iSmart Shankar is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language science fiction action film written and directed by Puri Jagannadh, who co-produced the film with Charmme Kaur. It stars Ram Pothineni in the titular role along with Satyadev, Nabha Natesh, and Nidhhi Agerwal. The soundtrack and background score were composed by Mani Sharma. In the film, an assassin helps the cops to investigate a high profile case when a slain cop's memories are transferred into his brain.
iSmart Shankar was released theatrically on 18 July 2019, where it received mixed reviews from critics and became a commercial success at the box office.A sequel titled Double iSmart has been announced.
Plot
iSmart Shankar is a street-smart assassin who works under another assassin named Kaka. One day, Shankar encounters a rough woman named Chandini, when he was extorting money from an apartment complex builder. Impressed, Shankar falls for Chandini and tries various ways to impress her. Despite being annoyed at first, Chandini realizes her mistake. Under Kaka's orders, Shankar kills CM Kasi Vishwanath and escapes to Goa with Chandini. However, the cops learn about their location and a shootout ensues where Chandini gets killed and Shankar getting arrested.
Meanwhile, Sara, a neuroscientist who is working on memory transfer has achieved successful results with rats. Sara's boyfriend/fianceè Arun is a CBI officer, who is investigating Kasi Vishwanath's murder, believes that a higher force had planned and killed him. Shankar gets released from prison and deduces that Kaka had a major role in Chandni's death and has been ordered to kill him as well. Kaka tries to escape, but Shankar shoots Kaka in Sarah's car and flees while Sara calls Arun.
Arun catches a guy, but the guy is killed in a car accident and Arun's higher officials are after him to find the killer. When Arun is about to crack the case, he is shot and killed by the goons. CBI officer Chandrakanth is desperate to know about the killer, where they transfer Arun's memory to Shankar with Sara's help, knowing that Arun's memory will remove his past. Shankar wakes up and experiences memories that aren't his own. He gets enraged when Sara reveals the truth to him and realizes that he will forget Chandni in a few days.
Shankar experiences brief flashes where he becomes Arun, but reverts to being Shankar. Shankar finds Arun's house and discovers a bag that has evidences about the murderer, where he calls the Chandrakanth to meet him in Goa. When Arun is about to reveal the identity of the murderers, he reverts back to Shankar and beats all the cops and takes Sara at knifepoint, where he escapes. After a few events, Shankar reverts back to Arun and reveals to Chandrakanth that Kasi Vishwanath's son Devendra and brother-in-law Central Minister Ramamurthy are the masterminds behind the assassination.