Malayalam Cinema: Lal

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Amal Neerad’s ‘Anwar’, with Prithviraj, Mamta Mohandas, Prakash Raj and Lal in key roles, discusses terrorism from close quarters.

Films on terrorism, made in other languages, have hit screens in Kerala. ‘Fiza’, ‘A Wednesday’ and its remake ‘Unaipol Oruvan’, ‘Droh Kaal’ and its remake ‘Kuruthi Punal’, ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan’, ‘Aamir’ and such other films have reached Kerala. Noted cinematographer-director Santhosh Sivan from Kerala had, in 1999, made a film named ‘The Terrorist’, with Ayesha Dharker playing the key role; and there have been references to terrorism in mainstream Malayalam films, especially those of the Suresh Gopi-Shaji Kailas genre. But we haven’t had in Malayalam a film that deals with terrorism in an exclusive and sensitive manner.

Amal Neerad, cinematographer-turned-director, now gets ready to bring to Malayalam Cinema the subject of terrorism, with his next offering, ‘Anwar’, starring Prithviraj in the lead. (‘Anwar’ incidentally is the name of a Hindi movie, made in 2007 and directed by Manish Jha, the man who made ‘Mathrubhoomi: A nation without women’, and which discussed terrorism too, in a rather satirical tone).

Amal Neerad’s ‘Anwar’, according to the makers, is “the story of one man’s crusade against society’s evil plots to term him as an outcast”. The key characters in the film include Anwar, a Muslim youth who lives in contemporary Kerala; Ayisha, Anwar’s friend, who is well-educated and who is a chemical engineer; Babookka, who is like a father and an elder brother to Anwar and a tough, daring Anti Terrorist Squad officer who is out to wipe out terrorism.

Prithviraj plays the title role, that of Anwar while Mamta Mohandas plays Ayisha and Lal becomes Babookka. Prakash Raj once again comes to Malayalam playing the role of the Anti Terrorist Squad officer.

Produced by Raj Zacharias, ‘Anwar’ features cinematography by Satheesh Kurup, music and background score by Gopi Sundar and editing by Vivek Harshan. Written and directed by Amal Neerad, ‘Anwar’ will start rolling in February and is slated for a July release.

Will Lal overtake his pal?

Lal seems all set to overtake his pal Siddique.

Lal and Siddique, the best of pals ever since they played football in Kochi when they were young, parted ways on the professional front after delivering five back to back hits (which they directed together as the Siddique-Lal duo) in as many years. Though they have been declaring time and again that on the personal level they are still the best of pals, people tend to be a bit skeptic about that.

Well, personal relations are personal. Let’s come to what’s professional.

After parting ways, Siddique concentrated on directing and Lal on production, distribution and acting. And then, one fine day, Lal decides to direct a movie, his first solo directorial venture.

Thus took form ‘2 Harihar Nagar’, the sequel to ‘In Harihar Nagar’, the first film directed jointly by Siddique and Lal in 1989. The sequel was coming out almost two decades after the prequel, but when it hit screens, ‘2 Harihar Nagar’ simply rocked. Yeah, that would be the right phrase to describe the effect. It just rocked the theatres.

Now, the latest buzz is that Lal is getting ready with another ‘Harihar Nagar’ sequel. The film, ‘In Ghost House Inn’, is nearing completion and would hit screens soon.

On the other hand, Siddique, who has been delivering his own solo hits too, has been busy with

his Dileep movie, ‘Bodyguard’, which seems to be getting unduly delayed. The movie, which has Nayantara as the heroine and Thyagarajan playing a key role, is said to be all complete, but owing to some ‘technical’ reasons, ‘Bodyguard’ hasn’t yet been released.

Moreover, nobody seems to know as to when it will be released. Well, it puzzles almost everyone (me in the first place) because Siddique is seen in Malayalam as the man with the proverbial ‘Midas touch’ and the film has an interesting and impressive star cast too. (Hey, Nayan is there na?!)

Lal meanwhile began ‘In Ghost House Inn’ almost after Siddique had shot and canned ‘Bodyguard’. The way things go now seems to suggest that Lal may very well overtake his pal and ‘In Ghost House Inn’ may hit screens soon while ‘Bodyguard’ may drag on for some more time. Nothing is now heard about the film’s release.

Well, let’s hope that ‘Bodyguard’ reaffirms Siddique’s stand as the director who has given only hits and no flops and also that ‘In Ghost House Inn’ rocks theatres the way ‘In Harihar Nagar’ and ‘2 Harihar Nagar’ did.

Malayalam Cinema

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