The best Malayalam films of 2023: ‘Kaathal’ and ‘RDX’ to ‘O.Baby’ and ‘Romancham’

Malayalam cinema in 2023 produced some true gems which won appreciation across the country; here is a look at some of these films, in no particular order

Identity crisis. That was perhaps the theme that stirred up the most conversations in Malayalam cinema, on and off screen, in 2023. We began the year staring in awe at a man slipping into another man’s identity, living his life for a short while and switching back to his own identity; we ended it with another man finding the courage to come out of the closet, with a lot of help from his long-suffering wife, and revealing his sexual identity which had remained repressed for decades. That both the characters were played by a superstar, who seems to have finally come out of a rut and is now looking set for even greater things, is another coincidence.

Off-screen, movie groups were filled with debates on whether Malayalam cinema is producing too many realistic films (prakrithi padangal, as the pejorative reference goes), which are driving away the audience from the theatres. Many of those holding that opinion have also been dreaming of a “pan-Indian” film from the industry, after one such attempt in recent years ended up as a major disaster.

2023 may well be an unprecedented year for Malayalam cinema, if one were to go just by the numbers. By the third week of December, as many as 234 Malayalam films had been released in theatres. From an average of 100 to 150 releases annually till a few years ago, and around 180 releases last year, this is quite a leap. With the sharp jump in quantity came a drastic fall in quality, for which realistic cinema was clearly not to blame. A glut of films made with hardly any conviction, but with a keen eye on the OTT market, seems to have led to this situation. Yet even amid these gloomy statistics, Malayalam cinema did produce some true gems which have won appreciation from across states, although they won’t be considered ‘pan-Indian’ by the narrow definitions of the market. Here is a look at some of these films in no particular order; that a large number of these films are by debutant directors bodes well for Malayalam cinema’s future.

One has to be a clever writer to make people laugh in a scene involving last rites. That is one of the feats Nithish Sahadev achieved in his debut directorial Falimy, one of the funniest movies of the year. Yet, the film was at the same time memorable for the sensitivity with which it portrayed some of the characters (even a minor one such as a man waiting for his family for years at Varanasi) and the way it paused the laughter a bit to make us partake in the emotional toll that some of the events have on these characters. In Jagadeesh, Basil Joseph, Manju Pillai, Meenaraj and Sandeep Pradeep, the director had a solid cast who could make each scene work like a charm.

Chaos is what one associates with filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery, whether talking about the visual style or sound design or the narrative. In Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, chaos is the one element that is conspicuous by its absence. All the chaos that is absent from the screen seems to have been bottled up inside the mind of James who makes a quick, seamless transition from James to Sundaram, both in gait and in language. With his recent choice of films, Mammootty has clearly laid out a path for the current phase of his career, with James/Sundaram becoming a glittering addition to his list of memorable characters.

Body politics is at the heart of Shruthi Sharanyam’s debut film B 32 Muthal 44 Vare. The host of characters the film introduces, all of whom are facing issues related to their bust, and the sheer variety of their issues make one wonder whether it will all be too much for one film to handle, but nowhere does one get an impression of a scriptwriter dealing with a checklist of issues. This film is not about the issues as such; rather it is about the people and how they are dealing with the peculiar situations they are caught in. One thing that stands out is the sensitive portrayals of each of the characters, especially a teenage mother. Made under the Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC)’s initiative to fund women filmmakers, it is a film which underlines the need for more women writers and filmmakers to tell their stories.

Thuramukham is a film that left one with a feeling of what could have been, but it still remains an honest and important document of workers’ struggle to unionise for their rights, in an era in which such hard-won rights are chipped away, and even feeble protests are mocked at. Rajeev Ravi’s fifth directorial is the chronicle of the inhuman work allocation system followed in the Cochin harbour till the 1950s, the building up of the left workers’ union, and the tragic event at Mattancherry in 1953, when three protesting workers perished to police bullets. It is a struggle on which not much has been written about. The filmmaker patiently recreates the time, the place and the social situation in all its rich authenticity and ends with a breathtaking climactic sequence, of a pitched street battle between the workers and the police.