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Soft porn rules Malayalam marquee

After the superhit status achieved by Narasimham (Mohanlal and Aishwarya in the lead, Mammootty in an extended guest appearance as a hot shot lawyer), the Malayalam marquee appears to have slipped into a soft-porn daze.

This week, thus, it is the 'A'-certified films that are ruling the roost -- a trend that has been increasingly visible of late, prompting mental flashbacks to the 70s when I V Sasi's Avalude Raavugal triggered off a lucrative spate of similar films.

Showing good legs at the box office, thus, are films like Gandharva Raathri and Priyankari. Both the kind of films that are a touch blue around the edges. Both low budget. Both with unknowns heading the star cast -- debutante actress Saraswati's show-and-tell is what puts the fizz in Gandharva..., for instance. Both aimed at the young, predominantly male audience. And both hitting the bullseye at the box office.

As relief, for the more aesthetically inclined audience, come two films. The first is Varavaayi, with Sai Kumar and Shruti Raj in the lead, and debutant director Harish at the helm. A good story, sharp focus on the perennially popular family drama/conflict theme, good performances by the cast and clean, crisp narration by the director have made this latest release a draw for the 'family' audience -- which, for all practical purposes, means women accompanied by their kids.

And then there is Varnakaazhchakal -- rapidly attaining hit status, and in the process letting Dilip, who hasn't had a film do well for some time now, off the hook. An interesting premise, a taut script, and the easy, simple narrative style of director Sundardas are the pluses for this film, with the cast backing the crew with finely etched performances. Worth mentioning are a good performance on debut by Poornima Mohan, and good music by the Yusufali-Mohan Sitara combine have all come together to ensure that this film, after a slow initial, is rapidly accelerating in box office momentum.

And then, of course, there is the usual clutch of Tamil films running on the Kerala marquee -- given that Tamil films have an increasingly loyal audience among the Keralite population, Doubles (Prabhu Deva and Meena), Paarthein Rasithein (Prashanth-Laila-Simran), and Khushee (Vijay-Jyotika) are all doing reasonably well.

Which concludes this week's box office roundup. Pinne kaanaam.