Malayalam Cinema

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.

Ranjith Shankar’s only association with Cinema, it’s heard, was that he has been a friend to director Lal Jose and had been to Lal Jose’s shooting locations as well. But this guy, when he directed his debut movie, ‘Passenger’, did take us all by surprise. ‘Passenger’, one of the hit movies of 2009, seemed a movie coming from a seasoned director, who knew his job very well.

The script (by Ranjith Shankar himself) was well written, with no loose ends at all and the direction well handled too. The film was a hit, though it didn’t have the usual box office formula and came without songs either.

Now Ranjith Shankar gets ready for his second film. If it was Dileep and Sreenivasan who played the key roles in ‘Passenger’, along with Mamta Mohandas, in Ranjith’s new film, titled ‘Arjunan Sakshi’, it’s Prithviraj who is the hero. The film has Prithviraj playing an architect named Roy, who comes to Kerala after having worked in different cities all over India. He lands up in Kerala

Let’s stay tuned for more on ‘Arjunan Sakshi’.