Food seems to be the flavour of the season in Mollywood. Following food-based hits such as Salt N’ Pepper and Ustad Hotel is Thomson’s Proprietors: Kammath & Kammath in which Mammootty and Dileep play brothers.
Proprietors: Kammath & Kammath Mammootty and Dileep have worked together in films such as Sainyam , Kaliyoonjal , Megham , Rakshasa Rajavu and Twenty 20 .
“The affection between the two brothers who speak Malayalam with a heavy Konkani flavour is perhaps a highlight of this film,” says Thomson, the director of Karyasthan .
Scripted by Siby K. Thomas and Udayakrishna, the film tracks the amazing journey of Raja Raja Kammath (Mammootty) and Deva Raja Kammath (Dileep) from a small wayside eatery (‘thattu kada’) to a restaurant chain.
“Their roots are in Goa but the family had to flee Goa when the Portuguese arrived. The family reached Malabar, and finally settled in Kochi, where they started their own business,” says the director.
Their story takes a curious turn when they try to buy ‘Krishna Vilasom hotel’, an old restaurant in Palakkad. The brothers run into problems on account of a group of people who are opposed to them taking over the hotel.
Rima Kallingal and Karthika Nair play the heroines. Rima’s character, Mahalakshmi, is a municipal secretary and Surekha (Karthika) is her sister. The cast includes Narain, Baburaj, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Janardhanan, Sphadikam George and Vishnupriya.
Jayaram was initially cast in Kammath & Kammath but he had to opt out due to a clash in dates. As a result, certain changes were made to the script and Dileep who was supposed to play another character was pencilled in to play the younger brother, with Narain joining the cast.
“The mutual admiration between the brothers is heartening. Whenever they talk, one will praise the other and vice versa,” says Dileep, about the two lead characters who also dress alike. The actor is on a roll with back-to-back hits behind him, including last year’s blockbuster movie Mayamohini.
He adds: “Mammookka has used various accents to perfection in some of his well-accepted films, while I have been trying to experiment with my appearance in movies. Here, both of us speak a mix of Konkani and Malayalam.”
Dhanush’s entry
Tamil hero Dhanush makes his entry into Malayalam films, with a cameo role. “The brothers usually make it a point to inaugurate any new branch in Kerala themselves. They, however, wanted a celebrity from Tamil Nadu to open their new restaurant in Coimbatore, which they feel is a good marketing strategy. So, they invite Tamil superstar Dhanush to inaugurate the restaurant,” narrate Siby and Udayakrishna.
Dileep is all praise for Dhanush and says that “he is a wonderful human being. Dhanush readily agreed to do this role and it was so exciting to share the screen with him.”
The scenarist duo is known for their loud, colourful comedies. Mayamohini,
“There are four songs in this film and yes, it’s colourful in that sense. The focus is on situational humour,” say the scenarists, who will team up next with director Johny Antony and Mohanlal.
