Punyalan Agarbattis

Punyalan Agarbathis
Directed by	Ranjith Sankar
Produced by	Jayasurya Ranjith Sankar
Written by	Ranjith Sankar
Screenplay by	Ranjith Sankar Anil Kurian, Abhayakumar
Starring	Jayasurya Nyla Usha Aju Varghese Rachana Narayanankutty
Music by	Bijibal
Cinematography	Sujith Vassudev
Editing by	Lijo Paul
Studio	Dreams N Beyond
Distributed by	Central Pictures
Release dates	November 29, 2013
Country	India
Language	Malayalam
Budget	3 crore (US$480,000)[1]

Punyalan Agarbathis is a 2013 Malayalam comedy drama film written and directed by Ranjith Sankar, starring Jayasurya, Nyla Usha, Aju Varghese, and Rachana Narayanankutty. The film is produced by Jayasurya and Ranjith Sankar under the banner of Dreams N Beyond and features music composed by Bijibal, whilst cinematography is handled by Sujith Vassudev and is edited by Lijo Paul.^[2][2]

The film was a commercial success at the box-office.^[3]

Plot

Punyalan Agarbattis is the story of Joy Thakkolkaran, a young entrepreuner from Thrissur. His new business venture 'Punyalan Agarbattis' involves manufacturing agarbattis from elephant dung. Fragrance and quality of his incense sticks aside, its mosquito repellant capabilities too have pleased those who tried the samples. However, Joy suddenly has a new set of people and problems as 'Punyalan Agarbattis' comes to a halt.

Cast

• Jayasurya as Joy Thakkolkaran
• Aju Varghese as Greenu Sharma
• Rachana Narayanankutty as Advocate Sai
• Nyla Usha as Anu
• Sreejith Ravi as Abhayakumar
• Innocent as John Thakkolkaran, Joy's grandfather
• Idavela Babu as K C Mathews
• Mala Aravindan as Ayyappan
• Sunil Sukhada as Judge
• Shivaji Guruvayoor as Anson Marakkar
• Thesni Khan as Gracy
• Ponnamma Babu as Usha
• T. G. Ravi as Social worker
• Irshad as Amal
• Advt. Sabu as Idivettu Sabu
• Vinod Kovur as Pappan
• Sudheer Karamana as Kollur Jayaprakash

Production

Development

Ranjith Sankar who had recently announced two projects Sudhi Valmeekam with Prithviraj Sukumaran and May Flower, has given the announcement that these films will take place in 2014. Director and producer Ranjith Sankar had also announced that his next directorial Malayalam movie will be titled Punyalan Agarbattis, which will have Jayasurya in the lead character who also will co produce the film. He had also said it was expected to go on the floor by August month at the location of Thrissur. Punyalan Agarbathis was never even in the director's list of immediate project. After the script came to play the director had decided going back to Thrissur which also has always been his greatest source of strength all these years. It was also decided after discussing projects with actor Jayasurya to be part of the previously announced project Mayflower, to become the lead and with him favoring the project so much he decided to co-produce the film along with the director. Distribution was decided to be done by Central Pictures. The screenplay is jointly done by the director himself and new comers Anil Kurian and Abhayakumar. ^[4] Anil Kurian had earlier associated with Ranjith Sankar for Molly Aunty Rocks as the Project Designer. ^[5]

Casting

Jayasurya had been the topper for first list of actors to play the role of a married young man from Thrissur for the director and was initially casted. Nyla Usha a Dubai based Radio Jockey who had recently completed the shooting of her debut film Kunjananthante Kada, at the time which was directed by National award winning filmmaker Salim Ahmad. She was casting to play a role of a modern wife, who works in the Telecom sector.^[6][7][8] Other cast in the film includes Rachana Narayanankutty who was famous for her role in the sitcom Marimayam and also appearing in films such as Amen, Aju Varghese who has been the rising young comedian was casting to play another type cast role, T.G. Ravi also was casted to play an important role and the others who were casted were Mala Aravindan, Sunil Sukhada, Edavela Babu and Shivaji Guruvayur.^[9] The popular senior actor Innocent was casted to play the hero's grandfather. Innocent plays one of the two characters that influence the hero and which his grandfather is one among them. This film was a comeback film for the actor who had been fighting cancer and therefor not being in films for a while.^[10][11][12]

Filming

The filming began at Thrissur at August 17, 2013.^[13][14] The director of photography was Sujith Vasudev, who had previously done Ranjith Sankar's Molly Aunty Rocks.

Release

Punyalan Agarbattis was awarded with "U" certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification. It was released on 3 May 2013.

Reception

Kerala9.com called the film a " Good entertainer." They also cited the satire and humor of the film. ^[15]

Soundtrack

Bijibal, who had composed the music for Ranjith Sankar's debut film Passenger and Arjunan Saakshi composed the background score and the songs in the film.. The film marked the debut of Jayasurya as a singer in films. The song was overwhelmingly successful all over Kerala. The lyrics are penned by Santhosh Varma.^[16]

References

External links