Those good old Malayalam movies...

‘Kalangiyilla’ “Ambattan’ ‘Akasotto’ ‘Kuttimama njan njetti mama!’ All of these will stir up laughter in all those who have watched the super-hit action fantasy movie Yoddha directed by Sangeeth Sivan. Written by Sasidharan Arattuvazhi, the story is based on the English movie ‘The Golden Child’(1986) starring Eddie Murphy. I once happened to watch this movie and immediately noticed the similarities. This movie, however, has a lot more supernatural elements than Yoddha. And of course there is no Mohanlal and Jagathy! I remember that Yoddha came out at the same time as the Mammootty starrer ‘Pappayude Swantham Appoos’. A Mammooty and Mohanlal showdown during the Onam season! (Wikipedia tells me that the release dates were 3rd September and 4th September 1992, respectively). In school our class was divided into two groups: Mammootty and Mohanlal supporters. You can imagine which group I supported!  Anyways both movies were superhits and will be remembered by Malayalis in their own rights.

  Whenever I hear of Varavelppu I think of my Uncle who is an NRI. It is his all-time favourite and I believe he has seen this movie atleast a million times! Varavelppu (= welcome) is a heart-rending Malayalam movie which saw the genius of three prominent people in Malayalam cinema- Sathyan Anthikadu who directed the movie excellently well, Srinivasan who penned this story and Mohanlal, who put forward one of his most memorable performances ever. Take a look at what this movie is all about. After seven long years Muralidharan (played by Mohanlal) returns to Kerala, India, his homeland. He is happy since he had been missing home so much. His two brothers and their families are eager to receive him. His sister-in-laws are so adoring that they compete against each other by making special meals and seeing to his every need. Everybody is happy that their dear Murali is home. Or so it seemed. Murali soon finds out their true colours the hard way. When he throws in the bomb that he would not