Lijo Jose Pellissery says it hurt him when Mohanlal’s Malaikottai Vaaliban was treated as worst Malayalam movie ever

“When such an effort has been taken… I am not saying it should be celebrated… Criticisms are also totally welcome… But during the first two days since the film released, the discussions were in the totally wrong direction,” he observed during an interview with Galatta Plus.

Explaining what he meant by saying “wrong direction”, Lijo said that while it’s okay for people to say if they liked a movie or not, he observed it’s unfair to discourage others from watching it just because they didn’t like it. “The comments that came out in the first two days sounded like, ‘I did not like it, so nobody in this country should watch it’ — that’s the attitude some had.”

He referenced Gangs of Wasseypur director Anurag Kashyap’s recent statement that “now, everybody is a film critic,” highlighting the uncertainty surrounding the validity of comments about films today.

“Suddenly, all the people and all the work they did for the film for one and a half years disappeared and there only remained discussions about the worst Malayalam film ever made. That made me really sad. That’s why I stepped forward and addressed the media, which I had never done before, explaining why people should watch the film.

I did not want people to throw stones at each other over a film. It’s all yours, if you don’t want to watch it, that’s also okay, but don’t compel others not to watch it.”

Lijo, however, observed that they might have made a mistake in the way the trailer was tailored, which did not communicate the movie’s essence and pace effectively. “(If given another chance) we would have provided the audiences with a broader trailer that would explain the pace of the film.”