Kshanam () is a 2016 Indian Telugu-language mystery thriller film directed by Ravikanth Perepu. The film features Adivi Sesh (who also served as a co-writer of the film) and Adah Sharma in lead roles while Anasuya Bharadwaj, Vennela Kishore, Satyam Rajesh, Satyadev, and Ravi Varma in supporting roles with the music is by Sricharan Pakala and cinematography by Shaneil Deo. In the film, Rishi arrives in India where he begins to search for a missing child of his ex-girlfriend Shwetha.
The film was released on 26 February 2016 where it received positive reviews from critics and audience, where it was remade in Tamil as Sathya (2017), in Hindi as Baaghi 2 (2018) and Kannada as Aadyaa (2020).
Plot
Rishi, a San Francisco-based investment banker, gets a voice call from his ex-girlfriend Sweta after a long gap. They studied medicine in the same college and wanted to marry, but her father arranged an alliance with an entrepreneur named Karthik. In the present, Rishi, who still loves Sweta, leaves for India on the pretense of attending a relative's marriage. He hires a car from Babu Khan, a travel agent, takes a SIM card on his sister's address and stays at Hotel Marriott. Rishi meets Sweta at a restaurant and learns her five-year-old daughter Riya is missing. She laments that no one else, including Karthik, believes that Riya actually exists. Rishi also learns about Karthik's brother Bobby, a drug addict who regularly visits her home.
Rishi begins an informal investigation which fails many times, also inviting the ire of two African-American gangsters in the city. Babu, who helps them in transporting drugs, saves Rishi on humanitarian grounds. Posing as Vasanth Khanna, a police officer, Rishi meets Karthik and learns that the couple was childless. Karthik recalls Sweta being attacked by two masked men before a school to steal her car. He added that Sweta went into a coma and post-recovery started claiming that she had a five-year-old daughter named Riya. Perplexed, Rishi later watches a closed-circuit television video footage of the masked men attacking Sweta on the day when Riya went missing. Unfortunately, Riya is seen nowhere in the footage, which makes Rishi doubt Sweta's mental condition.
Rishi confronts Sweta, who refuses to acknowledge that Riya is imaginary. Rishi sees height markings of a child on a wall, and before he could react, Sweta commits suicide in his presence. ACP Jaya and Inspector Ravi Chowdary investigate the suicide case. Khanna is killed in Marriott, and Babu confesses to Rishi that he saw Bobby kidnapping Riya. They meet Jaya and Chowdary and get Bobby arrested. In custody, Bobby is killed by Jaya in an act of self-defense. The same night, Khanna's murderers attack Babu and Rishi, and Babu is killed in the process of shooting the murderers to death. Rishi watches a MMS in the murderers' phone sent by Jaya instructing to kill him. Rishi meets Jaya at her farmhouse, where Riya is hidden.
Jaya reveals that Karthik wanted to kill Riya and arranged the attack on Sweta, after which Jaya found Riya in Bobby's custody. After meeting Riya, Jaya conspires to raise the girl as her daughter because she had lost her own husband and unborn daughter in a car accident. Jaya wanted to name her daughter Riya, so when she saw Sweta's daughter, she convinced herself that her daughter has come back. Thus, Jaya made a deal with Karthik; Karthik wanted Sweta to suffer so according to Jaya's plan, he convinced his friends and family to pretend that Riya never existed, saying Sweta cannot bear the shock of her daughter's death. Before Jaya can kill Rishi, Chowdary shoots her after listening to the conversation on his way to the farmhouse with his subordinates. Karthik is arrested and reveals that Riya is not his daughter, as a medical report confirmed him sterile in the past. Rishi remembers his last meeting with Sweta; she visited him to invite him to her wedding, and they made love. Rishi now realises Riya is his biological child. As he approaches Riya, he sees a reflection of Sweta smiling at him.