Peruchazhi - Biggest & Widest release ever !!

'Peruchazhi' will be distributed in 'Rest of India' markets by 'Fox Star India',  a joint venture between 20th Century Fox, one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of motion pictures and STAR, India’s media and entertainment company, both owned by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox. Sources confirm that it will be the widest and biggest release ever for a Malayalam movie in outside Kerala markets a record which is currently with Bangalore Days (105 screens & Mr. Fraud 100 screens). The film is set to cash in the the new found interest and wide reach of Malayalam films, thanks to 2 Blockbusters, Drishyam & Bangalore Days.

Peruchazhi will be having subtitles for Outside Kerala markets. The overseas rights also have been sold for record price. The theatrical trailer which was released recently is widely being appreciated and is one of the most watched Malayalam movie trailers. The film according to makers will be a treat for Mohanlal fans and a perfect Onam treat for Families alike. Film is co-written by 'Akkarakazchakal' fame Ajay Venugopal.
The post production works are now going on. Film will hit the screens on August 29th.

Peruchaazhi, a big budget feature film written & directed by the award winning filmmaker Arun Vaidyanathan is produced by Vijay Babu and Sandra Thomas under the banner Friday Film House. The complete actor Mohanlal will play in lead role as Jagannadhan alias Peruchaazhi, an Indian politician in USA. Portraying a new avatar with many interesting antics, he appears on screen with two assistants; Rayappan and Vayalar Varki who are laugh riots. The movie comprises elements of friendship, betrayal, love and revenge with a lot of humor.

Avatharam - All India Theaters List - Dileep, Lakshmi Menon, Joshiy

Avatharam - All India Theaters List - Dileep, Lakshmi Menon, Joshiy

Vishu & Easter Movie Premiers on Malayalam Channels

Vishu & Easter Movie Premiers on Malayalam Channels

Surya TV

 Kairali TV 

Arrambam (Malayalam dub) *Unconfirmed*

 

Mazhavil Manorama

 

Amrita TV

Asianet

Mad rush of releases @ Kerala Box Office Next Week

Vishu/Summer Releases at Kerala Box Office

Summer vacation has begun, but big releases are yet to hit the screens thanks to Parliament Elections, which falls in the state on April 10th. So all the biggies will be in a mad rush to grab theaters and eye balls from 11th.

 Gangster

Gangster is undoubtedly the biggest and most high profile release of this season. Four years in planning, the film finally hit the screens on April 11th. Nothing much about the film has been released to the public. The mystery around the film is creating a buzz amongst people. The trailer, posters have been trending in social media sites. Gangster is directed by Aashiq Abu, stars Mammootty, Nyla Usha, DJ Shekar, Aparna Gopinath, Kunjan etc.

Aprill 11th - Aan Mega Media Release - In 100+ screens

Trailer - 

Ring Master

 Dileep films no matter how bad they are tend to work in Summer Holidays, thanks to Dileep's hold amongst Ladies & Kids. Ringmaster is a Comedy-Thriller, where Dileep will play the role of a Dog trainer go gets into some troubles and is on rush to solve some mysteries. Film is directed by Raffi (of Raffi-Meccartin duo) & stars Honey Rose, Keerthy Suresh etc.

April 12th - Vaishaka Cinema - 80+ screens

7th Day

15th time Prithviraj will be playing a cop in his career. Another investigation thriller for him after Mumbai Police & Memories. 7th day deals with 'David Abraham' a middle aged cop unofficially investigating a case to youch a group of youngsters are tied up to. Film is directed by debutant Syamdhar

 & written by Akhil Paul.

April 11th - August Cinemas - 70 screens

Teasers

1 By Two

Arun Kumar Aravind is back after critically acclaimed 'Left Right Left'. Stars Fahadh Faasil, Murali Gopy, Honey Rose, Abhinaya & is written by noted writer Jeyamohan. Fahadh plays Circle Inspector Yousaf Marakkar& the story is about the cat and game mouse between Yousaf & characters played by Murali & Honey.

April 11th - Thameens Films - 50-60 screens

Trailer

 

Pauly Technic

'Pauly Technic' tells the story of Pauly & his techniques to get the better of Pushkaran, a local politician & his romance with Pushkaran's daughter, SI Aswathy. Is directed by M.Padmakumar and stars Kunchako Boban, Bhavana, Aju Varghese etc. Is written by 'Ordinary' writer Nishad Koya.

April 11th - 50-60 screens

Video Song

'Naan Sigappu Manithan' stars Vishal & Lakshmi Menon. Vishal will be playing Indran who is has a form of sleep disorder called Narcolepsy. Film is directed bu Thiru (Samar) & produced by UTV Motion Pictures & Vishal Film Factory. Will Release in TN on 11th, but Kerala release will be on 15th.

April 15th - E4 Entertainments - 50-50 screens 

Trailer

 

 

Allu Arjun's 'Lucky The Racer will not be releasing simultaneously with 'Race Gurram' (April 11th) due to unavailability of theaters. It might be pushed to April 25th where it will clash with Dulquer Salmaan & Nazriya's 'Samsaram arogyathinu Hanikaram'

Mollywood comes to a standstill in Satellite Rights Issue ?

There are about 10-15 General entertainment Channels (GEC) in Malayalam, with many waiting to get launched. There will be a fight, naturally, to grab the eyeballs. One of the major source of revenue for channels in Movies. Due to the growing demand for grabbing rights, the satellite rates have gone through the roof, especially in the past 2 years. For small films the rights makes up most of their production budget, and for superstar films they could even cover the budget. Since each channel is involved in a mud fight, who want the movies at any cost, weren't at first concerned about the inflating rights, even though every now and then news of stopping irrational buys come up.

The situation got worse in the past few months. A new generation film which was super hit at Box Office when premiered on TV got shockingly low TRP ratings. There were many other examples too, most of them belonged to the so called new generation films. A superstar film that released last year a figure as satellite right that was more than the film's budget, but was disaster at the Box Office. So with the number of hit films dwindling down and most of the hit film not catering to family audience channels have now decided to put a break on the mad rush to buy satellite rights at explosive rates.

This has put Mollywood in a spot of bother. Now a days many films are being made think only about Satellite Rights in mind, as the producers will get the full sum before film hits the theaters, they don't really have to worry about the fate of the film at Box Office and the channel heads end up with red face. But there are a lot of genuine film makers who got into trouble as instead of lending money from bankers or 'Shylock's', which was the usual practice till few years ago, they depend on satellite rights. Lots of movies are stuck up in cans due to this. Many announced films got cancelled or postponed indefinitely, many are stuck half way filming. Law Point which was about to release last week got postponed. Films of Mohanlal, Dileep, Mammooty won't be much affected by the regulations as even their flop movies have respectable ratings on TV. For all others it depends upo Director, songs, Box Office fate etc.  Even though there was an adalat organized by Kerala Film Producers Association for a common place for channel and movie people to interact and address the concerns and complaints of producers. But nothing much came of it either.

In a way its harsh on channels as i most of the cases they loose tons of money for no reason of their on. So strict regulations are needed. But it will not be fair to but films based on theatrical run as there are many good films, sans any stars, which don't get much of a theatrical run, for various reasons. So

1. Either show the film or selected clips from it to respected authorities of channels, like they show it to distributors
2. Give the full script to channel authorities to read
3. A Contract by which they can return a % of money if it the ratings aren't great during premiere and doesn't improve after 2/3 airings [Father's Day (2012) had better ratings durin 2nd and 3rd airings than premiere show]
4. The loss made in the film should be compensated in the future film of the studio or star or producer or director
5. Delay CD-DVD release till TV premiere

Praise the Lord - Malayalam Movie Review - Mammootty, Reenu Mathews

 Praise the Lord - Malayalam Movie Review - Mammootty, Reenu Mathews

Crew

 Direction: Shibu Gangadharan 

Produced by Milan Jaleel

Based on Paul Zacharia's 'Praise The Lord'

Screenplay, Dialogues T.P Devarajan

Banner Galaxy Films

Music Shaan Rahman

Background Score Bijibal

 Lyrics: Rafeeq Ahmed  
Cinematography: Pradeep Nair  
Editing: Sreekanth  
Art Direction: Sujith Raghav

Costume Design: Sameera Sanish

Cast

Mammootty - Joy

Reenu Mathews - Ancy

Akanksha Puri - Annie

Ahmed Sidhique - Samkutty

Mukesh

Kalabhavan Shajon

Suresh Krishna

Indrans

Joy Mathew
Kailash

'Praise the Lord' is the cinematic adaptation of Paul Zacharia's novel 'Praise The Lord'.

Mullathazhathe Joy, a farmer, has been leading a peaceful, happy life with his wife Annie and their 2 kids. In to their lives one day enter an eloped couple, Samkutty & Annie. Even though Joy welcomed them wholeheartedly to their house, the couple slowly begins to affect his peaceful life and relationship with Annie. What happens to the two couples, how everything gets sorted forms the rest of the story.

Praise The Lord is a decent family entertainer sans any double meaning jokes or dialogues. The writer have tried his maximum to do justice to the novel, but the novel was not a typical movie material, which translated into the big screen adaptation as well. The first half where the basic plot is set up is fairly entertaining, even though its a bit on the slower side. The scenes between Joy-Annie & Joy Ancy where light hearted and executed well. In the later half the mood turns serious and it drags. Adding to the woes is the rushed and weak climax.

Mammootty is the best when comes to 'achayan' oles, which he proved once again. He is the lifeline of PTL. Looked more engetic, involved and interested in the procedding unlike his many previous attempts. Reenu Mathews was good as Ancy. Akanksha Puri looked glamorous and did okay job. Ahmed was okay. Rest of the cast also did what they where supposed to do neatly.

Shibu Gangadharan has an average outing in his directorial debut, someone like Lal Jose could have done wonders here. The scripting was also uneven, but did deliver a decent entertainer from the non-film friendly source material. Dialogues were good. Shaan Rahman disappointed in the songs department, but Bijibal was good with the Background score. Cinematography was good. Editing could have been better, it drags even with a run time of 130 mins.

So in all 'Praise The Lord' is a decent family entertainer, nothing unique or special, but still watchable, largely thanks to Mammukka. Due to exam season, T20 World Cup, election fever summer releases will be hitting screens only from April 2nd week, so a safe run is guaranteed till then. Rest depends on Word of Mouth.

Rating 2.75/5

Verdict: Above Average