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Rooted in reality: (from top) ‘Calcutta News,’ ‘Roudram’ and ‘College Kumaran’ tackle contemporary situations and issues.

It is the first big season of the year for Mollywood. Crores of Rupees are at stake, as some big names get ready with their latest releases. Last minute additions and deletions could still affect the schedules and more new names may join the fray all of a sudden, depending on the fate of the biggies at the cash counters.

Three major films will be the centre of attraction this season. Ranji Panikkar’s ‘Roudram,’ Blessy’s ‘Calcutta News’ and Tulasidas’ ‘College Kumaran’ will witness a clash of the titans as the three films revolve around superstars Mammootty, Dileep and Meera Jasmine, and Mohanlal respectively. With only a handful of films doing wonders at the box office these days, the industry is keenly watching the fate of the films.

While ‘Roudram,’ a thriller, has Mammootty playing a cop, Mohanlal goes to the campus to win over a new generation of filmgoers, and Dileep plays a reporter in ‘Calcutta News.’ Although the thematic content of the films are very different, all the three are rooted in current events and issues.

Panikkar’s USP has been his fiery dialogues and thrilling action.

“The viewers will get what they expect from this film. Narendran is an upright human being who never fears voicing his opinions and believes in values,” he says.

Debutante Manju is the heroine in the film.

On the other hand, Blessy’s ‘Calcutta News’ narrates the tale of a young girl Krishnapriya through the eyes of a journalist Ajith Thomas.

“It’s a love story and a thriller as well. The colonial hangover that looms large over the streets of Kolkatta and the magic of Bengali music will also be the highlights of the film. Salil Chowdhary’s music had a special place in the hearts of Malayalis and Deb Jyoti Mishra’s compositions for ‘Calcutta News’ will have that feel,” avers Blessy.

Director Tulasidas, who is busy giving the final touches to ‘College Kumaran,’ says the film is all set to hit the theatres on January 31.

Suresh Poduval, the scenarist of ‘College Kumaran,’ points out that “more than a humorous theme, certain highly relevant topical issues are tackled in the film. Viewers still have fond memories of Mohanlal’s campus movies such as ‘Sarvakalasala’ and ‘Sukhamo Devi’ among with many others and the storyline of ‘College Kumaran’ happened when we were thinking about such films.

“In ‘College Kumaran,’ Mohanlal’s character, Kumaran, runs a college canteen and is involved in almost every activity on the campus. Vimala Raman, who plays the heroine, finds the system quite weird after she joins there as a lecturer and the story takes an interesting turn after a while,” says Suresh.

Although Suresh Poduval is the scenarist of ‘College Kumaran,’ both ‘Calcutta News’ and ‘Roudram’ have been scripted by its directors. Pointing out that a scenarist visualises the scenes while writing a film, Blessy says this aspect helps the director in him when he films the story. Renji echoes his sentiments. But he says it is not possible for him to decide if writing a script or directing is the tougher job. “You enjoy visualising what you are writing and when the actual shooting happens, it’s like dreams taking shapes,” he adds. However whether the films will enjoy a dream run or not will be decided only when the films reach the theatres.

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