For as long as I can remember, Mallu movies were different from the rest of what the country produced. I saw a healthy dose of Malayalam films on bulky VCR tapes when I was younger, even though childhood was spent in Delhi, far away from Kerala’s movie making industry.
Watching those films back then, gave me an impression of a Kerala that was made up of red brick houses, far stretching paddy fields, men in lungis, Mamoothy (quite handsome as far as I was concerned!), Mohan Lal and of course my all-time favourite- Srinivasan. People in those films didn’t lead rich opulent lives onscreen. Costumes (if you could call it that) were generally basic and fancy-free. Stories revolved around normal people, mostly the poor or judiciously middle class though they were still rivetting as far as I am concerned.
But I couldn’t understand for the life of me, why, when the ending came and the hero and heroine were all set to unite, did the villain have to come in between and screw things up. Always. Without fail. Happy Endings as a concept was obviously something they didnt teach back in Kerala Film School. (dont’ bother looking up that on Google, made it up!) The hero/heroine always looked on sadly with regret at the loss of his/her loved one as the credits started to roll. And I almost always jumped up annoyed, from the movie, vowing not to watch another one. What did they have against happy endings, anyways?
Mallu movies now are pretty straight-laced and tow down to the usual crude humour yardstick. I remember a Malayalam film director who I know bemoaning the crass slapstick humour that had become a yardstick for the industry today. When he released his film a year and a half later, i didnt come away feeling any better.
Srinivasan’s ‘Pon Mutta Idunne Taarav‘ is one of my all time favourite movies.
binduiswriting
