Five popular Writer-Director combinations in Malayalam

The collaboration of artists mostly results in creative wonders, be it music, painting or cinema. We have seen many successful combinations of actors, directors, writers in cinema across the world. By the collaboration of some fine script writers and directors, Malayalam cinema reached its finesse producing some evergreen classics in 80s and 90s which is considered as the golden era of Malayalam cinema. Here we list some of the best writer-director combinations of Malayalam cinema, old and new.

Considered as one of the best and successful writer-director duos in Malayalam cinema, MT Vasudevan Nair-Hariharan collaborated in the movie ‘Panchagni’ for the first time which became one of the classics of Malayalam cinema. MT Vasudevan Nair, famously known as MT is a prolific writer in Malayalam and has given many path-breaking classics in the field of cinema and literature. The combination of MT and Hariharan, both oriented towards the family structure and culture of Kerala undoubtedly fit into the same genre. In this time, actors like Mohanlal and Mammootty delivered their career’s best performances and escalated their status in Malayalam cinema. The duo won many awards and accolades for their films including National awards. Their works include some of the best known classics like ‘Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha’, ‘Nakhakshathangal’, ‘Amrutham Gamaya’ and ‘Ennu Swantham Janakikutty’.

Founders of a new school in film making in Malayalam, ‘Padmarajan’ and ‘Bharathan’ along with noted film director K G George made groundbreaking achievements in the realm of cinema. The combination of Padmarajan as a screenwriter and Bharathan as a director created films that were widely received and critically acclaimed. They made movies which revolutionised the prevalent notion of film making with their innovative works and expressionism. Debuting with the 1975 film ‘Prayanam’, probing into the realities that existed within the Brahmin communities of the time, the movie won three Kerala State Film Awards. Other works include ‘Rathinirvedam’, ‘Lorry’ and ‘Thakara’ all of which got into the list of classics in Malayalam cinema.

The start of an evergreen combo of Mollywood was marked with the Mammootty starrer ‘Thaniyavarthanam’ in 1987 and created around 14 films since then, all of which are critically and commercially received movies. AK Lohithadas, a writer with rich and realistic screenplays along with the director Sibi Malayil revolves around character-centric films and often puts challenges to the actors who portray them. The works of the duo mainly ponder about the psyche of the central character which gave many best performances from many actors, Mohanlal being the most casted one. They won many National and State awards for their works and Mohanlal got his first National award acting in the movie ‘Bharatham’ for Best Actor. Other works include ‘Dasharatham’, ‘Kireedam’, ‘Sadayam’, ‘Chenkol’ and others.

Starting the successful writer-director combo with Mohanlal starrer TP Balagopalan MA, Sreenivasan and Sathyan Anthikkad collaborated to create some best comedy-drama movies in the history of Malayalam cinema. Their works mainly centred upon the political and familial inequalities and oppression, often portrayed in a satirical form. For their debut work, TP Balagopalan MA received two Kerala State Film Awards and that was certainly a kick start for the successful combination, creating some best known works like ‘Nadodikkattu’, ‘Sanmanasullavark Samadhanam’, ‘Sreedharante Onnam Thirumurivu’ and ‘Pattanapravesham’. They created around 15 films since their debut, all of which garnered commercial success and reached to a wide variety of audience regardless of age and culture.

Apart from the artist combinations of the 80s and 90s era of Malayalam cinema, Shyam Pushkaran and Aashiq Abu is a new age writer-director combo who created some best works worth discussing. Debuting in 2011 with the romantic comedy film ‘Salt N’ Pepper’, they created over six films since then. Even though writers like Dileesh Nair and Abhilash S Kumar collaborated with Shyam Pushkaran in the writing part, Aashiq Abu and Shyam Pushkaran made a hit combo in the new age Malayalam cinema through their dialogues and making skills which stay apart from other movies.

All of their works cannot be fit into a single genre, but each of them discusses the main theme in different backdrops like food, love, travel, friendship etc. Their works include ‘22 Female Kottayam’, ‘Da Thadiya’, ‘Idukki Gold’, ‘Rani Padmini’ and ‘Mayanadhi’.