Madhu to inaugurate Cinefest 2010

Actor Madhavan Nair, who is better known by his stage name Madhu, is going to inaugurate Cinefest 2010, a festival of Malayalam movies at the Gulf Cinema tonight.

This is the 16th consecutive year of the festival, which will open by screening of the 1965 film Chemmeen(Prawns) starring Madhu. The film was honored with the Indian President"s Golden Peacock in the same year. The film also starred Sathyan, Sheela and K P Kottarakkara and was directed by Ramu Karyat. The story of Chemeen was set in a fishing village. Marcus Burtley was the cinematographer and Salil Choudhary composed the music.

The emigrant cultural forum Pravasi Doha is hosting the festival, which offers an exclusive opportunity to watch the legendary Malayalam movies. The Indian embassy is holding the event in association with the 'Qatar Cinema and Film Distribution Company Limited" and 'Kerala State Chalachithra Academy".

The opening ceremony of the festival will be attended by the Indian Ambassador to Qatar, Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa.

Veteran Madhu, who is the chief guest at the event, has expressed his grief about the “new trends" in the film industry. He is not happy about it, as the stories are now developed to suit the requirements of the actors. He said that the earlier films were based on the great literary works.

According to this experienced actor, factors like the absence of a good story bank and the filmmakers refusing to experiment, have led to the decline of the Malayalam film industry.

The actor had also acted alongside the Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan in the latter"s debut film Saat Hindustani in 1969.