'Kurukshethra' (Malayalam)
 

Kargil. The awesomely beautiful place between Srinagar and Leh by the bank of the river Surat is also the most strategic army area of India. This vital area between mountains unreachable to the common man is where Damor Cinema has shot their latest venture, Kurukshetra. The Kargil war and the related human relations have been very touchingly portrayed in Kurukshetra.

To mesmerize us all with awesome scenes and blitzkrieg action scenes, Malayalam director Major Ravi's Kurukshetra, with ace actor Mohanlal in the lead sporting a new look, will feature more than two war sequences, making audiences sit spellbound. Kurukshetra is based on the real story of the 1999 Kargil war between India and Pakistan that took place in Kashmir and will also feature real war practice sessions of the Indian Army. It is noteworthy that Santosh Damodar, the producer of the film, and the crew were successful in making Kurukshetra the first Indian movie that gets permission to shoot the actual practice sessions of the Indian Army. The entire Kurukshetra movie is being completed in a single schedule in the original locales.

Mohanlal who appears in the movie as Colonel Mahadevan is all determined to get back the land grabbed by Pakistani soldiers in the Kargil valley. Mohanlal's excels in his role as a Colonel with tolerance and the determination to protect his compatriots. Taniya Singh, the Kannada star, is the lead actress. The story, dialogues and screenplay of Kurukshetra  are by the Major Ravi himself. Cinematography is by Loganathan. Kurukshetra, produced by Damor Cinema with a big budget, is Major Ravi's third venture after the immensely successful Keerthi Chakra and critically acclaimed Mission 90 Days.

Including a Hindi song, the film has four songs. Music direction is by Siddarth Vipin. Other actors in the film, apart from Mohanlal, are Siddique, Kochin Haneefa, Manikuttan, Bineesh Kodiyeri, Biju Menon and Suraj Venjaramoodu and a dozen commandos.

According to Mohanlal, ''I am not acting in Kurukshetra just as film in the stream of my career. Maybe through the films like Keerthichakra and Kurukshetra, I am living a soldier’s life which may be my repayment of debt to my own country as a patriot who loves his own country''.

The director Major Ravi says, ''I have felt that we the normal people in our community do not give sufficient dignity for the soldiers who give up their lives for our country. The pain of this will be there in my cinema''.

While the West and Hollywood makes use of modern technology to produce war sequences enthralling audiences and making them feel they are actually surrounded by machine guns, tanks, airplanes, submarines and chemical weapons, in India, we are just starting to make war movies like them. Damor Cinema's  Kurukshetra would change the way Indians and the world look at war movies and the people behind it, we can be definite.

KURUKSHETHRA   STILLS  

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