(Frequent commentator Jibs joins us as a humor columnist)
Recently I read this article on varnachitram which says Malayalam Cinema needs young actors. My question: Why?
When we have Mammotty why do you need young actors? Recently when Arjun met Mammotty, he was surprised how young the old man looked. You have to stick a paper on his forehead to say that he is a grand father.
As he is getting older, he is also getting bolder. Mammotty has shown in 2006 and 2007 that he can do what any young actor can do. He can dance, he can do comedy, and he can do movies in which he plays a flirt. How many 60 year olds can say that Meera Jasmine has bit their chest?
He also has a flair for dressing and no young actor’s costumes will come close to his. Mammotty was shooting for the film Nasrani and decided to be his own costume designer. He came up with some shirts which he had bought in Dubai which blinded everyone in the sets. These are the type of shirts which even Tamil and Telugu heroes would frown upon. Joshi finally had to put his foot down and make Mammotty wear a normal shirt. We think that Joshi did not agree to the colorful costumes because when they stand together Mammotty looks like Joshi’s son. (some would say grandson, but that is too much).
Mammotty has signed on many more films and has at least 4 – 5 releases per year. Old people like Rajnikanth and Chiranjeevi do only one movie per year or one movie per two years. That is why they are called old people. Young people grab opportunities, live off suitcases and work as if tomorrow is the last day on the planet.
There is only one thing which can upset this great man. Wrinkles. There is a limit to what make up can do. Fortunately there is some new technology which was tried by director Shankar on Rajnikanth in Shivaji. In one song scene, Rajnikanth appears with white skin and this was done using a technology called digital skin grafting. With such technology, Mammotty can appear even more youthful in his movies. He can play the father, son and grandson in his movies and we won’t have to worry about young actors any more.
Those of you who are waiting for some new kid like Prithviraj to save the industry, please continue holding your breath. That will help your skin turn white.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
For wrinkles there is always Botox
September 11th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
For every Pothen Vava, Thuruppugulan and Nasrani you have Ore Kadal, Palunku, Karutha Pakshikal.
Mohan Lal who is a good 8-9 years younger than Mammotty looks older than Mammotty.
All said and done, it is to Mammotty’s credit that he still looks young. Vanitha magazine some time back (1-2 years ago) did a poll in womens colleges as to whom they found the sexiest. The answer was Mammotty and Prithviraj and co came far behind.
Moral of the story is – we can continue to hold our breath, we can continue to watch paint dry, we can continue to see our skin white – but we cannot see Mammotty being displaced as the darling of young women in Kerala
September 11th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
For every person who understands humor, there is one who does not.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
I am a hardcore Mammootty fan.I agree to all the things u said to an extend.Mammootty can do films may be upto 2012.After all Mammookka and Lalettan,they have their own limitations.Definitely we need more young actors like Prithviraj,Naren etc.Mammootty and Mohanlal they are now selecting characters which almost match their age.So we miss movies like Niram,Classmates etc.In Tamil and Telugu more young actors are coming.Here young actors are coming not because Mammootty and Mohanlal is there.Its because Good script writers should find suitable story for young actors.Without suitable story even Big M’s film wont invite audience to the theatre.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:56 am
It is really sad in Malayalam we are not ready to accept a new generation of actors….Everything else is changed…Even people can accept new singers without comparing them to Great Yesudas…We don’t compare every new actress with Sharada or Manju warrier…But when it comes to hero ,we are so narrow minded…Our fan culture completely spoiled the industry and quality of our movies.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:27 am
It seems to me that the biggest crisis facing Malayalam cinema is a lack of good directors. We only have a handful of directors who consistently make good commercial cinema. They are Lal Jose, Sathyan Anthikkad, Kamal, Roshan Andrews, Shafi, Rafi-Mecartin, Anwar Rasheed, Joshi, Blessy, Lohithadas, and a few others I may have missed. With audiences expecting movies to be technically slick, it is impossible for a director to make more than 2 movies a year. Most of the above make only 1 movie a year. Roshan Andrews seems to have a rate of 1 movie every 2-3 years. The gap between the release of good movies provides an opening for the Tamil industry to get a foothold in the state.
September 25th, 2007 at 9:46 am
First of all the malayali audience must change their mind to accept good films from young actors. Then only the producers will invest for more projects with the youngsters. The failure of good films like Notebook, Vasthavam, Vargam etc will promt the producers to stick on to the aged subjects with Lal and Mammooty
September 25th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Well, it is interesting to read so much about an actor – his pluses and minuses.
That by itself is testimony to the fact that he is creating ripples, if not waves.
I am from Chennai and have been watching mallu movies occasionally – two big M’s over the years..
And recently, I have fallen prey to watching PR’s movies too, especially after Kana kanden and Nandanam. I believe he gave a decent performance in the latter considering he was just 17.
Ever since, I have watched about 14 of his mallu movies and yes, he has evolved into a fine actor and is slowly climbing the ladder. One cannot compare him to heroes who have more than 400 films behind their belts; acting is like wine; gets better with age and experience. For the 5 years he has been in the field, I think PR is turning out just fine and in the right direction. He carried off his comedy role in swapnakoodu with élan and grace; and his portrayal of an extremist in daivanamathil deserves a mention too. And vargam, his body language was perfect; I felt that he did a better job in vargam than in vaasthavam which could have been due to the script too. There wasn’t any logic as to why he decided to climb up the political or secretarial ladder so soon, at whatever cost. Given that, he did emote well, to suit his role;
But classmates, yes, it was a joint effort and the success could be attributed to the nostalgia it brought about for folks all around, plus a good script and excellent performances by all; but PR did do meaty justice to his role and came out with a fine performance as an ideal leftist and a guy in the throes of mental agony. His expressions clearly showed us that here was a man going through so much in life and yet he tried to maintain the social decorum by joining in the festivities. That by itself is a difficult thing to exhibit.
I have been trying to get his movies online – few like krithyam, kadha, nammal thammil, etc. yet to find them somewhere in the web.
Let us wait for a few more movies before judging him; so far he has done good and another factor that works in his favour is his ability to carry a conversation in depth during an interview. And his maturity belies his age during such interviews. I don’t think it is fair to compare him to the great M & M of mallu world. If one wants a clean picture, they ought to rewind back to the reviews/articles written about M and M after their initial 25 movies. Maybe they had to go through the same cleansing processes. Sorry for the long post.
this was originally posted in prithviraj thread but it is appropriate here too, i guess.
he is a talented star and can go places if he continues to get good opportunities.
October 5th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Recently actor Rahman stated while he was casted in “chilambu” as the hero, a superstar phoned director Bharathan and offered to act free in the movie. Bharathan had let Rahman the earpiece of the phone and Rahman heard the canvas talk. That was 20+ years past. Now heard that Rahman’s “Musaafir” by pramod-pappan has been shelved due to the interference of a superstar. The latest news is that a superstar has given date to a pritviraj oriented young director. In fact the superstar canvassed the director. The tailpiece is that there will be no room for fresh faces in Malayalam for a long time. We will have to suffer these “Muthukkan Syndicate.”
October 20th, 2007 at 9:35 am
May be Mammootty will still look like a 35y old chullan when he is 70! Or a 70yo Mohanlal may still have the guts to act with a very teenage looking heroine like Meera Jasmine!
The bottom line is there is the inevitable biological truth of death for all living beings. Its for this very reason that we should make way for new heroes, heroines and singers…