Priyanandanan is taking on a very unusual subject in his next film titled The Voter. The film gives out the message of the power of one voter through the main character, Gopi, played by Salim Kumar.

Gopi lives in the island of Thanthonnithuruthu and is the only voter in the island. Every election, candidates and political parties give umpteen promises to the village, which lacks even the basic facilities.

Thiruvananthapuram: As more and more film personalities express moral support for Sanjay Dutt, convicted for possession of arms illegally, ace Malayalam superstar Mohanlal too says the Bollywood actor should be shown leniency.

Mohanlal expressed his support through a post on Facebook Saturday. He writes that over the last 20 years, his colleague and friend Sanjay Dutt has been a reformed and good citizen, a loving family man and a person who has braved adversity, to come out stronger and better.

‘He certainly deserves our compassion and help to put this chapter behind him once and for all. I sincerely hope and pray that he is shown the leniency he truly deserves and is granted a pardon,’ writes Mohanlal.

On Thursday last, the apex court upheld Dutt’s conviction under the Arms Act for illegally possessing weapons, and sent him to five years in prison.

The popular Mumbai actor has already spent 18 months in jail.

He was earlier convicted by the TADA court for illegal possession of a 9 mm pistol and an AK-56 rifle.

Maharashtra Governor K. Sankarnarayanan, a former Kerala finance minister (and close aide of Defence Minister A.K.Antony) has vested in him, reports indicate, the power to pardon the actor. The governor is going to be under pressure to offer the 53-year-old reprieve.

Jodhpur: Fresh charges were on Saturday read out against actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam by a court here in the 14-year-old blackbuck poaching case.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Chandrakala Jain read out the charges under sections 9/51 and 9/52 of Wildlife protection Act and 149 of IPC and posted the case for next hearing on April 27.

The actors denied the charges read out to them by the judge.

Salman Khan was also supposed to appear in the court but failed to do so.

The High Court had revised the charges against the actors in December 2012, charging Salman Khan with section 51 of Wildlife Protection Act and others including a local accused Dushyant Singh with section 51/52 of Wildlife Protection Act and section 149 of IPC.

They are accused of poaching two Blackbucks in the intervening night of October 1 and 2, 1998 in Kankani village near Jodhpur during the shooting of the film Hum Saath Saath Hain.

Blackbuck is a protected animal and hunting or poaching of the same is a punishable offence under law.

Thiruvananthapuram: Actor Jagathy Sreekumar who was under treatment at Vellore Christian Medical colleges has been shifted back to his house in Peyad here by Friday morning 4 am . He was shifted in caravan van of actor Kalabhavan Mani and his son Raju and son in law Shaun George accompanied the actor. Relatives said he will be in his house for next two months and treatment will continue as per the directions of doctors from Vellore. They said his health condition has been improved but is unable to speak till now. Jagathy met with an accident in Panambra Malappuram last year March 10 and is under treatment since then.

Los Angeles: Any uncertainty that surrounded Seth MacFarlane’s ability to host the biggest night in movies was put to rest quickly when he took the stage Sunday at the 85th Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

Showing considerable poise, MacFarlane, a man best known as the creative force behind the Fox animated series “Family Guy,” opened with a series of jokes that were bona fide winners, landing on just the right tone: confident but not cocksure.

Culminating numerous wins this awards season were “Argo” as best picture, Anne Hathaway as supporting actress for her short but terrifyingly intense performance in “Les Miserables,” and Daniel Day-Lewis as best actor for his performance in the title role of “Lincoln.” He previously won for “My Left Foot” and “There Will Be Blood.”

Many of the remaining winners were of a more unpredictable sort, including Ang Lee as director for “Life of Pi.”

The announcement of best picture included an appearance by first lady Michelle Obama from the White House. Twenty-two-year-old Jennifer Lawrence stumbled on her way up the stairs to accept her Oscar for lead actress for her role as a young widow in “Silver Linings Playbook.” And there was, unexpectedly, a tie (the first since 1995) in what is likely one of the lesser understood categories, sound editing, for “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Skyfall.”

“Django Unchained” came in for some of MacFarlane’s diciest jokes. “The story of a man fighting to get back his woman, who’s been subjected to unthinkable violence,” he said. “Or, as Chris Brown and Rihanna call it, a date movie.”

After acknowledging titters in the crowd, he barreled ahead: “A lot of controversy over the multiple uses of the N-word (in ‘Django’). I’m told apparently the screenplay is loosely based on Mel Gibson’s voicemails.” More uncomfortable laughs from the audience followed. “Oh, so you’re on his side,” MacFarlane deadpanned.

Other winners included a visibly shaken Christoph Waltz picked up the best supporting acting award for his performance as a bounty hunter in “Django Unchained.” It is the second Oscar for Waltz, who has won both times for roles in Tarantino films (the first being “Inglourious Basterds”). “Searching for Sugar Man,” the documentary about an American musician, won its category.

The Pixar 3-D adventure “Brave,” about a young Scottish archer who becomes a heroine, won for animated feature. Director Mark Andrews accepted the award, appropriately, in a kilt.

Los Angeles: Ang Lee’s ‘Life of Pi’ emerged the biggest winner of the night with four titles to its name – Best Direction, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects.

Claudio Miranda received the cinematography award. It is his first Oscar award, but he had received his first nomination for the 2008 film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”.

For the visual effects trophy, Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott collected the trophy.

An adaptation of Canadian author Yann Martel’s Man Booker Prize-winning eponymous novel, it narrates the journey of an Indian boy who survives a storm.

In the best cinematography category, the film was competing alongside “Anna Karenina” (Seamus McGarvey), “Django Unchained” (Robert Richardson), “Lincoln” (Janusz Kaminski) and “Skyfall” (Roger Deakins).

The films which were in competition with “Life of Pi” in the best visual effects category included “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”, “Marvel’s The Avengers”, “Prometheus” and “Snow White and the Huntsman”.

Thiruvananthapuram: It has become common in Kerala that each time the state film awards are announced, a round of controversy follows.

No difference! ‘Celluloid,’ the film which bagged seven awards in the State film award for 2013 is now mired in a controversy.

This time, former chief minister K Karunakaran and Malayatoor Ramakrishnan have been dragged into the controversy. The film makes an indirect reference to Karunakaran and then senior IAS official Malayatoor Ramakrishnan. Both the men are depicted as having treated Daniel with contempt in the mid-1970s.

Meanwhile, Karunakaran’s son K. Muraleedharan MLA lashed out at Kamal saying that it was unfortunate that for the sake of cheap publicity for his film, the director dragged the name of Karunakaran right into his project.

“To have some drama, certain inputs are needed in a film. This matter has to be seen in that light,” Minister for Cinema K.B Ganesh Kumar added his mite to the controversy.

“It is an effort to defame Malayattoor,” writer N.S Madhavan tweeted.

Reacting to the latest controversy, Kamal told reporters that the film was portraying the real history.

The film ‘Celluloid’ is a period film about the Father of Malayalam Cinema, J.C. Daniel, who produced, directed, wrote, photographed, edited and acted in the first film made in Kerala, “Vigathakumaran” (The Lost Child), in 1928.