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Kandahar
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Major Ravi
Written by	Major Ravi
Produced by	Sunil C. Nair Mohanlal
Starring	Mohanlal Amitabh Bachchan Ganesh Venkatraman Sumalatha Ragini Dwivedi Ananya
Cinematography	Ravi Varman Velraj
Edited by	Don Max
Music by	Shamir Tandon Vivek V. K.
Production companies	Zoe Estebe Moviez Pranavam Arts International
Distributed by	Maxlab Cinemas and Entertainments
Release date	16 December 2010 (2010-12-16)
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Kandahar is a 2010 Malayalam-language Indian war film written and directed by Major Ravi. It is the third installment in the Major Mahadevan film series, with Mohanlal reprising his role as Major Mahadevan after the 2006 film Keerthi Chakra and 2008 film Kurukshetra. The film also stars Amitabh Bachchan and Ganesh Venkatraman in their Malayalam film debut.

The plot is based on the hijacking of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 in 1999. The political situation is portrayed from an Indian perspective in the film. Kandahar was released on 16 December 2010, along with its dubbed versions in Tamil and Hindi languages.

The film's sound design was done by Baylon Fonseca. Kandahar is co-produced by Sunil Nair and Mohanlal. It was marketed online by Shaz Shabeer Strikers and Crew Kochi. The film, unlike the prequels, received negative reviews.

Plot

Suryanatha Sharma (Ganesh Venkatraman) is an educated, 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). It's another mission with Mahadevan and crew, as they deal with international terrorism with a flight being hijacked by hardcore terrorists.

Cast

• Mohanlal as Major Mahadevan
• Amitabh Bachchan as Lokanatha Sharma
• Ganesh Venkatraman as Suryanatha Sharma
• Sumalatha as Sumangaly, wife of Sharma
• Ananya as a student
• Ragini Dwivedi as Aishwarya, Surya's girlfriend
• Major Ravi as Company Havaldar Major Shiva
• K. P. A. C. Lalitha as Pathumma
• Mamukkoya as Mullah
• N. L. Balakrishnan as Ballston
• Major Kishore
• Suresh Nair
• Anoop Chandran as Selvan
• Jaffer Idukki as Mani
• S.P.Sreekumar
• Joemon Joshy
• Ragasya as item number
• Shrikant Kamat

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, and Kurukshetra was a superhit. 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 the film's producer. Several other artists from Tamil cinema were initially approached to play secondary leads as well, including Suriya and Arun Vijay, who all cited date conflicts. Later, Ganesh Venkatraman was finalized for a role. Amitabh Bachchan was approached for a major role in the film, and he immediately agreed. Even though he did not ask for any remuneration for his appearance, he was offered a whopping 8 crores. His son in Kandahar 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

The film was released on 16 December 2010 in 111 theatres in Kerala, 9 theatres in Bengaluru, 5 theatres in Chennai, and around 18 theatres in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Hyderabad. Kandahar has collected ₹ 5.25 crores revenue from before releasing through selling satellite rights, audio rights, video rights, overseas distribution rights, and theatre advances.

Reception

Kandahar received 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. A review by Sify, which rated it "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 negative 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, MMDb gave a rating of 2/5 and so did Now Running a 2/5.

Accolades

Asianet Film Awards

• Best Feature Film on National Integration Award - Major Ravi

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features five songs composed by 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. 14 April 2010.
2. "Kamal Haasan, Mohanlal team up for 'Kandahar'". 14 August 2008.
3. ^ "Mohanlal's Kandahar bombs!". Sify. 22 December 2010.
4. "5 superhits ,and 5 hits in 2008". Indiaglitz. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
5. "Surya with Mohanlal and Amitabh in Kandahar". Nowrunning. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
6. "Amitabh to forego fee for sharing screen with Mohanlal". Indian Express. 17 April 2010.
7. "No Space For K-town stars In Kandahar". The Times of India. 22 April 2010.
8. ^ "Parvathy Omanakuttan in 'Kandahar'". 27 May 2010.
9. Srinidhi, Sharadha (3 June 2010). "Lucky Bee bags a Big B film". The Times of India.
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. "Deepika Padukone Floored By Senior Citizens On Dil Se Naachein Indiawaale". 9 October 2014.
14. http://en.msidb.org/m.php?6787 MalayalaSangeetham.Info
15. "Kandahar Review - Malayalam Movie Kandahar nowrunning review".
16. "Shamir Tandon ropes in Sonu Niigaam for a patriotic rendition". 1 July 2010.

External links

• Kandahar at IMDb

• 2010 films
• Malayalam-language films
• Films set in Afghanistan
• 2010s Malayalam-language films
• Indian aviation films
• Films about terrorism in India
• Indian war films
• Films shot in Ooty
• Films about aviation accidents or incidents
• Indian films
• Films about aircraft hijackings
• Thriller films based on actual events
• Indian films based on actual events
• Films set on airplanes
• Pranavam Arts International films
• Indian sequel films
• Malayalam films in series
• Indian Army in films
• Films featuring an item number
• Malayalam-language films dubbed in Hindi
• Malayalam-language films dubbed in Tamil
• Films scored by Shamir Tandon