CHOCOLATE - An Instant Super Hit - kudos to Shafi

The Prithviraj - Jayasuriya starrer 'Chocolate' has emerged as the dark horse among the Ramzan releases.

The film which opened last Friday in 39 theatres was declared an instant hit, as the growing mouth publicity will ensure the a safe run of the film for another couple of months.

The film has gathered more than one crores from the first three days. Completed in a moderate budget of around two crores, the film is likely to break even by a three week run.

Prithviraj, who didn't have a hit although 2007 will also be relieved with the film's run. Shafi who delivered a big hit in the earlier months of the year with 'Mayavi' is celebrating with his successive second hit of the year.

Salimkumar and Roma have contributed equally to the success of this film which is sure to gather more momentum in the coming weeks.

Nasrani - Movie Review

Watching ‘Nasraani’, it was pretty easy to find that the movie could never hit the wall. Its outcome looked not so bleak considering that this Mammootty fare has more sequences for his fans to stand up and cheer than his recent three movies. Executed by ace director Joshy on the scripts of another director Renjith, whose track record of creating hits still remains not much modest. The film opened with best of the initials that was fetched by any Malayalam movie this year. But, cued in the conventional current mode, the film is a flattering tribute to ‘action less’ action movies which borrows the essential structure of the recent so called stuffs even while raising its own propaganda against the family rule in politics, that is a regular word in the current scenario.

'Nasraani' is fast paced, slickly made ride in the first half where the script is consistently snappy. It has a little of resourceful plotting and some deft dialogue touches, best seen during Mammootty's discourse running all through the movie. The film plays out as a well funded Movie, complete with over the top performances but toward the later half, like all the recent Joshy movies, this too loses its steam.

In the movie, Mammootty is David John Kottarathil, a rich unrestrained planter, known popularly by the fancy name D K. He spends most of his time boozing in the company of his friends in the Cosmo Club, in which he is the care taker and the secretary. He has got a little of tragic stories behind him as his father John accidentally kills Eappachayan, the father of his lady love and is on jail for life. This episode on their engagement day forced D K to stay back from marrying Sara Eapen, a college lecturer, even after 10 years from the incident.

David always roam around enjoying life, even in helicopters, with his driver Sukumaran (Kalabhavan Mani) and is always their to solve the problems of the club. In the film he has even a whopping introduction scene, which has him landing his helicopter in Sara's college campus and festinating her away to a lone mountain top to celebrate 10 years of living apart.

All is going not so bad for D K, till Annie (Mukta) a medical student and Sara's half sister who is taken cared by David, is accused by the police for committing the murder of Benny, an upcoming politician and the son of political king and former Revenue Minister M C Paul (Vijayraghavan) . With supportive evidences and witnesses, Police is all the way around to seize the girl who is said to have taken revenge and killed the future prospects of Malankara Congress, for having ditched one of her best friend who committed suicide following Benny's rejection!

Benny's untimely death has created upsets to the carefully laid plans of M C Paul to project his son to the top by making him an M L A in the Kadathuruthy by-election. Paul, who is other wise a family friend of David, now turns against him, as David is now in the mission to save Annie from the related problems. Aided by the villainous son Xavichan (Biju Menon) and top officials of the police, Paul is all set to make David's life a mess. The only way out for D K is now to find out and bring in the original culprits before the public and the law. And in the way, he is also to expose the family leadership pattern that is inherent in many parties including Malankara Congress and the police- politician nexus that is threatening the state.

The biggest minus of the film is the screenplay which rarely packs the punch line sequences that are the back borne to these kinds of films. The movie is essentially for the fans and general audience may not relish too much as the story point scores less. The first half of the film is alright but with innumerable sequences which moves past with every characters in the frame holding liquor glasses, works out like a video campaign for the associated labels. The second half slows down a bit. Joshy struggles hard to hold the film together, even though neither material nor execution makes his task enviable. The later half and the climax is the biggest yawn with, implausible melo- dramatic series of twists and turns that continues for long. The rather preachy final mishmash is neither realistic nor stylish.

The movie does have its moments - It works on its own terms, as a colorful adventure whose clichés and silliness will be acceptable to regular viewers because they're typical of the genre. Ranjit and Joshy repeats their stereotyped protagonist of a macho man, ever powerful even to make the CM behave as per their schedules. Mammootty as D K pass over the role with little effort which have him presenting casual comedies, soft romance and punch lines with equal consummate skills. Vimala as Sara also manages to infuse her cool dude character with some charisma when the meandering screenplay allows her to do so. The production values are really excellent. The abundant number of artists and innumerable extras who appear in every alternate scene give a big feel to the movie, evenly supported in camera by Shaji and in sets and art by Joseph Nellikkal-both Joshy regulars. The film also has two passable songs by Anil Panachooran-Biji Bal team.

Director Joshy does a polished, workmanlike job, assembling a package attractive in its visual elements rather than its content. Any way the film proves once again the crowd pulling abilities of the mega star. And ultimately it was the thing that was essentially expected from the flick. So, to watch Mammootty and nothing much more, just have a try.

DASAVATHARAM- Release shifted to Pongal

Dasavatharam to release only for Pongal. The news has come a shock for several thousand Kamal Haasan fans who were waiting to see their favorite hero in ten different roles this Deepavali.


Kamal Haasan had stated that the film would only hit theatres only for Pongal.


It is said utmost care is being taken in post production works, which is the reason behind the delay.


Speaking after presenting the coveted JC Daniel award of Kerala government to noted Malayalam cinematographer Magada Ravi Varma, Kamal said that shooting of the film was completed.


‘Final touches are being given to Dasavatharam. The film will be released on Pongal,' he said.


Produced by Oscar V Ravichandran and directed by KS Ravikumar, Dasavatharam has Kamal in 10 different roles. Asin and Mallika Sherawat are acting in pivotal roles.

Kangaaroo ready to jump!!!!

The shoot for the film titled 'Kangaroo' will start in a week's time. Prithviraj is an auto driver (Jose Kutty) who takes care of a baby which he found on the street.


Just like a Kangaroo he carries the child everywhere with him and gives it every comfort. Jose Kutty is also almost an orphan like this child, who was born in a big family, but had to lead an ordinary life.


The film which is produced by Isabella Movie Tone is directed by Raj Babu. The film have a big cast including Jayasuriya, Kavya Madhavan, Jagathy, Salim Kumar, Bindhu Panikkar, Suraj, Sijukuttan, Lalu Alex and Sukumari.


The film which is distributed by Lal Release may reach the theatres as a Christmas film.

Mohanlal - Sathyan Anthikkad film for next Vishu

When Lal united with his favorite director Sathyan Anthikkad for last year's Rasathanthram, it resulted in becoming the biggest hit of the director.

The film which ran for more than hundred days collected around 15 crores from the box office.

And when the news arrives about the next project in which both the master talents unite once again, film goers will naturally expect another big hit, which tells the story of ordinary men.

According to the latest schedules Mohanlal will start acting in Sathyan Anthikkad's new project from the mid of January.

The scripts of the film which is planned for next Vishu, is in its last stages of completion. The film will feature Meera Jasmine-another Sathyan regular in the female lead.

Sathyan has been repeating her fourth time in a row, the previous three like Achuvinte Amma, Rasathanthram and Vinodhayathra becoming big hits.

The other cast and crew of the film are being finalized. And as usual this time too, Sathyan will give a title to the film only when the shoots are complete.

KPAC Lalitha won the Premji Award

K P A C Lalitha will recieve the much coveted Premji award for the year. This announcement was made by the award committee members yesterday.

The actress will be presented with the award in a function that is to be held by the end of this month.

K P A C Lalitha, one of the senior most actress of Malayalam cinema had appeared in more than 500 films in a career span of 35 years.

Equally popular as the wife of late director Bharathan, and the mother of actor -director Siddharthan, she is still busy with plenty of offers from the film field.

Release Date Not Fixed for Kalkatha News

Even though the shooting of the film 'Calcutta News' is progressing in a fast pace, with an intent to release for this Deepavali, Blessy is still not sure about the release of the film.


‘We are planning to complete the shoots by the second week of October. But the film has got a good amount of graphic works. Quite different from my earlier movies, this film also have a few action sequences, so I am not able to figure out a date for the release of the film, at this point of time’, says the director.


The film which started its shooting by the first week of July faced a lot of adversities during its shooting. The movie produced by Thampy Antony is now heading to become one film which is getting completed in the highest number of shoot days.

Kalkatha News - Preview

After making critically acclaimed films like Kazhcha, Tanmatra and Palunku Blessy - the path breaking director is now back with 'Kolkata News'.He is doing his first film with Dileep, Meera Jasmine, Indrajith and Vimala Raman.

It was Blessy, who introduced Meera, one of his neighbor in Tiruvalla to Lohithadas for Sutradharan, and it will be another treat to watch these national award holders, working for a film. More over Blessy is for the first time moving out of his favorite south Travancore locations to the East of India, to shoot a different mystery filled romantic story in Calcutta, much different from his earlier ones which dealt with middle men and farmers in Kerala. This is the first Malayalam film to be fully shot here, even though a few scenes of G Aravindan' s Vasthuhara, Shyamaprasad's akale , Kamal's Mazhayathum Munpe, and T V Chandran's Kadhavasheshan were also shot here .And with all new cast with the blessed Blessy, expectations are ever time high for this film, which is taking more than normal shoot days to complete ,due to a multitude of reasons, ranging from floods in Kolkata to the clash of dates of its stars .

The plot of the film is set across the eastern metropolis, Kolkotta. Here Dileep is playing the role of a television reporter Ajith Thomas, who is working for the channel Kolkata News. Dileep has a smashing new look in the film with stylish spectacles, hair falling on the forehead and is clad in smart casuals, playing the savvy reporter.A Malayali by birth, his family has been based in Calcutta for long, as his parents had also worked here years before. Now he stays with his mother and his brothers. One day while investigating a story, Ajith comes across Krishnapriya's (Meera Jasmine) pictures while going through some unused footage. She is a woman who lost her husband in mysterious circumstances, a few weeks after her marriage. Krishna priya, who had come to the city with her husband, Hari (Indrajith), is now left all alone and is searching or her husband with her limited resources. Days after Ajith meet Krishnapriya, accidentally, and find out that she was a school dropout, who was forced into marriage at a tender age and sent to Calcutta. Seeing the grief of the lady, Ajith takes the cause as his own and starts to search for Hari with his wide media contacts. But he only realized later that slowly, he is falling in love with the true- blue, desolate women. The film is based on the happenings in one year in the life of the television journalist

Calcutta News have noted cinematographer S Kumar, who cranks the camera for the first time in a Blessy film .Shot quite extensively in Kolkata, the splendor of old Calcutta and its mood has been etched in the film in a beautiful way. The locations included some of the huge bungalows, which were used for shooting in such films as Raincoat and Choker Bali.

Blessy who is a big fan of the music legend Salil Chowdhary, who has worked in 28 Malayalam films in the earlier seventies creating 112 hit songs as music director ,has taken his former assistant Deb Jyothi to provide music for the film. Deb has been the music director of films like Raincoat and Choker Baali. The others in the film are Vimala Raman, Innocent, Maanasa, Bindu Panikkar Krishnamurti, Unni Shivapal, Tom Jacob, Oninthoi, Deepan Chatterji and host of Bengali actors.

Produced by Thampy Antony in the banner of Kaayal films, the film is distributed by Century Pictures. The film is now planned to grace the theatres as a Deepavali release.

Shankar with Next Film ROBOT starring ShahRukh Khan

After a blockbuster hit in 'Sivaji', director Shankar is now gearing up for his next venture 'Robot'. Since the director is wielding megaphone for Sharukh Khan for the first time, he is taking extra care in each every aspect of the film.


Sources say that Shankar and his team are currently holding discussions in a farm house near Mahabalipuram to give final touches to the script.


Plans are on to commence the movie this Dusshera. Robot will be produced by Red Chilies Entertainment, a production house of the King Khan himself. The movie with all its techno jazz will be released in Tamil, Telugu and other languages besides Hindi.

ROMEO - Dileep Rajasenan RafiMecartin film from October 15

Dileep will join the sets of his new film 'Romeo' by the third week of this month. The project which is planned to be on floors by the 15th of this month will have the scripts by the super hit director duo Rafi Mecartine.


Directed by Rajasenan, the film will have two heroines, Samvrutha Sunil and Vimala .The film portrays the story of a youth who falls attracted in between two popular female singers


Dileep is now in the sets of ‘Kolkata News’ where director Blessy is giving the final touch ups to this Deepavali release.

Ramzan Films Line

With hardly a week to go for the Ramzan festival, around five films are getting ready to make it into the race for the winner. After a dry month where, hardly any Malayalam films got into theatres, more centers were engaged with Tamil and dubbed films.


The first to go into the race is another dubbed film; ‘Hero’ starring Allu Arjuna. The film directed by Puri Jagannath is releasing today at 35 centers.

The major releases in Malayalam will appear next week with Paradesi starrring Mohanlal expected to arrive on 12th of October. The film directed by P T Kunju Muhammed is expected to get released in 40 theatres.


Then on the same day will see the release of films like Mammootty’s Nasraani directed by Joshy, Shafi's 'Chocolate' with Prithviraaj, Jayasuriya and Roma. Nasrani is likely to release in 55 centers in the state on Friday scheduled to open at 2 pm, all over Kerala, with no morning or noon show on the opening day. Suresh Gopi will have the long delayed 'Black Cat’ directed by Vinayan, released on the same day.


Apart from these films, debutante G R Indopan's ‘Ottakkaayyan’ will also find select theatres on the same day. With a lot of well made films scheduled for Ramzan viewers can very well expect a better season than the driest Onam that they had just now.