Mohanlal's son ready for debut in Malayalam

Mohanlal (Via Wikimedia Commons)

Mohanlal will soon launch his son, Pranav, in a likely bilingual film. Although it hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, but it looks as if Mani Rathnam is likely to direct it. Jayaram too is getting ready to launch his son, Kalidas Jayaram as a grown up star. Kalidas has already won the national award as a child artiste.

Even before he makes his debut, there is already lot of pressure on Pranav. Mammootty’s son, Dulquar Salman, has already made a successful debut and is now one of the most recognized newcomers in Malayalam. Pranav will be expected to take the legendary Mollywood rivalry to Generation 2.

Mohanlal’s choice of director for his son’s debut film is slightly worrisome.

Gautham Karthik (Via Wikimedia Commons)

Two of the actors that Mani had launched in his films – Madhavan and Arvindswamy – were very aesthetically presented on the screen and they went on to have very successful careers (Arindswamy quit the industry to concentrate on his business and Madhavan is super-selective). The problem is – it has been a while since the director has had a big hit at the box office.

Gautham Karthik was a miracle of sorts – his debut movie, 'Kadal' (ocean), directed by Mani Ratnam, crashed big time, but he survived (there were rumors that an intense blame-game started between the director and the film’s story writer and that both have sworn to not work with each other again).

It’s not clear if Mohanlal has other directors in mind.

Prithviraj's dangerous experiment, as homosexual cop

Someone had massively misled Prithviraj or maybe he was not quite aware of the probable consequences of signing up for a film like ‘Mumbai Police’. The film was released in May this year and since it has been nearly 5 months now, I wouldn’t be destroying the film’s box office potential by talking about its ‘WTF-was-that!’ climax.

The film is well-narrated. Rosshan Andrews is the director. 

ACP Antony Moses aka Rascal Moses (Prithviraj) gets into an accident and loses his memory just when he is about to conclude the investigations into the murder of his buddy, Assistant Commissioner Aaryan John Jacob (Jayasurya), who was shot dead by a sniper during a gallantry awards ceremony at police/parade grounds. Antony’s senior officer, Farhan Ashraf (Rahman), Commissioner of police, also happens to be his brother-in-law. It was while talking to him over the phone that Antony gets into the accident. Farhan tells him not to reveal his temporary memory loss to others and continue reinvestigating the case without raising suspicion.

Antony’s colleagues and subordinates notice a dramatic change in his attitude- gone are his arrogance and alcoholism.

The stunning revelation that he is gay comes when his male partner, an effeminate pilot (or was he a flight purser – not sure), tries to seduce him. It turns out that Aaryan John Jacob had stumbled upon this truth and threatens to divulge it to seniors and end their friendship. A panicked Antony makes an elaborate plan and gets Jacob killed with a pre-programed sniper rifle.   

Prithviraj is one actor, who, in spite of all the years that he had spent in Malayalam films, has equal number of friends and detractors. While friends might not be of much help in the film industries, detractors baying for blood would pounce at the slightest opportunity. Playing, pretty convincingly, the role of an arrogant, homosexual police officer will get him lot of fans in a particular segment, but it is not clear how this is going to help him with his mainstream career. The film borders upon 'heterophobia' - there are actresses in the movie, but no heroine as such. 

Mallu film industry and fans alike are very good at remembering such ‘creative endeavors'.

‘Varuthapaadaatha Valibar Sangam’ entertains

It’s been a while since I wrote anything on this blog. A lot of things have happened in the meantime. Microsoft bought Nokia at literally throwaway prices. And, I discovered that kind-hearted good Samaritans host all the latest Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi movies on Youtube.

Happened to see three recent released – ‘Varuthapadaatha Valibar Sangam’, starring Sivakarthikeyan, Soori and Sri Divya, ‘Ya Ya’, starring Siva, Santhanam, Sandhya and Dhanshika, and ‘Raja Rani’, starring Arya and Nayantara.

 

‘Varuthapaadaatha Valibar Sangam’ (VVS)

Director: Ponram

Dialogues: M. Rajesh (dialogues)

Cast: Sivakarthikeyan, Sathyaraj, Sri Divya, Soori and others

Music: D. Imman

The film kind of grows on you.

This one is a stylishly shot adorable village-based film. Sivakarthikeyan is Bosepandi, President of Silukuvarpatti’s Varuthapaadaatha Valibar Sangam. Sathyaraj is Sivanandi, the man the entire village is afraid of. Reputation and family honor is more important to him than anything else in the world. Worried that his daughter might fall in love with someone, he arranges for her wedding when she is in her Class XI.

Bosepandi has a mighty crush on a school teacher and passes the love letters through Lathapandi. When he sees posters of the under-aged Lathapandi’s impending marriage, he intervenes and prevents it. She continues going to school; the teacher gets married to someone else, a heartbroken Bosepandi falls in love with Lathapandi after she completes her Class XII.

Do they get married or are the rumors that Sivanandi shot them dead, true?

Sathyaraj is a revelation in his role as Sivanandi. It’s a delight to watch him.

The songs are nice, so is the background music that one hears whenever Lathapandi-Bosepandi interactions occur. I’m a particularly big fan of the ‘Sivanandeee…’ bit.

Humor is extremely enjoyable. There is nothing forced about it. The dialogues are very much enjoyable. This is the kind of film you’d want to watch over and over again. And, each time you will discover something new to enjoy.

Then, there is ‘Ya…Ya’. Just because you have managed to sign up Santhanam, doesn’t mean you can ignore other formalities like story, coherent screenplay or the little thing called logic.

And, why the blatant insult to Ramarajan? A long time ago, he was a box office hit. Agreed, his costumes were not exactly Italian designer kind, but his films usually had a good story, great music and they did well at the box office.  One can’t say the same about ‘Ya..Ya…’ Ramarajan should probably sue the filmmaker for the extreme slander.  

Third on the list is ‘Raja Rani’. There are stylish films and then there are films that try hard to be stylish. RR belongs to the second category. Nayantara is my favorite actress. Arya doesn’t seem to have anything much to do other than smirk and shrug.

The second heroine, Nazriya Nazim, goes overboard with her facial circus. After a while it looks very phony.

Jai’s role is entertaining, but why exactly does he leave Nayantara standing outside the registrar office and run away to America?

some very important things have not been explained - why does Nayantara hate Arya so much? Why does she bear no grudges against her lover who stood her up outside the registrar office? Why are Christians synonymous with beer and drinking in Indian films?

There's Sathyaraj in this film too, but this one doesn't endear him like 'VVS' does.

Entertaining, but not the kind of film that deserves a second viewing.

‘Kadal’ debacle: Lucky Samantha!

Samantha Ruth Prabhu (Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

In Tamil cinema, film stars used to suffer a bizarre disease that defied explanation : whenever Mani Ratnam announced a new film, all the actors and actresses used get all excited and worked up about picking up a role in it.

This also used to happen each time Rajnikanth announced a film, but at least that hype was usually justified because soon after the film’s box office run, the heroines invariably become the highest paid ones and the villains too are flooded with offers. There were only a few who didn’t capitalize on the Rajni magic.

But Mani Ratnam’s case was a different one. The fuss about starring in a Mani film didn’t always translate into post-release offers.  But the hype had worsened after he began foraying into Bollywood.

Well, when he initially announced ‘Kadal’, he had picked Samantha as the heroine opposite Goutham Karthik. Rumours say that the heroine was replaced because she looked older than Goutham. Of course, the official reason was very different. Some said that Samantha also had earned the dubious distinction of being the first heroine to be replaced in a Mani Ratnam film.

Frankly, I’m not such a big fan of Samantha. She looked easy on the eye in ‘Dookudu’, but in the entire film, not a trace of emotion whizzed by her face. But you don’t expect a Saroja Devi or Soukar Janaki kind of heavy duty performance in such films.

Anyway, with all its subtle but steady hype, the film made its way to the theatres. Goutham looked good. Arvind Swamy looked good and acted well. Arjun was the surprise package. In all Mani Ratnam films, the male actors usually look very good. So, this film was no exception either. Cinematography was excellent too. If you could look the story in isolation, it was actually a good one.

But, the heroine was a major disappointment. Music (songs as well as BGM) was intolerable. And, when the positive attributes, namely excellent male actors, good cinematography and interesting story, were brought in, they simply failed to gel with each other.

Had Samantha starred in it, her career would have suffered a traumatic blow and she would have probably been branded as South Indian cinema’s first ‘onscreen cougar’ – in her first big hit, she was seen romancing someone younger than her; in this film she would have been seen romancing someone who looked much younger than her…

The actress is probably thanking her stars now!

‘Vishwaroopam 2’ confusions begin

Rahul Bose (Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

In the last few scenes of ‘Vishwaroopam’, Kamal Haasan and his wife, after rescuing the US of America with a pressure cooker, discuss the unsettled score with the villain (Umar, the leader), the terrorist with a very twisted face and an artificial eyeball.

In an interview with the popular Tamil weekly, Kunkumam, Rahul Bose, the actor who played the said villain role, says that he isn’t quite sure if he was going to reprise his role in the sequel. He was quoted as saying that he hasn’t spoken to Kamal Haasan in over six months and isn’t sure if he was going to star in ‘Vishwaroopam 2’.

On the contrary, there were some rumours a while ago that Kamal Haasan had already filmed the sequel and that was one of the reasons for the delay in releasing ‘Vishwaroopam’.