This is a countdown made by independent research from statistics collected from web sources like YouTube play counts and other social media resources. The opinions expressed are solely authors views.
2021 was the pandemic year many movie makers found a new way of making movies and releasing them worldwide through Amazon Prime. Prime in competition to Netflix had released some of the best movies Mollywood (Malayalam movie industry) produced last year. Uploading your independent movies by the moviemakers themselves made it easy for moviemakers to get their videos up there. All the smart ones used their paid distributors to get the movies promoted by Prime and in addition, they send their movies to one or other film festivals. Prime consider that sort of activities as a plus point in their count for a worthwhile movie. And the use of social media platforms to get the movies that otherwise no one would have known. These are the latest trends of movies made and released in the post-pandemic Mollywood industry. The smartest from this southern state knew better about this path more than anyone in the land. The movies like Maalik, Suuny, Home, and Naayattu are a few great examples. Maalik, Sunny, and Home stood out in their film craftmanship at par with Hollywood films in its story content, direction, and above all top-notch international-level acting talent. Malayalam movies always had these qualities, but now it is on a platform like Prime, we see international filmmakers see and appreciate this small state’s quality filmmaking. That way the pandemic did well for a well-deserving regional language movie making it deserving attention finally.
The top count down
Position 1 is taken by Theerame from film Maalik. A well-made movie with such a complex storyline that was made memorable by the superior acting by Fahad Fazil. The only complaint about this movie is the horrible wardrobe with cheap wigs and poor make-up. Despite that complaint well into the movie, the deep facets of a strong storyline let one forget all that bad aspects. Young film director Mahesh Narayanan deserves great applause for his craftsmanship. Like all his previous lines of so beautifully made movies this one is a super favorite. The song Theerame is so appropriate to the movie, so beautifully sung by Chitra, and Sooraj Santhosh. The song uses the local fishermen’s local song bits like Markam Songs, as a bridge in this song. Sushin Shyam the music director as we predicted in our previous year top countdowns made into the lines of top music directors with a lot happening despite a bad year of infections and shutdowns. Listen to the song here.
2. Alare stayed on top for such a long period and it is the single most song we call a winner all the way to the last year. Kailas Menon sir came to Smule to promote this song as well. He gave the opportunity to a new singer Aarayn who brought a new feel to the song with a very unique voice. Nithya Mammen again a finding of Kailas Menon from Canada for his former Malayalam hit, sang for this song as well. This is once again hit the popularity and time and again this music director proved that he knows what the audience wants to hear from him. Kudos to our own Kailas Sir. Way to go. His song deservedly stayed on the top for almost most part of last year ever since its release.
Song: #Alare
Music : #Kailas Menon
Lyrics: Shabareesh
Vocals : Ayraan, Nithya Mammen
3. Varavayi Nee is a unique song from last year when playback singer cum actor-director Vinneth Srinivasan, bring his wife Divya to the music industry. We think this song is voice morphed to such an extent that we can not assess the singing of the new singer. The Shaan Rahman did a below-average job with its music. We give three thumbs down for this. Despite all that, its popularity as we see from the social media circles remained untouched.
#Music: Shaan Rahman
#Lyrics: Joe Paul
#Singers: Divya Vineeth & Vineeth Sreenivasan
4. Theyathaka This song is a very unique one. We give this song two thumbs up for this young music director who took a traditional folk beat and made a song that fit the movie scene. Caution: Drinking alcohol is injurious to health. The lyrics are amazingly beautiful with all Kerala’s unique style of folk songs using imagery to say something else that is otherwise not appropriate to say plainly. Caution: The scene has violence and is not appropriate for the young ones.
#Composed and Percussion Programmed By : Manikandan Ayyappa
#Sung by : Manikandan Ayyappa
#Lyrics: Nandhakumar Kazhimbram #Kudukku
5. Nee Varum from the Amazon Prime release movie ‘Sunny’ that showed the only Malayalam movie industry can make such storylines. The story of the movie is very relevant to the life of many during this never-ending pandemic. Jayasurya’s acting reminds one of Tom Hank’s performances in some Hollywood movies. A well-made movie with a very uplifting story in a time where we all need someplace to look for hope. The song Nee Varum also appropriately is a song of hope. The new music director Sankar Sharma is a new young guy, so unassuming. He has a name that sounds like non-Malayalee, yet he is from Kerala. He now works for Telugu movies. Harishankar did an awesome job singing these very meaningful lyrics. Listen.
Song Name : Nee Varum
Music: Sankar Sharma
Lyrics: Sandra Madhav
Singer : K S Harisankar
6. Maaran A very unique song where we are hearing a female music director for the first time called Bhoomee. Listen to her interview here at the link embedded. She also sang the song along with Sid Sriram. The song is amazing beautifully sung by Sid. No words to describe the beauty in his voice, it is well suited for this romantic song. Bhoomee came from the advertisement world. Both film director Bilahari and the music director are friends for a long time. Bhoomee is a Rahman sir’s school of music product. It is such a pleasure to see such new talents try hands in areas of music that never was approached by women folks. we hope Bhoomee will remain interested to be a complete music maker like all western musicians.
Composed,Arranged, And Programmed By: Bhoomee
Sung By: Sid Sriram And Bhoomee
Lyrics By: Titto P Thankachen
7. Aararum Kaanathe, is another song from Maalik went on to become included in the top 10. Sushin gave the song to Shahbaz Aman. Unique voice and deservedly given.
#Singer : Shahbaz Aman
#Lyrics: Anwar Ali
#Composed and arranged: Sushin Shyam
8. Itha Vazhi from Home is an amazing song from a very well-made movie. Again from Amazon Prime.
Music : Rahul Subrahmanian
Lyrics: Shyam Muraleedharan
Additional Lyrics: Arun Alat
Singer : Vineeth Srinivasan, Arun Alat
9. Appalaale, sung beautifully by Madhuvanthi an amazing artist Malayalam proud of. She herself comes from a great music lineage yet she established herself an identity in Malayalam music.
#Song: Appalaale
#Singer: Madhuvanthi Narayan
#Lyrics: Anwar Ali
#Music Composed, Arranged, and Produced : Vishnu Vijay
10. Kannil Ente
#Song : Kannil Ente
#Singer: Vineeth Sreenivasan, Swetha Mohan, Ziya ul Haq
#Chorus: Khalid, Sijukumar, Vishnu, Anoop
#Music Composed, Programmed, and Arranged by Ronnie Raphael
#Lyricist: B K Harinarayanan
#Sufi Lyrics: Shafi Kollam
END NOTES
The changes we see this year of Pandemic in the Malayalam film music and film industry are tech-savvy youngsters like Bhoomee (Shruthi Lakshmi) and Sushin Shyam becoming a music director makes this a happy moment to write about. Sushin Shyam is an absolute pleasure to see doing some outstanding work in this small music industry. See an interview with him below.
The films like Maalik, Home, Sunny all are pleasant movies to watch and enjoy. Amazon Prime movies and their role in giving an opportunity to young movie makers is an amazing thing that opened up the Indian movie industry to the world and beyond. Hope the youngsters keep exploring new opportunities and looking forward to the great coming year 2022 and more critical writing here for us.
The great India Singers on Smule Sing 