Koni Prakash Naik
Daijiworld Media Network - Muscat
Pics: R Crasto

Muscat, Mar 19: The much awaited and talked about Tulu movie 'Nirel' based on a triangle love story, produced by Shodhan Prasad under the banner Sandhya Creations, and directed by Ranjit Bajpe, hit the silver screens of Star Cinema in Muscat on Friday March 14 at 3 pm with a rousing response. 

Nirel is the first international Tulu movie and was extensively shot in the Gulf.  San Poojary is the co-producer of the movie.

The inaugural ceremony was held at 2:45 pm at Star Cinema, Ruwi with J S Mukul, the Indian ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman, lighting the lamp.  At a brief inaugural speech appreciated the efforts of Nirel team in producing the movie and Spandana team for bringing the movie to Oman for screening.  

He expressed his best wishes to Shodhan Prasad and his team for the success of the movie.  Having been educated in Bangalore, with his sheer love for Karnataka people, Mukul agreed to watch the movie for a short time, but because of the fine quality and gripping story line in the movie, went on to watch the movie until interval which was highly appreciative of him.

After the inaugural ceremony, 'Laddoos', specially brought in from Mangalore and supplied by Mangalore Stores, Ruwi, were distributed to the audience.

Tickets were sold out well in advance and the theatre was houseful with a capacity crowd of around 900 cine lovers from Tulu Nadu residing in Oman.  Considering that there are about 8 – 10 thousand Tulu speaking people residing in Oman, Spandana team headed by the convener, Prakash Naik, took the initiative to screen the movie in Muscat to regale Tulu speaking people residing in Oman.

It was a rare opportunity and experience for Spandana team who worked very hard in bringing and screening this movie in Oman at a very short notice which was worth the effort.  This is the only second Tulu movie that was screened in Muscat in past 30-35 years.  The packed audience enjoyed the movie to the core and had a good time, and applauded the producers, directors and actors for their dedication and hard work in producing one of the finest Tulu movies, that too in the Gulf.

All in all, the movie was received with an overwhelming response and after the show the audience showered their immense happiness and appreciation while expressing their views on the movie.  A general feeling was that Nirel is a clean family entertainer and appeals not only to

youngsters or married couples or the ‘arty’ crowd, but to anyone and everyone. It is competent, challenging, fresh, emotional and heartfelt, technically sound and hopefully, it signals the beginning of a major shift in the Tulu film industry which the audiences taste in mainstream feel-good Hindi cinema as Nirel had all the essence of a bollywood movie.

The music of Nirel has been composed by Abhishek S N, and the songs have already become super hit. Sameer Mhatre, Aditya Kudalkar and Swapnil Digde have beautifully arranged and programmed the music.  Rajneesh Amin is the art director and Sachin Padil is the assistant director along with the team members consisting of Ashwath Samuel as editor, Mani Kookal Nair being the director of photography with Neha Bangera and Ramya Rajneesh Amin as assistant directors.

Producer, Shodhan Prasad and his wife Sandhya Prasad (who also acted in the movie), the director Ranjith Bajpe, assistant director Sachin Padil, art director Rajneesh Amin, actor Anand Salian, singer Shiv Kumar and his wife Vidya, one of the heroines Varuna Shetty were present at the inaugural ceremony who came down to Oman specially to partake in the inauguration.  Co-Producer San Poojary and Anoop the main actor are in Mangalore promoting the film, hence could not be present in Oman.

Apart from the movie crew and star cast, some of the prominent personalities who were present at the inaugural ceremony were Diwakar Shetty, Shankar Shetty, Ganesh Shetty, Dr C K Anchan, SShashidhar Shetty, S K Poojary and  Suraj Rebello, Umesh Shetty, Claud Frank along with Spandana team members Prakash Naik, Ramesh Shettigar, Jaya Ramesh Shettigar, Nagesh Shetty, Karunakar Rao and Ramanand Kunder.

'Nirel’ is scheduled for one more show in Dubai on Friday March 21 at 4.30 pm in Golden Cinema, Bur Dubai. Tickets can be collected by contacting 050 6169680.