I find that of South Indian movies in general, Malayalam movies seem to be better made, and often far more sensitive. I don't really understand the language but some of the great ones I have seen are 'Chemmeen', and 'Manichitrathazhu'. Both are unavailable on DVD as far as I know. Does anyone know of any place that sells malayalam DVDs, especially the one for 'Manichitrathazhu'? It stars Shobhana who won the National Award for her performance as a schizophrenic/haunted dancer. Its really a classic.

Also, I dont think Ive seen a 'new' Malayalam movie in ages. If anyone has reviews or recommendations, please post them here. Thanks!

I agree...Manichitrathazhu was a very good movie. Do you know of any details on it being on DVD? I've actually been looking to buy it, too. I don't really know too much about new malayalam movies, but I can tell you some I've seen that I liked -- most with Mohanlal, 'cause I think he's one of the best actors out there.

Naadodikaattu
Chitram
Bharatham
Yoddha
Devaraagam (comedy/drama) -- this has Sridevi and Arvind Swamy
His Highness Abdullah
Megham

Oh, btw, Naadodikaattu, Yoddha, and Chitram are pretty funny. The other ones are have a bit more drama (especially Bharatham, which is very sad. It's the national award winner for its year for picture and actor - Mohanlal).



Edited By Holden on July 24 2002 at 22:06

Chemmeen is available on DVD from Super Digital, and I posted a review on a previous Malayalam DVD thread.

Surya USA has released about 30+ Mallu movies on DVD. You can get most of them from TheMahal.com, or directly from Surya at suryausa.com.

Raj and I did some reviews for some Mohanlal movies: Minnaram, Yoddha, Chandralekha, Kanmadam etc. You could try a search in the forum.

Of the movies mentioned above, Naadodikkaattu is definitely in the works. Other Mohanlal classics that Surya says is being processed for DVD release are Kireedam, Irupatham Noottandu, Unnikale Oru Katha Parayaam etc. No news of Chithram, His Highness Abdullah or Manichithrathazhu though.

All the early Mallu DVDs seem to be authored by Superdigital. Of late, Media Dimensions have started authoring Surya's discs, with much better results. Kanmadam is the best Mallu DVD I have seen. Chandralekha was pretty good too, but has lousy sound.

Chaver.

What DVDs would you recommend to rent, in terms of both quality and good movies?

Mohanlal is hands down one of the best actors the malayalam film industry has ever produced..his acting is quite consistent in most movies..some of the all-time favourites of Mohanlal are:

Kireedam (not sure how its spelled): This is the malayalam version of gardish..absolutely phenomenal performance.

Kilikum: extremely funny/romance/feel good movie

Nadodi kattu: very funny indeed...there were 2 more sequels to this. One of them is 'akara akara'..I don't remember the other one

Devasuram: another powerful performance by mohan lal

there r a few more..but I can guarantee you that you won't be dissappointed with the above mentioned movies

None of the above movies are available on DVD. For a good introduction to Mallu movies, I'd recommend Chandralekha. The DVD has pretty good video, though the audio quality is nothing to write home about. The movie itself is hilarious, and harks back to the golden period of Mallu comedy (late 80's and early 90's).

(BTW, Kireedam (meaning the Crown) is NOT the Mallu version of Gardish. Sibi Malayil-Lohithadas team created this masterpiece in 1989. Mohanlal won a special mention for his acting from the jury for National Awards. Later, when Priyadarshan started making movies in Hindi, he remade this into Gardish.)

I rented Chandralekha yesterday and found it to be kind of grueling to watch. All the lying, pretending, etc. Mohanlal was good. The video quality was quite good. Very little DVNR was used or was needed. However, the DVD froze at chapter 21, even after repeated cleanings, so could someone could fill me in as to what happened after Chandra started talking?