A superstar playing a villain in a black and white horror film. A breezy romantic comedy in an age where the romcom genre appears dead. A survival thriller based on a real-life incident shot at one of the mysterious, dangerous locations in Tamil Nadu. Why are these three Malayalam films, Bramayugam, Premalu, and Manjummel Boys, raging a storm at the box office not only in Kerala but also across the neighboring states, packing houses which even native films of those states are not managing to do?
Now, let’s discuss the common points between these three movies. What make them work? What makes Malayalam cinema so different? And the notes that every other industry takes to be taking from them right now!
The art of breaking the STAR system
Its highly doubtful if this is happening in any other industry right now. A superstar who has been in this industry for more than 40 years, someone who has been looked up to by fans as a demigod, plays the Devil in an atmospheric horror film set in the 17th century, captured in full glorious black and white. In the real world and in the film industry, most people who really work hard and make a name for themselves reach a point in their life and say, “I’ve struggled a lot to get to this place, let me not take any risks and lose what I have.” But among these, there is also a rare breed who rises up to the whole new level and says, “Who cares about playing safe? I’m just going to have fun.” Mammootty is among those rare breed of superstars who is at the age of 72, experimenting like an ambitious newcomer. Brick by brick, he is breaking himself out of that 2 by 2 room of that what a superstar can do with his roles in Unda, Kannaur squad, Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, and now Bramayugam. Part of these moves is his conviction and the rest is the industry that is courageous to reinvent and the audience continuing enough to celebrate him no matter what he does. While they break the star system breaks with Bramayugam with Manjummel Boys and Premalu, Malayalam cinema practices the art of character, otherwise called as ‘the stars’ in other parts of India.
The art of Character: The Stars
Traditionally, most films featured a male lead, female lead, and an antagonist. And if you are lucky, sometimes some of these characters are well written and well developed. The other characters are just characters, that’s it! But take Premalu, mainly the story of Sachin and Reenu who the audience rooted for to get together at some point of the film. But the Girish AD the filmmaker and one of the writers of the film decides to make Sachin a regular aimless kind of loser character and his friend Amal devis a much more sorted character. Amal Devis is a smarter, more self-aware, more progressive, and also has the best lines of the film. Girish also makes Reenu an independent ambitious, non-nonsense girl with a mind of her own with very specific preferences on what she looks for in a partner. But at the same time beyond these main characters he also breathes life into Karthika her friend who has a role to play and a purpose to exist. Even their roommate who they call wanderlust who has a personality of her own. You feel her presence when she is there and her absence when she’s not there. There’s also an introvert character who has an arc of his own even if it is a very very short role.
Whereas the Manjummel Boys is a genre film, it’s a survival thriller film but what really elevates it and what’s making it right now is the brotherhood between this huge group of friends and director Chidambaram makes you spend the first 40 minutes of the film to just know them while they drink, fight, work, not work, play tug of war or plan a trip even if most of them can’t afford. Each and every moment of the first half, which you thought random, has a callback in the second half which digs really deep into really make these friends stick together, what makes their friendship so special, so intimate, so tight. This is what makes the film so impactful in the end. It’s not like the Malayalam audience does not celebrate their star? They do. But compared to the other industries because of their smaller budgets and their literary tradition the average audience of Kerala is exposed to much more realistic and the content-driven cinema. A film’s success is much less dependent on the commercial cinema formula of star power and more on the story of its characters and performances. More than looking up at stars, the Malayalam audience gets to develop the bond with characters on the screen who are more or less just like them.
The art of Showcasing Locations:
I came across some tweets that said that the beauty with which Premalu has portrayed Hyderabad. Even most of the Telugu films haven’t been able to do so. If you watch Telugu films, agree or disagree, write comments below. Manjummel Boys is only the second film after Guna after more than 30 years to be shot at Guna caves in Kodaikanal. The film does such a great job of immersing you into the location that it makes your heart storm. Malayalam filmmakers are not just masters of exploring the beauty of their own state. But look at how Varane Avashyamund or Hridhayam showed Chennai. Or how Bangalore days showed Bangalore. This may be because a huge percentage of young Malayalis go outside the state to study or to find a job, and Malayalam filmmakers apply this outsider perspective so beautifully to portray places beyond their state and their comfort zones in their film related to this Malayalam cinema is also great at the art of playing tributes.
The art of Playing Tributes:
Most of the industries are very great at paying tributes to their own stars. They’re also great at including a star from another industry mostly for a cameo in a film which is the business decision to increase the pan-Indian appeal of their films. But while on one side the Telugu and Tamil audience are fighting each other on social media for some reason Malayalam films casually, openly so lovingly pay tributes to the films from their neighboring states. One example is who Amal Devi’s character in Premalu so passionately defends his favorite music director Yuvan Shankar Raja. But more than that an iconic song from the combo of Kamal Hassan and Ilayaraja two legends who created a song together which has the legacy of 30 years. A song that resides deep within the hearts of every Tamilian. The makers of Manjummel Boys decided to take that song and not just pay tribute to it, they use it such a point of the film in such an incredible emotional manner that it doesn’t make your skin explode with the goosebumps. It changes the entire context of one of the most iconic Tamil songs of history and also changes the relationship with that you had with the song. The Tamil audience is absolutely goes bonkers for this shows for shows for the film increasing every day across Tamil Nadu Making Manjummel Boys the all-time highest-grossing Malayalam film in Tamil Nadu.
Most of the times when someone pays tribute to a star or a film or song from another industry it feels forced or dishonest sometimes it feels cringe. But when Malayalam cinema pays tribute in a majority of cases it feels genuine like young innocent lover boy writing a love letter to crush that he never forgets in his life.
If you have not watched any of these three films yet please watch it in your biggest screens as possible. Premalu was released in Telugu and now Manjummel Boys released this Saturday which means a must-watch film of this weekend.
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[…] Also read: The Rise of Malayalam: Bramayugam, Premalu, and Manjummel Boys […]