Gulmohar fails; but Jayaraj not worried

Though Jayaraj's Gulmohar received rave reviews from critics, it is termed an offbeat movie and is failing to make an impact in the box office. But Jayaraj is not much worried about the collections of Gulmohar. He is a director who has found the perfect balance between mainstream and parallel cinema.

So his next two ventures will be aimed with box office success as the target. Souparnika will be with Prithviraj; Kunjali Marakkar, with superstar Mohanlal, will be a period film.

Souparnika is based on the life of Professor Narendraprasad, actor and dramatist. Mohanlal will play Kunjali Marakkar, who fought against the British Raj. Jayaraj plans to do Souparnika first and Kunjali Marakkar will follow.

Jayaraj commenced his film career as assistant to director Bharathan, working with him in films like Chilambu, Oru Minnaminunginte Nurunguvettam and Vaishali. Moving on to becoming an independent director, his first film was Vidyarambaham. Several commercial movies followed. In between, he made films with substance like Paithrukam and Sopanam. He won the National Award for Best director in 1997 for Kaliyattam, Santham under his direction won the Best Film award at the national level.

Jayaraj is one of the rare directors in Malayalam film industry who makes both commercial and art films with the same vigour and gets appreciation alike.