In a conversation I had with him this week, writer-director Jeo Baby said that his film
The Great Indian Kitchen, which has been making waves across India this fortnight, was rejected by Netflix and Amazon Prime Video without any reason being offered – this is why it is on the currently little-known, new Malayalam-only streaming platform, Neestream.
This immediately brought to mind an unnamed filmmaker who told
The Hindu’s Athira M earlier this month that the reason why a bunch of new Malayalam-focused OTT platforms have come up during the pandemic is that “big stars and big banners have become the criteria for some of these (multi-language platforms) to purchase a Malayalam movie”. Such yardsticks for selection will deprive non-Malayalam speakers of the best of Mollywood because they entirely miss the point of the Malayalam New New Wave, which is that it is determinedly not star-driven. For proof, note how Jeo Baby’s
The Exhibits and the Eyewitness, 2017).
Fahadh has acquired a reputation for often giving up being a film’s hero in favour of a supporting role that appeals to him and lending an X Factor to that role. His confident choices ultimately led to India-wide accolades for
C U
Soon (2020) that marked a new frontier for Indian cinema at large with its exploration of the desktop genre tailored to fit the constraints imposed on filmmakers by the COVID19 lockdown.
Fahadh 2.0 is at the forefront of the Malayalam New New Wave and has gradually grown to be considered one of India’s finest actors by pan-India cinephiles too.