VERUTHE ORU BARYA...

Even though the television channels and websites are giving heavy publicity to the film, Pyramid Saimira -the distributors of Jayaram starrer 'Veruthe Oru Bharya', has decided to shift the release of the movie to the mid of July.
This shift is primarily due to some technical reasons, involving the dubbing of Jayaram. That will also mean that the movie will have to fight it out with the two big super star films 'Madambi' and 'Parunthu' and with Kamal's 'Minnaminnikootam', to make it big at the Box office.
'Veruthe Oru Bharya' has already become the Jayaram starrer which bagged the maximum prepublicity before its release. The song 'Manjil Kulikkum' with Jayaram mimicking all the stars, has invited a fresh interest on the proceedings and many expects the movie to do wonders in the career of the star, who already have two big flops, this year.
The movie's release will now also coincide with the marriage of its lead lady, Gopika, which will also happen by the mid of July.

Mohanlals kurukshetra begins

Mohanlal, as usual, seems to have another busy schedule all this year with a dozen of movie scripts waiting for him to get realized into good cinema. The most versatile actor of India is presently at Kashi shooting for the movie 'Swapnamalika' which is also based on a story written by the superstar.

Israeli actress Ileana appears in the female lead of this movie which is directed by K B Devarajan.

‘Mizhikal Sakshy' will be the Lal movie that is going to grace the theatres by the 20th of this month.

Exactly after three weeks from this film Mohanlal will have a big release in 'Maadambi', which is expected to become the first super hit of the star in 2008. For this Onam, Lal will strive hard to bring to theatres, his movie with Major Ravi 'Kurukshetra' (Kargil).

Lal will join the sets of this movie to be shot at the original locations, in a few days. And by the end of August, he will start shooting for his first movie with talented director Roshan Andrews titled 'Casanova'.

Apart from these movies, many more Lal projects are in pipeline with non confirmed dates about when to start their shooting. The list includes 'Alexander The Great' by Murali Nagavalli, 'Bheeshmar' by Lohithadas, 'Cousins' by Lal Jose, 'Cheguerra' by Joshy - A K Sajan, 'Hello’ ‘Mayavi' by Shafi- Rafi Mecartin team, and the movies by M Padmakuma, Priyadarshan, Amal Neerad, Shaji Kailas, Kamal and B Sreekantan.

Twenty -Twenty Breaks Records!!!

Twenty Twenty, bringing together almost all the stars in Mollywood, is set to break another record if reports are to be believed. And that's not just for the star cast.
Twenty Twenty, produced by Dileep for AMMA (the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists), is directed by Joshi and is based on script by Sibi K. Thomas and Udayakrishna.

By bringing in Rs. 1.25 crores through satellite rights sales, Twenty Twenty has broken the record of Annan Thampi, which had bagged a satellite rights sale of Rs 1.10 crores. So now, all that we have got to do is to wait till August for the film to be released, to see if it creates records at the box office as well. Let's hope it does!

Innathe Chintha Vishayam’ is a film with a serious subject and worth a watch. Especially if you are interested in the likes of tearjerker soaps dealing with marital discords. ‘Old wine in a new bottle' may not be the apt adage to describe the film. The plot is not daringly unconventional but it’s packaged refreshingly with multiple dozes of strained relations.



Nine out of ten television soaps have marital discord as its plot. Nine out of ten television soaps have women as their privileged viewers. And this film, meeting the both elements, belongs to that genre. Sathyan is using the tried and tested formula to create movie- soap made for the fair sex, who gives the best support to all his endeavors in the box office. This is one of the films that were made keeping in mind of its strict target audience and marketing strategies. And so it may never fail to bring in applause, at least from some corners.

In fact, the movie superficially sums up many a jilted plight of individuals when they are desperately trying to pick up the pieces after an unequal relationship, where partners are separated on silly issues but is still in need. Trying to dwell on the present scenario and comment on the societal mores of today, the movie finds it hard to effectively convey a precise message about 'understanding' in the place of 'adjustments'.

The movie opens with the voice over of the director who presents three different couples in the verge of disseverance. Dr .Murali Krishanan (Mukesh), the most successful dentist in the city is more interested in having female associations, more than often. He hides them from his wife Teresa (Sukanya), even by assigning male names for them in his mobile. One fine day he is in a tight corner with his wife raiding his mobile contacts, and for evading the conflicts associated, he walks out of her life even leaving his daughter Lakshmi.



The second family, Pithambaran (Vijayaraghavan) and his wife Premila (Mohini) with their lovely children Malavika and Madhavan are leading a good life. But due to increased possessiveness for his wife, Pithambaran returns home from gulf throwing away his good job, and starts escorting his wife all along. He even develops inferiority complex which further complicates things for Premila, ultimately resulting in continuous fights and separation.

And in the third family, Rehna (Muthumani) is not able to continue with her lawyer profession due to the orthodox attitude of her husband and his family. She too walks out of his life, and starts working independently

Into the lives of these three ladies who starts living separately arrives, G K alias Gopakumar, a garment exporter. He has bought the house where Teresa is staying away from her husband Muralikrishnan. Now left in a difficult situation which does not allow G K, to throw out Teresa and her daughter, to establish his office, Gopakumar is trying newer ways to get the couple together. And in the process he meets the other similar ladies who happen to be friends of Teresa. The film follows how G K with his fashion designer Kamala and land Broker Immanuel, succeeds in getting the feuding couples back to lives of reunion.

Mohanlal as G K don't have anything exceptional and is repeating the Good Samaritan act for the umpteenth time, but still it is a pleasure watching him in a role that seldom goes larger than life. There may seem to be some exaggeration in the portrayal of the idealist Gopakumar, but Lal is effortless in presenting the character convincing, with least obvious loopholes. The director who is also credited with writing the script integrates many topical issues in the story, but this time he is consciously making them the centre of our attention in every now and then sequences. The idealistic lines goes up to the level of preaching in the later half, which partially destroys the charm of narratives.



And then there is Meera Jasmine as Kamala with a precious little to do. She says her lines, flutters those eyelashes and looks ravishing. Her repeat act of ‘Rasathanthram’ and ‘Vinodhayathra’ as a girl with a sad past are not inspiring as the original. In terms of chemistry, none of the couples from Mukesh, - Sukanya, Vijayaraghavan - Mohini and Ashokam - Muthmani share any vibes. But all have taken care to do a competent job to display them with no visible warmth.

At times, you do feel the film, almost two and a half hours long, is bit stretched and that it loses pace in the second half after a rollicking first part. In fact is one of those films, that aren’t as much about the happy finale, as it is about the insightful journey about relationships, which is at times, hilarious. And definitely the director falters in getting it around for a more logical climax, which seems forced and infantile with every weak male counterparts mercifully turning up to realize what they have been in their life -chauvinists, freaks and psychos.

Azhakappan has once again excelled behind the camera, with his limited resources capturing the mood of the movie. Ilayaraja gives a couple of hummable tunes that seems to be the recycled versions of his earlier hits in Malayalam. Sai Babu in the costumes and Santhosh Raman in art department had definitely added colors to the proceedings.

Despite its many minuses, ‘Innathe Chintha Vishayam’ is still endurable on account of the subtle smiles that it generates and the running time of just 145 minutes. It is not a bad film to watch at least once, especially because it tries to discuss one of the grave issues that our society faces, and reiterates some of the eroded values and ideals that is presented without too much glorification.

De Ingottu Nokkiye - An apology for a satire

De Ingottu Nokkiye - An apology for a satire
In Mollywood, Vishu films normally have their share of highlights, mostly being the time of well made flicks.

After watching one of this year’s entries 'De, Ingottu Nokkiye', I wonder what this dreary and misguided film is doing in the little crowded filmi market, when every one was waiting eagerly for the comeback movie of Balachandra Menon as the director.

Menon had failed miserably, this time attempting to create a romantic farce, a black comedy or a morality tale. The attempt for a funny satirical film just turned out into a night mare reminding its surprising catch line about 'an idiotic film’, made with the least intelligence. From a versatile performer of several parts, a national award-winning actor, a director, a scenarist, a lyricist, a music-composer and even a singer who proved many times before, this is an unpardonable act. You can very well stay away from this poor excuse for a film, without much regret.

As said, it's little away from being horrible. You can watch the film without being submissive, and tolerantly try to figure out where it is going wrong and ascertain how the real joke might have sounded if worked well. The plot is all about an youth, Vettikkadu Sivan, who is all set to teach his uncle and Chief Minister of the state, Vettikkadu Sadasivan, a lesson by importing his occasionally moronic twin brother who is a banana vendor at Gujarat and placing the look alike as the puppet C M of the state. To accomplish this, Sivan kidnaps the original C M with the help of his friends and presents the second man in power, closely guarding and assisting the puppet CM, who is here only to find his long missed sweet heart, Ammu.

This plot though seemingly linear and promising, is dealt in the wildest stage bound way without clarity and doesn't make plausible points in its exaggeratedly loud cynical outbursts. The ludicrous screenplay hallmarked with inconsistencies and irregularities could be the worst from the director who had been an icon in the eighties. And as a director too, Menon with his disjointed treatment fails to stand up to the need of the hour, drawing bizarre pictures of tad superficial thoughts. He seems to have a got a lot of points of social criticisms to make in every alternative scenes, but fail to draw in skillful sequences to air them. Not surprisingly the plenty of one-liners have an off-the cut, improvised feel. Interesting observations can be found as the film skims its roster of issues: the numbing effects of voting, the problems with political anarchism and increased alcoholism in the state.

As far as performances are concerned, Jagathy Sreekumar in dual roles desperately tries to deliver something different with limited success while Jaysuriya is in his usual self. The new girl Sarah seems pretty and promising. Salimkumar, Nedumudi Venu and Co is wasted in roles that demand nothing of their caliber. The cinematography by Jibu Jacob is average, while Bhoominthan in editing couldn't do any thing to lessen the distortions and the total mess up. M Jayachandran's songs and Sanjeev Lal's background scores adds cacophony to this failed project.

The result can be summed up as a satire without sting, which is the same as no satire at all. If you have more choices, don’t waste your time on this one.