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December 28, 2023 12:57 pm | Updated 05:25 pm IST
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2023 may well be an unprecedented year for Malayalam cinema if one were to go just by the numbers
Identity crisis. That was perhaps the theme that stirred up the most conversations in Malayalam cinema, on and off screen, in 2023. We began the year staring in awe at a man slipping into another man’s identity, living his life for a short while and switching back to his own identity; we ended it with another man finding the courage to come out of the closet, with a lot of help from his long-suffering wife, and revealing his sexual identity which had remained repressed for decades. That both the characters were played by a superstar, who seems to have finally come out of a rut and is now looking set for even greater things, is another coincidence.
Off-screen, movie groups were filled with debates on whether Malayalam cinema is producing too many realistic films (prakrithi padangal, as the pejorative reference goes), which are driving away the audience from the theatres. Many of those holding that opinion have also been dreaming of a “pan-Indian” film from the industry, after one such attempt in recent years ended up as a major disaster.
2023 may well be an unprecedented year for Malayalam cinema, if one were to go just by the numbers. By the third week of December, as many as 234 Malayalam films had been released in theatres. From an average of 100 to 150 releases annually till a few years ago, and around 180 releases last year, this is quite a leap. With the sharp jump in quantity came a drastic fall in quality, for which realistic cinema was clearly not to blame. A glut of films made with hardly any conviction, but with a keen eye on the OTT market, seems to have led to this situation. Yet even amid these gloomy statistics, Malayalam cinema did produce some true gems which have won appreciation from across states, although they won’t be considered ‘pan-Indian’ by the narrow definitions of the market. Here is a look at some of these films in no particular order; that a large number of these films are by debutant directors bodes well for Malayalam cinema’s future.
One has to be a clever writer to make people laugh in a scene involving last rites. That is one of the feats Nithish Sahadev achieved in his debut directorial Falimy, one of the funniest movies of the year. Yet, the film was at the same time memorable for the sensitivity with which it portrayed some of the characters (even a minor one such as a man waiting for his family for years at Varanasi) and the way it paused the laughter a bit to make us partake in the emotional toll that some of the events have on these characters. In Jagadeesh, Basil Joseph, Manju Pillai, Meenaraj and Sandeep Pradeep, the director had a solid cast who could make each scene work like a charm.
Chaos is what one associates with filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery, whether talking about the visual style or sound design or the narrative. In Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, chaos is the one element that is conspicuous by its absence. All the chaos that is absent from the screen seems to have been bottled up inside the mind of James who makes a quick, seamless transition from James to Sundaram, both in gait and in language. With his recent choice of films, Mammootty has clearly laid out a path for the current phase of his career, with James/Sundaram becoming a glittering addition to his list of memorable characters.
Body politics is at the heart of Shruthi Sharanyam’s debut film B 32 Muthal 44 Vare. The host of characters the film introduces, all of whom are facing issues related to their bust, and the sheer variety of their issues make one wonder whether it will all be too much for one film to handle, but nowhere does one get an impression of a scriptwriter dealing with a checklist of issues. This film is not about the issues as such; rather it is about the people and how they are dealing with the peculiar situations they are caught in. One thing that stands out is the sensitive portrayals of each of the characters, especially a teenage mother. Made under the Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC)’s initiative to fund women filmmakers, it is a film which underlines the need for more women writers and filmmakers to tell their stories.
A still from ‘Thuramukham’
Thuramukham is a film that left one with a feeling of what could have been, but it still remains an honest and important document of workers’ struggle to unionise for their rights, in an era in which such hard-won rights are chipped away, and even feeble protests are mocked at. Rajeev Ravi’s fifth directorial is the chronicle of the inhuman work allocation system followed in the Cochin harbour till the 1950s, the building up of the left workers’ union, and the tragic event at Mattancherry in 1953, when three protesting workers perished to police bullets. It is a struggle on which not much has been written about. The filmmaker patiently recreates the time, the place and the social situation in all its rich authenticity and ends with a breathtaking climactic sequence, of a pitched street battle between the workers and the police.
Iratta has perhaps the one of the best final reveals of Malayalam films this year, something which is gut-wrenching enough to make up for all the weaknesses of the script. Rohit M.G. Krishnan, yet another promising debutant, explores childhood trauma, and its after-effects in shaping a person’s attitude to life and fellow beings, through this story of two identical twins. The ever dependable Joju George brings heft to the roles, interpreting both characters in his own way and even making us feel that we are watching two different human beings.
One of the gems that sank at the box office, Ranjan Pramod’s O.Baby is a study of the extent to which some people go to protect their imaginary concept of ‘honour’, as much as it is a marker of their increasing alarm at the younger generation having a mind of their own and not paying heed to the boundaries that they draw. We see it all playing out through the eyes and minds of a few young people, who want to break free from the stifling atmosphere.
Horror-comedy is a genre that requires a lot of delicate balancing, and debutant Jithu Madhavan gets it just right, making Romancham one of the best of its kind in Malayalam cinema. With its organic flow and uncomplicated scenarios, it might look like an easy script to write, but to pull something off so seamlessly, the writer has to have a clear understanding of what would work on the screen and what to leave out. When the supernatural elements kick in, the script also leaves some space for us to doubt the happenings. Romancham left us with a promise of a sequel, which is something to look forward to, considering the fact that much can be done with this set of characters.
A mature love story elevated by its performances. In his debut Ntikkakkakkoru Premondarnn, writer and director Adhil Maimoonath Asharaf seems to have stuck to keeping it all simple. He hints at many weighty issues while essentially telling the stories of people who have failed to achieve what they wanted at various points in their lives, due to societal and familial pressures, as well as their own lack of courage. Bhavana, in her first film in Malayalam after a gap of six years, plays her character with a lot of grace, portraying convincingly the character’s struggles and the strength of her convictions.
A still from ‘Thankam’
Steeped in the world of the small-time agents, workshop men and deliverers in the gold industry of Thrissur, Thankam, which at one point morphs into a police procedural, ends up as an effective character study of someone who shows only the best parts of his life to those close to him. Director Saheed Arafath and scriptwriter Syam Pushkaran immerse us in this world, keep us invested in the lives of these gold runners, almost as much as they are in the gold. Looking at it purely as an investigative thriller, what we get in the end can be a downer, but as a character study, it is quite something.
India’s official entry to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Oscars this year. But, Jude Anthany Joseph’s 2018, despite its rather shallow, predictable and melodramatic script, is in the list only for its technical excellence in depicting the unprecedented floods of 2018, which is an achievement considering the limited budgets in Malayalam cinema. That it was released on the same day as a propaganda film targeting Kerala probably helped it at the box office, as Malayalis went to the theatre with a vengeance to watch this film, which is a moving reminder of the days when everyone in Kerala, irrespective of their religion, caste or political inclinations, came together to help people in distress.
If Avasavyuham gave us enough hints of Krishand’s capabilities,Purusha Prethamhad them in full bloom, in a film that makes it hard for us to pin it down to a specific genre. Just like his previous works, it is something which one has to watch with eyes wide open to not miss the many little things that he throws in, most notably the newspaper cuttings which pop up on the screen often. Through the story of a bumbling cop and a woman’s claim for her husband’s body, Krishand speaks about a whole lot of other things. Also, Prasanth Alexander gets the role of a lifetime.
Quite some irony is at play in Kaathal for factors that are exterior to the film. Here is a star (Mammootty), a good part of whose mass popularity is attributed to portraying characters projecting hyper-masculinity, playing a homosexual character in a film industry where such characters still hardly get any representation, except as caricatures or criminals. The import of the film lies also in this broader context, for the sheer power it lends to efforts towards sensitising the larger society. Yet Jeo Baby’s film is not a mere vehicle for social messaging, but an emotionally moving drama with some sensitively written characters.
A still from ‘Neru’
A late entrant into the list, when it seemed like yet another year would go by without a Mohanlal-starrer in the ‘best of’ lists, an unimaginable scenario a couple of decades ago, when more than half of the memorable films would feature him. In Jeethu Joseph’s courtroom drama Neru, Mohanlal is back to form with an understated performance. Anaswara Rajan as a blind rape victim fighting against all odds plays her role with a lot of conviction.
Debutant director Roby Varghese Raj bases his film Kannur Squadon the real life story of a police team tailing a criminal gang across North Indian villages. Though the narrative might sound similar to Rajeev Ravi’s Kuttavum Shikshayum and the 2017 Tamil film Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru, Kannur Squad exists in a space somewhere between these two films, approaching part of the material through a realistic lens, and then keeping that lens aside for a while to let Mammootty do things that would gladden his fans. The seemingly insurmountable obstacles that the policemen face on the way and some effective bits of good old ground-level investigation add to the thrill.
RDX certainly lacks the technical flair or finesse of a Thallumala and Ajagajantharam, but it makes up for it in having a bare-minimum story, which gives the audience the emotional need to root for the three fighters, and in having some pulsating action sequences courtesy the action choreographer duo Anbariv. That it arrived in the Onam season, during which some much-hyped films tanked without a trace, also probably helped its case. RDX promised to deliver no-holds barred action and delivers just that, and nothing more.
Special mentions: 1001 Nunakal, Thrishanku, Pranayavilasam
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