Lal Jose is happy. More appropriate is to say that he is relieved. His film Meesa Madhavan is running to packed houses all over Kerala. With Dileep and Kavya Madhavan in the lead and Jagathy Sreekumar in a villain type VIP the film has clicked thereby reinstating the career of Lal Jose as a director.
His last film Randaam Bhavam with super star Suresh Gopi in the lead in double role failed miserably. It incurred heavy loss by way of delayed schedules in Mangalore and two more locations. It was written by Ranjan Pramod, a new screenwriter. Both Lal Jose and Ranjan Pramod had to prove that they could bring out a hit as well and the flop was not their fault and only circumstantial.
It is to be mentioned that for a long time the theaters were deserted and the collections were poor, but now we see a number of viewers returning not able to get tickets for this film in all the centers! That's a good sign. Dileep saves the industry and the producers cannot write off him till 2003.
Meesa Madhavan is in its second week of release. In 10 days it had an average of 10 to 12 lakhs of rupees collection from one theatre itself.
Sivam old concoction
Sivam directed by Shaji Kailas is also a pleasant success at the box office. But some in the industry believe that there is an effort to cut down the potential action hero Biju Menon. Biju Menon had done very well in Sivam. Does anybody see him as a threat?
Sivam, which came out a week ago, has fast pace and terrific action sequences. Though it has no definite story it stitches a series of contemporary political and social anecdotes in Kerala to a well-informed viewer to refresh the memory and muse about it.
Shaji Kailas had brewed the similar concoction earlier. This time he had tried it with different ingredients. Instead of Suresh Gopi, as is the practice in such roles he had cast Biju Menon. He had changed his writer from Ranjith and Ranji Panikkar to Unnikrishnan. That's all. Sivam materialized. However the audience liked it because it is a long time they have seen an action movie of this type. To Shaji Kailas this was a quickie.
The same team had in the meantime engaged in making a film with super star Mohanlal named Thandavam. In fact they started the movie even before they finished Sivam. One can say that it was a sort of highjacking of the unit from the location of Sivam to that of Thandavam. Thandavam is only due for release close to Onam holidays. But one can see the mega posters of Thandavam all over Kerala especially wherever Sivam is showing. With Mohanlal's head popping up prominently. May be Shaji Kailas wants the audience to read Sivam along with Thandavam but somebody is loosing in the meantime.
Lal Jose is happy. More appropriate is to say that he is relieved. His film Meesa Madhavan is running to packed houses all over Kerala. With Dileep and Kavya Madhavan in the lead and Jagathy Sreekumar in a villain type VIP the film has clicked thereby reinstating the career of Lal Jose as a director. 