Mammootty: Actor of the decade

The award 'Actor of the decade' will be conferred on Mammootty during the Jai Hind Utsav Film Awards ceremony, organized by Jai Hind TV at Corporation Stadium, Kozhikode on Sunday to mark its second anniversary, said M.M. Hassan, managing director of the channel, at a press conference in Kozhikode. Other award-winners are: Dileep (producer of Twenty:20 best film); Prithviraj (best actor); Gopika (best actress); Ranjith (best director); Jayaram (most popular actor), Jagathy Sree Kumar (overall contribution to Malayalam cinema); Sreenivasan (excellence in different aspects of film-making); Siddique (second best actor); Samvruta Sunil (second best actor); G. Venugopal (best singer); Manjari (best female singer); and Lalu Alex (special award). Music programmes featuring Blaze and Vasundhara Das, dance by film actor Sweta Menon and special sessions devoted to singer Mohammed Rafi and music director Baburaj will be held. K.P. Mohanan, chief executive officer of Jai Hind TV, was also present at the press conference.

Mammootty in double role again

In Ranjith's 'Paleri Manikkam', Mammootty plays a double role. The film is a crime thriller based on a murder case that rocked Kerala in the ‘50s. He will play the roles of a CBI officer who re-investigates the case and that of a Muslim landlord.

Ranjith has based the script on a novel by T P Rajeevan. Sreenivasan, Vijayaraghavan and Siddique re among the cast. The shooting of 'Paleri Manikkam' will commence this week.

Mammootty has had a lacklustre year in 2008 and is yet to score a big hit this year. But he has many good films coming up such as Hariharan's 'Pazhassi Raja', 'Kutty Srank' by Shaji N Karun, 'Ee Pattanathil Bhootham' and R Sukumaran's 'Yugapurushan'. Last year, he played a double role in Anwar Rasheed's 'Annan Thampi'.