MUMBAI: Actor-filmmaker Prithviraj Sukumaran, who is gearing up for the release of his upcoming action thriller L2: Empuraan, agrees that Malayalam cinema is experiencing an “extraordinarily good phase.” However, he added that great movies are being made everywhere.
In a conversation with IANS, he discussed how Malayalam cinema has a knack for exploring various genres, Prithviraj said: “Yes, I agree that Malayalam cinema is going through a great phase. We are making great films, fantastic content consistently for many years now and I hope there is a phase that never ends. I hope this phase is lifelong.”
When asked why other industries aren’t doing the same, Prithviraj begged to differ.
“But I disagree with the fact that Malayalam is the only industry making great cinema. There is great cinema happening everywhere. Malayalam is going through an extraordinarily good phase. I agree.”
He pointed out that not too long ago, filmmakers used to marvel at how Hindi cinema was leading the way in everything.
But… not too long ago we were looking at Hindi cinema and thinking how are they doing this? How are they able to come up with such breakthrough content? When Ram Gopal Varma came in and suddenly completely changed mainstream filmmaking we all thought, wow, Bollywood is really cracking it.”
“When Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane and, you know, all these new age filmmakers burst into the scene in Hindi, I remember the conversation in Kerala was, wow man, how is Hindi cinema able to do this?”
“Now the same is being spoken about Malayalam cinema and I hope that that conversation continues forever, ” added the actor.
He hopes every industry sooner rather than later identifies their own strengths.
“There is great cinema being made everywhere and I hope that, you know, every industry sooner rather than later sort of identifies their own strengths and makes films the way they really can.”
He talked about how Malayalam cinema has never lost sight of the writers, whom he tagged as the cornerstone of cinema.
“One thing, if at all, that I especially like in Malayalam cinema is the fact that we have never lost sight of the fact that writers are the cornerstone of cinema. So even in the documentary I saw, I remember that 70s and 80s Bollywood, the biggest superstars were Mr. Salim and Mr. Javed. So maybe there is a lesson there.”
“L2: Empuraan”, also called L2E, is an action thriller film starring Mohanlal. It is the second instalment in a planned trilogy, following the 2019 film Lucifer. The film was jointly produced by Lyca Productions and Aashirvad Cinemas. The film is set to release on March 27.
It also stars Prithviraj, Indrajith Sukumaran, Tovino Thomas, Manju Warrier, Saniya Iyappan, Saikumar, Baiju Santhosh, Fazil and Sachin Khedekar reprising their roles from the original.