Malayalam films are now depicting the day-to-day life of Muslims, the minute details of their prayers and their socio-economic conditions.
Portrayal of Muslim characters in Malayalam films. (Supplied)
Released during the Ramzan holidays, Sulaikha Manzil became a surprise hit of this calendar year. It is shot in Malappuram district of Kerala. The Malayalam film deals with the institution of marriage and the importance of consent in marriage.
Sulaikha Manzil also caught the attention of people for another aspect — the realistic portrayal of Muslims.
And this seems to have clicked with audiences, especially those hailing from the northern parts of Kerala where the Muslim community forms a sizeable chunk of the population.
Apart from Sulaikha Manzil, several films released in recent times are notable for the realistic portrayal of Muslims in Kerala. This includes the happenings in their day-to-day life, minute details of their prayers, and their socio-economic conditions.
‘Kismath’ is based on a true story. (Supplied)
Most of mainstream Malayalam films hitherto never took these into consideration. Also, the dialogues of Muslim characters mostly sounded artificial or consisted of jokes and mockery.
But now, emerging filmmakers from northern Kerala are keen to introduce their native places and culture through their work by retaining originality and authenticity.
Muhsin Parari, Harshad, Ashraf Hamza, Muhashin, Zakaria Mohammed, Shamal Sulaiman, and Shanavas Bavakutty are some of the directors who have carved a niche for themselves in Mollywood by delivering some noteworthy films. They all hail from the northern districts of Kerala.
Here are a few Malayalam movies that featured Muslims realistically and explored the themes intrinsic to northern Kerala.
Sudani From Nigeria (2018) is one movie hailed for its realistic portrayal of Muslims.
Malappuram and Kozhikode are the two districts in Kerala where football has huge a fanbase. People here are glued to the popular game.
‘KL 10 Pathu’ is directed by Muhsin Parari. (Supplied)
Sudani From Nigeria captured the football fever of people in Malappuram. Directed by Zakaria Mohammed, the Malayalam film featured Soubin Shahir as Majeed, the manager of Sevens Football Club.
A Nigerian plays for Majeed’s football club and the incidents that happen after his arrival form the crux of the story.
Sudani From Nigeria showcased the lives of common people in Malappuram, especially Muslims, realistically.
The relationship between mother and son, son and his step-father are some of the takeaways of Sudani From Nigeria. The camaraderie among the team members also deserves a mentioned here.
Most importantly, the bond between Majeed and Samuel, the Nigerian player who lost his parents in a civil war in his country, made the movie an endearing watch.
Football played a key role in KL 10 Pathu (2015), too. The movie is set in North Kerala and has fantasy elements such as a “Djinn” narrating the story.
Starring Unni Mukundan, Chandini Sreedharan, Aju Varghese, and Sreenath Bhasi in key roles, the film is based on football, romance, and the socio-political setting in North Kerala.
The Malappuram slang used in the movie seems real as the dialogues and jokes can be related to the natives of Malappuram. The film was directed by Muhsin Parari who scripted Thallumala (2022).
A still from ‘Sulaikha Manzil’. (Twitter)
Sulaikha Manzil is based on a wedding in Ponnani, a town in Malappuram district. Its director Ashraf Hamza hails from Ponnani.
According to the director, his friend, the actor Chemban Vinod, wanted to do a movie based on a wedding in Malappuram and that’s how the idea was born.
Being a wedding film, Sulaikha Manzil had several peppy songs. The locations successfully created the ambience of a wedding. Lukman Avaran and Anarkali Marikar played the main roles.
Muslim marriages were never picturised or portrayed in Malayalam cinema in a realistic way before. Nevertheless, Ashraf Hamza documented it without gimmicks.
In an interview with South First, he said all the elements in the movie are real-life experiences. The film also dealt with the inner feelings of a bride and groom before they get married.
A poster of ‘Thallumala’. (Twitter)
Thallumala is another movie that has weddings as its main theme. But it mainly dealt with fights that take place among men — the hero, his friends, and their rival gangs.
Directed by Khalid Rahman, the movie portrayed the lives of privileged people and is also set in Ponnani.
This Malayalam film is of a different genre as it had huge sets for fight sequences. Tovino Thomas and Kalyani Priyadarshan shared good chemistry on the screen.
Ashraf Hamza, the co-writer of Thallumala, told South First that there are different types of weddings in Ponnani and celebrations are key ingredients in these marriages.
Similarly, there are different types of celebrations and some may be violent, like that in Thallumala, he added.
Most filmmakers in the Malayalam industry tend to write stories based on people from wealthy Hindu and Christian backgrounds. However, parallel cinema and offbeat films usually stay away from this pattern.
Amina Tailors (1991) and Kilichundan Mambazham (2003) didn’t do justice while portraying Muslim women who were shown as oppressed.
Meanwhile, films like Virus (2018) and Sulaikha Manzil showcased strong Muslim women characters.
A poster of ‘Kadina Kadoramee Andakadaham’. (Twitter)
Kadina Kadoramee Anda Kadaham (2023) narrated the tale of Covid-induced lockdowns and the lives of people who travelled to Gulf nations for a living.
Set in Kozhikode district, the movie showcased the incidents that happened in Kerala during the lockdowns. It didn’t have a good theatrical run but was received well after its OTT premiere on Sony LIV.
Kadina Kadoramee Andakadaham is an emotional journey of Basheerudin alias Bachu who strives to live in his native place with his odd business ventures.
The plot revolved around the death of his father in the Gulf nation and the hardships faced by Bachu and his relatives to get back the dead body due to Covid restrictions on air travel.
Directed by Muhashin and written by Harshad, both hailing from the Kozhikode district, Kadina Kadoramee Andakadaham boasts of commendable performances by Basil Joseph and other actors.
Directed by Soubin Shahir, Parava (2017) is another example of the realistic portrayal of Muslims in Malayalam cinema. It is set in Mattancherry (Kochi), a place far away from northern Kerala, but can’t be missed from the list.
Similarly, Kismath (2016), directed by Shanavas Bhavakutty, is based on a real story. The movie dealt with the love story of a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl who is much older than him.
Music also played an important role in taking these Malayalam films closer to audiences.
‘Parava’ marked the directorial debut of Soubin Shahir. (Supplied)
The peppy songs of Thallumala and Sulaikha Manzil were composed by Vishnu Vijay. Sudani From Nigeria also had some good songs composed by Rex Vijayan.
Govind Vasantha’s music gave an emotional feel to Kadina Kadoramee Andakadaham.
He also composed the music for Jackson Bazaar Youth which deals with police brutality. It is directed by Shamal Sulaiman who hails from Nilambur in the Malappuram district.
Kismath also had soothing music scored by Sunshine Syam and his co-music directors.
The traditional music folk songs or “Mappila Pattukal” (Mappila songs are a folklore Muslim song genre rendered to lyrics, within a melodic framework, in Arabi Malayalam by the Mappilas of the Malabar region in Kerala) were used in most of these films to get an essence of the region.
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