Double Bonanza

It's double bonanza for film-buffs in Kerala. Two off-beat films were released on August 9th - AKG and Thakarachenda - at 16 centres. The Shaji N. Karun-directed AKG and the Avira Rebecca-directed Thakarachenda will be shown at the same theatres one after the other and one needs to buy just one ticket for viewing both the films.

AKG has P. Sreekumar playing the lead role, as A.K. Gopalan, veteran communist leader and one most revered of names in the history of communism not only in Kerala, but in the whole country. P. Sreekumar has directed films like Asthikal Pookkunnu and Vishnu and also got noted as an actor after playing the cop in the Satyan Anthicaud-directed Achuvinte Amma. While M.P. Parameswaran becomes EMS Namboothiripad, Delhi-based Ashish Verma and Shubha Sharma play Nehru and Indira Gandhi respectively. Also in the cast are actress Archana and the renowned writer Punnathil Kunhabdullah. The 70-minute film is shot as a docu-fiction.

Thakarachenda, directed by debutante Avira Rebecca, is produced by Naushad and Xavi Mano Mathew, who had produced the much acclaimed Kazhcha. Thakarachenda zooms in on the plight of the exploited and the downtrodden and has Sreenivasan in the lead role with actors like Geethu Mohandas, Seema G. Nair etc giving company.

It's of course a good thing that viewers can see two films with one ticket, but when we take into consideration the fact that both are offbeat films, with one being a docu-fiction, it's to be seen what their fate would be at the box office. Keralites have been very apathetic to offbeat films and they don't have the patience to even sit through a documentary film of 10 minutes duration. Recently released offbeat films like Thaniye, Anandabhairavi etc couldn't get enough viewers to continue for even two days at any centre. In this context it might turn out to be a double whammy rather than a double bonanza.

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Thakarachenda