MALAYALAM
Darling Darling
Comedy of a different kind
Vineeth and Dilip are acting together for the first time in Darling Darling, directed by Rajasenan, who has given hit films with Jayram. Darling Darling is a comedy revolving around two friends, Kochukurup and Unnikrishnan, whose family members are also friends. Kurup’s son, Kochukurup, who owns a store selling women’s fancy items, decides to assist his salesman Manukuttan to elope with Sarasu, the daughter of Unnithan, but unfortunately, Manukuttan does not turn up and Kochukurup is caught with Sarasu by Unnithan. Kochukurup refuses to marry Sarasu and the two families turn bitter enemies. Kochukurup decides to go to Bangalore and stay with his friend Aniyankutty. Aniyankutty transforms Kochukurup into a city slicker. The two friends meet Padmaja and this gives a new turn to their relationship.

Vineeth plays Kochukurup, while Dilip essays the role of Aniyankutty. Kavya Madhavan is Padmaja. Newcomer Shalu plays Sarasu, while Sarath enacts the role of Manukuttan. Janardhan is Unnithan and CI Paul is Kurup. Jagathy Srikumar, Oduvil Unnikrishnan, Indrans, Cochin Hanifa, Sukumari and Ponnama Babu are the other artistes in the film. Produced by VJ Creations, the film has music by Ousephachan and cinematography by KP Nambiathri .

Cover Story
Suresh Gopi and Tabu teamed
Tabu, who acted in Priyadarshan’s Kala Pani, teams up with Suresh Gopi in Cover Story, directed by GS Vijayan. This action thriller is about the adventures of Vijay, a news reporter of a TV channel. Vijay, together with police commissioner Anand, exposes several shady goings on in the town. This infuriates a very powerful lobby which wants to stop the investigative duo. On several occasions, Vijay and Anand find Jasmine at various places they visit as part of their investigations. This mystery girl gradually becomes the fiancee of both. Whether this is a ploy to break up the duo forms the story.
Suresh Gopi enacts Vijay, while Biju Menon portrays the role of Anand. Tabu plays the role of Jasmine. Nedumudi Venu, Rajan P Dev, Nasar, Janardhan, NF Varghese, Sai Kumar, Sidik and Risbava are the other artistes. Being produced by Revathi Kala Mandir, the film has music by Sarath, lyrics by Girish Puthencheri and cinematography by Venugopal.

CI Mahadevan Anchu Aadi...
Cochin Hanifa in title role
KK Haridas directs CI Mahadevan Anchu Aadi Naalu Inch, a comic thriller in which Cochin Hanifa plays the title role of CI Mahadevan, who goes to a village where a bomb blast in a school bus has created terror in the hearts of the villagers. Mahadevan is sent to investigate this bomb blast. He is being assisted by a bunch of policemen working in the local police station. These policemen are more concerned about their personal matters than the problems faced by the public. How Mahadevan unravels the mystery behind the blast with the help of these policemen is the crux of the story.
Jagathy Srikumar plays a police head constable. Kannada actress Shruthi is the the heroine of the film. Being cinematographed by Utpal V Nainar and with music by Benny Ignatius, the film is produced by Ishwarya Productions.

TAMIL
Maruneethi Murali, Pratiksha teamed
Murali and newfind Pratiksha star in Maruneethi, directed by J Thampi Ramaya and produced by GR Films. It is the story of a rustic youth (Murali) and his friend (Vadivelu), who owns a sizeable land holding in the village and cultivates vegetables which they sell to a wholesale merchant in the city and earn good income. Once, on a trip to the city and after the usual sale, the duo decide to go in for a bash. Sensing that the village lads are loaded with money, a few city thugs grab their bag containing the cash and run away. They are chase by Murali, who bashes them up and recovers the bag. However, he finds that the bag is empty and he asks Vadivelu as to why he created a hue and cry when the thugs ran away with the bag. Vadivelu then takes out a photo from the bag. The photo is that of his uncle and this photograph unfolds a story which involves Murali in a new adventure.
Napolean, Nasar, GR Nambirajan, Mumtaz, Sithara, Kovai Sarla and Pallavi are the other artistes in the film. Music is by Deva, while cinematography is by Balamurukan.

Budget Padnabham
Prabhu, Ramya Krishna teamed
Prabhu plays the title role of Budget Padnabham, an employee in a private firm, who lives frugally despite his high salary because of his early days when, as a kid, he was living in luxury and his mother, who lead a lavish life, finally got into debts and now the burden of clearing the debts is on him. Ramya Krishna, who works with him, advises that the best thing for him would be to marry a rich girl who would give a big amount as dowry which could clear off his debts. This idea interests him and he begins the search for a rich girl. What happens during his search and how it ends forms the rest of the exciting story.
Directed by TP Gajendran, the film has cinematography by KB Ahmed, music by SA Rajkumar and story and screenplay by Prasanakumar. The film is produced by KRG.

Poove Ponn Poove
Ishaq Hussaini, Abitha teamed
Ishaq Hussaini, the brother of Sihan Hussaini, the karate expert and owner of the security services for the elite in Chennai, has after Kanmani Unkahe and Jayram, enacted the role of a comic hero in this film. The earlier two were action films and he had modelled himself on his brother but now he seems to have changed the track by deciding to play the role of a comic hero. Abitha, who starred in the hit film Sethu, plays his leading lady.
Directed by debutant Purushothaman, the film has music by Suresh Jaypar. Ponnamblam, Devipriya, Chaplin Balu, Rakul and Raviraj are the others in the starcast. Cinematographed by Kishor Kumar, the film is produced by GRS Films.

Bharathi
Vasanth and Shankar to direct
Media Dreams next ventures
Pentafour, the leaders in graphics and computer software, have entered the TV and film fields in a big way with the launching of NUM TV which is the broadband internet that gives all the TV channels in India to the NRIs in India and the advantage is that the overseas Indians who miss their programme can see it whenever possible. Apart from films, internet rights are being procured and subscribers will get to see the films on the broadband. Now in their own production venture, the first of the series is Bharathi, directed by Gyan Rajasekharan.
The film, which stars Sayaji Shinde in the title role of the legendary poet, with Devyani enacting the role of the poet’s wife, has music by Illayaraja. HMV, who have acquired the rights, released the audio at a function in Chennai. Mani Ratnam released the first audio cassette and writer Sujatha received it. Media Dreams have four more projects lined up. The prestigious project is the one which marks the coming together of Shankar and Kamal Haasan after Indian and with 75 percent of the film having graphics work done by the parent company who did the graphics for the Jeans (Prasanth’s double role). Other projects are a children’s film directed by Singeetham Srinivasa Rao and a trilingual film (Hindi, English and Tamil) by the same director, plus a film directed by Vasanth. Already, Media Dreams are producing Kathai Neram directed by Balu Mahendran

Aditya to star in a Vikram Bhatt film
Aditya, who starred in Unnakahe Mattum directed by Chinni Jayanth, gets a break to play the second hero in Vikram Bhatt’s film starring Fardeen Khan and Rani Mukerji as also a Tamil film produced by Satyajothi Thiagarajan. Though there was a feeling in certain quarters that Aditya’s debut role as a meek guy, despite his handsome looks and physique, was not the correct choice, the actor himself feels to the contrary. “I had been doing the rounds of production offices for the last two years and when I met Mani Ratnam, he told me to develop my body. It was when our family friend Rakesh Sareen, the financier of films, told me to meet Chinni that I got this offer and I am indebted to him for taking a risk and casting me in the hero’s role,” says Aditya.
Though he studied in Mumbai and completed the course at Roshan Taneja school of acting, Aditya felt that he had a better foothold in Chennai because his grandpop AK Chopra, the renowned choreographer, and his uncle Sushil Bella, a special effects man, were working for 30 years at Prasad Studios.
Aditya had so much confidence in his debut film that he took up its distribution in Kovai district. “We are people who are exposed to showbiz. My mother Beena was Miss India in 1972 at the Femina Contest and came fifth in the Miss Universe contest. My family, after seeing my debut film, has decided that they will produce a film in Hindi and Tamil with me as hero”, says Aditya with confidence.

Vaishnavi
Battle against evil forces in college
Debutants Amritha, Rajesh Surlas, Kamlesh, Shalu and Aditya play the lead roles in Vaishnavi, a campus romance being produced and directed by MR.
The film is about Vaishnavi, a college student who learns that her friends are being lured to a club run by the college correspondent and later getting addicted to drugs and liquor and ending up in prostitution. The correspondent, who has a goonda network, is able to overcome all opposition. Vaishnavi decides to enter the club to investigate when the goondas surround her. In a surprise move, she resists and fights the goondas and drives them out. She destroys the furniture in the club. The owner laughs at her saying that he wanted to destroy the old furniture so that he could have a posh club but he is surprised when Vaishnavi shows him a government order prohibiting him from running a club near the college.
The story highlights the battle against the evil forces that corrupt the youth. Amritha plays Vashnavi. Music by Jayan Selvam and cinematography by Ganesh Raju are the other credits.

Sangeetha Rajan creates a record!
Sangeetha Rajan, known in Malayalam filmdom as SP Venkatesh, has created waves by recording nine songs in one day for the Tamil film Ithu Mudivithillai, starring Bob Ganesh and Vichitra. The feat was possible because Rajan spent hours composing and tuning the songs and its score as well as training the singers before going in for the actual recording. The lyrics written by Piraisoodan have been sung by Mano, Anuradha Sriram, Sirakazhi Chidambaram, Harini, Krishnaraj and Raju Prabhakar. The music audio has already been released.
Speaking about the recording, Rajan said that if a music director did preparatory work before coming to the recording room, he could save costs for the producer. He adopted the system because Kerala filmdom was always keen to reduce costs and it was his speed, combined with quality, that has endeared him to the Kerala film industry. He hoped that the Tamil filmdom, too, would welcome him.
Ayyappa Prasad

TELUGU
Chinna
Songs recorded
Thespian Dasari Narayana Rao recorded two songs for Dasari Mass Media’s Chinna under the baton of music director SA Rajkumar at AVM RR theatre.
Starring Dasari Arun Kumar and Akanksha in the lead, Dasari says Chinna is the story of a youth with a national outlook. “He is a role model for today’s youngsters. Patriotic and out to save the nation’s property from the destructors, the hero, a post graduate, does not wait for a job. Instead, he seeks self employment by running a restaurant near a women’s college. Here, he meets the heroine, Akanksha. Besides romance, good music, comedy and entertainment, there is a message in the movie,” says the veteran director, who, besides producing and directing the film, has penned the dialogues and lyrics. And he plays dad to the hero, too.
“It is a delicately poised role, that of a road transport bus driver, who is patriotic. The role has all the shades to it — sentiments and emotions, combined with lighter moments,” says Dasari, who has completed 25 per cent of the shoot in the first schedule. By September end, he plans to complete the film so as to release it for Dassera.
Jayasudha, Sangeetha and Kota Srinivasa Rao are in the cast. LB Sriram also plays a crucial role.

Abhi
A dubbed version
IV Sasi’s Shradha is being dubbed into Telugu as Abhi by Basha Jubilee Pictures. Mohanlal, Shobana and Indraja are in the lead. Producer Srinivasa Raju says, “We are happy that our hero has bagged the national award. Mohanlal plays the role of a youth caught between the terrorists and the police. Shobana plays his wife, while Indraja is cast as a police officer. Ramani Bharadwaj has scored music and Thyagarajan has composed five spine-chilling action scenes. Arun Pandya plays a negative role, in this action drama”.
D Vanamaali has written the lyrics. Vaddi Ramanujam and Dasarraju Ravi are at the helm of production affairs with A Simhachalam as executive producer. The film is presented by Ramakrishnam Raju.

Narasimha Reddy
Another remake
The Suresh Gopi-Sangeetha starrer, Vallanoor comes to the Telugu screen as Narasimha Reddy. Producer KV Rathna Rao commenced the Telugu dubbing of this Malayalam blockbuster at Joy Recording theatre, Chennai, on July 28.
According to Rao, “We have earlier made Police File starring Suresh Gopi and Sangeetha in the lead. That was a runaway hit. We hope to repeat the success. There is a lot of Telugu nativity in this movie, which is akin to Rayalaseema faction fights. There are seven such fierce fight sequences between two rival families. Suresh Gopi is at his best representing one such family.”
Srividya, Tilakan and Mohanlal Raj are also in the cast. Music by Venkatesh, editing by Sai Kumar and story, screenplay, direction by Joshi are the major technical credits. The film is presented by MD Masthan Khan. Incidentally, this dubbed venture has gone internet with promos on

Kaamaathma
An horror film
Sri Ram Art Creations’ Kaamaathma is the dubbed Telugu version of the Malayalam film Rakkilikal. A sex-horror film, the producers of the Telugu version are confident of its success in Andhra Pradesh, as the film not only titillates, but also provides edge-of-the-seat excitement with a ghost taking vengeance.
“The first copy is ready and the business is encouraging. Vimal Raj, Shakeela, Lekha Pandey and Sindhu are in the lead. Sai Ramesh has written the Telugu dialogue for this movie which has been edited by Mani. Background score is by Satya. AT Joy has cranked the camera besides directing the film that is due for release in the last week of August.

Naresh