his year's National Award winner Meera Jasmine sought an appointment with the Deputy Inspector General of police, R Sreelekha, in Ernakulam, to lodge a complaint against her family.Her complaint is that her father and siblings grabbed her money and left her penniless.
She also complained that her sisters had called the Tamil and Telugu press to spread malicious news about how she had been instigated to turn against her family by the person she called her guru -- who, incidentally, is a well-known screenplay writer and director in Malayalam.
After complaining to the police, she told the press, 'I don't have anybody. I don't have any money. I am a penniless orphan now.'
Mammootty completes 25 years
Last year, Kerala celebrated Mohanlal's 25 years in the Malayalam film industry. His friends arranged a huge function in his honour.
Mohanlal was the flavour of the season, as television channels and magazines were full of stories on him for almost a month.
After almost a year, another superstar in Malayalam has attained the distinction of completing 25 years in the industry -- Mammootty.
Sadly, however, there were no celebrations to mark this milestone. Not many are even aware of this landmark in Mammootty's career.
Mohanlal faced the camera for the first time as an 18 year old, but Mammootty's entry into films happened only after he had become an advocate. Ever since, the two of them have dominated the Malayalam film industry.
Even after 25 years, they do not face much challenge even from a young man like Prithviraj, whose father, the late Sukumaran, both superstars have acted with.
The two actors have won no less than six National Awards between them.
Mammootty's Kaazhcha appreciated
 | More on rediff.com! | | |
|
This Onam, while Mohanlal had to be content with an out and out masala film, Naatturajavu, a movie in which he twirls his moustache and bashes up goondas in dozens, Mammootty got a wonderful character to portray in his 25th year.His new film Kaazhcha, directed by Blessy who was an assistant to the late Padmarajan, won the hearts of Malayalam audiences.
This movie is reminiscent of the artistically succulent movies which one feared had receded into the shadows of the past.
In Kaazhcha, Mammootty is Madhavan, an ordinary villager who meets an orphaned Gujarati boy.
The Gujarat earthquake had made him lose everything, and he drifts to this small village in Kerala without even knowing the language of the place.
Madhavan takes the small boy home and looks after him like his son.
Yash, the boy who plays the orphaned Gujarati boy, is actually a Gujarati settled in Mattanchery in Kochi. There is a very strong Gujarati presence in Mattanchery.
The success of Kaazhcha has given hope to every connoisseur of good cinema who has in the recent past scripted melancholy dirges on the decline in the standards of Malayalam cinema.
Nadiya is back!
Nadiya Moidu, who entered the film industry as the young heroine in Fazil's Nokketha Doorathu Kannum Nattu, is back on the silver screen after a long gap.
Though she dominated the South Indian film industry -- especially the Tamil industry -- in the 1980s, she bid an abrupt adieu to the movies when she was at her peak.
The makers of the highly successful Jeyam convinced Nadiya, who lives in London, to act in their new Tamil film, M Kumaran, s/o Mahalakshmy.
She plays the mother of Jeyam Ravi, a young man in his 20s. Those who saw the stills of the film were surprised to see the same slim and young Nadiya in the film.
She has neither aged nor gained an ounce; and she looked every inch the 'heroine' of the film.
The film is a landmark in Tamil, because though it is about the relationship between a son and his mother, who single-handedly brought him up, there is no melodrama or overt displays of clichéd sentimentality. In fact, the mother is portrayed as a gutsy, fun loving woman -- a woman at ease when out jogging with her son, kick-boxing, or even shaking a leg with him. She goes as far as to encourage him in his love life and teases him all the time.
The highpoint of the film is the different take on the mother-son relationship – one hitherto unseen in Indian films.
Bala turns producer
The story of director Bala's struggle to release his first film Sethu is well known, especially after Vikram won the National Award this year.
Once Sethu became a success, Bala was emboldened to continue to make the kind of films he believed in.
Who else would have made a film like Pithamahan (where Vikram plays a gravedigger perpetually clothed in rags, and does not utter a single word through the movie), right when Vikram was tipped to be the next superstar!
Now, Bala has started a production house, B Studios, to encourage young filmmakers who are willing to experiment.
The first film from B Studios will be Mayavi, where Surya plays a tourist guide at Mahabalipuram.
Bala plans to produce at least two films a year. And his inspiration is none other than Ram Gopal Varma.