Coming soon: Mammootty's Best Actor

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Mammootty plays a school teacher, who dreams of becoming an actor, in debutant director Martin Prakkat's Best Actor.

According to the director, who was a photographer before getting into movies, this is not essentially a cinema-within-cinema story but an outsider's hilarious escapades as he tries to get into tinsel world.

Kannada actor Sruthi Ramakrishna plays a music teacher in the same school and Mammootty's wife. "She is quite supportive of her husband's efforts to become an actor," she says of her role.

Nedumudi Venu, Sreenivasan, Lal, Salim Kumar, Vinayakan, KPAC Lalitha and Sukumari make up the rest of the cast. The cinematographer is Ajayan Vincent and music director is Bijibal.

Best Actor will hit the theatres on December 3.

For those who can't wait to see Mammootty in action, why not catch director MA Nishad's Best of Luck, which released last week.

Veteran theatre and National Award winning actress Kozhikode Shanthadevi (83) passed away on November 20. She has acted in more than 400 films in Malayalam and numerous plays. She was married to well known yesteryear singer Kozhikode Abdul Khader.

She started her career as a drama artist in 1954 in the play, Smarakam. Sometime later she became part of movies.

She won the National Award for best supporting actress in Yamanam (1992), directed by Bharath Gopi.

Recently, her portrayal as an ailing mother in director Anwar Rasheed's Bridge, in the Kerala Caf anthology, was well appreciated.

The controversial 1978 film, Rathinirvedam, which was known for its bold theme is being remade. The original was written by late Padmarajan and directed by late Bharathan, with Jayabharathi playing a woman who falls in love with a teenage boy. Singer Krishnachandran played the boy then.

The new version is being directed by T K Rajeev Kumar and is being produced by Suresh Kumar of Revathy Kalamandir.

Shwetha Menon will play the female lead, while the search for a fresh face to play the young boy is currently underway.

Suresh Kumar has remade Neelathamara, based on MT Vasudevan Nair's script, which was a success at the box office.

Shwetha, who performed brilliantly in Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Kadha, is currently shooting for Lijo Jose Pellissery's City of God, which stars Prithviraj and Indrajith.