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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 Indian Malayalam-language 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 Bollywood Actor, Amitabh Bachchan and Tamil Actor, 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 was co-produced by Sunil Nair and Mohanlal. It was marketed online by Shaz Shabeer Strikers and Crew Kochi. The film, unlike the prequels, received mixed reviews.

Synopsis

Major Mahadevan and his unit undertake a mission to deal with an international terrorist organisation after a group of hardcore terrorists hijack a plane.

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). Though, their initial encounter is hostile at first, Suryanath apologizes to Mahadevan for his rudeness, and impressed with Suryanath and seeing potential in him, he suggests him to join the Army. Though he struggles a bit in the beginning, Suryanath is able to pass out of the Indian Military Academy with flying colours.

After graduating, he joins the NSG (National Security Guard) as a commando where he joins Mahadevan's crew. Soon after, an Air India flight becomes hijacked by hardcore terrorists whose objective was to have the Indian government release their leader who was caught by Mahadevan himself. They are then forced to land in New Delhi to refuel. Mahadevan and his crew are able to infiltrate the plane through the wheels, even though their superior ordered them not to.

Once inside the plane they are able to find out the number of terrorists who are inside and quickly kill them and their leader and retake the plane. However a sleeper cell reveals himself and shoot the pilots and Suryanath injuring them. Mahadevan and Suryanath take control of the plane and with the pilot's guidance are able to land plane. But Suryanath unfortunately dies from his injuries. He is given a hero's funeral with honour after which Mahadevan consoles Lokanath, who reveals that he is proud of his son and thanks Major Mahadevan for making his son a hero.

Cast

• Mohanlal as Major Mahadevan, NSG Commanding officer
• Amitabh Bachchan as Lokanatha Sharma
• Ganesh Venkatraman as Captain Suryanatha Sharma, NSG officer
• Sumalatha as Sumangaly, wife of Lokanatha Sharma
• Ananya as a student
• Ragini Dwivedi as Aishwarya, Surya's fiance
• Major Ravi as Havildar Major Shiva
• K. P. A. C. Lalitha as Pathumma
• Mamukkoya as Mullah
• N. L. Balakrishnan as Ballston
• Joemon Joshy as Cadet Kishore
• Major Kishore as NSG Commando Nair
• Naveen Arakkal as Naveen, NSG Commando
• Suresh Nair as Cadet
• Saju Attingal as NSG Commando
• Renjith Reghu
• Anoop Chandran as Selvan
• Pradeep Chandran as Senior Officer
• Jaffer Idukki as Mani
• S.P.Sreekumar as Cadet
• Kannan Pattambi
• Shrikant Kamat
• Soorya J Menon
• Nawab Shah (actor) as Cadet Instructor
• Ragasya

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 and Kannada actress, Ragini Dwivedi was signed up to play a supporting role. There were reports that Parvathy Omanakuttan was also cast in the film.

Filming

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, and Now Running a 2/5.

Accolades

Asianet Film Awards

• 2010 - 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. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
3. ^ "Mohanlal's Kandahar bombs!". Sify. 22 December 2010. Archived from the original on 25 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. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012.
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. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011.
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. "Kandahar Review - Malayalam Movie Kandahar nowrunning review".
15. "Shamir Tandon ropes in Sonu Niigaam for a patriotic rendition". 1 July 2010.

External links

• Kandahar at IMDb

• 2010 films
• 2010s war 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
• Films scored by Shamir Tandon
• Films directed by Major Ravi