Totally Filmi

SIIMA: Best Film (Malayalam)

The nominees for Best Film are:

 

Salt N' Pepper ( Sadanandan Rangorath & Debobroto Mandal / Lucsam Cinema )

 

Melvilasom ( Muhammed Salim / Mark Movies )

 

Indian Rupee ( Prithviraj, Santhosh Sivan, Shaji Natesan / August Cinema )

 

Adaminte Makan Abu ( Salim Ahamed Ashraf Bedi / Allens Media )

 

Traffic ( Listin Stephen / Magic Frames )

 

You know how sometimes, you look at the Best Film category at certain awards functions, and you wonder how some of those films got there?  Not this time.  Five absolutely terrific, top-notch films.

These five films easily made my list of Top Ten Malayalam films for 2011.   A couple of these films easily could take top spot as my favorite film of the year. 

The problem?  They are all so good, that one minute, I think one is best; another minute, another film.

So, if you're looking for good Malayalam films to watch, you can do no worse than any one of these five.  Though I'd probably suggest you start with Salt N' Pepper.  Or maybe Traffic. 

No, seriously.  Go watch them all.  But I won't be surprised if Indian Rupee ends up winning the SIIMA for Best Film.

SIIMA: Best Lyricist (Malayalam)

The nominees:

 

Mullanezhi for "Ee puzhayum" from Indian Rupee

 

ONV Kurup for "Paattil" from Pranayam

 

Anoop Menon for "Mazhaneerthullikal" from Beautiful

 

Rafeeq Ahmad for "Premikkumbol" from Salt N' Pepper

 

Engandiyoor Chandrasekharan for "Theeye Theeye" from Chappa Kurishu

 

This is a category for which I don't feel comfortable having an opinion, simply because I can only judge the songs based on the subtitles.  I will say this though -- of all the songs nominated, "Mazhaneerthullikal" from Beautiful  was probably the most beautifully and poetically translated.  I'll be curious to see which of these songs wins the award.

 

SIIMA: Best Cinematographer (Malayalam)

 

Madhu Ambat for Makaramanju:

 

Santosh Sivan for Urumi:

 

Satheesh Kurup for Pranayam:

 

Jomon T. John for Beautiful:

 

Shyju Khalid for Traffic:

 

Holy cats, what a beautiful set of films.  Every single one of them is striking and deserving to win.  I can't help but note a certain irony in the fact that Madhu Ambat was not nominated for Adaminte Makan Abu (for which he won a National Award), and is nominated for a film that stars Santosh Sivan.

And novice Satheesh Kurup is up against a powerhouse veteran like Santosh Sivan, but his film is just as deserving.

Jomon T. John's nomination is for the beautiful Beautiful, but it could easily be for another film in contention for a SIIMA this year (in the debutant director category), Chappa Kurishu.  The same could be said of Shyju Khalid, who was also the cinematographer for the lovely Salt N' Pepper.

So.  Who will win?  I'd guess Santosh Sivan, and although the fangirl in me wouldn't  be unhappy with that, and Urumi was truly a very beautiful film,  I think it would be interesting to see it go to Madhu Ambat or Shyju Khalid (the latter partly because after watching the trailer again, I remembered just how much I loved Traffic and its crisp visuals).

 

SIIMA: Best Playback Singer (Female) (Malayalam)

 

Another set of truly lovely songs:

 

Sujatha for "Anthimana" from Indian Rupee:

 

Manjari for "Chimmi Chimmi" from Urumi:

 

Gayathri for "Nin viral Thumbil" from Beautiful:

 

Shreya Ghosal for "Paattil" from  Pranayam:

 

 Pushpavathy for "Chembavu" from Salt N' Pepper:

  

 

I suspect Shreya Ghosal will win this one, and I wouldn't disagree with that.  I love all these songs -- the adorable "Chimmi Chimmi" is a particular favorite -- but I think if I really had to choose one, I'd choose Pushpavathy for "Chembavu".  That song just hooked me right into the film, and I love them both.

 

SIIMA: Best Playback Singer (Male) (Malayalam)

 

Probably the best way to judge this character is just to listen to the nominees, right?

 

P.  Jayachandran for "Premikkumbol" from Salt N' Pepper:

 

 Vijay Yesudas for "Ee puzhayum" from Indian Rupee:

 

Hariharan for "Amruthamayai" from Snehaveedu:

 

Unni Menon for "Mizhuneer Thullikal" from Beautiful:

 

 

KJ Yesudas for "Aaro nee" from Urumi:

 

An exceptionally difficult category, no?  All the songs are beautiful, quite honestly.  But I think my pick has to be Vijay Yesudas, his voice is just awesome, and that song makes me want to melt.

SIIMA: Best Comedian (Malayalam)

Several Totally Filmi Casa Faves are to be found in this category, though not always in films I could love.  The nominees are:

 

Biju Menon for Seniors

 

Prabhu Deva for Urumi

 

Manoj K. Jayan for Seniors

(not actually a picture from Seniors, but the best I could find.)

 

Suraj Venjaramoodu for Marubhoomi Katha:

 

Baburaj in Salt N' Pepper:

 

It actually pains me to toss Biju Menon out of the running for my choice.  He's an actor that I just adore, but I really, really, really did not like Seniors at all.  That, obviously, pulls Manoj K. Jayan out of the running as well.  But Seniors was a hit, so you never know.

Prabhu Deva was adorable in Urumi, and was a wonderful counterpoint to Prithviraj's dour warrior. 

I have an incredible soft spot for Suraj Venjeramoodu, and quite liked him in Marubhoomi Katha, but I liked him so much more in a couple of other films last year.

Personally?  I really hope that Baburaj wins for Salt N' Pepper.  It was one of my favorite films from last year, and his role as Babu, the cook and companion to Lal's Kalidasan was, I think, absolutely terrific.

SIIMA: Best Debutant (Male/Female) Malayalam

There is only one actor nominiated in each of the Best Debutant Male/Female categories, but they're worth looking at for the films they've been nominated for.

Karthika Nair is nominated for Best Debutant Female for her role in Lenin Rajendran's Makaramanju, about a moment in the life of celebrated painter Raja Ravi Varma.  The role of Varma is played by Santosh Sivan; Karthika Nair plays his model.

 

 

Let me just note at this point how frustrating it is that films like this, which get shown and do very well on the festival circuit, end up released on DVD WITHOUT SUBTITLES.  Really.  What is up with that?  I was dying to see this film, and it truly is lovely, but without subtitles I miss a lot.  Sigh.

For Best Debutant Male, we have Unni Mukundan in director Babu Janardhan's Bombay March 12:

 

 

Okay, let's face it:  this is really Mammootty's film, and he is terrific in it.  Please tell me how this film (which I think is kind of an excellent counterpoint to Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday) was not nominated for any other awards. 

I have to say, though, Unni Mukundan holds his own against Mammootty's subtle and powerful performance.  He plays Shahjahan, a young Muslim man from Kerala who goes to Mumbai to work in the IT industry, and who finds himself involved in the 1993 bomb blasts totally against his will.  Unni Mukundan has several films out this year, and I'm looking forward to seeing him step out from the shadow of performers like Mammootty and Dhanush (his first film was Seedan, the Tamil remake of Nandanam, where Dhanush's extended cameo shifted the focus of the film and stole the attention away from everyone else in it).

South Indian International Movie Awards

 

Forget the IIFAs!  Where I want to be the end of June?  In Dubai, watching the SIIMAs!

 

 

Many of you may be familiar with statements made by Malayalam star Mammooty, such as this one after the 2006 IIFAs:

While offering felicitations at the IIFA, Mammotty showed his guts.
He said “IIFA is a very good program, we enjoyed it. But Hindi is not the only language in India. There are several other languages which produces best films, but Hindi is always been promoted. Mammootty said that it was quite unfair to call it India International Film Awards as only Bollywood movies were allowed to compete.
“You better call it Indian International Hindi Film Awards. Several wonderful movies are produced in the vernacular languages in India. How can this festival be complete without those movies? He asked.
Don’t think that I am advocating South Indian movies because I too am a part of it. Take any other language; you can find very good movies,” The huge crowd sat stunned but they clapped.
Shabana Aazmi ratified Mammootty’s argument immediately.

 

I'm quite sure there are a lot of people from industries outside of the Hindi language one who would agree (and those in the industry, like Shabani Azmi, who do, too) -- I've always found it a little sad that an organization that purports to market Indian cinema to the world rarely, if ever, bothers to include other, regional cinemas.

So I was kind of delighted to discover the SIIMAs -- the South Indian International Movie Awards.  The first edition will take place on June 21st and 22nd, 2012, in Dubai, and will be hosted by Lakshmi Manchu AND MADHAVAN!  I know less about the Tamil, Telugu and Kannada industries than I do about the Malayalam one, obviously, but I'm excited about it all nonetheless.

I've been mulling over the various categories in the Malayalam language section, and I think I'm going to see if I can find some time to put a few blog posts together to feature the various films that are up for awards this year, and look at the various categories.  I've actually seen most of the Malayalam films up for awards, and of those I've not seen, I do own them, so perhaps it's time to get to them!