Mamta Mohandas, who made an illustrious and newsworthy introduction with her opening films in Malayalam, had been keeping away from Mollywood for quite some time.

She was last seen in Mammootty’s ‘Big B’ that too eight months back. In the mean time she appeared in a couple of Telugu films, sang in a dozen of songs in Telugu and won a film fare award as playback singer.

The Bahrain settled actress has now agreed to be the heroine in the new movie directed by veteran Fazil.

The film that will be made in Tamil and produced by ace director Priyadarshan will feature Prithviraj in the male lead. It is also heard that she had agreed to play the lead in another Malayalam flick that is planned to be shot in the United Arab Emirates.

Mammootty's Vishu film 'Annan Thampi' starts its shooting at Pollachi. The films which feature the super star in double roles also have two heroines, one of them presented by 'Rock N Roll' fame Lakhmi Rai.

Mammootty who is presently in the sets of ‘Pazhassi Raja’ will join the film by this week end, to complete this movie in a single schedule.

Directed by Anwar Rasheed who delivered the star, the biggest hit in his career in 'Rajamaannikyam', the film tells the story of two brothers with extremely different attitudes and characters.

At present, the director is shooting the flashback sequences of the childhood of superstar Mammootty, with two twin child artists, t en-year-old Sonu and Monu who were selected after a search of many weeks, screening 157 pairs of twins.

The movie is scripted by Benny P Nayarambalam, who had been with the star to create hits like ‘Thommanum Makkalum’ and ‘Pothen Vava’.

After a notable year in supporting roles, Jayasuriya is again back to playing the lead roles.

The new film by V K Prakash titled ‘Positive' will have the young star playing a police officer. The film in the scripts of S N Swami will also feature ‘Notebook’ fame Sooraj, Saikumar, Manikuttan, Jagathy, T G Ravi, Augustine, Maala, and Bindu Panikkar.

The film will have two heroines who are not yet confirmed. The music section will be handled by the hit team Vayalar Sharth- Alex Paul. Expected to start by the 24th of this month, the film will be a notable project of  Jayasuriya who will also appear in the lead in few other movies  in 2008 .

A few months back, Muktha ala Bhanu was planning to avoid movies for some time to concentrate on her studies.

But as she is a talented actress, Muktha seemed to be always followed by offers that seem very hard to resist.

Now the actress is being paired for the first time with younger heroes, in the lead roles. The new film 'Themmadi Pravu' directed by Rajan Shankarady- the associate to veteran Joshy, will have her as the heroine opposite Arun. The duo had earlier appeared together for the Joshy film ‘Nasrani’.

Rajan Shanakaradi who became independent in 1986 with the film 'Guruji Oru Vaaku', had also been the director of  'Meenathil Thalikkettu' which came out in 1999.

'Themmadi Pravu' is his third film poised to start its shooting by the 5th of February.

This time the chart toppers are shared by M Jayachandran and Alex Paul who give two each to compete for the top slots. The top five songs of the week are

1. "Vyathyasthannaya" - Film: "Kadha Parayumbol"; Music: M. Jayachandran; Lyrics: Anil Panachooran; Singers: Pradeep palluruthy and Anil Panachooran .  The song portrays the changed life of a barber who is suddenly spotted by the villagers as the close friend of a filmi super star. Sreenivasn , Innocent , Salimkumar and co excels in this song visuals, written and rendered by Anil Panachooran .

2. ''Urangaan Nee'' - Film: Novel; Music: Umbayee Lyrics: East Coast Vijayan .The first outing of ghazal singer Umbayee to filmi music is an instant hit. This song is also the best picturised song in the movie, sung by Yeusdas

3. “Mazhamani" - Film: "Kangaroo"; Music: Alex Paul Lyrics: Biju Kaipparedan. The romantic song in which Prithviraj and Kavya dances to the tunes is picturised well. Alex Paul had given music to only one song in this film, but that one is adequate for him to create a big hit

4. “Killi Chundan" - Film: "Romeo"; Music: Alex Paul; Lyrics: Sarath Varma. Alex Paul again with another song that is well picturised in the backdrops of a reality show. Dileep and Samvrutha  are on screen for this song.

5. "Onninumallathe" -   Film: Novel; Music: M Jayachandran Lyrics: East Coast Vijayan. This retuned song in the good lyrics of east coast Vijayan is equally good as its original that appeared as an album track, years back. Sada and Jayaram share the screen presence of this song sung by maestro Yesudas. One of the best heard in recent years from the master singer

Super hit director Johnny Antony's first film with out superstars 'Cycle'  moves on  to its final schedule.

The film which started its last schedule shoot, today at Ernakulam will grace the theatres as a late February release. The film featuring Vinoo Mohan, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Jagathy, Bhama and Sandhya in the lead had been in the sets for a while.

Some parts of this movie was shot at Bombay and even in Germany.

The film, which is the first script of James Albert after mega hit ‘Classmates’, also have music by ‘Notebook’ fame Mejo Joseph. This is the first time Johnny Antony is working in a storyline that is not from his regular scriptors Sibi K Thomas-Udhay Krissna, who combined with the director to create big hits like ‘C I D Moosa’, ‘Kochy Raajavu’, ‘Thuruppu Ghulan’ and ‘Inspector Garud’.

With all these new technicians and artists  behind the movie and on screens, its is all left to Johnny Antony to prove that the initials that he fetched in all his early films were not a strokes  of continuous  good luck.

Slated for this spring, this film is eagerly expected by Mollywood as the hit director is teaming up with super hit scriptwriter to create something really fresh.

Mohanlal, the real superstar of Mollywood is again on another crisis as his last five films couldn't bring in the viewer that was expected of them.

His last films like 'Flash' and ‘Rock N Roll' even went without witnessing the typical and famous Mohanlal opening, making the films real duds in the box office. But this has happened many times before in the career of the talented actor and his fans very well know that he will bounce back with more strength from any position of no return.

Now the actor will have two big releases early in the New Year in 'Aakashagopuram' and 'College Kumaran'. The former, is a typical offbeat venture based on Ibsen’s 'Master Builder’, shot at U K., and directed by K P Kumaran.

His fans and general viewers very well know that his offbeat ventures usually don't run well like that of Mammootty who have more fan base among high-class audience. So all expectations will be on humorous flick 'College Kumaran,' directed by Thulasidas that will hit the screens on January 26.

The film has a number of heroines including Vimala Raman, who is acting with Mohanlal for the first time, through this film. Scripted by Suresh Pothuval, the film is a campus based flick which has lal as Kumaran who runs a canteen in a popular college premises.

Thulasidas had once before attended to the same situation in 2003 when his first film with Mohanlal 'Mr. Brahmachari' was slated for release. The star then was again in the similar situation with five of his movies like 'Hariharanpillai Happyaanu' and 'Vamanapuram Busroute', sinking too badly at the box office.

Much of his fans never believed Thulasidas to do a success act with Mr. Brahmachari, but to everyone's surprise, the film did go well with the audience and brought back the star status of Lal, safer than before. And for now, after five years Thulasidas is destined to do the same trick.

Will he accomplish it a second time, will be a matter to watch.

Shaji Kailas is planning to remake his Malayalam super hit 'Chinthamani Kola Case' into Tamil in the title 'Ellam Avan Seyyal'.

Initially 'Notebook' fame Parvathi was fixed to do the title role that Bhavana did in the original. But the latest news is that Bhama, the new sensation of Mollywood who debuted through 'Nivedhyam' will do the lead, instead of Paravathy. The film is all set to start this month.

Parvathy, on the other hand is trying her luck in different languages. She has already done a Kannada film, Milana, with Puneet Rajkumar in the lead, which was a fair hit in the box office. Now the actress will join the Tamil film, ‘Poo’, starring Srikanth in the lead.

The actress had a role of potential with Mohanlal in the last Malayalam film 'Flash'. But, as the film failed to do big business at the box office, her endeavor too got unnoticed.

The second film to be released on 2008  is 'Novel' - the Jayaram starrer which graced the release centres today. The film opened in 38 centres, all across the state, a truly big release considering the present star equations and chances of audience pull.

The movie which will mark the foray of Tamil actress Sada, into Malayalam is directed by popular album director East Coast Vijayan. The film is a musical love story penned by the director himself. The movie's highlights includes the six songs set to music by M Jayachandran, Balabhasker and Umbayee which are rendered by maestro K J Yesudas.

However, with the completion of this film, Jayaram found a reversal of fortunes with a handful of projects in Malayalam and Tamil. In Malayalam, the actor will immediately complete Anil's 'Paarthan Kanda Paralokam' and Raj Babu's 'Plastic Surgery', while his two films that were completed earlier titled 'Magic Lamp' and 'Seetha Kalayanam' will also grace the theaters in a couple of months.

In Kollywood also , 2008 will witness Jayaram's four films including 'Dhaam Dhoom',-the last film directed by cinematographer Jeeva.

Mammootty had always been lucky enough to find his films doing well at Kollywood. As the actor has increased his fan base with the appearance in a number of Tamil super hits, his hit films from Malayalam often dubbed into Tamil, with Tamil names always recieved reasonable victories.

And the new film that will appear in the title ‘Maattukaran Velan' will be the dubbed version of his biggest hit in Malayalam 'Rajamanikyam'.

Mammootty will speak in a peculiar and humorous Tamil accent in this film which is having the same title of an old M G R movie.

In this film, Mammotty plays the role of Bellary Raja who wears sunglasses all the time, and is based in Bellary where he deals with wholesale selling of buffaloes.

The Thiruvananthapuram  Malayalam slang that the star used in the original film was  one of its much talked about  reasons for  success.

Mollywood heroine Bhavana was the one who met with the most success, this year in Tamil.

With a number of projects to realize, the actress is finding it hard to find time to be in Malayalam. Her only big film in Malayalam, last year was Mohanlal's ‘Chotta Mumbai’ which met with reasonable success in Kerala.

However, the actress is keen to find some time to be in Mollywood ventures.

Recently she was seen taking a day off from her strenuous schedules to appear in a cameo in Dileep's ‘Mulla'.

She was taking leave from Tollywood film ‘Onthari' to associate with this Lal Jose film. She had also appeared in another cameo with the director’s earlier project ‘Chandupottu' which was also a big success.

Moreover, she is considered to be a lucky combination with Dileep, with almost all their projects likes ‘CID Moosa’ and ‘Chess’, becoming big successes.

2007 witnessed the release of around 18 dubbed movies in Malayalam, of which most made good returns from the box office. Films like Bunny, Happy, Hero and Happy Days did the most business from the cinema halls in the last year, making Telugu hero Allu Arjun, one of the popular stars among Mollywood youth.

Following the success of these films another leading group from the miniscreen industry Sandras Communications is now venturing into releasing of dubbed films in Malayalam with the Telugu hit 'Vikramadhithya'. The film which features Ravi Teja and Anushka in the lead roles also has Prakash Raj and Brahamanandham in other prominent roles.

This film presented in the banner of Sandras by Baiju Devaraj, the most popular producer-director from the Malayalam miniscreen, is scripted by Mankombu Gopalakrishanan and is directed by Raj Mauli.

‘Vikramadhithya’ is expected to make a big release in 28 centers of the state on the first week of February.

Sandras Communications has been the leader in creating chart topper daily serials for the last five years. Sthreejanmam, Aalippazham, Ente Maanasputhry, Indumathy Chandramathy  and Kaanakinaavau are some of their daily soaps that had created newer heights in TAM ratings.

The group is planning to bring in few more dubbed hits from Telugu, before the big budgeted multilingual film project that they are planning to realize by the end of the year.

The new film by K A Devaraj titled 'Paribhavam' started its shooting at Ottappalam.

The movie will feature debutantes Abhilash and Kripa in the lead roles. Lekshmy Sharma, Jagathy, Jagadheesh, Machan Varghese, Swathy Mohan and Sangeetha Krishnan are other important stars in this feature.

Meanwhile, the director Devaraj has hit big time fetching the dates of Mohanlal for his next venture. The film tiled 'Swapnamaalika' will have the superstar in the role of a magician. Prithvraj, Meera Jasmine and Bharath Gopi will also play the important roles in this film which will start by the April - May of 2008.

K A Devaraj had been in the field for more than a decade directing around 15 films including ‘Poomazha’ and ‘Chithrasalabham’.

Mollywood viewers are very well enjoying the start status of actor Sreenivasan in 2007 who delivered two big hits in ‘Arabikkatha’ and 'Katha Parayumpol'.

His son Vineeth Sreenivasan, who is equally famous as a playback singer is also one of their favorite singer of 2007 with a number of hit songs that captured the top slot of hit charts.

Vineeth is also appearing in the lead in the new film 'Cycle' which is poised to reach the theatres by the last week of February.

But the big news is that this celebrity actor and his son is finally coming together for a film, in which they are acting as father and son, on screen.

Ace director Kamal will direct this interesting project in the scripts of Kalavoor Ravikumar. The film is planned to kick off its shooting by the month of June and is planned to hit the theatres for this Onam.

Can you imagine that the man who turns 68 today has received more number of awards than his age? Can you believe that he has got awards at all possible levels, in almost all genres and languages?

Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (popularly known as Dr. K. J. Yesudas or Jesudas) has gained a rare reputation of being one of the most eminent Indian classical musicians and leading playback singers in many Indian languages. He has received numerous awards conferred by both government and private institutions at various levels. He has got awards for both popular and classical music. He has also got international awards and honors for his incredible contributions to the music world.

Gana Gandharva – this is one special title given to him by Kerala government – has a magical voice with unbelievable sweetness as its hallmark. The gifted voice, strengthened by his meticulous efforts to excel, has been mesmerizing the music lovers across the globe for nearly 50 years.

Background and Career

Yesudas was born in Fort Kochi, Kerala to Augustine Joseph and Elizabeth Joseph on January 10, 1940. His father, who was his first guru (teacher), was a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor of his time. He joined the Music Academy in Thrippunithura and won a gold medal for music at a local competition in Fort Kochi at the age of seven.

Yesudas got training from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar who was one of the senior most performers of the time in Classical Music. Later, he learned Hindustani Music too.

Yesudas started playback singing in Kollywood in early 60's and in middle of 70's he entered in Bollywood.

He has recorded more than 40,000 songs for many languages including Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tulu, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English through his long career.

Awards and honors

Awards kept flowing towards this amazingly talented singer. He had bagged National Film Award for the best singer in Indian film industry for seven times. He was awarded the Padma Sri (1973) and Padma Bhushan (2002) by the President of India. He is the only one singer who has the title Asthana Gayakan (Official singer) of Kerala State.

Yesudas has, till date, performed in almost all the major cities of the world. In his music concerts at Middle East he performed Arabic songs in Carnatic style. And dons the role of cultural ambassador of India through his numerable performances abroad, promoting Indian Music.

In 1965, he was invited by the Soviet Union government to perform at music concerts in various cities in the U.S.S.R and had sung a Russian song over Radio Kazakhstan. He also became Senate member in the International Parliament for Safety and Peace, an international organization incorporated in the U.S. On November 14, 1999, Yesudas was presented an honorary award by UNESCO for "Outstanding Achievements in Music and Peace" at the "Music for Peace" event in Paris, a concert held to mark the dawn of the new millennium. The attendees included artistes such as Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Montserrat Caballé and Zubin Mehta.

At the age of 30 (in 1970), he was nominated to head the Sangeetha Nataka Academy of Kerala, he was the youngest person ever to occupy the office.

Humbleness personified

Among various genres of music, devotional music is closer to his heart. He has won the hearts of millions cutting across the religions through his sublime rendition of devotional songs. Though he is a Christian by birth, he has developed a rare quality of respecting all religions and singing devotional songs belonging to all religions. He has special attachment towards Swamy Ayyappa and Lord Krishna. 

It is perhaps because of this deep devotion towards god and the music, the man remains humble despite receiving so much of honors and awards.

We wish incredible singer a very happy birthday.

The Christmas -New Year season was a pretty good one for the Malayalam industry, which produced a few hits in Box office. The top five films of the week are

1. 'Kadha Parayumbol' - This is undoubtedly the winner among the Christmas releases, which continues to bring in full houses. Sreenivasan as the script writer and lead actor has done a competent work in the success of the film .Directed by debutant M. Mohanan, the film also has Mammootty, in a lengthy cameo which has worked out the best to make one of the best climax of the recent times.

2. 'Romeo' - This recent release of Dileep with plenty of slam stick humor managed to be in the race after a weak start.  Written by Rafi Mecartin and directed by Rajasenan, the film some how became a winner, mainly due to the long year end vacations.

3. 'Kangaroo' - Prithviraj was able to sign off 2007, with this film doing well at the box-office. The film in the scripts of Pallssery and directed by Rajbabu, will become a safer bet in returns within a couple of weeks.

4. 'Flash' - Veteran director Sibi Malayil could not make his comeback fruitful by delivering a hit to favorite hero Mohanlal, who is passing through a bad phase in his career. The film which is advertised as a psychological thriller, couldn't match its predecessors in narrative skills.

5. 'Of The People' - Director Jayaraj in another sequel to his 'Four The People’, tries for another 'old wine in new bottle' format. The film offers nothing exceptional except being technically tacky.

“Scripts must not be considered as the backseat element to star value”, says the star of 2007, Sreenivasan.

“A good script is a fundamental element contributing to the success of a film. Instead of giving importance to get better scripts, obsession with star value has reduced the significance of the script in a film”, says the actor who has turned producer with his latest film ‘Katha Parayumpol’.

Sreenivasan was also the hero of the big hit of the year 'Arabikkatha'.

Participating in a Meet-the-Press programme organized by the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club, the actor- turned director expressed concern over the unprofessional approaches in the Malayalam film industry which has resulted in poor show of films.

“If an actor agrees to do a film, the filmmakers are instantly moving on to cash the out rights to pay him, rather than seeking better story lines. Instead of the cast being chosen on the basis of the script, here the theme is dictated by the availability of actors, which finally makes them trash", says Sreenivasan who is also presently successful in his new role of a producer.

Young director M Padmakumar and scenarist T A Razaaq  were busy rewriting the scripts of  their earlier project  'Rikshakaran' which according to original schedules  was  planned to start by now.

As this film got shifted to another dates, the duo has come up with another character for which Mammootty has shown the green signal.

This new project which is not yet titled will feature Mammootty as Gillette Purushothaman, who is a private financier known to make money multiply at any costs.

Sneha will appear in the female lead in this film poised to start its shoot, after the works of ‘Annan Thampi' directed by Anwar Rasheed. This new film will be produced by Howly Pottur in the banner of Dream Team Productions.

As far as now,  ‘Rikshaakaran' in which Mammootty appear as an auto driver,  will be put aside to start only by the final months of 2008.

After the recent hit ‘Kangaroo’, director Rajbabu is quickly on to the next movie ‘Plastic Surgery'. The new movie will feature Jayaram and Jagathy in double roles.

Gopika will appear in the female lead for the first time in a Jayaram movie. The film will start its shooting by the end of next month. This new flick will be produced by Martin.

Meanwhile, ‘Kangaroo’ will quickly be in the safe status in box office, as the film still brings in more than fifty percent audience in its third week.

'Annan Thampi', the film in which Mammootty is donning the double role after a couple of years will start its shooting by January Nine.

The film to be directed by 'Raajamanikyam' fame Anwar Rasheed will have Lakshmi Rai as the heroine.

Mammootty will join the sets of the film by the 13th of this month after completing the present schedules of' 'Pazhaasi Raja' and 'Vande Maatharam'.

'Annan Thampi' is scripted by Benny P Nayarambalam who has created hits like 'Kalyana Raman' and 'Chotta Mumbai'.

The film is planned as a Vishu release, which will clash with Sathyan Anthikkad’s Mohanlal starrer.

Pritviraj is finally becoming the favorites of the senior directors of Mollywood. The actor who was lamenting all these years that he was never given good characters by the big directors in the field will now join with the veteran of the group, Joshy for the new venture 'Robinhood'.

His scriptors of the super hit film ‘Sachi – Sethu’ will pen the scripts for this film which will be produced by P.K Muralidharan and Shantha Murali of Anantha Vision who have earlier created his two blockbusters –‘Classmates’ and ‘Chocolate’.

The actor who has just completed 'Thalappavu' is presently in the sets of Tamil movie 'Vellithirai'. He will join the multi starrer 'Twenty Twenty' next week.

Prithviraj also have plans to team up with the veterans like Shaji Kailas and Fazil, this year. Apart from these projects the actor will also play the lead in the films of Bipin Prabhakar, Biju Arukooty and M Padmakumar.

2007 had emerged as the year for new directors in the Malayalam cinema. The year witnessed the creation of 19 new directors in Mollywood. The new comers who grabbed the attention were Amal Neerad, M Mohanan, Jithu Joseph and Jayasuriya, whose movies were widely appreciated in the box office.

M Mohanan's 'Kathaparayumpol' in the scripts of Sreenivasan is emerging as a bigger hit than expected. The film with Mammootty and Sreenivasan was noted for its well handled satire and good performances from the lead.

Amal Neerad with Big B proved that there are many ways, not yet explored to tell an action story. The movie made reasonable run at the box office.

Jithu Joseph with ‘Detective' and Jayasuriya with ‘The Speed Track', were able to tell stories of different genre in their own styles. Both these films also made good run at the box office.

The other directors who made their inspirational beginnings  in 2007 were Bipin Prabhakar (Khakhi), S P Mahesh (Changathy Poocha), Udhay Ananthan (Pranayakalam) Babu Thiruvalla (Thaniye),  Madhu Kaithapram (Ekantham)and Avira Rebeca (Thakarachenda).

Navya Nair is fortunate to get casted in another super star movie, in 2008.

The actress who had a pretty poor year in 2007 with two films opposite superstars, 'Alibhai' and 'Kichamani M B A’, both doing no way exceptional in the box office or for her career, is now casted opposite Suresh Gopi again in the new film 'Kavyam'.

Meena was earlier tipped to be in the character which will be now replaced by  Navya .The movie  planned to  start its shooting this week, is directed by  debutantes Anish and Santhosh.

Navya will have two releases in Tamil this year in 'Silanerangalil' and 'Ettappan'. She also have completed Sarjulan’s 'S M S ' with Bala in the lead, which will get into theatres by the February of 2008.

Ace director Jayaraj's new film, specifically addressing the youth titled 'Of The People' graces 26 centres today. The film which is a sequel to the famous hit 'Four The People' is an action thriller in the scripts of debutant Sreekumar Shreyas.

Jayaraj, who is also producing the film in his banner, New Generation Cinema will introduce a lot of artists including the heroine Devipriya through the film. In the technical sections also, the film has the debutante cameraman Thanu Bhalak wielding the camera. 

Jayaraj films always had melodious music and this time it is the newcomer Vinu Thomas, who sets tunes to the five songs written by Joy Thamalam and the Jayaraj himself.

Among the other fresh faces in the film, Jayaraj's wife Sabitha Jayaraj is also making her debut on screen in the role of a college student, which will be specially noted. Sabitha had long been an associate to Jayaraj in film making, working more as a costume designer.

Out of seventy odd films that got released in 2007, only 15 survived to become hits and average earners. Majority of the rest even didn't manage to make a start at the box office, and got cleared off all the release centres in two weeks.This is the list of ten films that promised to become big affairs but failed to do so. They proved pointless for most of the audience, who didn't advise any to follow them. Some of them had Mollywood's greatest talents on screen and behind the camera faltering to poor use of technique and narration. But happy to say, none proved up to the magnitude of career breakers for any of the stars featured. The only persons who were left to cry was the viewers and hopeless producers, who were left at dire streets.

July 4 The film was one of much publicized event , directed by hit maker Joshy .The flick was planned to hit the theatres on July 4- the lucky day of its lead star Dileep. But none worked in its favor, with the movie being left out of every station within a month. The film is expected to create around two crore loss to its producer.

Mission 90 days This was the second venture by Major Ravi that too after the super hit Keerthichakra. The film failed to draw audiences, mostly due to its documentary style and the larger use of Tamil, and other South Indian languages in the film, which made family audiences to keep away from the flick. The director also was not able to properly use the star element of the film- Mammootty.

Sooriyan This film directed by hit maker V M Vinu, had some good songs by IIayaraja and family friendly story lines. It was promoted as a family musical action thriller, taking every step to cater to every type of audience. Even maestro K J Yesudas was approached for acting in the climax. But still audience kept away from this Jayaram starrer, which left the flick sink to oblivion in two weeks.

Kichamani M B A Super star Suresh Gopi was in the look out for an image change, trying an out and out humorous titled character in this movie scripted by Ashna Ash .The movie's script is like mishmash of old, outdated jokes and is an example of what happens when a movie uses lame material to tie together an uneven string of jokes..

Hareendran Oru Nishkalangan Ace director Vinayan, brought in each of his young finds to make a film that will cater more to younger lot. But the film didn't mange to get a decent collection at least for a week. With no heart and feel in the treatment, it is simply an attempt to cook up a movie in all the genres that are popular now.

Flash A Manichthrathaazhu look-alike evidently put together many similar sequences without fruitful editing. The film stuck around uninteresting, bunch of largely predictable plots, had a good cast list including Mohanlal. But it was a disappointment from the stature of Sibi Malayil, who was trying for a come back to mainstream cinema.

Heartbeats Watching the promo and cast of Heartbeats, many believed the comeback of another youthful cinema. It also announced the return of Simran to filmdom. She got a lot of screen time, but ultimately proved to be a suicidal decision to make a comeback as an aids patient. Related cases against the producer and the director were in courts.

Rock N Roll Writer -Director Renjith tried to do something different from his usual ways, with Mohanlal and the most talented cast on screen. But the entire plot backfired. Everything about the film was a little bizarre but told amidst a riot of bright, expensive colors.

Aakasham This was the comeback vehicle of director Sundardas, He even tried to tell a realistic story casting Harishree Ashokan as a man caught in mental dilemma. But the film even didn't have a decent start, becoming hold over in the very first day itself.

Pranayakalam The film by a bunch of new comers told a decent love story, with good narrative skills and visuals. It introduced Vimala Raman and Ajmal Ameer who are now big names in films. It even had the best of the love songs of the year. But the film, sadly didn't took off as expected due to stock characterizations of at least those in the lead.

Sketch Another presentation material of another young star Saiju Kurup- as the hero. The film's trailers brought a lot to the film halls for the first day. But the amateurish making and hackneyed writing, made them resist other who were trying to have a look at the movie.  There were other few films that proved unwatchable for audiences and critics alike. But those films were expected to be so, even from the days of their making. Most of those films were with handicapped screenplays which never showed any potential to become audience friendly stuffs.

Jayaram had more than a worse year in 2007 with two films – ‘Sooriyan’ and ‘Anchil Oraal Arjunan’, which were damp squibs in the box office. Both these films had him in good roles which, the actor had done quite well. But it seems that the audience who had seen the actor in same type of roles for long is expecting a change of presentation styles from him.

Jayaram is starting the New Year on a fresh slate with a different role in the next weekend release 'Novel' directed by East coast Vijayan. The film has six good songs set to music by M Jayachandran and Umbayee. The movie will also feature Anniyan fame Sada for the first time in Mollywood.

The actor suddenly seems to be among busy schedules once again, as he has now another three Malayalam projects under his sleeves including Joshy's multi star Twenty-Twenty, Anil's Paarthan Kanda Paralokam and Rajbabu's Plastic Surgery. Jayaram will also have three films in Kollywood in 2008, including 'Doomdham' and 'Saroja'. The actor is hoping that this New Year will bring back all the fortunes in box office that is evading him for the last couple of years.

Ajith and Shalini, the star couple in Kollywood could not have asked for better New Year gift, as they are blessed with a baby girl today. Shalini, who was admitted to the Apollo hospital in Chennai, gave birth to a baby girl today, early morning at 2 AM.

The doctors who decided to go for a caesarian operation told that both mother and child are in good health. Ajith who was much concerned about the period was by Shalini's side for the last one month, inspite of his big release in 'Billa'.

This joyful happening also coincides with a time when 'Billa' has emerged the biggest film of our times and Ajith has once again displayed his potential as a crowd puller.

‘Billa' which was released in Kerala two weeks after its Tamil Nadu release, is raking in good profits in its first week. The first day audience has mixed reactions about the film as it is another remake of Hindi, 'Don' which was also a considerable hit here.

The actor has a big fan base in Kerala, who had made his films like Aasai, Kandukonden Kandukonden and Varalaru big hits in the state.

Anyway, the Namitha and Nayantara factors and superb visuals are bringing in more viewers to the ‘Billa’ which was released in Kerala just like any other Malayalam releases in 35 centres.

In the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram, the film is running in two big capacity theatres, amassing seven lakhs from its five day run.

Shyamaprasad the director of ‘Ore Kadal’ is more than surprised about the reactions that his film is amassing in every film circuits.

The flick which was shown in many international film festivals also did a reasonably good business in home box office.

It was selected as the inaugural film in IFFI that was held recently at Goa. After fetching a lot of appreciation there, the film also was showered with a lot of awards in IFFK 2007 that included the FIPRESCI award for best Malayalam film and the NETPAC award for best Malayalam film, where it was not even included in the competition section. "Since my film was not even in the Competition Section of the IFFK, the awards came as a pleasant surprise," said the director.

Nafisa Ali, chairperson of Children's Film Society, who enjoyed the film so much in IFFI, commented in an interview that ‘Ore Kadal’ was her choice for the Oscars. When ‘Ore Kadal' was screened at Asiatika International, Rome, which showcased the most outstanding films of the Asian countries this year, the director was amazed with the viewer responses.

With such an unprecedented support from all kind of viewers, Shymaprasad is now planning to release it in all the metros of the country with sub-titles.

National award winning actor Balachandramenon, who is finally returning to direction after a decade with the new film 'De Ingottu Nokkiye’, had finalized his new heroine for this film.

The actor -director who has been famous for introducing a lot of  actresses to big screen like Shobhana, Rohini, Annie  and  Nandhinee, will present a non resident keralite - Sara, as the heroine of this film.

Sara is a model who is based on Chennai.

Balachandra Menon who had a great career in Mollywood, playing an all rounder in around 25 films of the eighties was last seen wielding the megaphone for ‘Samaantharangal' for which he was awarded the best actor title in the national level.

Now for this new movie which will feature Jagathy and Jayasuriya in important roles, Menon is planning to start the shooting by the 24th of this month. Majority of this film will be shot in and around the capital city.

Kavya Madhavan took a long time to finalize about her reentry to Kollywood, last year.  she finally came out of the Dileep camp after starring with him in 15 films, as the actress and the audience found their pair too stale, seeing them regularly for the last four years.

Then, she was rushed with offers from Kollywood, of which she selected one with the ace Malayalee director Siddhique ‘Sadhu Mirandaal’. She lost much of her weight and appeared in a gorgeous new looks in the film.

Since Tamil film industry continues to be crazy about heroines from Kerala, Kavya is presently enjoying great popularity in Kollywood, as every media is giving reports that her 'Sadhu Mirandaal' has shaped up well.

2007 had her in very few films in Mollywood. But she was more than happy to grab the attention with her dual roles in the hit film 'Nadhiya Kollapetta Raathri'. She also made her dream come true by appearing in a short role in celebrated director Adoor's 'Naalu Pennungal'. The actress had another release in Malayalam in recent times in 'Kangaroo' in which her role was also much appreciated.

And now Tollywood too has gained interests in her and have started approaching her with offers to star in their films.

Reports suggest that Kavya may pay heed to the proposals of one or two big names from Telugu. With such great talents in emoting that Kavya imbibes, it will not be a matter to predict her success. She is sure to earn big names in other South Indian languages as her contemporaries had made, recently.

For quite some years, it has become a notion in Mollywood that the first film that will get into theatres on a new year, will fail to bring in audiences. This has been the fate of many films that were the first to get released, every year in the past.

But Jayaraj, the producer -director of the new flick ‘Of The People' don't believe in this theory and is preparing to offer this new film as the first one of 2008. The film is all set to get released in forty odd centres, this week end. Featuring a group of young artists, the movie is a sequel to super hit 'Four The People' released five years back.

Jayaraj himself has been the victim of this kind of early releases in 2000, in which he released his big budget film 'Millennium Stars'. The film did not do well in the box office, but also bought its producer Kireedom Unni into dire streets.

After this big loss, Kireedom Unni who had been the producer of many neo classics in Mollywood had only been able to associate with a couple of small time productions in these eight years.

Anyway, Jayaraj seems to care less for these filmi beliefs and is going ahead with surety to fetch a winner, on the very first go.

Dileep's much delayed project ‘Calcutta News' will finally grace the theatres, on this 18. The film which started its shooting by the June 17 of 2007 faced many difficulties due to the film strikes and the floods in Calcutta, which resulted in the postponement of its release dates many a times.

Originally planned for last years Onam, this film by Blessy was shot, taking adequate time to achieve perfection in each of the frames.

A tough looking subject with very difficult characters, every artist associated with the film like Dileep and Meera Jasmine has much expectation on the box office performance of the film.

The music of the film by Debut Jyoti Mishra was released last week. The film which had six songs has five of them delivered to perfection by K S Chitra. The album also has a Bengali song sung by Sreekanth Acharya.

‘Yugapurushan’- the film which is based on the lives and contemporaries of Sreenarayana Guru, will start its shooting by the end of this March.

The film which is directed by ‘Padamudra' fame R Sukumaran will feature Mammootty in the role of the legend. This will be one of the much noted characters, played by the master actor in his career.

Mohanlal and a big cast will also assemble in this film to become various famous personalities of the time, on screen Sukumaran is planning to complete the film in eight months and to get it released by the Sivagiri pilgrimage time in December of 2008.

The movie will be funded by Medimix Anoop, which had produced 'Pranayakalam' in 2007.