There was a time when young ones flocked to the CD shops in Thiruvananthapuram’s Beemappally in search of the new foreign films that never get released in Kerala, or the pirated copies of ones they’d missed. When Torrent came and movies from any place could be downloaded online (mostly pirated copies and therefore illegal), the CDs stopped selling so much. Torrent sites got banned soon enough and even as the smarter ones found proxies, the interest simply waned with the coming of online streaming sites. Netflix and then the cheaper alternate Amazon Prime offered so much that people didn’t mind actually paying for the movies they loved to somehow snatch and watch so far. Other streaming platforms joined the list, much to the delight of film buffs.
Law in place, the movies began appearing on the streaming sites in India one by one – the international ones, the Hindi releases, the latest and the award winners. Regional cinema too found a place there. Here is a list of some of the new Malayalam movies that are now available online.
On Netflix:
Sudani from Nigeria: The movie that has been continuously winning laurels for a while now – the latest being several state awards including for best script, best actor, best character actors and best debutant director. Director Zakariya, a first timer, scored by telling the story of a small-time football manager in a village – played so neatly by Soubin – and a Nigerian player (Samuel Abiola Robinson) who ends up injured in the manager’s home, cared for by two aged women. The old women and their love that came so easily, the Malappuram slang and the relatable lives of the many characters – all of it was just magical.
Eeda: It’s tough to keep up to expectations when you have managed to impress much in the past. Nimisha and Shane – the lead pair – pull that off in this Shakespearean romance, set surprisingly in Kannur, where the two characters grow up amidst political rivalry and violence. While the movie faced criticism for the way Kannur politics was portrayed, the performances were unanimously lauded.
Swathanthryam Ardharathriyil: Or Freedom at Midnight’s promise came with Antony Varghese, the man from the magical world of Angamaly Diaries. There’s also the constantly excelling Chemban Vinod and Vinayakan to support him. All three of them do not disappoint, but the movie itself, shot mostly inside a prison, does not have a lot of depth.
Minnaminungu: The film which came out in 2017 and won for its lead actor Surabhi the national award, portrays the relationship between a single mother and her daughter who is trying to migrate to Canada with her boyfriend.
On Amazon Prime:
Mikhael: The film, directed by Haneef Adeni with Nivin Pauly in the lead, has been typically like the earlier movies by the filmmaker, about a ‘matchless macho’ of a hero. The story has repeat elements from the director’s earlier movies – The Great Father and Abrahaminte Santhathikal – a family member is wronged, there’s a police officer investigating a crime, and you have the hero playing avenger.
Ente Ummante Peru: This movie, featuring Tovino Thomas playing Hameed who goes in search of his mysterious mother that his just deceased dad had never told him about, had come out with a new combination – Tovino and the veteran Urvashi. The latter, of course, proves her range playing effortlessly the unlikeable Aisha, picking up the northern Malayalam slang easily, but the script left much to be desired.
Akatho Puratho: This is the newest from director Sudevan whose debut feature film CR No. 89 had won the state award for best film. It has four segments named Mathsyam, Paava, Vridhan
Yatra and Kaala: There are the Malayalam dubbed versions of these two other language superstar films – Mammootty playing YS Rajasekhara Reddy in the Telugu Yatra and Rajnikanth’s critically acclaimed Tamil movie Kaala.
On Hotstar:
Aravindante Adhithikal: Vineeth Sreenivasan plays the all-in-all of a little hotel by a temple that plenty of people come to visit, but one for some curious reason he never does. Nikhila Vimal comes as a guest to the hotel for her dance arangettam. Though the movie follows a predictable storyline towards the last half, of a son who is abandoned by his mother, it has its moments.
Captain: One of the movies that won actor Jayasurya the state award this year, Captain is the biopic of a football player whose career was cut short because of an injury. Though it encapsulates a fallen hero, that in a way defines VP Sathyan and his unquenchable passion for the game of football, Captain is a sports biopic that tracks the internal journey of a sportsman – beyond triumphs, records, milestones and failures. It’s more a human story that helps us understand the complex inner battles of a man who struggled to stay afloat, despite being the longest serving captain of the Indian national football team.
Poomaram: The movie that had been awaited for the longest time – the debut of actor Kalidas Jayaram as a grown-up – saw how students taking part in a youth festival behaved. Shot more like a documentary than a feature, it captured the tensions and the feelings that most people who had been to a youth festival can relate to, which others – outsiders to this world – may fail to connect to.