Yet another Onam has just whisked past us, but the festive vibes are yet to die down. People have not yet finished uploading their Onam photos on social media, fridges are still stacked with sadhya leftovers, and ‘discount offers’ tags still adorn retail outlets. The festive mood reverberates even in theatres with ‘houseful’ boards all around, irrespective of the show timings.
It’s true that festivals like Onam, Vishu, and Christmas have always witnessed a flourish in the Kerala box office, but this year’s glorious run is special for more than one reason. Tovino Thomas’ Ajayante Randam Moshanam (ARM), Asif Ali’s Kishkindha Kaandam, Antony Varghese’s Kondal, and the Rahman-starrer Bad Boyz were the four major mainstream releases that hit screens this Onam. Among the four, ARM and Kishkindha Kaandam have clearly emerged as the winners, with a tight battle between them for the first spot.
While ARM continued to dominate the collections during the initial weekend, the scales have now gradually started tilting towards Kishkindha Kaandam. Linto Davis, owner of the Vanitha-Veneetha Cineplex in Ernakulam, is extremely delighted with the performance of these two films. “Both ARM and Kishkindha Kaandam are going neck-to-neck in collections.
It’s exciting to see two films that were released on the same day doing equally well. On Thursday, all our shows for both these films were full by afternoon. We expect this momentum to continue beyond this weekend.
” Veteran p.