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Kandahar
Directed by	Major Ravi
Written by	Major Ravi
Produced by	Sunil C. Nair (under Zoe Estebe Moviez) and Mohanlal (under Pranavam Arts International)
Starring	Mohanlal Amitabh Bachchan Ganesh Venkatraman Sumalatha Ragini Dwivedi Kaveri Jha Ananya
Cinematography	Ravi Varman, Velraj
Edited by	Don Max
Music by	Shamir Tandon
Distributed by	Aashirvad Release through Maaxlab
Release date	16 December 2010 (2010-12-16)
Country	Template:Film India
Language	Malayalam

Kandahar is a 2010 Malayalam film directed by Major Ravi and starring Mohanlal, reprising his role from the sequels as Major Mahadevan. Amitabh Bachchan and Ganesh Venkatraman also play major roles in the film. The film is dubbed and released in Tamil and Hindi. The film is said to be based on the hijacking incident of the Indian Airlines Flight 814. The sound design of this film is done by Baylon Fonseca. This film is produced by Sunil Nair under the banner Zoe Estebe Moviez Pvt. Ltd. and Mohanlal under Pranavam Arts International.

Cast

• Mohanlal as Major Mahadevan
• Amitabh Bachchan as Lokanatha Sharma
• Ganesh Venkatraman as Suryanatha Sharma
• Sumalatha as Wife of Lokanatha Sharma
• Ragini Dwivedi
• Kaveri Jha as Air hostess
• Ananya
• Major Ravi as Major Shiva
• K.P.A.C. Lalitha
• Kannan Pattambi
• Mamukkoya
• Goutham Kurup
• Ragasya
• Smitha Nishad
• Anoop Chandran
• N. L. Balakrishnan
• Pradeep Chandran
• Saaju Attingal
• Major Kishore
• Captain Anil
• Haneef Kumaranellur
• Jaffer Idukki

Production

Development

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. 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.

Casting

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 compensation for his appearance in the film, eventhough he was offered a whopping 8 Crores. His son in the film is played by Ganesh Venkatraman. Later, model Ragini Dwivedi was signed up to play a supporting role. There were reports that Parvathy Omanakuttan was also cast in the film.

Locations

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.

Release and reception

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. But the film have to take ₹ 4.5 crores from threatres to make the distributor safe.

The film received largely negative reviews upon release. 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 currently running as an average grosser. 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." 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. OneIndia gave the movie a 3/5 rating, and Now Running a 2/5.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features five songs composed by Bollywood music composer Shamir Tandon; who is known for his compositions in Madhur Bhandarkar's films., with lyrics by Sandeep Nath, Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma, Sudhakar Sharma and Kaushal Kishor.

References

1. "Big B in 'Kandahaar' along with Sunil Shetty". indiaglitz.com. April 14, 2010.
2. "Kamal Haasan, Mohanlal team up for 'Kandahar'". August 14, 2008.
3. "5 superhits ,and 5 hits in 2008". Indiaglitz. Retrieved 2010-1-3. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
4. "Surya with Mohanlal and Amitabh in Kandahar". Nowrunning. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
5. "Amitabh to forego fee for sharing screen with Mohanlal". Indian Express. 2010-4-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. "No Space For K-town stars In Kandahar". The Times of India. April 22, 2010.
7. ^ "Parvathy Omanakuttan in 'Kandahar'". May 27, 2010.
8. Srinidhi, Sharadha (June 3, 2010). "Lucky Bee bags a Big B film". The Times of India.
9. "Kandahar is safe before releasing, said Major Ravi".
10. ^ Kandahar Just average. OneIndia. Retrieved 16 December 2010
11. Movie review by Sify. Sify. Retrieved 16 December 2010
12. Meghna George. Big B, Mohanlal shine in Kandahar. Rediff. Retrieved 17 December 2010
13. http://entertainment.oneindia.in/malayalam/reviews/2010/kandahar-movie-review-161210.html
14. http://www.nowrunning.com/movie/7397/malayalam/kandahar/2859/review.htm
15. "Shamir Tandon ropes in Sonu Niigaam for a patriotic rendition". July 01, 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Official website

• 2010 films
• Indian films
• Malayalam-language films
• 2010s Malayalam-language films
• Mohanlal