Daruvu

Daruvu centres on a small-time crook with a good heart, played by Ravi Teja, who falls for Shweta, a young woman already entangled with a powerful local figure. That rival arranges his death, but instead of moving on, the crook wakes up in the court of Yama, the god of death, where he discovers that his lifespan was cut short through the scheming of the veteran record-keeper Chitragupta. Chitragupta, resentful of being kept on while Yama's son takes charge of the underworld, had intended to bring a troublemaker into Yamalokam to stir up chaos. Furious at the injustice, the dead man demands to be sent back. Since his own body is gone, the authorities place him in the corpse of home minister Ravindra, the same actor in a second role.

Siva directed this 2012 Telugu action-comedy, following his 2011 debut Siruthai and preceding Annaatthe and Kanguva. The screenplay is credited to Siva and Adhi Narayana, and the cast includes Taapsee Pannu, Prabhu as the younger Yama, Kaikala Satyanarayana as the elder Yama, M. S. Narayana as Chitragupta and Sayaji Shinde as Balaram. Produced by Sri Venkateswara Entertainments, it runs 161 minutes.

The film draws on the well-worn Telugu comedy tradition of putting celestial bureaucracy on screen. Audience scores are modest: on IMDb it holds 5.4 from about 1,100 votes, and on TMDB 5.2 from a small handful of votes, indicating a limited reception beyond its home market.