Mollywood had high hopes in this year’s Onam releases as almost every big stars had a release this season and that too with master directors and writers. There was five releases in this Onam season and stars like Mohanlal, Mammootty, Prithviraj, Indrajith, Kunchacko Boban, Vineeth Sreenivasan were there for the Onam race this year along with writers and directors like Ranjith, Kamal, P S Rafeeq, Lijo Jose Pellissery and newcomer Basil Joseph.
But have to say that none of these five releases has satisfied the audience fully and each and every one of the films failed to raise up to the expectation levels of the audience and failed to stand up to the level of hype they created before the release. But there was onam winner or may be winners as well as if we find the best of the lot. They are Loham by Ranjith- Mohanlal team and Kunjiramayanam by Basil Joseph-Vineeth Sreenivasan team.
When we consider about the Ultimate Onam winner there wasn’t something like that to be called an Onam winner so if we prefer the best from these five releases it will be Loham which was best out of these Five releases this Onam. It was Loham which was released first to celebrate Onam and by making the excellent first half of the movie including the best interval scene made in the recent times the movie was exceptional. Even though the movie had a excellent first half its doubtful that the movie could not retain the mood in the second half.So let’s check what had happened with each film in order of its position at Box office.
Loham
Loham is clearly the Onam winner of this season with a record breaking collection at box office despite the mixed opinion it had got. It had earned more than 1.50 crore profit from theaters alone from its 12 days of run so far and still continues to run with steady collection as well. The Mohanlal magic is the reason behind its super success at box office and nothing else.
Kunjiramayanam
Kunjiramayanam directed by debutant Basil Joseph starring Vineeth Sreenivasan was the underdog among the releases of this Onam season but in opinion it came first among the lot and in box office performance it has come below Loham in this season and become the second and last Onam winner of the season.
Utopiayile Rajavu
The film came with a lot of expectation starring Mammootty and directed by Kamal in the script of Amen fame P S Rafeeq. But could not raise up to the level of expectation and generated average reviews. In box office collections as well it did not make any impact and ended up on the losing side this season.
Jamna Pyaari
Directed by Thomas Sebastian and starred by Kunchacko Boban. Jamna Pyaari came without much promotion as well as expectations and it went like that way as well. Even though it had a good start at box office it failed to sustain it.
Double Barrel
Double Barrel is the disaster of this season. Directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery and that too with a great star cast of Prithviraj, Indrajith, Arya, Sunny Wayne, Asif Ali etc it generated the highest hype any other Mollywood film generated recently. But the big budget gangster comedy ended up as a film that tested the patience of the viewers and ended up as one of the biggest failure at box office in recent times.
So overall this year’s Onam releases were not that good and from next week there are some releases on the way which could make the audience entertained and enjoy the month of September at the theatres. Some of them are Kohinoor, Life of Josootty and so on. Hope this month gives Malayalam Cinema and the movie lovers something exciting to experience and the fatigue which was experienced by Mollywood during the Onam season could be ignored.
