101 WEDDINGS - Malayalam Movie Review

REVIEW: 101 WEDDINGS

Genre: Comedy/Romance/Drama

Banner: Film Folks

Dir: Shafi

Music: Deepak Dev

Cinematographer: Alagappan

Cast: Kunchacko Boban, Biju Menon, Jayasurya, Samvrutha Sunil, Bhama

DID YOU KNOW? Shafi and his brother Rafi (of the erstwhile Rafi-Mecartin duo) along with two other individuals have produced the film. The story is by Shafi and the screenplay and dialogues are by Kalavoor Ravi Kumar.

THE PLOT: Krishnankutty alias Krish (Kunchacko Boban) is the son of an idealistic Gandhian. But Krish is a fraud by nature and has a childhood enmity with Antappan (Biju Menon). Krish is forced by his dad to get married at a group wedding, where he is supposed to marry Abhirami (Samvrutha Sunil). He sends an effeminate dancer named Jyothish Kumar (Jayasurya) in his place. Antappan and Rukhiya (Bhama), a nice girl, too reaches the place to be part of the wedding.

THE REVIEW: Irritatingly predictable and plain boring, 101 Weddings never really strikes a chord with the viewer. The scenes are a rehash of the usual comedy sequences that we have come across in several films of the genre.

Kunchacko repeats his trademark style, Biju Menon sleepwalks through the role and Jayasurya hams it up like there is no tomorrow. Alagappan’s visuals are fine and Deepak Dev’s songs are just about fine.

Go for this only if you have nothing else to do.

RATING: 1/5

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IFFI 2012 disappoints

IFFI 2012

The International Film Festival of India at Goa, 2012 has turned out to be a major disappointment for movie buffs. There have been no breathtaking films until now and most of the high profile films have been receiving mixed responses from all.

The presence of renowned filmmakers like Korean director Kim Ki Duk made the media and the delegates thrilled, but his new film Pieta received a cold response from most viewers. There are already talks that the selection of films this year has been far from encouraging.

IFFI 2012 will go on until Nov 30.

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Ann in love with Jomon?

Ann Augustine

The rumours doing the rounds has it that cinematographer Jomon T John and actor Ann Augustine are soon to get married. The engagement will be held in early January and the wedding will happen later.

Ann got a spectacular debut in Elsamma Enna Aankutty and has been part of a few films like Arjunan Sakshi, Three Kings and Vadhyar. She is the heroine of Aashiq Abu’s Da Thadiya and the forthcoming film, Rebecca Uthup Kizhakkemala.

Jomon T John

 Jomon is the most sought after cinematographers in the business, who made his debut with Chappa Kurishu. His films like Beautiful, Thattathin Marayathu and Ayalum Njanum Thammil have been successful.

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CHAPTERS - Malayalam Movie Preview

PREVIEW: CHAPTERS

Banner: Qurban Films, Campus Oaks

Dir: Sunil Ibrahim

Camera: Krish Kaimal

Music: Mejo Joseph

Cast: Nivin Pauly, Sreenivasan, Gauthami Nair, Rejath Menon

DID YOU KNOW? Sunil Ibrahim has been active in the ad film circuit. One of the production banners, Campus Oaks, is a group of engineers who are working in various corners of the globe.

STORYLINE: The film’s director Sunil is hesitant to reveal the film’s basic plot or genre. It is said to be a story where the lives of a few characters get intertwined.

Release Date: Nov 7

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CHETTAYEES - Malayalam Movie Preview

PREVIEW: CHETTAYEES

Genre: Comedy/ Drama

Banner: Thakkali films

Dir: Shajoon Kariyal

Camera: Vinod Illampilly

Music: Deepak Dev

Cast: Lal, Biju Menon, P Sukumar, Suresh Krishna, Sunil Babu, Mia

DID YOU KNOW? Thakkali Films is a banner formed by actors Biju Menon and Suresh Krishna, director Shajoon Kariyal, cinematographer P Sukumar and scenarist Sachi.

BASIC PLOT: Five male friends come together to celebrate the New Year in an apartment. Things don’t happen they would have liked after a while and the story becomes interesting soon after.

Date of Release: Nov 30

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Kunchacko Boban opts out of Kammath & Kammath

Now, this news is official. Kunchacko Boban will not be part of Kammath & Kammath. In this Mammootty-Dileep film, which has a cameo by Dhanush, Kunchacko was originally penciled in to play an important role in the flashback. But he has opted out of the project citing date issues.

Kunchacko will be replaced by Narain. The shooting of the film, directed by Thomson who made Karyasthan ealier, is currently going on in Kochi. The film has been scripted by Siby K Thomas and Udayakrishna.

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Blame the director!

Gossip time again, folks. So no names here and your guess will be as good as ours.

A young director made a thriller with an upcoming superstar recently. As per reports, the moment the director had gone with the script to the young star, he asked him to start the project. The confident lad started the film in right earnest and though it was made in breakneck speed, the film has been receiving criticism from all after its release.

So what is the option for the young hero? His camp is putting all the blame on the debutant director. The hapless director could find the going tough in the coming months for sure. Let’s wait and watch for now.

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Enthaanu Bhai… Original or copied?

Director Aashiq Abu, regarded as one of the most promising filmmakers in Malayalam now, has launched the album Enthaanu Bhai… from his forthcoming film Da Thadiya.

Enthaanu Bhai… from Da Thadiya

Soon after the album was uploaded on his Facebook page, the various Internet sites started discussing the song’s inspiration. Many feel that both the song and the video has an uncanny resemblance to Sneha Khawalkar’s album, Yere for MTV Sound Trippin’.

Sneha Khawalkar’s Yere - MTV Sound Trippin’

In fact, Aashiq Abu’s earlier film 22 Female Kottayam was heavily inspired from Sriram Raghavan’s Bollywood movie, Ek Hasina Thi.

Interestingly, we had mentioned about Aashiq’s recent remarks that most ideas would have inspiration from somewhere in an earlier report. Now the question is, how will you distinguish between an inspiration and a copy?

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Kamal, Siby Malayil wins FEFKA directors’ Union election

Kamal has been elected as the President and Siby Malayil as the General Secretary of FEFKA directors’ Union, in an election held at Kochi on Nov 12, beating the panel led by Lenin Rajendran and K Madhu.

Here is the complete list of winners.

President: Kamal

Gen Secretary: Siby Malayil

Treasurer: Mecartin

Vice President: Jayaraj, G S Vijayan

Joint Secretaries: Marthandan, Shajoon Kariyal

Executive committee members: Aashiq Abu, Kareem, Jose Thomas, Jayakumar, Shanthivila Dinesh, Fazil Katungal, Madhu Kaithapram, Vinod Vijayan, Vyshakh, Shaji Kailas, Siddique, Sohan Seenulal, Suresh Unnithan and Salam Palappetty.

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Ranjan started the new wave?

Ranjan Pramod, the well-appreciated scenarist who wrote such films like Meesha Madhavan, Achuvinte Amma, Manassinakkare and Naran before making a dud as a director with Photographer, says that it was he who started the new wave in Malayalam.

“My film Photographer was far ahead of the times and I feel it started the so called new wave in Malayalam,” said the director in a recent interview.

He is currently shooting for his next venture as a director, Rose Guitarinaal.

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Prem Prakash unhappy?

Who suffered the most from the recent cinema strike, in which almost the entire theatres in Kerala were closed down for a week? Producer and actor Prem Prakash thinks he did. As the producer of the recently released Ayalum Njanum Thammil, he incurred heavy losses, when the theatres were inactive.

He recently said in a recent interview to a prominent news channel that in this industry, it is money that matters and not relationships.

The question now is, who is he targeting? Is it the film’s director Lal Jose or the hero, Prithviraj?

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Gossip Time: The Delhi Belly game

No names when we talk gossip, fine?

Two films have been launched in Malayalam, with similar themes now. The first one will be directed by a one film old director and the other, by a debutant one. The two boasts of a young star cast and the two parties are in a hurry. Why? Simple, the two films are handling almost the same theme. Now the interesting part here is that reliable sources suggests that both the films have been inspired from the Bollywood hit Delhi Belly!

Both the parties had some rounds of discussion recently and none is ready to back out from the project. The challenge now is to make the film as fast as they can. Weird are the ways of these filmmakers, agreed?

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Dhanush in Kammath & Kammath

Tamil star Dhanush will play a guest role in Karyasthan director Thomson’s Kammath & Kammath. The shooting of the film has started in Kochi and has Mammootty and Dileep playing two Kammath brothers, who runs a hotel chain. There is another important role of an income tax official in the film, which as per current plans, will be played by Kunchacko Boban. But it can change, as the actor’s dates are chockablock with several projects going on.

Kammath & Kammath has Rima Kallingal and Karthika Nair as the heroines. The film has been scripted by Siby K Thomas and Udayakrishna.

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Aparna Gopinath is the heroine in ABCD

Chennai based theatre artiste Aparna Gopinath will play the heroine in Martin Prakkat’s ABCD. The actor was found from her Facebook page by the director.

Dulquer Salmaan is playing the hero in the film, which talks about two young guys who have come to Kerala from the US. Dulquer Salmaan and Jacob Gregory, who is well known as the comic Giri Giri in the sitcom Akkarakkazhchakal, are playing the characters.

The shooting party is leaving for the US to continue with the shooting from this weekend onwards.

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Cinema strike affects Mollywood

The cinema strike, which has been announced by the theatre owners have virtually brought the Malayalam film industry into a standstill. Two major releases which were scheduled for Nov 2 has now been postponed and this in turn will affect the rest of the schedules as well.

The exhibitors are demanding a hike in the service charge from Rs. 2 to Rs. 7. The state minister for films and an actor himself, K B Ganesh Kumar has made it clear that the government is clear about the stand on the cinema strike and it is unwarranted.

There is resentment reportedly within the striking organization itself and two prominent theatres in Kochi have not gone on strike. More theatre owners are certain to follow suit as they have already committed to release Tamil superstar Vijay’s magnum opus, Thuppaakki, this weekend.

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