| Kandahar | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Major Ravi |
| Produced by | Sunil C. Nair Mohanlal |
| Written by | Major Ravi |
| Starring | Mohanlal Amitabh Bachchan Ganesh Venkatraman Sumalatha Ragini Dwivedi Kaveri Jha Ananya |
| Music by | Shamir Tandon |
| Cinematography | Ravi Varman Velraj |
| Editing by | Don Max |
| Studio | Zoe Estebe Moviez Pranavam Arts International |
| Distributed by | Aashirvad Release through Maaxlab |
| Release date(s) | 16 December 2010 |
| Country | India |
| Language | Malayalam |
| Budget | 6.5 crores[1] |
Kandahar is a 2010 Malayalam war film directed by Major Ravi. The film stars Mohanlal, reprising his role from the prequels, Kirtichakra (2006) and Kurukshetra (2008), as Major Mahadevan. Amitabh Bachchan and Ganesh Venkatraman also play major roles in the film. The film was released on 16 December 2010, along with its dubbed versions in Tamil and Hindi. The film is based on the hijacking incident of the Indian Airlines Flight 814.[2][3]
The sound design of the film is done by Baylon Fonseca. This film is co-produced by Sunil Nair and Mohanlal.Film marketed online by Shaz Shabeer Strikers & Crew Kochi, The film, made at a budget of 6.5 crores, received largely negative critical reviews and ended up being a disaster at the Kerala box office.[4]
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Suryanatha Varma (Ganesh Venkatraman) is an educated yet unemployed man. His father, Lokanatha Sharma (played by Amitabh Bachchan) wants to see his son victorious in life. Things change when he meets Major Mahadevan (Mohanlal). Another mission with Mahadevan and crew, as they deal with international terrorism with a flight being hijacked by hardcore terrorists
Kandahar is the third film in the "Major Mahadevan series", the previous ones being Kirtichakra (2006) and Kurukshetra (2008). Kirtichakra was a runaway success in Kerala but Kurukshetra was only an average grosser.[5] Jeeva played a supporting role in Kirtichakra and Siddique in Kurukshetra. This time Ganesh Venkatraman is playing the supporting role. Surya was supposed to do the role, but was replaced by Ganesh when he opted out of the project due to date clashes with 7aam Arivu.[6]
Mohanlal plays the lead role and is serving as the film's producer. Several other artists from Tamil cinema were initially approached to play secondary lead roles as well, including Surya Sivakumar and Arun Vijay, who all cited date conflicts. Later, Ganesh Venkatraman was finalized for a role. Amitabh Bachchan was also approached for a major role in the film, to which he immediately agreed. According to his blog, he did not ask for any remuneration for his appearance in the film, even though he was offered a whopping 8 Crores.[7] His son in the film is played by Ganesh Venkatraman.[8] Later, model Ragini Dwivedi was signed up to play a supporting role.[9][10] There were reports that Parvathy Omanakuttan was also cast in the film.[9]
At a press conference, Major Ravi reported that the aeroplane sequences of the film would be shot in Russia. Other locations include Ooty and New Delhi.
The film was released on 16 December 2010 in 111 theaters in Kerala, 9 theaters in Bengaluru, 5 theaters in Chennai, and around 18 theaters in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Hyderabad. Kandahar has collected 6.25 crores revenue from its total cost 6.50 crores before releasing through selling satellite rights, audio rights, video rights, overseas distribution rights, and theater advances.[1]
The film received largely negative reviews upon release.[11] Though it was one of the most awaited films of the year, it failed to attain a good word-of-mouth or a favorable critical review and is declared a box-office disaster.[11][4] A review by Sify, which rated the film "below average" said, "There are moments when every Indian would feel proud about being born in this great land, but the shaky script, ordinary action sequences and a faulty climax lets the film down."[12] Rediff published a nearly positive review saying, "A better script would have perhaps made the return of Major Mahadevan more appealing." It rated the film 2.5 in a scale of five.[13] OneIndia gave the movie a 3/5 rating,[14] and Now Running a 2/5.[15]
Asianet Film Awards
| Kandahar | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Shamir Tandon | |
| Released | 27 November 2010 |
| Genre | Film soundtrack |
| Label | Satyam Audios |
| Producer | Sunil C. Nair (under Zoe Estebe Moviez) and Mohanlal (under Pranavam Arts International |
The soundtrack features five songs composed by Shamir Tandon, who is known for his compositions in Madhur Bhandarkar's films.[16], with lyrics by Sandeep Nath, Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma, Sudhakar Sharma and Kaushal Kishor.
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Aye Janani" | Sandeep Nath | Sonu Nigam | 4:56 |
| 2. | "Pakida Pakida" | Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma | M. G. Sreekumar, Neetha Subhir | 4:22 |
| 3. | "Ho Chupi He" | Kaushal Kishor | Kailash Kher | 4:23 |
| 4. | "Dheemee Dheemee" | Sudhakar Sharma | Sunidhi Chauhan | 4:18 |
| 5. | "Aye Janani" | Sandeep Nath | Neetha Subhir | 5:08 |
| 6. | "Ho Chupi" | Kaushal Kishor | Kailash Kher | 4:39 |
| 7. | "Tigde Tigde" | Sandeep Nath | Amit Kumar, Neetha Subhir | 4:22 |