Ah Padmarajan and the 80s.

Jayaram started his career with Padmarajan — and what a beginning that was. Aparan, Moonnam Pakkam, Innale — films that didn’t just showcase talent, but revealed a certain grace in storytelling, a depth in characters, and an emotional honesty that Malayalam cinema would come to desperately miss.

Padmarajan wasn’t just a filmmaker; he was a visionary. Way ahead of his time. His characters were flawed, vulnerable, and real. His women weren’t props. His men weren’t loud caricatures. He explored sexuality, grief, guilt, loneliness — all with a subtlety and courage rarely seen, even now.

But he died too soon. And something in Malayalam cinema cracked.

The '90s came in like a bad bad hangover. Many of the same actors who worked with giants like Padmarajan, Bharathan, and KG George found themselves in films that were loud, lazy, and depressingly regressive. Jayaram and Mohanlal — once faces of sensitive, complex roles — got reduced to one-dimensional, chauvinistic heroes in factory-made scripts. Writers stopped asking questions. Directors stopped caring. And the audience, somewhere along the way, got conditioned into having poor taste.

Malayalam cinema became something else, entirely. More like other south cinemas. It peddled fantasies rooted in male ego, with women written either as arm candy or nags. The nuance, the poetry, the emotional bravery — gone. What replaced it was a decade of mediocrity. I can't help but observe how most of these (90s) filmmakers came from the IV Sasi School.

And this mediocrity lingered. It stayed through the 2000s, evolving into even more plastic versions of itself. There were exceptions, yes — but mostly, the culture of uninspired, backward storytelling dragged on till around 2010.

Then something changed.

A new wave of filmmakers — Lijo Jose Pellissery, Sameer thahir,  Bobby Sanjay, Rajesh Pillai, Dileesh Pothan, Aashiq Abu, Rajeev Ravi, and others — slowly started bringing the craft and conscience back. Realism made a quiet comeback. Women got actual roles. Flawed men returned. 

But did Jayaram and Mohanlal find redemption? Not sure, and I don't know why I'm obsessed about these two, but Jayaram from Innale - and SG too! He was too good in this. I guess I should include him too to this list for I feel his is the biggest flip of a career among the three; and also Jayaram from Moonnampakkam and Mohanlal from NPMT. These are really badly missed. Stark contrast - Jayaram's Ramanadhan, Sanjeevan IPS and Mohanlal's P. Induchoodan, P. Charlie, etc. etc.

You can’t help wonder — what if Padmarajan had lived?

What kind of stories would he have told in the internet age? How would he have responded to modern relationships, urban loneliness, or the quiet tragedies of daily life? Would he have mentored a generation of filmmakers who understood the human soul like he did?

We lost more than a filmmaker when Padmarajan passed. We lost a possible future — one where Malayalam cinema might have evolved with dignity, instead of collapsing under the weight of lazy tasteless writers.

The new wave is exciting. But it often feels like it's rebuilding a house that Padmarajan had already started designing — only to have been abandoned halfway through.

I was talking with my friend about her toothache and Thoovanathumbikal this morning. I asked her to sing Kannil nin meyyil from innale when she's better. Then I watched the whole song and thought- Padmarajan has never had his characters dance for songs. He brings them to life with music.

Do check this out if you haven't noticed.