The Prince (1996 film)


The Prince is a 1996 Indian Malayalam-language action film scripted and directed by Suresh Krishna, starring Mohanlal. Dialogues were written by T. A. Razzaq. The film marked accomplished Tamil director Krishna's debut in Malayalam cinema. The music was scored by Deva.

Plot

It was a story of the other side of a Mafia family. Jeeva, son of a Don Vishwanath, falls in love with Swarna, daughter of a famous Carnatic singer. 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.

Cast

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

Reception

The film was released on 27 August 1996. Prince was released with high expectations among audience, considering the director's previous release Baashha being a major success, but it underperformed at the box office. About the unexpected failure, Krishna said: "Mohanlal 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 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." Even though, the Telugu dubbed version of the film was a superhit when it released in Andhra Pradesh.