As an award ceremony that aims at promoting excellence in Malayalam cinema, one would have expected that the stars of the night would have been Kerala’s own actors.
A Dubai event proved otherwise: The one-man entertainment army, Shah Rukh Khan, simply stole the show, leaving behind baffled big Ms and the lesser heroes, wondering what typhoon hit them, wrecking their carefully built halos.
If their male counterparts were dumbstruck at the effortless grace and genuine charisma of Shah Rukh Khan, the pretty, big, rotund and then some – that motley group which makes for Malayalam’s own heroines – behaved like a bunch of lost school girls, as videos show.
As sheer entertainment goes, I simply don’t care if Rima Kallingal goes all ogle-eyed in the company of Khan, or if she (out of excitement no doubt) nudges at her neighbour, looks around utterly lost, and finally does to get her two-bit fame of ‘I danced with SRK.’ Or if another of those girls takes her mobile phone on stage and starts clicking away merrily.
Our gals were pathetic, any way – they simply couldn’t get into the groove of SRK.
Only minutes earlier (or later), SRK had lifted “the lightest lightest lady” (in his own words) ever in the form of Rimi Tomy – (also ‘the most beautiful woman who could have sung this song for me,’ again in SRK’s words). The video has gone viral.
All in good fun, all in the spirit of the biggest ‘Malayalam film industry’ show on earth. Bless the girl, she was in tears! Genuine adulation, no doubt.
The trouble is that with all the SRK blitzkrieg, an entire industry of seasoned actors felt sold out to Bollywood, as an actor (a huge star nevertheless) meekly commented.
And our stars have only themselves to blame for that.
At one of the film festivals, when Mammootty was a guest of honour along with Amitabh Bachchan, he complained to the Malayalam media about how they acquiesce before Bollywood.
His exact words (which no one printed) were: “How can you expect the others to value us when our own media doesn’t respect us?”
Anyone would agree that Malayalam cinema is at its roughest patch now. Our films are ignored (largely because they are bad in the first place) even as we rush to watch Don 2and dubbed versions of Tamil and Telugu films.
Not many years ago, Bollywood and Tamil would bow in respect before Malayalam cinema. And those Tamil youngsters (Sasikumar, Cheran, among others) who took their lessons from our legendary directors, watching their movies from far, went on to redefine Tamil cinema.
Today, our own business houses need Tamil and Hindi stars to sell their gold and fashion wear.
Do you really believe there is logic in opening a so-called ‘seven star hotel’ with SRK, when your guests are going to come from Europe? Or as a hotel, are you eyeing the North Indian tourists? Makes sense then, but don’t say you are contributing to our state’s ‘foreign tourism.’
We have run short of brand ambassadors from our cinema and we need to import them. As the mimicry folks say, we have an actor who sells usbooze, gold, mortgage, stocks and even fresh air. One lady specialises in anything from pickles to slippers.
So we need a Madhavan or Vijay; we need a Vikram; we need a Sharath Kumar; we need an SRK. It is their movies that we prefer to watch, and it makes business sense to have these icons to peddle your ware.
The trouble is that Malayalam cinema and media now celebrate mediocrity with relish – anything from an ok-watch ‘Salt N Pepper’ to where-is-the-logic Traffic gets elevated as the next best thing to happen in Malayalam cinema.
With our stars on air round the clock, they have nothing new to say, and we have nothing new to ask. So when MG Sreekumar sings his plagiarized version of a film song, our presenter doesn’t bat an eyelid, nor does she challenge his cheekiness – she almost sings along and goes ‘wah wah.’
On the other hand, people who stand up for themselves are hunted down with a vengeance, while others who revel in unabashed plagiarism get elevated as the new breed of intellectuals, who would even whine and cry on social media that their movies are being ‘targeted.’
And those who we believe would stand up for a cause, our cause, would let you down, perhaps lured by money. How can you deny a state award in Kerala because ‘the dam will burst’ but can receive it in Dubai – because you are far from the dam’s spill over? To give credit to the man, he makes good movies, and had a kind word for the youngsters.
A minister, who has been/is in cinema, is cleaning up Kerala’s film theatres. He might as well as start with the industry. But how can he? He has given the broom to a man who rolled out the red carpet to the shallow world of Bollywood so they could come and sell their mediocrity to us.
Kerala lives in a big bubble of a reality show. We dance and play like puppets. The puppeteer is our television honchos. They make or mar movies; they promote or dump talent. They are led by TRPs and advertising revenues. They must make money for political parties, and for people who make the ‘news of the world.’
Perhaps, we must shake them up before we lose our last vestiges of self-respect.
Better still, perhaps, our stars must take a break. Stop giving interviews. Stop doing these viral on air interviews to self-promote your movies (anyway, we know you are lying). Stop being brand ambassadors. Cultivate a distance. Keep away from the media. Focus on your work. Read. Make good novels into cinema. Invest your money in making good movies. Haven’t you made enough for ten generations anyway?
Or easier still, take a lesson from SRK – and entertain us mind-numbingly.
That then would make sense. As it is, you are just entertainers – nothing more, nothing less.
At least you wouldn’t complain about Bollywood stealing your thunder.
