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Udayananu Tharam (Udayan's the Star) is a 2005 Malayalam movie which presents the South Indian (especially the Malayalam) film industry through a satirical viewpoint. The financial and artistic crisis which plagued the once glittering Malayalam film industry during the turn of the 21st century lies at the centerpoint of this movie. The film which appears to have resemblance to two Hollywood movies Bowfinger and Big Fat Liar is about plagiarism. The movie was later remade into Tamil and Hindi namely Vellitherai and Shotkut-The Con is On respectively.

Production

The film was released on 21 January 2005, at a time when Malayalam cinema was going through its much talked about crisis, owing to a general decline in production standards. The movie was directed by debutant Rosshan Andrrews, who was, till then, an unknown assistant director. The film turned out to be a blockbuster hit with theaters running to packed audiences, which appeared to shake the industry from its ongoing artistic stupor.

Selected Cast List

• Mohanlal (Udayabhanu)
• Sreenivasan (Rajappan Thengummoodu/ Saroj Kumar)
• Meena (Madhumati)
• Jagathy (Pachalam Bhasi)
• Mukesh (Babykuttan)
• Bhavana (Gayathri)

Plot

Udayananu Tharam is the story of Udayabhanu (Mohanlal), a worshipper of films and an immensely talented assistant film director, who yearns to write and direct his own movie - at a time when the industry is filled with dubious filmmakers. Rajappan Thengummoodu (Sreenivasan) is a rather crooked friend of Udayabhanu and an aspiring and failed actor. As Udayabhanu finally prepares to shoot his first movie based on his own script, he discovers to his horror that Rajappan has stolen his manuscript, and shooting is underway with Rajappan playing the lead, which eventually propels him to stardom. Udhayabhanu soon finds himself faced with a career and personal crisis, with his faltering relations with his superstar wife Madhumati (Meena) contributing to the latter.

Scripted by Sreenivasan in his usual self deprecating manner, the dialogues makes snide remarks at various contemporary film cultures such as business ventures of film stars, the inflow of third-rate film directors into Malayalam cinema and their tendency to depend solely on Super Stars to produce hits, the prevalence of "mimicry films", the gaudy "cooling glass" dress sense of actors, the infamous Meera Jasmine struggle with her parents, and even about "rascals stealing promising actresses from the film industry" - taking a rather uncomfortable shot at several prominent Malayalam film star marriages.

Trivia

• The climax of this movie is heavily 'borrowed' from 1999 comedy Bowfinger written by Steve Martin, where a neurotic superstar (Kit Ramsey, played by Eddie Murphy) is secretly filmed by a desperate filmmaker Bobby Bowfinger (played by Steve Martin).
• Roshan Andrews changed his name to Rosshan Andrrews as per his astrologer's suggestion to ensure the success of the movie.
• Roshan Andrews will be remaking this film in Hindi titled Short Kut: The Con is On starring Akshay Khanna and Arshad Warsi. It's to be produced by Anil Kapoor.
• Prakash Raj has announced that his next film will be titled, Velli Thirai, which is a remake of this film starring Prithviraj, who also worked with Raj in Mozhi. Also to be produced by Prakash Raj himself.
• Anees Bazmee had written the Hindi draft and the director of the original film Roshan Andrews was supposed to direct the Hindi version as well. Somehow things didn’t work out with Roshan and Anil Kapoor approached Neeraj Vora.

Box Office

The film was a great mega blockbuster in the year. The film made great impact on Roshan AN drewws.The film was a great success in direction,screenplay and acting of all the artists in the film..............

External links

• Udayananu Tharam at the Internet Movie Database