Kochi and Malayalam cinema: An eternal love story that is ageing like fine wine

Ever since the relocation of Malayalam cinema’s base from Kodambakkam to Kochi, the port city has been a key locale for numerous movies. Thanks to its composite nature, Kochi became home to many motion pictures and some iconic characters. Extracting the Queen of Arabian Sea from its cinema, here’s the next in our ‘city in the cinema’ series.

Kochi has been a key locale for numerous movies.
“There’s a proverb that goes ‘once you see Kochi, you will forget even your wife’. That’s probably why all the Dutch, Portuguese, Konkanis, etc. set out for this place. One can easily get a specimen of the world by keeping a camera above Kochi.” — CI George (Vijayaraghavan, Big B)

For years after its boom, Malayalam cinema was based in Kodambakkam, Chennai — the centre of the Tamil film industry known as Kollywood, a portmanteau of Kodambakkam and Hollywood. Just like their Tamil counterparts, most Malayalam superstars and technicians had their permanent residences in Madras before the industry shifted its base to Kochi.

Ever since this relocation, the port city has been a key locale for numerous movies. Though not all such works managed to capture the ethos of Kochi in its entirety, there are a good number of films that succeeded in doing so by serving unique slices of Ernakulam to the audience. Slices filled with stories, visuals, and cultures from across the city that are so similar, yet so different.

Though Kerala is mostly known for its hill stations, backwaters, ecotourism destinations, and beaches, Kochi has made a name for itself with its multifaceted glory. Apart from its unique geographic features, one of the main reasons why Kochi, or Ernakulam district in general, became the cynosure of all eyes is because it’s a multiethnic society.

Historically, Kochi served as an important trading centre for a long time, following the arrival of the first European traders in the 16th century. During those days, Kochi, formerly known as Cochin, witnessed successive waves of migration by the Arabs, British, Chinese, Dutch, and Portuguese – mostly traders.

Though a good number of these migrants left the city later, a few settled here and their subsequent generations became a part of Kochi’s history, giving the port city a deep understanding of multiculturalism.

Hence, each locality in Kochi metropolitan area embodies distinctive characteristics, ranging from socio-political aspects to dialects, that might be completely different from the very place it shares a border with. The same can be found in the movies as well.

As a result, it might seem quite difficult to understand the cultural features of the city from its movies since the nuances are very discrete. And, as the genre changes, these discrepancies become more evident. But, I guess, that’s the beauty of getting into the depths of such historical places via artworks. It’s kind of like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.

For many years following the 1980s, considered the golden age of Malayalam cinema, the industry followed a pattern. Most filmmakers used rural areas as major locations because of their scenic beauty and also due to the acceptance that family dramas that unfold in rural Kerala received. However, the “locality” was completely irrelevant in these works and characters were given region-neutral languages, irrespective of which place the story was set in.

But, Jnanpith awardee and screenwriter MT Vasudevan Nair’s signature Valluvanadan accent slowly became popular and most filmmakers started adapting it. Writers like Lohithadas popularised the dialect further, which indeed led to the invisibilisation of cultural nuances, basically because most stories were about the upper caste and/or upper class. And, this love for elitism went on for quite some time.

In the 2000s, around the time when Malayalis were ‘getting bored’ of the movies that celebrated the toxic masculinity of upper caste heroes who were portrayed as the ultimate saviours of their creed/clan, began a gradual shift. The first step in this process was the shift in locales from rural Kerala to its urban counterparts. And since Ernakulam was witnessing a development boom, filmmakers started betting on the port city.

However, during the initial days, most directors were keen only on exploring the unlawful activities in Kochi, which had by then become infamous for organised crime.