Casanovva

Plot

The film is about Casanovva, a serial womaniser. Casanovva is the owner of Casanovva’s Eternal Spring, an international chain of flower boutiques. He has at his beck and call a faithful array of female followers including his staff, friends and former girlfriends, who will do anything for him. The film starts with a robbery carried out by the four criminals and they decided their next target in a wedding hall. They entered the wedding place as Casonnovva's (Mohanlal) guests. Cassonovva recognises them but allows them to attend the marriage function keeping some plan in his mind. The young criminals ( Alexi, Salim, Arjun, Kiran ) took some photos of their targeted rich persons and collect their details. Casanovva watches this all and does not respond at the spot. The next day was the wedding ceremony. Casanovva, with the aid of his friend in a TV channel (without revealing his plan), planned for a live telecast program to capture the young criminal's robbery. But unfortunately, the wedding was postponed due to some unexpected reasons. Thus the robbers pulled off from their plan. But within this time the TV channel peoples came and ready for the telecast. Suddenly Casanovva got an idea and announced a new live romance reality show through the channel named FALL IN LOVE. Then he created some plans to make the two peoples in the robbery gang to fall in love with Hanna (Lakshmi Rai) and Ann Mary (Roma) and telecast their love scenes using hidden cameras through the live reality show FALL IN LOVE. Hanna loves one of the young robber by hearing the words of Casonovva, who was her boss. The four robbers tried to steal a sword, but casanovva (wearing a mask in face) interrupts them and took the sword from them. By this time, the TV show became popular and cause some problems to Ann Mary, the robbers and even Hanna. Hanna asks his boss, Casanovva what his plan was. At the moment, Casanovva reveals his flashback to Hanna.

Some years back, cassanova came to Dubai and romances some girls. Zacariah (Lalu Alex) was a magazine reporter who publish the stories of Casanovva and his mingle with girls. Sameera Zacharia (Shriya Saran), daughter of Zacharia helped Casanovva from a danger and eventually they became friends. But gradually Casanovva understands that he has some different feeling to Sameera than other women. He realizes that he is in love with her. She also has love interest in Casanovva. But her father requests Cassanovva to leave his daughter. He replied that he was in real love with his daughter. Casanovva called Sameera for a meeting to reveal his love to her. She was also ready to tell her love. She wears a mask to give Casanovva a surprise. But suddenly four robbers rushed to the road with the same mask as Sameera. The police tried to capture them. The four robbers escaped and Sameera was caught by the police. Suddenly one of the robber shoots Sameera and she dies at the spot. Casanova waited for her and return to his room so depressed. On the way, he saw the four robbers escaping in a car. But at that time he didn't get any idea about the incident happened. He is informed of the death of Sameera by TV news in his room. He rushes to the police to tell about the robbers. But they don't time to listen to Cassanova. Here ends the Flashback.

He said to Hanna that the aim of the reality show was to understand the robbers about the feeling of love. He then captured the robbers and made them to explain that Sameera was not their gang member to public through the TV show. Thus Casanovva succeed in showing the innocence of his lover Sameera to the public and police. Then he asked the robbers that who killed Sameera. At the end, Casanovva kills the one who shoots his lover and surrenders to the police.

The love plot is inspired from English movie SERENDIPITY which showcases writing on a currency note and waiting for destiny to deliver it back to them.

Cast

Production

The film's production was launched at Confident Cascade in Bangalore on 24 January 2009. The event was attended by film personalities including Mohanlal, Vishnuvardhan, Jagathy Sreekumar, Lalu Alex, Arya, Arshad Warsi, Lakshmi Rai, Priyanka Nair, Priyadarshan, Sibi Malayil, Suresh Kumar, P. V. Gangadharan, Antony Perumbavoor, and the film unit members.

Filming

Casanovva started its shooting on 27 September 2010 and was scheduled to release in February 2011. However, the film has faced delays and its release date might be postponed. The first schedule was scheduled to finish in Dubai by 12 December 2010. It has been reported that Mohanlal is giving prime importance to another film, China Town, which is leading Casanovva to a delayed release. The second schedule has started from the last week of April 2011 in Dubai. The shooting at Dubai has ended by the first week of May 2011 and the next location is Bangkok will start shooting from 14 September, Fourth schedule Start shooting from 20 October at Bangalore, The remaining song was shot in the Last schedule that commenced from 12 December at Cape Town, South Africa.

Release

Casanovva released theatres in India on 26 January 2012; 138 theatres in Kerala and 64 theatres outside Kerala making it the widest release for a Malayalam film, with simultaneous opening in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and other Indian cities. The film released overseas in February 2012.

Critical response

The film received scathing reviews from critics.

Sify and Rediff listed Casanovva #1 in their lists of Most Disappointing Malayalam Films of 2012.

Box office

The film had a large opening, collecting ₹ 2.06 crore, thanks to the 1,000 first-day shows, the highest ever for a Malayalam movie. However, as word of mouth spread, the collections was a huge drop in the subsequent days. The gross collection was no match for the huge budget of the film.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features four songs composed by Gopi Sundar, Alphons Joseph and Gowri Lakshmi, with lyrics by Gireesh Puthenchery, Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma, Gowri Lakshmi, Rosshan and Sanjay. The background score of the film has been composed by Gopi Sundar. The audio rights were acquired by Satyam Audio on a price of ₹12 million (US$190,000).