Malayalam Cinema has not been having a great run of late. After the phenomenal success of Twenty: 20, movies (both mainstream & offbeat) have been struggling to get accepted by the audience. So much so that average movies like Dileep’s Crazy Gopalan and the father-son combination of Sreenivasan and Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Makante Achhan have gone on to become hits. Both the movies had lukewarm starts (Crazy Gopalan was a Christmas release) but have managed to cling on at the box office and do well eventually due to lack of better choices. Mohanlal’s Red Chillies (directed by Shaji Kailash) had a great start and then evened out.
Considering all this the upcoming summer release schedule looks interesting. Summer is always considered a good time for Malayalam cinema. Reasons are, school & college holidays and important festivals like Vishu & Easter all ensuring that the audience is looking forward to a chance to go out for entertainment. Also the onset of monsoon starts towards end of summer and so all put together summer is the ideal time for movie releases in Kerala. Let’s take a snapshot of the main releases scheduled for Summer 2009.
1. Sagar alias Jackie, tentative release date- March 27th.Starring Mohanlal, Suman, Bhavana and directed by - Amal Nirad. This is the sequel to the Mohanlal- Suresh Gopi hit movie- Irupatham Nootrandu and going by initial reports, it looks like a well shot stylish film. Here’s hoping Amal Nirad repeats the magic of his earlier movie Big B ( Mammootty). The movie also marks the acting debut of Mohanlal’s son.
2. To Hariharnagar, tentative release date- April 2nd.Starring Mukesh, Siddique, Lakshmi Rai and directed by Lal, this one is the dark horse. It’s a sequel to the superhit comedy film of the early 1990’s- In Hariharnagar.The principal cast is the same. Lal of the erstwhile Siddique- Lal duo, who directed the first movie, is the director this time.
3. Vandemataram, tentative release date- April 12th (Easter Sunday).Starring Mammootty, Arjun, Sneha and directed by Aravindan, its an action packed movie and is a bilingual with the Tamil version being called Aruvadai. The movie has been delayed in the making.
4. IG, tentative release date- April 12th (Easter Sunday).Starring Suresh Gopi, Sai Kumar, Vijayraghavan and directed by B.Unnikrishnan. Though it’s a regular action movie for Suresh Gopi, B.Unnikrishnan is in form having directed last year’s hit Mohanlal movie - Madambi and so the movie is being talked about.
5. Mouse and Cat (earlier titled Moses.D.Samuel), tentative release date- April 14th (Vishu Day) - Starring- Dileep, Aswathy, Salim Kumar and directed by the veteran- Fazil. This should be a family entertainer with plenty of comedy thrown in.
6. Black and White Kudumbam , tentative release date- April 24th.Starring- Kalabhavan Mani, Jayasurya, Vinayaprasad and directed by Shaiju Anthikad. It’s a family entertainer again.
7. Sathyan Anthikad’s untitled film has a tentative release date of May 1st.Like all his other ventures, the name will be announced only nearer to the date of release. It has Jayaram and Kaniha in the lead and music by Ilayaraja. This movie again carries good word of mouth already.
8. May 1st is also likely to see the release of Mammootty, Kavya Madhavan starrer- Pattanathil Bhootham, directed byJohnny Antony. Going by Johny’s previous works like CID Moosa, Thurupugulan, Cycle, etc this should be a mass entertainer.
9. Passenger, tentative release date- May 7th. The star cast of Sreenivasan. Dileep. Mamta Mohandas is impressive. The director is Ranjit Shankar. It’s expected to be a comedy movie.
These are only some of the important movies lined up & the final tally of releases might see some changes. Also the elections in Kerala being on April 16th, the dates of some of these movies might get shifted. As a passionate lover of cinema and a keen follower of Malayalam cinema, I am looking forward to a satisfying summer for Malayalam cinema.
Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/malayalam-summer-releases-0f-2009-a-sneak-peek/
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