Monday, August 22, 2011

2011 (10 movies)

Makeup Man (2011)





Story

The film has Jayaram as Balu, a Master in Business Administration, who is amidst losses after floating an event management company. He is in such deep debt that he has to enter his own house after dark like a thief to avoid bumping into his many creditors. It is in this dismal situation that he is forced to take care of Soorya (Sheela), who is madly in love with him and has fled from her home before her marriage to be with him. Balu’s only company in the city is a film production manager Kichu Manjaly (Suraj Venjarammoodu), who arranges their stay in the hotel room allotted for a new heroine of the movie. Confusions galore follows and Soorya is forced to act as the new face and soon she is selected as the heroine of the new film ’Cindrella’ by director Siddharth, which is under production. The director changes her name to 'Anamika' and in order to stay close with her, Balu takes the role of her personal makeup man. After that the couple manages to escape one difficult situation after other, until things take a severe spin just before the intermission.The basic storyline bears similarity to several films from the past, like Ram Gopal Varma's Rangeela, for instance. There are some nice moments in between but mostly, the story goes along on highly predictable lines and in a disturbingly slow pace.Kunchacko Boban and Prithviraj appear doing cameo roles, without making much of an impact to the story. With a rather ordinary script, the film develops in the absence of a definite direction or focus. The actors involved seem to be disinterested in the proceedings after a while. The visuals by Azhagappan are fine but the music by Vidyasagar doesn't help things a bit.The climax is where the film falters big time, and the court scene which goes on and on, isn't easy viewing material. There is an alarmingly high number of lowbrow moments here that lets the film just drift away from the viewers. The script very rarely runs deep, and the characters and the situations are jumbled up further with each passing minute.Makeup Man offers Jayaram the actor, nothing new and this is the Jayaram whom we have seen in quite a lot of films before. Sheela delivers a convincing performance and so does Siddiq. Kunchacko Boban and Prithviraj are around as well, in cameos.Anyway the movie was able to make a huge Initial collection due to th MultiStar effect.


Directed by Shafi
Produced by Rejaputhra Renjith
Written by Sachi-Sethu
Starring Jayaram
Sheela
Music by Vidyasagar
Studio Rejaputhra Films
Distributed by Rejaputhra Films
Release date(s) February 11, 2011 (2011-02-11)
Running time 150 minutes
Country India
Language Malayalam
Budget Indian Rupee symbol.svg2.5 crore (US$557,500)
Box office Indian Rupee symbol.svg6.5 crore (US$1.45 million) (in 11 weeks)





Four Friends (2011)

Plot

Roy (Jayaram), Amir (Jayasurya), Soorya (Kunchacko Boban) and Gouri (Meera Jasmine) come from entirely different backgrounds, but one thing that they have in common is cancer. Roy is a multi-millionaire; Amir is a small-time goonda; Soorya is a musician; and Gouri lives in distress, troubled by her stepmother.
Each of them is dying from the disease (blood, liver, bone, stomach cancer) and they all come for treatment to a plush hospital, Pratheeksha, run by Dr. Nandakumar (Ganesh).
Though they take some time to become friendly, they eventually become close. They decide to go to Malaysia to meet Soorya's girlfriend, because they want to be positive in their life.
There is a scene with Kamal Hassan, who gives a pep talk on how he lost some of his close friends to cancer, and gives the four friends some confidence.And at last surya dies.


Directed by Saji Surendran
Produced by Tomichan Mulakupadam
Written by Krishna Poojapura
Starring Jayasurya
Kunchacko Boban
Jayaram
Meera Jasmine
Kamal Hassan (cameo)
Music by M. Jayachandran
Cinematography Anil Nair
Editing by Manoj
Release date(s) October 28, 2010
Country India
Language Malayalam





Ithu Nammude Kadha(2011)

Plot

      Ithu Nammude Katha is the new Malayalam movie in which Asif Ali and Ananya playing the lead roles. This movie is the duplication of the recent super hit Tamil movie Naadodigal.

The movie tells about the story of three friends Vinod, Santosh and Kochumon who destroy their own lives when they attempts to get one of their friend Mahesh married with Aishwarya



Directed by Rajesh Kannankara
Produced by K. C. James
Written by Rajesh Kannankara
Starring Asif Ali
Nishan
Abhishek
Ananya
Amala Paul
Nimisha
Music by Mohan Sitara
Cinematography Vipin Mohan
Editing by V. Sajan
Studio The Media Window Creations
Distributed by Sree Gokulam Films
Release date(s) 28 January 2011 (2011-01-28)
Country India
Language Malayalam



Kayam (2011)

Plot
           Kayam tells the story of Choonda (Manoj K. Jayan) and Thamara (Shwetha Menon). Choonda is a fisherman. He is also the leader of the Kabaddi Team of the village.

Thamara is a native of the neighboring village. She has watched her mother being brutally raped and murdered. Tired with every man out there vying for her body, she flees with Choonda to his village.

Sasikuttan (Bala), leader of another Kabaddi team, contests with Choonda. Choonda realizes that Sasi is his brother from whom he had been separated for long. Sasi realises the truth as well, and stays back in the village. He has also fallen in love with a local girl Muthu (Aparna).

Directed by Anil K. Nair
Written by Viju Ramachandran
Starring

* Manoj K. Jayan
* Bala
* Shweta Menon

Music by Mohan Sithara
Cinematography Sadath
Editing by P C Mohanan
Release date(s) 7 January 2011 (2011-01-07)[1]
Country India
Language Malayalam




The Metro (2011)

Plot
             'The Metro' has as its tagline the very intriguing statement - It could happen to you! The film directed by Bipin Prabhakar talks of three seemingly dissimilar tales that converge at one point.

Nivin Pauly plays Harikrishnan who has arrived from Saudi Arabia to take part in his sister's wedding. He decides to run an errand for a friend in Saudi and is on his way...




The Metro
Language: Malayalam
Critic Rating: 2.0 stars (2.0/5)
Release Year: 2011
Cast: Sarath Kumar, Nivin Pauly, Bhavana, Bhagath, Beyon, Arun, Suraj Venjarammoodu, Suresh Krishna, Nishanth Sagar, G K Pillai, Jagathy Sreekumar, Shammi Thilakan, Sadiq, Anil Murali
Producer: Dileep
Director: Bipin Prabhakar
Music Director: Shaan Rahman




Arjunan Sakshi (2011)

Synopsis

Roy Mathew (Prithviraj), a young architect who has spent his entire life abroad, finally arrives in Cochin with dreams of starting a life afresh. But he soon realises that the city that he gets to live in is radically different from the one that he had seen in his dreams.[2]

By coincidence his individuality is misundertood for a witness to a sensational crime involving top brass of industrialists and political class. Roy has now got to prove not just his true self but also save himself and his dear ones from the looming threat but also set things right.
Directed by Ranjith Sankar
Produced by S. Sundarajan
Written by Ranjith Shankar
Starring Prithviraj
Ann Augustine
Nedumudi Venu
Jagathy Sreekumar
Mukesh
Vijayaraghavan
Biju Menon
Music by Bijibal
Cinematography Ajayan Vincent
Editing by Ranjan Abraham
Studio S.R.T. Films
Distributed by S.R.T. Release
Release date(s) 28 January 2011[1]
Country India
Language Malayalam


Urumi (2011)


Plot

The film starts with a short introduction to the history of Portuguese exploration in the in the Age of Discovery to India, referring the legendary landing of explorer Vasco da Gama on 20 May 1498 in Calicut, the kingdom ruled by Zamorins of Calicut. The typical Primary School teachers narration (by Malayalam actor K. P. A. C. Lalitha) is initially accompanied with Google Image Search on "Vasco da Gama", followed by stills from his journey and moving images at the end. The meeting of Vasco da Gama (Robin Pratt) with Zamorin with traditional hospitality, and the failed interview to produce any concrete results is also depicted. Then the celebrations of the greatest discovery till in Lisbon is shown (Vasco da Gama's expedition was successful beyond all reasonable expectation, bringing in cargo that was worth sixty times the cost of the expedition). In a party, da Gama is seen talking to his young son, Estêvão, who will later turn crucial character in the film.

The scene changes to a club in present day Goa, where we see two young men, Krishna Das (Prithviraj) and his friend, dancing. These two young men are running a music troupe and are completely unaware of the history or heritage of their land. From the agents of a multinational mining cooperation, Krishna Das knows that his ancestral property in Kerala leased out to a N. G. O. by his late mother is rich in minerals and is free to be sold as the lease period has lapsed. The company offers him a large of money as advance. Krishna Das is told that there some problems exist, that he has to convince the people running the N. G. O. for this transaction. When he reaches the plot, he is kidnapped by some tribal (who will have to vacate their lands, if the mining begins) men to cave deep in the forest, and where he meets their chief Thandachan (Arya). Thandachan explains to him that he is the descendant of Chirakkal Kelu Nayanar, and Thandachan resumes the narration.

The narration continues with Portuguese activities in India, and effects of Colonization on the Malabar Coast. In 1502, Gama commanded the 4th Portuguese Armada to India, a fleet of fifteen ships and eight hundred men, with the object of enforcing Portuguese interests in the east. On reaching India in October 1502, Gama started capturing any Arab vessel he came across in Indian waters. On his way to Cannanore when he had reached the northern parts of the Indian Ocean, Gama waited for a ship to return from Mecca and seized all the merchandise on it. The Portuguese chases the pilgrim ship down, which surrenders rather quickly, probably imagining that its master and they had enough money to ransom it off. But Vasco da Gama shrugs off all the offers.

The Nair (Nairs were fierce warrior clans in Malabar) general of the king of Kolathunad, Chirakkal Kothuwal (Arya), sents a Brahmin negotiator and his own son, Kelu, to the Portuguese ship São Gabriel for negotiations on Mîrî. But, da Gama rejects all peace talks and barbarously cut off the Brahmin's ears and sews ears of his dog on the same spot. He then ordered the hundreds of passengers be locked in the hold and Mîrî, and which contained many wealthy Muslim merchants — to be set on fire. It took several days to finally go down completely, and general of the king of Kolathunad, Chirakkal Kothuwal storms to São Gabriel to rescue his son, Kelu. But, on this charismatic attempt Chirakkal Kothuwal loses his life to the Portuguese, and only Kelu escapes devastated by his fathers loss. Vavvali, a Tamil Muslim boy, takes Kelu with him to his dwelling, and treats him as his own younger brother. Kelu forms an Urumi, specially made with the left over ornaments of the dead women and children of a Mecca Ship, Miri. He takes the oath that he wants to kill da Gama.

Then it shows a foreshadowing of Kelu (Prithviraj) and Vavvali (Prabhu Deva) as adults hunting rabbits in a forest somewhere in Kolathunad. Where they are confronted by some strangers trying to abduct Bala (Nithya Menon), the princess of Kolathunad. Kelu and Vavvali save the princess, but they are subsequently captured by the soldiers of Kolathiri, accompanied by the heir apparent, Bhanu Vikraman (Ankur Khanna) of Chirakkal. They are charged with attempted kidnap of the Princess and keeping foreign weapons such as pistol. Originally the pistol belonged to the real abductors, but the king's judgement was the execution by elephant. On the way, Princess Bala comes and reveals that these men are in fact saviors, not attempted abductors. He joins hands with the king to jointly kill vasco da gama and the remaining part forms the rest of the story
Directed by Santosh Sivan
Produced by Prithviraj
Santosh Sivan
Shaji Natesan
Written by Shankar Ramakrishnan
Narrated by K. P. A. C. Lalitha
Starring Prithviraj
Prabhu Deva
Genelia D'Souza
Nithya Menon
Jagathy Sreekumar
Alexx ONell
Music by Deepak Dev
Cinematography Santosh Sivan
Editing by A. Sreekar Prasad
Studio August Cinema
Distributed by August Films
Release date(s) March 31, 2011
Running time 160 minutes
Country India
Language Malayalam
Budget INR20 crores
Box office 67 million(6.7 crores in 52 days)-Malayalam box office


Nadakame Ulakam (2011)


Plot

Omanakkuttan (Mukesh), is a Bank Manager by profession. But he is very interested stage plays and he himself has directed and acted in many plays. He is approached by a film crew from town headed by Pavan (Suraj Venjaramoodu), to produce their debut venture. Omanakuttan who is a cinema aspirant, agrees to finance the film after he was offered the lead role. Eventually, he learns that neither Pavanan nor his associates know anything about film making. Omanakkuttan decides himself to script and direct the film. He completes the film successfully with a limitted cast but fails to find a distributor. To find a distributor, Omanakkuttan goes to Chennai but fate had something else planned for him there. His bag is stollen and when chasing the thief, he is hit by a car. Fortunately the car was that of an accomplished film producer and distributor (Siddhiq). After hearing the story of Omanakkuttan, he decides to distribute the film, which became a super hit in the box office.
Directed by Viji Thampi
Produced by M. K. Raveendran
M. K. Suresh
Written by Sajan Cholayil
Saseendran Vadakara
(dialogues)
Starring Mukesh
Vinu Mohan
Sarayu
Saranya Mohan
Music by Songs:
Johnson
Background score:
Bijibal
Editing by Manoj
Studio Sooryakanthi Creations
Distributed by Kalpaka Films
Release date(s) February 25, 2011
Country India
Language Malayalam


Gaddama (2011)


Plot

Razak Kottekkad (Sreenivasan) is a migrant social worker in Saudi Arabia who makes an effort to try and both identify "unknown Indians" whose bodies arrive at the mortuary and to secure their return back home.

Meanwhile, we are shown the story of Aswathi (Kavya Madhavan), who is a lower mid-class Malayali woman from Pattambi, Kerala. She gets married to a small-time goon, Radhakrishnan (Biju Menon) who confesses her about his pre-marriage life and assures a complete change. Unfortunately after a short period of happy life, he gets killed. Due to the financial constraints of her family and the untimely death of her husband, Ashwathi is forced to be the bread earner of the house and opts to go to the gulf. Usman (Suraj Venjaramood), who is the car driver of an Arab family, belongs to Aswathi's village and he arranges the visa for Aswathi and brings her to Saudi Arabia. She lands in Saudi Arabia and many surprises await her, starting at the airport itself. She is forced to wear a burqa at all times, as part of the dress code of the country. She is subsequently exposed to a rigid culture and a slavery-like vocation and is taken up under a sponsor to work for him as a maid.
Aswathi wandering in the desert for help

Aswathi had to face numerous troubles - sexual abuse and battery in the sponsor's house. Ashwathy is accompanied by Usman, who actually brought her to all the miseries. However, he indulges in a sexual affair with the Indonesian maid there and gets caught and is kicked out of the sponsor's house. Aswathi helps the other maid to escape the premises and in turn is tortured as punishment.

The story follows Razak, who tries to trace Aswathi who had mysteriously disappeared during an attempt to escape torture. On the parallel, we see Aswathi running into some good and bad people, eventually culminating in a deportation. After entering into much more troubles, she reaches Razak, who was actually in a search for her. He inquires her about the complete story. He brings miscreants in front of justice and eventually helps Aswathi to leave the damned place.
Directed by Kamal
Produced by P. V. Pradeep
Screenplay by K. Girishkumar
Kamal
Story by K. U. Iqbal
Starring Kavya Madhavan
Sreenivasan
Biju Menon
K. P. A. C. Lalitha
Sukumari
Suraj Venjaramood
Lena
Jaffer Idukki
Muralikrishnan
Manu Jose
Music by Background score:
M. Jayachandran
Songs:
Bennet Veetraag
Lyrics:
Rafeeq Ahamed
Cinematography Manoj Pillai
Editing by K. Rajagopal
Studio Anitha Productions
Distributed by Murali Films
Release date(s) February 4, 2011 [1]
Country India
Language Malayalam


Salt n Pepper (2011)


Plot

Kalidasan (Lal) works in the state archaeological department and is a food lover. His only companion is his cook, Babu (Baburaj). Manu Raghav (Asif Ali) is Kalidasan's nephew who comes to stay while looking for a job. Kalidasan has a boring life until he gets a mis-dialled phone call from Maya (Shweta Menon), a dubbing artiste living with her friend Meenakshi (Mythili). Maya rings to order a Dosa but gets Kalidasan instead. Their conversations do not go well at first, but a long-distance romance develops due to their common interest—cooking and food. Kalidasan is a born gourmet while Maya is indulging in culinary activities in memory of her dead mother. Kalidasan starts to let Maya into the secrets of baking with a multi-layered cake called "Joan's Rainbow".

Kalidasan and Maya both get the jitters before their first face-to-face meeting, as each becomes conscious of their own physical appearances, and both decide to send younger and better looking substitutes instead, Manu and Meenakshi. Neither Manu nor Meenkashi realise that they are both substitutes; Manu thinks that Kalidasan is really in love with Meenakshi, while Meenakshi thinks that Maya is in love with Manu. Manu and Meenakshi attempt to sabotage their older counterpart's relationship by telling Kalidasan and Maya that the people they met were unsuitable. Kalidasan and Maya both try to forget each other, but eventually they decide to call each other and meet anyway. Manu and Meenakshi decide to run away, and towards the end they discover the truth. Kalidasan and Maya meet each other and their relationship begins.
Directed by Aashiq Abu
Produced by Lucsam Cinema
Written by Syam Pushkaran
Dileesh Nair
Starring Lal
Asif Ali
Shweta Menon
Mythili
Baburaj
Vijayaraghavan
Music by Bijibal
Avial
Cinematography Shyju Kahild
Editing by V. Saajan
Studio Lucsam Cinema
Distributed by Lal Release
Release date(s) July 8, 2011
Running time 118 minutes
Country India
Language Malayalam