Mohanlal Viswanathan, known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada-language 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.
Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail, known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty, is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam films. He has also appeared in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and English-language productions. In a career spanning five decades, he has acted in over 400 films. He is the recipient of several accolades, including three National Film Awards, seven Kerala State Film Awards, and thirteen Filmfare Awards South. For his contribution to film, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in 1998.
Priyadarshan is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam and Hindi films, while also having done six films in Tamil and two films in Telugu. He has done about 27 films in Hindi alone, the highest number of films done by any Hindi film director after David Dhawan. He was one of the first directors in India to introduce rich color grading, clear sound and quality dubbing through his early Malayalam films. Priyadarshan has also directed many advertisement films.
Ranjith Balakrishnan is an Indian film director, screenwriter, lyricist, producer, and actor who works in Malayalam cinema. Ranjith made his directorial debut in 2001 with Ravanaprabhu, the sequel to Devaasuram. His films Thirakkatha and Indian Rupee won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam in 2008 and 2011 respectively. He is also the current chairman of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.
Deepak Devraj Komath, better known as Deepak Dev is an Indian music composer, best known for his compositions in Malayalam cinema. He started his career in the Film Industry through the movie Chronic Bachelor (2003) directed by Siddique. Deepak is also a former member of the Kochi based Indian rock band Motherjane.
Thazhathupurakkal Karunakara Panicker Rajeev Kumar is a National Award-winning Indian director of Malayalam films, from Trivandrum. He is the winner of five Kerala State Film Awards for Best Film, Director, Story Writer & Script Writer, a show director, theatre actor and percussionist (Mridangam). He is a founding member and leader of the musical band Blue Birds in 1980 and Super Mimics, a comedy show in 1979. He is also the Kerala University winner of Mono Act in the University Youth Festivals 1980–1982 and Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy winner for Mono Act 1979–1982.
Hallo is a 2007 Indian Malayalam-language comedy thriller film written and directed by the Rafi Mecartin duo. The film stars Mohanlal and Parvathy Melton, with Jagathy Sreekumar, Siddique, K. B. Ganesh Kumar, Madhu, and Samvrutha Sunil in important roles. The music was composed by Alex Paul. The film received positive reviews from critics. Critics praised Mohanlal"s performance. The film was also a major commercial success. It was remade in Telugu as Naa Style Veru (2009) and in Kannada as Manjunatha BA LLB (2012). The plot of the movie was reported to have been partially borrowed from the 2004 movie Cellular.
M. P. Michael, better known by his stage name Lal, is an Indian actor, screenwriter, film director, producer and distributor who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. He has also appeared in Tamil films and in a few Telugu films. Lal has a Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Malayalam (2008), one National Film Award – Special Mention for acting (2012) and two Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor.
Kalakkura Chandru is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film directed by the duo Ravi-Raja. The movie stars Karthik, Radha Ravi and Pandiarajan, It was a remake of Malayalam film One Man Show (2001) but failed to repeat the success at the box office.
Love In Singapore is a 2009 Indian Malayalam-language comedy drama film directed by Rafi Mecartin, starring Mammootty in lead role. Navneet Kaur made her Malayalam debut through this film.
Punjabi House is a 1998 Indian Malayalam-language comedy drama film written and directed by Rafi Mecartin. It stars Dileep and Harisree Ashokan as comedy duo Unni and Ramanan with Mohini, Jomol, Lal, Cochin Haneefa, Thilakan, Janardhanan and N. F. Varghese in pivotal roles. The music was composed by Suresh Peters and S. P. Venkatesh, the former composing the songs, making his debut as a film composer and the latter composing the score. The film was released as an Onam release on 4 September 1998. The film was a blockbuster at release even though it clashed with Mammootty-Mohanlal starrer Harikrishnans. Many dialogues from the film turned into popular catchphrases. The character Ramanan played by Harishree Ashokan is considered one of the best comedy characters in Malayalam movies and has a cult status. The movie is considered one of the best slapstick comedy film in Malayalam cinema and it established Dileep as a leading star and catapulted him into stardom.
Thenkasipattanam is a 2000 Indian Malayalam-language action comedy film written and directed by Rafi Mecartin, produced by Lal, and starring Suresh Gopi, Lal and Dileep as male leads and Samyuktha Varma, Geethu Mohandas and Kavya Madhavan as female leads with Salim Kumar and Spadikam George in supporting roles.
Rafi and Mecartin are a screenwriter and director duo best known for comedy films in Malayalam cinema. Raffi's younger brother Shafi is also a well-known film director. Raffi is also the nephew of director Siddique from the Siddique–Lal duo. He has scripted and directed successful films such as Puthukkottayile Puthumanavalan (1995), Superman (1997), Punjabi House (1998), Thenkasipattanam (2000), Chathikkatha Chanthu (2004), Pandippada (2005), and Hallo (2007). The duo has also written the scripts for Aniyan Bava Chetan Bava (1995), Aadyathe Kanmani (1995), Dilliwala Rajakumaran (1996), Kusruthi Kuruppu (1998), One Man Show (2001), Thilakkam (2003), and Mayavi (2007) among others, for other directors.
One Man Show is a 2001 Indian Malayalam-language comedy-drama film directed by Shafi and written by the Rafi Mecartin duo. It stars Jayaram, Samyuktha Varma, Lal, Manya, Kalabhavan Mani and Narendra Prasad. The story unfurls itself in the course of a TV game show. this film was a huge commercial success at the box office.
China Town is a 2011 Indian Malayalam-language action comedy film written and directed by the Rafi Mecartin duo and produced by Antony Perumbavoor under the company Aashirvad Cinemas. The film stars Mohanlal, Jayaram, Dileep and Suraj Venjaramoodu with Kavya Madhavan, Poonam Bajwa, Dipa Shah, Pradeep Rawat, Captain Raju and Shankar in pivotal roles. Jagathi Sreekumar makes a cameo appearance. Jassie Gift provided the film's music. The film is loosely based on The Hangover.
Kalabhavan, also known as Cochin Kalabhavan, is a centre for learning performing arts in Kochi, India. Kalabhavan is notable and known for being the first organized performing mimicry group in Kerala and which popularised the art of mimicry in the state of Kerala. Ever since its founding, Kalabhavan has served as a grooming centre for acting aspirants. Hence, Kalabhavan has contributed numerous actors as well as film directors to Malayalam cinema.
Ebbey Abraham, better known by his stage name Vysakh, is an Indian film director who works in Malayalam films. He began his career as a television anchor and later as an associate director to Joshiy and Johny Antony. He debuted as an independent director in 2010 with Pokkiri Raja starring Mammootty and Prithviraj Sukumaran. In 2016, his directorial Pulimurugan starring Mohanlal and Jagapathi Babu became one of the first Malayalam film to gross around ₹150 crore at the box office.
Mamas Ramachandran, better known as Mamas, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and caricaturist. He made his directorial debut in 2010 with Paappi Appacha.
Priyadarshan is an Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Priyadarsan movies are mostly known for their comedy but he did an artistically historical epic film about freedom fighters in India known as Kaalapani and his epic period drama is Kanchivaram. In a career spanning almost three decades, Priyadarshan has directed over 90 films in several Indian languages, predominantly Malayalam and Hindi, besides six in Tamil, and two in Telugu. Though he began his career in Malayalam cinema in 1984, Priyadarshan was active mainly in Hindi cinema for 2001–2010. In 2013, he announced Rangrezz would be his last Hindi film for a while; and he is shifting focus to Malayalam Cinema.
Children's Park is a 2019 Indian Malayalam comedy film. It was directed by Shafi and written by Rafi. The film stars Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Manasa Radhakrishnan, Sharafudheen, Dhruvan, Sowmya Menon, and Gayathri Suresh. It was produced by Roopesh Omana and Milan Jaleel under Cochin Films.
