Recently one of our guest bloggers Raphel made a comment that his teenage son never watch Malayalam movies, but only Hindi or Tamil ones. It is no secret that Tamil movies are doing well in Kerala and that actors like Kamal Hassan, Rajnikanth, Ajith, Vijay and Vikram have lot of fans in the state. What do you do in a situation where there is competition from other films? Ban them or delay their release.
The trend of Tamil films becoming increasingly popular in the state is going to be controlled by KFDA. The Kerala Film Distributors Association (KFDA) has taken a decision not to have any simultaneous releases of Tamil films in Kerala from Jan 1, 2007.[Tamil film releases controlled!]
It looks as if a similar trend is now visible in Kerala too.The difference is- Tamil films are not dubbed into Malayalam before getting released in the state. ‘Boys’ flopped in Tamilnadu but did phenomenal business in Kerala. ‘Anniyan’ was a bigger hit in Kerala than in Tamilnadu.[Tamil films making many enemies]
The reason mentioned is that some Tamil films did not release on the promised day and it caused panic and loss of revenue in theatres. From now apart from Aalwar, Pokiri and Shivaji, no other Tamil movie will have a simultaneous release in Kerala. The same article says
The buzz is that all this happened as Tamil films were becoming a threat to straight Malayalam films. And theatres in B and C stations preferred Tamil films to Malayalam film, as they considered them as safe bets.
When you find that you cannot fight Bheeshma, you keep Shikandi in the front and fight. This is what Malayalam the Kerala Film Distributors Association is doing. We, Malayalees have not sworn to God that we will watch only Malayalam movies in theatres in Kerala. But, Kerala is not alone in such lunatic actions as Karnataka did this almost three years back.
Language chauvinism in Karnataka is nothing new. In fact, I’ve blogged about it a few times. In 2004, film producers & distributors sought a two month moratorium on the screening of new Tamil movies after their release. The government stepped in and made it a three week delayed screening process, which was ridiculous anyway.[More Kannada chauvinism]
By putting such a ban Kannada film industry acknowledged that it is backward and cannot compete with Hindi, Telugu and Tamil movies and what was said about Kannada movies in 2004 is true of Malayalam movies now.
Instead of fighting over false language chauvinism I would rather go and explore why there is no big market for Kannada movies. Many of my friends are from the state of Karnataka, most watch Tamil, Hindi and Telugu movies; they often tell me there is no great quality production from Kannada as in these languages. They feel for it but at the same time they don’t mind cross culture. Kannada people in whom I know are really broad minded. [The Reckless Attitude ]
Now Malayalam cinema is going the same route saying, We cannot make better movies so we are going to hold the population hostage to our bad movies. This is one sign that the movie industry is not doing well and has to resort such tactics to get audience. The best way to fight Tamil movies is to make better movies, but then that is hard work, while delaying releases is easier. Isn’t it scary when Pokiri is expected to outdo Gilli and is celebrated in Kerala?
There are already multitude of regulations to promote Malayalam cinema’s business - like control on stars appearing in Television, ban on star shows etc. We think the KFDA should not stop at this. They should ask for a ban on circuses, mimicry, ganamela, various festivals, and if possible weddings and funerals – anything which keeps people away from theatres. Finally when there is no other entertainment Malayalee might step out of his house and head towards a movie theatre, if there is one left.
January 19th, 2007 at 4:05 am
This is something which I wanted to write about, delaying a release of a Tamil movie is not going to change the dynamics of the issue in any way. People will stick to their houses and come to the theatres when the Tamil movie gets released. Malayalam cinema has to come out of the clutches of the M&M trap. Movies like Vaasthavam Vargam and Oruvan are much better than Baba Kalyani, Pothen Vava but they are not able to get commercial success.
I would rather suggest that distributors market their movies aggressively like Oscar Ravichandran. There is no dearth of talent in Kerala. The problem is no producer has the guts to take a risk to make a movie sans stars.
God save God’s Own Country and it’s cinema.
January 19th, 2007 at 5:47 am
First of all, the statement “‘Anniyan’ was a bigger hit in Kerala than in Tamilnadu.” is factually wrong. The movie was as big a hit in Tamil Nadu as much as in Kerala, if not more. It ran to packed houses in Kerala and Vikram did make an appearance at Dhanya-Ramya in Triavandrum, but the collection figures in Kerala can never surpass that of the figures in Tamilnadu for a Tamil HIT movie. Boys, I agree was a flop in TamilNadu and it made money in Kerala.
Its a fact that our mallu public is going more for Hindi and Tamil movies these days. But I would defintely not say that this was because the “quality” of the movie in Tamil/Hindi. There are few good movies like Anniyan and Kamal Hassan movies. But apart from that, movies like Ghilli and Pokiri and Chandramukhi were hits only because of the songs and packaging – not because of the story. Can you even compare Chandramukhi to Manichitrathaazhu? Its simply due to the fact that Tamil producers have more money to spent compared to their Malayali counterparts and so are able to rope in BIG stars, extravagant sets and shoot songs abroad. Can any malayali producer shell out 1 crore for a song like Sankar or any other Tamil producer?
Answer is NO
We cannot say that our malayalam movies are any worse than Tamil movies. What do you see in a typical Vijay/Ajith movie? A few songs, A few stunts with “arivaal” or some primitive weapons,and crap sentiments. Vijay has been doing the same stupid role from Ghilli to Madhura to Thiruppachi to Sivakasi. Thats because the Tamil audience like to see him do ONLY that. Will he dare to experiment like one of our own Malaylam stars? Never.
At least we malayalis should be proud of the fact that we dont make such CRAP movies.
Take a recent Hindi hit movie – DON or Kabhia Alvida..These movies based on their qualities was bad. Kabhi Alvida by Karan Johar was advocating adultery. DON was a cheesy remix of the OLD classic. But us public would throng to see New York, Malaysia, the hot Priyanaka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor. We ignore the story.
Our standard of movies are 9/10 times way better than Tamil or Hindi. Its just that our audience are fed up of Malayalam movies. A movie like Karatha Pakshikal or Palunku or Vargam are not able to win over the audience not because the movie was bad but because our people want to see more songs shot in Switzerland, more sleaze, more crap. I would not be supirsed to see a Namitha movie make more money than a Mammotty/Mohan Lal movie.
January 19th, 2007 at 7:07 am
The Malayalam industry is being held hostage again by a few nonsensical chaps.This was not required.
Malayalees will go and watch a movie irrespective of the quality of the movie.
Case in point, Shakeela movies were watched as enthusiatically as Sibi Malayali/Fazil movies
January 19th, 2007 at 7:13 am
There seems to be an implicit assumption that Malayalees want to see only High Class movies like Thanmatra and Manichitrathazhu. The success of Tamil and Hindi movies show that it is not true. They want entertainment and Malayalam movies are not able to provide that.
January 19th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Achu – Entertainment in this context is dappan kuth songs/arivaal fights/ swizerland songs with lavish display of the anatomybe it asin or nayantara or trisha and something called a story in between..Oh but then who cares
January 19th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Unni, It does not matter what the content is. If people want to see it, no should be blocking it. If people want to see Vijay do the same movie 100th time, let them see. No one should hold a gun to their head and say, see only Malayalam movies. There are people with different tastes and they should have the freedom to see movies which they like to see.
Such actions will result in some more B & C theatre closings which will in turn affect the revenues of Malayalam cinema.
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:07 am
As a Tamilian, I find it amazing that a mallu condescends to call Tamil movies ‘better’ than malayalam movies. IF that is the case, Maayalam filmdom must have descended to abysmal standards.
Can anyone name 5 really good tamil movies in the last 5 years? Except Anbe Sivam, I cant think of any.
Well, the reason for Tamil movies’ success might be in the following statement:
“Malayalam filmdom ‘discovered’ nayantara. Tamil movies ‘uncovered’ nayantara”
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:56 am
@Raj: ‘better’ in these sense that there’s a lot of experimentation happening in terms of stories, style, actors etc. Movies that I thought were really good were ‘Kaadhal’, ‘Kaakka Kaakka’, ‘Pithamagan’ and of course, ‘Anbae Sivam’. Other movies like ‘Virumandi’, ‘Kaathal Kondein’, ‘VV’, ‘7G..’, ‘Pattiyal’, ‘Ghajini’, ‘Anniyan’, ‘Pudhupetai’ etc had something fresh – storyline, technique, even just great screen-moments – going for them.
Malayalam cinema is really mediocre today, unfortunately. Other than the fact that we don’t have new talent, we have no new themes either. Fortunately, 2006 has been a better year, 2002-05 were the worst.
January 25th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
The unfortunate situation of public isolation of Mallu movies is again a hot spot looking at the performances of recent movies. Palunku got huge media coverage and Blessy and team literally used everyone including the hapless CM to promote and a Cinema Weekly Vellinakshtram given boosted collection figures and the net result is that it become Blessy’s first NO Show. He also needs hige media support and Super Stars. Kamal facing the same problem. Priyan afraid to come back. Joshy doing all his effort to keep Mammooty out of the business. What is happening? Why movies like Pokiri or an average like Alwar getting better collection than a Hit Mallu movie. Public lost hope, due to lack of freshness or stale products and biased media which run after only big stars. When these AMMA (which should be dissolved) guys will learn, are they waiting for the final nail in the coffin. Remember the tax regime is 15% average, compared to 30.5% two years back. Now the situation is like either make or totaly wash out. Pity.
January 26th, 2007 at 5:17 am
Raphel – I agree with you. I would say that our worst movies would be better than an Alwar but the tragedy is our public is shunning more and more malaylam movies which is a very sad thing.
Basically I feel the taste of the audience has changed and they need more entertainment through movies which are executed through lavish production values like huge sets, costly stunts, foreign locations etc. Our malaylam producers dont have the money to make such big-budget movies. When somebody attempts a big budget like Balram vs Tharadas, they burnt their fingers.
The situation of the Malaylam industry was never this bad. However Im optimistic and I feel that a few hits can turn things around.
January 26th, 2007 at 6:21 am
@Raphel: What is wrong if a director/actor promotes their movie aggresively if they see it is not doing well? Anything for the movie to earn some money. In fact, such aggressive marketing MAY have wonders for many a decent movie that flopped due to lack of publicity (read ‘Vasthavam’, ‘Vargam’ etc). The best examples that I can remember are of Dileep’s ‘Gramaphone’ and of course ‘Deshadanam’.
As for Blessy, at least he still makes good films, without compromising. As for him using superstars only – they are not just superstars, but also two of the best actors India has ever produced, so why not cast them if there’s a suitable role? Kamal has made several films with rank newcomers, so its not fair blaming him.
The stars are only part of the issue. The larger picture is that we have no fresh talent in terms of directors, screenplay-writers etc. Without this, commercial Malayalam cinema will continue to lose out to better-made, better-looking and more-entertaining Tamil and Hindi cinema.
January 26th, 2007 at 6:26 am
@Unni: Its like I said – they have the money for better locales, better-looking heroines and often better technicians. If Malayalam cinema tries to compete on that front, we are bound to lose out. The single exception to this case has been Kamal’s ‘Swapnakoodu’, and that too probably because it was a novelty in Malayalam cinema at that time.
Big budget movies alone won’t do the trick – ‘Dubai’ and ‘Balram vs..’ were atrocious movies, which is why they flopped – deservedly so. Asking why similar atrocious movies in other languages find success at our BO is counter-productive; Malayalm movies have never worked that way, nor do we want them to. I’d rather that a ‘Rasathantram’ (cliched though it was) or a ‘Classmates’ or a ‘Thanmatra’ succeed.
January 26th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Balram is a terrible movie with very shoddy production values. Most of the money would have gone in renting those Hummers and Katrina Kaif. Tamil movies are slickly produced though the story of them can be predicted even by a water melon.
January 26th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Ranjith – What you said is only partly true. Once upon a time the chances of a good movie becoming a sucess was high in Malayalam. Not any more. Otherwise Vargam/Vasthavam/Karutha Pakshikal/Notebook etc would not have flopped.
Rasathantram was not a great movie but an average one considering that Sathyan/Lal combo have produced classics. Bottomline is our people are even shunning good movies too.
Maybe our malayalam movies need to be released globally like Hindi/Tamil movies. Collections from outside India contribute to 30% of a Bollywood movies’s revenue.
If our producers could get more theatres in the gulf/areas in the US/UK where malayalis are populated, we may see movies making some money after all. I also have the experience of seeing a rank bad movie like Kilichundan Mambazham in a theatre in the UK and believe me, the theatre was more than 90% full. What i wanted to point out is that maybe our producers might want to tap the overseas market more.
Incidentally Vasthavam is coming to a theatre near where I am now( a small non descript village in the US east coast).
February 17th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I am from Palakkad (Tamil mother toungue)and my house is so close to TN border.I can read and write both Malayalam and Tamil.When I was young I used to watch a lot of Tamil movies.Most of the theatres in my town (Kozhinjambara) shows Tamil movies .Once I started my college days-Trichur-I start watching more and more Malayalam moveies.There was a big learning curve to change my mindset to enjoy some of the Malayalam movies which is so different from the Typical formula Tamil movies.But after watching these movies for 2-3 years,it became so hard for me to digest Tamil movies.Most of the Tamil movies have very low quality compared to a standard Malayalam movie .Except a few-Anbe Sivam or Azhagi or Kannathil muthamittal- most of the movies are so senseless and based on the same formula.Except the Malayalam magazines,noone can say Tamil movies are better than Malayalam movies.If you can give 50/100 for Palunku,Pokkiri deserves just 25.But I think Malayalam cinema lacks publicity ,marketing and of course freshness.The same faces-Mammootty and Lal are extremely talented- and similar presentation takes freshness from Malayalam movies.And ofcourse people changed.75% of the theatre going people are between age 13-30 (Male) and many of them want double meaning dialogues and colourful dance scenes.They don’t have any attraction towards our culture.I still rate Malayalam movie industry is much above Tamil industry .
February 19th, 2007 at 9:23 am
I do agree that 2006 has been a good year for Mal cinema, compared to the last 4 years or so. But comparing a Palunku with a Pokkiri is hardly fair; its like comparing apples and oranges. A Palunku, which I haven’t seen yet, should be compared to something like Anbae Sivam, while a Pokkiri should be compared to a Narasimham or a Rajamanickyam.
The advantage with Tamil cinema is that they seem to have grown with the times – not just technically, but content-wise and treatment-wise too. You see a lot of new, exciting cinema like Kaathal, Veyyil from newcomers coexist along with veterans such as Kamal and Mani Ratnam. It is the lack of this – new talent behind the camera – that’s stifling Mal cinema today.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Can Malayalam movies compete with other languages?
http://www.simplymalayalees.co.....4&PN=1