What is special about Malayalam cinema? Stories based on true events and connected to the roots are giving a signal of change

In recent years, we have seen a different, celebratory welcome for Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films in North India. In this context, Malayalam has entered with a different attitude, temperament and taste. This intervention is very significant. In other words, post-Covid, a misconception also spread that Hindi is facing a challenge from the South. Actually, this was an untruthful simplification, because the cinema of the South is a cinema of 4 languages, after Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, whose fourth color has now started blooming, this is the cinema of Malayalam.Sign of change: Overall, the basic thing may be that the stories of the far south are influencing the far north, making us all smell with their multidimensional and different fragrance. I also feel that this is the renaissance of the inherent umbilical connection of historical Indianness. Earlier, the North Indian audience used to watch dubbed films of the South, or sometimes remakes. Now the trend of watching original Malayalam with subtitles on OTT has increased in the Hindi belt. This is a special trend that needs to be highlighted. From this, the signs of further change in Indian language cinema and pan Indian cinema can be felt in the coming years.

Small issues, big story: Recent Malayalam cinema attracts the audience instantly due to its different, untouched subjects. Small subjects which are not usually made the main subject of cinema, are being picked up and stories are being woven around them, for example stories are being made on floods and small issues of villages. Malayalam cinema is rarely seen on urban life. Hindi cinema has already urbanized over several decades, and now it has moved towards metropolitanization. In contrast, Malayalam cinema is making films for its grassroots audience.

A vision focused on the roots: This is a big difference, it should be seen as a philosophical, farsighted and rooted approach to choosing the point of view. The amazing thing is that its good results are also visible at the box office. The specialty of those stories is also that they are not stories born from stories, that is, their references have not been taken from literature or cinema. Those stories have been taken directly from life or land. It should also be seen as a breaking of the stereotype of the taste of Hindi cinema audience.

New dish on the plate: Another stereotype that seems to be breaking is that the flavour of the overly dramatic cinema of the South that has fascinated the audience of the North in the last few years has also started to weaken. In such a situation, Malayalam cinema has come to their plate like a new dish. Who knows, these trends of the Hindi audience’s gluttony may not become permanent and they may return to the old dal-roti of Hindi cinema and that is the permanent feeling. No one will have the right answer to this right now.

Struggle of Migrants: More or less all the recent Malayalam cinema is story-centric cinema. Among the popular Malayalam films released this year is a very beautiful film named ‘Got Life’. It was made with great difficulties, and its release was also banned in Dubai. It is the story of immigrants going to Arab, which is based on true events. It is the story of their struggle and survival. Just remember ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’, how it was a film that shook our gender stereotypes.

Dumb’s Jaggery: The discussion of this year’s Malayalam cinema cannot be complete without ‘Anveshipin Kandethum’. This too did wonders at the box office, the film made in 8 crores earned 40 crores. The multi-layered story, sub-plots have a different magic and what to say about the climax and catharsis! Just understand that this film is like a fool’s candy. One such film is ‘Aavesham’. This film of Fahadh Faasil not only broke the records of Malayalam cinema at the box office, but also registered its name in the highest grossing films of all languages ​​of India this year. It would be a crime not to remember the lyricist of the film Vinayak Sasikumar.

Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan’s heart melted for the victims in Wayanad, donated lakhs of rupees to the relief fund, got applause

Changed music stream: Another aspect that brings Malayalam films closer to the hearts of Hindi audiences is music. Composers like Sushin Shyam, Sooraj S Kurup, Shaan Rahman and Justin Varghese have changed the course of Malayalam film music. Not only this, Anu Elizabeth is a lyricist who has worked to bring Malayalam film songs out of the male gauge, almost the same work is being done by Kausar Munir in Hindi cinema. These films, which rest on the musical shoulders of these lyricists-composers, are either songless films with minimal music or films with songs from the traditional Indian song tradition, adorned with the magic of folk.

The fragrance of a new flower in a vase: In Hindi, that space is being filled by indie music or independent music. And Hindi indie music has become bigger than Hindi film songs in no time, in terms of its influence and market size. The growth of cinema in any of the Indian languages ​​other than Hindi, including Malayalam, is the growth of Indian cinema in the true sense, it is the blooming and fragrance of a new flower in that bouquet.