Manisha Koirala seems most content to do most of her work down South. After her debut in the Subhash Ghai film Saudagar, Manisha had faded from the picture till Mani Rathnam cast her opposite Arvind Swamy in Bombay, and gave the actress a new lease of life.

Now, Mani Rathnam's one time assistant Srinivas readies to make his own debut as a director. And Siddharth Koirala will play the male lead in Kanave, the film in question.

Sister Manisha will help the good work along, with a small but very vital role in the film, which has her paired opposite Udaya, son of producer A L Azhaghappan.

Another facet worth taking note of is the fact that the film will mark yet another debut -- of Nirav, as cinematographer. The talented youngster is yet another from the P C Sriram stable, that has given Tamil cinema a host of award-winners in recent times.

Madhu and Swamy team up

It's been a while coming, but it is here at last. Director K Madhu, teaming up with scriptwriter S N Swamy, had in the eighties given Malayalam cinema a new trend with the superbly crafted crime thriller Oru CBI Diarykurippu.

Mammootty played a Palghat Brahmin CBI officer, in a story that unlike most of the genre, focussed on real investigative techniques to solve a murder that was sought to be disguised as suicide. The film went on to become a superhit and, in the process, made history of sorts when it enjoyed an uninterrupted half a year run in a premier Madras theatre as well.

The two then made an equally well-received sequel, Jagratha -- but the crime thriller that eschews violence and focusses on investigation has been missing from the marquee for a while now.

Finally, the Madhu-Swamy team come together to make Nariman -- again, with Mammootty topping the cast in the title role of CBI officer Ashok Nariman.

The storyline has Manu, a convict facing a life sentence, attempting to escape and being shot by the cops. In hospital for treatment, he reveals certain truths to the doctor attending on him. The doctor, much struck by what he has been told, takes a personal interest in reopening the case, which is the cue for the CBI team to come into the picture.

Suresh Gopi, Samyukta Verma, Jagdish, and Jagati are the other headliners in the cast, while M G Radhakrishnan composes the music and Anandakuttan handles the camera.

And while on Mammootty, the Malayalam superstar has also begun work on Danny, a film being made by T V Chandran, whose earlier work Ponthen Mada gave Mammootty one of his three national awards.

Danny traces the evolution of a character from his youth to age 73. Mallika Sarabhai plays a crucial role in the film, while Vijayaraghavan, Vani Vishwanath and Lalu Alex make up the rest of the cast. Music is by Johnson, Jayan wields the camera.

The third item in this episode of Mammootty-watch centers on Senior-Junior, which will see the three-time national award winner in his first Tamil role after the success of Anandam.

Mammootty is the 'senior' of the title, while Hamsavaradhan, son of yesteryear actor Ravichandran, plays 'junior'.

Hamsavardhan was earlier launched by his father, but proved a bit of a damp squib. This is his second outing, and the film will be directed by Suresh whose earlier credits include Velai and Ennavalae.

The film is being shot entirely in Malaysia and Singapore -- not just for songs, but because the story is based in those parts.

Word is that the story is about two groups -- Singapore Tamils, and those Tamils who have migrated from India. Mammootty plays a Tamil landing in Singapore from India, while Hamsa is a native Singaporean in a story about clashing ethos.

The love story has Tejaswini, a Mumbai import, in the female lead. Yuvan Shankar Raja, younger son of music maestro Ilayaraja, provides the score and plays a cameo role as well. The film has targetted Valentine's Day, 2002, as release date.

Mohanlal fights The Class War

National award winner Mohanlal scored a big hit recently with Ravanaprabhu, released this Onam.

That film marked the directorial debut of scenarist Renjith. The two will team up again with Vargam -- The Class War. Which, in case you need telling, revolves around a class war -- and that is all the makers are telling just now.

The film is being produced by Johnny Sagarika, and the music is by Bhavatharani, daughter of Ilayaraja and winner of a national award for female vocalist last year. Nationally acclaimed theatre personality Kavalan Narayana Panicker will weigh in with the lyrics.

Elsewhere, Mohanlal will do his second Tamil film, this time under the direction of villain-character actor Nasser, whose last outing as director-actor was with Maayan.

Mohanlal's debut in Tamil was in the Mani Rathnam film Iruvar, which also marked the debut of Aishwarya Rai. Mohanlal did have an indirect Tamil credit, when Priyadarshan's film Kaalapani was dubbed and released in Tamil as Sirachalai.

A talking point of the Nasser-Mohanlal project now coming up is the identity of the music composer -- a certain A R Rehman.

Rajitha
Design: Imran Shaikh