Ticket to Kerala: the Story of Malayalam Cinema

Close to a century ago, the story of Malayalam cinema began with a tragedy. Its first filmmaker never made another movie. The first heroine never showed her face on the screen again, as she had to flee from Kerala, fearing attacks from casteist groups. The negatives of the first movie were lost to a child's fascination for blue flames. The idea of a film industry in Kerala might have seemed like a lost cause back then. But in 2025, here we are: Malayalam cinema is at the top of its game, with uncommon themes and novel approaches to storytelling, garnering a whole new set of audience with every passing day. For the longest time, Malayalam mainstream cinema hardly ever found an audience outside Kerala's borders, barring a few exceptions, even as its independent cinema created waves in the film festival circuit. Over the past decade, and especially over the past five years, its reach has just exploded. In a way, the Malayalam industry has slowly become 'pan-Indian' without claiming to be so and with films made on a limited budget. The story of present-day Malayalam cinema's ascendancy cannot be told without talking about its past, right from its humble beginnings to the formation of film societies in almost every village in Kerala in the 1960s, the rise of the new wave in independent cinema in the early 1970s, the evolution of the middle-of-the-road cinema in the 1970s and 80s which still serve as inspiration for the kind of films being made here, as well as the era of the two superstars. This book has been written with the intention of introducing Malayalam cinema beyond its immediate past to an audience outside Kerala. The recent attention that the industry has been getting, due to various reasons, has been focused mostly on what has come out of the film industry after 2020. The book seeks to broaden this understanding, so that people outside Kerala get to know the true origins of this well-spring of good cinema. Those who are acquainted with the long history of Malayalam cinema might encounter many familiar stories in this book. But even those who are well-versed with Malayalam cinema are bound to find fresh perspectives and insights here.