It's Seniors versus Manikya Kallu this Friday

With not many films managing to make a great impact at the box office recently, two big releases pitted against each other hope to set the cash registers ringing this weekend.

The multi starrer, Seniors, will have four heroes (Jayaram, Kunchacko Boban, Manoj K Jayan and Biju Menon) lining up while Manikya Kallu has Prithviraj in a serious avatar, as a school teacher.

Four men, who had left college 14 years ago, decide to continue with their studies. They find some ways to rejoin the college and the fun starts from that point onwards. This is what director Vysakh's Seniors is all about.

The four friends are played by Jayaram, Kunchacko Boban, Biju Menon and Manoj K Jayan.

"The four have been really close friends right from their college days. We don't know much about what Padmanabhan (Jayaram) did after he left college, at least during the beginning of the film. Rasheed Munna (Manoj K Jayan) is married but is still a hardcore romantic at heart and runs a ladies' store. Philip Idiculla (Biju Menon) is a rich planter and lazy drunkard. Rex Emmanuel (Kunchacko Boban) is a painter and owns an art gallery," says Vysakh, who shot into fame with his debut film, Pokkiri Raja.

"Some of their old friends are still in the college, like professor Indu (Padmapriya), and Thampi (Suraj Venjarammoodu), a lab attendant. It was never easy for the quartet to convince the college principal to get admission but they finally managed it after blackmailing him. The gang soon realised that the atmosphere in the campus was not like the way it was during their time and initially, the youngsters hated them. Most of the story is humorous but there are some serious moments in between." says the director.

Sachi and Sethu have written the script for Seniors, and the film is being produced under the banner of Vysakha Cinemas. Shaji wields the camera and the music directors are Jassie Gift, Alex Paul and Alphonse.

Siddique, Jagathy Sreekumar, Vijayaraghavan, Sheela, Ananya and Meera Nandan include the film's cast.

The actors of the film say in chorus "We all have imagined how different it would be these days in the campus. Now, this was our chance to know it all and we thoroughly enjoyed the shooting process. It was a fun ride."

Malayalam actor Prithviraj, who got married to his long-time girlfriend Supriya Menon recently, went for a less glamourised look wearing a mundu and sporting a beard, for his next release, Manikya Kallu.

Scripted and directed by M Mohanan, who made his debut with the super hit Kadha Parayumbol (remade in Tamil as Kuselan and in Hindi as Billu), the film talks about a school teacher in a remote village.

"A government school, which once had a glorious past and now facing the threat of being closed down, is where the story happens. At present there are less than 50 students studying there and the teachers are not much interested in the academic activities. They are busy with their own businesses and the principal (played by Nedumudi Venu) is using a part of the building as storage to store fertilizers. So everyone is surprised when a young man named Vinayachandran joins there after requesting for a transfer to the place. But he makes a definite impact in the lives of the people there," says Mohanan.

Prithviraj said, "My character is a pretty self-assured man and is confident about what he is doing. Manikya Kallu means a gem, which he believes is there inside every child but it has to be found out and the grownups have to guide them properly." 

Samvritha Sunil plays a PT teacher in the school. "My character, Chandni, got the job after the death of her father, who was a teacher there. She has quite a few other businesses and mainly comes to the school to sell eggs to fellow teachers. She is a nice girl but is short tempered and fights with people for silly things," says Samvritha.

Jagadeesh, Anil Murali, Kottayam Nazeer, Anoop Chandran and KPAC Lalitha include the cast.

The film was mostly shot at Nalleppilly in Palakkad. P Sukumar is the cinematographer and M Jayachandran is the music director.

Manikya Kallu is produced under the banner of Gouri Meenakshi movies.