July 15, 2011 4:23:01 pm
The King And The Commissioner is a combined sequel to Mammoottys The King and Suresh Gopis The Commissioner.
The King hit screens in 1995 and Mammootty,playing an outright,dare-all District Collector named Thevallyparambil Joseph Alex,elicited thunderous applause with his performance and dialogues. The dialogues from Shaji Kailas film,penned by Renji Panicker,are still remembered and repeated by fans as well as mimicry guys. The film was one of the biggest hits in the history of Malayalam cinema. The audio-cassettes with the movies dialogues sold out like hot cakes and The King,released in 40 theatres (something big at that time) completed 200 days of successful run.
Earlier Kailas and Panicker teamed up with Suresh Gopi for The Commissioner. Gopi played Bharath Chandran,an upright City Police Commissioner. The films dialogues became a big hit and the movies audio cassettes went on to become a hit too. The diatribe between Chandran and the villain Mohan Thomas (played by Ratheesh) is still remembered and oft-repeated. The film completed 200 successful days and even the Telugu dubbed version,titled Police Commissioner was a big hit. A decade later,in 2005,Chandran returned with Bharath Chandran IPS,which marked the directorial debut of Panicker. It went on to be a big hit.
Now,in 2011,Mammooty and Gopi will reprise therir roles of Alex and Chandran in a joint sequel,The King And The Commissioner,that will be again scripted by Panicker and directed by Kailas. In this movie,Alex is no longer a District Collector but the director of the National Security Agency and Chandran is a central investigating officer of high ranking. They are now both working in Delhi,with the central government. Naturally when these two iconic characters come together on screen,its going to be high voltage drama.
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Panicker and Kailas formed a hit combo; but after The King,they never worked together. They parted ways amicably and in the interim period both of them worked with other writers and directors. Says Panicker,We did six hit films together like Thalasthanam,Sthalathe Pradhana Payyans,Ekalavyan,Commissioner,The King that increased the pressure. If we had continued working together,then we would have to face a lot of pressure to deliver hits consistently. So we deliberately parted ways on the professional front. Now we have dedcided to work together again.
Samvritha Sunil and Kannada actress Sanjana are the leading ladies,though its not a romantic film and there would obviously be no love track. Says Samvritha,I play Nandu,who works in the central secretariat. Its a dynamic character for me and I simply love being part of a film by Shaji sir (Shaji Kailas).
Sanjana,who is playing a cop,says,I had got offers earlier too from Malayalam filmmakers,but couldnt take them up. I had always longed to act with people like Mammootty sir and Mohanlal sir. And here I am,acting with Mammootty sir here and with Mohanlal sir in Casanova. I am also thrilled as I am playing a cop for the first time.
Janardhanan,Devan,Saikumar,Nedumudi Venu,Vijayaraghavan and many other prominent artistes comprise the rest of the cast. The film is being currently shot in and around Kochi. The King And The Commissioner is produced by Anto Joseph under the banner of Emperor Cinema.
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