Dost
A film on friendship
After the success of his 25th film Melevaaryaththe Maalaakhakuttikal, director Thulasidas is on to his latest venture Dost. As the name itself suggests, the film is about friendship, and donning the roles of the two dosts are Dileep and Kunchacko Boban, who are coming together for the first time.

In Dost, Dileep is Ajith, a college student who doesn’t want himself to have any friends at all. And Kunchacko Boban plays Vijay, another youth who is bent on becoming Ajith’s friend. And Vijay wins over not only Ajith’s friendship but also the heart of Geethu, Ajith’s sister.

But this, as may be guessed, creates problems and Vijay is left to make a choice between friendship on one side and love on the other. Thulasidas is attempting, through Dost, to tell the story of true, sincere friendship.

Along with Dileep and Boban is Kavya as Geethu while Jagathy Sreekumar, Shiju, Shruthi Raj, Urmila Unni, Kalabhavan Mani and Kalpana do main roles in the film. Scripted by Sibi K Thomas and Udayakrishnan, the film has lyrics by S Rameshan Nair and music by Vidyasagar. Salu George cranks the camera for this film being produced by KP Kottarakara.

Praja
Mohanlal plays a don
It has been a long time since hitmaker Joshi and Mohanlal came together. The last time it happened was in No 20 Madras Mail, preceded by Naaduvaazhikal. And when now Joshi is making his 56th Malayalam film Praja, the superstar of Malayalam films Mohanlal is again playing the lead role, perhaps for the fifth time in a Joshi film.

Praja tells the story of Zakir Ali Hussain, who had, under circumstances, turned a criminal. And when he becomes a part of the underworld, Zakir Ali Hussain executes his works there with a daring perfection and rises to be a dreaded underworld don. But later he is fed up with all this and longs to quit. He wants to do away with violence and crime, and lead a peaceful life. But this isn’t going to be easy for Zakir Ali Hussain.

Mohanlal plays the role of Zakir Ali Hussain, a role that is very much likely to win him loud applause and assure a good box-office collection. Another major character, that of Thirumulpaadu, the friend cum confidante cum guru of Zakir Ali Hussain, is being played by Babu Namboothiri. Aishwarya plays the female lead while the cast also includes Biju Menon, Indraja, Cochin Haneefa, NF Varghese, Vijayaraghavan, Vijayakumar and Shammi Thilakan. Scripted by Renji Panicker, the film is too likely to have fiery dialogues. Lyrics by Gireesh Puthencherry are set to tune by MG Radhakrishnan. Praja is produced by Joshi and Renji Panicker under the banner of Mukhyadhara Cinema.

Unni R Nair>>>