Grandmaster To Victory- Mohanlal and B. Unnikrishnan

Mohanlal and B. Unnikrishnan are ready with their moves for anoth- er outing at the box of­fice to see if they can replicate the huge success of their first film together, 'Madambl. Unnikrishnan, who has- made a name for his slick, investigative stories, L says this is a film that hasMohanlal in a completely dif­ferent role from the ones he usually plays on screen.
We have seen Mohanlal essaying a number of memo­rable cops in Malayalam and Tamil cinema. Most of them, but for the bumbling investi­gative officer Ramdas of the '/Cadodilcattu' series, are brave, intelligent and astute officers who are usually on the track of a criminal or a gang, a win-win combination of brains and brawn."But 'Grandmaster' is the story of a police officer whose career and life have been checkmated several times by fate. There is no bravado or overt display of machoism. This laidback, rather lazy officer is forced to come out of his self-imposed hibernation of sorts due to certain events," narrates Un­nikrishnan.
The gorgeous Priyamani stars with Mohanlal for the first time. She plays a crimi­nal lawyer, Deepthi, who has been separated from her husband, Chandrasekhar, Moharilats character. While Chandrasekhar's career goes nowhere. Deepthi is a high achiever who is going placesin her profession.Agreeing that hers is a plum role, Priramani says: "Deepthi is not a run-of-the- mill woman character you see in films. She is a success­ful career woman and amother. How and 'thy she got separated from her hus­band is explained sensitively in the story." A busy star in South Indian cinema, Priya­mani says it is the chance to do offbeat roles and act in films with interesting themes that bring her back to Malayalam films.
"When the story begins, Chandrasekhar's biggest worry is that his cook is go­ing to quit. A former chess champion and achiever, this Police officer loses interest in his job and in life itself. 'Grandmaster' traces the changes in the life of this man who becomes a kind of a loner, and what it is that mo­tivates him to take on the challenges of life again. It is a crime thriller that plumbs the seamy underbelly of a city and its residents," ex­plains the filmmaker.
While Chandrasekhar is happy to watch life from the sidelines, his deputy, played by Narain, is an ambitiouspolice office who aspires to make it big in his career. The director says the interac­tions between the two have both humour and tension as it is a clash between different attitudes.
New look
'Grandmaster' has already evoked interest on account of Mohanial's new salt n' pepper hair style and trim looks. Unnikrishnan says he had an image of a grey and wizened cop when he wrote this story. So when he con­veyed this to the actor, Mo­hanlal agreed to it and thus was the new image created.
Jagathy Sreekumar, Anoop Menon. Roma and others complete the cast of this film, the first to be pro­duced by urv. "UTV ap­proached me for a movie and this was a script that I had with me. Happy with the sto­ry they read. UTV agreed to produce the film," says Un­nikrishnan.
Removing all misconcep­tions of a production house like UTV interfering in the script or the plot. Unnikrish­nan says he had a free hand in the direction of the film. "In fact, they have ap­proached me for a second film. But I want to take a break and see how this movie fares at the box office before I start work on another: says the director. Deepak Dev has composed music for lyrics by Chittoor Gopi. En­gadiyoor Chandrashelutran and Hari