Malayalam Films 2012: January 26th

January 26th sees the return of The Complete Actor, Mohanlal, to the screen in the film Casanovva.  Directed by Rosshan Andrrews (who also directed Totally Filmi favorite Udayananu Tharam), it's the story of Casanovva (Mohanlal), owner of an international chain of flower shops called "Casanovva's Eternal Spring" (which to my ear sounds more like a name for a funeral parlour, but perhaps that's the dour side of me coming out).  And for some reason, the fact that he's supposed to be surrounded by woman (staff, ex-girlfriends, friends) who are willing to support him or help him out made me think of Robert Altman's Dr. T. & the Women, though admittedly, it's been a long time since I've seen that.  Also, Dr. T. & the Women wasn't a crime caper/action film, so I suppose it's just the "surrounded by supportive women" thing.

But I digress.  I also think there's kind of an irony in the fact that the film is billing itself as "THE HIGHEST BUDGET MALAYALAM FILM EVER MADE!!!" didn't bother to do anything with the film's official website.

Let's look at the trailer, shall we?

 

 

And I have to admit, I'm praying that the song "Hey Manohara" (AKA The Casanovva Theme Song) ends up in the closing credits.  But then, we all know how I feel about hip-hoppy songs set in clubs:

 

And you also know how I feel about remakes, but really, this is just crying out for a Bollywood version starring Akshay Kumar, isn't it?  Well?

Comments

[Leaf]

I'm too scared to watch the trailer in its entirety, though I've been forced to watch bits and pieces of it in my trawling of Malayalam channels. I saw the pooja for this two years ago because Arya was supposed to play one of the supporting characters.

It looked pretty bad even with the potential of having Arya in a Malayalam film, so I can't think its appeal has increased very much since then. Mohanlal has lost his touch, man. People don't get excited to go see a Mohanlal film like they used to back in the day.

As an aside, Katherine, have you Salt N Pepper or City of God? I get the feeling that your tastes run towards the more old-fashioned Malayalam films, but since you liked Traffic, I think you might like those two. I liked Indian Rupee as well, but I'm sure that's on your radar already.

[katherine]

@Leaf

You know, I saw Rosshan Andrrews and Bobby-Sanjay and Mohanlal, and thought, surely this can't be as bad as the trailer looks. Surely.

Sigh. Count me amongst those who is less and less enamoured of Mohanlal's films lately.

City of God is here in my stack of DVDs, but I have seen Salt N Pepper, and loved it -- I just need a rewatch to think about what to write about it here on the blog. And yes, I'm anxiously awaiting the DVD release of Indian Rupee, I'm sure Ranjith won't let me down...

[Manoj]

Mohanlal is the best there ever was, there ever is, there ever will be.