where Raju and the rest of his bodyguards are killed, but Nandini is left alive. Stephen and his henchmen brutally beat up Rishi. However, Rishi beats up all the henchmen and finally kills Stephen, Robert and his son, thus avenging the deaths of his parents and Deepali. Rishi and Nandini then reunite with each other.

In December 2011, it was reported that the unit would go back to Bangkok to shoot some vital scenes and action sequences with Tamannaah and Prabhas.^[4]

After completing the schedule, the filming resumed at Pollachi where scenes on Prabhas and other lead cast were canned.^[5] The filming shifted to Pondicherry where action episodes involving Prabhas were shot.^[6] The last schedule of filming took at an aluminium factory in Hyderabad.^[7]

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Raghava Lawrence himself composed the songs while the film score was composed by S. Chinna.^{[citation needed]} The soundtrack of the film was released through Aditya Music label on 14 September 2012 at Shilpakala Vedika in Hyderabad.^[8]

Distribution

It was announced that 7 Seas, a premier entertainment company, purchased the overseas theatrical distribution rights of the film.^[9] Tamil Nadu theatrical distribution rights were sold for ₹33 lakh.^[10]

Critical reception

Rebel received mixed reviews, with praise for Prabhas and Tamannaah Bhatia's performances, action sequences, and production values, but criticism for its plot, screenwriting, and technical aspects.

Purnima Ranawat of NDTV wrote "Rebel serves up fare for the mass audience. The film will be definitely liked by Prabhas' fans. Watch it for the dancing talent of Tamannaah Bhatia and action skills of Prabhas."^[11] Radhika Rajamani of Rediff.com gave 1.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Working with hardly any storyline, director Raghava Lawrence had made a film that is arduous to watch... Rebel is a movie for the masses and certainly not for the discerning audience."^[12]

Jeevi from Idlebrain.com gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Rebel is an revenge-based action film. Prabhas is known as one of the best mass stars of Telugu cinema. Lawrence's movies are known to appeal to the raw senses of mass movie lovers. Rebel is no exception. Interval block is really good. Rebel has decent commercial elements and targeted at masses. Masses will like it.^[13]

The film was dubbed into Malayalam with the same title. It was dubbed into Hindi as The Return of Rebel and in Tamil as Veerabali.^[14][15]