Operation Diamond Racket

Operation Diamond Racket
DVD cover of the film
Directed by	B. Dorai Raj S. K. Bhagavan
Screenplay by	B. Dorai Raj S. K. Bhagavan
Story by	B. Dorai Raj S. K. Bhagavan
Produced by	B. Dorai Raj S. K. Bhagavan
Starring	Rajkumar Padmapriya
Cinematography	P. S. Prakash
Edited by	P. Bhaktavatsalam
Music by	G. K. Venkatesh
Distributed by	Anupam Movies
Release date	11 August 1978 (1978-08-11)
Running time	165 minutes
Country	India
Language	Kannada

Operation Diamond Racket (Kannada: ಆಪರೇಷನ್ ಡೈಮಂಡ್ ರ‌್ಯಾಕೆಟ್) is a 1978 Indian Kannada spy thriller film produced and directed by the duo B. Dorai Raj and S. K. Bhagavan, starring Rajkumar and Padmapriya in the lead roles. The supporting cast features Chandralekha, Vajramuni, Thoogudeepa Srinivas, Tiger Prabhakar and Fighter Shetty.

The film was the fourth and the last in the CID 999 Franchise created along the lines of the James Bond and James Bond - styled films following Jedara Bale, Goa Dalli CID 999 and Operation Jackpot Nalli C.I.D 999. The film was re-released in 2013.^[1] This is the only colour movie in the franchise and also the only movie in the franchise to not feature Narasimharaju. The movie was dubbed in Hindi in 1983 as Jasoos 999.^[2]

The movie was shot in Nepal and became the first Kannada movie to be shot outside India. However, another Kannada movie which released four months later, Singaporenalli Raja Kulla is widely credited as the movie which started the trend of Kannada movies being shot outside India since it was shot in a country which is not an Indian neighbour.

Plot[]

CID Agent Prakash solves gold smuggling cases. CID Chief mentions to Prakash about increase in diamond smuggling and top Indian scientists going missing. Prakash traces the lead from his fellow Agent Madhu and locates David, the local kingpin of diamond smuggling. He impersonates as David and traps Lolita, the lady who has diamonds. Prakash kills David and entrusts Lolita to Madhu. He goes to the hideout warehouse, where David was supposed to drop the diamonds. He finds diamonds hidden in face-covers. He alerts Police to seize the warehouse. He returns to Madhu to find Lolita missing and Madhu dead. Meena, Madhu's sister vows revenge against her brother's killers.

Seeing a Kathmandu address in Beena's Bag, Prakash and Meena act as a honeymoon couple and go to Kathmandu. Monzein, Prakash's friend and fellow-agent helps him with clues about antique shops, which are suspected to be involved in smuggling. Prakash spends quite some time, posing as a tourist, but fails to locate any clues about the smuggling gang.

Vishwanath, the kingpin at Kathmandu tries to kill Meena and Prakash repeatedly, but fails. Frustrated, he orders his secretary Drenko to befriend Meena. Drenko kills Monzein's entire family and kidnaps Meena.

Prakash finds a radar on top of a building at a remote site and enters it to find it to be the secret hide-out. He observes a speech, where a powerful beam is being prepared, which can bring down any plane, submarine or military installation. Prakash overpowers the place, kills all the henchmen, frees up Meena and burns down the place.

Cast[]

• Rajkumar
• Padmapriya
• Vajramuni
• Thoogudeepa Srinivas
• Tiger Prabhakar
• M. B. Shetty (credited as Fighter Shetty)
• Rajanand
• Nithin Kumar
• Shani Mahadevappa
• Chethan Ramrao
• Mamatha Shenoy
• Chandralekha
• Seema Kapoor
• Raji
• Jennifer
• Babbi
• Manzin

Trivia[]

• Operation Diamond Racket is the first Kannada movie to be shot outside India. The movie was shot at Nepal.
• View of Mount Everest or Mount Gaurishankara is shown, while Rajkumar is investigating the hide-outs of the villains.^[3]
• The movie featured a complete English song If you come today, it's too early. It became a trend-setter in Kannada movies.
• In spite of having celebrated 100 days in Hubli, the success of this movie is considered to be underwhelming owing to its huge cost of production due to which the plans for a fifth part in the series titled Operation Golden Gang was dropped.

Soundtrack[]

The music of the film was composed by G. K. Venkatesh, with lyrics penned by Chi. Udaya Shankar. The song "If You Come Today", sung by Rajkumar became widely popular, as the song was entirely written in unintentionally broken English.^[4]

Re-release[]

Operation Diamond Racket was re-released across 40 theatres in Karnataka on 31 May 2013.^[1] The film received a good opening, having collected ₹1 lakh (US$1,400) on the opening day in Kapali Theatre, Bangalore.

References[]

External links[]

• Operation Diamond Racket at IMDb

• Operation Diamond Racket at IMDb ( Hindi dubbed version)