Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was designated a "Classical Language of India" in 2013. Malayalam has official language status in Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé), and is also the primary spoken language of Lakshadweep. Malayalam is spoken by 35 million people in India. Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with a significant number of speakers in the Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka, and Kanyakumari, Coimbatore and Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. It is also spoken by the Malayali Diaspora worldwide, especially in the Persian Gulf countries, due to the large populations of Malayali expatriates there. They are a significant population in each city in India including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad etc.
Malayalam cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Malayalam language, which is widely spoken in the state of Kerala. Malayalam cinema includes the commercial film industry, popularly known as Mollywood, as well as independent cinema made in Malayalam.
Kattassery Joseph Yesudas is an Indian playback singer and musician who sings Indian classical, devotional and film songs. He is widely considered one of the greatest singers in the history of Indian music and a cultural icon of Kerala. Yesudas is estimated to have recorded more than 50,000 songs in various Indian languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Tulu, Hindi, Odia, Bengali, Marathi as well as Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian, in a career spanning six decades. He is often referred to as Gaanagandharvan. Yesudas holds the record for singing 11 songs in different languages in a single day. He has also composed a number of Malayalam film songs during the 1970s and 1980s.
Mohanlal Viswanathan is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam film industry besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Mohanlal has a prolific career spanning over four decades, during which he has acted in more than 400 films. Mohanlal's contributions to the Malayalam cinema have been praised by his contemporaries in the Indian film industry. The Government of India honoured him with Padma Shri in 2001, and Padma Bhushan in 2019, India's fourth and third highest civilian honours, for his contributions to Indian cinema. In 2009, he became the first actor in India to be awarded the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel in the Territorial Army. Mohanlal was named as one of "the men who changed the face of the Indian Cinema" by CNN.
Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic musician. In a career spanning over 47 years she has recorded over 25,000 Songs in various Indian languages, as well as foreign languages such as Malay, Latin, Arabic, Sinhalese, English and French.
Manichitrathazhu is a 1993 Indian Malayalam-language epic psychological horror film directed by Fazil, written by Madhu Muttam, and produced by Swargachitra Appachan. The film stars Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi and Shobana in addition to Nedumudi Venu, Innocent, Vinaya Prasad, K.P.A.C.Lalitha, Sridhar, K.B. Ganesh Kumar, Sudheesh, Thilakan and others in supporting roles. The story is inspired by a tragedy that happened in a Ezhava tharavad, the Alummoottil meda, located at Muttom, belonging to a central Travancore Channar family, in the 19th century. The writer of the film, Madhu K Panicker or Madhu Muttam, is a member of the Alummoottil Tharavad.
Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan, also known as M.S.V., was an Indian music director, singer and actor who predominantly worked in Tamil film industry. Popularly known by the sobriquet "Mellisai Mannar", he composed songs for more than 800 Indian films and various albums across languages primarily in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. He has also acted and sung in a few Tamil films. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa conferred the "Thirai Isai Chakravarthy" title on him in August 2012 and presented him with 60 gold coins and a new car.
Indian is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language vigilante action film directed by S. Shankar, who wrote the script with dialogues by Sujatha, and produced by A. M. Rathnam. The film stars Kamal Haasan in a dual role, alongside Manisha Koirala, Urmila Matondkar, Sukanya, Manorama, Goundamani, Senthil, Nedumudi Venu, Kasthuri, Nizhalgal Ravi and Ajay Rathnam. It is the first instalment in the Indian film series. The music was composed by A. R. Rahman, while cinematography and editing were handled by Jeeva and B. Lenin-V. T. Vijayan. In the film, Senapathy, a retired freedom fighter rebels against corruption in India, which puts him in conflict with his son Chandrabose "Chandru", who lives by corruption.
Mukesh Madhavan, known mononymously as Mukesh, is an Indian actor, film producer, television presenter, and politician who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil-language films. In a film career spanning four decades, he has acted in over 275 Malayalam films.
Devadasu is a 1953 Indian romance film directed by Vedantam Raghavayya and produced by D. L. Narayana for Vinodha Pictures. Chakrapani wrote the script based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel, Devdas. C. R. Subbaraman composed the film's music. The film was edited by P. V. Narayanan, while B. S. Ranga provided the cinematography.
Allauddinum Albhutha Vilakkum is a 1979 Indian fantasy film directed by I. V. Sasi, based on Aladdin's story from One Thousand and One Nights. The film stars Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Jayabharathi and Sripriya, with Gemini Ganesan, Savitri and S. A. Ashokan in supporting roles. It was simultaneously filmed in Malayalam and Tamil languages, the latter as Allaudinaum Arputha Vilakkum which was released on 8 June 1979, two months after the Malayalam version which came on 14 April 1979.
Thoongathey Thambi Thoongathey is a 1983 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by S. P. Muthuraman, starring Kamal Haasan in a double role, supported by Radha and Sulakshana. It was a blockbuster and completed a 275-day run at the box office.
Samuthirakani is an Indian actor and film director who works predominantly in Tamil and Telugu films besides few Malayalam films. He worked as an assistant to director K. Balachander, in Paarthale Paravasam. He won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2016 for Visaranai, he is also an recipient of three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, a Filmfare Award and a SIIMA award
S. Ramesan Nair was an Indian lyricist and poet who worked predominantly in the Malayalam film industry. Over his career he wrote songs for over 170 films and over 3,000 devotional songs outside of the films. He debuted with the movie Pathamudhayam in 1985. He was a recipient of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2010 and the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 2018 for his collection of poems Gurupournami.
Varusham 16 is a 1989 Indian Tamil-language film, directed by Fazil. The film stars Karthik and Khushbu, with Sukumari, V. K. Ramasamy, Janagaraj, Charle and Vadivukkarasi in supporting roles. It is a remake of Fazil's own Malayalam film Ennennum Kannettante. The film was released on 18 February 1989, and Karthik won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil.
Nazriya Nazim Fahadh is an Indian actress and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films. Nazriya is a recipient of several accolades including two Kerala State Film Awards, one Tamil Nadu State Film Award and one Filmfare Award South.
Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy were an Indian music composing duo composed of M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy. They worked together on over 100 films, from 1952's Panam to 1965's Aayirathil Oruvan. After their split, Ramamoorthy worked on 16 films between 1966 and 1986. He and Viswanathan reunited in 1995 for Engirundho Vandhan.
Achan (transl. Father) is a 1952 Indian Malayalam-language film, directed by M. R. S. Mani and produced by M. Kunchacko. The film stars Prem Nazir and B. S. Saroja in lead roles. The film had musical score by P. S. Divakar. This was the only film in which veteran actor Sesbastian Kunjukunju Bhagavatahar did a comic role. It is one of the major box office hits of early Malayalam cinema. It will be remembered as the debut of Boban Kunchacko, the maiden venture of XL Productions, and first film of Thiruvananthapuram V. Lakshmi. The film was remade in Tamil as Thanthai, again with Prem Nazir. Kambadasan wrote the dialogues and lyrics. The film was released in April 1953.
Nilave Malare is a 1986 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar. The film stars Rahman, Nadhiya, Baby Shalini and Manorama. It was released on 14 February 1986. The film was later dubbed into Telugu as Muddula Papa.
Pan-Indianfilm is a term related to Indian cinema that originated with Telugu cinema as a mainstream commercial cinema appealing to audiences across the country with a spread to world markets. S. S. Rajamouli pioneered the pan-Indian films movement with duology of epic action films Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), that changed the demography of Indian cinema.
