There is still 3 more weeks towards the end of 2011, but I think this is a good time to find out our “Best” artists of the Malayalam film industry for the year of 2011. It’s just a little early but its a good time for an estimate. I encourage all the readers to post your opinions, if you were a part of a jury to give out the awards.
Any way this is what I would give, if I was a member of any award jury.
Best Director – Lijo Jose Pellisserry – City of God
Best Screenplay – Shyam Pushkaran & Dileesh Nair- Salt N’ Pepper
Best Actor – Indrajith – City of God
Best Actress – Kavya Madhavan – Khaddama
Best Cinematography – Shyju Khaild – Traffic & Salt N’Pepper
Best Editing – Manoj – City of God
Best Music (bgm) – Prashant Pillai – City of God
Best Supporting Actor – Jagathy Sreekumar – Urumi
Best Supporting Actress – Parvathi Menon – City of God
Best Film – Traffic- Listen Stephen
Best Popular Film – Indian Rupee – Prithviraj, Santhosh Sivan, Shaji Nateshan
Special Jury Mention:
Jayasurya – Beautiful (actor)
Sameer Thahir – Chappa Kurish (director)
Anoop Menon – Beautiful (screen writer)
Santosh Sivan – Urumi (cinematographer)
Editor’s Note: Reader comments are welcome. Any comments with words ChinaTown, Tejabhai etc would be deleted- vc
December 15, 2011 at 9:59 pm
Best Director – Rajesh Pillai – Traffic
Best Screenplay – Anoop Menon- Beautiful
Best Actor – Indrajith – City of God
Best Actress – Kavya Madhavan – Khaddama
Best Cinematography – Shyju Khaild – Traffic & Salt N’Pepper
Best Editing – – Traffic
Best Music (bgm) – Shahbaz Aman – Indian Rupee
Best Supporting Actor – Jagathy Sreekumar – Urumi,Indian Rupee
Best Supporting Actress – Reeja Venugopal,Parvathy Menon – Indian Rupee,City of God respectively
Best Film – Traffic- Listen Stephen
Best Popular Film – Indian Rupee – Prithviraj, Santhosh Sivan, Shaji Nateshan
Special Jury Mention:
Jayasurya – Beautiful (actor)
Aashiq Abu –Salt N pepper (director)
Bobby and Sanjay– (screen writers)
Santosh Sivan – Urumi (cinematographer)
December 16, 2011 at 11:45 am
Best Director – Lijo Jose Pellisserry – City of God
Best Screenplay – Shyam Pushkaran – Dileesh Nair – Salt N Pepper
Best Actor – Indrajith – City of God
Best Actress – Kavya Madhavan – Khaddama
Best Cinematography – Satheesh Kurup– Pranayam
Best Editing – Don Max – Chappa Kurish
Best Music (bgm) – Shahbaz Aman – Indian Rupee , M Jayachandran Pranayam
Best Supporting Actor (tough one) – Jagathy Sreekumar – Urumi,Indian Rupee ,Anupam Kher – Pranayam , Thilakan (Indian Rupee)
Best Supporting Actress – Rima Kallingal – City of God
Best Film – City of God
Best Popular Film – Salt ‘N’ Pepper,India Rupee
Special Jury Mention:
Vineeth Srinivasan – Chappa Kurish (Actor)
Aashiq Abu –Salt N pepper (director)
Shankar Ramakrishnan – Urumi (Story)
August Cinema – Indian Rupee & Urumi (Production)
December 18, 2011 at 8:20 am
Nothing for Santhosh Pandit???
Maybe we should also have a Golden Raspberry Award…
December 18, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Best Director – Rajesh Pillai – Traffic
Best Screenplay – bobby sanjay-traffic
Best Actor – mohanlal/anupam kher-pranayam
Best Actress – Kavya Madhavan – Khaddama/jayaprada-pranayam
Best Cinematography – santhosh sivan-urumi
Best Editing – – Traffic
Best Music (bgm) – Shahbaz Aman – Indian Rupee
Best Supporting Actor – Jagathy Sreekumar – Urumi,Indian Rupee
Best Popular Film – salt and pepper,traffic
December 18, 2011 at 11:15 pm
2011 has definitly been a year of change in the industry. New and different films have cone out this year. This might be a beginning of a new “golden era”. I don’t think I’ve seen such a difference the year before or during the ’00 decade. Hope more new films will come and hope the audiences support those filmmakers.
December 21, 2011 at 11:42 am
Malayalam audiences were’nt ready for Lijo Pellissery’s ‘City of God’.. they found it too confusing, boring etc.. hence its failure at the box office. Other good films that did not get the recognition that they deserved were Melvilasam, Chappa Kurishu & Beautiful.
Anyway 2011 is surely the beginning of a renaissance in Malayalam Cinema.. Fresh thinking young film-makers have begun to make their mark and achieve success too, while veteran film-makers like Joshi, Satyan Anthikad, Shaji Kailas, Kamal, Shafi, Priyadarsan, Jayaraj etc have been given the message from the movie-going public that its about time they stop wasting producer’s money on worthless stale films and gracefully retire!
December 23, 2011 at 12:22 pm
I can’t give out an awards list, but this is a list of my top 10:
Top 10
(in no particular order)
1) Adaminte Makan Abu
2) Traffic
3) City of God
4) Salt N’Pepper
5) Chappa Kurish
6) Urumi
7) Indian Rupee
8) Melvilasom
9) Beautiful
10) Pranayam
December 25, 2011 at 11:23 pm
I would like to see Pranayam into the Top 10.
December 27, 2011 at 9:43 pm
my picks
1. chappa kurishu
2. adaminte makan abu
3. indian rupee
4. traffic
5. urumi/salt n pepper/pranayam
6.beautiful
7. city of god
8. melvilsam
December 28, 2011 at 8:11 pm
Good news is that we have atleast 10 good movies this year to rank!!..Well done in 2011, expecting a better 2012 and in coming years…
January 2, 2012 at 3:30 am
@writer….r u promoting city of god ?felt like that..
January 3, 2012 at 5:50 pm
I thought COG was the most underatted film of ’11, both commercially and critically.
February 7, 2012 at 8:53 pm
yes…even I felt COG isn’t getting the recognition it deserves
January 4, 2012 at 11:45 am
I was lucky to catch the movie City Of God on TV for Christmas. I was extremely glad that a movie like came out in Malayalam , But was disappointed when i found out the movie was a commercial failure . I am a movie buff living in Chennai and i as a rule avoid all Vijay and Ajith movies . It brings me great pain that our Mallu audience has a great interest in these movies but cannot appreciate the good stuff , coming out from our backyard. I cannot in all my conscience see a movie like City Of God failing at the Tamil B.O . I had great respect for our mallu audience but it seems over time they prefer the crass , crappy masala fare rather than sensible movies . I hope the makers of COG release the DVD , As it has a good word of mouth and hopefully they would recoup some money from these streams at least.
As an audience they should be receptive to all kinds of sensible movies. The tamil audience has been more receptive over the past few years and that has been the success of movies like Myna,Engeyum Epothum , Aaranya Kandam , Kathal , Chennai 600028, Veyil .All of these are movies made under strict financial constraints with almost new faces and new technicians , But the script was the winner here and the movies became successes because of strong word of mouth . The success of these movies enables others directors to come out with new scripts and the producers to back them up . Malayalam cinema’s strength has always has been STORY oriented movies and never star oriented movies . It’s only been in the last decade that we have seen the rise of the star as opposed to the story . And 2011 , The starting year of the decade is in fact a landmark for Malayalam cinema because a movie like Salt n Pepper ,which has two 40-50 year old’s has the protagonists , was a commercial success and the movies like Traffic is a strong indicator for the change that is happening . If only the audience could wise up to accepting movies like Adaminte Makan Abu and City Of God and making them commercial success , Imagine the amount the good cinema we can witness in the next few years .
January 24, 2012 at 6:50 am
you should have decided on this by taking a survey (by only including real talents, and not existed but died out talents) etc and then may be spread this list in some imgaes through FB/Twitter etc. That would have been a real good boost for teams behind salt n pepper, city of god, traffic, chappa kurish, beautiful etc….
January 25, 2012 at 4:06 am
Top 10 Malayalam movies of 2011 what mhd fazal and lijas choose: 1.Adaminte makan abu
2.Traffic
3.Indian rupee
4.Beutiful
5.urumi
6.Salt ‘n’ pepper
7.Pranayam
8.Ghaddama
9.Melvilasam/Chappakkurish
10.Swapna sanchari
February 2, 2012 at 8:45 pm
1. traffic
2. rajesh pillai. traffic
3.
February 17, 2012 at 1:49 am
ORMA MATHRAM had some good performance from Dileep in a serious role, even though the film was slow and boring, the performance by actors were really commendable especially the performance of the child (Dileep’s son) was very natural and superb. Priyanka Nair did extremely well. It is unfortunate that the film which showed Dileep in a serious role flopped at the box office.
February 18, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Pranayam was hands down the best Malayalam movie of 2011. That being said, I have heard that it is copied from an Australian movie called Innocence. I haven’t seen that so can’t vouch for how original it is.
April 18, 2012 at 5:19 am
City of God,Salt and Pepper pretty much over rated movies..City of God poor direction,seems the director is trying to copy RGV,weird camera angles,a sort of stylized acting which i find pretty much superficial..Salt and Pepper spoilt by Lal’s over acting and fake emotions even though I have to accept story was fresh..
July 25, 2012 at 5:37 pm
What to you mean by COG was overrated? It was box-office poison, and it never won any awards. It was neither commercially or critically appreciated. It was the most underrated Malayalam film of 2011.
July 25, 2012 at 5:35 pm
I never thought in a million years that Vellaripravinte Changathi would even get any awards, let alone the Best Actor award.