Kiccha 2003

Krishna Mohan aka Kiccha, Sudeep, is a law graduate who dedicates himself to fighting injustice and corruption that surround him. On convocation day, he publicly calls out Education Minister Harikrishna for neglecting educational facilities, a challenge that lands him a brutal beating from the police. Back home, his mother Sharada, Sujatha, worries about his constant time with friends and the lack of a steady job. As Kiccha and his peers chase employment, they endure a long, fruitless interview process where the board ends the session early. In a heated moment, Kiccha and others lash out at the interview board, and a fellow candidate is injured in the scuffle. The injured candidate happens to be a kidney transplant patient from a poor family, highlighting the stakes of jobs and livelihoods in a system that often forgives the powerful while punishing the vulnerable. Seeing the candidate’s bleeding and the suffering around him, Kiccha stops short of finishing the confrontation, choosing mercy over further violence.

Kiccha’s life takes a tender turn when he meets Suma, an orphaned college girl, and their many meetings blossom into love, infusing hope into his otherwise restless path. Meanwhile, a friend’s arrest over his father’s death—an act driven by unemployment and systemic neglect—shines a harsh light on how government failures ripple through families. This turn of events pushes Kiccha to a drastic plan: he decides to stand as a solitary candidate in the city’s political arena, challenging the entrenched political order headed by the rowdy mayor Jayaraj. When Kiccha tries to secure nomination, Jayaraj and his supporters resist, prompting Kiccha to physically confront him and force a withdrawal. He then enters the race itself, stepping into a political battlefield that will test his ideals, his relationships, and his sense of justice. A festival ambush leaves him mortally wounded, but the truth emerges later: Kiccha’s own hand, acting in a bid for public sympathy, had a role in the stabbing. He survives, yet the suspicion of treachery lingers as he wrestles with the limits of his ambition.

Emerging as the city’s Mayor, Kiccha begins the work of eradicating corruption. He marries Suma, guided by his mother’s wishes, and his life seemingly moves toward stability—until tragedy strikes again. A wave of cyanide poisonings claims the lives of vulnerable citizens who depended on tainted food, and Kiccha emerges as a prime suspect in the broader conspiracy, particularly implicating Welfare Minister Chandrashekar in these crimes. When the Chief Minister, Avinash, summons him, Kiccha’s ambition to influence policy becomes a catalyst for deeper power plays. The Chief Minister’s office becomes a staging ground for a dramatic shift: Kiccha is offered, and accepts, the education portfolio, transforming himself from reformer to reformer-within-the-system, using the role to siphon funds for the education of the illiterate and the underprivileged. This turn infuriates his mother Sharada and his wife Suma, who see the corruption creeping into the man they once believed in.

As Kiccha wields his new power, he exposes the complicity of Harikrishna and other political figures, presenting damning evidence that shows how they colluded for personal gain. The plan culminates in a high-profile public speech where Kiccha outlines a bold agenda—free education, free transport, free health services, and robust job programs for the unemployed—even while acknowledging that systemic corruption will not yield these promises overnight. The speech reveals a sweeping strategy to redraw the political map by stripping power from the entrenched interests. Yet in a grim twist, Kiccha’s attempt to stage a renewal devolves into tragedy when he is shot in the crowd by someone close to him. Before his death, he articulates a haunting credo: no one should be corrupted or unemployed as long as people are willing to fight for a just system. In the aftermath, Sharada and Suma come to terms with his choices, forgiving him and mourning him at his side as a new government—built on sincerity and reform—begins to take shape in Karnataka, signaling a shift away from the old order governed by greed and impunity.