Neslen to headline ‘Kumbalangi Nights’ director Madhu C Narayanan’s sophomore film
Naslen stars in Madhu C Narayanan's new film, marking the director's return after a seven-year hiatus since Kumbalangi Nights.
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The film, marks the end of Madhu C Narayanan’s seven-year-long hiatus from direction
Published - July 28, 2026 04:35 pm IST
Dr Ananthu S, Madhu C Narayanan and Naslen | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
In a welcome announcement made by Dr S Ananthu on his Instagram handle on Monday (July 27, 2026), director Madhu C Narayanan announced his second film via a Reel, captioned, “Rolling soon”. The movie will star Naslen in the lead.
This film marks the end of Madhu’s directorial hiatus, after his celebrated directorial debut, Kumbalangi Nights, which was released in 2019. The project will be produced by Dr Ananthu and Madhu, under the banners of Dr Ananthu Productions and Silent Cat Films.
Naslen was last seen in Mollywood Times, directed by Abhinav Sunder Nayak, which received mixed reviews. He is also slated to appear in Amal Neerad’s Bachelor Party D’eux, Rohith VS’s Tiki Taka and Tharun Moorthy’s Torpedo. He is also set to star in Aavesham director Jithu Madhavan’s upcoming Tamil film starring Suriya, marking his Tamil debut.
Meanwhile, The Hindu review of the Mollywood Times said, “Abhinav employs voice-overs as extensively as in Mukundan Unni Associates, but here, it only works partly. The editing in quite a few scenes was top-notch, but the filmmaker also being one of the editors means that not much trimming seems to have been done. This is most felt in the latter half, when things get tiresome and repetitive, almost as if we are caught in a loop. A much leaner film with better writing in the final act could have left a more defining impact.
Marketed as a “hate letter to cinema”, Mollywood Times would have worked better as an exposé of the dark underbelly of the film industry if not for the stretched phases that make it a bloated work.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ananthu S (@dr.ananthu.s)
Published - July 28, 2026 04:35 pm IST
Malayalam cinema / The Hindu MetroPlus / Indian cinema / entertainment (general)
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