Now it's time for 'Guest' wars

Now it's time for 'Guest' wars IndiaGlitz [Monday, June 09, 2008] With Malayalam cinema becoming more and more a two- men based industry, the two superstars and their popularity is souring higher than ever in Mollywood. The only films that are bound to assure any decent opening seems to be theirs, who can even raise the entire amount spent on production from the advances given by theatre owners.
The year has already completed three seasons when the Superstars of Malayalam cinema Mammootty and Mohanlal came up with each of their films, to compete with each other. The first was the Christmas fight between 'Katha Parayumbol' and 'Flash'. And then we had witnessed the same week release of 'Roudram' and ‘College Kumaran'.
And for this vishu season, we had ‘Annan Thampi’ and ‘Innathe Chintha Vishayam’, coming up into release stations in a gap of six days. The year seems to be the best one for Mammootty and in the first two races, his films ‘Katha Parayumpol' and 'Roudram' made knockout victories while Flash and college Kumaran sank without trace.
And his Vishu Film ‘Annan Thampi' has emerged a blockbuster, though ‘Innathe Chintha Vishayam' also made a safe run, becoming a mentionable hit of the year.
Now the third weekend of June will witness the releases of ‘Mizhikal Sakshi' and 'One Way Ticket' in adjacent days. The first film will feature Mohanlal in a cameo as the son of Kuniyamma, the lead character played by Sukumari while the later with Prithviraj as the hero will have Mammootty playing himself.
‘One Way Ticket' will get into theatres on June 19 while 'Mizhikal Sakshi' is planned to be on screens by June 20. The first one is a thorough commercial fare while ‘Mizhikal Sakshi' is based on a hard hitting story about the love of a mother for her long lost son.
Let's see what will be the mass verdict, on this monsoon fight for commercial success, and how far the cameos from the superstars help the movies to march on a success path