Brief History of kerala Cinema

Early era

The first cinema theatre in Kerala was established in Trichur by K.W.Joseph in 1907 and it had a manually operated film projector. The first electrically operated film projector too was established in Trichur by Jose Kattukkaran in 1913 and was called the 'Jose Electrical Bioscope'.

The first Malayalam film, titled "news", was released in 1928. It was a silent film, produced and directed by a businessman with no prior film experience, J. C. Daniel. The second film ,Marthanda Varma, based on a novel by C. V. Raman Pillai, was produced in 1933. However, its release was limited due to legal disputes surrounding use of Pillai's material.

"Boy", released in 1938, was the first "talkie" in Malayalam. Its screenplay and songs were written by Muthukulam Raghavan Pillai and directed by S. Nottani.

1960s

Ramu , the director of "Blue Bird" went on to become a celebrated director in the 1960s and 1970's. P. Bhaskaran also directed a few acclaimed films in the 1960s. The cameraman of "Blue Bird", A. Vincent also became a noted director of the 1960s and 1970's. Notable films of this decade include "from river", "guest house" (1964), "prawn" (1965), "girl friend" (1965) and "darkness" (1966).

1970-90s

The 70s saw the emergence of a new wave of cinema in Malayalam. The growth of film society movement in Kerala introduced the works of the French and Italian New Wave directors to the discerning Malayali film enthusiasts. Adoor Gopalakrishnan's first film "marriage" (1972) brought Malayalam cinema to the international film arena. In 1973 M. T. Vasudevan Nair who was by then recognized as an important author in Malayalam, directed his first film "flower", which won the President's Gold Medal for the best film.

Present

Cinema in Kerala have seen a real comeback in 2005. New directors such as Lal Jose, Roshan Andrews, Blessy and Anwar Rasheed brought back original scripts to Malayalam movie. Notable movies of this era are Udayananu Tharam, Note Book, Classmates, Kazhcha, Keerthi Chakra, Vinoda Yatra, Rasa thanthram, Arabi Kadha, Kadha Paryumbol, and about 50 percentage of Malayalam movies are remade into other languages. This era has seen new promising actors like Dileep Prithviraj, Meera Nandan, and Kavya Madhavan along with stalwarts Mammooty and Mohanlal.