Reader James dropped this as a comment a few days back. We thought that this was an amazing observation and is worthy of a post – ed.

Some interesting history trivia regarding Mohanlal’s career:

I think the turning point year in his career was 1986. That’s when he was shifted upwards to super stardom. It is unbelievable when one looks at the releases of his films during that one year.

1. Ninnishtam Ennishtam (Director: Priyadarshan)
2. Mazha Peyyunnu Maddalam Kottunnu (Director: Priyadarshan)
3. Hello My Dear Wrong Number (Director: Priyadarshan)
4. Thalavattam (Director: Priyadarshan)
5. Sanmanassullavarku Samadhanam (Director: Sathyan Anthikad)
6. T. P. Balagopalan M.A. (Director: Sathyan Anthikad)
7. Gandhinagar 2nd Street (Director: Sathyan Anthikad)
8. Kariyilakkattupole (Director: Padmarajan)
9. Desatanakkili Karayarilla (Director: Padmarajan)
10. Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal (Director: Padmarajan)
11. Rajavinte Makan (Director: Thampi Kannanthanam)
12. Sughamo Devi (Director: Venu Nagavally)
13. Yuvajanolsavam (Director: Sreekumaran Thambi)
14. Mizhineerpookkal (Director: Kamal)
15. Panchagni (Director: Hariharan)
16. Abhayam Thedi (dir. IV Sasi)

He was lucky to be there at the right time. He got the best screenplays and directors.

I don’t think any actors from the next generation would have such a luck. Though Fahad Fazil seems to be on fire.

During the Mathrubhoomi Kalyan Silks Awards recently, Ashique Abu gave a shoutout to the producer of Salt N Pepper. In a rare gesture which conveyed humility as well as magnanimity, he gifted his cash award to the producer so that the producer can recover his investment. A decade back this statement would not have attracted much attention, but in 2012 it is very important. It showed the attitude of new generation of film makers as well as it pointed out that even a successful movie like Salt N Pepper is struggling to recoup its investment. Over the past few years we have seen a rot in Malayalam cinema and people spent their money watching Tamil movies and wondering why can’t we make movies like that. Now in the past two years we have seen some amazing movies come from new film makers. So what all contributed to this revival?

Before we go there let’s blame a few people. Like the European economy, there was a serial collapse in Malayalam. So let’s blame pretty much everyone including script writers, directors and actors for presenting us with nonsense movies. What was the last best movie written by Srinivasan? Or what was the best movie of Sathyan Anthikkad or Sibi Malayil or Priyadarshan or K Madhu or Fazil in the past few years? Things became so bad that Sibi-Udayan movies looked like classics and Illayaraja’s terrible music became the standard. In a year, out of the 50 odd movies that were released, only half a dozen made money and only one or two were worth remembering.

Malayalam movies were going through a tough transition period. Untimely demise of some of our stalwart writers and directors gave opportunity to a bunch of writers and directors, who made us think that mediocrity is the new standard. Aping out of state movies which had high production standards sans content, infighting among Malayalam movie fraternity, rising super star fees,mindless antics by fans associations took Malayalam movies from the exalted heights to the place where James Cameron went in his new submarine.

At such a period, it would have been easy for any producer to go into other business like starting a resort or betting on real estate. So first we have to thank those producers who invested money in movies like Salt N Pepper, Traffic, Beautiful, Urumi, City of God, Passenger, Chappa Kurishu, Ordinary etc. Those are the people who stand first in our list and we agree with Ashique Abu. They are the brave ones.

Second we have to appreciate the new generation of script writers. Look at Salt N Pepper for example. If it was a Sathyan Anthikkad movie, it would have KPAC Lalitha playing an old woman abandoned by her children and Innocent doing his standard senti act. If it was a Shaji Kailas movie, you could predict next dialogue to be mouthed by the superstar or the next scene to come. All other movies had the hero living in exile in Pollachi. But keeping the melodrama minimal, the script writers [Shyam Pushkaran and Dileesh Nair] kept Salt N Pepper going without having much conflict. It was utterly refreshing.

Third, lets meet the new directors. We mentioned Ashique Abu, but there are folks like Sugeet, Rajesh Pillai, Samir Thahir, Lijo Jose etc. They know the new grammar of movie making. Among these Abu and Sugeet are disciples of Kamal and while their guru is making classics like Pachakuthira, the disciples are entertaining us.

Before mentioning the actors, we applaud Malayali audience for supporting movies which did not have superstars in them. It reminds us of a time when people used to watch movies based on who wrote it (Padmarajan, T Damodaran, MT) or who directed it (Bharathan, I V Sasi, Padmarajan, Hariharan). We have almost reached that state now. Having said that, we find a fearless generation of new actors shaping up. Some of them are new ( Fahad Fazil, Asif Ali,Vineeth Srinivasan), some of them re-invented themselves (Baburaj, Kunchako Boban).

Also look at the new generations of actresses like Remya Nambisan, Swetha Menon, Mythili and Rima Kallingal who are bold enough to portray realistic roles representing evolving womanhood. The goody-goody Kavya Madhavan-Navya Nair-Bhavana type roles no longer appeal to people.

Even though he’s delivering flop after flop of late, Mammotty played an important role in bringing up many new talents into Malayalam cinema. This man has a knack in unearthing talented directors.Lal Jose, Blessy, Ashique Abu, Amal Neerad … It’s a huge list. Even though he did not act in some of these new director’s movies, he supported them and helped launch their careers. It shows that he is one intelligent man who knows that his stardom is doomed if there are no good writers or directors.

If you look at Malayalam cinema, the target audience is limited. We don’t have the reach of Tamil or Telugu or Hindi movies. We made it up by writing innovative scripts and creating a mass appeal. The movies were always low budget. In the recent past only superstar movies were making money and the cost of moving making went over the roof. Then we reached a stage where only super stars where making money and most of their movies ended up as super hit in a channel. Now we are back to the basics again with small movies with good script.

Another good thing is the advent of multiplexes. The multiplexes era has opened up niche markets. This would be a boon for small movies as well as there is no need to please entire cine-going crowd. This should draw family audiences who are scared to visit big theatres. We had covered this in detail at Varnachitram few months back.

There are reactions to this. Mohanlal who had kept a distance from Ranjith now met him and patched up things. Mammootty after a string of flops must be going back to the drawing board. It will be better if Suresh Gopi actually joined Kerala Police. One of the consequences of this revival of small movies is that there will be less producers investing in Super Star movies. This is a good thing because we want to see M&M in fewer but better movies. To make their quota of 6 movies a year, they end up acting in Cassanova and Venicile Vyapari. Instead of that we want a Pranayam or a Pranchiyettan. Another positive thing about this revival is the sidelining of the “talents”  of mimicry brigade like Suraj Venjarammoodu and Salim Kumar.

What can go wrong with this revival? There is always the customary infighting with the banning of actors and actresses. Sibi and Udayan, S N Swamy, as well as directors like Shaji Kailas are still in business. These new age directors and writers whom we praised earlier could get sucked up into big budget movies and lose focus on the craft. Or the new directors/writers not able to live up to the hype created by thier initial movies: For example look at the difference between Passenger and Arjunan Sakshi or James Albert’s creations after Classmates. Another huge problem is piracy, which is affecting every movie. As soon as a movie is released, torrents follow and soon it is uploaded on YouTube. For good movies to happen, movie makers have to make money.

Even though all these movies are interesting, it is important to add one historical perspective. We had fallen to such a rut that pretty much any non-template movie looks interesting and refreshing. With that perspective, we have to ask one question. How many of the movies we listed will stand the test of time and be looked on as a classic. Our answer is not a single movie qualifies in that matter.

Few years back when we were busy covering AMMA-MACTA fights at Varnachitram , we never thought this kind of turnaround would happen. We are really charged by this.

Trivia:
Question: What is common in Chappa Kurish, Traffic, Salt n Pepper, 22FK, Ee adutha Kalathu,Second Show, Cocktail
Answer: They don’t have Dappan Koothu
Question: How many Salt N Peppers can be produced with the money wasted on Casanovva
Answer: 16
Question: How many Chappa Kurish can be produced with the money wasted on Casanovva
Answer: 32

Thanks to Kishor Kumar for inputs.

2.If Amoorthananda (Ekalavyan1993) saw this movie, he would have giggled like a girl seeing the efforts put by Sai Kumar in this movie. Wigs and loud screams are so 1980s.

3.Tongue is mightier than sword.

4.Ranji Panicker’s fetish for firangi women and girls in saffron sarees has only grown since his Rowdram, Ekalavyan, Bharatchandran IPS days.

5.Malayalam is now part of Pakistani Army training since their Army chief speaks it fluently. He also knows that if he wants to be spared by King Kong and Godzilla, he has to simply utter “Bharat Mata ki Jai”

6.In a particular scene in the movie Renji Panicker teaches one of the villains and us the difference between Patriotism and Jingoism. However the director(Shaji Kailas)goes one step further and gives us a visual description for the latter in the film’s climax.

7.If you have seen Cassanovvva, this movie is funnier.

8.Just the multi-language multi-page dialogue emitted by the senior citizen superstars make you feel as if you are on top of Mount Everest without oxygen tank.

9.Apparently, Shaji Kailas and Renji Panicker made great entertaining films once. But looks like they are stuck in time. Doesn’t MACTA have a pension plan?

10.Renji Panicker’s verbal diarrhoea requires immediate treatment. The guy is already severely dehydrated.I fear he’ll go into a state of shock soon.

10.5 At the end of the movie, when the credits come up, you realize that it takes a whole lot   of people to produce such garbage.

When actor Nishan, who plays an important character in the movie Ee Adutha Kaalathu said, ”This movie will surprise you” in a tv interview a couple of days ago,  I had dismissed it as yet another desperate PR attempt by an actor to promote his upcoming little known movie. But after having watched  Ee Adutha Kaalathu in a cinema yesterday I should admit that  I was proved wrong, terribly wrong. The movie did surprise me not once or twice but atleast half a dozen times when I was watching it. Brilliantly scripted, flawlessly executed and intelligently performed ,Ee Adutha Kaalathu is a gem of a film that grows on you and lingers in your mind even long after you have left the cinemas. The narrative is totally unpredictable and a new surprise is thrown at you when you least expect it. For instance,watch out for that terrific interval sequence involving Vishnu(Indrajith),Madhuri(Tanushree) and the lover boy(Nishaan) .

A mysterious serial killer is terrorising the city. Half a dozen characters finds themselves embroiled in it. As the movie progresses, the viewer gets to know more about these characters, their life, ambitions and on how they are related to the serial killer . There is Anup menon as the Scotland Yard trained IPS officer who often becomes the laughing stock in the Police department  as he is not able to solve the serial killer inspite of the ‘training’ he has got. Murali Gopi is Ajay,the frustrated husband who humiliates his wife to cover up his disability. Tanusree Ghosh plays Madhuri,the failed Bollywood actress and Ajay’s wife who had once acted in a couple of soft porn masala hindi movies. Nishan is the lover boy who develops a crush on Madhuri . Last but not the least we have Indrajith as Vishnu, the intelligent and smart rag picker who loves his wife(Mythili), children and his mother more than anything else in this world. There is also a sub plot involving  gangster Watson(Baiju) and his friend turned foe X(oops!forgot his name). All these characters are inter connected and how they are unfolds while the movie progresses. I wont be revealing anything more about the plot here as this is one movie which you will be able to enjoy more if you get into the theatre knowing little about it’s plot or it’s characters.

Taboo topics like Sex,  sexual incompetency, Impotency are discussed freely without getting obscene and distasteful. The movie also takes a satirical take on the average ‘Malayalee’ attitudes and ‘his double standards’ in life. The film also has topical references to the recent’Vilappilshala issue(Thoppilshala in the film) , Tata’s Nano car,the influx of migrant labourers from Bengal and North India and even the Malayalam super stars playing their age.  As I said before, the movie packs in a lot of surprises. The first half of the movie moves at a very slow pace which is justifiable for the number of characters that the film has got. Though Arun Kumar and his script writer Murali Gopi have taken their sweet little time for character build up in the initial half they have made good for it by spicing it up with a few witty gags, Bible references and a killer BG score ensuring that the viewer never gets bored not even once during the 2.40 min run time of the film.

The scenes which I loved the most are:

1.The one between Vishnu(Indran) and his mother.Watch out for how he compensates his mother for that lost gift his father had given her.

2.The Church scenes(the confession scene) between the priest and Madhuri.

3.The Interval sequence between Madhuri,Vishnu and  the lover boy (Nishan)

4.The scene in which Jagathy Sreekumar who plays ‘Theepantham’ Magazine editor barges into Ajay’s(Murali Gopi) cabin and threatens him

5.The post interval sequence in which Vishnu(Indran) and Madhuri(Tanusree) tries to hide their ‘secret’.”Ethu theatre anennu chodikkumbol parayanam,Sreekumar ennu”. Brilliant!

6.The post climactic portions(the wedding scene,the scene where Ajay finds the message written in Hindi inside the coffee shop).

7.The intelligent use of Bible quotes, signature tunes of certain popular T.V. shows in certain sequences in the movie

What could have been better:

1.The back story of Madhuri(Tanusree) seems a bit incomplete. The story of her father ends abruptly. How her mother has reached the present state also remains un explained(may be they might have cut them down during the final edit)

2.The climactic portions leading to the arrest of the serial killer could have been done in a better way.

The Performances

Ee Adutha Kaalathu is one rare movie in which every other actor has given their best. Indrajith as  Vettu Vishnu is terrific and you can hardly imagine any other actor in his place. Indrajith is one actor who inspite of his histrionic capabilities hasn’t really got his due in Malayalam Cinema. Hope this movie gets him the much deserved standing ovation that he has been vying for. The Trivandrum/Parassala slang that has become a bit cliched  ,thanks to Suraj Venjaramoodu and his antics is also used intelligently by him in this movie. Anoop Menon as the IPS officer continues his good work here too and so does Lena(Traffic,Randam Bhavam) who plays the young journo. Thanusree Ghosh as the frustrated wife is apt though at places the lip sync  is not up to the mark. The usually wooden faced Nishan proves that he can emote too if  guided by a sensible director and is backed with an intelligently written role. Baiju who plays Watson, Jagathy Sreekumar as the magazine editor, Murali Gopi as Ajay are nothing but brilliant. Mythili who plays Indran’s wife too doesn’t disappoint though she has a brief role in the movie.

Technical department and Songs:

Arun Kumar Aravind who adapted Butterfly on a wheel   as  Cocktail last year is back with a genuine and original movie this time. Ee Adutha Kaalathu is a movie which he can definitely be proud of and most importantly Malayalam Cinema has got a sensible and intelligent director after a really long time.

More than anyone else I believe it’s the scenarist Murali Gopi who deserves the maximum accolades for creating a movie as sweet and entertaining as this. It’s hard to believe that this is the same guy who had scripted the disastrous Dileep starrer ‘Rasikan’ a couple of years back. Hats off to you, Murali Gopi. Though the inspirations from Anurag Basu’s ‘Life in a Metro’ and the second story in Dibakar Baneerjee’s  Love Sex aur Dhoka (Nishan-Tanusree track) are obvious Murali Gopi never ends up copying from any of these two movies. The situations happen so realistically that you often forget that you are actually watching a feature film. Writing a multi narrative script is no easy job and in inept hands it might even end up confusing the viewer. But that’s where Murali Gopi scores. The links between the principal characters have been worked out really well  and by the time the end credits start rolling all the loose ends have been tied and you get an answer for every other event that has happened in the story.

Shahnad Jalal’s frames are captivating and he could successfully give a slick and urban look for the whole film. Expect to see more works from this talented guy in the near future. The editing is crisp and competent. This review will be incomplete if I don’t mention about the brilliant BGM that this movie has got. The re recording is excellent and it adds to the beauty of the film. The movie has got two songs, Farzana and  Oru Vazhiyayi. Both of them are hummable and have also been picturised well.

No movie is perfect. Neither is  Ee Adutha Kaalathu. Some of the sequences especially those towards the climax seem illogical and could  definitely have been done in a better way. But still all those minor blemishes can easily be overlooked as this is one movie which is genuine, entertaining and totally worth the price of your movie ticket
So what are you waiting for? Catch this brilliant movie at a cinema near you for this is one which deserves to be seen in a really good Multiplex and not in a bootleg DVD. Five on five for this excellent film. Miss this at your own risk!

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

What is it with Malayalam Cinema these days?  Is it the ‘OLF’ invasion(my friend whose dad runs a theatre in Ernakulam district says that except for Vijay’s Velayudham’ all the OLF released in recent times have failed miserably after the initial hype and hoopla died down and will cause heavy losses to it’s kerala distributors!) that’s doing the damage?  Or should theMalayalee film makers who make outdated stuff be blamed?  Or is it a problem with the Malayalee audience who prefer watching everything via Youtube or Torrent to going to a nearby cinema hall?

Maverick film maker Ram Gopal Verma recently said:  ’when a movie flops,itdoesn’t mean that all the money that a producer invested in it has vanishedinto thin air but it simply implies the poor guy could nt make the public pay for the losses that he had incurred from a director ,actor(s), and the technicians involved in making a movie’.  This year we have not only seen many producers going bankrupt making super star disasters like ‘Doubles’(Reels On Wheel Entertainment), Train (Harvest movie makers),  Bombay March 12(RedRose Creations), Teja Bhai Family (Anantha Visions),  Orma Mathram (HorizonMovies ), Arjunan Sakshi(SRT Films) but also some really promising debutant investors making a mark with meaningful yet commercially succesful ventures like  Traffic(Magic  Frames), Salt N Pepper(Lucsam Entertainment), Indian Rupee, Urumi(August Cinemas). One of it’s offering even made it as the country’s official entry to the Academy Awards(Adaminte Makan Abu). So definitely things are not that bleak . It’s easy to write it off by saying ‘Make good movies,we will watch it’. But then were movies like  Sandesham,  Thaniyavarthanam (now considered as cult classics)  hits at the time of their theatrical release?  The answer is a big, emphatic  No!  Here  we try to analyse some possible ways which can at least help the aspiring producers/film makers in  not making big flops  in the future!

1.Make Movies based on realistic/contemporary/innovative themes:

Be it Traffic, Salt N pepper, Indian Rupee, Urumi, Seniors(a sex comedy with a some what innovative premise) all the movies which  made a mark this year had something fresh to offer. The same Malayali who booed and trashed stale stuff like ‘Kudumbasree Travels, Teja Bhai, Ulakam Chuttum Valibhan flocked to cinemas and made movies like Seniors, Urumi hits. Remember, at least 50% of movies success is based on how good the script is, script should be the super star!

2. Recognize your target audience and time the release accordingly:

Like in any other bussiness, movie making should also be based on market requirements. You can’t expect a sober movie like Pranayam (even if how good/bad it is) to do well in a festive season when some quality entertainment is what every one is looking for in theaters. Had it not been released in the long summer vacation period, we don’t think an utter nonsense like ‘China Town would have made this much money. Similarly the lack of competition helped a    not-so-great offering like Make-Up Man a success.

3. Make Movies within realistic budgets:

Malayalam Cinema is a small entity.It’s high time that our beloved filmmakers realised this. Any Malayalam  movie made with a budget of over 4-5 crores(unless it’s a multi lingual with a Pan Indian cast) spells danger(Anwar,Saagar Alias Jackey,Dubai,Pattalam-to name a few). Moreover no Malayali watches a malayalam movie to see gimmicks/pale imitations of their western-North Indian counterparts being played out. What’s the point inwasting crores when all that you have got to show is a hero(the middleaged,out of shape one or the Young/handsome one) dressed in super cool clothes walking in ultra slo-mo  or him riding a royal enfield motor cycle multiple times? The relevant thing here is that even this year’s blockbuster ‘salt N Pepper’ was a super success only in terms of it’s ROI(5.5-6 crores total gross against an investment of 1.7-1.8 crores). No onereally knows what the real figures of big budget starrers like Christian Brothers(rumoured to be around 12-14 crores), China Town(rumored to be around 8-9 crores). If aMalayalam movie is made within a realistic budget (somewhere around 2.5-3 crores) even if the movie fails in the box office ,the chances of the producer recovering his money through the non-theatrical revenue (satellite,Home video,misc rights) are very high. Which means a producer can even go on to make money out of a movie which had done only average business in it’s theatrical run(Manikyakallu – Gowri Lakhmi movies;Janapriyan -SpotlightVisuals;3 Kings – VNM creations ).

4.Sell your movie in un tapped markets:

There is a saying that’ even in Moon,you might see a Malayalee running atea shop. So far the major chunk of overseas revenue for a Malayalam moviehas been from the middle east. Thanks to the ultra quality youtube, Torrent prints we have lost many markets like the U.S. and U.K.where large number of malayalis have found themselves as migrants. However what the producers don’t realize is that if they make the legal prints of their movies available for the NRI users (i.e for IP addresses except Indian and the middle east)in reputed  websites/you tube on a pay-per-view basis they can still make money out of it).

5.Working on the remuneration of the lead actors:

In Malayalam Cinema, it’s often said that more than 60 percent of the Cost of Production(COP) lies in the remuneration of the lead actors. The 2 superstars of Malayalam Cinema are said to charge about Rs.1.5 crores. So for an average Malayalam superstar movie which costs about 4-5 crores , the effective fund for making the movie is somewhat between 1.5-2 crores. We all know that Kerala is not a place where people would simply flock to theatres just to watch a Mohanlal romancing a teenager half  his age or a Mammootty playing a hide and seek with a North Indian actress. If that wasn’t  the case movies like Alexander the great,  Doubles would have atleast got an opening. The other day someone was heard saying:  ’Don’t make movie with a Superstar unless you have got the kind of money that they ask for’!  But what these people don’t realise is that this concept of ‘superstardom’ is not working in Kerala anymore! Most of the mainstream (higly paid)actors in Malayalam Cinema have their own production houses. From the bussiness point of view don’t you think it would be more viable if the producers (of the 2 M,Dilip,Prithviraj movies) can strike a deal with the production houses of their lead actors and work in a ‘symbiotic’ manner. This means a movie which cause loss to it’s  producer would also mean loss to the actor’s production house(i.e a reduction in the actor’s  standard remuneration) and a profit  means an incentive to the actor also(in addition to his existing remuneration,of say 1.5 crore he would receive a part of the profit also). I believe that If such a system comes  the bigger stars with all the experience that they have got would at least refrain from doing shits like ‘College Kumaran‘, The Train etc and stop betraying their ever loyal audience.

Wishing Malayalam Cinema all the best!
References
1. http://www.sanscinema.com/malayalam-movies-of-2011/

http://www.sify.com/movies/salt-pepper-is-a-blockbuster-news-malayalam-li1mv0jdeeb.html

http://www.sanscinema.com/2011/11/malayalam-top-5-week-ending-october-27-2011/

2.The film producers association list of the succesful films list of 2010.
3.The converstion that i had with Mr Nandakumar,Nandanafilms(Thaniyavarthanam,Yadavam et al)
4.The conversation that i had with  my friend who is the son of a leadingfilm exhibitor in the ekm district.