THE TOP 5 MALAYALAM MOVIES OF 2016 TOP 5 MOVIES

THE TOP MOMENTS

AND PROMSING DEBUTANTS

This year has been the year of big and small. Pulimurugan broke new ground and became the first Malayalam film to join an elite club while Anandam had a bunch of youngsters at the helm and drew large crowds. Few years ago, it was a distant dream. This year we had movies of different genres and the surprise was most of them was well received too. Malayalam film industry is going a transformation, a healtyhy transformation.

Here are my top picks from the movies released last year.

TOP 5 MOVIES
KAMMATIPADAM

A gangster movie which showed the undercurrents of the city starting from their childhood. When we were glued to the story of friendship and gang-war, on the core it showed the underlying of the land-mafia and how it affects the lives of those who started the change. They the for the began as the pawns of those who plays in the exposes together in the end made the movie stand out from the other gangster movies we had. The A-rated movie received some flak for too much bloodshed but keeping in mind the harsh realities and the general tone of the gangster movies this was to be expected. An outstanding movie which surely will be bagging a lot of awards this season.

GUPPY

A heartwarming tale of son-mother relationship. And the hardships taken by son makes to meet the ends and making his wish come true. It was a poignant tale that we can rarely see in our films. And every character was so well written. Chetan as Guppy and Tovino as the Engineer locking horns with each other and having feuds over petty things and they both did commendable job. The entire coastline in Kadaipatnam(Nagercoil) was painted for the movie. The only glitch was the length of the movie which should have been kept little down. Nevertheless, it was done by a debutant John Paul George who crafted this heartening tale. This movie can be grouped into the same league of the internationally acclaimed ‘Children of Heaven’.

ACTION HERO BIJU

Realistic portrayal of the day to day activities of the police station. For the first time, ever Malayalam cinemagoers saw a police station in close. We liked everyone who walked into the station with complaints. The casting was so perfect that those who did minor roles was noticed, we laughed with them, empathized with them and a few times shed tears also. And some of the incidents in the movie was based on real life happenings. The tight screenplay, good performances made this movie an entertaining watch.

MAHESHINTE PRETHIKARAM

A cute and simple film full of subtle gestures and comedy. The movie reminds of the Sathyan Anthikad-Srenivasn movies of 80s though this one had a simpler storyline. But having a simple storyline did not stop Dilish Pothen to make it dearer. He made us love the characters. Mahesh Bhavna, Artist Baby, Crispin, Sonia was the people we like to see around. Fahadh Fazil gave one of his best performances, showing how talented he is compared to his contemporaries. None of the younger crop of actors could have done the role as convincingly as him. The beautiful visuals and the melodic title song of Bijibal ‘Malamelle’ raised the bar of the film. Credit should be given to the director for making it a cinematic beauty.

PULIMURUGAN

The blockbuster movie of the year, though the story is the usual run of the mill superstar vehicle, but the superbly choreographed action sequences helped to make it into the list. Mohanlal deserves praise for doing those stunts and being so flexible and energetic at 56 but the CGI team and vfx team also deserves an equal appreciation for the amazing job they did. The CGI work was so top class that no glitch was felt on the tiger sequences. Peter Hein and team have paved a new path for action in the Malayalam movie industry. The action sequences though few over the top didnt look unatural. Also complementing was the detailed cinematography of Shaji and editing which made it more exciting and provided goosebumps for the audience. Kudos to Vyshak for pulling off a miracle and opening new avenues for Malayalam film industry.



HONOURABLE MENTIONS (MOVIES WHICH FAILED TO MAKE IT TO THE TOP 5):

> Ann Maria Kalippilanu

> Oru Muthassi Gadha



THE MOVIES WHICH STOOD OUT:

Jacobinte Swargarajyam, Oppam, Pretham, Anuraga Karikkin Vellam, Kochavva Paulo Ayappa Coelho, Anandam and Kattapanayile Hritik Roshan



OTHER NOTABLE FILMS WHICH HAD MERIT (IN THEMES OR PORTRAYAL BUT FAILED TO MAKE MUCH OF AN IMPACT):

Happy Wedding, Oozham, SwarnaKaduva, Hallo Namasthe, Malgudi Days, Vettah, James and Alice, Karigunnam 6s, Kismath and Leela.

NEW COMERS TO LOOK OUT FOR:
Rajisha Vijayan – Anuraga Karikkin Vellam, an incredible performance as the probing lover she was the show stealer of the movie.

Manikandan – Kammatipadam, for the strong portrayal of Balanchettan.

Dilish Pothen – Director Mahesh Prethikaram. For making a movie so simple and but so loving.

John Paul George – Director Guppy. Everything was different in the movie the frames, Art and narrative. The differences made the movie stood out.

TOP MOMENTS IN FILMS:
PuliMurugan: Action sequences were top notch. But the one which stood out is the kid hunting down the tiger.

Kammatipadam : After the fight in front of theatre Balan standing atop a car with Mohanlal’s poster in background selling tickets in black.

Action Hero Biju: Suraj’s scene where he walks away with tears in his eyes and the song Muthe ponne. Never imagined a guy who was captured for causing public nuisance singing a song and that too with tapping on the desk of police.

Maheshinte Prethikaram: The comical sequence. The facial expressions of the duo when National Anthem being played was priceless.

Pretham: The ghost becoming tech savvy and getting a colorful wardrobe.

Oru Muthassi Kadha: The grannies going into the bar and enjoying out themselves.

 

TRYING OUT DIFFERENT GENRES
Telling of genres, we had many Sports movies this year. I don’t know from where film makers got this purge of interest in sports. Was it because 2016 was an Olympics year or of the inspiration of hosting the National games last year. Whatever be the reason we got a lot of movies having sports coming in the story line.

Karikunnam 6s had an incredible story but while translating to the screen it failed to keep the fire and failed miserably at the BO. In Thoppil Joppan, Mammotty captains a Kabbadi team but the way the match was shot on the screen was unbearable for those who knows the rules of the game. Orru Murai vannthu parthaya, had Unni Mukundan wrestling but the fight was badly choregraphed. Ann Maria Kalippilanu had the story of a girl hiring a goon to beat up her sports teacher for calling her jumps foul. And in KPAC we had Kunchako Boban coaching the boy in swimming. But these movies didn’t capture the beauty of sports well and the game wasn’t exciting. With movies like Godha and Sathyan (based on the true story of PV Sathyan the footballer) coming up, I hope we will be treated to a complete sports movie that captures the real intensity and stays true to the game.

With Guppy, Ann Maria, KPAC, Malgudi Days, School Bus, Olapeepi this year saw many movies which falls into children’s category but they not only cater to kids but also told few things to the older generation. Speaking of Old people, we had two movies which told of the desires of the aging minds, Oru Muthassi Kadha and Pa Va. The former correctly portrayed the agony of the old generation but was little preachy. And the latter was a letdown.

PRODUCTION HOUSES
Udaya Studios, one of the pioneer production houses made a comeback with KPAC. The famed hen on the globe once again hooted in the cinema halls and the film also didn’t disappoint. The versatile Vinneth Sreenivasan added producer credit to his name with Anandam, the film like the title offered pure joy to the cinemagoers. And with Jacobinte Swargarajyam earned him another credit of ‘New Gen Sathyan Anthikad’. Nivin Pauly with Abrid Shine also ventured into producing films. And Malgudi Days, was produced via crowd sourcing. Crowd funding makes it less risky for making a movie and inspires many more into it.

LOOKING AHEAD

Hope 2017 brings an early end to the spat between the producers and theatres associations. Bringing out more good movies in different genres and have an awesome time for the audience.