It’s a common misconception that if new comers are acting in a movie the cost of the movie will be low. Even if the newcomer is hero , the other actors in the movie, would not reduce their salary. Film price could not be lowered. Rental rates for the camera could not be lowered. Hotel rooms cost could not be lowered. So every other cost other than newcomers salary is fixed and could not be bought down. On the other hand if we have Mohanlal or Mammootty or Suresh Gopi or Dileep as hero, they would have to be given a big amount as salary. But if these persons are lead actors then we can negotiate good amounts as foreign distribution, satellite, TV and many other rights, which will recover the cost we have paid these actors. Where as if it’s a new comer I would not even get 5 lakh rupees as rights. That’s the reason why producers hesitate to have newcomers as leads. And since newcomers don’t have initials, the movie won’t stay much in the theatres.[Interview : Manian Pillai Raju - Part II]

Every once in a while director Kamal makes a movie with new comers and they become popular. Nammal which had Siddharth, Jishnu, Renuka Menon and Bhavana was a big success while Goal which had Ranjith Menon, Aksha Pardesi and Muktha George did not do that well. Roshan Andrews’ second movie Notebook starring Roma, Sreedevi, Parvathi and Sooraj did very well, even though we did not think very high about it.

With Cycle becoming a hit, it gives us the new actor Vineeth Srinivasan and adds market value to Bhama and Vinu Mohan. We are excited about the movie’s success since we need fresh faces to deal with such stories. Since these actors are youngsters they cannot do the roles of the orphan-turned-Hindustani-classical-expert-cum-good-hearted-goonda or English-speaking-ACP. If public starts encouraging new actors, some of our superstars can stop making bad movies just to meet the quota.

But even if the movie becomes a hit, it does not ensure a steady career for all the stars. Among the Nammal cast only Bhavana became big and from the Notebook cast it was Roma. The cast of Goal went missing with Muktha George remaining as an occasional blip in the radar. We don’t know how many stars of Cycle will be pedaling same time next year, but even if one or two become bankable stars, it is good for the story tellers and listeners.

After 28 movies, the trade circles think that Prithviraj can be a solo hero. When Classmates was a super hit, it was said that it was not a single hero movie. When his roles in Vargam and Vasthavam were said to be good, it was suggested that he cannot do comedy. Now that Chocolate is a big hit, new goal posts have to be found or the existing ones have to be shifted for higher excellence, like he cannot speak Arabic very well or he has not danced in the streets of New Zealand with Kavya Madhavan.

Such opportunities will be abound when Prithviraj’s new movie gets released in December.

Prithviraj plays Josekutty of Palakunnel family, who despite being a graduate, takes up the job of an auto driver, in order to support his family, which is suffering from a financial crisis. Kind-hearted Josekutty has a good friend circle too–Manmadhan, Chellappan and Prasanth. Once, when he happens to find a one-and-half-year-old child on the streets, he decides to adopt and bring up the child. Since that moment, he takes the child wherever he goes, providing him all needed care.[Prithviraj's Kangaroo set to release in Christmas ]

The movie is directed by Raj Babu who is known for the Dileep action-thriller Chess which turned out to be a boring  action-thriller. Since this Kangaroo is being marketed as a comedy movie, we are not sure, if it will turn out to be a boring comedy movie. That depends on the talents of J. Pallassery who is not known for comedies. Also one of the last movies Pallassery scripted, Panthayakozhi, turned out to be anything but a fighting rooster.

In December, this movie, which also stars Kavya Madhavan and Jayasurya is going face tough competition from both M&M’s and Dileep’s Romeo. Right now the question facing most vc readers is: Is Dileep 10% of Prithviraj or is Prithviraj 10% of Dileep. The answers to those questions can be found before the New Year.

Unni Nair writes

The big plus in Nazrani is no doubt Mammootty who is the saving grace for the film. His electrifying presence and his mesmerizing performance as DK is what makes the film sufferable. Otherwise it is just old wine, which has been served in too many cocktails before.

The biggest negative aspect of the film is that it offers nothing new and is far from being impressive. The final scenes which are typical in nature could even provoke you into booing. For all its flaws however, the film is definitely worth a watch if you go for it without any presumptions or prejudices, and just for the sake of watching Mammookka. Hats off to the superstar! Such films are necessary to retain the star-status, and are good for the industry on the whole. Having said that, one cannot but remark that Nazrani could have been made into a better movie, given the potential of the Joshi-Mammootty-Renjith trio.

Movie Buzz writes

Nasarani reminds you of Joshy’s mass masala multi-starrers of the late 70 and 80’s. The film lacks a tight screenplay and is disjointed, as Ranjit has mixed old wine with recent happenings in Kerala politics, to churn out a sugar-coated family trifle pudding. The film drags towards the climax, and there is even continuity jerk as too many characters are there for no real reasons. Ranjit and Joshy presents their protagonist as a macho man riding on Mammookka’s image, and to be honest that is the only thing that saves the movie.

Mammootty as the wise-cracking Nasrani gets all the plum lines and is quite wacky. He melds effortlessly from casual comedy, soft romance to utter seriousness with consummate ease. Mammookka as Nasarani is the only reason for investing in a movie ticket for this film.

Paresh Palicha writes

If you are wondering why Ranjith’s craftsmanship is discussed at length when the film is actually directed by veteran Joshiy, is because Nazrani has Ranjith’s stamp all over it. It is as if he had set out to redeem himself after the disaster of Prajapathi. That does not mean that everything about Nazrani is drastically new. It is just that things are presented after being properly dusted and shined.

The skeletal of the story is the same as in any Ranjith film of the past decade and half. Only the garb of the characters has changed to the rich rubber estate owners of the Kottayam region.Somehow, the narrative loses steam post interval, as it becomes a typical murder mystery without much momentum, which leaves Nazrani to be just an average film.

See Also: MovieMazaa Review: Nasrani

( Movie Mazaa is our new guest contributor who will be doing reviews of the latest films)

Ranjith has this ability to spring the nastiest surprises on an unwary audience time and again. Armed up with ace-director Joshiy he cooks up Nasrani, a twitchy and jittery film that is at its best ambitious and at its worst lethally amateurish.

David John Kottarathil (Mammootty) is an affluent planter who languishes his time wooing Sarah (Vimala Raman) and running a gambler’s den. He’s indeed the archetypal Ranjith hero with all the integrity surging out from within, and yet who maintains a coarse façade that’s supposedly the definitive masculine trait. A local politician gets murdered eventually and Annie, (Muktha George) David’s foster-daughter emerges the prime accused. And what does all this perplexity lead to? Practically nothing, as it sadly turns out.

Nasrani isn’t really sure if it wants to be a superstar melodrama or an exhilarating thriller and its unfulfilling as either and ends up as an appalling hybrid. While the first half of the movie is elaborate with too many suspects and frail motives, the second half is wiped clean of any suspense as the tale slowly builds to a real mundane climax. The answers to the questions turn out to be sillier than the queries themselves. And of course the gaping plot holes, the never ending array of characters and the ludicrous dialogues cannot be forgotten in a hurry as well. For many of us the sole reason for watching Nasrani, would be to find out if Mammootty reworks the Achayan magic. Sadly he doesn’t, for even as a star vehicle, the movie is a dud. The actor is hazily considerate in his part and doesn’t emabarass himself. But the only time he comes alive is a handful of moments that fade away as quickly as they have made an appearance.

The script doesn’t make a convincing holder for the prime event of the day namely the murder, nor does Joshiy manage to string the beads up as a rational whole. July 4 and now Nasrani show the plight of a director at the low ebb of inventiveness as the finale unveils a ludicrous howler of a twist ending. The plot grows increasingly absurd, particularly towards the end when the characters no longer seem to be themselves. Just when things should be getting intriguing and complex, they become repetitive and computable. And the house of cards come crashing down with a thud.

Nasrani is an unengaging and colossally flat film that gets plain irksome after a while. It displays a horrific disparity of author and material that is maddeningly convoluted. And when the curiosity wave subsides, it should start its sinking into oblivion.

Photo courtesy:rediff.com

When this movie was announced with Kavya Madhavan as Mammotty’s heroine we were really excited, for in his 26 year career Kavya was never Mammootty’s heroine. We were later disappointed, for Kavya walked out of the movie, citing “the other woman” as the reason. As they say, the show has go to on and how hard is it to find young heroines now a days?. So Mukta along with Vimala Raman play the heroines in this Joshi film.

For the past 11 years, Mammotty had an Onam release and this time they were trying hard to make this film Mammotty’s Onam release. There was only one problem though: the movie was not filmed completely and there were only few weeks left. So two camera crews worked around the clock tried to make this happen, at least on Thiru Onam day, so that Mahabali would not be disappointed. Since Nasrani didn’t make it for Onam Sadya, Ore Kadal got more eye balls than it would have got normally.

Scripted and directed by Ranjith and Joshiy respectively, Nasrani zooms in on the life of a rich planter, David John Kottaram, whose luxurious life style is turned topsy turvy when his beloved ones are affected by certain incidents.Mammootty, whose last release, Mission 90 Days got mixed response from the audience, is all too keen to come out with another whopper. [Mammootty's Nasrani]

Joshi is a director who once rescued Mammotty from 3Bs: Benz, Briefcase, Baby Shalini, and gave him a new life with New Delhi. Moreover, one of the first ‘Achayan’ avatars by Mammootty was in Joshi’s Sangham. If anyone knows about the DNA of larger than life characters it is Ranjith. Both these people along with Mammotty form an explosive combination. Even though the story thread looks similar to Big B, the key will be narration.

Like Mammootty and his fans, we were also eager see to Nasrani released, especially to see if it would match Alibhai’s performance.

Some actresses walk out of movies when they are asked to wear seductive dresses and perform awkward dance movements. Some actresses walk out of movies when they know that there are two heroines.

One of the most eagery awaited events was the pairing of Mammotty with Kavya Madhavan in the upcoming movie Nasrani. We were curious as to if more makeup would be applied to Mammotty to make him look younger or if more makeup would be applied to Kavya to make her look older. Now that curiosity is killed as Kavya has walked out of the movie citing the case of the “other woman”, you know, pati, patni aur woh!

The woh in this case is Vimala Raman, the current heart throb of Malayalees and it seems woh has a bigger role than Kavya. Director Joshi who has seen heroines like Nayantara walk out of his movies and is used to all this went ahead and cast Mukta George as the replacement. The options for Kavya are thus dwindling since all the heroes are looking for younger heroines. “American Independence Day” hero Dileep is now romancing Roma and even the senior citizens are acting with Parvathi Melton, Bhavana and Vimala Raman.

What can a twenty plus year old actress do at this point?  Follow the path of  Asin, Meera Jasmine and Nayantara

After Karutha Pakshigal, Goal is Kamal’s offering for the masses. But if the reviews were to be beleived, the ball misses the goal post. Music, locales and promising new talents seems to be the highlights of this movie.

Sify.com reviews:

Kamal’s Goal falls a few yards behind the post because it has all the essence of a brat pack film with all gloss but is unable to score the winning goal due to lack of a strong and innovative script . Added to that why introduce the Mukesh character, just for some fake sentiments? Too much graphics also act as a speed breaker to the flow of the film.

This vanilla-coated story telling however has its moments. All the newcomers play their parts well. Rajith Menon stands out for a newcomer with his natural and spontaneous act, while Mukta George steals your heart, and Aksha looks beautiful. Rahman does a neat job as the coach, while the guy who did Felix role is riveting as the villain.

Vidyasagar’s music and Kamal’s picturisation are the high points in the film, especially the duet picturised in Phuket islands. P.Sukumar’s camera feasts on the rich locales, and his multi camera set up to film the football matches adds grandeour.

Nowrunning.com says:

Director Kamal has once again shown that he can handle any subject with ease. If you approach Goal with a cynical mind, you may tend to categorize the film as boring and say that there is nothing new in it at all. To a certain extend that’s true. The film moves along very predictable lines, but the director has seen to it that it is presented in such a way that it keeps you glued to the seat till the end. Of course there are certain scenes that elicit a yawn and even some amount of booing. But still, the film is a good commercial venture.
The director, cinematographer and art-director have done all that is possible to make the film colourful, loud and lively so that it appeals to the young generation. Apart from some of the lagging scenes, the main drawback of the film is the storyline, which is an oft-repeated one moving along predictable lines. Still Kamal and team deserve to be appreciated for having come up with a colourful entertainer that jells well with the holiday mood.

Rediff.com comments:

We get to see influences of films like Iqbal and many others in this film, which tries to pack too much in a single venture. Romantic angle notwithstanding, we have misunderstandings galore and an attempt at comedy in the form of Salim Kumar, a non-teaching staff in love with the librarian, who is a nun.

However, Goal is worth watching for the performances of the newcomers. Renjith Menon gives life to the character of Sam while Muktha adds some lighter moments to the bleak proceedings. Aksha provides some eye candy and nothing else. However, is worth watching for the performances of the newcomers. Renjith Menon gives life to the character of Sam while Muktha adds some lighter moments to the bleak proceedings. Aksha provides some eye candy and nothing else.

Photo courtesy: sify.com