Priyadarshan- The Run Machine of Indian Cinema
So far this year we have seen the frenzy generated by SDM and the success of movies like Dev D and Raaz- the Mystery Continues. And of late we have been hearing a lot about the ongoing strike in Bollywood. But there was also one landmark that occured in the 1st Qr of 2009, something which did not really get so much of attention. This landmark was achieved on 13th February ’09 when Billu got released. No this write-up is not something about either Billu or SRK. For those who are not aware I wish to inform that Billu is the 75th movie directed by Priyadarshan in his career spanning around 25 years in Indian Cinema. This is indeed a commendable achievement because there aren’t too many directors with such a big tally of completed projects and more so when it’s from someone like him who has successfully made a transition from South Indian cinema to Bollywood.
Oh! Yes we all know that a lot of his recent movies have started getting repetitive. There are valid complaints like he’s been using the same locations time & again, he’s been working with a stock set of actors, he continues to remake his own movies or those directed by others (mainly Malayalam) etc. But all said and done we just cannot ignore the fact Priyan has given us countless memorable movies in Malayalam like Chithram, Thalavattom, Kalapani etc and even some of his early Hindi movies have been quite refreshing like Gardish & Virasat. This year also has finally seen the release of his critically acclaimed Tamil movie- Kanchivaram. This year also is seeing him work on serious movies like Bum Bum Bole (with Darsheel Safary and supposedly inspired from Children of Heaven) and an untitled movie on AIDS awareness with Akshay Kumar and Mohanlal.
Hence considering all this I think this is the right time to look back in time and re-visit some of the best works of Priyan. Given below are 5 films that I feel would be top on my list and they are described below in chronological order. Considering his repertoire it has not been easy for me to choose the movies. But nevertheless here I go-
Poochakke Oru Mookuthi- This Malayalam movie released in 1984 was Priyan’s debut movie which he went on to remake later in Hindi as Hungama. The movie was a brilliant comedy of errors and had superlative performances not just from the lead cast of Shankar,Menaka and Mohanlal but also from the supporting cast like Nedumudi Venu,Sukumari, Shankaradi, Jagathy Sreekumar etc. The ‘chaotic’ style of climax which is a Priyan trademark actually originated from this movie. One of the best scenes from this movie is when Shankar an aspiring singer comes to teach music to Sukumari and Nedumudi Venu interferes. The scene does not feature in Hungama. Given below is the video link- have a look & enjoy 
Thalavattom- Released in 1986, this Malayalam movie was unsuccessfully remade by Priyan later in Hindi as Kyunki. With more than subtle shades of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, what made the movie special was Mohanal playing the character of Vinod who is mentally ill. Mohanalal’s portrayal was extremely convincing and was ably supported by others like Karthika, Nedumudi Venu, Soman,Jagathy Sreekumar etc. Inspite of the slightly serious subject Priyan retained his comic touch in the movie with some memorable comedy scenes like the one in the link below-
Music by Reghu Kumar also deserves a special mention here.
Chithram- Released in 1988, this Malayalam movie is one of the biggest hits in the history of Malayalam cinema. The movie was so successful that it went on to be remade in a lot of other languages including Tamil and Hindi but none of them were directed by Priyan, The movie was written by the prolific actor-writer Sreenivasan and once again had Mohanlal in the lead. Chithram is the story of Vishnu ( Mohanlal ) a photographer who goes to jail for accidentally killing his wife and then escapes from jail to make money for his child’s surgery. That’s when he comes in contact with Kalyani ( Renjini ) and her uncle ( Nedumudi Venu) who want him to act as Kalyani’s husband to make her father ( Poornam Vishwanathan ) happy as he is ill & on vacation. What ensues is a comic series of adventures with an extremely emotional climax. Music by Kannur Rajan was also one of the main reasons for the movie’s success. Given below is the link to the video of my favorite song from the movie – Doore kizhakkudikkum sung by M.G.Sreekumar and Sujatha.
Kilukkam- This Malayalam movie released in 1991 was also remade by him in Hindi as Muskurahat. It is certainly one of the best comedy films in Malayalam cinema – but definitely not just a routine comedy. While Mohanal as Joji the tourist guide in Ooty and Revathy as the orphan in search of her father were certainly commendable, IMO the actual star of the movie is Jagathy Sreekumar who plays the role of Mohanalal’s friend Nishchal.This movie is one of the best examples to showcase the powerhouse of talent that Jagathy Sreekumar is. Watch the scene in the video below – one of my favorites from the movie. This was one of the earlier works of Sharat Saxena in South Indian cinema.Music by S.P.Venkatesh was also in line with the mood of the film.
Kalapani- Not all movies directed by Priyan were comedies and Kalapani ( Siraichalai-Tamil, Saza-E-Kalapani-Hindi) is a fitting example to underline the statement. The movie told the poignant story of a doctor (Mohanlal) who is wrongly accused of being an extremist freedom fighter and sent to the Cellular Jail in Port Blair (Andaman & Nicobar Islands). The movie brilliantly described the cruelty that the Indian freedom fighters suffered in the Cellular Jail during the British regime. Performances by the supporting cast of Amrish Puri,Prabhu,Tabu,Annu Kapoor etc were all praiseworthy. Music by Ilayaraja and cinematography by Santosh Sivan further enhanced the appeal of the story.Earlier this year when I finally got to visit the Cellular Jail, I couldn’t but help recollecting a lot of scenes from the movie.
Apart from these 5 movies certain other movies also deserve a special mention like Thenmavin Kombathu (Saat Rang Ke Sapne by Priyan inHindi), Akkare Akkare Akkare
the 3rd part in the classic Dasan-Vijayan police series , Vandanam and Mukundetta Sumithra Vilikunnu. Do let me know what you all feel about these movies and about the other movies made by Priyan. Here’s hoping that Priyan – the run machine of Indian cinema continues to entertain us with his movies and makes even better movies hereafter.
Note- I have not mentioned any Tamil or Hindi movie in my list because all his movies in Hindi and Tamil ( except Kanchivaram- which I’m yet to watch) have been direct remakes of other South Indian movies (mainly Malayalam) directed by Priyan himself or others.
Tags: akshay kumar, amrish puri, annu kapoor, Ilayaraja, Jagathy Sreekumar, M.G.Sreekumar, Mohanlal, Nedumudi Venu, priyadarshan, Revathy, Santosh Sivan, Sreenivasan, SRK
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all his movies are always technically very sound i ve almost watched all of the listed movies and will try to watch the ones i ve not,,,even billu barber i belive was technically far ahead as compare to malayalam and Tamil version, Tamil version was the worst of the lot,, and malayalam the best as far as performance goes..kanchiwaram is amust watch for prakash rajs performance…..nother good post from SETHU keep the good work man,,, if you dont mind can i have your personal email!!
Wow, thanks for the poochokkuri mukkuthi video.
Some of the priyan movies I loved :
1) Midhunam (wonder how you missed this)
2) Vellaanagalude naadu
3) Advaitham (except for the climax)
4) Vandanam (for the climax and the Mohanlal-Mukesh-Jagadish scenes)
Do let me know what you feel about these movies.
sethu: nice reco of the earlier works of priyan. personally, have watched all the top 5 mentioned by you, but not the other three mentioned in the end.
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i personally feel killukam and chithram are his best movies til ldate,as they are apparantly a light comedy, but there is a deep-rooted social message as well in both, that we generally seem to ignore in the face of apparent comedy.
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mohanlal has worked in so many movies with priyan, and somehow, though generally the primary subject of most of his movies is chaos and the ensuing comedy at the end, mohanlal and others somehow make it so adorably believable.
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in comparison, i guess priyan’s hindi movies have been more to earn a fast buck or two at the expense of someone else’s original work in malayalam. .
but i still liked his bhool bhulaiya, which was much closer to the original than i had expected. and he did justice to the basic theme of the original manichithrathazu.
I for one cannot relate to the David Dhawan and Priyadarshan kind of film making where they direct multiple projects at the same time. They just come to the sets when certain important scenes are being shot. Otherwise it is a show run by the assistant directors.
It is more like pay me X amount of money and I will let you use my name as Director and over see some of the work. Only one thing is missing “Indulgence”
Kilukkam to date remains the best comic movie I have seen on Indian screen. My favourite has to be the scenes between Innocent and Thilakan. Malayalam industry is blessed with some supremely talented supporting actors.
Jha- yes Kilukkam & Chithram are landmark movies made by Priyan.This is how cinema must be- entertaining but the same time still leave food for thought.
As for Manichitrathazhu, yes Bhool Bulaiyya was quite close to the original & probably one of the reasons for it also has to be the fact that Priyan was among the team of associate directors for the movie.
Agnostic Indian- I think the biggest culprit when it comes to directing multiple projects and so hardly having time to involve in most of them is definitely Mahesh Bhatt during the 1990’s.Thankfully he bid goodbye to direction officially after making a strong comeback with Zakhm.
Yes Kilukkam will definitely remain a memorable movie & the kind of supporting actors that exist in Malayalam cinema will put to shame most of the talent in other languages.
I still remember watching Chithram at an Uncle’s house on VHS. In calcutta we used to get the south indian movies VHS on rent. But this one was sent to him by his brother in Dubai and it even had subtitle during that age and time. Since I was very small and growing up in cal, it used to be difficult for me to follow all the lyrics of malayalam songs. Hence a subtitled viewing was a blessing. I went on to watch that movie at different places at least 10 times within a year, such was the craze.
Priyan has got the best sense of timing among film makers…he creates comedic sequences out of nowhere (himself has acknowledged that he made Chitram without a script)..a great talent…but fully engulfed by plagiarism..He is good at using permutation/combinaiton techniques while creating a new film…
Like when he picked up Kamal(mal director not tam star) classic ‘Paavam Paavam Rajakumaran’ and made into a tamil film called ‘Gopura Vasalile’…for slapstick he added a portion with Cochin Hanifaa and a bomb episode in a theatre…When he went on the remake Sibi Malayil’s ‘Kireedom’ as ‘Gardish’ in Hindi, so he somehow fittend in this same slapstick portion, featuring the same Cochin Hanifaa in Gardish too..LOL..
He picks up ‘A Fish Called Wanda’ and adds some of his own content to come out with ‘Kaaka Kuyil’ or picks up ‘While you were sleeping’, replaces Sandra Bullock with Mohanlal and creates ‘Chadralekha’..Remake King.. :-O
Ravi- yes those days ( especially the 80’s & early 90’s) were memorable when most of us looked forward to the VHS tapes of the malayalam movies which were sent from the Gulf countries.I in particular looked forward to them as the quality of the tape was exceptional and good as the original or even better
Ram- yes he is definitely the remake king & he has got more or less into this mode very vigorously in the last few years.A few more examples are Dhol- remake of In Harihar Nagar
( Siddique -Lal), Mere Baap Pehle Aap- remake of
Ishtam (Sibi Malayil ), Bhagam Baag ( a fusion of Mannar Mathai Speaking by Mani Kappan and his own Rakilipaatu),Chup Chup Ke – remake of Punjabi House ( Rafi-Mercatin) etc.But nevertheless he is highly talented & I hope to see better work from him now.
I dont know what to expect from Priyadarshan. One thing is for sure, he makes awesome movies like “Gardish”, “Hera Pheri” and “Virasat”. Even “Billu” was good watch especially for Irfan Khan acting, SRK was loud, and expectedly very full of himself.
And then follows up with god knows what kind of movies should i classify them(Run of the mill, stock movies, filler movies, family comedies went wrong, shouting is comedy, shouting & howling movies, more shouting and loud character movies, movies to recommend to your enemy, Every one is Loud here movies, Over the top movies)
Dhol
Bhagam Bhag
Chup Chup Ke
Malamaal Weekly
Kyon KI
Garam Masala
Hulchul
Hungama
Kabhi Na Kabhi
@gony dhony…the theme depends on which movie he picks up to remake :-)
“Gardish” – Kireedom as mentioned above
“Hera Pheri” – Ramji Rao Speaking (Mal classic comedy by Siddique-Lal)
“Virasat”. – “Thevar Magan’ by Bharathan-Kamalahaasan
Dhol – In Harihar Nagar (Mal -Siddique-Lal)
Bhagam Bhag – Refer Sethu 9
Chup Chup Ke – Refer Sethu 9
Malamaal Weekly
Kyon KI – ‘Thalavattam’Mal by himself but inspired form ‘One flew over a Cuckoos Nest’ refer article above
Garam Masala – ‘Boeing Boeing’ Mal by himself ripped of from English ‘Boeing Boeing’
Hulchul – remade on Godfather (mal) by Siddique-Lal
Hungama – Poochakkoru mookuthi (Mal) by himself..I assume it is original but slapstick
Kabhi Na Kabhi – I assume its original from Javed-Akthar
SID- yeah I agree that Priyan’s movies are technically quite good.Certainly Billu was a lot better than Kuselan
glad you liked my list on the other post.
My mail i.d is sethumadhavan.n@gmail.com
vimmuuu- The objective was to choose the top 5 movies of Priyan & so thats what I did.But I did mention it wasnt an easy task.But as far as the movies mentioned by you are concerned here’s what I feel-
1. Midhunam- certainly among his better one’s
needs a mention allright.And yes how can I forget Mohanlal’s name is Sethumadhavan in it just like in Kireedom
2. Vellanangalude Naadu- again a must watch and one of his better works.Written by Sreenivasan- so need not say anything else.
3. Advaitham- good subject and casting
4. Vandanam- one of my favorites & mentioned about it in the article too.
Glad you liked the Poochakku Oru Mookuthi video clip.
@ gony dhoni- yes he’s unpredictable, can deliver a dud after a brilliant effort & vice versa
@ Ram- the list is long.Hee are some more-
Leysa Leysa- Summer in Bethlehem ( Sibi Malayil)
Doli Sajake Rakhna- Aniyathi Pravu ( Fazil)
Bhool Bulaiyya- Manichitrathazhu ( Fazil )
Vettam- French Kiss/Pyar to hona hi tha
THANKS Sethu!!one more thing about priyan in his movies even beggars will look ver glamorous and polished,, his presenstaion is always like that, remember the junkyard in kabhie na kabhie pareshwals charcter kachra seth with colurful drums in the background!!
SID- he does like to present things in a rich way.But thats not always.From whatever I’ve seen of Kanchivaram, he’s done the detailing quite well.So I guess it all boils down to what’s on his mind I guess.
Fantastic post! what i like in Priyan’s films is meaningful dialogues like..
???????? ???? ???? ???????? ?? ??? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ????? – ????
Sethu-Yes u r right.. what i meant was the commercial side of that man when he is not indulging in something like Kanchivaram or saze-e-kalaapani for instance…
by da way prakash raj is brilliant in Kanchivaram!
Priyadarshan is and will be one of the most successful filmmakers in the malayalam movie industry
SID- yes I hope to see more films like Kanchivaram & Kalapani from him.
Jibin- your statement is very correct & I wish to see him make more good movies like in the past.
THE LAAST THING THAT pfc NEEDED IS A DISCUSSION ON PRIYAN…GREAT GOING GUYZZZ
I was very impressed with KANCHIVARAM! a brilliant work! One of the finest indian films I have seen in recent times. Brilliant performances,production design,photography. Did’nt really care for any of his earlier over-the-top comedy films.
@ Babu Subramaniam- From whatever little I’ve seen of Kanchivaram, I’m impressed.And yes will try to watch it completely sometime soon.Do check out the movies that I’ve mentioned in this article- nothing OTT about them.
@ Chakri- Have you seen any of the movies mentioned by me in this article?
How I wish Priyan would be back in the Mal Industry and make the sort of movies he used to in his haydays, with Mohanlal in the lead and Jagathy sreekumar & Innocent and sukumari and a few others and a great laugh riot plot.
I so miss the Mal cinema of the 80/90’s…
Honestly, ‘Gardish’ changed my impression about Priyadarshan. I only wish he could have worked on original scripts in Hindi.
I think you suffer from the ‘original sacred cow syndrome. I don’t know about malayalam movies, but priyadarshan’s hindi movies have been extremely significant in the sense that they engendered a wave of movies which were script-based comedies and not sit-coms like govinda david dhawan combos or visual comedy like johnny lever. Hungama, for me, was one of the best movies in this genre, and of course, mohan lal and sreekumar an ‘innocent’ (that a name?) would be great actors, (I myself was stunned by mohan lal’s performance n company) but it doesn’t make rajpal yadav paresh rawal or akshaye khanna any less funny.
@ Vishal- so what do you suffer from- ‘the remake sacred cow’ syndrome? Have I anywhere mentioned in this write-up that Hungama is not good? I write with the knowledge of having seen all the movies mentioned by me in this article plus all his works in Hindi & believe me the Hindi movies while being good aren’t really better than their Malayalam originals.Thanks for admitting that you dont know Malayalam movies – really appreciate it.And BTW it is Sreenivasan the writer/actor and not Sreekumar.And why do we even have to comment on someone’s name ( Innocent )?
Well said Sethu..moreover…logically speaking, the fact that some movie is remade itself is a tribute to the movie..who would want to remake a unsuccesful badly executed movie?
So in most of all cases the original would definitely be good, the remake can be either better, worse or equally good as the original. As far as priyan movies are concerned…the original were far better…and definitely performances from Mohanlal, Jagathy Sreekumar, Innocent and team were cut above their remake equivalents..a fact that cannot be denied even by Priyan himself…
@ sethu yessss
@ Chakri- can I know what you are trying to say?
leave it sethu…enjoy life
i quite like minnaram and abhimanyu as well on top of all the films mentioned above. however, i do get quite annoyed with him when he remakes classics like godfather and ramji rao speaking into such loud mad capers in hindi!
Also, I dunno whether this is the right topic to mention this… but another Malayalam director I absolutely adore is Sathyan Anthikad. I love the simplicity of his executions. If I am to choose his top 5, from what I can remember it would be a) Sanmanassullavarkku Samaadhaanam, b) Nadodikaattu & Pattanapravesham, c) Gandhi nagar 2nd street, d) Mazhavil Kavadi, e) Thalayanamanthram. I also like his recent Achivinte Amma & Manassinakkare. I think there are several others like T.P.Balagopalan M.A, Ponnmuttayidunna Thattaan etc. etc.
@ Shilpa- good to hear your views on Priyan & Sathyan Anthikkad.I think Sathyan Anthikkad has still understands the pulse of the audience a lot better than most of the other directors in Kerala.Even his latest film- Bhagyadevata is carrying good reports.His combination with Jayaram and Mohanlal have been quite good.another good combination is Sathyan Anthikkad with Ilayaraja.
My favorites scene directed by Priyan remains Advaitham
the scene when Mohanlal has that emotional dialogue with Raghavan, I always feel it is the best ever scene ( dont compare the film as a whole) . I havent seen a better scene of that genre in any of the movies I have seen before or after that.
Dont know if you guys remember the scene.
Lal gives some money to Raghavan and says . “alpam krrooratha kanikkan enikishtanu..”
@ Rahul-
yes that scene was memorable.Even the movie for that was certainly a good watch.