Movies

The pace of film-making in Kerala is slowing down, just that little bit every year. The year 1998 saw just 62 films being released -- which could be a good thing in its own way, with quality rather than quantity being the criterion for the offerings that hit the marquee.

But then, theatres can't be kept idle either, can they? And hence, the search for fill-ins that now animate the industry. Two methods are being employed -- the dubbing of films from other languages, and the re-release.

Dubbed versions of Telugu/Tamil potboilers did enjoy a measure of popularity for a while, earlier, before vanishing from the Malayalam marquee. Now they are back, with Chiranjeevi's 1998 blockbuster Chudalani Undi in the vanguard. Re-titled Calcutta for the Keralite audiences, the film co-stars Bombay girl Anjala Zaveri and Soundarya. Interestingly, the film is being picked up by Keralite distributors at the kind of price a Malayalam original commands -- as graphic an indicator of the distributors' need to fill the theatres as any.
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