Malayalam movies turn urban-centric

“Until some time ago,the only focus in Mollywood was the actor or hero. Films known by the actors,directors and scriptwriters were largely ignored. But with the arrival of a handful of young filmmakers,movies have begun to return to the director’s hands in Malayalam,” said Anthikkad. “Young talents experiment with many things in narration and theme selection. City-centric movies and elite class stories can be seen as part of their experimentations,” he said.

Village-oriented films which reaped average success in 2011-12 were Sathyan Anthikkad-directed Snehaveedu,M. Mohanan’s Manikya Kallu,Bobon Samuel’s Janapriyan and T. K. Rajeev Kumar’s Rathinirvedam. Perhaps the only exception among them is Sugeeth directed Ordinary,depicting the life of a scenic upland hamlet Gavi.

The movie is still running to packed houses and has raked in more than ’10 crore so far,according to industry sources. Citing the resounding success of Ordinary,Anthikkad said rural themes would always have takers in Malayalam if they are narrated with freshness and novelty. “As the new filmmakers are quite young,they prefer to tell stories with which they are more familiar. That may be the reason they select urban settings and themes,” he said. “Not just that,in Kerala’s context the distance between villages and cities is fast disappearing these days,” Anthikkad said. Whether set in rural or urban backgrounds,films should be the product of directors,he said,adding that the reason for deterioration of values in cinema are movies which concentrate only on the interest of heroes and audience.

Meanwhile,hitmaker Laljose feels changes in the lifestyle and attitude have brought in changes in themes and setting of movies. Mayamohini,a hardcore commercial movie,has turned out to be one of the biggest grossers this year. The movie has collected more than eight crore ‘ so far,unconfirmed reports from the industry said.