Sagar alias Jackie on March 26

Malayalam superstar Mohanlal’s Sagar alias Jackie, made with a budget of five crores, directed by Malayalam's most stylish director Amal Neerad of Big B fame, has been finally scheduled for release on 26th March, 2009. This racy action thriller will be one of the costliest Malayalam film ever shot. Mohanlal is currently busy shooting for the second schedule of Sagar alias Jackie in Dubai and other locations in UAE.

Planned as a sequel to Mohanlal's 1987 blockbuster Irupatham Noottandu directed by K. Madhu, Sagar alias Jackie is produced by Antony Perumbavoor under the banner of Ashirvad films. Scripted by S.N. Swamy, who also did the scripts for the original, Sagar alias Jackie is cinematographed by the director himself.

Heroine Bhavana appears as a CNN reporter named Namitha Menon; National award winning actress Shobhana and famous South Indian actress Meena also appear in important roles and Jyothirmayi plays a cameo role. Other cast members include Jagathy Sreekumar, Nedumudi Venu, Suman, Manoj K. Jayan, Ganesh, Vinayakan, Baiju, Sumeeth, Sreeraman and others. Lyrics are handled by Rio Joy. Gopi Sunder has scored the music.

Lollipop: Climax changed

The climax of Prithviraj's latest starrer Lollipop directed by Shafi has been changed just one day after its release on Sunday (December 21). According to reports, the decision came after Mulagupadam Films, the distributers, urged the producer to change the climax since the initial collections and audience reaction were discouraging.
In the original version, Lollipop begins withe scenes of a jetty where a novelist (Jagathy Sreekumar) is stranded after missing the previous night’s last boat. In a bid to pass time, he strikes up a conversation with the only other person there Francis (Jayasuriya), who starts episode and Jayasurya is no longer a ghost! The conversation between Jagathy Sreekumar and Jayasuriya has also been deleted.
Lollipop is about Franco (Prithviraj), his sister Jenny (Roma), Franco's friend Eby (Kunchacko Boban), Jenny's collegemate Rose (Bhavana) and Paachi (Jayasuriya). Prithviraj appears as the owner of an automobile workshop. Kunchako Boban plays a junior doctor, while Jayasuriya plays a pickpocket. Lollipop has been scripted by Benny P. Nayarambalam and music is by Alex Paul.

Lollipop from today

Latest offering from Malayalam film industry, Lollipop that features almost all of the leading youngsters in the industry have released in about 80 centers today. The film was scripted by Benny P Nayarambalam and directed by hit maker Shafi. Lollipop features Prithviraj, Bhavana, Jayasurya, Kunchakko Boban and Roma in the leading roles. The film was produced under the banner ABS combines by Shafi, Benny P Nayarambalam and Anto Joseph.
The movie has been carrying good preview reports. This is yet another youngster movie from Shafi after the much accomplained hit Chocolate. But with the initial reports, the film have miserably failed to grow upto the expectations. Everyone will be wondering, how could a director like Shafi direct this movie and a script writer like Benny can write it, because the film is really boring in it's way. The film could have rated an average flick, but the unexpected twist in the climax have made the movie even worse. It was continuos booing in almost all theatres after that strange climax.
The movie has Prithviraj as Franco, who runs an automobile workshop at Fort Kochi. He shares a special bonding with his only sister Jennifer(Roma), who are more like friends .Franco and Jennifer have lost their parents at very younger stages of their life, and to avoid being left lonely at any further stage of their life, they have even decided to find their match in life, only after mutual approval.
Kunchakko Boban plays Aby, a junior Doctor of the hospital near Franko's workshop. Jayasurya is Francis, a mechanic at Franco's workshop. He was an expert in pick pocketing and fraudulent ways, till he met Franco. But now Francis, called as Panchy is a different man with all good maneuvers. Film features Bhavana as Rosebella franco's love interest. Since both of them, Rosebella and Jennifer are great rivals, the film features how Franco manages to make them friends in order to marry himself to Rosebella.
This film also features Rajan P Dev who plays Rosebella`s dad, Chandikunju, who runs a finance company. Sreekumar plays Kunchakko Boban's father, who was a former partner to Chandikunju is now an enemy to him. Others in the cast are Shafi's regular comedians like Salim Kumar, who plays Fr. Kuriakose, who is not just a priest but also a lawyer. Suraj plays Jabbar, a mechanic in Franco's workshop who is still ailing in the loss of his lover, who got married to his elder brother. Thus Lollipop is thus a celebration of brotherhood, friendship and love, told in the scripts of hit scriptwriter Benny P Nayarambalam.
On the basis of performance, all of them were excellent by themselves. The main reason for the film's drawback was it's untied script. The story of the film was really nice but the approach by the makers of the film towards it have really amazed me. Both Benny and Shafi were considered as hit makers since their films remains to be profit earners in terms of collections. But this time they failed miserably to make it a nice entertaining film.
Director Shafi as well as script writer Benny have let down everybody, though they were considered to be the reliable persons in the industry, according to the box office reports. In the technical part, cinematographer Azhagappan has done a descent job, especially with the song sequences in Banghok. Remaining all other parts too have done nice except the department of music which really let down the movie. The team of Alex Paul and Sarath Vayalar may have done some works but not in this film. Except one song 'Jeruselemile...' all other songs are really dud. Also these songs features some sort of resemblance with Alex's previous some combositions.
All in all, Lollipop definitely failed in some qaurters of making which indeed will cost the film very badly. I will prefer all of you to watch the movie if you are really on the way to kill your time. There is nothing new in this film so that i can say, you must watch it. I am feeling this film is a below average by it's way of making.

Sagar alias Jackie: Second schedule begins

Sagar alias Jackie recently completed its first schedule shooting at the locations of Goa, Leh and Vizhinjam at Thiruvananthapuram. The second schedule is for 10 days in Dubai from December 19, 2008, after which the crew will return for the next major schedule in Ernakulum.
After Chotta Mumbai, actress Bhavana dons the female lead opposite Mohanlal as a CNN reporter named Namitha Menon in this film, which also has National award winning actress Shobhana and famous South Indian actress Meena in important roles. Actress Jyothirmayi will play a cameo. Other cast members include Jagathy Sreekumar, Nedumudi Venu, Suman, Manoj K. Jayan, Ganesh, Vinayakan, Baiju, Sumeeth, Sreeraman and others.
Planned as a sequel to Mohanlal's 1987 blockbuster Irupatham Noottandu directed by K. Madhu, Sagar alias Jackie is directed by Malayalam's most stylish director Amal Neerad of Big B fame and produced by Antony Perumbavoor under the banner of Ashirvad films.
It is learnt that Sagar alias Jackie will be a stylish thriller on the lines of the Tamil film Billa. Notably, the lyrics are handled by Rio Joy, an undergraduate at Aluva U.C. College. Gopi Sunder has scored the music. S.N. Swami has penned the script. Sagar alias Jackie is due for release during Vishu 2009. Stay with us for more updates