Kerala Box Office 2012 So far - Hits & Misses - Exclusive Data

For the first time 10 years Malayalam films release count in a calendar year has crossed 100 [figures till October 19]. Til now about 120 films has been censored and among which 110 has made it to the theaters. In early 2000's it was with the help of 'Soft Porn' films Mollywood used to acheive this target, but today the scenario has completely changed. In the coming months we are expecting atleast 20-30 new releases which will make 2012 biggest year in 25 years.

Not just the release count but the total investment has also gone up. Last year it was about 200 crores, this year it will cross 300 crores for sure. The biggest budgeted, @ 20crores according to various media sources (UnConfirmed), 'Casanovva' released earlier this year. Revenue wise it has been a great year for Kerala Goverment and state owned Cinema Halls. It was due to Government's stern measures that Online Piracy of new release movies has been completely vanished. Plus the decision to grade theaters based on facilities forced theater owners to renovate their movie halls . All these helped in bringing  more people to the cinema halls.

The Result is evident in the Box Office performances of films released in 2012. According Kerala Film Producers Association about 14 films has earned the HIT tag so far, with Mayamohini being the biggest (2nd biggest ever after Twenty 20).

1.Mayamohini
2.Run Babby Run
3. Ordinary
4. Thattathin Marayathu
5. Ustad Hotel
6. Spirit
7. Grand Master
8. Mallu Singh
9. Trivandrum Lodge
10. Diamond Necklace
11. 22 Female Kottayam
12. Ee Adutha Kalathu
13. Second Show
14. Cobra

Apart from these about 15 other movies have entered the 'Safe' zone thanks to the increasing Satellite rights and low PPP (Production, Print & Publicity) costs

Multiplexes is slowly becoming a trend in Kerala too, more and more families who stopped going to theaters year back have started coming back to movies, thank to them. The Multiplexes at Ernakulam, calicut & Angamaly have helped a boost in collections eventhough the ticket rates are bit higher compared to other cities in India. But with about 20 Multiplexes, by all major movie chains, set to open in the next 2 years its even merrier time ahead.

Most of the Telugu dubbed & Tamil films failed set the box office on fire unlike last year, even though they still continue to get bigger theater count than most straight Malayalam releases. Nanban & Gajapokkiri could be regarded as the biggest hits (so far) in those categories, while Maattrraan took the biggest opening of 2012.

With 2 months to Go Hope that the hit count touch '20'


Source: Kerala Film Producers Association

Image Credits to ManormaOnline

Kerala Movie Releases This Week [Oct 26] - Paper ADs, Posters etc

Ayalum Njanum Thammil - Exclusive Movie Review

Directed by     Lal Jose

Produced by     Prem Prakash

Written by     Bobby Sanjay

Starring     

Prithviraj
Narain
Rima Kallingal
Samvrutha Sunil
Remya Nambeesan
Swasika

Music by     Ouseppachan
Cinematography     Jomon T. John
Editing by     Ranjan Abraham
Studio     Prakash Movie Tone
Distributed by     Century Films
Release date(s)    

    19 October 2012

Country     India
Language     Malayalam

Expectations

Any Lal Jose movie will carry baggage of expectations, especially when he is returning after brilliantly beautiful film 'Dimaond Necklace'. The huge star cast, reminiscent of Lal Jose's 2006 Blockbuster 'Classmates' also added to the hype along with the trailer, songs, Posters & Stills. Also its scripted b the very talented Bobby-Sanjay duo.

Plot

Is the Journey of (Prithviraj) over times and shows how it transforms a irresponsible young guy to a very serious hard working honest Doctor, with the help of many characters that appear in his life at various time frames.

Lal Jose has done it again, after an excellent diamond necklace, he gives yet another outstanding product. ANT is one of the year's best. It is the best outing for most of those associated with the project, including Prithviraj. 

Prithvi has given his career best performance in ANT as Dr.Tharakan. the last time we saw the actor broke the shackles was in Indian ruppee, which also had a similar story outline.

Writers Bobby-Sanjay duo is back with a bang after a deabcle, 'casannova'. It's pitch perfect scriting, all elements in right proportions, without compromising and going over the top.

Direction is top class. Music & BG is outstanding, camera is topnotch, the scenic beauty of Munnar has never been captured by anyone like this. You will feel the chill even if u r watching the movie from a non-AC theater. 

The movie never drags. It tells what it intended to tell in a simple manner.

The events in the film happen over a period of 2 days, with flash back scenes inter woven beautifully. 

Prathap Pothan was outstanding as Dr.Samuel, another gem of a role after 22FK. Ramya, among the leading ladies gets better screen space and she has done a great job. Rima, Samvrutha, Narein also did their job well.

Its great to see film like these made in Malayalam. For movie lovers of all languages its a must watch. Its refreshing, entertaining and thought provoking. 

Go Watch IT ....

Verdict : VERY VERY VERY GOOD !!

4/5

BOX OFFICE - looking at the response of crowd after the film i think it will be a super duper hit....

Jawan of Vellimala - Exclusive Movie Review

Directed by    Anoop Kannan
Produced by    Playhouse
Written by    James Albert

Starring    

Mammootty
Sreenivasan
Mamta Mohandas
Asif Ali

Music by    Bijibal
Cinematography    Satheesh Kurup
Studio    Playhouse
Distributed by    Playhouse
Release date(s)    19 October 2012
Country    India
Language    Malayalam

Expectations

Expectations were huge from the moment the first look poster was launched. The writer is well known for giving intelligent entertainers giving a mystery/thriller feel to it. Also the Trailer, teasers, songs were interesting too.

PLOT

The story of Jawan of Vellimala revolves around a village called Vellimala , a dam, the people living there & Gopi Krishan (Mammootty) X-Military who is the pump operator in Vellimala Dam. Varghese (Sreenivasan) is a government employee at the Dam site and Koshi Oommen (asif Ali), another character reaches there for some personal need. Mamta Mohandas plays the role of a project officer at the Dam site. The story reveals the incidents happenning when these characters and the villagers meet together. The strange encounters GK had to face in the village, with some mysterious events happening around the dam forms the basic plot of JOV. How GK solves all the mystery and prove that he is 'brave' and a true jawan is the rest of the story

Evaluation

Another movie with over expetations fails to deliver. A movie which was said to be a thriller never thrills you, nor does Gopi Krishnan's plight makes you root for him. It is yet another half baked script by James Albert. The movie is not completely uwatchable either, it has its moments but provided by the supporting cast. The lead role played by Mammootty gets sidelined for mos ot\f the run time. Eventhough he gets his bit in the second half the damage was already done. Sreenivasan, Baburaj etc do provide quite few laughs. Mamta is wasted in an unsignificant role. Asif gets better scenes in the film, and as always he gives an average perfomance. Dialogues were good, but most of them mouthed by un-important characters, especialy the old man remembering the construction of dam.

Mammooty got a half baked role, so its not fair to blame him. He tried to overcome the short comings in the writing but didn't succees, the movie has a watchable first half, but its the second half especially the climax that ruins the party.

Direction was good. Music & BG were nice. Camera was top notch. Script is what fails the movie, and fails in the most important aspects ....

Looks like the long wait for Mammootty and his fans for an elusive hit will continue....

Verdict: Aerage

A Very Generous 2.5/5

With a budget of 6 crores, this one should be another flop for Mammooty & JAmes Albert

Student of the Year - Exclusive Movie Review by Sree Prasad Nair

 

Student of the Year - Exclusive Movie Review by Sree Prasad Nair

Directed by     Karan Johar
Produced by     Hiroo Yash Johar
Gauri Khan
Starring     Siddharth Malhotra
Alia Bhatt
Varun Dhawan
Music by     Vishal-Shekhar
Cinematography     Ayananka Bose
Studio     Dharma Productions
Red Chillies Entertainment
Distributed by     Dharma Productions
Release date(s)    

    19 October 2012

Running time     146 minutes [1]
Country     India
Language     Hindi

Theater - Abu Dhabi National Cinemas, UAE

18/10/2012 - 11.30 pm

Occupancy - 100% (All the evening shows were housefull) 

Karan Johar is famous for directing Bollywood's highest grossing films especially in overseas. Be it his smashing debut National Award Winning Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, (for wholesome entertainment in 1998) Kabhi Khushi Khabhie Gham, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna or My Name Is Khan, his films always leaves a message. All the above films he worked with his good friend Shahrukh Khan and both share 100% track record(though KANK & MNIK struggle to get the HIT status in India) All of their films worked wonders at the overseas box office. Student Of The Year is Karan Johar’s 5th film as a director and first film without Shahrukh Khan in the lead. This time for a change Shahrukh Khan is co-producing SOTY instead of playing the lead. Will this change really works ? Can Karan Johar make his film a success without Shahrukh Khan’s presence on it? Will his daring attempt to make a movie with newcomers in the lead roles a successful one?

Student Of The Year is about three friends : Rohan played by Varun Dhawan , Abhimanyu played by Siddharth Malhotra and Shanaya played by Alia Bhatt. Rohan is from a rich family but had a bad relationship with his own father. Shanaya is Rohan’s girlfriend since childhood and always worried about

their future just because of his flirting with other girls. Abhimanyu is from a middle class family and super confident about his positive future. He always gives tips to Shanaya to get Rohan back from other girls and somehow finally he develops a hidden crush for her. But one incident made significant changes in their life and destroy their friendship. There onwards their main aim is to get the prestigious Student Of The Year Trophy!

Positives : Director Karan Johan proved that he don’t need Shahrukh Khan’s presence on his film to make it a good watch. 

Without a doubt SOTY is one of the best film released this year. Be it direction, story, performance or music, SOTY is a brilliant film from Mr.Johar. He knows exactly what he gets with his films. Also running time of SOTY is perfect. A good ‘2hr 25min’ Karan Johar movie you rarely see. All his previous films were targeted mainly for families, this time he changed his style and made it an absolute festival film for the youth with a fast paced entertainmentplus good story. Ofcourse you can see bikini scenes and kissing scene in this Karan Johar film. But still you can see SOTY with your family.

Another plus point of the SOTY is it’s brilliant music & choreography of songs. Music by Vishal-Shekhar is brilliant and all the songs are foot tapping numbers. Radha and Ishq Wala Love are already chartbusters. Choreography by Farah Khan & Vaibhavi Merchant are just brilliant. Infact after Munni & Sheila, this will be Farah’s best work! Cinematography by Ayananka Bose is top class. I’m sure many of the one-liners and gay jokes are going to popular. 

It will be very difficult to point out the most brilliant performance from SOTY. Every single actor should be appreciated for their respective roles. David Dhawan’s son Varun Dhawan was an assistant director to his father & also the assistant director of My Name Is Khan. But SOTY proved that he don’t need to assist direction anymore. Varun is charming & confident, got good screen presence and above all an excellent dancer. He made a brilliant entry as an actor. He already won many female fans just with the films trailer and going to win many more hearts with this film. Siddharth Malhotra is not behind either. I would like to repeat the same mentions about Varun for Siddharth too. A real scene stealer and a confident debut. 

Watch out his fantastic entry scene in the film. Alia Bhatt (Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter) surprises everybody. When the first trailer comes out most of the people ‘including this writer’ feels that Alia – A big miscast in SOTY! She may be 19yrs, but her screen presence, dare to bare show & excellent acting made me to reverse my opinion about her. Cute, Bubbly, Sweet & Stunning in bikinis too. A smashing performance. I doubt many of you know that Alia Bhatt is the same cute baby girl acted as baby Preity Zinta in Akshay Kumar’s Sangharsh. 

Sana Saeed, child artist in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Salman Khan’s Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega is making an entry as an actress with SOTY and she did her jealous role very well. Rest of the new comers did their part well. I would like to add a special mention to Kayoze Irani (son of Boman Irani) His acting is just amazing. I bet you that last 10min dialogues of him to Rishi Kapoor, well U Guys Miss Those Standout Performance At Your Own Risk !!!. Good to see that Bollywood is offering many young talents this year. Arjun Kapoor, Ayushmann Khurrana, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Yami Gautam, Huma Qureshi, Esha Gupta, Ileana, Diana Penty & stars of the SOTY are only strengthening the DEBUT’S Presence in 2012! Tough Year For Jury To Select the New Comers!!! 

Rishi Kapoor as gay principal is very funny yet brilliant especially in the climax. Ronit Roy as College Coach is good. Ditto for Ram Kapoor as Varun’s Dad. It was such a pleasure to see one of my personal

favorite actress Farida Jalal after a long time in a small role with witty one liners. Manjot Singh of Oye Luck Lucky Oye was funny too. Rest of the cast played their roles well. 

I can’t find out any negatives about the film. Two back to back songs are there but good at the situations. Climax may turned out be a bit dragging for few, that’s about it… No harm done.

Overall, Student Of The Year is a well made film coming from Dharma Productions. Among Karan Johar’s best works and better than his previous two films. The film has all going for its favor = love, romance, songs, jealousy, good story and excellent performance plus great direction. It should do well at the box office and I’m sure it will. A 8-10 cr is on the cards with a weekend of 33crs. A Deserving Super Hit, Strongly Recommended !!! 

Verdict : A Brilliant Film For The Youth & Their Beautiful Family 

Rating – 4.5/5 

This Reviewer can be contacted on Twitter : @i_spn : https://twitter.com/i_spn

Suriya's Maattrraan - Exclusive Movie Review From Kerala

 

Directed by     K. V. Anand

Produced by     Kalpathi S. Aghoram

Written by     K. V. Anand, Subha

Starring     

Suriya

Kajal Aggarwal

Sachin Khedekar

Vivek

Music by     Harris Jayaraj

Cinematography     S. Sounder Rajan

Editing by     Anthony

Studio     AGS Entertainment

Distributed by     Eros International[1]

Thameen Movies (Kerala) [2]

Gemini Film Circuit (Overseas)

Release date(s)     12 October 2012

Running time     168 minutes 

Country     India

Language     Tamil

Expectations

KV Anand after 'KO', Suriya in double role, Kajal Aggarwal etc made me watch the film FDFS. But still expectation were on the lower side due to some negative reports which i got a couple of months back. So lets see how the 'Conjoined' twins movie finally turned out 'FOR ME'

Plot

Suriya plays Vimalan and Agellan, the conjoined twins, son(s) of Sachin Khedekar, owner of multi-million dollar worth children food company, and  Tara. Kajal Aggarwal is the girl they meet at a company function and both Suriya fall in love with. 'Volga' (played by an unknown Russian artist) is here investigating about various aspects of the company, for unknown reasons. Soon different people starts dying, most of them related to the food product company somehow. The rest of the story deal with how the mysteries of these deaths and their link with the 'food products' and Russians unraveled.

Story Evaluation

The movie had a good first half with some nice moments between twins, with Kajal etc. Liked the way the mystery angle was also told side by side. Interval twist was expected. Second half is where the movies loses its plot. Director/Writer tried a mix of too many genres in one, but having too many half cooked food items together will onlt spoil you stomach. The last 45mins the film nosedives with a silly climax. The Thriller becomes predictable too early into the movie which is also a big minus. Since i have zero knowledge in Zoology or anatomy or medical science i am not talking much about various 'logic' aspects which i felt sceptical

Other Aspects

As twins Suriya has given a very good performance, but the scope to extra-ordinary things were sadly not there in the film. Sachin & Tara also did great job, Kajal was average. KV Anand did a decent job on presenting a half baked script neatly. Cinematography was pleasing. The movie needs bit of trimming immediately, over runs by about 20mins. Music was average and the picturisation reminded of songs from KO. 'Kalmulaitha' looked similar to 'Illeana' from 'Nanban'as and as always KVA adds this avg song in the most unwanted place when it was already dragging big time.

The Motion Capture looked shady and VFX looked rushed, could see the actual person behind in many sequences, but since its first of its kind can be excused. Dialogues of Suriya were unclear in many sequences in first half, so as the dialogues of Kajal Translating Russian in 2nd half.

Overall its an over cooked & over sized meal, would have preferred a single plate meals instead

Verdict: 

Fans 3/5

Neutral 2.5/5

Box Office - Made in a huge budget, Eventhough they have done carpet bombing lack of festive season and avg WOM could affect the movie. Also the movie has been sold for record prices in all areas, so distributors are tend to loose money outside Tamil Nadu for Sure

One Time Watchable, Above Average Entertainer

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