Three ‘Safaris’ to hit the screens this year

With the increasing use of English titles in Malayalam films, looks like Mollywood filmmakers are running out of words in their vocabulary. Three movies with ‘Safari’ in the title are scheduled to hit theatres this year — Jayaraj’s Camel Safari, Sanjeev Sivan’s Arabian Safari and brothers Jexson and Rejis Antony’s Safari.
Ironically, contrary to what the titles suggest, none of the films are about expeditions to observe or hunt animals in their natural habitat.Though, all the three films have journeys as their central plot. Jayaraj’s Camel Safari would be the first to hit the theatres and has already garnered interest for its extensive filming in Rajasthan, including the Pushkar Mela — the world’s largest camel fair. The director tells us, “It’s a road movie that follows the journey of five students to Rajasthan. We’ve tried to showcase some locations in Jaisalmer, Jaipur and Pushkar as never before in Malayalam cinema.”
The film also marks the debut of yesteryear actor Shankar Mohan’s son Arun, who plays a Rajput prince in the film. Sanjeev’s Arabian Safari would go down as Mollywood’s first women-centric road movie, with actresses Lakshmi Rai and Mallika currently attached to the project which has Goa as the main location. The director had earlier told us that the film deals with the travel of two women, who are strangers to each other and how, through their journey, they solve the difficulties in their lives.
Debutant duo Jexson and Rejis’ film, Safari, has a young cast featuring the Thattathin Marayathu team of Vineeth Sreenivasan and Nivin Pauly. The makers are also on the lookout for two more leading men to star in what they claim to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller that evolves during a train journey.
Although all three films are technically road movies, the makers might have to space out the release evenly so as not to take the audience for a ride.