Festival Attractions

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.