Rise of the son

In the Malayalam film industry the son never rises. There are various instances from the very existence of Malayalam movie fraternity proving this. There have been of late the rise of Prithviraj and Indrajit but they were sons of a popular antagonist. The scene in other parts of our country had been different; the acceptance of star sons was quite easy. While the Malayalam audience always stood by talent. Malayalam audience have never shied from lapping talents like Mohan Lal and Mammootty making them the torch bearers of Malayalam cinema for years. As the actors aged the question raised who next? Popped in all the minds but never could find a suitable inheritor to these legends The M & M of Malayalam cinema.

At this juncture Mammooty's son Dulquer's decision to enter Malayalam movies excited me because this was an interesting scenario. Yes the audience in Kerala had changed but were they actually ready to lap up their favourite actor's son. The signs of acceptance outweighed this time cause Malayalam movie standards had gone to an all-time low. An industry which used to inspire other industries to churn out movies had forgotten the importance of the story and went behind the money churning Formulaic masala movies. It worked, yesteryear successful movies were rehashed nth number of times and were modified into Money making ventures devoid of any story or creativity just like the neighbouring film industries run by powerful families.

In between all of the Mass masala reign there mushroomed talented film makers like Lal Jose, Ranjith, and Blessy who tried to make different movies stepping aside from the regular larger than life hero subjects. These makers kept alive the real essence of Malayalam movies by churning out movies of the ordinary Malayalee with a golden heart or nanma neryana movies like Arabikatha,Kazcha,Pranchiyettan and the saint to name a few. Malayalam movies were always about ordinary people and their goodness in them for e.g. movies like Chitram, His highness Abdullah, Dasharatham,Gandhinagar second street etc. The movies made by these makers were always accepted and turned out to be small profit earners stating the Malayalam audience still had taste but they were devoid of new story ideas which made them lean to the entertaining masala movies but when given a good film they were always ready to lap it up in a big way.

"Traffic”, the first Malayalam movie to bring a everlasting change. The success of this movie called a multi-starrer, actually had no big stars and even then turned out to be a very profitable venture and gave courage to new film makers to come up with new stories. The rest was history Salt n pepper, Chaapa kurish, Ee adutha kaluth, 22female Kottayam, Diamond necklace becoming very successful ventures and encouraging producers to make good cinema and all the so called mega budget superstar ventures bankrupted the distributors.

In this pendulum of tastes of Malayalam audience Dulquer made his entry. Ideally one would have expected him to make a mass movie showing his dancing skills beating around gundas with big budgets and glamorous north Indian heroines to complement him. The easiest path to traverse his father’s road of superstaedom.On the contrary Dulquer made his entry with a very new type of movie which had a story told many times but a presentation which was very raw and very close to reality. This was a risky move, Dulquer was playing with his first impression which always means the best impression and he went with a completely new director and cast. This was a sign Dulquer was. no ordinary star kid who wanted to become a star but he wanted to be part of the Malayalam industry which makes good cinemas.

Second show releases and we realise Dulquer took the right step forward by travelling his own path not aping his father on the contrary Dulquer's role more on the lines of Mohan lal. Second show was accepted by the audience not because a son had risen because a good movie was made. That’s the secret and Dulquer showed his skills (everything except dancing, waiting for him to dance on screen with baited breath)

Dulquer turned out to be a fresh lease of life to the Malayalam industry and he proved that he had lot of variety in his first movie itself. I don’t remember such a confident debut by any actor recently.

Second show was not universally acclaimed but then came Usthad Hotel which reinforced my belief in this son.

Five days after the release of Usthad hotel has turned out to be a blockbuster in every sense but again this was not a commercial movie. It was completely a risky choice and a clever choice because Dulquer has won our hearts and reinforced Second show was no fluke and it was time for a SON to rise. But then again not as the son of a superstar but the inheritor to the hearts of audience who love good cinema

My review on Usthad hotel would like to have some comments @ http://amarcinekatha.blogspot.in/2012/06/review-of-usthad-hotel.html