Palnati Brahmanayudu is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language action drama film produced by Medikonda Murali Krishna on Venkata Ramana Productions banner and directed by B. Gopal. The film stars Nandamuri Balakrishna in the main lead role alongside Arti Agarwal and Sonali Bendre. The music composed by Mani Sharma.^[1]

Bhavani Prasad is a local leader who works for the good of the people. The people respect him, adore him, and are even willing to give up their life for him. On the occasion of Bhavani Prasad's sister's marriage, he meets Sruthi, a friend of his sister. Sruthi is the fiancée of American-born Indian – Prudhvi. They both part ways as he asks her to undergo a virginity test before marriage. In the due course of events, she falls in love with Bhavani Prasad. Both families agree to their marriage. On this occasion, Siva Nageswari enters and shoots Bhavani Prasad.

Flashback unveils in the second half. One of the persons who works under Bhavani Prasad gets bashed up by goons of the rival faction – Nagayalanka Narasinga Naidu for no reason of his. They presume that he wrote love letters to his daughter Siva Nageswari and trash the pulp out of him. Due to this, Jatin becomes a cripple for life. Bhavani Prasad vows to get Nageswari married to Jatin, but the story takes a U-turn from then. Another of Bhavani's rivals – Mukesh Rushi joins hands with Narasinga Naidu and plans to damage Bhavani's image and withhold Siva Nageswari's marriage. It is also revealed that Mukesh Rushi's son fell in love with Bhavani's sister who rejected his love and married someone else. To avenge these defaming incidents both these villains unite.

Music is composed by Mani Sharma. Music is released on Aditya Music company.^[2]

Jeevi of Idlebrain.com rated the film 2+1⁄2 out of 5 and wrote that "First half of the film lacks any story element and is slow. The second half has some story, but too many twists spoil the mood of the film. The main drawback of the film is that the director B Gopal never got the audiences in his grip with his narrative".^[3] A critic from Full Hyderabad wrote that "The grand production values are thwarted upon us with some dramatic fowl (chicken! yes, you read it right, chicken - you have to see this to believe it and quickly forget it!) and locomotive sequences. And Balakrishna has done better in other films".^[4] Rediff wrote "The blame lies at the door of director Gopal. Instead of sticking to a strong storyline like he had done earlier, he overconfidently tries to cash in on his previous hits with Balakrishna".^[5]

The film is well remembered for the scene where Balakrishna sends back the train in reverse direction by slapping his thigh which resulted in lot of trolls in social media.^[6]