Malayalam Film Songs 1990 To 2000

[Demetrius Dade]

Mohanlalis an Indian actor, producer, distributor, host, and playback singer who has starred in mainstream blockbuster and art-house films.[1] He has made over 325 appearances in feature films during the span of his career, primarily in Malayalam cinema and also in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada films.[2]

Mohanlal began acting at the age of 18 in a brief role in the then-unreleased film Thiranottam (1978), released a quarter century later. He made his cinematic debut in 1980 as an antagonist in the romantic thriller Manjil Virinja Pookkal.[3] His portrayal of Narendran, a sadistic husband, garnered him recognition and the film developed a cult status.[4][5] He was thereafter cast in several films as villainous characters. Padayottam (1982), the first Malayalam film shot on 70 mm film featured him in his first protagonistic role.[4] The family drama Aattakalasam established him as a leading actor in Malayalam cinema.[6] In 1984 he starred in the screwball comedy Poochakkoru Mookkuthi, whose success generated a trend and popularised the genre in the 1980s.[7][8] He played an antihero in Uyarangalil (1984), directed by I. V. Sasi receiving critical acclaim for his performance.[9] In the same year, he co-founded Casino Films,[a] a motion picture production company that later produced his comedy films Gandhinagar 2nd Street (1986) and Nadodikkattu (1987).[10]

His first song as a playback singer was "Sindhoora Megham" for Onnanam Kunnil Oradi Kunnil (1985).[7] He starred in 34 films in 1986.[2] His portrayal of T.P. Balagopalan, a lower-scale employee in the comedy-drama T. P. Balagopalan M.A. (1986) earned him the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor becoming the youngest recipient at the age of 26,[7] a record he held until 2006.[11] The same year he co-founded Cheers Films, his second production company.[b] Mohanlal's stardom catapulted with the success of the crime drama Rajavinte Makan (1986).[13] In Irupatham Noottandu (1987), he portrayed mobster Sagar Alias Jacky and has become a cult figure since its release.[14] His tragicomedy Chithram (1988) held the record for the longest continuous run at 58 weeks.[15] In 1989, his performance in Kireedam earned him a Special Jury Mention at the 37th National Film Awards.[16]

In 1990, Mohanlal founded his own film production company, Pranavam Arts.[7] It debuted with the musical thriller His Highness Abdullah, garnered critical acclaim and became the year's highest-grossing film.[17] The second film under Pranavam Arts was Bharatham (1991), earned him the National Film Award for Best Actor and Forbes India included it on its list of "25 Greatest Acting Performances in Indian Cinema".[18] His film, the spiritual fantasy, Guru (1997), was the first Malayalam film from India submitted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[19] In 1997, he received critical acclaim for the Tamil film Iruvar, directed by Mani Ratnam.[20] Vanaprastham, which was screened at the Un Certain Regard section of the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, earned him the National Film Awards for Best Actor and Best Film (Producer).[15][21]

In 2000, he starred in the action drama, Narasimham, which became the highest-grossing Malayalam film at the time. His character, Induchoodan has since attracted a cult following.[22] In 2001, he portrayed Karna in the Sanskrit play, Karnabharam, directed by Kavalam Narayana Panicker.[23] In 2003, he won an International Indian Film Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the Hindi film Company.[24] In 2005, he starred in the silent short film Reflections, directed by Bejoy Nambiar.[25] His portrayal of an Alzhiemer patient in Thanmathra (2005) attained critical acclaim and earned him an honorary award from the Indian Medical Association.[26] The Indian Territorial Army bestowed on him the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel for his performance as Major Mahadevan in the war film Keerthi Chakra (2006) and its sequel Kurukshetra (2008).[27] In 2008, he starred in Twenty:20, a landmark film that featured almost all actors in the guild of Malayalam film actors, AMMA.[28]

The above statement that appeared in an article in a US-based news website Huffpost about Fahadh Faasil, one of the leading stars in the contemporary Malayalam film industry,[2] points to a major shift in Malayalam cinema in the last decade regarding masculinity, heroism, and stardom. While the Covid-19 outbreak engendered numerous challenges to film industries worldwide, the Malayalam film industry garnered national and global attention through a set of filmmakers and actors who had initiated what is known as the 'New Generation' Malayalam cinema in the early 2010s. Among them, Faasil has become the 'main protagonist' of the 'New Generation' Malayalam Cinema 'by choosing unorthodox, experimental subjects instead of embracing mainstream narratives and aesthetics.'[3] In this context, this article examines Faasil and his films against the backdrop of the developments in contemporary Malayalam cinema by placing them within the theoretical praxis of masculinity, heroism and stardom.

The article also examines Faasil's stardom in the context of several developments post liberalisation, including the rapid leap in film technology in Malayalam and the influence of national and global filmic trends.[5] Multiplex theatres became more common, providing the audience with new modes of cinema viewing.[6] Mobile phones became a prominent medium for film viewing, further enhanced by the emergence of Over The Top (OTT) platforms such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and other small-scale regional film platforms like Neestream. These newer technologies blended regional and global tastes, and besides developing a new mode of viewing practises, they resulted in Malayalam films becoming popular across transnational spaces. Faasil is one of the stars who actively utilised the potential of such platforms, and he is often called the 'first OTT superstar.'[7] Faasil's rise to stardom also coincides with a period in which Kerala underwent a series of crises, including uncertainties in the economy due to the global recession of 2008, the return of expatriates owing to indigenisation in many gulf countries, geographical as well as biological disasters like the flood of 2018, Nipah virus outbreaks (2018)[8] and later Covid-19 (2019), and many of his characters represent the uncertainties of these times. The article argues that these developments along with the shift in viewing practices aided actors like Faasil to emerge as one of the influential figures in contemporary Malayalam cinema.

Mammootty's and Mohanlal's characters act in what Richard Dyer terms 'compensatory ways' where these stars 'compensate people for qualities they are lacking in their [fans/audience] lives.'[11] In the context of Malayalam cinema, by performing as the 'compensation' for Malayali men, these stars epitomise hegemonic masculinity.[12] Glorifying hegemonic and toxic masculinity especially through the projection of male star bodies with visible markers of their privileged caste and class status, misogyny and the contempt of the subaltern male bodies have been identified as the features of the 1990s superstar movies.[13] The strengthening of Hindutva politics also contributed to the desirability of upper caste Hindu male characters in the 1990s.[14] During this era, the theatrical releases of Mohanlal and Mammootty films were accompanied by the installation of huge cut-outs across Kerala and celebrations inside cinema halls when these stars first appeared on screen. On the opening days of such films, the audience mainly consisted of fan clubs led by men and the theatres across Kerala were turned into homosocial male spaces celebrating the male star on screen. Thus, their stardom signifies a crucial intersection between the desires of Malayali men off screen and the hegemonic masculinity represented on screen. This correlation between the stardom and the aspirations of the Malayali men marked the Malayalam cinema's attempt to recreate the 'egalitarian' feudal past where the figure of the feudal lord re-emerged through actors like Mohanlal and Mammootty. This projection of the male star onscreen and offscreen during the 1990s was also aided by the advancement of digital technologies and the popularity of television in post-liberalisation India.[15] The large capital inflow into the economy also considerably boosted the film industry during this time. Mohanlal and Mammootty efficiently utilised these opportunities offered by liberalisation to their advantage, and they emerged as 'superstars' and/or 'megastars' in Malayalam Cinema after the 1990s.

Following the era of superstar films in the 1990s, the Malayalam film industry entered a period of crisis in the early 2000s. Films with redundant themes failed at the box office, including those of Mohanlal and Mammootty, and the male stars' supremacy was gradually challenged.[16] The shift in movie-making patterns post-2000s was a means to overcome this crisis. In an attempt to produce financially viable movies, earlier superhits like Neelathamara (The blue lotus, 2009),[17] Rathinirvedam (Venereal disenchantment, 2011)[18] and others were remade. As most of the stars' films failed to create an impact at the box office, a series of multi-star films were made, including Pokkiri Raja (The rogue king, 2010),[19] Happy Husbands (2010),[20] Christian Brothers (2011)[21] and so on. The success of soft porn movies in the early 2000s was also attributed to the economic crisis in the film industry at that time.[22] This period also witnessed directors like Ranjith, who wrote films celebrating feudal heroes like Narasimham (2000)[23] and Devasuram (Of gods and demons, 1993),[24] bringing about a thorough overhaul of his thematic concerns by directing films like Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha (Manikyam of Paleri: A midnight murder story, 2009),[25] Pranchiyettan and the Saint (Brother Pranchi and the Saint, 2010)[26] and others in which the depiction of stardom as well as masculinity underwent significant changes. Shaji Kailas, who made blockbusters with hypermasculine portrayals of Mohanlal, Mammootty and Suresh Gopi as the lead actors during the 2000s,[27] failed in the re-employment of the same technique, and several of his films like Dhrona 2010 (2010),[28] Simhasanam (The throne, 2012)[29] and others turned out to be failures in the box office. The era also witnessed the emergence of people like Santhosh Pandit, who became (in)famous by using this void in the Malayalam film industry to produce and promote films like Krishnanum Radhayum (Krishna and Radha, 2011),[30] Superstar Santhosh Pandit (2012)[31] and so on.

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