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The year that was
SREEDHAR PILLAI
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Despite the many problems plaguing the Malayalam film industry, 2007 seems to have ushered in a number of welcome changes that might help Malayalam cinema rediscover its strengths.
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The five top grossers this year are ‘Chocolate,’ ‘Maayavi,’ ‘Hallo,’ ‘Vinodayatra’ and ‘Arabikatha.’
Racing ahead: Prithviraj in ‘Chocolate,’
The year 2007 has been a landmark year for Malayalam cinema. The vice-like grip of superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal has been loosened at the Kerala box-office. A paucity of new themes and the ‘image trap’ did not help the superstars. They were also overexposed as they had six releases each, one release every two months that seems to have created a kind of audience fatigue.
Rising superstar
Among the younger lot of actors, Prithviraj has emerged as a star who is commercially viable with the stupendous success of Shafi’s ‘Chocolate,’ a big hit with the family audiences, and the fairly good opening of his Christmas release, ‘Kangaroo.’
Mohanlal in ‘Hallo’
The good news is that there were audiences to appreciate off-beat and different films that also found theatres for screening like Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s ‘Naalu Pennungal,’ Sreenivasan-Lal Jose’s ‘Arabikatha,’ Shyamaprasad’s ‘Ore Kadal,’ P.T. Kunhumohammed’s ‘Pardesi’ and Sreenivasan-M.Mohanan’s ‘Kathaparayumbol.’
And the shot in the arm was the huge success and awareness created by the 12th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) held in Thiruvananthapuram which saw our audiences appreciating quality cinema.
Mammotty in ‘Maayavi,’
Fans of good cinema, particularly the younger lot, who thronged the city to enjoy the eight-day-long festival, which featured 240 films, will certainly have fond memories of it. The festival will also help them understand and appreciate good cinema, which augers well for Malayalam cinema.
At the same time the content of mainstream Malayalam commercial cinema remains a matter of concern.
Sreenivasan in ‘Arabikatha’
Dancing-action heroes like Vijay (‘Pokkiri’) and Telugu star Allu Arjun (‘Happy’) have made deep inroads into the Kerala market.
Vijay’s ‘Pokkiri’ has become the highest collecting Tamil film in Kerala and holds the record for the best release day opening for any film in Kerala, when it grossed Rs. 3.07 lakhs from two screens in Ernakulam. Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Om Shanti Om’ is breaking all records in Kerala and from Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram put together it will collect a share of around Rs.27 lakhs.
At the same time a Malayalam film with young stars is hardly able to attract crowds and get a share of Rs. 1 lakh from a station like Ernakulam. There were 80 releases this year (64 in Malayalam and 16 were dubbed into Malayalam), out of which to make a top five is a difficult job. The five top grossers this year are ‘Chocolate,’ ‘Maayavi,’ ‘Hallo,’ ‘Vinodayatra’ and ‘Arabikatha.’ Shafi’s ‘Chocolate’ gross collections may not be as high as the superstar-films – ‘Maayavi’ and ‘Hallo,’ but was made at a lesser cost so the producer and the distributor stand to make more money.
Added to that Mirchi Movies (Times Group film making arm) paid the highest ever price of Rs. One crore for remake rights of ‘Chocolate,’ in all Indian languages.
Unique theme
The unique theme of the film, of a lone boy studying in a girl’s college and its total packaging, won over the audiences who found newness in it.
Similarly in ‘Maayavi,’ Shafi was able to create a light hearted comedy where the character Mammootty used his brains more than his brawns, and the audiences simply loved it. In ‘Hallo,’ Rafi- Mecartin was able to create the perfect slapstick madness as Mohanlal and Jagathy brought the house down with their drunken act.
Dileep and Mukesh in ‘Vinodayatra.
The Sathyan Anthikad formula of a simple story and straightforward narrationworked to the advantage of ‘Vinodayatra.’ ‘Arabikatha’ was good cinema,the best among the lot, due to Sreenivasan’s witty but realistic script and Lal Jose’s presentation.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
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