The Prince (1996 film)

Plot

It was a story of the other side of a Mafia family. Jeeva (Mohanlal), son of a Don (Girish Karnad), falls in love with Swarna, daughter of a famous Carnatic singer named Vishwanath. He hides the truth of his family background from her to win her love. But then one fine day she comes to know and shocked beyond disbelief, uses silence as her weapon to bring him to confess his situation. How Jeeva goes through trials and tribulations of saving his love on one side and law of the mafia on the other side forms the theme of the film. Prakash Raj plays the role of the villain.

Release and reception

The film was released on 27 August 1996. Prince was released with high expectations among fans, considering the director's previous release Baasha, but it performed poorly at the box office. About the miserable failure of the film, director says: "Mohan Lal is a superstar in Kerala but not for his heroics or the other attributes associated with a Tamil or Telugu superstar. Maybe it was an error of judgement on my part. Even the producer did not find anything wrong with the gimmicks. But the people didn’t appreciate them. Rajni (Rajinikanth) liked the film very much. Lal's change of voice also seemed to backfire. People thought someone else had dubbed for him. After a throat surgery, his voice had undergone a change. Eventually, he had to issue a statement that it was his own voice. It was like what had happened to Amitabh Bachchan in Agneepath."

Soundtrack

The soundtrack consists of six songs composed by Deva, with lyrics penned by Girish Puthenchery.