Pakal Pooram

The director duo Anil-Babu known for their comedy films is now directing Pakal Pooram a horror film. Produced by Santhosh Damodaran under the banner of Damor Films. The story is set in the Suryamangalam ‘mana’ an ancient Brahminical house. Once upon a time Brahmadattan Namboothiripad a famous astrologer, magician and faith healer used to live there. The local temple was closed for sometime due to nocturnal activities of a female ghost. Brahmadattan, through his magical power is able to find a solution to this by chaining the ghost. The namboothiri has two wives, one a Brahmin and the other a lower caste weaver. The two women who deliver at the same time accidentally have their babies exchanged. The Brahmin son Gowridasan (Mukesh) who is treated as a low caste becomes a temple pujari, while the son born out of the lower caste woman Manickan (Salim Kumar) becomes a no good loafer and a drunkard. One day Manickan gets into the temple to steal where the ghost was chained and sets it free. This leads to chaos and confusion and how Gowridasan tries to solve the problem forms the rest of the story. The others in the cast are Geetu Mohandas, Kalpana. The film has music by Raveendran.

Phantom Pailey

Mammotty’s action packed new film is Phantom Pailey in which he plays a stuntman who acts as a dupe of established Bollywood stars. Pailey (Mammootty) has come from Irutupetta, a small village in rural Kerala to Mumbai and made a name for him. He had come originally to Mumbai with the hope of making it big in Bollywood as an actor. But after many failed attempts, he becomes a stuntman who becomes the dupe for big stars. Due to his dare devil stunts he gets the name Phantom Pailey! But one day while shooting a helicopter fight scene, he falls down and gets injured. Pailey understands that once a stuntman gets injured, his career ends, but he is made of different stuff. He decides to take a break and then come back to Mumbai. So he goes to a backward rural village of Kerala-Tamilnadu border, called Pallikara where his younger brother Josekutty, is an officer at the local dam. But Pailey’s real ambition is to rejuvenate himself and get his wound healed and then go back to Mumbai. Soon after his arrival an earthquake and landslide happens in the village and he gets involved in a fight between the locals and outsiders. Malavika is the heroine of the film which has also Innocent, Jagathy, Nedumudi Venu and Cochin Haneefa. Biju Varkey directs the film. The highlight of the film is the music of Deva. The film is due for release on April 14.

Nandanam

When big budget director Ranjit of Ravana Prabhu fame found that he could not make another film with Mohanlal, in the near future, he decided to make a small film. Actor-producer Siddique promised to back the project, and the result is Nandanam.Ranjit went a step ahead when he decided to launch a new hero in the film, and thus late actor Sukumaran’s son Pritviraj makes his debut. The story is set in a big Nair ‘Tharavadu’. Nandanam is a pure love story with a twist. Manu (Pritviraj) is a software engineer working in a Bangalore based company. He is sent for a training to the US and before he leaves he goes to his family ‘Tharavad’ to bid goodbye to his aged grandmother (Kaviyoor Ponnamma) and his mother (Revathy). One day during his stay there, he meets Balamani (Navya Nair), an ordinary maid in the house. They fall in love with each other and what happens to their love, form the rest of the story. The director is not willing to divulge the rest of the story which he says will spoil the tempo, but he says that the film has a twist in the climax. The story is by Ranjit and Ravindran tunes the lyrics written by Gireesh Puthencherry. Azhagappan is the cinematographer and Ranjan Abraham is the editor. Ranjit and Siddique produce the film under Bhavana Cinema.

Ooma Penninu Oriyada Payyan

Vinayan is back with his favourite theme of cashing in on people with disabilities. If his hero was blind in Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njanum,in Karumadikuttan he was not mentally grown. Now in his latest Ooma Penninu Oriyada Payyan his hero and heroine are deaf and dumb. For Vinayan, physical and mental disabilities means he can churn out melodramatic yarns with lot of ladies sentiments, which does bumper business at the box-office. Once again he has been ‘inspired’ by Gulzar’s classicKoshish and Sasi’s Tamil film,Sollamale from which he has taken the thread of the story. Kaloor Dennis, Malayalam Cinema’s one time most prolific screenplay writer has written the screenplay based on Vinayan’s story. The story is about Baby (Jayasurya), a painter who does advertisement hoardings along with his friends. Baby is born deaf and dumb but very talented. One day while he is painting a hoarding, he sees a beautiful girl in a Benz car observing him. She is Gopika Varma (Kaviya Madhavan), a member of royal family, who is also deaf and dumb. She studies in a school run for the deaf and dumb by her father. At a function in the school she meets Baby and recognises him as the painter she saw on the road. Soon they fall in love and opposition at the palace starts, as Baby is a Christian. Meanwhile her fiancée Shyam Gopal Varma (Indrajeet) arrives from Mumbai and proves to be a thorn between the lovers. Will the deaf and dumb lovers get married? For that you will have to wait till February 2002, for the film’s release. Vinayan introduces two new boys and they are Jayasurya as the hero who is a former TV anchor and Indrajeet, late star Sukumaran’s son as the villian. Kaviya Madhavan gets her big break as Gopika Varma. A new girl Karthika is also being introduced in the film. The cast also has Haneefa, Harisree Asokan, Sudeesh, Jagadhish and Kalpana. Vinayan’s favourite music director Mohan Sitara has provided music written by Yusufali Kechery. Shirdi Sai Creations PKR Pillai produces the film.

Kuberan

Kuberan is Revathy Kalamandir’s film under production. The story is about a young man, Siddhartan (Dileep) from a tribal village Kudagu, who comes in search of a job to Ooty. He manages to get a job in an art studio. Siddhartan’s only ambition in life is to become rich. As a part of his get rich plan, he hires a palace and stays there for a few days, as a Kuberan(millionaire). Suddently Siddhartan’s carefully laid out plans goes awry, when Pooja (Samyuktha Varma) arrives at the palace. She is the owner of the palace and has come for a holiday. But soon her holiday turns nightmare as she tries to throw out Siddharthan from the palace. This leads to more confusion, and soon his lover (Uma) comes in search of him from Kudagu. According to Sundar Das, “the film is a rip roaring comedy, with never a dull moment”. Menaka Suresh produces the film. The cast also includes Jagathy Sreekumar, Kalabhavan Mani, Harisri Asokan and Cochin Haneefa. The story is by V.C.Ashok. Salu George is the cameraman and Mohan Sithara tunes the lyrics of Gireesh Puthencheri. The editing is by Bhuminathan. The film is due for release on April 5th.

Gift Of God

After a long time a Christian religious movie based on the actual life and time of Mother Theresa, Gift Of God has hit the screen. It is a reasonably well-made Christian propaganda film, which must have been funded by the church. It is early 1910 in Yugoslavia, where Mother Theresa was born as Agnus. Her father was in the construction business but goes bust after the First World War. Agnus has a sister Agatha and brother Lazar, who were drawn towards worldly pleasures. But Agnus the youngest of the three had some divine inspiration from her birth and chose to follow the way of the Lord. She becomes a Christian missionary and comes to India, to the dirty and squalid Calcutta in January 1926. She joins the Leatra convent and becomes a nun who changes the life of poor and impoverished people of Calcutta. Agnus now changes her name to Theresa and works for the down trodden and provides food and shelter for even leprosy patients. The rest of the film is how she becomes Mother Theresa and is chronicled up to her death in 1997. Mini Nair as Mother Theresa is a revelation, and she has done a good job. The rest of the cast is only there to eulogise Mother Theresa. Shaji Thaikadan seems to have done his homework well and has come out with a film to please the church and the Christians.

Aishwarya to get married again on March 24

Aishwarya, the lucky heroine turned television artiste has decided to tie the knot with Rajkumar, son of the Tamil character actor Karate Mani. For Aishwarya this is her third marriage. Eight years back she broke off with her mother and veteran actress Lakshmi to get married to a Chennai businessman Tanvir Ahmed that ended in a messy divorce. Aishwarya took to drugs as Tanvir was a wife beater. After the divorce she made up with her mother and tried for a comeback into films. Then there were rumours that she was married to her Computer Teacher, but Lakshmi once again helped her to come out of it. Very soon she became busy in Malayalam when superstar Mohanlal gave her a big break in his super hit Narasimham. This was followed by a few television serials and Suresh Gopi’s Satyameva Jayathe. She was once again paired opposite Mohanlal in Praja. We hope her marriage on March 24 to Rajkumar will bring her luck for a long and happy married life. Said Aishwarya, "I was confused about my marriage to Rajkumar. But my daughter convinced me that she has no problems in me getting married."

Red Hot Film

Guess which film is red hot in the trade? It is Kuberan, the Dileep-Samyuktha comedy caper due for a Vishu release. Most of the theatre owners are willing to offer fancy advance amount for this film. The Menaka Suresh Kumar produced and Sundar Das directed film is said to be a clean comedy. All post-production work of Kuberan including printing of copies will take place at the newly inaugurated Prasad Film Lab in Trivandrum. This is a branch office of the Prasad Lab in Chennai. So for the first time all post production work and censoring can be done in Trivandrum. There is a mad scramble to get Dileep’s dates as distributors are offering good advance for his films, following the success of Mazhathulli Kilukkam. The latest box office report on Mazhathulli Kilukkam is that, the film has got a distributor's share of Rs 1.07 crore from 30 stations in 21 days, which is very good considering the film’s cost of production. The film is heading to be a big hit. The others in the cast are Geetu Mohandas, Kalpana. The film has music by Raveendran.

The Three New Musketeers

The latest discussion on the sets of Malayalam films goes something like this, 'So, how's Jayasurya doing?' 'Hey, have about Indrajit?' 'Tell me something about Prithviraj.' When new faces and new blood has been flooding almost every other industry, why should Malayalam Cinema be an exception? Especially when the superstars of our films have been around for more than 20 years. Let's preview their three new entrees then, shall we? They are brothers. Acting runs in their genes. Children of actor Sukumar. This is probably the first time in the history of Indian Cinema that 2 brothers and entering the field at the same time. Prithviraj - we spoke about him last time too. Faazil was the one who was going to launch him, but the film kept getting delayed for one reason or the other. Finally, it was dropped. 'Nandanam' then happened. What has he got to say? 'Let me wait till the movie gets released. I have to see if I fit the profile. If people will like me. Only later will I decide if I want to continue acting', he says. In 'Oomapenninu Uriyaadapaiyan', Indrajit plays a negative role. But, he's got all the requirements of a hero. And, he's not upset about starting his career as a villain. 'I don't care if the role is positive or negative as long as it is powerful enough to make an impact,' he says. Even before the film got released, he has been signed up for another film and director Vinayan is planning to launch him as a hero in yet another film. One more offering of director Vinayan is Jayasurya. Cinema was his fantasy. He didn't have an easy entry into it. Disappointments were plenty. When Jayasurya came to know that Vinayan was looking for a new hero, he approached him. He was given the standard 'Let's see' reply. Later Vinayan's son had mentioned about a certain Jayasurya who used to give programs on Surya TV. His stars began to shine. Jayasurya is also going to star in Vinayan's Tamil movie, with Sathyaraj. Also in the making are Faazil's son Faahad, Vimal (former Master Vimal) & Vinaykumar (who stars in 'Kanmazhi') Okay, so, better days are here again for Malayalam cinema.