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Royal, democratic ROMANCE
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No, `Kochi Rajavu' is not a historic movie. It tells a topical romantic story as VIJAY GEORGE finds out from the location at, where else, but Kochi.
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THE HERO helps the heroine to get into the truck. And in a splash, he jumps into the driver's seat and speeds away with his sweet heart. "Cut it," yells the director with a grin. Kavya Madhavan, the heroine, heaves a sigh of relief, as she is helped down to the ground. And Dileep, in heroic style, rides the truck back to where it was parked earlier and jumps out. It's a perfect take, the director feels. It's the location of Johny Antony's `Kochi Rajavu'.
Same team
The team, which includes Dileep, Johny and the scriptwriter duo, Siby K.Thomas and Udaykrishna, is trying to recreate the magic of `CID Moosa', which had set the cash registers ringing in the box office.
"The four of us had made our entry into films around the same time as assistant directors and we vibe well ," says Johny, as the unit gets ready to shift to another location. The film, which was started in Kottayam will be completed in Kochi and Chennai.
Dileep's character, Surya Narayana Varma, is a law college student. He is the scion of a royal family. While his grandfather, played by Jagathy Sreekumar, believes in flaunting the "royal tag", his father is not too keen about it.
Surya moves to Chennai along with his parents. In the law college there, Surya gets into trouble, even without his knowledge. All those tense situations lead him to the other heroine of the movie, Rambha, who is Meenakshi in the film. She and her brother Siva, played by Riyas Khan, are students of the same college. Her romantic advances are ignored by Surya.
Kavya is Aswathy, a medical college student in the story. She belongs to the affluent `Karimbarackal' family.
How does Surya become `Kochi Rajavu' (the king of Kochi)? "That essentially is the most significant part of the story, which for now is part of the suspense," smiles Siby.
Mixed fortunes
Siby and Udaykrishna had churned out the hit `Runway' last year, but had failed to emulate the success story with `Vettom'.
"We had a year of mixed fortunes. But we regard it great to have teamed up with such directors as Joshy and Priyadarshan," says the duo in chorus. Their future projects include one with director Sandhya Mohan in which some of the characters of Priyadarshan's whopper hit `Kilukkam' will be revived. Another film with Joshy, which will have Dileep as the hero, is also in the pipeline.
Dileep too feels that "2004 did not do much wonders to his career." Though `Runway' succeeded in experimenting with "action", films did not happen the way he wanted them to be. Rafi-Mecartin's `Pandippada' includes his forthcoming projects.
The "members of the Karimbarackal gang", including Vijayaraghavan, Santhosh and Sadique along with others like Harisree Asokan, joins the group for lunch. Kalabhavan Mani, who is shooting for `Ben Johnson' in a nearby location, drops in. Predictably, all the discussions have just one main plot - films. And for the hordes of onlookers who are there to have a look at their favourite stars, it is a feast with lots of them around.
`Kochi Rajavu', produced under the banner of Amith Productions by Amith R.Mohan, will be released on March 23. Saloo George cranks the camera, Renjan Abraham edits the movie, Saloo K.George is the art director, Ajit V Sankar is the still photographer and the production controller is A.R.Kannan. The lyrics by Girish Puthanchery have been set to tune by Vidyasagar.
Diplomatic Kavya
KAVYA MADHAVAN has turned into one of the most bankable actors in Malayalam cinema. Her professionalism and commitment to her role seem to be her biggest assets, apart, of course, from her large `dancer's eyes'.
She is receiving rave reviews for her portrayal of Ganga in Kamal's `Perumazhakkalam'. But her character could have been developed further, many cine watchers believe. Ask her this question and this is the answer she gave, on the location of Kochi Rajavu.
"I don't know, though I have heard such suggestions from a few. All I can say is that I loved doing the character." Diplomacy is a quality she has picked up in the daily grind behind the arc lights, obviously. In the movie, Meera Jasmine had many more scenes than Kavya, but Kavya's smaller role stood out because of her restrained performance.
Kavya is all set to act in Sarath's `Seelavathi', next.
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