Grandmaster (film)

This article is about the 2012 film from India. For other films, see Grandmaster (disambiguation).
Grandmaster

Teaser poster
Directed by B. Unnikrishnan
Produced by Ronnie Screwvala
Siddharth Roy Kapur
Written by B. Unnikrishnan
Starring Mohanlal
Priyamani
Anoop Menon
Narain (actor)
Jagathy Sreekumar
Babu Antony
Music by Songs:
Deepak Dev
Background Score:
Gopi Sunder
Cinematography Vinod Illampally
Edited by Manoj
Production
company
Distributed by Max Lab Entertainment (Kerala)
UTV Motion Pictures (Overseas)
Release dates
  • 3 May 2012 (2012-05-03)
Running time
 130 minutes
Country India
Language Malayalam

Grandmaster is a 2012 Indian thriller film written and directed by B. Unnikrishnan and produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur. Mohanlal stars as Chandrasekhar, an IPS officer who begins investigating a series of murders after receiving an anonymous note. The plot of the film is partly inspired from the Agatha Christie novel The A.B.C. Murders. The supporting cast includes Narain, Priyamani, Anoop Menon, Babu Antony and Jagathy Sreekumar.

The film, produced by UTV Motion Pictures, was released on 3 May 2012 and received positive reviews from critics.[1] The film was released through Netflix online video streaming by UTV in the U.S. and Canada. This is the first among new Malayalam films available for internet video streaming in the U.S. and Canada through Netflix.[2]The film got positive reviews from the critics and was a commercial success at the box office.

Plot

Chandrasekhar (Mohanlal) is made the head of the Metro Crime Stopper Cell in Kochi. Chandrasekhar arrests Jerome, a psychologically deviant man and rescues three girls he had kidnapped, but his ex-wife Deepthi (Priyamani) manages to get Jerome sent to treatment in a psychiatric facility, rather than a prison sentence. It turns out that the three girls had been mocking Jerome, which had led to his actions of kidnapping them in the first place.

Chandrasekhar gets a congratulatory note from an anonymous man calling himself "Z" who challenges Chandrasekhar to figure out how he is going to bump off one target after the other. Chandrasekhar is forced to investigate a string of murders: coffee shop owner Alice (Fathima Babu), famous singer Beena Thomson (Roma Asrani) and leading businesswoman Chandrika Narayanan (Seetha). These murders follow a mysterious alphabetical pattern, and each victim also has a cross slit on their forehead. Around the same time, Chandrasekhar's daughter is preparing for a play under the lead of famous actor Mark Roshan (Arjun Nandakumar).

Chandrasekhar divorced three years earlier because Chandrasekhar discovered that Deepthi was using information from Chandrasekhar for professional gain. Deepthi confesses to Chandrasekhar that the three recently murdered women were all involved in the murder of Paul Mathew and made it look like a suicide. Chandrasekhar realizes that Deepthi is the next target and comes with her to their daughter's play where they meet a religious fanatic named Victor Rosetti (Babu Antony) who had been present in all three crime scenes, disguised as a salesman, and has been stalking Deepthi. The recurring theme of chess is obvious in the game between Chandrashekhar and the unknown Mr. Z. Chandrashekhar understands that there is a mastermind behind Victor Rosetti and decides to play a 'queen's gambit' in his own words. Chandrasekhar finally manages to corner Victor on the rooftop of a theater, Victor commits suicide by falling off the rooftop to the pavement. Then, Chandrasekhar questions Dr. Jacob and says that he has evidence that he is the killer of the three women, in a ploy to mislead the real killer. He has his men protect his daughter but lets his wife into the school where the play was held. The real murderer to comes in, attempting to strangle Deepthi with a red scarf. Fortunately, Chandrasekhar stops him and then finally corners the real murderer on the stage. The murder turns out to be none other than Mark himself, Paul Mathew's younger brother.

Mark confesses that he has held a grudge against the women for his brother's death, which Chandrashekhar had already known. Then, Mark also confessed that, disguised as a priest, he manipulated Victor, a schizophrenic patient, into believing that he had committed the murders himself. He had planned for Victor to commit the final murder on Deepthi during the play, but attempted to use the scenery of the fight between Chandrasekhar and Victor to complete his plan. In a last-minute attempt to avenge his brother, Mark tries to jump from the stage to murder Deepthi with a dagger, but is shot to death by Chandrasekhar, thus saving Deepthi's life. The film then ends with Chandrasekhar and Deepthi, along with their daughter, finally together again in their house.

Cast

Production

The producer said that its theme is very fresh and racy with lots of variety situations. Grandmaster is the first production venture of Bollywood production company UTV Motion Pictures in Malayalam.[3] Priyamani, who had already performed in other acclaimed Malayalam films, was chosen to play the female lead after she expressed her desire to feature in a film alongside Mohanlal.[4] "This is an important role, but, from the looks of it, will not pair her romantically opposite him. Yet, she will be seen in many scenes opposite Mohanlal. This is going to be a role that requires someone who can set the screen on fire. So, the makers felt that she would be a good bet, considering her previous releases in Mollywood," says a source.

The shooting of the film started December 2011 and was carried out primarily at Kochi and Ottapalam.

Soundtrack

ഗ്രാന്റ്മാസ്റ്റര്‍
Soundtrack album by Deepak Dev
Released 4 April 2012
Recorded 2012
Genre Feature film soundtrack
Length 25:04
Language Malayalam
Label UTV
Producer Deepak Dev
Deepak Dev chronology
Padmasree Bharat Dr. Saroj Kumar
(2012)		 Grandmaster
(2012)		 101 Weddings
(2012)

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Deepak Dev. It was released on 4 April 2012 at People's Plaza in Kochi.

Tracklist
No. TitleLyricsSinger(s) Length
1. "Akaleyo Nee"  Chitoor GopiVijay Yesudas 4:38
2. "Aaranu Nee"  Chandra ShekarSuchithra 4:52
3. "Doore Engo Nee"  HariSanjeev 4:25
4. "Aaranu Nee (Club Mix)"  Chandra ShekarSuchithra 4:14
5. "My Moment"  Deepak DevKrishna Kumar 2:02
6. "The Grandmaster Theme"   Instrumental  
Total length:
 25:04

Release

Grandmaster was expected to be released on 27 April 2012, but was postponed. The movie was released on 3 May 2012. Manorama Online and Indiavision TV also reported that the film was a Hit.[5][6] Boxofficeverdicts commented that Grandmaster may have lost the buzz around it during past couple of weeks, but shall prove to be a profitable venture for its distributors, with a bit of help from the satellite rights amount it fetched. According to reports, Surya TV purchased the rights for ₹3.25 crore (US$480,000); however, in the initial stages it was widely believed that the price was much lesser. The film earned ₹8 crore (US$1.2 million) in its 60 day theatrical run and box office verdicts it above average as the movie, with the distributor share crossing ₹3.5 crore (US$520,000). In Vue, it was released on 29 July.

Critical reception

Rediff.com rated the film 3.5 out of 5. Sify's critic rated the movie as "watchable" (3.5/5) and said, "Grandmaster easily turns out to be an engaging watch".[7]

Box office

As an investigative thriller, Grandmaster has managed to do well at the box office. The film had a budget of 4.5 crores ( including print and publicity) Satellite Rights – 4 Crores Audio/Video Overseas Right - 1 Crore Total Theaterical Gross - 8.10 Crores(INR) Total = 13.10 CRORE (INR) .The film had a good running of 58 days in Kerala.It took a decent initial considering its genre, and the absence of pre-release hype, unlike Mohanlal's some previous ventures.

Accolades

Award Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Kerala State Film Award Best Male Singer Vijay Yesudas (for "Akaleyo Nee") Won [8]
Asianet Film Awards Best Actor Mohanlal Won [9]
Asiavision Awards Best Actor Mohanlal Won [10]
South Indian International Movie Awards Best Debutant Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, Ronnie Screwvala Won [11]

References

  1. ↑ "Mohanlal to have five more releases this year". The Times Of India. 2012-05-18.
  2. ↑ http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Grandmaster/70241088?locale=en-US
  3. ↑ "Grand Master Cast and Crew".
  4. ↑ "Priyamani replaces Andrea in Mohanlal's Grandmaster". Sify.com. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
  5. ↑ Updated Sunday, 5 August 2012 01:47 AM IST. "Movies | Interviews |". Manorama Online. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  6. ↑ "മലയാളത്തിരക്ക് ഊര്‍ജ്ജം പകര്‍ന്ന് നവനിരസിനിമകള്‍ | Indiavision Live | Malayalam News Channel". Indiavisiontv.com. 2012-05-30. Retrieved 2012-08-04. zero width joiner character in |title= at position 19 (help)
  7. ↑ "Movie Review: Grandmaster". 2012-05-03. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  8. ↑ Press Trust of India (22 February 2013). "'Celluloid' wins Kerala state award for best film". The New Indian Express (Thiruvananthapuram). Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  9. ↑ Smitha (21 January 2013). "Asianet Film Awards 2013 – Winners List". Filmibeat.com. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  10. ↑ Satish, A.K.S. (10 November 2012). "South Indian stars shine at Asiavision Awards". Gulf News. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  11. ↑ "WINNERS LIST". SIIMA. Retrieved 15 April 2016.

External links

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