I saw a mallu move last sunday called Udayananu Tharam. There are sensible movies and then there are ourtright entertainers. This movie is both - a sensible entertainer.

Mohanlal comes back into a role that suits him best - that which relates to the common man (and not the super hero persona which he had right from Aaram Thampuran and Narasimham to other flop movies). He plays the role of Udayan, struggling assistant director trying to make his mark in the south film industry.

I think the entire credit for this movie should go the Srinivasan who not only wrote the brilliant script(yet again) but did an amazing job in the acting department, enacting the role of the struggling Rajappan aka 'superstar' Saroj kumar.


An original and tight script, the Mohanlal-Srinivasan duo, and a great soundtrack is a sure recipe for success. And that is exactly what this movie is...a success and a tremendous one at that.

What struck me about this movie was the message it had for the Malyalam film industry, which has been struggling for survival for the past several years. Scripts have gone from bad to worse. Flops have become to norm. And to think this is in stark contrast to the Mallu movies of the early 90s, where hits were taken for granted thanks to some great original screenplays and comedies. This movie in some way tries to recreate the lost magic and is largely sucessful in doing so. The movie is a humourous take on the pathetic creative vacuum that exists in the Malayalam movie industry and drives home the message in no uncertain terms.

All in all, if you aint seen this movie yet...you are missing something :)

(non-mallus can expect a hindi remake) ;)