He decided to get into the fight between a King Khan and a Paper Tiger. When someone tries to parachute into a high profile fight then there can be two possible outcomes – You would get some publicity without almost no investment or you would be swatted aside as if you are a fly, getting reminded in the process that this is a game for adults. Kerala’s own Priyadarshan got the latter treatment, when he tried to inject himself into My Name is Khan controversy.

My Name is Khan had all the ingredients of a Bollywood pot boiler – it had communal problem, international problem, cricket problem, violence etc. So in that charged up climate, Priyan’s comment – that it’s all publicity hype – was not recieved kindly by Bollywood shenanigans. This is a season for apology(for example Jayaram offering apology or AMMA demanding apology from Thilakan) and Priyan wasted no time in genuflecting.

Now, to give Priyan due credit, let us look what happened to My Name is Khan post release. Movie matched 3 idiot’s opening collection of 90 crores and sank after that. To sum it up, publicity did help the movie initially.

Guess who is having the last laugh?

The Malayalam director is also pleased about the fact that he beat off competition from none other than film legend Adoor Gopalakrishnan, also from Kerala, who won his seventh National Award, the Best Director nod for his film Naalu Penungal. “Adoor is a legend and the fact that I will receive an award in the same ceremony itself is a thrilling thing. And to top it off I also beat him as a competitor, What could be better,” says Priyadarshan who said that the awards came as a surprise. [This award proves all the naysayers wrong: Priyadarshan]

Next, Ousepachan. Finally he won his first national award, apparently after missing it narrowly for Unnikale Oru Katha Parayam and Freaky Chakra. The uniqueness of the music for Ore Kadal was:

that are all composed in one raga – Shuba Panthuvarali. The evocative, poignant numbers sung by singers like Bombay Jayashri, flautist Naveen Nair, Sujatha, G. Venugopal and youngsters Vineeth Sreenivasan and Swetha, and the composer himself, had enhanced the mood of the film and the theme.

The music composer is all praise for the director of the film, Shyamaprasad, who suggested that he compose all the songs in one raga to retain and accentuate the mood of the theme. To ensure that the songs did not sound monotonous, he “decided to vary the shruti and tempo” of the songs.

“It was a challenge for me. It is not a difficult task to compose songs in certain ragas like Mohanam or Kalyani but Shuba Panthuvarali is a difficult raga and so the director wondered if it would prove to be a difficult task. But, surprisingly, I took only three minutes each to compose four of the songs. It was the title track sung by Naveen that I had to work on,” recalls Ouseppachan. [The Hindu : Friday Review Thiruvananthapuram / Interview : Scoring a winner]

For the same film, Shyama Prasad won the third national award for the best film in Malayalam

“It has been an evolution that has seen me grow as a director and as a filmmaker,” says Shyamaprasad. He adds that although he was disappointed when his film was passed over by the State film awards jury last year, he has no complaints “as awards are elusive and each jury differs and these things happen. However, I did feel bad for Ouseppachan when he did not win an award for his work then. His songs and background score were exceptional and conveyed the story so well. It was an organic part of the film. It was his spontaneity that impressed me.”[The Hindu : Friday Review Thiruvananthapuram : Waves of applause]

Adoor too won the National Award, but that is like saying – the sun rises in the east. Naalu pennungal also won the award for the best editing.

It is a very good feeling [laughs]. I make a film after a long gap. So, every time I make a film, I forget what had happened before. It is a new experience for me every time. So, when I win an award, it makes me very happy. For me, every award is fresh and new. [It's not just another national award for Adoor Gopalakrishnan: Rediff.com movies]

Less mentioned is the fact that Vipin Vijay won the Special Jury Award for a non-feature film for ‘Poomaram’

The award-winning ‘Poomaram,’ is Vipin’s tribute to Judy Grahn’s radical Metaformic theory and is based on several aspects of her book ‘Blood, Bread and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World.’ “It is a ‘mythographic’ audio-visual observation of the interconnection between ancient menstrual rituals and the development of agriculture, mathematics, writing, calendars (the lunar calendar apparently bears similarities to menstrual cycles) and other realms of knowledge, science and arts,” explains the filmmaker. [The Hindu : Friday Review Thiruvananthapuram / Interview : Accolades for experiments]

Interestingly the best actor award went to Prakash Raj and not Mohanlal for Pardesi. If you look at it, Pardesi handled a sensitive issue and had all those words which would appeal to a jury – alienation, thrisanku swargam, homelessness etc. Also Mohanlal portrayed, with Pattanam Rasheed’s help, three stages in the life of a character. Long time back the finalists for the best actor award as Nedumudi Venu for Minnaminunginte Nuruguvettam and Kamal Haasan for Nayakan. The jury gave the award to Kamal since he portrayed the life span of a character whereas Nedumudi was old throughout the movie. This time that logic did not fly.

If these are the questions that prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep, then you should watch these  interviews. (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

It’s fascinating, really, how this most commercial of film directors, here, treats melodrama like minefields to be carefully skirted. When Vengadam, influenced by the rabble-rousing of a communist, prepares a list of demands and hands it over to his employer, and when the latter crumples up the piece of paper and tosses it on Vengadam’s face, you’d expect at least a moment of simmering resentment. Instead, we cut away to a gentle family gathering where Vengadam discusses his daughter’s marriage. In stretches like these, Kanchivaram finds a lovely balance between art cinema and commercial cinema, respectful enough of our emotions by not making blatant attempts at manipulation, yet aware that it isn’t entirely a bad thing when a film affects you emotionally, and that delicacy doesn’t necessarily mean distance.[Review: Kanchivaram | Blogical Conclusion]

Priyadarshan  was another one of the few people I narrated the story to at the very outset. I expected him to make some suggestions to improve the script. His response to the story was silence — a silence that went on for several minutes. Then he started talking about something completely different. Then, I understood that he did not particularly enjoy the story. I was a bit worried by his reaction. I didn’t know why he responded differently from the others.Once we started shooting, Priyan visited me. Then, I asked him to peruse what I had written. He then said, ‘This is amazing’. Three days later, he gave me a ring and said, ‘Even now, the story and that scene haunts me. I have a request. I would like to have the rights to remake this movie in Hindi.’ [How Sreenivasan conceived Kadha Parayumbol]

Getting Shah Rukh Khan to act under his direction must be the highest point in Priyadarshan’s Hindi film career, but people are not taking kindly to him.

Mathew writes

The Wikipedia article about him contains detailed descriptions of all his plagiarized movies. His modus operandi consists of picking a classic comedy movie, preferably one by Siddique-Lal, changing the setting to Mumbai and throwing in a few songs in exotic locations with skimpily clad females in the background. He has brought shame and embarrassment to all movie-loving Mallus and for this reason, I confer upon him the van Kalip Demerit Thorn.

George Thomas says

Sanjay Gupta looks across the seas, but as long as the Malayalam film industry continues to thrive, the patriotic furacious filmophagous purloining P continues to be faithful to God’s own country; if he had to remake a foreign flick he’d try and find a Malayalam remake of that flick (either his own doing or someone else’s) and thus continue to remain faithful to the frond. Malamaal Weekly proved to be an exception only because the responsibility of remaking it in Malayalam seemed to have fallen on his trusty shoulders and our Arabian sea-facing Atlas shrugged and decided to do the Hindi remake first.He makes no mistake this time. He chooses last year’s hit Kadha Parayumbol, ropes in Irrfan to replace Sreenivasan (who also wrote the original) and HamStar Khan himself to substitute for Mammootty. The name’s Billo Barber and it promises lots of laughter. kisii ke waade pe kyo.n aitabaar ham ne kiyaa, wrote Sahir. I agree.

1. First the original starring Shobana, directed by Fazil

2. In the Kannada version P. Vasu asks Soundarya to walk as if she is in a park.

3. Thinking that the butchering was not upto mark, P. Vasu decides to shine some lights into Jyothika’s eyes in the Tamil version.

4. No lights or other gimmicks in Priyadarshan’s version, but Vidya Balan is supported by two actors who don’t know acting.

5. Now to cleanse the brain, watch the original once more.

At the end of it, we feel this movie should not have been remade, but subtitled and released. Manichitrathazhu experts, your comments are solicited

Note: If you are reading this article in your mail reader, you will not be seeing the video clips. Click on this link.

Soon he will run out of popular contemporary movies and then what can he do? If Priyadarshan stops making remakes, then Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav will be forced to act in one of those Yash Chopra/Karan Johar type movies where the hero and the heroine sing songs to each other standing in two separate helicopters flying over the Alps.

Our suggestion is that Priyadarshan should start remaking some Malayalam classics and what better way to start than with a remake of Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha. Obviously Akshay Kumar will play Chanthu and his martial arts experience will come in handy in the sword fighting scenes. For the role of Aromal Chekavar, it has to be Suneil Shetty. Paresh Rawal can play the role of Aringodar and Rajpal Yadav can play a horse, while we cannot think of anyone other than some model who cannot act in the role of Kunji. Priyanka Chopra can be Unniyarcha whose martial arts prowess was seen in Don and Kareena Kapoor can do the Unni Ganapathi song.

MT’s poetic lines will be difficult to translate, but we are sure Neeraj Vohra knows as much Malayalam as any one of us now and more than the hosts in the Malayalam Channels. One of the tense scenes in the movie is when Unniyarcha’s son comes to seek revenge. That scene could go like this.

Chanthu: Kaun He be tu?
Subtitle: Who are you?

Unniyaracha’s son: Mei tere ko tapakne ko aaya re. Yamraj samjho.
Subtitle: I have come to kill you. Think Yamraj.

(Paresh Rawal pops in gigles, and runs away)

Chanthu: Oh tu mera beta hai jo paida nahi hua
Subtitle: Yes, it is difficult to translate pirakkatha poya makan.

(Rajpal Yadav pops in gigles, and runs away)

Unniyaracha’s son: Oh! I can’t stand your Hindi. I will fall on the sword and die myself.
Subtitle: Tumhara hindi khatarnak hai. Mein yunhi chala chala

(U’s son commits suicide. Chanthu smiles at the camera. Random models pop in a swing their body at the camera along with Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav)

Once he is done with Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha, Priyadarshan can remake another classic, Chemmeen with Akshay Kumar playing Pareekutty. Palani will be played by John Abraham and Karuthamma will be a model who cannot act. The towering role of Chembankunju will be played by Paresh Rawal supported by Suneil Shetty the whale and Rajpal Yadav the boat.

One of the memorable songs in the film is Manasa Maine VaRooo, sung by Manna Dey with a strong Hindi accent and acted rather pityfully by Madhu. In the Hindi version, Akshay Kumar will look at aquamarine water in the beaches of Mauritius and will emote the Hindi version for a song sung by Vineeth Srinivasan and Rimi Tomy with the song of fishermen in the chorus by Jassie Gift.

Dil Ke Mynah, aa jaa aa jaa aa jaa
Meeta kuch, de deee, de deee, de deee

(a rapper steps in: “Yo! ppl, this is the story of Parekutty, kutti, kutti, and Karuthamma, amma, amma…” while a group of fisherwomen led by Mallika Sherawat do flamenco in the background.)

Our suggestion to Priyadarshan is that there is much fish in the water, which means that many many Malayalam movies to be remade starting all way from Vigathakumaran. He should not stop remaking because of a few failures or because a few Malayalee directors are jumping on a sword like Chanthu after watching their movies being butchered in Hindi. But then it could be a double edged sword, if all the directors commit suicide in Malayalam for there will be no movies for remake.

It is all about choosing a movie and adapting it to Hindi sensibilities, Maybe Hindi people don’t like classy stuff like Manichithathazhu. If so, he can try remaking some Jayan movies in Hindi, with Akshay Kumar starring as Jayan and Rajpal Yadav as Jayan’s muscle.