 |
| film Njan Gandharvan |
For a
people that viewed anything slightly deviating from the normal with distrust or
sarcasm, creating something that challenged realism altogether remained a dare
forever. In cinema, fantasy has never been a successful Malayali staple,
although it was tried one too many times, and not entirely without occasional successes.
But they never earned the appreciation that films with realistic themes did,
maybe owing to the alien nature of its subject matter, or due to a general
incompetence in convincingly executing the essential surreal imagery. However
this had not completely deterred our filmmakers, who occasionally used fantasy
to form the spine of narration as in the form of the apparition of St. Francis in
Pranchiettan & the Saint and the
comic plot line with the lead ghosts in Ayushkaalam
and Pappan Priyapetta Pappan. But to
step a few serious paces ahead, the challenge was mostly to stay within the
confines of realism and put forward the idea of fantasy unhurriedly and as
matter-of-factly as possible. Following is a list of such bold attempts in
Malayalam language that were both indigenous enough to involve the audience and
effective enough to enchant them, far from the glitz and magnanimity of its
Hollywood parallels that had long owned the genre.
