Udayananu Tharam

Udayananu Tharam

DVD cover
Directed by Rosshan Andrrews
Produced by C. Karunakaran
Screenplay by Sreenivasan
Story by Rosshan Andrrews
Starring Mohanlal
Meena Durairaj
Sreenivasan
Mukesh
Jagathy Sreekumar
Salim Kumar
Music by Songs:
Deepak Dev
Background Score:
Ouseppachan
Cinematography S. Kumar ISC
Edited by Ranjan Abraham
Production
company
Perfect Group
Distributed by Carlton Films
Release dates
  • 21 January 2005 (2005-01-21) (Kerala)
Running time
 162 minutes
Country India
Language Malayalam

Udayananu Tharam (English: Udayan Is the Star) is a 2005 Malayalam black comedy film directed by Rosshan Andrrews and scripted by Sreenivasan based on the story written by Rosshan Andrrews. Udayananu Tharam presents the Malayalam film industry through a satirical viewpoint. The film stars Mohanlal, Sreenivasan, Meena, Jagathy Sreekumar, and Mukesh in the major roles.

The financial and artistic crisis which plagued the once glittering Malayalam film industry at the turn of the 21st century lies at the center of the story. It depicts the struggles of Udayabhanu (Mohanlal), who is an assistant director and script writer and who aspires to make it big. But he is thwarted in his attempts by a scheming friend and junior artiste, Rajappan Thengamoodu (Sreenivasan), who steals his script to become superstar Saroj Kumar.

Director Roshan Andrews changed his name to "Rosshan Andrrews" as per his astrologer's suggestion to ensure the success of the film. The film made the biggest ever opening until then in the history of Malayalam cinema.[1] The film won two Kerala State Film Awards, for Best Debut Director and for Best Choreography. The film was later remade into Tamil as Velli Thirai and into Hindi as Shortkut.

An unofficial sequel named Padmasree Bharat Dr. Saroj Kumar directed by Sajin Raghavan was released on 14 January 2012.

Synopsis

Udayananu Tharam is the story of Udayabhanu (Mohanlal), a worshipper of films and an immensely talented assistant film director, who yearns to write and direct his own movie at a time when the industry is filled with dubious filmmakers. Rajappan Thengummoodu (Sreenivasan) is a rather crooked friend of Udayabhanu and an aspiring and failed actor. As Udayabhanu finally prepares to shoot his first movie based on his own script, he discovers to his horror that Rajappan has stolen his manuscript, and shooting is underway with Rajappan playing the lead, which eventually propels him to stardom. Udhayabhanu soon finds himself faced with a career and personal crisis, with his faltering relations with his superstar wife Madhumati (Meena Durairaj) contributing to the latter.

Later, with the help of producer Babykuttan (Mukesh), Udayabanu prepares to direct another film, but he is forced to cast Rajappan as the hero since he was the star with most screen value at that time. Rajappan takes up the offer, since he is also at a plateau of his career, but refuses to co-operate and throws tantrums and causes maximum trouble when possible. He spends most of his time actively flirting with the actresses in the film.

Towards the end of the shoot - using a perceived insult as a ruse, Rajappan leaves the set leaving the movie unfinished with the hope that this will destroy Udayabanu's career for ever. But Udayabanu devises clever tactics and shoots the remaining scenes with Rajappan without him even being aware of it.

At the end - the film is a critical and box office success, but Rajappan realises his mistakes and admits publicly that Udayabanu is the real star and not himself. Hence the film's title - "Udayan is the Star"

Cast

Box office

The movie was well received in theaters and took the biggest ever opening for a Malayalam film until then. It grossed ₹3.12 crore (US$460,000) in two weeks from 41 screens in Kerala, with a distributor share of ₹1.38 crore (US$210,000). It ran over 150 days in kerala box office and grossed over ₹13 crore (US$1.9 million) to become 2nd highest malayalam film of the year.[1]

Accolades

Kerala State Film Awards
Asianet Film Awards

Soundtrack

The songs were composed by Deepak Dev and lyrics by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri.

Track Song Title Singer(s)
1 Parayaathe Dr. K. J. Yesudas, K. S. Chithra
2 Karale Karalinte Vineeth Sreenivasan, Rimi Tomy
3 Penne En Penne Afsal, Shalini Singh
4 Parayaathe Karthik
5 Penne En Penne (My Girl - Remix) Afsal
6 Udayananu Tharam Ranjith Govind, Deepak Dev

Remakes

Year Title Language Cast Director
2008 Velli Thirai Tamil Prithviraj, Gopika, Prakash Raj Viji
2009 Shortkut Hindi Akshaye Khanna, Arshad Warsi and Amrita Rao Neeraj Vora

References

  1. 1 2 Sreedhar Pillai A coup by debutant director. The Hindu
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