Kumaran Asan’s ‘Karuna’ to become vasavadatta on celluloid
As one of the romantic poets of Malayalam, Kumaran Asan’s name is familiar to almost every Malayalee, and now ‘Karuna’, one of the great poems by this Mahakavi of Malayalam is to be adapted for the silver screen.

Vasavadata, produced by Prajapathi Pictures and scripted and directed by Shyamnath, would be an attempt to recreate the story with a critical interpretation of Karuna. Donning the lead role of the Buddhist monk Upagupa will be Boban Alummoodan, while Banupriya will play the title role of Vasavadatta. Tamil actor Mansoor Ali Khan and Cochin Haneefa too are to play important roles in the film.

Shyamaprasad to focus again
on Indians abroad
After Kallu Kondoru Pennu, which had focussed on Gulf Malayalees, director Shyamaprasad is again focussing on Indians abroad in his new venture Pravaasi, to be produced by Bhavachitra, which earlier produced Kallu Kondoru Pennu too. Suresh Gopi is to play the lead role. Discussions are on and things are yet to be finalized.

Kunchacko Boban-Urvasi to star in
Satyan Anthicaud-Sreenisan film
Kunchacko Boban, who’s identified as a lover-boy seems to be on the verge of taking a new turn in his acting career with some meaningful roles. (He has already bagged the role of Aromalunni in P.G.Viswambharan’s Puththooram Puthri Unniyaarcha.) This young star of Malayalam cinema has bagged the lead role in the next film by director Satyan Anthicaud.

Satyan Anthicaud, who is a favourite among the audience, especially the family audience, on account of making films with subjects closer to the common man’s heart, is one of the most popular filmmakers of Kerala. Satyan Anthicaud’s latest venture, to be scripted by none other than noted actor-director Sreenivasan, has Urvasi too in a major role and it is considered that Urvasi, who has not been seen in films for quite a long time, would stage a comeback with this film. Shooting for the film will commence in January and it will be released during Vishu.

Bali and Sugreeva to fight it out in Menon’s new film
Almost everyone who’s read Ramayana knows who Bali and Sugreeva were. They were the two brothers and kings of the Monkey Kingdom of Kishkinta in the great epic by Valmiki, the saint poet.

Noted actor-director and National award winner Balachandra Menon’s new venture Bali Sugreeva Yudham has Mammootty and Jayaram donning the lead roles. Sreenivasan too is playing a key role in the film, to be scripted and directed by Balachandra Menon and produced by Govindankutty under the banner of G.K.Films International.

Suresh Gopi for the first time in Rajasenan film
Rajasenan, who has to his credit many hit films, usually light, humorous ones, has decided to make a film with Suresh Gopi in the lead, following his recent release Darling, Darling. The film, which will be mix of emotions and action, will be produced by Radhakrishnan under the banner of Jayalekshmi Films.

P.G.Viswambharan doles out a few surprises
Director P.G.Viswambharan is ready to open his bag of surprises. His new film Puththooram Puthri Unniyaarcha, produced by K.Ramakrishnan under the banner of Shyni Films, is going to be surprise package. The first surprise is that Vani Viswanath, who has been identified mostly with modern action-oriented roles (with of course a few exceptions), is doing the title role of Unniyaarcha, the valiant heroine of Vadakkanpaattu, the folklore of the Malabar. The second and bigger surprise is that Kunchacko Boban is for the first time doing a different role, that of Aaromalunni. And it is after a rather long gap of time that Usha Khanna, noted music director of Hindi Films, is composing music for a Malayalam Film. (Usha Khanna, who had done the music for Moodalamanju earlier is popular with the people of Kerala.) Besides Vani and Kunchacko Boban, Puththooram Puthri Unniyaarcha has Siddique, Devan and Jagadeesh amongst others in the cast. Lyrics are written by Yusuf Ali Kechery and the script is by Shatrughnan. The shooting for the film has already started at Cheloormana in Chittoor. (Cheloormana had also featured in the recently released Valiyettan as the hero’s ancestral home.)

Jayaram to become Kunjan Nambiar in Jayaraj film
Kunjan Nambiar, whose name is closely associated with the cultural heritage of Kerala, is one of the most revered names in the realm of Malayalam poetry. Late Bharathan, one of the noted directors of Malayalam, had cherished a desire to make a film on this great immortal poet. But fate intervened and Bharathan passed away, leaving his dream unfulfilled. And now, as a tribute to Bharathan, noted director Jayaraj has decided to make a film on the poet. For Jayaraj too, it is going to be a dream-come-true since he too has been thinking of making this film ever since the passing away of Bharathan, who has been a guru to him. So the film is going to be a ‘gurudakshina’ as far as Jayaraj is concerned.

An interesting thing about the film is that actor Jayaram, who has mostly been identified with comedy and family stuff, is doing the title role of Kunjan Nambiar. Jayaram is thrilled about it. The main challenge facing the makers of the film is that there is not much recorded material on the poet or his life. It is not even known as to how Kunjan Nambiar looked like. It is for the filmmaker to sift through the poet’s work and form a picture about him.

Unni R Nair