iSmart Shankar
Table of Contents
Quick Facts
By the summer of 2019, both Ram Pothineni and Puri Jagannadh needed a hit badly. Ram had been waiting for one since Nenu Sailaja, and Puri was coming off a string of box-office disappointments. What they cooked up together was iSmart Shankar — a loud, rowdy, high-voltage sci-fi action film about a Hyderabadi street thug who ends up with a dead cop’s memories rattling around in his head.
Released on 18 July 2019 with an ‘A’ certificate, the film became the comeback both men were desperate for, reportedly grossing ₹75–85 crore worldwide on a modest ₹15–20 crore budget. Ram’s “Double Dimaak Hyderabadi” act — Telangana slang, shirtless swagger and all — turned into a genuine pop-culture moment, and the film was successful enough to earn a sequel, Double iSmart, in 2024. It is now streaming on ZEE5.
Plot
Shankar, better known as Ustaad (Ram Pothineni), is an orphan rowdy in Hyderabad’s Old City who does “settlements” for money. When he murders the politician Kasi Viswanath, the police come after him hard, and Shankar goes on the run with his girlfriend Chandni (Nabha Natesh). Meanwhile, CBI officer Arun (Satyadev Kancharana) is investigating the same murder — and just as he is closing in on the real culprits behind it, he is killed.
Here is where the film takes its wild sci-fi turn. Desperate to extract the details of the case, the police — with the help of Dr. Sarah (Nidhhi Agerwal), a neuroscientist who also happens to be Arun’s girlfriend — transfer the dead officer’s memories into Shankar’s brain. Shankar starts hearing Arun’s voice in his head, reliving another man’s life in flashes, and the two personalities inside one skull do not get along at all.
What follows is an uneasy partnership: the street-smart criminal and the disciplined cop, sharing one body, forced to work together to hunt down the real masterminds behind the assassination. Shankar has to navigate Arun’s memories, protect the people Arun loved, and stay alive long enough to finish what the dead man started.
Performance
This is Ram Pothineni’s film, full stop. He throws himself into the mass avatar of Ustaad with an energy that borders on feral — the Telangana slang, the body language, the dance moves, the sheer screen presence. It is easily the best mass character of his career, and he carries the entire film on his shoulders. His accent divided opinion, but nobody could accuse him of holding back. Watching him spar with the voice in his head is the film’s most entertaining trick, and he sells both sides of it.
Nidhhi Agerwal gets the meatier of the two heroine roles as Dr. Sarah and does well with it, while Nabha Natesh brings sparkle to Chandni. Satyadev is solid and dignified as Arun, even though the role doesn’t give him much room to leave a personal stamp. The supporting cast — Puneet Issar, Ashish Vidyarthi, Sayaji Shinde and Getup Srinu — fills out Puri’s gallery of cops, crooks and comic relief efficiently.
Screenplay and Direction
Puri Jagannadh, who also co-produced the film with Charmme Kaur under Puri Connects, does what Puri does: he takes one hook — here, the memory-transfer concept — and builds a full-blown commercial vehicle around it. The first half is racy and hugely entertaining, packed with his trademark one-liners and a terrific interval bang. The second half is where the film wobbles: the treatment turns routine, the twists are predictable, and the climax lands with a thud rather than a bang.
But here’s the thing — Puri knows exactly who he is making this film for. This is mass cinema aimed squarely at the front benchers, and on those terms it delivers. Raj Thota’s cinematography gives the Old City a grimy, kinetic texture, Junaid Siddiqui’s editing keeps things moving, and Puri’s staging of the songs and action blocks has real swagger. It is not subtle filmmaking, but it was never trying to be.
Music
Mani Sharma’s music is one of the film’s biggest strengths. The songs were chartbusters on arrival — loud, hook-heavy mass numbers that were staged with real energy and became staples at every celebration that year. The background score deserves a special mention too; it pumps up the action and gives Shankar’s elevation moments their punch. The film earned SIIMA nominations for Best Music Director, Best Actor and Best Cinematographer, with a win for Best Playback Singer (Male).
What works about the music is how perfectly it matches Ram’s energy. Mani Sharma doesn’t try to class the film up — he meets it where it lives, and the result is a soundtrack that sounds exactly like the film feels: sweaty, loud and enormous fun.
Themes
Underneath the noise, iSmart Shankar is playing with a genuinely interesting idea: identity. What happens when two completely different men — a criminal who answers to no one and a cop who lived for duty — are forced to share one mind? The film has fun with the culture clash, but it also lands on something sincere: Shankar, the orphan who never belonged anywhere, finally finds purpose by finishing another man’s unfinished business. It is a redemption story wearing a mass entertainer’s clothes.
There is also the film’s love letter to its own setting. Old City Hyderabad isn’t just a backdrop; its slang, its attitude, its swagger is the film’s whole personality. Puri has always been a director of cities and streets, and iSmart Shankar is his most full-throated celebration of Hyderabadi street culture.
Conclusion
iSmart Shankar is not a great film, and it doesn’t pretend to be one. The second half is routine, the treatment is predictable, and family audiences were never its target. But as a mass comeback vehicle, it is enormously effective: Ram Pothineni delivers the performance of his career, Puri Jagannadh rediscovers his mojo, Mani Sharma’s music bangs, and the memory-transfer hook gives the whole thing just enough novelty to stand out. It did exactly what it set out to do at the box office — and then some. Stream it on ZEE5.
Watch the official trailer: