kkmoidusharjah

Triggering a re-think: Prithviraj

2009-03-19T18:24:00.000+04:00

Prithviraj surprised fans and critics alike by bagging the 2006 Kerala State best actor award, writes KK Moidu

Young Malayalam actor Prithviraj bagged the 2006 State award for Best Actor for his performance as Balachandran Adiga in Vasthavam, but the announcement came as a shock to many. According to reports there was much debate in the award committee before a final decision was taken in the matter. Youths like Prithviraj are rarely known to win such awards. Such laurels normally go the way of frontrunners like Mammootty, Mohanlal and Suresh Gopi or otherwise it is veterans like Murali, Nedumudi Venu, Thilakan, Oduvil Unnikrishnan and O Madhavan.

This year too cinegoers expected Mammootty to win the award for Karutha Pakshikal or Palunku or Mohanlal for Rasathanthram or Keerthichakra. But these two were not even in the final race and actor/scriptor Sreenivasan won the special jury award for his role as a handicapped beggar in Thakarachenda, directed by the debutante Avira Rebecca.

Sreenivasan

Prithviraj was born on Oct.16, 1983 as the younger son of late actor Sukumaran and actress Mallika. His older brother Indrajith and sister-in-law Poornima are also actors. After completing his school education from Sainik School and Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan School in Thiruvananthapuram, he earned a degree in IT and later studied engineering in Australia, before entering the tinselworld.
Director-Script writer Renjith cast Prithviraj as the male lead in Nandanam opposite Navya Nair. Though the movie was a superhit and performed well at the box office Navya hogged the limelight and even won the State Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the film's Cindrella-like character, Balamani.
Prithviraj too won the hearts of filmgoers as Manu in Nandanam and soon became a favourite of women viewers. His pairing with Navya Nair was perfect and director Bhadran repeated the pair in Vellithira. Prithviraj took a break from his studies and concentrated full-time on films. Vellithira didn't do well at the box office unlike other Bhadran films. One of the main reasons that the Malayalam audience didn't accept him in his role as Raghuram aka Style Raj. However, the song Pachamanga Pachamanga became more popular than the movie.

Prithviraj's repertoire of well-performed roles includes that of the responsible brother (Muthu) in Meerayude Dukhavum Muthuvinte Swapnavum, who always dreams of marrying off his handicapped sister; the irrepressible Romeo (Kunjoonju) in the superhit Swapnakkoodu directed by Kamal. His portrayal of the lorry driver in Lohithadas's Chakram is another example. He made a mark as the cop in Sathyam and Vargam. His portrayal of the corrupt Sub-Inspector Solomon Joseph, who falls victim to his wrong-doing, in Vargam was well-accepted by the public. He also played a naval officer in Albhuthadweep, directed by Vinayan.
The actor's five-year career gave him ample opportunities to handle different types of characters. He was also lucky to be part of the technically perfect Santhosh Sivan film, Ananthabhadram, a supernatural thriller with a novel storyline. His other movies Akale, Ammakilikoodu, Krithyam, Daivanamathil etc., also did moderate business at the box office. However, it has not always been success and accolades for this under-25 actor. He has had flops like Stop Violence, Nakshathra Kannulla Rajakumaran Avanundoru Rajakumari, Vellinakshathram, Police and Achanurangatha Veedu etc.

Although, Prithviraj proved his acting talent, he had been labelled as a hero who cannot carry a film on his shoulders alone. He was relegated to second-hero roles and so never became a superstar. Critics never credited with a status higher than that of actor Sukumaran's son. Prithviraj never got films with prestigious banners or reputed directors. His hard-hitting statements and rebellious nature got him branded as egotistical and Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (Amma) put a covert ban on him. All this hindered him in the realisation of his dream in the megastar-dominated Malayalam industry.
When meaty roles dried up on the home turf, he tried his luck in Tamil. Like other top Malayalam stars, his debut in Tamil was not as a hero. He portrayed a different kind of villain in master cinematographer KV Anand's directorial debut, Kana Kandein. This negative character, Madan, is very different from the stereotypical villan. He does not drink, smoke, rape or even talk loudly. Lady Luck smiled at Prithviraj, when all the leading heroes refused to do the negative role. Tamil leading man Srikanth and Gopika played the lead roles in the film.
Prithvi's performance in Kana Kandaiein won a lot of praise and became the stepping stone for his wish-fulfillment as a hero in Tamil films. This came with Parijatham, directed by veteran craftsman Bhagyaraj. Parijatham also marked the debut of Bhagyaraj's daughter Saranya as an actress. After Parijatham clicked at the box office, Prithviraj became a much sought-after name. Offers poured in from reputed banners and among them Mozhi, produced by Prakash Raj and directed by Radha Mohan, with Jyothika as his heroine; Satham Podathe, directed by Vasant and co-starring Padmapriya. Prithviraj was paired with Sandhya in Kannampoochi Yeneada, which has music by Yuvan Shankar Raja and is directed by G. Thilakan.
He also signed a comedy film, Kallapart, directed by debutante Viji, a famous Tamil TV actress. Asin Thottumkal and Prakash Raj are the other artists in the film. Kallapart is a remake of the superhit Malayalam film Udhayanaanu Tharam starring Mohanlal, Sreenivasan and Meena. Prithviraj is doing Mohanlal's role in Kallapart and music has been composed by Vidyasagar. Because of his Tamil successes, he was also signed to do a Telugu film directed by Bhushan, where he is paired opposite Anjali Zaveri.
Classmates, directed by hit-maker Lal Jose, marked his comeback to Malayalam cinema. Although the film had no major stars, it went on to become the biggest grosser in Malayalam cinema's history, competing with the films of superstars, released around the same time. That propelled Prithviraj to superstardom. He has once again become hot property in Malayalam films. Classmates went on to prove that a film about youngsters can also re-write box-office history provided it has superb screenplay, direction and amazing performances.
After Vargham and Ammakkilikoodu, director Padmakumar's third movie with Prithviraj, Vasthavam, brought the actor real luck by fetching him the state award for the best actor. The film's story, written by Babu Janardanan is heart-rending. It features Prithviraj as Balachandran, the son of an honest communist leader, born in a poor Brahmin family. He works as a priest at the local temple and has heavy responsibilities like marrying off his sisters and saving the family from abject poverty. Balachandran's cousin, Sumithra (Kavya Madhavan), is his love interest and their affair has the approval of both families.
Everything, however, changes when Thruppan Namboodiri (Salim Kumar) approaches Balachandran's family with the proposal of his niece Surabhi (Samvrutha Sunil). Balachandran is promised a job in the state secretariat, if he marries Surabhi. Initially Balachandran turns down the offer. However, Sumithra expresses her willingness to sacrifice her love in order to save his family. Balachandran marries Surabhi, but on the night of the marriage, Balachandran's sister elopes with Sreedharan, an adivasi leader.
Balachandran's mother dies of the shock. After the funeral Balachandran goes to Thiruvananthapuram to take up employment at the secretariat. Balachandran comes under the corrupting influence of Unnithan, a secretariat old-timer, who has no qualms about accepting bribes. It turns out that in addition to getting a husband for his neice, Thruppan Namboodiri also wanted in his new job to obtain approval for his ceramic factory.
Balachandran get close to his divorcee colleague Vimala after learning that she is the niece of a highly influential politician, Pattom Raveendran (Murali). When Pattom becomes a minister, Balachandran is appointed his personal staff member. Balachandran uses Vimala, the minister's wife and henchmen to attain his goals. Very soon, Balachandran becomes more powerful and richer than the minister. He forgets his past, ignores his wife and the people who helped him. Vasthavam thus delves into Kerala's current political scenario - secretariat, employees like personal assistants to ministers, their private secretaries and clerical staff.
As for Prithviraj's career, the new year has begun with offers like Pakal, directed by debutante MA Nishad, where he plays a journalist. Jyothirmayi is the female lead. In Anantham, directed by Kukku, and Nammal Thammil he co-stars with Geethu Mohandas. Kadha with Kavya Madhavan as his heroine and Avan Chandiyude Makan has Sredvika as his heroine.
After the surprise success of Classmates, the big names of Malayalam cinema are re-thinking and approaching Prithviraj with offers. Renjith is casting him in his new movie opposite Mamta Mohandas and with good reason.

Prithviraj has all the right qualities. He is young but looks mature. He has a good physique and can handle both action-oriented and romantic roles with ease. This "star son" is expected to shine on the industry for a long time. His hard work and sincerity have been rewarded with success. With little competition from contemporaries his future couldn't be brighter.

CROONING TO A DIFFERENT SCORE-MAMTA MOHANDAS

2008-05-08T16:47:00.000+04:00

Crooning to a diffrent score

Mamta Mohandas may not be a salebale face, but can surely make a career as a playback singer, says KK Moidu

South Indian actress Mamta Mohandas can be aptly described as 'woman of many faces.' Before her debut as a Tollywood heroine, Mamta has proven her musical abilities as a playback singer in Telugu film Rakhi, directed by Krishnavamsi.
After appearing in more than half a dozen Malayalam films and a Tamil project, Mamta has entered the highly competitve Telugu industry.
Mamta hails from Kozhikode in Kerala. She was born and brought up in Bahrain and has done her schooling from Indian School, Bahrain. Mamta had returned to India to complete her higher education.
Mamta began her career as a model. She had appeared in print ads for big banners like IBM, Kalyan Kendra.etc and was also ramp model for Raymonds and Mysore Maharaja.
Her foray into films is pure luck. Mamta, who is a trained Karnatic and Hindustani classical singer wanted to be a playback artiste. But fate had something else in store for her. Mamta was introduced to veteran director Hariharan by Sreedevi, mother of late Malayalam actress Monisha.
Thus in 2005, Mamta made her debut in Malayalam in Mayookham, directed by Hariharan. Although she had no previous experience in acting, her stint in modelling helped her to do things as per director's instructions.
Eventhough Mayookham bombed at the box office, the movie's failure didn't affect her career. After Mayookham, the actress was cast by director VM Vinu as a Muslim girl in the Malayalam movie Bus Conductor. In this movie, Mamta is seen as Mammootty's sister and her performance didn't go unnoticed.
Mamta shocked her fans with her portrayal of 'Lanka Lakshmi' in the erotic thriller Lanka, directed by AK Sajan. Suresh Gopi was in the lead role 'Sravan' in this movie.
Mamta's challenging performance didn't work in the favour of the film, but she got a chance to pair as a heroine opposite a senior superstar Suresh Gopi.
Lanka is being dubbed in Telugu as Pokiri Pilla and the actress has pinned her hopes on the success of the film.
Her next film with Suresh Gopi was Albhutham, directed by the National Award winning director Jayaraj. Albhutham was the fourth movie in the 'navarasa' series directed by Jayaraj. The earlier movie in this series include Karunam, Shantam and Beebalsam.
Albhutham was completed in a record time of less than three hours in Ramoji Rao Film City in Hyderabad. Mamta's character Maria played an important role in this film.
In Madhuchandralekha directed by Rajasenan, Mamta acted as the model Indulekha. Mamta was the second heroine in the movie. The lead heroine was Urvashi, who won the Best Actress State Award for her performance as Chandramati. Jayram is the hero.
Mamta was supposed to do the heroine's role in the superhit movie Keerthichakra, directed by Major Ravi. But she opted out due to her earlier commitments. The lead role Major Mahadevan was portrayed by Mohanlal and the principal female character was done by Lakshmi Gopalaswamy.
Lady luck smiled on Mamta with the box office grosser Baba Kalyani, an action thriller directed by Shaji Kailas. Mamta's does the role of a lawyer in this movie. Madhumita (Mamta) is the villain's daughter and the hero's (Mohanlal) love interest. The movies phenomenal success boosted her popularity, despite the fact that she had very little to do in the film.
Her recent release Big B directed by Amal Neerad, Mamta appears as one of the heroines of superstar Mammootty. She earned fame within a short span of time by apperaing alongside senior superstars Mammootty, Mohanlal and Suresh Gopi.
After doing few films in Malayalam, like her seniors in the industry, Mamta shifted her focus to Tamil. She made her debut in the Tamil film Sivappathigaram directed by Karu Pazhaniappan.
The movie's lead Vishal plays an angry young man Sathyamoorthy, who begins a crusade against the corrupt political system. Mamta plays a typical Tamil heroine in this film.
Although Sivappathigaram had all the necessary ingredients for a potboiler and a strong social message, it didn't make any ripples at the box office. The only highlight of the movie was Vidyasagar's music.
Mamta had already caught the attention of Tollywood directors for being chosen as Sidharth's heroine in the Telugu film Aata. But she was replaced by Ilena, a leading Telugu heroine. Mamta was supposed to sing a number for this movie. Thus it became a double loss for this singer-actress.
After Malayalam and Tamil, Mamta is now focussing on Telugu. Her upcoming projects include Hare Rama Hare Krishna (HRHK), Yamadonga and Don, wherein she will appear with bigwigs of the industry.
HRHK will be directed by Trivikram Srinivas and Mamta will be cast alongside Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu. The movie's producer states that HRHK will be a mass entertainer.
Big budget Yamadonga, written and directed by SS Rajamouli will have NTR Jr as Mamta's hero. The new project will have actor Mohanbabu in an important role. The duo NTR Jr and Rajamouli had earlier created the superhit movies Student No.1 and Simhadri. Like other Rajamouli films, MM Keeravani will be composing the music.
Mamta's forthcoming Don produced by ML Kumar Chaudhary is made by Kriti Creations. Actor Nagarjuna will play double roles, one as a hero, other as a villain. Director Raghava Lawrence, who has already proved his talent as a craftsman, choreographer and as an artiste, will make his debut as a music director in Don. Script and dialogue of the film is done by Bommarillu and Annavaram fame Abburi Ravi.
Mamta's entry as a playback singer was purely incidental. While she was humming a tune all to herself at AVM studio, music director Devi Sri Prasad spotted her talent and gave her a chance to sing the title song in Rakhi. The song turned out to be a big hit. None of the listeners could discern the fact that Rakhi's title track was sung by a non-Telugu girl.
In Malayalam, Mamta has been a heroine for senior superstars and in Telugu her movies with frontliners, are slowly becoming a major crowdpuller. The actress is very lucky in one aspect. Eventhough she may not be a salebale face in Telugu cinema, Mamta can surely make a career as a playback singer.

RE-WORKING THE MAGIC-JAYARAM

2008-04-22T18:47:00.000+04:00

Re-working the magic
Malayalam cinema’s safe star, Jayaram, is eyeing new projects to give his career graph the much-needed boost, KK Moidu writes

Malayalam actor Jayaram has pinned hopes on Madhuchandralekha, which has his lucky heroine Urvasi and is directed by Rajasenan an old ally, to renew his Midas touch at the box office. Once considered one of the safest heroes at the box office and a hot favourite of the family audience, the actor’s career has witnessed a slump since 2000, for no plausible reason. The split with his winning team-mate, Rajasenan, could be one of the reasons.
The duo have many hits to their credit. These include films like Aniyan Bava Chettan Bava, CID Unnikrishnan BA B.Ed, Swapnalokathe Balabhaskaran, Naadan Pennum Naattu Pramaniyum, Kottaram Veettile Appoottan, Meleparambil Aanveedu, Ayalathe Adheham and Malayalee Maamanu Vanakkan. Such was their teamwork that industry insiders began predicting that the director would not be unable to give a hit without Jayaram or vice versa. However, after an ego clash Jayaram rejected a film offer from Rajasenan, citing an inappropriate title as the reason. Rajasenan cast Suresh Gopi and Kunjacko Boban in his next venture, Swapnam Kondu Thulabharam. Fortunately, for the Jayaram-Rajasenan team and their fans that movie did not click.
Jayaram’s specialisation has been comedy and sentimental roles. He has also been cast as a supporting hero in many films in the past. He has portrayed characters like unemployed youth and the Namboodiri on screen with relative ease and even managed to arouse audience’s sympathy. Not surprising for before his entry into films this talented actor was a mimicry artiste. His most memorable item those days was his masterly imitation of the late Prem Nazir. During an interview he narrated an incident related to this act. Jayaram was on a flight with the late actor’s son, Shahnawaz. Gripped by nostalgia Shahnawaz requested Jayaram to speak to him in his father’s voice and manner. Then Shahnawaz shut his eyes and Jayaram spoke to him in Nazir’s voice. According to Jayaram the joy on Shahnawaz’s face was unexplainable. He thanked the actor and told him that for a moment he felt he was with his father.
With such incredible talent there was no looking back for the actor during the initial decade and half or so, but with Dileep’s entry things began to change. The younger star had the same mimicry background and also specialised in comedy. His popularity proved a setback for Jayaram’s career. Dileep was repeatedly cast in roles, which would have naturally gone to Jayaram. Another Jayaram favourite, director duo Rafi Mecartin, switched loyalties and started writing roles suitable for Dileep. Earlier, the director duo gave memorable hits like Adhyathe Kanmani, Dilliwala Rajakumaran, Puthukkottayile Puthumanavalan and One Man Show with Jayaram as the hero, but after the surprise success of Punjabi House their scripts Thenkasipattanam, Thilakkam and Pandippada were written mainly with Dileep in mind.
At the peak of his career Jayaram received several offers from Tamil film producers to play the supporting hero, but he chose to concentrate on Malayalam films and turned down those offers initially. He realised that with young Tamil actors like Vikram, Vijay, Madhavan, Surya and Ajith around, he didn’t stand much of a chance in that industry. But when his roles were offered to Dileep, he decided to try his luck in Tamil films. His Tamil films with Kamal Haasan, Tenali and Panchathanthiram, were appreciated. He also did a full-fledged comedy role in the Ajith starrer Paramasivam, directed by P Vasu. He also got a meaty role in a Sarath Kumar film. His Tamil fans lovingly bestowed on him the title of “Navarasa Thendral” (one well-versed in all the nine human qualities described in Indian literature).
Jayaram’s recent change in fortunes saw even a director like Kamal, who did more than 10 movies with the actor, refraining from casting him in his new films. Their last hit together was Kaikkudanna Nilavu. Incidentally Dileep is doing a double role in Kamal’s latest release, Pachakuthira.
Sathayan Anthikkad, another talented director with the unique record of not giving a flop, has also done around 15 films with Jayaram. Their last hit Manassinakkare, was Jayaram’s only hit film in the last four years. Even, though Manassinakkare was a runaway hit the director, however, chose to do his new films with other heroes. He cast Sunil as the leading man in Achuvinte Amma and Mohanlal as the male lead in Rasathanthram. He has also announced his next film with Dileep as the hero.
In the last six years, Jayaram’s super hits were Manassinakkare and Yathrakkarude Shradhakkai, whereas his movies like Pauran, Alice in Wonderland, Fingerprint, Amrutham, Ivar, Ente Veedu Appuvinteyum, Sesham, Theerthadanam, Naranathu Thamburan, Sharjah To Sharjah went unnoticed. Mayilattam, Njaan Salperu Raman Kutty, Malayalimamanu Vanakkam, Uthaman and Vakkalathu Narayanankutty did average business.
He is married to former actress Parvathy and they have two children. Kalidasan and Malavika. His son Kalidasan has also acted in two films. Kalidasan’s performance in his first movie Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal along with Jayaram won him the National Award for the Best Child Artiste. Another movie in his credit was Ente Veedu Appoontem in which Jayaram did the lead role.
Jayaram’s interests other than cinema include festivals, elephants and drums. He purchased an elephant and in keeping with his popularity, the elephant was called “Jayaram Kannan.” Kannan became a star at temple festivals in Kerala. He is now known as “Perumbavoor Kannan” after Jayaram chose to be its half owner, handing over its care to the temple management. The new arrangement had to be made because Jayaram and family shifted to Chennai because that was more convenient for his tight shooting schedules and children’s education.
The actor also gave a maiden performance (arangettam) with the drum (chenda) during Kerala Tourism’s Onam week celebrations at Nishagandhi auditorium at a state-level function. He performed the “Sruthimelam Panchari” a unique musical composition by chenda maestro Mattannoor Sankaran Kutty. The multi-faceted actor is also the brand ambassador of Kerala Tourism’s “Vazhiyoram” project.
His career highs include winning of the State Award for Second Best Actor and Special Jury Award for his performance in Swayamvarapandhal and the State Special Jury Award, Cine Best Actor Award, Filmfare Award, and Rottery Club Award for his performance in Thooval Kottaram.
However, his standing as a safe bet at the box office has been dented with distributors shying away from distributing his completed films. Three such films, Seetha Kalyanam, Magic Lamp and Winter, are gathering dust in the studio labs. Even projects announced with Jayaram as the hero went to others at the ninth minute. A case in example was the supporting role in Roshan Andrew’s Udhayananu Tharam, which finally went to Mohanlal. The movie gave Malayalam cinema a fresh lease of life in 2005 and for Jayaram it was a golden opportunity lost.
Given the present difficult circumstances, Jayaram’s only hope is Rajasenan’s Madhuchandralekha, a theme targetting the family audience, particularly children. The story revolves around the lives of Madhavan (Jayaram), a famous music director and singer, and his wife Chandramathi (Urvasi) and their four children in a rural setting in a fun-filled background. The twist comes after a model Indulekha (Mamta) arrives. This changes their lives. The movie draws its title from the names of its three main characters.
Anjali, Vishnu, Riya and Veena play the four children, while Bheeman Raghu, Johnny, Harishree Asokan and Tom Jacob play Chandramathy’s four brothers. The rest of the support cast comprises Babu Kalasaala, Cochin Haneefa, Sukumari, Vijaya Kumari, Liji Thomas and Indrans. The movie is produced by Samad Mankada.
Another upcoming Jayaram film is Bharathan, directed by Anil Das, and another directed by Lohithadas. Now it is for the audience to decide whether they should return this actor his crown of a safe actor on the basis of these three films.

ANGRY BUT MORE DISAPPOINTED-SURESH GOPI

2008-04-22T17:58:00.001+04:00

'Angry' but more disappointed

By KK Moidu

Malayalam superstar Suresh Gopi's problem seems to be neither success nor failure, but the lukewarm response of the audience to his non-angry roles.
The actor began his career as a child artiste in 1965 in the award-winning film Odayilninnu, based on a novel by the same name. After a long layoff he returned to the silver screen to play small roles, initially, and later the villain and second hero. In his two-decade long career he has been part of several hits like Rajavinte Makan, Irupatham Noottandu, Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha, Manichithrathazhu and Innale, to mention a few. In all these hit movies although he played significant roles, it was never the lead character.
In the late 80’s he found his niche in Malayalam cinema as its angry young man, a tag he has survived with for a decade. His career witnessed a massive upswing with several films portraying him as the tough unrelenting cop and an angry young man taking on a corrupt and decaying establishment. Thalasthanam, Ekalavyan, Mafia and Commissioner were some of the films, which belonged to this genre. His talent also became visible in other roles in films like Vazhunnor, Pathram, F.I.R., Sathyameva Jayathe and Lelam. But Commissioner, directed by Shaji Kailas marked the turning point in his career. His character of Bharathchandran IPS went down well with the masses and instantly catapulted him to superstar status. And his dialogues “Ormayundo ee mugham” (do you remember this face) and “Mohan Thomasinte Uchishtavum” (Mohan Thomas’s leftovers) were on the lips of both adults and children. The fact that mimicry artistes like Kottayam Nazeer started imitating these dialogues made them even more enjoyable and popular.
Comedy movies starring Suresh Gopi also made an impact at the box office, but there he had to share the credit with other artistes. Thenkasipattanam, for example had Dileep and Lal, whereas Sundarapurushan had Mukesh. But these films showed that he had a flair for comedy as well.
His portrayal of Kannan Perumalyan in Kaliyattam, a Malayalam remake of Shakespeare's Othello along theyyam lines, fetched him the national award for best actor, his greatest achievement this far. Although he was subsequently nominated for the Kerala state best actor award for his performances in art films Ullam and Makalkku, he lost the crown to his senior Mammootty.
Even though he has acted in over 200 films, his golden era was the 90’s. When viewers seemed to have tired of his gun-toting image, khaki uniform and dialogues, Suresh Gopi lay low for some time. However, much to his disappointment, he was not even accepted, when he tried to experiment. Swapnamkondu Thulabharam, a family movie bombed badly and the actor, it seemed, had lost his Midas touch.
Rumours began doing the rounds that the actor had political ambitions and that he was planning to contest the parliamentary elections from the Kollam constituency as a United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate.
After a four-year gap he made a comeback on the screen with Ranji Panicker at the helm in Bharath Chandran IPS, a sequel to his earlier mega-hit Commissioner. Once again the police commissioner’s role in Bharath Chandran IPS gave his career a fresh lease of life. The movie was widely acclaimed and he regained his image and again donned the police officer’s uniform in Tiger, directed by Shaji Kailas. Tiger didn’t do well at the box office so other police dramas didn't follow soon. Politician Rajmohan Unnithan played the chief minister’s role in Tiger and the film’s publicity didn't work favourably.
After Tiger flopped and he opted to play the role of Captain Sravan in director-writer AK Sajan’s Lanka, he sought a break from his angry young man image by doing a character with negative shades. In Lanka Suresh Gopi plays an army officer sent to Sri Lanka by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. He stays back and starts a shipping business in Sri Lanka and eventually marries Lanka Lakshmi, a role played with elan by Mamta Mohandas. However, the army officer has a troubled past as a womaniser. Some parts of the film were picturised in a bungalow in Sri Lanka, considered one of the biggest in Asia. But the erotic thriller didn't click at the box office, because it did not live up to Malayalam cinema-goers’ expectations and so the actor’s efforts went unnoticed.
Anil C. Menon, the director of Ben Johnson and Malsaram, has cast Suresh Gopi for his new movie Rashtram, where he plays the role of a chief minister. After the success of the Dileep starrer Lion, directed by Joshi, there is suddenly a glut of films about politicians, who try to cleanse the system. In Lion Dileep played Kerala’s home minister and he excelled in it, making the movie a super hit. Suresh Gopi on the other hand is a step ahead because he plays the chief minister in Rashtram. If the movie clicks at the box office, one is likely to find him in many more political dramas.
Rashtram’s storyline is thus Kerala’s chief minister dies all of a sudden and Kerala Gandhi Ouseppachan, a former central minister, played by Madhu refuses to accept the chief minister’s post because of ill-health. It is then that opposition leader AK Gopalan (Thilakan) suggests that Ouseppachan's son Thommichan (Suresh Gopi) be made the chief minister. Thommichan, a timber merchant, is not interested in politics. He, however, believes in helping the poor and his popularity amongst the masses is well-known.
Finally Thommichan accepts the chief minister’s post thinking that he will be able to do something for the poor and the needy. But when he starts cleaning up the entire system, the politico-criminals and rivals take offence.
Suresh Gopi's favourite director Shaji Kailas’s new movie Chinthamani Kolacase will offer him a character, very different from anything he has played so far. The actor has put all his hope into the film. The duo, who made more than 10 films together, will partner in a murder mystery. Their perfect understanding is something to be watched in their new movie.
Suresh Gopi's fiery dialogues, action scenes, good acting and portrayal of a crime investigator will be the highlights of Chinthamani Kolacase. Unlike his earlier Shaji Kailas films, he does not play a police or army officer but a lawyer, Lal Krishna Veeradiyar, who has never lost a case.
Shaji Kailas has flown in nearly 10 models to play a gang of rich girls called “Mirchi Girls.” The girls help Suresh Gopi in his investigation of the murder of their colleague Chinthamani, the daughter of a temple attendant. Veeradiyar delves deep into the details of the case to bring the real killers to justice and in the process uncovers a major crime gang.
The movie also has Sai Kumar, Murali, Manoj K. Jayan, Siddique, Sukumari, Biju Menon, Bhavana, Aiswarya, Vani Viswanath and Poornima. Bhavana plays the central character, Chinthamani.
Even though Suresh Gopi has proved that he can handle all kinds of roles, the viewers don’t seem to be willing to accept him in all kinds of roles. If Veeradiyar becomes a success he will have to wear the black gown again and again. On the other hand if Chief Minister Thommichan scores, Suresh Gopi will be saddled with many more chief minister roles. But one thing is for sure, if he doesn't do well in either of these roles, we can expect another Commissioner sequel, which will definitely give him the chance to prove his pull at the box office.

FAST, BUT NOT STEADY - SHILPA SHETTY

2008-01-03T16:31:00.000+04:00

14 TIME OUT The Gulf Today / Thursday, May 17, 2007
FAST, BUT
NOT STEADY
LIFE IN A METRO BRINGS INTO FOCUS THE VARIOUS PROBLEMS PEOPLE FACE IN A FAST-PACED LIFESTYLE WITH LITTLE HOPE OF REALISING THEIR DREAMS, WRITES KK MOIDU
Shilpa Shetty, who makes her first screen appearance
after the international racism controversy and
Richard Gere’s hug and kiss drama was recently in Dubai to promote her latest film Life in a Metro. Director Anurag Basu, producer Ronnie Screwvala, co-stars Shiney Ahuja and Irrfan Khan were also present at the press conference
organised by Star TV. The event was held at Falcon Ballroom in Le Meridien Dubai.
In Metro, Shilpa plays a talented but bored housewife Shikha who gets involved in an extra-martial
relationship. The actress came in an hour late, wearing jeans and a white jacket with little makeup. Shilpa
happily answered the journalists queries.
“ In real life I would never get involved in an extra marital relationship. I grew up in a healthy environment
and my parents share an excellent relationship. So extra-martial relationship is something I just
can’t accept,” Shilpa said at the
press confrence.
When asked what if her husband cheated on her, she said,” I would kill him, if he gets involved in such
a thing.”
Shilpa, who is a 30 plus single, opined that nobody chooses an extra marital relationship but some
fall into it due to situations. The actress made her debut in
the Bollywood blockbuster Baazigar. Although Shilpa played the second heroine Seema Chopra in Baazigar, her character was well accepted by the audience. In an acting
career spanning one and half decades, Shilpa has acted in more than 50 films.
She is one of the tallest actress’ in Bollywood. Shilpa has worked along with her sister, actress
Shamita Shetty, in the Hindi film Fareb.
Shilpa, who has not only acted in commercial entertainers but has also proved her talent in notable
films like Dhadkan and Phir Milenge etc. Her character Anjali in Dhadkan and Tamanna Sahani in Phir Milenge won her lot of appreciation.
After Shilpa, it was director Basu’s turn to be in the hot seat. When asked about the screen kiss between Dharmendra and Nafeesa Ali, he stated,” “I don’t know how to express romance without kissing. I think the kiss went very with the Indian audience.” The theme was another point of discussion in the press conference. “ The urban theme of the film was because of the dramatic changes in Indian cinema in the last couple of
years,” producer Ronnie Screwvala
said.
Life in a...Metro — a glance
India is shining. The GDP is increasing. The sensex is at an all time high. Malls, multiplexes, Cars, Metros — Everything is growing — Even the distance between the
hearts. Emotions run amok in a city that fights for attention. Staying on top means running someone down; a
promotion means sidelining someone else. Love means a “no strings attached” tryst in an empty flat.
“Commitment” and “Love” are words for losers, or so they say! But life has a way of turning
things around.

Cast

Shilpa Shetty as Shikha
Atalented but bored housewife. Craves love. Her life changes track when she meets a stranger at a railway
station.
Shiney Ahuja as Akash
The man who could not hold on to a job — or his wife. A man who held on to his values, until he himself held no value in the eyes of the world.
Kangna Ranaut as Neha
She’s fast learning that some shortcuts are too long. But changing lanes is not easy.
Kay Kay Menon as Ranjeet
The man who has to be in control. He keeps every one on their toes and in their place. His family
included.
Sharman Joshi as Rahul
Literally holds the keys to his own success. Life is a smooth ride until he accidentally discovers that
his dream changed directions.
Konkana Sensharma as Shruti
Single, at 30, she believes she has just one life, that cannot be spent on the wrong man. Her search for Mr Right drives everyone else up the wall.
Irrfan Khan as Debu
Has broken all the signals in search for love. But a life partner remains elusive.
TALE OF RELATIONSHIPS
Director Anurag Basu seems to have an obsession with heights. In Murder, Gangster and now Metro, characters are seen hanging down or just sitting on ledges of skyscrapers. In Metro, he even gets his rock band to climb
atop a building and strum guitars. And when it isn’t guitars, it’s Irrfan and Konkona getting on a rooftop to scream their lungs out.
It’s meant to be therapeutic and we’ll take Anurag Basu’s word for it. Metro falters only in parts. Some of the narrative’s punctuation marks are overemphasised. And the spiral of human relationships often seems to replicate Mike Nichols’ Closer.
And yes, Billy Wilder’s romantic comedy The Apartment serves as a direct reference point for the Kay Kay-Kangana-Sharman triangle. But make no mistake, this is a highly original film with a voice that seems to reverberate across a limitless canvas of feelings of people in a concrete
jungle.
You know you are being sucked into the lives of characters who are largely losers in the garb of white-collar dreamers, looking for love and warmth in a cold, heartless city.
After Gangster, Anurag Basu has got another winner in Metro — a subtle, sly look at a bunch of characters locked in the throes of infidelity. Basu harnesses his narrative into a fiesta of reined-in feelings, all indicating the growth of a city that cares little about one’s sensitivities.
He has an incredible eye for performances. Every actor is nearly flawless in the chaos of corroded commitments in the city. Always witty, Metro moves through a laconic labyrinth of laughter and some stifled sobs.
Sanjeev Dutta’s dialogues are very indicative of the characters’ inner world. They slice right into the characters’ hearts and give us an insight into the machinations of people so busy realising their dreams that they even forget to sleep.
On the negative side, Metro fails to connect us with the characters beyond their love life. If they have a life beyond their heart, we don’t see it.
The film should be seen as a mellow, melancholic and sharp look at love and sex in the city. The characters move in and out of some skillfully written scenes.
Despite a frail chemistry with Shiney Ahuja, Shilpa Shetty gives a nuanced performance. Bobby Singh’s camera captures Shilpa in agonised silhouettes. Kay Kay, as her insensitive husband, has a thankless role that he performs
with rare understanding.
While Sharman and Konkona are surprisingly chemistry-less in their screen relationships, Irrfan and Konkona come across as the warmest couple of this jigsaw of life. Watch them in the seashore sequence and savour their outstanding emotive faculties.
Metro is manoeuvred forward by a melee of delicious ideas ... like composer Pritam and his rock band appearing as narrators to sing their songs. The rain-motif pelts down on the plot, creating pockets of pain, desire and longing.
But the film could have done with better editing.
Akiv Ali cuts the material brutally ... but not
deep enough.

TALENT SHINES-JYOTHIRMAYI

2008-01-03T16:19:00.003+04:00

20 TIME OUT The Gulf Today / Thursday, May 17, 2007
TALENT SHINES
THROUGH JYOTHIRMAYI HAS ACHIEVED THE IMPOSSIBLE IN THE SOUTH INDIAN FILM
INDUSTRY BY PLAYING HEROINE ROLES EVEN AFTER HER MARRIAGE, WRITES KK MOIDU
The Gulf Today / Thursday, May 17, 2007 TIME OUT 21
The South Indian film
industry has been very
unkind to married heroines.
Jyothirmayi is an
exception. Her career
took off after she tied the knot with
her former classmate Nishanth,
who is a software engineer.
Jyothirmayi has acted in about
20 Malayalam films, few Tamil
films, a Telugu film and she is making
her Bollywood debut with Ek
Phir Baar. In her first Malayalam
film, Pilots, she had a small role
with Suresh Gopi playing the lead.
After that, she did a small role as
Jyothi in Ishtam in which Navya
Nair played the lead heroine.
Jyothirmayi then was offered a
guest appearance in Nandanam and
she proved her talent in the super
hit Kalyanaraman.
Two years after her debut,
Jyothirmayi won the Special Jury
mention at the National Awards for
her portrayal of a college lecturer
Latha in Bhavam — her first role as
a heroine. In this film she proved
her talent as an intelligent actress.
Debutante Satish Menon’s Bhavam
earned her fame at the start of her
career.
Jyothirmayi came into the limelight
after the success of the hit
song Chingamaasam
Vannuchernnal from the blockbuster
Meesa Madhavan. This
Cochin girl became a favourite for
Malayalam cinema viewers after
her sizzling dance number in the
film.
In Ente Veedu Appoontem opposite
Jayaram, Jyothirmayi played
his wife and the mother of two children.
Jyothirmayi played front liner
Mohanlal’s lead in Hariharan Pilla
Happiyanu. In Anyar, directed by
Lenin Rajendran, she was the heroine
of Biju Menon. She also played
a smart and curious girl’s role in the
Mammootty starrer Pattalam
directed by Lal Jose. She played
lead roles in Kadhavaseshan, Alice
in Wonderland, Chacko Randaman,
Moonnamathoral and Bada Dosth.
Unfortunately, the movies she
played lead roles in Malayalam
failed at the box office.
Jyothirmayi tried her luck in
Telugu films and made her debut in
10 The Strangers, a low budget
film. The film, directed by Rajesh
Touchriver and produced by
Manyam Ramesh had Naga Babu
in the lead role and most of the
technical team were newcomers. 10
The Strangers bombed at the box
office even after she did a glamorous
role in the film. But lady luck
smiled on her — a song sequence
shot in the rain prompted Tamil
director Saran to try her out for an
item number in Idhaya Thirudan.
Although she became a victim
of sharp criticism from all sides for
doing the item number, it earned
her name and fame in Kollywood.
The film starring Jayam Ravi and
Kamna Jethmalani in the lead roles
was a commercial entertainer.
Saran made the film for the satisfaction
of the younger generation
and Jyothirmayi’s item number
became popular.
Director Saran discovered that
Jyothirmayi was married only after
the filming was complete. Since the
item number was accepted by the
audience, Jyothirmayi was offered
the lead role in Thalainagaram,
opposite Kushboo’s husband
Sundar C.
Director Sundar C’s maiden venture,
Thalainagaram, directed and
scripted by Suraj, tells the story of
the underworld, a gang of kindhearted
henchmen. When they
decide to reform, they face several
troubles.
After the success of
Thalainagaram, Jyothirmayi played
the heroine in Sabari opposite
senior actor Vijayakanth.
Vijayakanth played the title character
Dr Sabarivasan, chief cardiologist
in Chennai Government
Hospital. Jyothirmayi was his love
interest and she handled the typical
Tamil heroine role in the film perfectly.
The box office success of the
film pushed her career forward.
Jyothirmayi paired along with
the young hero Jeevan in Naan
Avanillai directed by Selvah. The
film was a remake of yesteryears
classic by the same title starring
Gemini Ganesan. The original,
directed by K Balachander, was a
blockbuster hit and noted by the
bold subject at that time, three
decades ago. In the modern version,
director Selvah gives the right twists
and turns to make the movie a hit.
Jyothirmayi played
Ammukkutty’s role in the film, a
girl cheated by the hero. After
believing that the hero belongs to
the Kerala chief minister’s family,
she marries him. He escapes with
her valuable jewels. There were four
other heroines in the film (Sneha,
Namitha, Keerthi Chawla and
Malavika). Jyothirmayi cherished
her fans and the film turned out to
be a huge success. In Naan
Avanillai, Jyothirmayi appeared in
glamorous roles and gave a good
performance. The movies phenomenal
success boosted her popularity.
Director Gnana Rajasekaran’s
Periyar — a period film opposite
Sathyaraj — put a stamp on
Jyothirmayi’s popularity in
Kollywood. She aptly played the
role of Periyar’s first wife
Nagamma about the life and times
of the rationalist leader EV
Ramaswamy Naicker aka Periyar,
father of the Dravidian movement.
Jyothirmayi’s upcoming projects
in Malayalam are Aakasham and
Bodhi. Harishree Asokan is playing
a hero’s role in Aakasham for the
first time. Asokan has shaved his
trademark beard for the offbeat film.
Bodhi is directed by veteran
drama director G Ajayan and is
based on the late Kumaranasan’s
Chandalabhikshuki. Bodhi, produced
by Oceanic Creative Group,
may become a milestone in
Jyothirmayi’s future career.
Jyothirmayi is making her debut
in the Bollywood film Ek Phir Baar
directed by Rajiv Nath. Veteran
Malayalam character actor
Nedumudi Venu has entered
Bollywood with a role as a dhaba
owner. Cinematographer
Azhagappan and art director Saloo
K. George will also mark their presence
in Bollywood.
Before her foray into films,
Jyothirmayi tasted success on the
mini screen as an anchor for Pepsi
Top 10, Your Choice, Valkannadi on
Asianet and Kalalayavarnangal on
Kairali TV. She proved her talent in
TV serials and won an award for
playing a Brahmin girl in Jude
Attipotty’s Avasthantharangal.
Another popular serial was
Indraneelam. She tried her luck in
tele-films, but it was not successful.
Jyothirmayi did not quit her acting
career after marriage like other
heroines. She decided her marriage
will not be a hindrance to her film
career. Jyothirmayi has achieved
the impossible by playing heroine
roles after marriage, where other
heroines vanished from the silver
screen.
As an actress, she always chooses
roles on the merit of the characters.
She never hesitates to accept
non-heroine roles. That may be one
of the reasons for her success in the
industry, even after marriage.
CINEMA

Donning the greasepaint again-SHOBHANA

2008-01-03T16:08:00.000+04:00

Donning the greasepaint again

Shobhana will make her second innings in Malayalam cinema in a Mammootty starrer and fans expect a lot, reports KK Moidu

Padmashri Shobhana, the leading heroine of Malayalam films in the 90's, will be staging a comeback Mammootty's heroine in Shyama Prasad's Ore Kadal.
Born Shobhana Chandrakumar on March 21, 1966 in Kerala to late Chandrakumar and Dr Anandam Chandrakumar, she is the niece of the famous Travancore Sisters - Lalita, Padmini and Ragini - famous for their classical dancing skills. Shobhana's entry into filmdom happened after she was spotted by Hema Malini's mother, Jaya Chakravarthy. She was then with her aunt, dancer-actress Padmini, the most famous of the Travancore sisters. Shobhana, who was just five then, appeared as a child artiste in Amar Prem and Chemparathy etc.
As a heroine she made her Malayalam film debut in director-actor Balachandra Menon's April 18 in 1984. Although just 18 then, she handled the role of an honest police officer's wife with ease. Not surprisingly she bagged the Film Critics and Nana Gallop Poll Best new face awards for her role in April 18. The same year she acted in the superhit triangular love story Kanamarayathu, starring Mammootty and Rehman. Because of her brilliant performances and fabulous dancing skills, she was repeatedly paired as the leading lady opposite superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal.
The pairing with Mammootty created super hits like Ithiripoove Chuvanna Poove, Ee Sabdham Ennathe Sabdham, Yaathra, Kalikkalam, Pappayude Swantham Appoos, Mazhayethum Munpe, Hitler, Vallyettan etc. Even with Mohanlal she gave box-office hits like TP Balagopalan MA, Nadodikkattu, Vellanakalude Naadu, Pavithram, Minnaram, Maya Mayooram, Manichithrathazhu, Thenmavin Kombathu etc, Shobhana also played Suresh Gopi's heroine in Innale, Sindoora Rekha, Commissioner etc. and in Aramana Veedum Anjoorekkarum, Meleparambil Aanveedu. Minnaminunginum Minnukettu, Kankettu, Superman etc., she was Jayaram's heroine.
She was paired with Mukesh in Kalyana Kacheri, Manathe Vellitheru etc, and in Kumkumacheppu her hero was Manoj K. Jayan. In a Malayalam film career spanning over two decades, she has acted with many heroes but her screen appearances with the superstars was usually a guarantee of success.
A gifted Bharathanatyam dancer, Shobhana completed her training at the Chidambaram Academy in Chennai. She was trained by well-known Bharathanatyam dancers Chitra Visweswaran and Dr Padma Subramaniam.
In spite of having acted in around 200 films in various languages, her dancing skills were rarely utilised, particularly in Malayalam films, where she largely played a housewife or the hero's love interest as village or modern girl. Fazil is among the few directors, who gave her a chance to demonstrate her dancing skills in Manichithrathazhu.
However, Shobhana got umpteen opportunities to stage dance performances in India and abroad. She performed at the World Malayalee Convention in the US. Her dance tours took her all over the US, Europe, South-East Asia and Australia. In Kuala Lumpur she danced before Malaysia's king and queen.
Shobhana has participated in several music and dance festivals in India, including the famous Surya festival in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, between 1994 and 1997.
Even though her movies ran to packed houses, she has focused her attention on her first love, that is dancing. She went into a semi-retirement from Malayalam cinema to pursue this love, while contemporaries quit the industry for wedlock or because roles thad dried up or in search of more lucrative offers in other languages.
In 1994 Shobhana founded Kalarpana, a dance school in Chennai as a symbol of her commitment to classical arts. Kalarpana's aim is to raise funds by organising annual festivals in the country with famous artists from India and abroad. The funds generated were used for the benefit of financially weak but talented artistes, the physically challenged and for environment protection. As an initial step in 1994 an evening of classical music and dance titled Bharatam was organised.
She gave a classical dance recital at a spectacular function at the Gachchbowli Stadium in Hyderabad in honour of Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan. The function was noteworthy because it had luminaries from Southern films as well as Bollywood, including Amitabh Bachchan. Shobhana has acted as Chiranjeevi's heroine in Rowdy Alludu and Rudraveena. The actress-dancer was also part of the Mani Ratnam stage show, Netru, Indru, Naalai.
The Government of India bestowed on her the honour of Padma Shri for her contributions to Bharathanatyam and cinema. She won the State and National Awards for best actress for her performance in Manichithrathazhu and Mitr My Friend', directed by famous actress Revathy - her second national award.
In Ore Kadal, directed by Shyamaprasad, Mammootty will play the title role of an economist. The film will be produced by Vindhyan under the banner of Rasika Entertainment. The film will see Shyamaprasad, known for serious and meaningful films like Agnisakshi and Akale working with Mammootty for the first time.
Ore Kadal is based on a Bengali novel and is scripted by Shyamaprasad himself. Besides Mammootty and Shobhana, the other lead stars in the movie are Narein (Sunil) and Meera Jasmine. Narein and Meera Jasmine were paired earlier in the superhit Achuvinte Amma. After the runaway success of Classmates and Chithiram Pesuthadi in Tamil, Narein has become popular and he is doing an important role in Ore Kadal. Meera Jasmine has never appeared in a Mammootty film before. Azhagappan handles the cinematography.
Shobhana's second innings could contribute a lot to Malayalam cinema, particularly if directors give her roles that tap her dancing talent. Most of the top heroines today are below 25 years and the reigning superstars are either touching 50 or much over that age. Shobhana though above 40, is still unmarried, making her the ideal choice for a mature heroine's role.

Jubilant 'dark horse' - SREENIVASAN

2008-01-03T16:01:00.001+04:00

Jubilant 'dark horse'

'Arabikatha' will have Sreenivasan playing an expatriate Malayalee in Dubai, wooing a Chinese leading lady, writes KK Moidu

Malayalam cinema's "wonderman," actor-director-writer Sreenivasan's career is poised to touch new heights with the underproduction Lal Jose-directed film, Arabikatha. The film is arousing a lot of curiosity because of Sreenivasan's far-from-ordinary leading lady Chang Shu Min, a Chinese national. Never before in the history of Malayalam cinema has a Chinese been cast as the leading lady.
But if one were to go by Sreenivasan's track record the unusual is the usual. This ace of Malayalam cinema was born on April 4, 1951 in Patyam, a village near Thalassery, Kannur district in northern Kerala. His father Unni was a teacher and a communist. After completing his school education at Kathiroor Government School, he went to Pazhassi Raja NSS College and later did a diploma in film acting from Adayar Film Institute in Madras.
Right from his college days he developed an interest in acting and proved his ability as a actor-storywriter. His stardom in filmdom was preceded by a long and arduous struggle. He and his wife Vimala have two sons Vineeth Sreenivasan and Dhyan Sreenivasan. Of them Vineeth has already made his mark as a film playback singer and within a short period has shown his father's ability to entertain people, though only with his songs.
Sreenivasan, known throughout Kerala for his Chaplinesque roles, made his film debut in the PA Backer movie Manimuzhakkam in 1977. After acting in a few films, he wrote his first film Odaruthammava Aalariyam in 1984. The turning point in his career came after he started writing scripts for successful directors like Priyadarshan, Sathyan Anthikad, Kamal and Sibi Malayil. Sreenivasan's more than two-and-a-half-decade career as an actor-writer has produced box office hits like Gandhinagar IInd Street, Nadodikkattu and its sequels Pattanapravesam, Akkare Akkare Akkare, Vadakkunokki Yanthram, Chinthavishta-yaya Shyamala, Thalayanamanthram, Thenmavin Kombathu, Yathrakkarude Sradhakku, Oru Maravathur Kanavu, Chithram, Udayananu Tharam and the latest Yes Your Honour .
He has acted in around 120 films and written the script for around 50 films but directed only two films Vadakkunokkiyanthram (1989) and Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala (1998). In both movies, he played the male lead and the movies were smashing hits at the box office. In Vadakkunokkiyanthram he played the character Thalathil Dineshan, a suspicious husband, who keeps doubting the fidelity of his beautiful wife (played by Parvathi) only to find himself in the mental asylum. He won the Kerala State Film Award for best film for Vadakkunokkiyanthram and Kerala State Film Award for best film with popular appeal and aesthetic value for Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala.
In Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala, he plays Vijayan, a school teacher, who always dreams about making money by doing business. Because of his ineptitude, he suffers monetary losses and then tries to escape from life's realities using spiritual life as a guise. The movie also deals with the difficulties faced by Vijayan's wife (played by Tamil actress Sangeeta) and their two children after the family's breadwinner runs away from home. Sreenivasan's films have an avid viewership among Keralites.
They are mainly about problems witnessed in Kerala's society. His style of presentation is comical and very early the audience recognised the underlying humourist in his scripts. Nadodikkattu, Sandesham, Vellanakalude Naadu, Varavelppu etc were a few of them. His films have been not only known for their humour but very often their creator is seen laughing at himself. His satires have highlighted problems challenging society like unemployment, poverty, police brutality, politicians, newspapers, labour unions. The USP of his films are clear characterisation and humorous dialogues.
His success as a script-writer came from the variety in his stories. Unlike other lead actors, Sreenivasan is not glamorous-looking or tall. He, however, converted these minuses into pluses in his movies.
Sreenivasan-written films like Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam, TP Balagopalan M.A and Thalayanamanthram etc focused on the heroes' financial plight, something very relevant in the lives of Kerala's youth. Others too had made this the central theme of their films, but the audience response to those movies was far from positive, judging from their box office performance. But Sreenivasan's films, because of their very different narrative style and a dose of black humour, were well-received.
Sreenivasan's films with Mohanlal give Malayalees a nostalgic feeling. These make a mockery of even educational qualifications. In Nadodikkattu and Pattanapravesam, whenever CID Dasan (Mohanlal) reminds his partner CID Vijayan, that unlike him he is BCom pass, the latter's complex comes to the fore and he retorts Pre-degree Athra Mosam Degreeyonnumalla (Pre-degree too isn't such a bad degree) an unforgettable dialogue as far as the audience is concerned. The audience just lapped up the duo's antics and it seemed as though the the void left behind by the Prem Nazir- Adoor Bhasi pair, in the yesteryears, had been filled.
Seeing Sreenivasan together with Mohanlal itself was enough to evoke laughter. This magical humour was witnessed in films like Udhayananu Tharam, Kilichundan Maampazham, Ayal Kadha Ezhuthukayanu, Chandralekha, Thenmavin Kombathu, Midhunam, Pavithram, Varavelppu, Chithram, Pattanapravesam, Nadodikkattu, Akkare Akkare Akkare, Vellanakalude Naadu, Gandhinagar IInd Street, Sanmanasullavarkku Samadhanam, TP Balagopalan MA etc. But unfortuately after Udhayananu Tharam they have not done any films together.
He also did movies like Bhargavacharitham Moonnam Khandam, Prajapathi, Balram Vs Tharadas, Azhakiya Ravanan, Mazhayethum Munpe, Artham, Megham, Oru Maravathur Kanavu, Golanthara Vartha, Kalikkalam etc. with the other Malayalam superstar, Mammootty, but unlike his pairing with Mohanlal, not all his films with the latter were that big successes. Their screen appearance together, Bhargavacharitham Moonnam Ghandam, bit the dust at the box office.
But Sreenivasan, known for his fighting spirit, still hasn't given up working with Mammootty. After tasting success as an actor-scriptwriter-director this versatile artiste wants to try his luck as a producer along with Mukesh in Kathaparayumbol. Mammootty will play the title role as an actor Ashokraj and Sreenivasan will write the story, screenplay and dialogues in addition to playing a barber in the film. Kathaparayumbol will be directed by debutante Mohan. Mukesh will play a teacher. Jagathy and Innocent also play important roles.
Unlike other actors, Sreenivasan has never been particularly bothered about his image or market standing, when it came to selection of roles. In spite of being a talented actor, script writer and director he has willingly played second fiddle to superstars.
As an actor he has played characters ranging from the bumbling simpleton to the deceitful villain. Though comedy is his forte, he does serious and villainous roles with equal ease. Being the son of a communist, Sreenivasan played a communist in many movies like Aaryan and Sandesham. His humour and sarcasm-tinged dialogue in the film Sandesham, Polandinepatti Oraksharam Mindaruthu (Don't you dare utter a word about Poland) was the high point of humour in the film.
Though he has won several awards like the Kerala State Film Award for Best story (Sandesham - 1991), Kerala State Film Award for Best Screenplay (Mazhayethum Munpe - 1995) etc. as an actor he never won an award, that is until recently, till he finally got the Kerala State Film Award Jury's Special mention for his performance in Thakarachenda in 2006.
He also tried his luck on the miniscreen with a weekly TV Show Valiya Lokavum Cheriya Sreeniyum aired on Kairali TV. Though he managed to repeat his big-screen success on television as well, the show was discontinued after a short term.
Now coming to his much-talked role in Arabikatha, Sreenivasan is not just the film's hero, but also its script-writer. Substantial parts of the film are being filmed in Dubai as the subject is about expatriate Keralites living in the Gulf.
Lal Jose, who assisted Sreenivasan during the making of Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala, has directed the film. Incidentally, Lal Jose made his directorial debut in Oru Maravathoor Kanavu, which was also penned by Sreenivasan. So when the duo come together, the audience has a lot to hope for.

BANK ON THE LAUGHS-Inspector Garud (R)

2008-01-03T15:53:00.001+04:00

20 TIME OUT The Gulf Today / Thursday, February 22, 2007

BANK ON THE LAUGHS
DILEEP AND JOHNNY ANTONY HAVE COME UP WITH ANOTHER ENTERTAINER WITH 'INSPECTOR GARUD,' WRITES KK MOIDU

Starring: Dileep, Kavya
Madhavan, Vijayaraghavan,
Innocent, Salim Kumar,
Cochin Haneefa, Aiswarya,
Suja Karthika, Urmila Unni,
Harisree Ashokan, Anand and
Lalu Alex.
Director: Johnny Antony
Producer: Milan Jaleel
Lyrics: Vayalar Sarathchandra
Varma
Music: Alex Paul
Editing: Ranjan Abraham
Cinematography: P. Sukumar
Story, Screenplay and
Dialogue: Udayakrishna-Sibi
K Thomas.
REVIEW

Director Johnny Antony
and Dileep together
have given superhits
like CID Moosa and
Kochi Raajavu in the
past. Inspector Garudu is the director-
actor duo's third film and as
expected they don't disappoint, that
is if you are not expecting much
more than a routine comedy.
Dileep's career graph has been on
the downswing of late, with movies
like Don and Chakkaramuthu getting
the thumbs down at the box
office. But with this one he seems to
have regained his status as a crowdpulling
star. In this year's hit movie,
Inspector Garud, the actor essays
the role of a corrupt Circle Inspector
Madhavankutty aka Garud.
Madhavankutty (Dileep) joins
the Kerala Police force as a subinspector
through the back door by
paying 1.5 million as bribe. Within
three months of service he is promoted
as Circle Inspector. Moneyminded,
Madhavankutty has an
eagle's eye for opportunities to make
a fast buck. Hence the nickname
Garud meaning eagle.
The plot, typical of Johnny
Antony films, is easy to follow even
for kids. Agang of terrorists based
in Mumbai unloads a cache of
weapons in Cochin, fearing trouble
in Chennai. Karaikudi Arumughan
Palaniappa Chettiyar
(Vijayaraghavan) helps the terrorists
to hide the weapons in a busy market
in Cochin and entrusts Lonappan
(Salim Kumar), a drunkard with the
safe-keeping of the arms cache.
Unfortunately Lonappan misuses
one of the weapons and is nabbed by
the police.
Rajan Joseph, an honest Circle
Inspector (Lalu Alex), suspects that
the rest of the weapons are hidden in
the city. His team carries out a raid
and Chettiyar finds himself in for big
trouble. Market operators resist the
police operation and Chettiyar uses
the opportunity to get the crowd
caned. The raid is halted till the following
morning. Chettiyar seeks a
minister's help to have Circle
Inspector Rajan Joseph suspended.
As per the advice of his manager
Sivan Pillai (Kochu Premen),
Chettiyar gets the scam-tainted
Madhavankutty appointed as circle
inspector of Thevara police station,
which has jurisdiction over the troubled
area. Madhavankutty agrees to
help Chettiyar in shifting the
weapons to a safer place in exchange
for a hefty bribe. Madhavankutty cooperates
in the shifting of weapons
thus earning the trust of the crime
syndicate led by Chettiyar and his
son, Saravanan.
Madhavankutty maintains good
relations with the wealthy criminals
and petty thieves to feather his nest.
Things turn topsy-turvy when
Madhavankutty insults the sub-collector,
Sethulakshmi (Kavya
Madhavan), without realising who
she really is. As a result he has to
apologise to her in front of the
Women's Commission.
Madhavankutty plans revenge by
marrying her. Sethulakshmi's brother
is arrested on drugs charges and
Madhavankutty seizes the opportunity
to carry out his revenge. He
expresses his willingness to marry
Sethulakshmi and promises to
release her brother without charging
a case, if she marries him.
In order to save her brother and
the family from disgrace
Sethulakshmi agrees to marry
Madhavankutty. Though he marries
Sethulakshmi, Madhavankutty is
unable to carry out his plan. When
he demands more money from
Chettiyar he is handed a suspension
by his superiors. Once out of the
force, Madhavankutty realises that
the public was afraid of his position
and not him. This changes him forever
and for the better.
After a change of image in
action-thriller Chess, Dileep returns
to comedy and proves that his comedy
films will attract not only his
innumerable fans but also the larger
audience. Like Chess, for a considerable
part of this film too Dileep
plays a negative role. In Chess he
has a clean-shaven look but in
Inspector Garud he sports a walrus
moustache and thick sideboards.
In the first half, he is impressive
as the funny but corrupt police officer,
however, in the second half
towards climax, specially in the
action scenes, he is unable to
impress.
Kavya gets a break from her
usual village girl roles and has a new
look in place as a mature character
with spectacles and conventional
attire. She is convincing as the subcollector
in her 15th film opposite
Dileep.
Vijayaraghavan is well-cast as
Chettiyar, the uncrowned prince of
Cochin, but Harisree Ashokan and
Salim Kumar leave viewers with the
feeling that they could have been
more funny.
Others from the cast like
Innocent, Aiswarya, Shammy
Thilakan, Kalabhavan Shajon,
Anand etc., are competent.
Johnny Antony once again confirms
that his movies, especially
those with Dileep, are a safe bet for
producers. Johnny give almost
everyone in the cast an opportunity
to crack a joke. The script-writing
duo, Siby and Uday, who have written
the story and screenplay for all
Johnny Antony films, gives a new
look to this movie with a unique
script.
On the technical side, Ranjan
Abraham's editing and cinematography
by P. Sukumar take the film to
great heights. The song Kaanthari
Penne is a Johnny Antony signature
tune by Alex Paul. It reminds one of
the song Theeppori Pamparam in
CID Moosa. Another song from the
film, Kannum Chimmi Chimmi, is an
average treat.
This film is not for those of you,
who like serious movies. But if you
just want to pass your time Inspector
Garud could be the answer.

kkmoidusharjah: Festival Attractions

2007-11-13T19:58:00.000+04:00

kkmoidusharjah: Festival Attractions

Fans go ga ga over Rajnikanth’s 100th Tamil film

2007-11-09T13:03:00.000+04:00

Fans go ga ga over Rajnikanth’s 100th Tamil film

BY KK MOIDU
SIVAJI The Boss, the 100th Tamil film of legendary actor Rajnikanth, which was released in UAE last week is creating history.
The most expensive Indian film ever made, with a budget of around Indian Rupees one billion is also the most awaited film in the Tamil film industry.
Being screened in the UAE from the first day, hundreds of cinegoers crowded theatres to have a glimpse of their favourite star in hislatest mega movie Sivaji, which is expected to break box office records.
Sivaji was released in Sharjah Concorde cinema on June 14. Eldorado Cinema in Abu Dhabi, Grand Galleria in Dubai and Club Cinema in Al Ain was released on June 15.
Eldorado Cinema I and II in Abu Dhabi has been screening 10 shows daily to packed houses from the day of release.
The sources said the shows are packed for the coming days as well. No Indian films have received this kind of response so far.
Club Cinema in Al Ain is screening the film four times daily. A staff in the theatre said all the shows are running to full houses for the last two days and it has created a Rajni wave. The theatre would screen the movie for at least two more weeks.
There are chances of the shows being scaled down since the theatres have to screen other films scheduled for the coming weeks.
In Grand Galleria, Dubai, the film is running four daily shows to full houses with the entire week fully booked by cinegoers. The sources said the film will run for a minimum of one month.
In Sharjah Concorde Cinema, the film that was released at 7:45pm show on Thursday, a day earlier than its scheduled global launch, now runs five times a day to packed houses.
The tickets for the next few days are fully booked for the night shows. The response for daytime shows on weekdays is less compared to night shows. But many are returning without tickets for the 7:45pm and 11pm shows.
Theatre staff and the viewers said they are highly satisfied with the new film from Thalaivar, the title accorded to the star.
Paneer Selvam, a fan of Rajnikanth, who was fortunate enough to get a ticket to watch his favourite actor's film on the first day, said he is happy about the film, the performance of Rajni, technical perfection of the film, direction of Shankar, AR Rehman's music and especially the theme.
A staff member of the theatre most of the viewers are Indians from the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.
Mohammed Shabeer from Ponnani, Kerala who watched the film from Grand Galleria, Dubai said he had booked the ticket in advance. A fan of Rajni films like Basha, Padayappa, Arunachalam etc. he said he enjoyed Sivaji.
Rajni's last release Chandramukhi was in 2005. His fans were eagerly waiting for the superstar's film. Sivaji does not disappoint. The movie is set to make history by smashing all his previous records.
The film is also expected to re-write the collection record since the past records of Rajni films have been broken only his own new releases.
The film's story is very simple about a man who fights against evil machines and cleans the system. With Rajni's style, veteran craftsman Shankar's master touch and AR Rahman's music, the movie has all the ingredients of a mass entertainer like punch dialogues, romance, comedy, big sets, breathtaking action scenes and the good beats the evil plot.

LIGHTING UP THE FESTIVE SEASON

2007-11-08T13:55:00.000+04:00

Lighting up the festive season

Half-a-dozen Tamil films featuring popular heroes will be released for Deepawali, writes KK Moidu

The movies in the race are the Vikram starrer Bheema, Vijay's Azhakiya Tamizh Makan, Ajith Kumar's Billa, Surya's Vel, Polladhavan starring Dhanush and Jeevan's Machakkaaran. Although these films are different, they also have some similarities.
Bheema has already got attention for the reunion of Vikram and Trisha after Samy. Bheema and Billa tells the story of the underworld. Prakash Raj is appearing in important roles in Bheema and Billa.
Vijay is, for the first time, paired with Shriya Saran in Azhakiya Tamizh Makan. Vijay, Surya and Ajith are playing dual roles in their films. Namitha is one of the heroines in Billa and Azhakiya Tamizh Makan. Vel is Surya's second film with director Hari. It is Asin's second film with Surya, their earlier film Ghajini was a superhit. The titles of Billa and Polladhavan are inspired from earlier Rajnikanth films.
Yuvan Shankar Raja, who steals the heart of music lovers with his impressive tunes, has composed the music for Billa, Vel and Machakkaaran. Vel and Bheema will be simultaneously released in Tamil and Telugu.
The song sequences of Bheema and Machakkaaran are picturised in New Zealand.
Bheema
Vikram, who skyrocketed to cult status after the success of superhit Anniyan will return to the silverscreen in the much-awaited Bheema. The actor is doing a hefty role in the film; he put on weight and also attended a special bodybuilding course to match his role. Vikram appears in very fashionable clothes and worked hard to do full justice to the role.
Sparkling Trisha plays the female lead opposite Vikram in Bheema. Prakash Raj also plays an important role in the film. Bheema, directed by Linguswamy is produced by AM Rathnam under the banner of Sri Surya Movies. Lyrics of veteran poet Vairamuthu is tuned by Harris Jayaraj. The song sequences in the film are shot in Switzerland, New Zealand and Madurai.
An action-packed entertainer, Bheema not only tells the story about the tough life of the mafia world, but also has other ingredients like romance and sentiments to magnetise all Vikram fans.
The release of Bheema was delayed for a long time for various reasons. However, Bheema overcame all obstacles and the final court case has been cleared. According to reports, a Travel Agency (Travel Markets), filed a case against the producer for cheques that bounced. Travel Markets demanded an arrangement for the outstanding payment and a stay order for releasing Bheema. The court agreed on the first demand, to pay the Travel Market dues, but declined to stay the release of the film.
Bheema's Telugu version will release on the same day as the Tamil film. Vikram's previous hit Anniyan was released in Telugu as Aparichithudu and ran for more than 100 days in Andhra Pradesh. Pawan Kalyan released the Telugu audio of Bheema in a function attended by Vikram and Linguswamy.
Azhakiya Tamizh Makan (ATM)
Azhakiya Tamizh Makan directed by Bharathan is Vijay's 45th film. Vijay plays a dual role in the film and the two heroines are Shriya Saran and Namitha. Vijay fans are thrilled to see their favourite star's dual appearance and he is for the first time acting with Shriya. After her pairing with Rajnikanth in Sivaji The Boss, the actress reached a new milestone in her career.
Music of ATM is scored by AR Rehman and the big budget film is produced by Swargachithra Appachan.
Vijay, who is delighted with his massive hit Pokiri, hopes that he can repeat his success in ATM and satisfy his huge fan following. Director Bharathan, who proved his aptness as a dialogue writer in Dharani films, has also worked with Vijay in the earlier superhit Ghilli as an assistant director and dialogue writer.
Billa
Another crowd pulling star, Ajith, plays the title role in the lavish and spectacular entertainer Billa. The movie is a remake of the 80s Rajnikanth-Sripriya blockbuster of the same title and that itself was the remake of the Bollywood hit Don, starring Amitabh Bachchan. The latest Billa is made with the essential modifications and the film fully exploits modern technology with special effects. William Ang, who has directed stunts for Jackie Chan films, was roped in for some exclusive fight scenes.
Tamil leading ladies Nayanthara and Namitha play the heroine roles of the film and that has created lot of hype and expectations among cinegoers. Nayan and Nami are the girl friends of the world famous notorious don Billa. Nayanthara is playing Sripriya's role in the Rajnikanth starrer Billa. The film features Nayanthara in a two-piece bikini suit and that already has made headlines. The other heroine Namitha, plays a meaty role. Both the heroines fight scenes are also included in the film.
Versatile Prakash Raj will play the role of Major Sundar Rajan and Prabhu is playing an influential role in the film.
The movie was extensively filmed in Malaysia including the Petronas Tower, Langkawi Island and the 'Little India' of Kuala Lumpur (Jalan Masjid India area).
Billa is directed by Vishnuvardhan for which he did the script, screenplay and dialogue.
Yuvan Shankar Raja tunes the music for the film. According to reports, the song My Name is Billa is remixed and an item number done by Mumaith Khan Vethalayai Potendi is retuned. Both the songs are shot in Kuala Lumpur with choreographer Raju Sundaram.
The makers of the film hope that it will become not only a hit in Tamil Nadu but also in neighbouring Kerala like the original Billa.
Vel
Surya plays a double role after Perazhagan in the big budget film Vel, directed by Hari. He appears in one role as a masculine, angry young villager and settles disputes in his own style. His second role is a secret and the maker's only know that he is a hero or a villain. His undisclosed second character is the most important link in the story which makes it more interesting.
This is Surya's second film with director Hari. Their earlier film was Aaru. Asin is doing a fun-loving girl role in the movie and her character name is Miranda Meenakshi, a TV anchor. She appears with a new look by wearing traditional costumes and eyeglasses. Music for the film is scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja. The song of the film Kobakkara Kiliye is pictured in Munnar and has become a hit.
Vel, produced by M Chinthamani under the banner of Raja Kaliamman Media works, will be noticed for its good crafted script. The film has all the essentials of a superhit. Other artistes are Vadivelu, Nasser, Kalabhavan Mani and Charan Raj.
Surya's last film was Sillunu Oru Kadhal released last year. After completing Vel, the actor will start working in the forthcoming film Varanam Aayiram which will be released in 2008.
According to reports, S Panduranga Rao and KVV Sathyanarayanan are dubbing Vel in Telugu as Deva under the banner of Aishwarya Cine Creations. Bellamonda Suresh presents the film in Telugu for the Deepawali release.
Polladhavan
Young and thin hero Dhanush, the son- in-law of Rajnikanth, is paired with Ramya in Polladhavan. Dhanush created hysteria among the youth with his films, especially the song Manmada Rasa. His latest Polladhavan is a romantic entertainer and the story appeals to people of all ages.
Dhanush plays a young boy's role in the film with dreams to come up in life. The setbacks faced by him in reaching his mission is told in a romantic way. The film also give importance to action and humour and it is edited by VT Vijayan.
Polladhavan is the maiden directorial venture of Vettrimaran, who was an associate cinematographer of director Balu Mahendra. GV Prakash Kumar has been roped in to score the music and has come up with half-a-dozen peppy songs for the film produced by Kathiresan.
The cinematographer of the film is Velraj and it was mainly filmed in Chennai.
Although the title of the film is inspired from the yesteryears Rajnikanth superhit, it will not influence Rajnikanth's Polladhavan.
Machakkaaran
Although Jeevan signed Machakkaaran much before Naan Avanillai, the latter was released first. Jeevan made his debut in University, the film bombed at the box office and his efforts went unnoticed. He achieved success in Kaaka Kaaka but vanished for three years. Jeevan surprised everybody with superhits Thiruttu Payale and Naan Avanillai. His previous hits encouraged him to compete with biggies on the occasion of Deepawali.
Jeevan, who always played heroic roles with a negative touch, has succeeded in winning audience sympathy in the climax. In the lively entertainer Machakkaaran, his love interest is Kamna Jethmalani. She is the grand-daughter of veteran lawyer and politician Ram Jethmalani. Kamna made her Tamil debut in Idhayathirudan directed by Saran.
She is playing a charming role in the film and Malavika appears in a song scene.
Machakkaaran is directed by Tamilvannan and the music is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. A song shot in New Zealand under the choreography of Raju Sundaram is the major highlight of the film. Cinematography is by Venkatesh and production is by Madras Entertainment.
All these films, featuring favourite heroes, will compete with each other to attract movie buffs during the festive season.

AIMING HIGH-Bala Chandra Menon

2007-11-01T15:29:00.001+04:00

CINEMA

AIMING HIGH

BEST ACTOR NATIONAL AWARD WINNER
PADMABHUSHAN BALA CHANDRA MENON IS BACK TO DIRECTING FILMS WITH DHE INGOTTU NOKKIYE, AFTER AN INTERVAL OF FIVE YEARS. KK MOIDU WRITES

Bala Chandra Menon is one of the most
renowned names for direction in Malayalam
cinema in the past. According to reports, his comeback vehicle, Dhe Ingottu Nokkiye,
includes Bhavana in the cast and sends a message against suicides.
The film, produced by AVA Anoop, will be distributed by Vaisakha movies who have been riding high on the success of Hallo and Chocolates. Bichu Thirumala and M Jayachandran score the music.
Menon, ‘the one man entertainment team’ in Malayalam cinema, is planning to present some new faces in his latest venture. He is an
expert in introducing new artistes.
He has contributed many newcomers
to the Malayalam film industry like Shobana in April 18, Parvathi in Vivahithare Ithile, Maniyan Pilla Raju in Maniyan Pilla Athava
Maniyan Pilla, Karthika in Manicheppu Thurannappol, Annie in Ammayane Sathyam and Nandini aka Kausalya in April 19.
As a director, Menon’s last film was Krishna Gopalakrishna, but he couldn’t repeat his earlier success in the film. He played the title role in the film and also produced it. He
wrote the story, did the editing and
sung a song in it as well. No other film personality has served the industry like Bala Chandra Menon by handling almost all the departments, especially in a film he has
produced.
After the flop of Krishna Gopalakrishna, he didn’t direct films but he wrote the script for
Varum Varunnu Vannu directed by Ramadas. Menon also played the lead role in the film but the film bombed at the box office.
Menon, who excels as an actor and director, was not directing films for the last couple of years. He is energetic, but the fifty-plus actor
has not tried to play heroic roles.
Instead, he concentrated on acting
in mature roles as well as act and direct TV serials.
He featured in a mature role playing a 75-year-old barrister Sankaran Nambiar in Saphalam. He played the college professor role in Malayalam cinema’s biggest box
office hit Classmates, a campus love story directed by Lal Jose. He also acted in a prominent role in the Mammootty-starrer Rappakal directed by Kamal. He continued
his presence in Malayalam films by acting in the recently released Pranayakalam.
Menon will appear on the silver screen with superstar Mohanlal after a sabbatical of about a decade in the forthcoming campus film College Kumaran directed by
Thulasidas. According to reports, the film will have six heroines in prominent roles.
The ace actor-director Bala Chandra Menon has completed more than three decades in filmdom. He was born in 1954, the son
of Sivasankaran Pilla and Lalitha Devi. Menon’s wife is Varadha and he has two sons Akhil and Vinayak and a daughter Bhavana.
Bala Chandra Menon’s father was a railway station master and retired as commercial controller. His father wished his only son
would be a doctor or join the Indian
Administrative Service. But Menon
always dreamed about acting and he proved his talent as a speaker, actor and singer in his college days in Kollam Fatima Matha College.
In order to fulfill his dream to become a film personality, Menon didn’t miss films that came to his town and even skipped classes to
watch matinee shows. He continued
his acting interest in University college,
Thiruvanathapuram, but forayed
into politics and was the university
union chairman of the college.
After completing his graduation
in BSc (Geology) and earning a degree in journalism, Menon started his career as a reporter in the popular Malayalam film magazine Nana.
Menon learnt his first lesson in film making from Madras. Being a reporter, he got freedom to move freely on the filmsets. He closely watched the happenings in the
industry and learned the techniques
and tricks of the business. He polished
his writing skills and talked with actors and technicians.
Menon entered in the film industry
after he failed to obtain an admission to the Madras Film Institute. He has begun his career as an actor in film but he also wrote
and directed many films. He acted
in a succession of comedy-laced
family dramas, and created in the process a style of his own. His films stories were based on his experiences in society and personal life.
Bala Chandra Menon made his directorial debut in Uthradarathri in 1978 and he won the Kerala State Award for best story writer.
Menon presented different styles of films and that turned out to be the biggest hits. His typical style of acting also captured the interest of the audience. He selects compelling themes and catchy titles for his
films like Ente Ammu Ninte Thulasi Avarude Chakki, Ithiri Neram Othiri Karyam etc.
Menon has directed more than three dozen films but his masterpiece is Samantharangal. He shared the best actor National Award with
Suresh Gopi (Kaliyattam) for his
acclaimed performance as a railway
station master.
Although Menon’s first love is direction, he worked hard as a filmmaker. He was compelled to do the station master role in
Samantharangal. Veteran actor Thilakan, who had agreed to do the role, was busy with his schedule.
Menon, who wanted to make a film
based on the railways for nearly a decade, decided to go ahead with the project.
The producer was doubtful about Menon’s ability to perform as an old Muslim man in the film, so he backed out. Menon himself produced the film, his advantage was
his intimate knowledge of the railway
station, being the son of a railway
station master. He played the lead role in Samantharangal and succeeded in his mission. He shared the Best Actor National Award of the year, but the award kept away
the audience, like other art movies,
and the film lost the identity of a Bala Chandra Menon film.
Samantharangal was entirely different from Menon’s other films. In his earlier films, he played the younger hero roles but after
Samantharangal he started appearing
in serious roles in films and serials.
Bala Chandra Menon, with his different style and presentation and signature head-scarf, created strings of hits in the 80s and early 90s. His movies were based on the unusual
relationships of the ordinary community.
Menon was a favourite for the family audience and his style of acting captured the interest of women audience. He created comedy hits like Chiriyo Chiri and Karyam Nisaram. His other biggest hits are Prashnam Gurutharam, Oru Painkilikatha, April 18,
Ammayane Sathyam etc.
Critics and audience unanimously
consider the period between 1986-90 as the golden age of Malayalam cinema. Bala
Chandra Menon’s films were running
in packed theatres by competing
with many talented director’s
films. The speciality of Malayalam
films at the time were detailed screenplays dealing with day-today life of the people with a touch of humour. The films were also
supported by brilliant cinematography.
Most of the films like Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha released during this period slendered the gap between art and commercial cinema. Other prominent directors like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Sibi
Malayil, Bharathan, Kamal and
Hariharan also directed commercial
films without loosing its artistic
value.
Ace director’s like Priyadarshan, Sathyan Anthikkad, Siddique-Lal also created movies
with good humour during this period.
Although Bala Chandra Menon has not been directing films for the last five years, he is aware of the pulse of the Malayalam film industry.
Everybody hopes that his new film Dhe Ingottu Nokkiye will pull back his family audience and Menon will repeat his directorial success.

IN THE RIGHTGROOVE-Charmi

2007-10-27T22:14:00.000+04:00

IN THE RIGHTGROOVE

TELUGU LEADING LADY CHARMI IS BACK IN TAMIL FILMS AFTER A HIATUS OF FOUR
YEARS, STARRING IN THE PRABHUSOLOMON DIRECTED FILM LAADAM, WRITES KK MOIDU

Charmi, the most happening
heroine of Telugu cinema, has
created hits with front-line
Telugu heroes. Her re-entry to Tamil
films will not only fill the acute
shortage of glamour girls in the
industry, but it will also be a threat to
other top heroines.
According to reports, Charmi is
doing a heroine-oriented role as a
female gangster in her comeback
vehicle Laadam. The male lead of the
film is debutante Aravindhan.
Aravindhan, an assistant of the
prominent director Mani Ratnam, is
facing the camera for the first time.
Kota Srinivasa Rao, Dheeraj Kher
and Babu Antony, top villains of
South Indian films, will terrorise the
audience in the gangster-oriented
thriller.
The film, produced by
Ponnurangam under the banner of
Chola Creations, has music scored by
Dharan. The movie also exploits new
technical equipments like Tripov
camera, probe lens etc.
Gave Mick Harry, who has
worked with veteran cameramen like
PC Sriram and Ravi K Chandran, is
the cinematographer of the film.
Charmi was brought
back to the Tamil film
industry by director
Prabhu Solomon of
Tamil hits Kokki and
Lee fame. She plays a
female gang member
in the film and hopes
her role will be a
milestone in her
career. She has done
a lot of preparation
for the film; this
vivacious girl has
become
astonishingly slim
and pretty in her
new look.
The lively
Punjabi girl,
Charmy, was born
on May 17, 1987, in
Vasai, Mumbai, in a
very orthodox family.
Her real name is
Charmy Kaur and she
spells her first name as
‘Charmme’. She won the
hearts of filmgoers with her
performances in decent roles as
well as sparkling and vexatious
roles in Telugu films like Laxmi, Style etc.
Director Krishna Vamsi projected her as a
hot actress in the Telugu film industry. Even
after doing a great role in the Telugu film
Anukokunda Oka Roju, Charmi was forced to do
provocative roles in films. Her item numbers
became a craze for the young fans. Because of
this, she was approached to do an item song in
Stalin, but declined due to her commitment to
other films. Anushka Shetty later did the part.
Although Charmi had an
ominous beginning with
half-a-dozen consecutive
flops, the chubby actress
overcame all hurdles with
her positive thinking,
easy adaptation of
changes, bright smile and
the support of her parents.
Buxom Charmi made
her debut at the early age
of 14 in the Telugu film
Neethodu Kavali with
Deepak in 2002. The film
bombed at the box office
but she gained the attention
of the south Indian film
industry with her noticeable
performance. She used to get
her cheques in the names of
her parents. Her father looked
after her shooting schedules
while her mother always
accompanied her on the sets.
Charmi’s Tamil debut in
Vijaya T Rajendher’s Kadhal
Azhivathillai opposite
Silambarasan was also a box
office disaster. Her insignificant
role in the Tamil films Aha
Ethanai Azhagu and Kadhal
Kisu Kisu failed too. She also
tried her luck in Malayalam
films with Kaattu Chempagam,
but failed in the industry which
always welcomes heroines from
other states. Finally, she struck
gold in the Telugu film industry.
Charmi shifted her base to the
neighbouring Telugu industry and
appeared in Sri Anjaneyam,
directed by Krishna Vamsi. The
ace director projected her as a ‘hot
girl’ in his film where she exposed
a lot in short and wet dresses. But
the film failed miserably at the box
office. Her pairing with Ravi Teja in
Chanti added one more flop to her
career.
Although success was elusive, it
was Gowri that put Charmy on the
Telugu film industry scene nearly
two years after her debut. She was the
leading lady of Sumanth in the film
and its success gave her career a
boost. Her stupendous success in
Mass with Nagarjuna strengthened
her position in Telugu films.
Chakram, opposite Prabhas,
released with big expectations, but it
didn’t make any impact on the
audience and turned out to be a box
office disaster. However, the turning
point of Charmy’s career was her
critically acclaimed performance in the
lead role of the heroine-oriented thriller
Anukokunda Oka Roju. She won the
Santosham best actress award for her
role as Sahasra in the film. Charmi was the third
winner of the prestigious award, which started
in 2003. Earlier, it was won by leading ladies
Asin Thottumkal for Shivamani 9848022338
and Trisha Krishnan for Varsham.
Although Chrmi’s movies were doing well,
producers were offering her bewitching roles
and she acted in a bunch of
films like Political Rowdy and
Allari Pidugu. In Political
Rowdy, she played a naughty
college girl who grabs the
attention of a thug and makes
him fall in love with her for a
fun. The gangster proposes to her
and she cannot say no
to him out of fear.
Mohan Babu was the producer and the male
lead in the film. He played the double role of
two brothers; as Giri, a village Romeo and the
other as Ranjith, an ACP. Charmy was their
cousin and the love interest of Giri while
Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif was the other
heroine.
Charmi’s three Telugu films Laxmi, Style and
Chukkallo Chandrudu were released in a period
of three days in January 2006.
In Laxmi with Venkatesh, Charmi crosses all
limitations and the movie did moderate business
at the box office.
The second directorial venture of Raghava
Lawrence, Style turned out to be a biggest hit of
the year. Lawrence also played the hero, the
other heroine was Kamalinee Mukherjee.
Charmi’s role as Sandhya in the triangular love
drama Chukkallo Chandrudu proved to be a funfilled
entertainer. Sidharth Narayan played the
male lead of the film. There were three heroines
in the film, Charmi played one of the love
interests of the hero, Saloni Aswani and Sadha
were the other heroines. The movie was directed
by Mani Ratnam’s associate, Siva Kumar.
Charmi’s Pournami released last year with
lot of expectations because of the huge cast. Her
performance in the film was much appreciated,
but that could not save the movie from being a
box office disaster. Charmi did not learn South
Indian classical dance but she surprised the
audience with her ‘Bharatha Natyam’ and
‘Kuchipudi’ dances. The film, directed by
choreographer-turned director Prabhu Deva, had
Prabhas in the male lead.
Charmi’s last year’s release Chinnodu,
written and directed by Kanmani, was a moneyspinner
at the box office. Sumanth was her male
lead; he played a rugged man’s role as the
protector of a cycle stand owner who gives him
shelter. Charmi loves the hero, assuming that he
is a chocolate boy.
Rakhi, directed by Krishna Vamsi with Jr
NTR in the lead role, gave her one more hit last
year.
In the forthcoming Telugu thriller Manthra,
directed by Tulasiram, Charmi plays the title
role. The movie goes deep into the tension of
a modern girl, who lives a happy life. Manthra
is also the story of various events that
occurred in the life of a girl and some scenes
will thrill the audience. The theme of the
suspense thriller is ‘every belief may not be
true’. Charmi hopes the role will be an
immemorial one in her career.
Manthra is jointly produced by Kalyanram
and Raviprakash under the banner of Generation
Next. The hero of the film is V Raviprakash and
the choreography is by Prem Rakshit. The
highlight of the movie is its artwork and
locations. The makers hope that the film will
run beyond the expectations of the audience.
Although Charmi has acted in about twodozen
films in a variety of roles, mainly in
Telugu, she has only a few hits to her credit.
Even then, she is getting offers from front-line
directors and big banners of Telugu films
because of her good looks and acting talent.
In her five-year career, Charmi has played
the lead opposite front-line Telugu heroes like
Venkatesh, Nagarjuna, Prabhas, Sidharth, Ravi
Teja, Sumanth, Jr NTR etc.
To fulfill her desire to act in Tamil films, she
accepted the role in Laadam without thinking
twice. If the movie is a success at the box
office, she will prove to be a tough competitor
to other Tamil heroines.
Charmy can fill the shortage of heroines by
taking on glossy and non-glamorous roles —
because she can handle both with equal ease.

kkmoidusharjah: Winning Smile - Trisha

2007-10-26T10:11:00.000+04:00

kkmoidusharjah: Winning Smile - Trisha

Winning Combinations-Meera Jasmine

2007-10-25T13:44:00.000+04:00

Winning combinations

Meera Jasmine considers the possibility of winning awards before she accepts offers in Malayalam films, writes KK Moidu

Meera Jasmine appeared in run-of-the-mill roles in other language films, but on home turf, she has never made her presence felt in commercial potboilers.
Meera Jasmine, a simple girl from Thiruvalla in Kerala, is famous in the South for working in all the four South Indian language films, ie. Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. Although she is one of the busiest heroines, she accepts offers from Malayalam cinema directors who are known for making award winning films.
Meera's forthcoming films Calcutta News directed by Blessy and Ore Kadal directed by Shyamaprasad is in this genre.
Calcutta News, to be entirely picturised in Calcutta, is making news as it is her fifth screen appearance with Dilip. Meera plays the role of a singer in the film while Dilip is a TV producer; the story of the film revolves around the happenings in his life. Like his earlier films, director Blessy himself does the screenplay.
Blessy proved his talent in his previous films Kaazcha and Thanmathra but could not succeed in getting a hat-trick with his last venture Palunk.
Blessy wants to regain his lost status in the industry with Calcutta News. As a first step, he has selected Meera Jasmine as the heroine. In films directed by him earlier, the heroine was played by newcomers and male leads were handled by senior actors like Mammootty and Mohanlal.
In Ore Kadal directed by Shyamaprasad, Meera Jasmine is acting opposite superstar Mammootty for the first time. He plays an internationally acclaimed economist, Dr Nathan, who lives a lonely life and never believes in long lasting relationships.
Meera Jasmine plays Deepthi, a housewife, who lives in a flat close to Nathan. She lives with her husband, a marketing officer in an insurance company. Deepthi immediately develops a fancy for Dr Nathan and realises that they have much in common between them, including the same emotional strains. That brings them together and a mature romance develops between them. The script of the film is by the director Shyamaprasad himself.
Meera's much delayed Rathrimazha is directed by famed director Lenin Rajendran, a film-maker who always gives importance to female artistes. Lenin has featured Meera Jasmine in a dominant role in the film. She plays opposite Vineeth in the film which is much talked about for its dance and music.
Ramesh Narayan won the last year State Award for the best music director and singers Sujatha Mohan and Srinivas got the female and male singers awards for the songs in the film.
National Award winning actress Meera Jasmine was born on Feb.15, 1984 in Kuttappuzha, Thiruvalla in Kerala. Born as Jasmine Mary Joseph to Joseph and Aleyamma, the Syrian Christian by birth completed her schooling in Mar Thoma Residential School, Thiruvalla.
Meera Jasmine was not born into a family of actors. Nobody encouraged her to act or dance during her school days. Like other heroines she is not a 'Kalathilakam' or a model. Before her entry into films, nobody noticed her talent. She was attracted to the industry and accepted a film offer against her father's wishes.
Meera joined the industry without much expectations of success. She was ready to go back to her studies if her film did not do well, but the amazing response she received after her debut made her choose acting as her career.
Meera made her debut in the Malayalam film Soothradharan in 2001 directed by Lohitha Das. Her debut film bombed at the box office, but that did not affect her career. She has starred in a dozen Malayalam films in her six-year career and the movies is made on home turf is different from the films made in other languages.
After her foray into other language films her presence in Malayalam films has been limited. For the last three years, Meera was doing one Malayalam film each year. Rasathanthram in 2006, Achuvinte Amma in 2005 and Perumazhakkalam in 2004. Her role in Perumazhakkalam won her State Award for the best actress and Vanitha-Chandrika Award. Her performance in Achuvinte Amma won her Filmfare and Lux-Asianet Film Award for best actress.
All her Malayalam films were noticed for different reasons. She was repeatedly casted by same directors in their movies. Her debut Soothradharan was directed by her mentor Lohitha Das and he completed a hat-trick by casting her in Kasthooriman and Chakram. Her performance in Kasthooriman selected her for Lux-Asianet Film Award for Best Actress.
Lohitha Das never repeated heroines in his earlier films. In Bhoothakkannadi Sreelakshmi was the heroine, Divya Unni played the female lead in Karunyam and in Kanmadam Manju Warrier played the heroine role.
Meera played female leads in three Kamal directed films Gramaphone, Swapnakoodu and Perumazhakkalam.
Sathyan Anthikkad casted Meera as a heroine in his earlier films Achuvinte Amma and Rasathanthram. Meera played a boy's role in the first half of Rasathanthram and it was noticed by her first screen appearance with Mohanlal. Sathyan completed hat-trick by repeatedly casting Meera as a heroine in latest film Vinodhayathra.
Although Meera has appeared four times opposite Dilip, none of their films became a box office hit. But Sathyan Anthikad's latest Vinodhayathra, where Meera played Dilip's female lead, was a success.
In Paadam Onnu Oru Vilapam directed by veteran TV Chandran, Meera fetched the prestigious National Best Actress Award. She portrayed a 15 year old Muslim girl Shahina and won the nations greatest recognition of an actress at the age of 22 by defeating experienced and efficient contenders. She also won the Filmfare Award, Mathrubhumi-Medimix Award and Lux-Asianet Film Award for best actress for her portrayal of Shahina in Paadam Onnu Oru Vilaapam.
Meera's Tamil film entry made her a well-known star in the South. The success of Tamil films Run and Bala in 2002 give her the chance to work with popular actors of the Tamil industry. She won the Filmfare Best Female debut actress award for Run. The success of the films lead her to work with famed directors like Mani Ratnam's Aayudha Ezhuthu and SS Stanley's Mercury Pookkal.
Meera has acted in more than ten Tamil films. Her recent Tamil film Parattai Engira Azhagu Sundaram, with Dhanush as her male lead was a hit. In her forthcoming film Nepali, she is the love interest of Bharath.
Meera Jasmine has not only showed her presence in the Telugu films in 2004 with Ammayi Bagundi and Gudumba Shankar but also entered Kannada cinema by co-starring with Puneet Rajkumar in Mourya. Her latest Kannada film Arrasu is also a hit.
Meera's biggest Telugu hit was Bhadra with Ravi Teja in the male lead. Her other Telugu films are Raraju, Maharadhi Kalyani and upcoming film Yamagola Malli, she is the female lead of Srikant.
Meera was lucky enough to perform in a variety of roles and she played ordinary characters seen in our day-to-day life. She wants to be a part of good cinema, earning money is not only her aim.
Although Meera is not fluent in other languages, her Tamil and Telugu films are dubbed by her as she believes that acting will be incomplete if the voice is different.
Meera is a lover of Ilayaraja's music and many of his songs are known to her by heart.
Along with fame, Meera has been bothered by controversies and gossip — property matters with her parents, being born in a Christian family and her visits to Hindu temples and an affair with SJ Surya, after her pairing with him in Thirumagan.
Although Lohithadas is her mentor, she refused to act in his films like Chakkaramuthu. The heroine role was later played by Kavya Madhavan opposite Dilip. The film didn't do well at the box office. Meera recently rejected another offer from Lohitha Das to play the heroine role in Nivedhyam. He is introducing a new heroine to the industry through this film. The lucky girl is Rakitha aka Bhama from Kottayam. She is an anchor of 'Thali' airing on Surya TV.
Will Lohitha Das's new discovery Bama become a competitor to Meera in the future, or Bhama will also shift her base to other languages for more lucrative offers like her seniors? Only time will tell.

Honours for Talent-Vijay

2007-10-11T15:29:00.000+04:00

Honours for talent
Tamil actor Vijay, the best among the heroes of his generation, was
recently honoured a doctorate by Dr MGR University, writes KK Moidu

20 TIME OUT The Gulf Today / Thursday, September 6, 2007

Vijay and veteran director
Shankar, two
sought-after film personalities,
were conferred
a doctorate for
their immense contribution to the
film industry. The Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO)
chief, G Madhavan Nambiar presented
the honorary doctorate to
Vijay at MGR University last
month. He said Vijay deserved the
honour because he served as “a
role model for the youth” in his
films.
However, Vijay appealed to his
innumerable fans to avoid using
‘doctor’ before his name during a
function held to celebrate the 126th
day of the superhit Pokkiri, a
Telugu remake of the Tamil film.
He also promised he will remain
their intimate Vijay.
Vijay is a success guaranteed
hero and has delivered many blockbusters
in his career. He is a hero of
the masses and a safe bet at the box
office.
The name ‘Vijay’ means victory
and the super star of Tamil films
has proved the name to be appropriate
and continues his success journey.
Vijay’s forthcoming film
Azhagiya Thamizh Magan (ATM)
has made adequate money even
before its release. According to
reports, producer Appachan has
made enough money from ATM.
The movie has made a new record
among Vijay films in terms of business.
Pyramid Saimira Theatres had
brought the worldwide distribution
rights of the film for a massive
amount of Rs25 crores.
ATM, directed by debutante
Bharathan, will hit the screen on
Deepavali. Bharathan was an assistant
of director Dharani and he also
served as a dialogue writer in
Vijay’s superhit film Ghilli.
Vijay w i l l h a v e t w o heroines
in ATM — Shriya
Saran and Namitha.
The fans of Vijay are eagerly waiting for
the release of the film,
one of the r e a s o n s being he is showing his chest
on the screen for the first time. Like other Vijay films, songs will play an important role and his fans are
waiting for his chic dance movements.
One of the songs in the film was
picturised on Phuket beach in
Thailand with the glamorous
Namitha. Another romantic duet
with Shriya will be noticed by the
catchy locales of Switzerland.
Director cum choreographer
Prabhu Deva, a dance wizard, has
also agreed to do a number for the
film. The music is by AR
Rehman. ATM is Vijay’s
45th film and it promises to be a
pure entertainer.
Vijay not only plays the lead role
in the film but will also sing a song
in it. His earlier recordings have
proved his vocal ability in films like
Sachein, Bagavathi etc.
In Thamizhan, he sang with costar
Priyanka Chopra. Vijay did the
playback singing for Surya in
Periyanna and for Vignesh in Velai.
He sang the song Oormilaa
Oormilla for the film Once More
and Thottabetta Rottu Melae for
Vishnu with his mother Shoba.
After completing Azhagiya
Tamizh Magan, Vijay and
director Dharani teamed up
again in Kuruvi. Their earlier
film Ghilli was a moneyspinner
and it was one of
the most memorable films
of Vijay’s career. Ghilli, a
remake of the Telugu film
Okkadu, was a delightful
start to his career and the
movie took his career to a
new horizon.
Kuruvi, the big-budget
film, will be produced by
Udhayanidhi Maran, the
grandson of Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister M
Karunanidhi. It is a rich
commercial entertainer
with a lot of action and
adventure.
The title Kuruvi
does not mean the
‘chatter-bird’ in the
film. The film tells the story of a
young man who makes his living as
a ‘Kuruvi’. He lives in Burma
Bazaar in Chennai and goes to
Singapore and Malaysia as a ‘courier’
and comes back with forbidden
items. He lands in Singapore without
appropriate documents and the
cops suspect him to be a smuggler.
In order to prove his innocence, he
uses his brain and muscle power
against the underworld. The music
for the film is composed by
Vidhyasagar. According to reports
Malayalam film industry leading
lady Nayanthara will play the
female lead in the film, the first
time she is pairing opposite Vijay.
She earlier did an item number in
the Vijay starrer Sivakasi, where
Asin played the heroine.
The trio Vijay-Dharani-
Vidhyasagar said that Kuruvi is not
a sequel of their super hit Ghilli but
the movie is totally different.
Vijay will play the lead role in a
Prabhu Deva directed untitled film
after completing ATM and Kuruvi.
Ayesha Takia will be his love interest
in the film.
In another forthcoming actionthriller
directed by Gautam
Vasudeva Menon, Vijay will play
three different roles. Gautam
Menon is for the first time joining
Vijay for the mega movie.
According to reports, Vijay will
be donning a cop role after
Pokkiri.
Vijay was born on June 22, 1974
in Chennai as Joseph Vijay
Chandrasekhar. Vijay, credited on
screen as “Ilayathalapathi” which
means ‘Young General,’ also had a
huge fan base. He is the son of SA
Chandrasekhar and Shoba.
Vijay has acted in around 45
films and was born in a family of
film personalities. His father, SA
Chandrasekhar, is a director and
mother Shoba is an accomplished
playback singer. Chandrasekhar has
directed more than 60 films and

produced around 30 films.
Vijay is married to a Sri Lankan
Tamil Hindu Sangeetha and they are
blessed with two children, Jason
Sanjay and Divya Saasha.
Chandrasekhar introduced Vijay
into the film industry. Vijay made a
humble beginning in the industry as
a child artiste by doing minor roles
to follow his dream to become an
actor. He dropped out of the visual
communications course at Loyola
College to pursue his acting career.
Now he is a coveted hero.
Vijay made his debut as a hero at
the age of 18 in Naalaya Theerpu
directed by his father SA
Chandrasekhar. After continuing in
the industry for five years he was
noticed for his role as Raja in Poove
Unakkaga.
Vijay was mostly acting in average
budget films and mainly performed
in romantic, comedy, drama
and action thrillers. He stole the
hearts of people through his spectacular
performances in films like
Poove Unakkaaga, Kadhalukku
Mariyadhai, Kushi, Ghilli, Sivakasi,
Thirupaachi and the recently
released Pokkiri etc.
Vijay movies rarely harm the
producers and his humble and polite
behaviour has made him a favourite
among directors and colleagues.
Vijay’s entertaining performances
has secured him a place in the hearts
of cinegoers.
Vijay has won several awards in
his career. These include State Best
Actor Award for Kadhalukku
Mariyadhai. He won the
Kalaimamani Award, Dinakaran,
Film Today, Madras Corporate Club
best actor award for Ghilli. He is
also the recipient of Dr MGR Award
in 2000.
Like in Tamil Nadu, Vijay is the
most popular after Rajnikanth in
neighbouring state of Kerala. He has
received offers from Malayalam films
but has not accepted them because of
the toughness of the language.
His Pokkiri was not only a super
hit in Tamil Nadu but also in Kerala
and it has completed more than 100
days in Kerala theatres. Vijay films
were receiving a huge response in
Kerala like a Mohanlal or
Mammootty film.
However, Vijay always helps the
poor and needy and he is planning
to start a charitable trust in the name
of his sister Vidya, who died when
she was just two years old. The
main aim of the trust is social service
and he will help poor children to
continue their education. He will
protect the deserved children and
sponsor them for their studies till
their graduation.
Although evergreen Rajnikanth
is the one and only superstar in the
industry, the serpentine queues and
festive mood in front of theatres at
the time of releasing Vijay movies
shows that the ‘star-throne’ is not far
from the hero.
No other actor was compared to
Rajnikanth earlier and many consider
Vijay for Rajni’s position in the
future. Vijay himself is a great fan
of Rajni and readily confesses that
he will always be his fan.

New Challenges: Mandira Bedi & Lakshmi Rai

2007-10-11T15:25:00.000+04:00

20 TIME OUT The Gulf Today / Thursday, September 20, 2007

NEW CHALLENGES

MANDIRA BEDI AND LAKSHMI RAI, BOTH FROM
OTHER STATES, ARE MAKING THEIR DEBUT IN
MALAYALAM FILMS IN LEAD ROLES, WRITES KK MOIDU

Bollywood actress and
commentator Mandira
Bedi will play the heroine
in director Rajeev
Nath’s Ezhaam Mudra
opposite Suresh Gopi. South Indian
actress Lakshmi Rai is appearing
opposite Mohanlal in Rock N Roll
directed by Ranjith.

Mandira Bedi
Ezhaam Mudra is based on
Hollywood classic Casablanca.
Mandira Bedi is donning the role
immortalised by Ingrid Bergman in
the original.

Mandira shot in to fame with the
success of miniscreen serial Shanti.
She also played the villain role as Dr
Mandira ‘Mona’ Kapadia in popular
soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu
Thi.
Mandira is also popular as a
cricket commentator, television presenter
and got international fame
during the Cricket world cup in 2003
and 2007.

She was one of the presenters of
Fame Gurukul, an Indian television
show that ended on 2005. Mandira
replaced R Madhavan as the anchor
of Deal Ya No Deal.

Mandira has been dragged into
controversies in several incidents like
her criticism of the Bangladesh
Cricket Team after they defeated the
Indian team in the World cup 2007
group. That created a stir in
Bangladesh.
A complaint was filed against
Mandira on the disrespect of the
Indian National flag as well. She
wore the saree on the programme
Extra Innings sporting flags of different
countries taking part in the
2007 Cricket World Cup. The place
of the Indian flag was at the bottom
of the saree near her feet. This
enraged the Indian viewers.
According to reports, she apologised
to the Sikh organisation, SGPC
(Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak
Committee) for sporting a tattoo on
her back, which infuriated the Sikh
community.
In her long span of more than
one-and-a-half decades long career
she has acted in only half-a-dozen
films and a TV movie Bali. She has
also acted in the Tamil film
Manmadhan along with
Silambarasan and Tamil leading lady
Jyothika.
Mandira was born in April 15,
1972 and was brought up in
Mumbai. She did her schooling at
the Cathedral and John Connon
school in Mumbai. She is married to
film director Raj Kaushal and lives in
Bandra, Mumbai.
Her debut in the Malayalam film
Ezhaam Mudra is a return for Mandira
to the South Indian screen after a gap
of three years. She was last seen in the
Tamil film Manmadhan in 2004.
In Ezham Mudra, Suresh Gopi not
only plays the lead role as a navy doctor,
but also serves as a producer. The
movie once again brings the LTTE
into the backdrop and also tells the
touching story of the Sri Lankan crisis.
Action hero of Malayalam films
Suresh Gopi, who created waves onscreen
with his brave cop roles and
punch dialogues, is concentrating on
offbeat films.
He not only follows the footsteps
of other superstars like Mammotty,
Mohanlal and Dilip by producing the
film, but he also seems to be more
interested in quality acting. Ace director
and winner of National Best
Director Award, Rajeev Nath’s Ezham
Mudra, is one among them.
The other forthcoming projects of
Suresh Gopi in offbeat roles are based
on Shakespeare’s Macbeth and another
is about the world renowned Indian
painter Raja Ravi Varma. directed by
Lenin Rajendran.
Mandira mesmerised viewers with
her remarkable smile during the
Cricket World Cup Series on the mini
screen earlier. Her entry to the sports
world created many controversies and
she survived all that and become a
trendsetter. Now, can she make an
impact on the Malayalam film industry
which she failed to do in
Bollywood?
Lakshmi Rai
Lakshmi Rai was born and
brought up in Bangalore and later
moved to Belgaum. She began her
career as a model and was successful
in the field from her school
days. She appeared as a child artiste
in the Kannada film Valmeeki
directed by Sivaraj Kumar. After
watching her modelling as a child,
Sivaraj Kumar chose her for the
role in Valmeeki.

Lakshmi Rai, with her beautiful
looks and pretty smile, won the
Miss Belgaum title twice. After
watching her modelling show, RV
Udayakumar offered her the heroine
part in the Tamil film Karka
Kasadara. Vijay’s cousin Vikranth
was her male lead of the film.
Lakshmi Rai is a tall and endearing
heroine from the Karnataka and
in a short span of time she has acted
in more than half-a-dozen movies
in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.
She was also lucky enough to
play the heroine opposite senior
actor Vijayakanth in the Tamil film
Dharmapuri directed by Perarasu.
She also appeared as the female
lead of Parthiban in the Tamil film
Kundakka Mandakka directed by
Ashok. In another Tamil film,
Nenjai Thodu, directed by Raj
Kannan, her hero was Gemini.

Lakshmi Rai appeared as the
love interest of Sharath in the
Telugu film Neeku Naaku and acted
in the Kannada film Snehana
Preethina as the heroine of
Darshan.
Although Lakshmi Rai did not
know anything about the
Malayalam film industry, she
accepted the lead role opposite
Mohanlal. The main reason for
signing the offer was the limited
callsheets. She agreed to do the role
without even knowing the story of
the film. Lakshmi was offered roles
in Malayalam films like
Pazhassiraja but she couldn’t
accept them because of her busy
schedules in other languages.
Finally, she appears in the
Malayalam film as the heroine of
frontliner Mohanlal in the musical
entertainer Rock N Roll. She plays
the role of a singer Daya Shrinivas.

Mohanlal appears in the film as a
world famous drummer
Chandramouli. In order to meet his
friends and troupe members,
Chandramouli returns to Kerala.

Music for the film is composed
by Vidyasagar set to the lyrics of
Girish Puthancherri. The film also
features two other heroines,
Radhika and Shweta Menon. It is
produced by PM Venugopal and the
cinematographer is Manoj Pillai.
The Malayalam film industry
always welcomes heroines from
other states. Lakshmi Rai, who
completed an acting course from
Mumbai and gained the attention
of South Indian film industries
with her glamorous roles, hopes
that the singer role in Rock N Roll
will be a turning point in her career.
Moviegoers are eagerly waiting
to see her performance in the film.
They want to find out whether the
actress is competing in the industry
with her glamour or her acting
talent. Will the fans of Malayalam
films be charmed by her magic?

The Gulf Today / Thursday, September 20, 2007 TIME OUT 21

Impressive Innings: Mammootty

2007-10-11T15:18:00.000+04:00

IMPRESSIVE INNINGS

MAMMOOTTY DONS THE UNIFORM OF A POLICE OFFICER FOR THE 25TH TIME IN ROWDRAM, SCRIPTED AND DIRECTED BY RENJI PANIKKAR, WRITES KK MOIDU

20 TIME OUT The Gulf Today / Thursday, September 27, 2007
In Rowdram, Mammootty
once again plays the role of a
brave cop, which made him
the best in the industry. His
character Narendran, nicknamed
‘Nari,’ is an Assistant Police
Commissioner in the film.
Narendran is an honest police officer
and always stands for truth and
justice. This quality irritates many
people in his own department. He
always fights against evils and will
do anything to defeat them and protect
the life and property of the public.
Narendran is the son of a police
officer who lost his life on duty. He
is a direct appointment to the
department with the special permission
of the chief minister as the
Assistant Commissioner of
Ernakulam. He is assigned to prove
a murder case that happened in
Kochi. But a battalion of enemies
are waiting for Narendran in the
city and they play dirty games to
make the investigation more complicated.
Sai Kumar is the villain of the
film and debutante Manju plays the
heroine role as Narendran’s wife.
She is from Ernakulam near
Cherthala and is doing a fashion
designing course in Chennai.
Mammootty is well-known in
films for his police officer personification,
especially for his style and
dialogue delivery. His first police
officer role in Yavanika, which was
directed by KG George, propelled
his career to new heights. The performances
of Mammootty in the
khakhi uniform has never harmed
the producers.
Mammootty celebrated his 54th
birthday on Sept.7, on the sets of
Rowdram. The film is directed by
Renji Panikkar who is one of the
best in creating strong dialogues.
Rowdram is Renji Panikkar’s second
film as a director and his 14th
as a script writer. His maiden directorial
venture, superhit Bharath
Chandran IPS, was also a police
story. Suresh Gopi played the title
role in the film and he regained his
superstar status with that film.
Renji, with his articulate writing
skills, has not only been credited
for the success of many Mohanlal
and Suresh Gopi films but also created
the superhit film The King with
Mammootty.

The King, scripted by Renji
Panikkar, was released 10 years ago
and was directed by Shaji Kailas.
Mammootty played the central
character as a collector and it turned
out to be the biggest hit of that year.
Rowdram, produced by
Marikkar Films and scheduled to be
a Christmas release, will have
enough action and punch lines.
Other cast members include Lalu
Alex, Vijayaraghavan and several
regulars from the industry.
The title of the film Rowdram
was changed to Showryam, but after
a week the director chose to stick to
the old title Rowdram. In a few
months time, the film will finally
appear on the screen.
Mammootty last appeared on
screen as a cop in Balram v
Tharadas directed by IV Sasi. He
played a double role in the film, one
as a police officer and another as a
don. Although the movie was a box
office disaster, his performance as a
police officer was much appreciated.
Mammootty has played heroic
roles in more than 300 films in different languages. ALaw graduate,
he started his film career as a junior
artist in Anubhavangal Palichakal
in 1971. His first film as an actor
was Devalokam and it was not
released in theatres. MTVasudevan
Nair and KG George played important
roles in moulding the his career,
having given him the opportunity
with Vilkanundu Swapnangal and
Mela.

Mammootty’s first superhit film
as a hero was Thrishna directed by
IV Sasi. After the success of the
film, Mammootty and IV Sasi
together created many hits.
Mammootty’s talent was later
tapped by directors of international
repute like Adoor Gopalakrishnan,
Pavithran and TV Chandran.
In a period of five years from ‘82
to ‘87 Mammootty has acted in
more than 150 films as a hero. Very
few actors in the world of cinema
have done such a large number of
heroic roles within a short period of
time. Mammootty created a record
earlier by acting in 35 films in a single
year.

However, the turning point in
Mammootty’s career was New
Delhi, directed by Joshi and
released in 1987. The actor almost
lived the role of the film’s central
character, G Krishnamurthy, a journalist,
who takes revenge against his
politician enemies, for victimising
him. Mammootty’s completion of
the role was widely appreciated and
it propelled him to super-stardom.
Mammootty has won several
awards in the long span of more
than two-and-a-half decade’s as an
actor. He started his award hunting
in 1981 for the film Ahimsa, with a
second best actor award.
His role as Karunan in
Adiyozhukkukal directed by IV Sasi
got him the Best Actor State Award
and Filmfare Award. Mammootty
won the State special jury award
and best actor Filmfare award for
Yathra directed by Balu Mahendra.
The film proved to be one of the
best in Mammootty’s career. He
shaved his hair for the film, only
one example for his efforts to play
his character perfectly.
Mammootty fetched the best
actor National and State Award for
his role as Chanthu in Oru
Vadakkan Veeragadha. The film
was directed by Hariharan and
penned by literary genius MT
Vasudevan Nair. Mammootty’s performance
in Mathilukal directed by
Adoor Gopalakrishnan was also
considered for the award.
Mathilukal was based on a novel by
literary great Vaikkom Muhammed
Basheer and Mammootty received
the Filmfare Award for his performance.
His role as a hunter Varunni
in Mrugaya, directed by IV Sasi,
and another film Mahayanam, was
also examined for the State Award.
Mammootty won the Filmfare
award for Amaram directed by
Bharathan. He played the role of an
uneducated fisherman who dreams
of making his only daughter a doctor.

Mammootty immortalised the
roles in Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s
Vidheyan and TV Chandran’s
Ponthanmada. He received the Best
Actor National and State Award for
his fulfillment of the roles in both
films. His performance in
Valsalyam was also judged for the
State Award.
Mammootty not only won the
National Best Actor Award for Dr
Baba Saheb Ambedkar directed by
Jabbar Patel but also obtained international
fame. His last State Best
Actor Award was for the film
Kaazhcha directed by Blessy.
Mammootty is a winner of nine
film critic awards and he also won
the prestigious Filmfare legendary
actor award in 2007. He was triumphant
of the Etisalat Everest
Award for Best Actor selected
through a poll. It was an award for
the best actor for all time
Malayalam Cinema.
The Government of India honoured
Mammootty with a ‘Padma
Shri’ in 1998 in recognition of his
contribution to cinema.
He created not only super hits in
Malayalam but also in other languages.
He made his Tamil debut in
Maunam Sammatham . He has
acted in Tamil films with front-line
directors of the industry like K
Balachander and Mani Rathnam.
His performance along with superstar
Rajnikanth in Thalapathi made
him a favourite in Tamil. His other
Tamil film Kandukondain
Kandukondain directed by Rajeev
Menon was also a superhit. His costars
of the film were Aishwarya
Rai, Tabu and Ajith.
His other Tamil super hit films
are Marumalarchi, Arasiyal and
Makkal Aachi. Fazil directed
Kalippoch Kelkkava was another
successful film that gained box
office victory by competing with
Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan
films in Tamil Nadu.
After a long interval,
Mammootty is acting in a new
Tamil film. Tamil action hero Arjun
is also doing an important role in
the film and the film will have two
heroines — Mamta Mohandas and
Sneha. Mammootty’s last Tamil
film was Viswa Thulasi. His acting
was noticed in the film but the film
was a box office disaster.
Mammootty tried his luck in
Bollywood but he couldn’t repeat
his south Indian success in Hindi
films. He made his Hindi debut in
an arty film Thriyathri . His first
commercial film was
Dharthiputhra which bombed at
the box office. Mammootty’s Sau
Jhooth Ek Sach won critical
acclaim but the film didn’t do well
at the box office.
Mammootty’s Telugu film
Swathikiran was a superhit but the
remake in Malayalam titled
Pramanam was a failure on home
turf.
For Mammootty, the year 2007
started with the big hit Mayavi.
Then followed Big B, Mission 90
Days and Ore Kadal but none of
the films performed well at the
box office. But his part of the
films were applauded and his role
as Dr Nathan in Ore Kadal
became another best in his career.
Mammootty’s Ramadan
release, Nazrani, directed by
Joshi, is a sure winner at the box
office. Another project in the
pipeline, Pazhassiraja, directed by
Hariharan based on the script of
MT Vasudevan Nair, is also tipped
to be a winner.

After learning from his earlier
box office flops, Mammootty has
given up acting in many films
together at the same time. But now
he has returned to his old style
because he does not want to miss
good offers coming his way.
During the last few months,
Mammootty has acted in many
films at the same time. He is still
working on different projects like
Pazhassiraja, Vandematharam
and Katha Parayumbol. He is also
in a superstar role in
Kathaparayumbol which is produced
by Mukesh and scripted by
Sreenivasan.

Other forthcoming projects of
the superstar are Theeppetti
Chandran and he is doing a double
role in a film directed by
Anvar Rasheed. He will also play
a pivotal role in the multi starrer
AMMAwhich features Mohanlal,
Suresh Gopi, Jayaram, Dilip and
Prithviraj.
Mammootty is also acting in an
English film The Late Night
Beggar.
In an eventful career spanning
more than 25 years, Mammootty is
not only enjoying a megastar status
in Malayalam cinema but is also
merited with securing prestigious
awards. He has secured a place in
the hearts of people — but his thirst
for acting still remains.
Mammootty has tasted failure
several times but he has an uncanny
ability of bouncing back. After
all, Mammootty, the super hero of
Malayalam cinema, is the last word
in personality and talent. And he is
continuing his journey of success.
The Gulf Today / Thursday, September 27, 2007 TIME OUT 21
CINEMA

HITTING IT OFF TOGETHER: Madhupal

2007-10-11T15:17:00.001+04:00

20 TIME OUT The Gulf Today / Thursday, September 13, 2007
HITTING IT OFF TOGETHER
PRITHVIRAJ AND NAVYA NAIR COME TOGETHER AGAIN IN MADHUPAL’S DIRECTORIAL DEBUT THALAPAAVU, WRITES KK MOIDU

After serving the film
industry for nearly oneand-
a-half decades as
assistant director and
actor, Madhupal, a popular
face on the silver screen and television,
is making his maiden directorial
venture with Thalapaavu.

Madhupal, armed with a post
graduate degree in commerce and a
course in journalism, joined the industry
as an associate director. He is a
writer and has authored a collection
of short stories and a couple of books
like Ee Jeevitham Jeevichu
Theerkunnathu, Hebrewil Oru
Premalekhanam etc. He tried his luck
at script-writing was not successful.
Madhupal started writing from his
schooldays and was penning stories
at the age of 10 for children’s magazines
Poombatta and Balayugam.
His association with cinema started
when he was a child. His father, an
employee of the Kerala State
Electricity Board, was also running a
theatre in Palakkad. That gave him the
opportunity to watch films showing
in the theatre and his interest for films
begun.
After completing his education,
Madhupal started his career as a journalist
in Mathrubhoomi and India
Today and he also worked in a bank.
But his fascination for films attracted
him into the film industry. He worked
in many projects as an associate director
and scriptwriter, but his earlier
works like the Mohanlal-starrer
Australia and Yamanam, directed by
Bharath Gopi, were not released.
Madhupal also worked as an assistant
for eminent director Rajeev
Anchal in Butterflies, Guru,
Kashmeeram etc. His association with
Rajeev Anchal was a turning point in
his career. He acted in Kashmeeram
in which he played a negative role.
After that, he appeared in character
and villain roles in many films.
Madhupal also worked as an assistant
director for the film Made in
USA, that had Madhavan in the lead
and was picturised in the United
States. He also played the role of
Violin Johny in the film. He replaced
an NRI Sibi David for that role due to
an unavoidable circumstance.
Madhupal was noticed on the
small screen and achieved success not
only as an actor but also as a director.
He fetched the Critics Award for the
second best actor for his role as Hari
in Kaazhcha. It was a series of MT
Kathakal and was aired on Amritha
TV. Madhupal won the critics award
for Akasathe Paravakal aired on
Kairali TV. He also worked as an
assistant to Jude Attipetty for the serial
Shararanthal.
He also acted and directed around
a dozen serials and did few documentaries
for government departments.
Madhupal writes for magazines
and also finds time for social activities.
He was engaged in several projects
to help the victims of the tsunami
and is associated with Shanthigiri
Ashram at Pothencode near
Thiruvananthapuram.
As an actor, Madhupal continues
his presence in recently released films
like Sooryan, Nadiya Kollappetta
Rathri, Detective etc. Although he is
playing negative roles, he was rarely
cast as the foremost villain. His roles
were limited to an assistant of the primary
villain or a gang leader in many
films. His distinguished looks and
memorable performances made him
a sought-after actor in character and
villain roles.
Now, Madhupal finally takes up
the job of directing a movie. His
Thalapaavu is noticed by the reunion
of Prithviraj and Navya Nair. The
female lead of the film, Navya Nair,
appeared earlier as the love interest of
Prithviraj in his debut film
Nandhanam. Though the movie was
a superhit and performed well at the
box office, Navya hogged the limelight
and even won the State Award
for Best Actress for her portrayal of
the film’s Cindrella-like character,
Balamani.
After doing few Malayalam films,
unlike other Malayalam heroines like
Nayanthara, Meera Jasmine, Bhavana
etc., Navya turned her attention to the
Tamil film industry. Early in her
career she paired opposite senior
director-cum-actor Cheran in
Mayakannadi. She gave up many
offers from Malayalam for
Mayakannadi and Aadum Koothu
with TVChandran. But both the films
fell below expectations and bombed
at the box office.
Her forthcoming Tamil film is Sila
Nerangalil. The movie is the directorial
debut of popular Malayalam
director Jayaraj, a four-time winner of
the National Awards. Vincent
Ashokan, the villain of Pokkiri and
Aalwar, is her male lead in the film
which is a thriller penned by R Raj.
Navya’s passion for meaty, art
ventures pulled her career back a little.
By realising the loss, she is now
working in commercial films and reestablished
herself in Malayalam
films with two Onam releases. She
paired opposite Mohanlal in Alibhai
and in Kichamani MBA her hero was
Suresh Gopi.
Navya’s forthcoming Malayalam
film SMS will be directed by Surjulan
of Madamma fame. Bala is the hero
of the film and it is his second film
with Navya. Earlier, they paired in
Kalabham, which failed to attract the
crowds at the box office. Mukesh will
play a pivotal role in SMS. The film
is a suspense thriller with an equal
dose of comedy.
Navya also has a couple of other
projects in her kitty. She pins her hope
on Thalapaavu opposite Prithviraj.
Prithviraj too won the hearts of
filmgoers as Manu in Nandanam and
soon became a favourite in the industry.
His pairing with Navya Nair was
perfect and many expect them to be a
hit pair in the future. But the pairing
was repeated only in Vellithira directed
by Bhadran. Vellithira didn’t do
well at the box office unlike other
Bhadran films.
Although Prithviraj got ample
opportunities to handle different types
of characters in the beginning of his
career, his movies only did moderate
business at the box office.
When weighty roles dried up on
the home turf he made his Tamil
debut in veteran cinematographer KV
Anand’s directorial debut Kana
Kandain. He portrayed a different
kind of villain in the film. The success
of the film earned him heroic roles in
Tamil films and he became a favourite
for Tamil audience.
Prithviraj repeated his success in
Malayalam after the surprise victory
of Classmates, a campus love story
directed by Lal Jose. He also won the
State Best Actor Award for the film
Vasthavam directed by Padmakumar.
Although Prithviraj is busy in
Tamil, he is doing Malayalam films.
His forthcoming Chocolate directed
by Shafi is ready to hit the screen. In
another upcoming project Boss,
directed by Padmakumar, his heroine
is Meera Jasmine and the film is
scripted by AK Sajan. Sai Kumar,
Jagathy, Lalu Alex and Manoj K.
Jayan are doing other important characters
of the film. Chandrakumar produces
the film under his banner
Malavika Productions.
Kangaroo directed by Raj Babu, is
another forthcoming Malayalam film
of Prithviraj. The movie scripted by J
Pallasserry also stars Jayasoorya,
Jagathy Sreekumar, Harishree
Ashokan, Suraj Venjaramoodu and
Salim Kumar.
Prithviraj films are hits in Tamil
but he failed to attract crowds on his
home turf. His recently released
movies Khaki and Veeralippattu were
well made films, but the lukewarm
response of the audience only added
two more flops to his career.
Navya Nair is going through a lean
patch in her career after her two big
releases Mayakannadi and Aadum
Koothu bombed at the box office. Her
recently released films also didn’t do
anything good for her career.
Both Prithviraj and Navya hope
that Thalapaavu will work in their
favour. Other important roles of the
film will be played by Jagathy
Sreekumar, Lal and Kalabhavan
Mani.
The film, scripted by Babu
Janardhanan, will start rolling at the
end of the month. Thalapaavu is produced
by Tamil actor Mohanraj under
the banner of Civic Films. According
to reports, ONV Kurup will pen the
songs of the film and it will be composed
by the youngster’s favourite
musician Alex Paul.
As a director, Madhupal can contribute
a lot to the directorial department
— not only for Thalapaavu—
but also for the film industry. His
experience in most of the departments
of film-making will help him a lot.
This may be one of the reasons why
he should concentrate more on being
a director.

Winning Smile - Trisha

2007-10-11T15:11:00.000+04:00

16 TIME OUT The Gulf Today / Thursday, October 4, 2007

WINNING SMILE

LEADING LADY OF TAMIL AND
TELUGU CINEMA, TRISHA
KRISHNAN, BAGGED THE
KALAIMAMANI AWARD AND
NANDHI AWARD FROM THE TWO
RESPECTIVE STATE GOVERNMENTS,
WRITES KK MOIDU

Attractive actress Trisha was
honoured with the
Kalaimamani Award from the
Tamil Nadu Government and
the Nandhi Award from the
Andhra Pradesh Government recently.
Trisha is the reigning queen of Telugu
cinema, and to retain her top rank in Tamil
films, she is doing as many films in Tamil
as well.
Trisha, nicknamed Honey for her beautiful
smile, hails from Palakkad, Kerala.
Born on May 4, 1983 as Trisha
Krishnamurthy, she is the only daughter of
Krishnan and Uma Krishnan.
The Tamil Iyer actress was brought up in
Chennai and completed her schooling from
Church Park. She then did BBA from
Ethiraj College, Chennai.
Trisha entered the film industry through
modelling. She appeared in advertisements
for famous brands like Pepsi, Fair and
Lovely, Medimix, Josco Jewellery, Prince
Jewellery and Kumaran Silks. She recently
replaced Rani Mukherjee as the brand
ambassador of Fanta India. Trisha is the
brand ambassador of Scooty Pep+ and substituted
Preity Zinta. Even for Perk
Chocolate, she replaced Preity Zinta.

Trisha won the Miss Salem and
Miss Chennai contest with her striking
looks. Her participation in Fa
Miss India Femina Contest bagged
her the Miss India Miss Beautiful
Smile title. After winning these
awards she got ample opportunities
to work with leading designers and
choreographers. She turned out to be
a high-flying figure in fashion
shows. She also starred in Phalghuni
Pathak’s music album Meri Chunar
Ud Ud Jaye.
Trisha made her debut in the
Tamil film Jodi with a cameo role.
Her first film as a heroine was Lesa
Lesa directed by leading director
Priyadarshan. Her male lead of the
film was Shyam. Her first film
released was Mounam Pesiyathe
and she won the Filmfare debutante
award and critical acclaim for her
performance in the film. Her hero of
the film was Surya and it was an
average hit at the box office. Trisha
bagged nearly half-a-dozen heroine
roles even before the release of her
first film. Her performance in Mani
Ratnam’s Aayudha Ezhuthu,
Unakku 18 Enakku 20 and
Manasellam brought her into the
limelight. She co-starred with
Siddharth Narayan, Madhavan and
Surya in Aayudha Ezhuthu, a
remake of the Hindi film Yuva.
Trisha dubbed herself for Aayudha
Ezhuthu.
Trisha’s couple of films like Ji,
Aathi, Pournami and Aaru didn’t
perform well at the box office. Her
role in Saamy opposite Vikram and
her pairing in Ghilli opposite Vijay
helped her become one of the most
sought-after heroines in Tamil cinema.
The success of Saamy and Ghilli
put a stamp on her popularity.
Trisha repeated her Tamil success
in the Telugu industry also. Her film
Varsham was a superhit and she won
the Filmfare Best Actress Award.
She went on to co-star with Sidharth
Narayan in Nuvvostanante
Nenoddantana in a village girl role
as Sini. Nuvvostanante
Nenoddantana directed by Prabhu
Deva was an entertainer. The film
tells the story of a rich boy who
wants to marry an ordinary girl and
her brother opposes the relationship.
The film was a box office hit and
Trisha won the Filmfare Best
Actress Award and Nandhi Award.
Trisha repeated her role in the Tamil
remake Something
Something.....Unnakkum Ennakum.
Her hero of the film was Jayam Ravi
and the film repeated the box office
victory in Tamil.
The big budget Telugu film
Sanikudu, with Mahesh Babu, was
thought to be a below average film,
but it managed to get a fantastic
opening and did average business at
the box office. Trisha played the
female lead opposite senior Telugu
hero Venkatesh in Aadavari
Matalaku Ardhalu Verule. The film
was the Telugu directorial debut for
Selvaraghavan. The entertainer
received good response from the
family audience and Trisha’s performance
was one of the highlights
of the film.
Trisha also played the heroine
opposite Telugu stalwart Chiranjeevi
in Stalin. The songs of the film were
picturised in Italy and Austria.
Anushka Shetty performed an item
number in the film directed by AR
Murugadoss.
Trisha succeeded in playing a
comedy role in her recently released
Tamil film Kireedam opposite Ajith.
The film with good expectation has
won rave reviews from the media
and good response from the public.
Kireedam is a remake of the
Malayalam blockbuster of the 80s
and the film is about the bondage
between a father and son.
The release of the film was celebrated
in Tamil Nadu by her fans
with great joy. They organised blood
donation camps, distributed sweets
and erected cut-outs of the actress to
celebrating the release of their
favourite screen heroine’s film.
Although she was replaced by
Nayanthara in Ilayathalapathy
Vijay’s forthcoming Kuruvi from the
team of the superhit Ghilli, Trisha’s
hands are full with offers not only
from Tamil but also from the Telugu
industry. She has played the heroine
role of more than two dozen films in
her career spanning more than five
years with crowd pulling heroes.
Trisha earlier opted out from
playing the heroine in Vallavan
opposite Silambarasan because her
character in the film was extremely
glamorous and later Nayanthara did
the role. Trisha earlier rejected offers
for films like Majaa opposite
Vikram and Don opposite
Nagarjuna due to her prior commitments.
The female lead of Majaa
was later played by Asin and
Anushka Shetty played Nagarjuna’s
female lead in Don.
In Trisha’s forthcoming Telugu
films, she will play the female lead
opposite Ravi Teja in the VV
Vinayak directed Bezawada Bujji
and Prabhas starrer Bijjigadu under
the direction of Puri Jagannadh.
Her ready-to-release Tamil film
Bheema, directed by Linguswamy,
will be noted for her pairing with
Vikram after the superhit film
Saamy. Abhiyum Naanum is another
prestigious project for her, produced
by Prakash Raj and directed
by Radha Mohan. Prakash Raj also
plays her father in the film.
Trisha will play the female lead
in Gautham Menon’s Chennaiyil
Oru Mazhaikalam with four male
debutante heroes. AR Rehman will
compose the lyrics of renowned poet
Thamarai for the film. The story of
the film is about life in the underworld
and it will be a musical entertainer.
Trisha is a winner of Vijay TVs
most Favourite Tamil Actress award
in 2006. Her rivals for the competition
were Simran, Jyothika and
Asin.
Although Trisha is very popular
in Tamil and Telugu films, she has a
massive fan base in neighbouring
Kerala. Her Malayalee fans watch
their favourite heroine’s Tamil and
Telugu films with interest. She
couldn’t satisfy them by appearing
in a Malayalam film, unlike other
leading heroines of the industry.
Finally, Trisha will appear in a
Malayalam film Target. But, to her
fan’s despair, it is a dubbed version
of the Telugu superhit Athadu starring
Mahesh Babu in the lead.
Athadu was the highest grosser of
2005 in Telugu. Other important
characters of the film are played by
Prakash Raj and Nassar. The film
scripted and directed by Trivikram
Srinivas tells the story of the tough
life of two friends from the street.
Their struggle to reach the pinnacle
of society is telling in the film. The
songs of the dubbed version in
Malayalam will feature the voices of
leading singers MG Sreekumar,
Jyotsna, Sujatha, Vineeth
Sreenivasan, Franco etc.
Trisha, with her beauteous smile
and entertaining performance, is
doing well in Tamil and Telugu
films. But will her appearance in a
dubbed Malayalam film satisfy her
fans? Or would they like to watch
her in other language films other
than a dubbed Malayalam film?

Festival Attractions

2007-10-11T15:09:00.000+04:00

FESTIVAL ATTRACTIONS

LIKE MOST FESTIVAL SEASONS, THIS EID AL FITR WILL BE CELEBRATED WITH NEW FILM RELEASES IN
KERALA, INDIA, WRITES KK MOIDU
Nasrani

The Gulf Today / Thursday, October 11, 2007 TIME OUT 21

The new Malayalam filmreleases for Eid Al Fitr guarantee a much better
season than the last Onam festival.
Malayalam frontliners Mammootty, Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi and
Prithviraj are all waiting for the
releases to celebrate the joyous occasion.
The much-awaited Mammootty-
Joshi-Renjith team in Nasrani;
Mohanlal starrer Pardesi directed by
PT Kunju Muhammed; Shafi’s
Choccolate with Prithviraj,
Jayasoorya, Roma and Samvrutha
and Suresh Gopi’s long delayed
Black Cat directed by Vinayan are
the new releases of the superstars.
Apart from the biggies, debutante
director GR Indugopan’s
Ottakkayyan starring Harishree
Ashokan will also be released in a
few select theatres.
According to reports, all the films
will hit the screens on Oct.12, the last day of Ramadan or the First day of ‘Eid Al Fitr.’
Nasrani
Superstar Mammootty will be
back on the silverscreen with the
much-awaited Nasrani.
The actor appears in the film as
David John Kottaram, popularly
known as DK. He is the only heir to
the rich Kottaram Tharavadu, a
prominent Christian family of central
Travencore.
Mammootty has proved his
excellence in ‘Achayan’ characters
earlier in Sangham, Kottayam
Kunjachan and Pothan Vava.
Director Joshi and scriptwriter
Renjith uses the best of the mannerisms
of Mammootty in Nasrani.
Mammootty needs a superhit and
Nasrani is specially made for satisfying
his fans.
DK is a rich man blessed with
money, friends and he is trusted by
many influential persons. The only
influential person in his life is retired
supreme court advocate Narayana
Swamy.
Although DK is happy, he has his
share of sorrows. The reason is Sara,
a college lecturer whom he met a
few years ago. Due to family reasons,
their relationship does not end
up in marriage. Sara is not ready to
go out of his life and she hopes DK
will marry her. Alhough DK discourages
her, he celebrates the
anniversary of this betrothal every
year with his friends.
Kalabhavan Mani as Suku plays
a pivotal role in the film as DK’s driver and right-hand man.
The film has two heroines —
Vimala Raman and Mukhtha. KPAC
Lalitha is Mammootty’s sister and
the other artistes of the film are
Jagathy, Lalu Alex, Vijayaraghavan,
Saikumar, Biju Menon, Bharath
Gopi, Maniyanpilla Raju, Sidhiq,
Captain Raju, Baburaj, Sukumari
and Ponnamma Babu.
Anil Panachooran’s lyrics are
tuned by Bijibal and Shaji cranks the
camera. The movie is produced by
M Rajan under the banner of
Horizon Movies.
Pardesi
PT Kunju Mohammed is known
for his quality films and has fetched
many awards in festivals earlier. His
third film Pardesi, scripted by the
director himself, tells a different
story of people who are left aliens in
their home country. These unlucky
minorities have no documents to
prove themselves or their identity.
Mohanlal plays a challenging role
as an 80-year-old Valiakath Moosa
in the film. His association with PT
Kunju Mohammed in Pardesi brings
him back to the serious genre character
after a long time. The very
well-etched character, Valiakath
Moosa, is likely to take Mohanlal to
new heights.
Moosa is the son of a freedom
fighter but to the Indian Government
Moosa is a Pakistani and to the
Pakistan government Moosa is an
Indian. This is not only Moosa’s
story, he is one of the many Moosa’s
who left to work in Pakistan during
the British Raj. Majority of them
returned to India and settled in
Malappuram, Kannur etc. They do
not have a passport or any other
legal documents or even an address
in their land, where they were born
and brought up. Moreover they are
seen as Pakistani spies in their
native place.
Kavya Madhavan appears as a
journalist in the film. She is investigating
the life and livelihood of
this sidelined section of the society.
The story unfolds through her
attempt to find a way out of the
problems that envisaged people like
Moosa.
Although the film takes place in
the current situation, there are flashbacks
to the 1960s. The director
reflects that with the costumes, settings
and even in the songs. The
film has three songs tuned by
Ramesh Narayan and Shahsaad
Aman and are sung by MG
Sreekumar, Vineeth Sreenivasan,
Chithra and Sujatha.
Chocolate
After the success of Classmates,
young hero Prithviraj again plays
the lead in a campus based film
Chocolate directed by hit maker
Shafi. The film scripted by debutante
duo Sachi-Sethu tells the story
of a post graduate student Shyam
Balagopal (Prithviraj), who is
forced to study in a women’s college.
Shyam is a male student in an
all-women’s college. According to
the University rules, all women’s
colleges can admit one male student
for PG studies in each subject. That
is how Shyam came to be in the college.
Shyam’s mother Vanaja, who is
a sociology lecturer at the college,
secured an admission for Shyam
from a special consent from the
management. Vanaja believes that
her son getting into trouble will stop
if he is in a women’s college.
For Shyam his admission as the
only male in a women’s college was
a dream comes true. The college is
well-known for beauties like Ann
Mathews (Roma), Nandhana
(Samvrutha) and Susan (Ramya
Nambeesan).
Shyam becomes popular in the
campus and he is forced to contest
in the elections opposite the
tomboyish gang of Ann, Nandhana
and Susan. He is contesting for the
post of union chairman. The countdown
begins and develops into
something that changes the lives of
those who are involved.
Jayasoorya as Renjith plays an
important role in the film as a fashion
designer and he is unable to
express his feelings to Nandana.
Others in the cast are Lalu Alex,
Rajan P Dev, Salim Kumar, Anoop
Chandran, Bindu Panikkar, Gayathri,
Shanu, Prem, Mini Arun, Shari and
Vanitha.
Music of the film is composed by
hitmakers Vayalar Sharath — Alex
Paul team. The film edited by
Hariharaputhran is cinematographed
by Azhagappan.
Chocolate produced by Santha
Muraleedharan and PK
Muraleedharan under the banner of
Amanda Vision was shot at Sacred
Heart College, Thevara.
Black Cat
The long delayed Black Cat,
directed by Vinayan, tells the story
of a faithful servant of Tharakan
Muthalali (Rajan P Dev), a rich man
in a coastal area. Action hero Suresh
Gopi plays the title role as Black and
this is the first time he is featured in
a Vinayan film.
Black is the son of Pathrose
(Nedumudi Venu) and he was
brought up by Tharakan, so he feels
indebted to him. He will do anything
for his master and he is little immature
for his age — he has a weakness
for food and black clothes.
Meanwhile, Dr Meenakshi from
Mumbai comes to Kerala in search
of an ayurveda physician. Her accidental
meeting with Black reminds
her of some past incidents. She tries
to find out the history of Black as she
strongly believes that he is the person
she knew years ago.
However, Tharakan Muthalali’s
daughter Blessy tries to stop
Meenakshi from her mission.
At last, a shocking truth about
Black is revealed and the consequence
of his revelations unfolds in
the climax.
Ottakkayyan
Harishree Ashokan plays the lead
role as a “one armed man” in writerjournalist
GR Indugopan’s directorial
debut Ottakkayyan.
The implacable story, granular
visuals and outstanding performances
make this suspense thriller
unique, not only in Malayalam cinema
but also in Indian cinema. The
director, along with his cinematographer
MJ Radhakrishnan, a master
of low light photography, shows the
dark side of human nature in society.
Ottakkayyan is a real time movie,
happens in actual time in an isolated
island; in a single night. All the outdoor
scenes were filmed at night,
another rare in Indian cinema.
Two youngsters from different
fundamentalist groups gets trapped
into an island after committing a
murder. Both of them are thirsty for
each others blood because of their
loyalty to their respective organisations.
The island, nestled in the backwaters,
has no electricity. The only
link from the island to the main land
is through a railway track.
They are trapped by enemies and
their escape from the island is impossible.
There is only one house on the
island where Ottakkayyan Vasu, his
wife and father live.
Vasu meets the terrorist while back
home and his contact with them takes
the film to an unpredictable end.
Ashokan and Arun play the roles
of the religious fundamentalists.
Ashokan makes a comeback through
this film after a long time.
Rani Babu, a US based dancercum-
model and a holder of Masters
in Fisheries and MPhil is the heroine
of the film. She is from Oachira in
Kerala and was a part time model
and TV anchor. Awinner of state and
university level youth festivals in
various dance items, she is a trained
Mohiniyattam and folk dancer. She
also won many beauty pageants held
in Kerala and USA.

STARDOM BECKONS: RAHMAN

2007-08-29T21:32:00.000+04:00

IN BLACK, RAHMAN MADE A COMEBACK AS A SECOND HERO. NOW, HE IS
PLAYING THE HERO IN MUSAFIR, WRITES KK MOIDU
Musafir, directed by
Pramod Pappan, is a
big-budget thriller.
Rahman, an icon for
youngsters in the
80s, plays the male lead of the film.
The movie is produced by Suneer
Hamza under the banner of Indish
Creations. The film tells the story of
the dispute between financially elite
families who run corporate businesses.
Rahman plays the role of a
dancer-cum -musician in the film
and his heroine is roped in from
Bollywood. The story and dialogue
is by Babu Janardhanan and the cinematography
is done by Shoukath
Lensman. The movie will be picturised
in Dubai, London and
Cyprus.
Gulf returnee Rahman, a tall,
handsome hero, was a teenage heartthrob
in the 80’s. He has acted in
more than 50 films in different languages
like Malayalam, Tamil and
Telugu. He was very popular in the
industry as a romantic action hero.
His more than six feet height and
pleasant nature earned him a variety
of opportunities for playing different
kinds of roles.
As an actor, his range of roles
extended from the firebrand extremists
in Ethiri Poove Chuvanna Poove
to a humorous performance in
Pappan Priyappetta Pappan. He
also appeared in chocolate-hero roles
in several films and performed them
with the same ease. He was lucky
enough to work with some ace directors
and best actors of the industry.
Rahman made his dream debut in
the super hit Malayalam film
Koodevide at the age of 16.
Koodevide was directed by veteran
Padmarajan and was released in
1983. Rahman won the State Award
for best supporting actor for his role
as a teenager who had an infatuation
for his school teacher. The lead roles
of the film were played by
Mammootty and Suhasini.
After his remarkable debut,
Rahman played second fiddle to
superstars like Mammootty and
Mohanlal in many films.
His combination with
Mammootty never tasted failure at
the box office. The duo delivered
box office hits like Ethiree Poove
Chuvannna Poove, Kanamarayathu,
Ee Lokham Evide Kure Manushyar,
Aankiliyude Tharattu etc.
His partnership with Mohanlal in
Evide Thudangunnu, Uyarangalil,
Koodum Thedi, Pappan Priyappetta
Pappan etc. were also hits.
The Mammootty-Mohanlal-
Rahman trio has also created successful

films like Adiyozhukkukukal,
Angadikkappurathu, Kandu
Kandarinju, Vartha,
Poomukhappadiyil Ninneyum Kathu
etc.
Many considered Rahman as the
next superstar of Malayalam cinema.
However, he appeared as a hero in
many films like Parannu Parannu
Parannu, Punnaram Cholli Cholli,
Gayathri Devi Ente Amma, Orikkal
Oridathu, Onnam Prathi Olivil,
Koodanayum Kattu, Chilambu,
Veena Meettiya Vilangukal, Mazhavil
Koodaram, Hit List, King Solamon
etc.
Most of the movies in which he
played the hero were not as successful
as his movies with Mammootty
and Mohanlal. His films
Parannuyaran, Mizhiyorangalil etc.
were not released.
Rahman slowly disappeared from
the Malayalam film industry and
tried his luck in other language films
like Tamil and Telugu. He made his
Tamil debut in Nileve Malare in
1986 and his first Telugu film
Rasaleela was also released the same
year. Nilave Malare was directed by
Tamil super star Vijay’s father SA
Chanderasekhar. It was a moderate
success at the box office and was
also dubbed into Malayalam as
P r i y a m v a d h a k k o r u
Pranayageetham.
After the success of the Tamil
film Puthu Puthu Arthangal and the
Telugu super hit Bharath Bond,
Rahman resurfaced as a hero in
Tamil and Telugu. He moved to
Bangalore from Kochi and later
shifted to Chennai.
After years he made a comeback
into the Malayalam film industry as
a second hero in the Mammootty
starrer Black directed by Renjith.
After donning the role of a cop in
Black, he did second hero roles in
Mammootty films Rajamanikyam
and Bharghava Charitham
Moonnam Khandam. He also played
a second hero role in the Mohanlal
starrer Mahasamudram. The super
success of his comeback films like
Black and Rajamanikyam has made
him popular among the new generation.
In his second arrival, Rahman
played equally important roles along
with Kalabhavan Mani in Abraham
and Lincoln and Nanma. His role as
a football coach Vijay in Goal,
directed by Kamal, was one of his
best performances after his comeback.
Rahman repeated his success, not
only in Malayalam, but also in Tamil
industry in his comeback films. His
roles in Thoothukudi and Ram made
favourable impressions.
Rahman’s earlier films were
dubbed by others but in his comeback
films, he has achieved success
in dubbing as well. In Ethiri, he
dubbed his own voice for the first
time in Tamil and Rajamanikyam
was his first voice in Malayalam.
Unlike Malayalam and Tamil
films, Rahman couldn’t achieve success
in Telugu films after his comeback.
His Telugu film Dhariyan
bombed at the box office.
Besides playing a hero role in the
forthcoming Musafir, Rahman is
doing a tough cop role in the Ajith
starrer, Tamil film Billa. The movie
is a remake of the Rajnikant super
hit film of the same name, which
made him a super star. In the modern
version, Ajith plays the lead
role. Rahman’s role was played by
Major Sundar Rajan in the original.
In Tamil films, Rahman is also
doing an important role as a young
hero Bharath’s Pazhani. He is also
doing an important role in the senior
Tamil hero Vijayakanth’s film.
Rahman plays a meaningful role
as the keyboard player of
Mohanlal’s music troupe in Rock n
Roll directed by Ranjith. He is also
doing a lead role in Manjadikkuru
directed by Anjali Menon. Besides,
he is doing a significant role in a
Joshi-directed film.
Although Rahman got a variety
of offers with his comeback, he is
for the first time playing the hero’s
role in Musafir after the long break.
The success of Musafir will
decide Rahman’s future in the
industry. If his heroic role in the
film becomes a success at the box
office, it will be a release for him
from playing second fiddle to superstars.
Can his heroic role in Musafir
get him the superstar status he
enjoyed in the 80s?

Arabikkatha

2007-08-29T21:31:00.000+04:00

HEARTFELT STORY

ARABIKKATHA TAKES AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT POLITICAL VIEWS AND
THE LIFE OF EXPATRIATES IN DUBAI, SAYS KK MOIDU
Director: Lal Jose
Story-Screenplay-Dialogue: Dr Iqbal
Kuttippuram
Producer: Hussain
Music: Biji Bal
Lyrics: Anil Panachooraan
Cinematography: Manoj Pillai
Editing: Ranjan Abraham
Starring: Sreenivasan, Chang Shu Min,
Samvrutha Sunil, Nedumudi Venu,
Indrajith, Jayasurya, Narayanan Nair,
Salim Kumar, Atlas Ramachandran,
Moideen Koya etc.

20 TIME OUT The Gulf Today / Thursday, August 30, 2007
FILM REVIEW
Director Lal Jose once
again proved that he
can handle any subject
with ease. Earlier, he
surprised everybody by
making a comedy entertainer with
Mammootty in his debut. Lal Jose
achieved success by making Dilip a
thief in the super hit Meesa
Madhavan and a womanish role in
Chandupottu. Lal Jose had the
courage to make an offbeat film with
Salim Kumar as the hero. He created
history in Malayalam cinema by
making a box office wonder with
Classmates, a blockbuster without
any superstar.
His Arabikkatha says a different
story from a different angle. The
film, scripted by Dr Iqbal
Kuttippuram, narrates the story of a
CPM comrade leaving his homeland
for Dubai to earning money.
The film opens with a lathi charge
on party men, who are staging an
agitation against the opening of a
leather factory in Chemmanur, a village
in Kannur.
Mukundan (Sreenivasan) better
known as “Cuba Mukundan” is the
son of Society Gopalan (Nedumudi
Venu). Gopalan is the founder of
communism in Chemmanur.
Mukundan is a young political idealist
and for him communism is
everything. He is a die-hard fan of
Fidel Castro and always showers
praise on China and Cuba for practicing
communism.
Mukundan is the branch secretary
of the communist party in
Chemmanur. His loyal comrade
Anvar (Indrajith), an extremist at
heart, and others in the village have
a lot of respect for Mukundan.
Mukundan resists everything forbidden
in the party vocabulary. He is
against cola, bourgeoisie, bribery,
computers and does not like to enter
into matrimony.
But in the party, there are others
who are not so idealistic. For them,
politics is not for serving the public
but for their own interests. Karunan
is one of them and he protects
Kunjunni (Jagathy Sreekumar), an
NRI businessman, for opening a
leather factory in Chemmanur.
Karunan and Kunjunni promise
jobs for villagers in the factory and
offer money to the party. But
Mukundan overcomes all the enticement.
He emphasise that he will not
allow to open the factory in their village.
Because it will create environmental
hazards and industrial pollution.
The court order for closing the
factory was a setback for Karunan.
He smells the danger and
Mukundan’s presence in the village
becomes a hindrance to his growth.
When Society Gopalan was hospitalised
following a stroke, Karunan
planned a conspiracy against
Mukundan with the help of Kunjunni
and a co-operative bank manager.
They made some false documents
and showed them to Mukundan as a
proof of the money swindling his
father Gopalan is involved in. As a
disciplined branch secretary,
Mukundan expels his father from the
party. After the death of his father,
Mukundan takes up the responsibility
of clearing the huge amount of 20
lakh rupees and takes long leave
from the party.
Karunan, with the permission of
the party district committee, decides
to send Mukundan to Dubai, where
he can easily make money within a
short period. But Mukundan was not
ready for this as he prefers to go to
Cuba or China instead of Dubai.
Karunan persuades him. He says the
party is sending him to Dubai not
only for making money, but also to
study and report the problems faced
by Keralites in the gulf. They disappoint
Mukundan by saying that there
were not many Keralites in Cuba and
China.
Mukundan’s arrival in Dubai
starts a new chapter in his life. He
has big ideas for improving the
working condition of the expatriates.
He meets different kinds of people
living in miserable conditions for
various reasons — but nobody is
ready to listen him.
Mukundan meets a Chinese girl
Shu Min (Chang Shu Min) in a park
selling CDs. He cannot believe that
a girl from a great communist country
like China is selling CDs in
Dubai. He helps her come out of difficult
situations because she is from
his favourite place, China.
Mukundan does not possess the
qualifications or the experience for a
white collar job. He is not even
familiar with computers. How will
he repay 20 lakh rupees that his
father had not misappropriated?
Even if he makes money, will others
exploit his helping nature? What
happened in Chemmanur during the
absence of Mukundan? All these
questions are answered in the climax.
Sreenivasan has succeeded in satisfying
his regular audience in the
first half of the film with his distinctive
style. But in the post interval, he
strays from his ordinary films. His
character becomes serious and
reserved, as his role demands.
Sreenivasan is best as Cuba
Mukundan and gives a magnetic performance.
Chan Shu Min did her role
persuasively. Others in the cast like
Nedumudi Venu, Jagathy Sreekumar,
Indrajith, Samvrutha Sunil did justice
to their roles and give able support
to the film.
The casting for the movie is perfect.
Some gulf expatriates have been
hired to play different roles in the
film.
Arabikkatha goes deep into the
real life of expatriates and opens
one’s eyes to the surroundings. The
movie also hints that the communist
parties often change their ideals from
their commitments. Also, a few party
leader’s links with business tycoons
are exposed.
On the technical side, Manoj
Pillai’s camera work is brilliant. He
has captured unique scenes of Dubai
not shown in Malayalam films earlier.
Debutante music director Biji Bal
and lyrics of Anil Panachooran are
impressive. The songs suit the situation
perfectly.
Director Lal Jose and scenarist Dr
Iqbal Kuttippuram have succeeded
in making a film different from the
regular commercial fare.

Supreme Star Sarath Kumar

2007-08-07T17:19:00.001+04:00

FOCUS ON
SUCCESS
SARATH KUMAR IS MAKING HIS DEBUT IN THE MAMMOOTTY-STARRER MALAYALAM PERIOD FILM PAZHASSI RAJA AND KANIKA IS TRYING HER LUCK AFTER THE FLOP OF ENNITTUM, SAYS KK MOIDU

Superstar Sarath Kumar
plays an important role in
Pazhassi Raja as Edacheni
Kunkan, a best friend and
the commander-in-chief of
Pazhassi Raja played by
Mammootty. Kunkan is a symbol of
masculinity and to portray the role
needs good physique along with a
star image.
Suresh Gopi was the first choice
for Edacheni Kunkan but he refused
the offer. The reason for choosing
him for the role was becasue he did
well earlier in the role of Aromal
Chekavar in the MT Vasudevan
Nair-Hariharan-Mammootty team
epic film Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha.
Suresh Gopi refused the role of
Edacheni Kunkan because director
Lenin Rajendran has earlier planned
to make Pazhassi Raja with him in
the title role. But Suresh Gopi’s
career was on a lean patch at that
time and no producer’s were ready to
take a risk by making a big budget
film with Suresh Gopi.
Suresh Gopi regained his status in
the industry by making a strong
comeback in Bharath Chandran IPS.
Before his success, MT-Hariharan-
Mammootty team declared their new
project Pazhassi Raja.
But Lenin and Suresh Gopi is trying
to compensate their loss in
Pazhassi Raja by announcing a new
project Raja Ravi Varma. The difference
in the role is that instead of a
gun or sword in his hand, Suresh
Gopi will appear in the screen with a
painting brush. Earlier the duo had
created Kulam, which was noticed
for its artistic value.
The replacement of Suresh Gopi
by Sarath Kumar in Pazhassi Raja
became a blessing for the creator’s of
the film. Sarath Kumar is not only a
good actor but also has an athletic
body and everybody will like to
watch him in Kunkan’s role.
Pazhassi Raja is being made with
a big budget which the Malayalam
film industry cannot afford. Although
Mammootty is a favourite star for
Malayalees and he is popular in
Tamil Nadu, it will not be enough for
the success of the film. It has to run
in packed houses not only in Kerala
but also in Tamil Nadu. The valued
presence of Sarath Kumar will help
the film to attract more crowds in
neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
Ramanathan Sarathkumar was
born in New Delhi on July 14, 1954
in an affluent family as the son of late
M Ramanathan and Pushpaleela. His
native place is Thalakavur in
Sivaganga district near Karaikudi.
Sarathkumar completed his schooling
from New Delhi. He did his PUC
from Loyola College, Chennai and
passed BSc in Maths from New
College in Chennai.
In the long span of two-and-a-half
decades, he served the industry as a
actor, producer and distributor. He
has acted in more than 100 films and
did few Telugu films. Super hero
Sarathkumar has a good reputation
in the Tamil film industry and he is
the president of South Indian Film
Artistes Association. He also tried his
luck in politics and was a former
Rajyasabha MP of DMK from Tamil
Nadu.
Sarath Kumar started his film
career as a villain and did second
hero roles in many films in the beginning.
His career’s turning point came
after he played a heroic role in KS
Ravikumar’s super hit Cheran
Pandiyan.
After the success of the film, the
duo created many box office hits like
Naattamai. He became a leading
hero in Tamil film in the late 90’s. In
most of the films he appeared, he
played an honest cop where his duty
was to cleanse the corrupt system of
the society.
Sarath Kumar has delivered many
hit movies like Suriyan, Ayya,
Maayavi, Natpukkaaga, Naattamai,
Suryavamsam, Thenkasippattanam,
Vedan, Samudhiram etc. He directed
and played the lead role as a journalist
in his 100th film Thalaimakan
with leading lady Nayanthara. His
forthcoming Tamil film
Vaitheeswaran is directed by MK
Maheshwar and produced by
Annamali films.
Sarath Kumar won several
awards in his career like the
Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan Award
2000-2001, Best Actor Awards 1992,
1994, 1995, 1996 and 1998, MGR
Award in 1997 and won the best villain
award of 1990 for the film Pulan
Visaranai.
Being a super hero in Tamil films,
Sarath Kumar didn’t hesitate to
accept a Malayalam film where
Mammootty plays the lead role as
Pazhassi Raja. He believes Pazhassi
Raja will be magic on celluloid
because it is scripted by the doyen of
Malayalam literature MTVasudevan
Nair and directed by veteran
Hariharan. They were experts in reinterpreting
history and created
records by making heroes into villains
and vice versa in their earlier
films like Vadakkan Veeragadha.
The movie was a milestone in the
history of Malayalam cinema.
Mammootty played the lead in
Vadakkan Veeragatha and he fetched
the National Best Actor Award for
his portrayal of Chanthu.
MT, Hariharan and Mammootty
trio are back after 18 years with
Pazhassi Raja. Kerala Varma
Pazhassi Raja also known as the
“Lion of Kerala” of the Padinjare
Kovilakom of the Kottayam Royal
family was one of the first voices
raised against the British rule in
India. During the last decades of the
18th century, Pazhassi Raja irked the
British East India Company in
Malabar.
The 1857 Sepoy Mutiny is considered
as the first organised revolt
against British rule in India and it is
also known as India’s first struggle
for independence. But half a century
before the Sepoy Mutiny, Pazhassi
Raja achieved the title Veera (brave)
by encaging a guerrilla war against
the British occupation with the help
of tribes.
Pazhassi Raja opposed the British
colonialists for their unjustifiable
revenue policy of British East India
Company in Malabar. Raja stopped
revenue collections and threatened
to cut down all the pepper vines if the
company persisted with the revenue
collection.
The British made a futile attempt
to capture Pazhassi Raja in his palace
at Pazhassi in April 1796. Aproclamation
was issued to people — if
they support Raja their property will
be confiscated. Raja’s people strike
back in 1797 and started a daring
attack on the security personnel at
Pazhassi.
More than three days of the war,
Raja’s people used swords, spears,
bows, arrows and attacked the musket
armed British forces. The British
compelled to sign a temporary treaty.
When the British broke the conditions
of the treaty, Raja revolted
but the British had most of the South
under their control. Raja with his
wife and trusted attendants took
refugee in the jungles. In 1804, the
property of Raja was confiscated and
proclaimed a reward for the head of
Raja and in 1805, Raja was killed.
Kanika plays an important role as
the wife of Pazhassi Raja. She is
making her comeback after the miserable
flop of her debut Malayalam
film Ennittum directed by Ranjith
Lal.
Kanika was born in July 3, 1982
as Divya Venketasubramanian in
Chennai. She is the second daughter
to the engineer parents Mr and Mrs
Venkat Subramanian. She is known
as Kanika in Tamil and Malayalam
and Shravanthi in Telugu and
Kannada. She completed her schooling
from the reputed TVS Lakshmi
Matriculation Higher Secondary
School, Madurai.
Kanika is an engineering graduate
from the highly renowned BITS
Pilani and completed two films
before her graduation.
The film industry is an unusual
place for a BITS Pilani engineering
graduate, but she chose her career as
a full time artist and has acted in
Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada
movies. She also tried her luck in
playback singing, dubbing and
anchoring TV shows in her short
career.
Kanika has dubbed for Sada in
the superhit Anniyan and for Shriya
Saran in the latest Rajnikanth starrer
megahit Sivaji The Boss.
She has acted in one dozen films
in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and
Malayalam. Her movies were
notable as Five star was produced by
Mani Rathnam, Varalaru was directed
by KS Ravikumar and Autograph
was directed and produced by senior
actor Cheran.
Kanika was crowned Miss
Madurai in 1999 and was second
runner-up in Miss Chennai in 2001.
Director Susi Ganesan spotted her
and cast her in the lead role of his
dream film Five Star.
Kanika knew her priorities and
raised the eyebrow’s of people by
rejecting offers from veteran directors
like Shankar, Cheran etc to continue
her studies. During her vacation
she made her debut in the Telugu
film Ottessi Chepputunna.
After her graduation she made her
debut in the Kannada film Annavaru,
a remake of the Tamil film
Thalapathi. She also played a small
role in Autograph and won critical
acclaim.
Kanika also played the heroine
role in Dancer opposite Kutty. No
other heroines were not ready to play
the heroine of the one-leg wonder
Kutty; she not only accepted the
offer but also did a neat job. She
played the heroine role in the
Kannada film Sye, a remake of the
Tamil film Dhill.
Kanika’s second appearance in
Malayalam is with a success guaranteed
project and it will give a boost
to her Malayalam career.
Linda Arsenio of Kabul Express
fame plays a British woman in the
film and Padmapriya appears as a
tribal for the first time in her career.
Other artistes of the films are
Thilakan, Nedumudi Venu, Jagathi
Sreekumar, Captain Raju, Lalu Alex,
Manoj K Jayan, Biju Menon,
Kalabhavan Mani, Suresh Krishna,
Subair, Siddique, Roshan,
Manikuttan, Urmila Unni, Valsala
Menon and Nikhila.
Music maestro Ilayaraja pens the
lyrics of ONV Kurup and Venu handles
the cinematography.
Pazhassi Raja is being shot with
a Pan Vision camera and exploits the
latest technical achievements is the
most expensive Malayalam film. It
is produced by Gokulam Gopalan.
The creators also promise that their
film Pazhassi Raja will be different
from the 1964 movie of the valiant
king Pazhassi Raja directed by
Kunjacko.