No fancy wardrobe. No smoking cigars. No rip roaring BGM. No slow mo shots. But this one exchange made this (extended) cameo work big time for me given all the meta situation around this particular scene. Nothing beats the pleasure of these two legends sharing a screen. ♥️

Am I the only one who got reminded of this legendary video?
Shamna❌CM Satheeshan✅

This is such a special song that didn't get attention because of the disaster that the movie was. But Jakes really cooked hard with this. It's a song that instills hope but in a soft way unlike the usual loud ones. The lyrics also intensifies the emotion in a unique way. For those who missed it

TIA

It's a timeless tale. An absolutely abhorred movie, has a banger of a song in it...

Take Odiyan for example. One of the pre-release hype factors behind the film, was a few good songs that came out. But none so as good as Kondoram, which undoubtedly is still in many playlists despite the trauma that was the movie...

Another example that I came across, quite recently, was the song Cinderella Chandame from Villali Veeran, a movie best talked less about. Had this song been in any other movie, it would've been a sureshot chartbuster...

What are some other examples of banger songs in blasphemous movies..?

God wth🙏

Recently saw some underrated Mollywood gems. Got it from some YouTube comment section.

Ottaal (2014)

Kaadu Pookkunna Neram (2016)

Aedan (2017)

Bhayanakam (2018)

Chola (2019)

Aavasavyuham (2022)

Kadhavasevan (2004)

Ozhimuri (2012)

Munnariyippu (2014)

Recommend me more like this .

Big Malayalam cinema fan here. I'm from Satara, Maharashtra, and while watching Kannur Squad around 1:12:23, when the team heads to Mumbai, I saw my own college on screen!

Here's what I spotted (swipe through the pics):

My college. The white building on the hill side, with a famous marriage hall owned by my friend's family right beside it, lol.

Abhiruchi Hotel banner. About 4 km from my home.

Udayanraje Bhosale banner. He's our khasdar (MP).

The petrol pump. Only about 1 km from my home!

Anewadi toll naka. 5 km from my home.

You can even see the KL01 plate on the Kerala police vehicle driving through my area 😭

Here's why this is so crazy: Satara is a small, rural-type city. You can cover this whole highway stretch, the toll naka, and the petrol pump in about two hours. Out of all the places in Maharashtra, the film showed my college, my area, and spots I pass all the time.

I have no idea when this was shot. I was probably in college or right outside it that day, and I never expected Mammootty to pass through here in my life. He was literally on my road without me knowing.

Has anyone else spotted a place they know in a Malayalam film?

Is it just me or does modern family S5 E18 (the one in which they go to Vegas) feel like vettam climax portion.

With all the hotel misunderstandings and dialogues?

Hey guys! I am a Malayali Independent artist. In late 2023, I got to work with the legendary lyricist Rafeeq Ahammed on my independent song called Aa Thazhvarathil. As a Malayali who grew up in North India and is really slow at reading or writing Malayalam properly, this was both an intimidating and awesome experience! I've written about how that whole thing happened on my substack. Wanted to share with you all if you would find this kind of thing interesting.

https://ashwinsyam.substack.com/p/working-with-a-legendary-malayalam

1. Jail fight : This was the only fight scene in either of these films where Stephen was genuinely scary. An experienced tactician in his mid 50s brutally beating the crap out of an entire gang, hurting them with their own weapons (and the hammer attack was the cherry on top). Not a single person was killed, and yet they probably wished they were - kinda like when Batman beats up criminals. Also, this was the only A10 fight scene in both these movies which mostly obeyed the laws of physics

2. Kadavule Pole: This is my second favorite, purely because of the theatre experience. The munda madakkal with the "vaada!", after all those political talks was just awesome. Yeah, it kinda follows a Telugu fight format, but A10 still manages to sell it with his high kicks and elbow strikes.

3. Raftaara: I don't know if its a hot take, but this whole sequence absolutely slaps. This what Stephen is meant to be. He gets his hands dirty only if its necessary - either there's no backup, or he's being directly threatened. Else, he lets his boys do the work (which apparently the fucking director himself forgot). Raftaara is an absolute banger, and the secret agent guys kicked ass as well. Vivek Oberoi and Revathy's ex also had a great 1v1. Also, the best Zayed Masood sequence.

4. Kadavule Pole 2.0: This was the better of the Empuraan fights, though the bar is literally in hell. I liked the buildup and the reveal, and the best parts of this fight is when he's just punching and cracking people's bones. But they made him superhumanly strong, and Kadavule pole 2.0 doesn't hit nearly as hard as the original song.

5. Boat fight: Short, sweet, straight to the point, and a great intro to Zayed Masood. Doesn't stand out, but gets the job done. Decent fight.

6. Church escape: Absolute meh. I felt absolutely nothing watching this. Nothing more to say.

7. Phir zindaaaaaaa: This is genuinely one of the worst action scenes in malayalam movie history. Not only does it absolutely destroy the character consistency, but the choreography itself is dog-water and the song is absolute garbage. I'm sure Prithviraj Sukumaran took a directing break and one of the Ukris snuck into set, changed the script and blackmailed him into putting this in the final film.

We're like two posters and one song into the movie's pre-release promos

The posters, as always, look good. Amal Neerad movies ALWAYS have good posters. BUT- I do think the first look poster has a bit of AI in it, which is disappointing. I'm not sure tho.

The song, though not the vibe I was expecting, was still good enough.

But something about the movie is just not hyping me up. Like AT ALL.

It has a pretty stacked cast. It is a spiritual sequel to one of the coolest, sexiest, most fun movies ever made in Malayalam ( I am aware of the plagiarism allegations, but I haven't watched the original Hong Kong film so I don't really know about that)

But something looks so off. Maybe it's because of the doubt about whether they'll outperform the original cast or not?

I mean Indrajith-Rahman-Vinayakan-Kalabhavan Mani-Asif Ali was too good of a squad. I hope they make this new squad work well.

And it's the first time Amal Neerad is collaborating with Christo Xavier, and he's usually a hit or miss for me.

They probably didn't go for Rahul Raj because he's been inactive in the industry and maybe lost the touch, maybe? Idk...

Gopi Sunder? Gone. Idk to where.....but he's gone. His songs don't sound as good as he used to anymore.

The only other expected collab was Sushin Shyam- he must've been busy with Patriot and Scene so probably couldn't get his dates either.

And apparently the cinematographer is different too according to Google. I'm not sure about that.

No Sameer Thahir? No Anend C Chandran? No Little Swayamp?? Oh man.... Pls do justice to Amal Neerad's usual style of filmmaking please, whoever is doing the cinematography for this film.

And lastly but not the least, the HUMOUR.

The original Bachelor Party had very crude and edgy humour. Most of it was adult jokes regarding all kinds of stuff. Heck, even the intro scene for Rahman and Indrajith on top of that pickup truck- that conversation is to this day one of the funniest adult comedy convo I've seen lol.

I don't know if they'll be able to recreate the same edginess in this time. The kinda political incorrectness in the original movie is something that'll definitely be hard to achieve in this time especially because of how sensitive and wokely scrutinising our audience has become now.

And Naslen as an actor has succesfully won a lot of hearts among the family audiences atp. I don't know if he would agree to go on a back-to-back banter fest of crude humour this early in his career. I'd be really happy if he does tho.

Idk if they'll be able to do justice to the original. No matter how hard I try to come up with reasons to prove me wrong, I see an inevitable disappointment. Please be wrong. Please be wrong. PLEASE.

ANYWAYS... I hope they come up with a banger trailer or something and bring back the hype. Please don't mess this up.

I’m fairly familiar with Malayalam cinema from the Mammootty–Mohanlal era onwards, and I’ve also watched a decent number of Prem Nazir and Sathyan movies.

I’d like to explore the transitional period between these two eras, roughly the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s.

As far as I know, this was the period when actors like Sukumaran, M. G. Soman, Vincent and Jayan were becoming popular, before Mammootty and Mohanlal became the dominant stars.

Could you recommend some must-watch movies from this period? I’m interested in films that are memorable for their storytelling, performances, music, or simply for capturing the feel of Malayalam cinema at the time.

(Seen Ulkkadal, Kodiyettam and Elipathayam, Never seen Jayan movies. Maybe mimicry artists killed his vibe. Felt very performative.)

I’m not necessarily looking for only critically acclaimed classics. Even lesser-known movies that are worth watching would be great.

Also, if there are any directors from this era whose filmographies I should explore, please suggest them.

Looking forward to discovering this somewhat overlooked period of Malayalam cinema!