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ObituaryInnocent will go down in the history of Malayalam cinema as a stupendously talented actor, who spread unmitigated joy on screen, writes Neelima Menon.The heavily pronounced Irinjalakuda slang, that bashful tilt of his head, the peculiar gesticulations, the fine balance between subtlety and hyperbole, and the unforgettable one-liners delivered with soft precision. What made Innocent one of the most cheering sights in Malayalam cinema is all of these and more. Like most in his legion of stupendously talented supporting actors, Innocent flourished during the late 1980s and 90s, popularly termed as the ‘golden period’ in Malayalam cinema. It was during this period that Innocent, who had already made his debut as an actor and producer a decade earlier, found that his niche lay in initiating Malayalam cinema into the realm of satire. So after 50-60 films in which he played notable as well as forgettable characters, Innocent allied with...

MollywoodThough Mamukkoya appears for hardly a few minutes in most of his films, the audience remembers all of his one-liners and goofy grins.Sowmya RajendranWhich Malayali worth their salt won't know the line 'Gafoor ka dosth'? The magic recommendation that will win you a warm welcome in alien lands? When Mamukkoya as Gafoorka in the 1987 film Nadodikattu reels off his experience in transporting illegal immigrants to places as far as California, you're just as trusting as Dasan (Mohanlal) and Vijayan (Sreenivasan) that he will take them to Dubai. It's with amazing confidence that Gafoorka makes his promise, and till the revelation — when Dasan and Vijayan land in Madras instead of Dubai — you're just as convinced as them that Gafoorka has a heart of gold. Gafoorka is among Mamukkoya's most memorable roles till date, and it is only fitting that it figured in Sathyan Anthikkad's film. From Gandhinagar 2nd Street, in...

Flix FlashbackOne can argue about the politics and significance in discussing a 1986 film but, even today, the narrative in Malayalam cinema has only altered at a superficial level.Neelima MenonIn this revisit, we look at a film that wouldn’t easily be pegged as a Priyadarshan film. Way out in the woods, away from his comedy capers, Priyadarshan seems to have spun this bizarre drama full of patriarchal cobwebs. From the characters and songs to the gaping plot holes, here’s trying to make sense of Raakuyilin Ragasadasil. For Priyadarshan, perhaps it was a deliberate bid to step out of a comfort zone, a divergence from the marathon comic entertainers that came in the mid-80s. Or maybe the fundamental glitches were always there in his slapstick comedies, and we were just too busy laughing our heads off to dig deeper into the problematic subtext in those narratives. The 1986 Mammootty-Suhasini film Raakuyilin Ragasadasil,...

Flix FlashbackAn apparently content woman shoots herself for no apparent reason; her distraught husband's friend investigates the case to find her motive. Aradhya KurupScripted by Mt Vasudevan Nair and directed by Pavithran, Utharam (1989) is based on Daphne du Maurier’s short story, No Motive. One of the most intriguingly paced investigative suspense thrillers in Malayalam cinema, it’s also one of the most underrated. Here we take you through the many characters who slowly unravel through one of the most unconventionally delivered and profoundly human investigative tale of a long forgotten crime, deliberately erased by society. No Motive, in a nutshell, reads thus: a woman shoots herself for no apparent reason, having previously appeared content with her life. Her distraught husband employs a private investigator to establish her motive. The investigator rakes through the woman's past and starts uncovering a multitude of secrets. How does it play out on our screens?...