Christian Brothers was to release along with Mammootty, Prithviraj starrer Pokkiri Raja on April 30

Christian Brothers
Mollywoods biggest commercial director Joshie's latest film Christian brothers, which has made news due to the high budget and star cast, was postponed to July. The budget was expected to go beyond Rs 3.5 crore which was the limit set by the producers' association. Then actor Thilakan controversy came up. The actor blamed a superstar for his ouster from this film, who was supposed to do a role in Christian Brothers.

The movie features Mohanlal, Sarath Kumar, Suresh Gopi and Dileep. The film also has Lal's Madambi pair Kavya Madhavan and milky white Lakshmi Rai. Kaniha acts for the first time with Mohanlal and Lal's favorite heroine Lakshmi Gopalaswamy is also adding glitz.

The release of this thriller has been pushed to July 9, as a song has to be picturised with Mohanlal and Lakshmi Rai in Scotland. Now the climate is not favorable to shoot their and reports are that the best time to picturise the song is May, when summer begins here.

In Christian Brothers, Mohanlal is a high profile police informer, a key figure in Mumbai, a Godfather type of role. But his family thinks he is a goon. Mohanlal and Dileep play brothers Christie and Joji. Dileep had joined seminary to become a priest but opts out after he falls in love with a girl. Kaniha and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy play their sisters. Kavya Madhavan will pair with Mohanlal. The story goes through a dozen of interesting twists and turns, according to scriptwriters Udayakrishnan and Siby K Thomas. Joshiy's last film with Siby-Udayan was blockbuster Twenty 20.

Anil Nair is the cinematographer and Deepak Dev the music director. The film is produced jointly by Varnachitra Subair and AVA Productions Anoop (Medimix). Christian Brothers was to release along with Mammootty, Prithviraj starrer Pokkiri Raja on April 30.

Pokkiriraja

Mammootty who is known for promoting talents will once again partner with Prithviraj in the movie Pollachi Raja which wa s earlier titled Pokkiri Raja. Prithvi will be seen as Mammootty�s brother in Pollachi Raja.

Mammootty played a character named Bellary Raja in the super hit Rajamanikyam. In this film mega star is getting ready to enact another Raja character, Pollachi Raja.

This is the second time Prithviraj is getting a chance to share the screen with Mammootty. Their first outing was with Bipin Prabhakar directed One-way Ticket, which didn�t fare well at the box office.

Phoonk 2

Phoonk 2 directed by debutante director Milind Gadagkar who earlier wrote Phoonk, manages to pack in more chills and thrills and keeps you terrified most of the time than the first one. A sequel works if it goes one step ahead of the first part, in terms of content mainly. But Phoonk 2 doesn't take a step forward, but a step backwards. The idea is a master stroke and had writer turned director Milind Gadagkar handled it right, Phoonk 2 would've scared the daylights out of you. But the film looks incomplete and the viewer keeps wondering, where did the spirit disappear?

Phoonk ended with Madhu (Ashwini Kalsekar) who practices black magic on Rajiv's (Sudeep) family getting killed by tantrik Manja (Zakir Hussain). Phoonk 2 begins with some time having passed by since then. The old granny has gone off to a tirth yaatra and Rajiv takes his family to a vacation at his newly purchased beach house in Alibaug. But little does he know that his troubles have not really ended but multiplied in fact.

Dead Madhu's ghost comes to haunt his family. Her spirit enters Rajiv's wife Aarti's (Amruta Khanwilkar) body. It aims to kill all those people who are dear to Rajiv including his daughter Raksha (Ahsaas Channa) and sister Arushi (Neeru) who has come down from the US with her hubby Ronnie (Amit Sadh). How Rajiv fights back Madhu and the life threat on his near and dear ones forms the rest of the film.

Acting wise, Sudeep yet again did a right job as a helpless father. Amruta Kahnvilkar is excellent in a difficult role. Ahsaas Channa is a bit irritated. The little boy playing her brother is good Neeru Singh and Amit Sadh don't get much scope. Ashwini Kalsekar is just superb. She succeeds in scaring the daylights out of you yet again. Jeeva playing the tantric is effective in his small part.

On the whole, Phoonk 2 is a film with a good idea but suffers due to its weak writing. Not a good film to spend your time and money on it.