Sidda Reddy is a powerful mafia leader whose right hand is Devudu. Devudu has a lover called Malli. Reddy, who also likes Malli, takes her to the bed, which is not liked by Devudu. In the process, Devudu kills Reddy and becomes the leader of the mafia gang. Venkateswarlu is a fire officer. In an incident, Devudu sets a marketplace on fire and Venkateswarlu rescues it with his firefighting, and at the same time, Venkateswarlu slaps Devudu, as he continues throwing kerosene at the marketplace. Devudu holds a grudge against Venkateswarlu and sends him to jail on a framed charge of murder of Malli's brother Baddu. G. Seetaram, Venkateswarlu's son, tries to rescue his father from the jaws of police. But in the process, everybody starts asking him for bribe to do the work. At the end of the day, the police officer and Devudu kills Venkateswarlu. The rest of the story is about how Seetaram's mother takes revenge on the people responsible for the death of her husband with the help of her son Seetaram. The criminals involved in the crime of his father's death are killed one after the other by the mother and son in a planned and scientific manner. This film tells about an innocent boy, who, along with his mother undergoes injustice and also loses his father in this process. The mother in this situation plays the role of a trainer and guide to her son, making him strong physically and emotionally, to fight back.
Music was composed by R. P. Patnaik. Lyrics were penned by Kula Shekar. Music was released on Aditya Music.
Legacy
The film was also dubbed into Tamil as Nijam, and then again in 2012 as Seerum Singam. The film was dubbed as Meri Adalat in Hindi in 2008, in Bengali as Aamar Protishodh and in Bhojpuri as Hamaar Faisla. It was remade as Arjuna in Oriya starring Anubhab Mohanty and Gargi Mohanty & Bangladesh as Top Leader starring Shakib Khan.
Reception and collections
Idlebrain Jeevi in his review gave a rating of 3 out of 5 for the movie with concluding remarks "Overall, it's an average film that has chances to become hit because of the Teja's mass-attracting episodes and Mahesh Babu's brilliant portrayal of the character". Director Teja in an interview said "We made Nijam in a budget of 6.5 cr INR; We sold audio rights for 2 cr INR and movie initially were sold for a total of 26 cr INR. In total, we made a profit of 5-6 cr INR and Nijam was not a flop". He corroborated the same in an interview with The Hindu "I worked with Mahesh after he had a flop called Bobby; but Nijam released after Okkadu and people drew comparisons. I don’t argue when people say Nijam was a flop. The film was made with a budget of Rs. 6.5 crore and sold for Rs. 21 crore. I repaid money to whoever lost money and still made a huge profit".
