2009 is perhaps an year in which we have seen more Malayalam movies with English titles. Early 2010 movie titles also are not much different. Look at some of these titles below. Going by this, it will be too difficult to figure out the language of a movie by its name.

Senior Mandrake
Happy Husbands
Bodyguard
Decent Parties
My Big Father
Chemistry
Kerala Cafe
Angel John
Robin Hood
Loud Speaker
Duplicate
Daddy Cool
Dr Patient
Passenger
Moss N Cat
Sagar Alias Jacky
Love in Singapore
Colours

What goes on in the Malayalam movie industry these days make the movie lovers quite sad. The current state of the Malayalam movies is quite pathetic. We have only a couple of hits each year and rest of them bombs in the box office. The state of the cinema theaters is also pathetic that one wouldn’t take the pain of going to a theater to watch a movie and would rather watch it at his own home. With the arrival of big LCD screens, Dolby home theater sound systems and DVD/Blue-Ray discs, watching a movie at home is much much more comfortable than watching it in a theater. As a result, many theaters are closing down rapidly.

But who cares? There is absolutely no effective discussions going on about a rescue plan. The people in the industry are busy making crappy movies and the competition is so high in this field that we get crappy, crappier and crappiest movies – one after one. Then there are these organizations (AMMA, MACTA, FEFKA and all those funny names) which functions like gangs and we see their gang wars quite often. And it is cinema that dies in this war.

The whole incident of Thilakan being an outcast from Malayalam cinema has proved that there is no hope for any improvement in the near future. Thilakan had accused AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artists) of not allowing him to work in the movies and he pointed fingers at the superstars (Mammootty and Mohan Lal) in particular. What followed was a series of cheap stunts.

Director B Unnikrishnan, general secretary of Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), said that the actor in Thilakan has died. But Thilakan has some great performing moments of Malayalam cinema (or rather Indian or world cinema) to his credit and we all know what kind of movies B Unnikrishnan has directed. Unnikrishnan also said that he would resign from his general secretary position if Thilakan could prove that FEFKA banned Thilakan from acting in films. Incidentally, the same FEFKA has threatened to pull out all technicians from the movie “Dam 999″ if Thilakan was cast and the producers threw Thilakan out of the project. And as far as we know B Unnikrishnan still holds on to his position.

The above incident proves that there is some truth in what Thilakan says. He also lashed out at the Super Star fans and I whole heartedly agree with him on the fan-hood. The fan associations work like thugs, threatening people if they boo in cinema halls (and they themselves send booing teams when their enemy star’s cinema is released) and they also threaten people who leave after intervals when they are fed up of watching crap movies, and now the fans of Mohan Lal and Mammootty have united against Thilakan. Kerala now see that the rivals joining hands to fight a lone, old man.

Thilakan undeniably is a great actor. The truth is that if there is Thilakan acting in a super-star movie, he outshines the super stars with his acting prowess; however small his role is in the movie. So there are good reasons to believe what Thilakan says about the popularity-hungry, fan-fed Superstars working on denying him chances. Take a couple of superstar movies for example. “Kireedam“, an award winning movie where Mohan Lal and Thilakan played father and son, had both Mohan Lal and Thilakan in an equal performance and for the movie lovers, it was a treat (remember the scene where Thilakan says “kathi thaazheyideraa…“?). Or take Mohan Lal’s commercial hit “Sphadikam“. Thilakan’s Chacko maash was the most powerful character in that movie than Mohan Lal’s Aadu Thoma. Or take Mammootty’s “Kauravar“. It was an outright Thilakan movie, though Mammootty was in the lead role. Or take movies like “Perumthachan“, “Moonnaam Pakkam” etc. I can draw a lot more examples.

But he had very little support from industry, probably because nobody wants to question the “kings” and destroy their own career. Sukumar Azheekode came in support of Thilakan but he only added more garbage to the already stinking mess. Thilakan had claimed that he is a staunch Communist, but the party kept mum on the whole matter. It is understandable particularly when Mammootty is the chairman of party-owned Kairali TV. So the party did not back the ‘lesser Communist’ when they have ‘elite Communists’ in their fold. But renowned director Shaji N Karun came in support of Thilakan. He said, “The organizations have nothing to lose if they ban Thilakan. But the it is the cinema viewers who are going to lose.” He is so right. It is not AMMA, FEFKA or any other organization who is going to lose, but us, the Malayalam movie viewers. And the members of these organizations are busy looting our money and give us crappy movies.

What better way to celebrate this year’s Holi! Celebrate it musically!! Go and listen to the songs from Blogswara’s 6th online album which has just been released. This album comes with 14 songs in 4 Indian languages and 22 new artists. Listen to the songs from the website and share the buzz with your friends. Tweet it, blog it, post it in your Orkut/Facebook pages and show support the best platform available for free independent music and let the Blogswara saga continue!

Our special thanks to Jyothis E for his continued support in providing the space to host the songs and to Pradip Somasundaran for all the technical help extended. Thank you both! And to the panel members who spent their time reviewing the songs – Vijay, Nandu, Roshni and JK. Thank you!!

Follow us @Blogswara for Twitter updates.

It is time for another version of Blogswara! Yes, it is Blogswara’s Sixth album!! We have posted the song teasers in our website, so hop over there to listen to the song previews.

We have 14 songs this year and in four languages – Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil & Telugu (introducing Telugu for the first time in Blogswara) many new talented people being introduced through Blogswara..

So watch out for 1st of March for the grand release of Blogswara Version 6. And do spread the word around!

Visit http://www.blogswara.in & follow us on Twitter @Blogswara

Blogswara’s Wiki page
Blogswara website

Those of you who frequent to this blog have heard the song “Iniyethra Naal” in this blog before. To those who are new here, I composed this song for a short film directed by a friend. You can read more about the song by clicking this link.

The short film, titled “Aa Kathukal Parayaathirunnathu“, was previewed on February 12th at St Thomas College, Thrissur, in the presence of national award winning director Priyanandanan. You can see the song video below, which will hit the Malayalam TV channels hopefully soon. You can also download the MP3 file of this song by clicking here.

Credits:

Lyrics: Ratheesh
Music: Joseph Thomas (Jo)
Singer: Divya S Menon
Orchestration: Rajith George
Cinematography & Direction: Pavithran
Short film: Aa Kathukal Parayaathirunnuathu

Do not ever go to watch a movie by public opinion. That is what I learned after watching two Malayalam movies recently. I heard Jayaram-Indrajith-Jayasurya starrer “Happy Husbands” is a laugh riot and a good watch, but I was left bored. With a stupid script and dialogues, it would easily top at the list of Razzies, if there was one for Malayalam films. Checkout the scene where psychologist girl chasing Jayasurya or Indrajith playing innocent before his wife etc – this movie is a so damn waste of money. It is not even worth of the air condition inside the theatre, because it is just another torture than the heat outside the cinema hall. Plus, I have one thing to tell Suraj Venjaramoodu. You are fast becoming the most irritating comedian ever in Malayalam cinema. Jagathy Sreekumar did not rule with his Trivandrum slang, but with his talent. You also have to find some other ground than trying to bank upon the Trivandrum slang. Get a life!

Then there was Dileep-Nayantara starrer Bodyguard. I never thought that director Siddique would disappoint people at this level. Considering his previous comedy hits, I went to watch this movie with much hope. Disappointment again. The movie goes on well but as the first half comes to an end, the story takes a pathetic turn. And then it is an utter waste of time and money. Siddique even takes a Kuch Kuch Hota Hai line in his story and by the time you figure out what is happening in the stupid story and script, the movie ends and you leave the cinema hall wondering, “what was it that I just saw?” The only saving grace of the movie was Nayantara with her beautiful looks and the way she moves in the dance scenes is a treat to your eyes. You can see a professional playing there. Except for Nayan, the only other good thing about the movie is the song “arikathaayaaro”, composed by Ouseppachan. All other songs are just passable.

(Image courtesy: Samvruthasunil.com and Bharatstudent.com)

I had the fortune of meeting Gireesh Puthenchery at East Coast Studios in Trivandrum. I was there to sing a track song for M G Radhakrishnan sir and Pappechi introduced me to him. I still can’t forget the smile on his face. He turned to me while chewing the betel leaves and when the talk of beginners started, he recalled his initial days as a song writer and about the beginning of his friendship with M G Radhakrishnan sir whom he called Rajettan.

Dear poet, Thank You for all the beautiful songs you penned. Thank you for the movie Vadakkumnathan, which I loved so much because it reminded me about my friend who took his own life a couple of years back. From today, everyone in Kerala will miss you so much whenever we hear your songs…

(Image source)

Congratulations Anil BS for winning the Kerala State Television Award for the Best Music Director! This is a prestigious moment for all of us who have heard your music through your blog, Blogswara and collaborated with you.

Wish you more success!

It has been a long break from singing. Not from music, because my Zune keeps singing loudly for me almost everyday. But singing has suffered ever since the series of sickness started at home 3 months ago. Now that an eventful year has passed and an even more exciting year lying ahead, I thought I would post a song before my big day.

This song is one of my favorites from the Malayalam movie “Minnaaminni koottam”, a beautiful composition by Bijibal, a promising music director in the Malayalam music industry.

Song: Mizhi Thammil
Movie: Minnaaminni koottam
Music: Bijibal
Original singers: Ranjith, Swetha
Lyrics: Anil Panachooran
Cover version by: Joseph Thomas (Jo)

Download the mp3 of Mizhi Thammil Punarunna (Size: 7.15 MB, Bitrate: 256 kbps)

128 KBPS Streaming:

256 KBPS Streaming:

What is common between Mohan Lal and Kamala Hassan? Both of them are amazing actors but fans and stardom destroy them quite often. You may agree or disagree, but they don’t want to discard the Macho Man image even for non-commercial flicks. They need fights (even in films which don’t need fight scenes) and want the younger women to love and want them (remember that scene from “Anbe Sivam” where Kiran licks in the water drop that drops off Kamal’s mouth?).

The reason I am mentioning this here is how the stardom effect has ruined the otherwise perfect character delivery of Mohan Lal as Sivan Kutty in the movie Bhramaram. The movie is okay, the script is not as crisp as Blessy’s first and it has too much melodrama towards the end. It is gripping in the first few minutes, then you can easily predict the story line. But still you would sit back on your seats for just one man’s performance – Mohan Lal. He immerses fully into the character of Sivan Kutty and delivers one of the best performances in his career. You would forget that you are watching a Mohan Lal movie.

But – then comes a fight scene at a roadside dhaba which reminds you that you are actually watching a Mohan Lal movie. For those who say that this fight scene was needed to project the complexity of the character, I would beg to differ. Sivan Kutty was a complex character for me until this fight scene happened. But that is not all – a lorry driver glances at Sivan Kutty’s penis and appreciatively comments on the size of his thing! Fans must have become happy by then, Mohan Lal must be glad that he kept the Macho Man image but those who love cinema get disappointed right there.

Mohan Lal used to be a director’s actor in his non-commercial, parallel cinemas and had not turned out to be a Kamal Hassan yet. The very recent example could be Paradesi, directed by P T Kunjumuhammed. So I would blame director Blessy for not having the balls to discard such scenes. Suresh Menon gives an aptly supporting role as Unni and Lakshmi Gopalaswami as Unni’s wife is also good. Cinematography by Ajayan Vincent is wonderful. The song “Annaarakkannaa” is an easily hummable tune with simple lyrics. But the background music is disappointing. I think people should learn something about how to do background score. Not all scenes need a melodramic tune to feel the scene. Sometimes you could just leave the background silent as the emptiness itself would speak to the audience.