| Huchcha | |
| Director: | Om Prakash Rao |
| Producer: | K. Mustafa Smt. A. Meharunnisa Rehman |
| Starring: | Sudeep Rekha Vedavyas |
| Cinematography: | Anaji Nagaraj |
| Editing: | S. Manohar |
| Music: | Rajesh Ramanath |
| Studio: | Oscar Films |
| Runtime: | 142 minutes |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Kannada |
Huchcha is a 2001 Indian Kannada-language romantic action drama film directed by Om Prakash Rao, starring Sudeep and Rekha Vedavyas. The film, a remake of the 1999 Tamil film Sethu, released to positive reviews and brought lot of fame to Sudeep.[1] Earlier the script was rejected by Upendra and Shiva Rajkumar.[2] The film Huccha 2 is not a continuation of this film but has a similar theme.[3]
Sachidananda aka Kiccha (Sudeep) is a rough and macho college rowdy and also The Students Union Chairman of the college, who uses violence as the only way to deal with people. He lives with his brother, a Magistrate (Avinash), and his sister-in-law, who is the only person who seems to understand him properly.
The movie opens with Kiccha winning the elections to the office bearers of the college's Students Union followed by celebrations and in-campus fight between the rival candidates.
Kiccha has a staple diet of yes-sir friends surrounding him. He comes across a timid girl, Abishta (Rekha Vedavyas), who is the daughter of a poor temple priest, and starts to woo her. When she initially rejects him, he kidnaps her and forces her to fall in love with him.
After Abishta falls in love with him, Kiccha is attacked by brothel goons who take revenge on him for interfering with their business. Kiccha suffers from brain damage as a result and ends up in a swamiji ashram. With no memory of his past and having developed an unusual behaviour, he starts to recollect memories. At one point, he is completely back to his normal self and tries to convince the wardens and Swamiji that he's back to normal and can be released. However, the Swamiji ignores him and the wardens beat him up. Desperate, Kiccha tries to escape by climbing over the gates. Unfortunately, he fails and ends up with serious injuries.
Whilst sleeping with his injury, Abishta makes a surprise visit. However Kiccha is asleep and she leaves with this woeful memory of him. As she is about to leave the institution, he wakes up and realises that she had come to see him. As he calls out, she leaves unable to hear him.
Persistent to meet her, Kiccha makes another attempt to leave the institution and this time he is successful. When he arrives at Abishta's house however, he is presented with Abishta unfortunately dead. He then realises that she had committed suicide.
Distraught after what he saw, Kiccha just walks out and his previous friends and family try to help him remember who he is. Despite being aware of what's happening around him, Kiccha pretends to be unconscious. At that point he is met with the mental institution wardens who came chasing after him. The film ends with Kiccha leaving with them as he has nothing to live for after his true love's death.
Soundtrack was composed by Rajesh Ramanath.[4] The songs "Enge Sellum" and "Vaarthai Thavari Vittai" from the original film were retained here as "Yaaro Yaaro" and "Maathu Thappidalu" respectively. Sudeep was dissatisfied with Sonu Nigam's, a non-Kannadiga, rendition of "Usire Usire" and asked Rajesh Ramanath if Rajesh Krishnan could sing the song.[5]
A critic from Sify gave the film a verdict of above average and wrote that "The newcomer Sudeep is promising as Kicha, Rekha as Shobita is not impressive".[6] A critic from Online Bangalore wrote that "Overall, Huchcha can be termed to be a nicely made movie and one can go for it without second thoughts".[7] A critic from Indiainfo wrote that "Overall, the remake is good work by the whole team".[8]
Following the film's release, Sudeep earned the fan-given sobriquet "Kiccha" Sudeep after the nickname of his character.[9]
At the 49th Filmfare Awards South, Huchcha received nominations for Best Film, Best Director (Om Prakash Rao), Best Actress (Rekha Vedavyas) and Best Music Director (Rajesh Ramanath)[10] and Sudeep won for Best Actor.[11]