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History of
Malayalam Cinema -
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The start
The first cinema hall in Kerala was
established in Trichur by K.W.Joseph in 1907. This had a
manually operated film projector. The first electrically
operated film projector was also established in Trichur by Jose
Kattukkaran in 1913, the "Jose Electrical Bioscope". Soon such
cinema halls were established in other major cities of Kerala.
In the earlier stage, Tamil, Hindi and English films were mainly
exhibited in these cinemas. But it was Tamil cinema which
dominated Kerala. The Malayalee audience would have welcomed
Tamil films because of the cultural similarities between Kerala
and Tamil Nadu.
The first Malayalam film was produced and directed by a
businessman, J.C.Daniel who didn't had any prior film
experience. His film Vigathakumaran was released in 1928, but
failed economically. But it is notable that while mythological
films ruled all over the Indian cinema arena, J.C.Daniel had the
courage to produce the first ever Malayalam film with a social
theme. The economic failure of Vigathakumaran discouraged him
from producing further films, thus he withdrew from the film
field.
The ill luck of Malayalam cinema continued. The second film
Marthandavarma based on a novel of the same name by C.V.Raman
Pillai, was produced by Sunderraj in 1933. But due to a legal
confrontation regarding the rights of the film, the producer had
to withdraw the film from cinema halls after few exhibitions.
Had it not been for the legal embargo, the film would have had a
great impact on the cinema of South India. By Marthandavarma the
history of silent Malayalam cinema also came to an end.
Indian cinema had already entered the talkie age even before
Marthandavarma was released. Balan, the first Malayalam cinema
with a sound track was released in 1938. Produced by Tamilian,
T.R.Sunderam and directed by Notani, Balan was a melodramatic
film, with more Tamil influence than Malayalam. Even though this
film is irrelevant in artistic sense, its economic success
created a base to Malayalam film industry. Followed by the
success of Balan, Jnambika was released in 1940. After Prahlada,
released in 1941, Kerala had to wait till 1948 for the next
film. Nirmala (1948) directed by P.J.Cheriyan explored the
possibility of music and songs in cinema. Legendary Malayalam
poet, G.Shankara Kurup penned the lyrics for this film. Thus
song-dance sequences became an essential ingredient for
commercial success in Malayalam cinema.
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