Festivities at the marquee: Onam-time and Malayalam movie bonanza

With four big releases this week, will it be full house for cinemas in town?

August 30, 2017 04:33 pm | Updated August 31, 2017 07:38 am IST - Thiruvananthapuram

Nivin Pauly and Aishwarya Lekshmi in a still from Njandukalude Naattil Oridavela

Nivin Pauly and Aishwarya Lekshmi in a still from Njandukalude Naattil Oridavela

Onam has always been a season of rich pickings for the Malayalam film industry. Some of the biggest blockbusters in Malayalam were Onam releases and many renowned filmmakers still fondly reminisce about their festival fare. However, with the increase in releases and theatres, the importance of festival seasons seem to be on the wane. Nevertheless, there is always a buzz around films that release around Onam with many of the actors actively participating in film promotions and events.

This time around, titans of the Malayalam silver screen will clash at the box office during Onam. Four Malayalam films release during the Onam season and all have frontrunners of Mollywood jockeying for position.

A still from Pullikaran Stara

A still from Pullikaran Stara

If Velipadinte Pusthakam (VP) has the formidable Lal-Lal combination of Mohanlal and Lal Jose, Pullikaran Stara has thespian Mammootty joining hands with youngster Syam Dhar who came good with his first film 7th Day. The youth brigade is represented by Prithviraj and Nivin Pauly in Adam Joan and Njandukalude Naattil Oridavela (NNOI), respectively . Both are directed by newcomers and NNOI has been produced under Nivin’s banner, Pauly Jr. Pictures.

In a role of a teacher

What is interesting is that veterans Mammootty and Mohanlal are playing teachers in their films. If Mohanlal’s character Michael Idiculla is a professor in a college, Mammootty’s Rajakumaran is a teacher in a government school. “I have great expectations about the film. It is a movie for the family and so I think holidaymakers will enjoy the film and the characters will strike a chord with the viewers,” says Syam, who can’t stop gushing about the superstar and his work in the film.

A still from Velipadinte Pusthakam

A still from Velipadinte Pusthakam

It is great expectations that is giving Lal Jose some tense moments. Mohanlal is riding a wave with a string of hits behind him and Lal Jose is the director with the Midas touch. Naturally, expectations have reached feverish pitch on account of the Lal and Lal combo. “The story is the star in the film. Mohanlal steps into the shoes of the character with great ease and there was no attempt to cash in on his image. VP narrates a gripping story of a college in a coastal village,” adds Lal.

Prithviraj in Adam Joan

Prithviraj in Adam Joan

While both Syam and Lal Jose have had festival releases before, it is the first time Althaf Salim and Jinu V. Abraham are involved in the hype associated with festival releases. Jinu, scenarist of Masters and London Bridge , both starring Prithiviraj in the lead, is working with him again in his directorial debut, Adam Joan . While the teasers suggest that the film is a horror thriller or revenge drama, Jinu begs to differ. “It is about a young man’s journey to regain what he has lost. Prithviraj is Adam Joan, a planter,” says Jinu.

NNOI , on the other hand, is a full on entertainer. “It’s a small family drama told with lots of humour, more situational comedy than slapstick. It talks about how an incident brings them together, for better or for worse, to deal with the fall out. Nivin plays the London-based scion, Kurien Chacko. The events unfold when he is called back home,” says Altaf, a familiar face to audiences who watched Premam in which he appeared in a cameo .

While the filmmakers and the actors wait for the opening day to find out the viewers’ verdict, film writer and trade analyst Sridhar Pillai says that although Onam continues to be an important season for the Malayalam film industry and Malayalis, over the years, summer holidays have overtaken the festival season as the prime period to release films. “For one reason, all over India, families make the most of the summer vacation and with multiple releases all over India, that is the season favoured by many filmmakers. While the festival season has its aura, it is diminishing. A few decades ago, we did not have so many releases and so the opening day collection was tremendous. But now that has been diluted with the increase in number of releases, and the viewership gets divided between cinemas and television,” he explains.

Sridhar adds that cinema has stiff competition from the small screen and its deluge of non-stop entertainment. So, while Onam and the festival season evoke nostalgia in him, Sridhar feels that many big releases like Baahubali , which released on April 28 this year, are now looking at the summer vacations for release in theatres.

Neelima Menon, mediaperson and editor of online movie magazine Fullpicture, believes that the hype over festival seasons has taken a beating as there are several interesting releases all around the year. “It is true that the superstars have a dedicated fan following that will ensure a big presence on the opening day. The same goes for the young stars. But after that the film has to make an impression on film buffs to get the crowds to the theatres. Cinema is no longer the sole means of entertainment and that has made a difference to the crowds that once used to throng theatres,” she says.

Be that as it may. Come the holidays, the queues and the crowds just get bigger at the marquee. And then the masses decide the winner!

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