Udayananu Tharam (2005) – Malayalam
Streaming on: ManoramaMAX
A Malayalam film made much before the advent of the word ‘meta’ in our social media feeds, this story dealt with the quirky conceit of an aspiring filmmaker forced to make his debut film with his long estranged ex roommate, who stole his first screenplay. The film is loaded with slight nods to the shady and banal fissures of the industry, packed with the punch of writer and actor Sreenivasan’s well considered mastery to elicit sarcasm and self reflexive humour from dramatically challenging material.
Udayananu Tharam starring Mohanlal in the lead role, also took potshots at the failed branding exercises and business ventures of its leading man in real life, a rarity considering the superstar wasn’t too bothered by this. Such was the film’s commitment to its meta-ness!
The film made by the then debutant director Rosshan Andrrews, addressed many of the front facing issues plaguing the industry at the time like the lackluster writing for female actors, superstar ego, sub-par releases, and the downside of craving artistic greatness in a mainstream framework. The character ‘ Superstar Saroj Kumar’, who is the film’s surrogate for the vainglorious superstar figure was a call to arms, cinematically speaking, against a culture that holds its stars over and above the final product, which is cinema itself.
Chirakodinja Kinavukal (2015) – Malayalam
Streaming on: SunNXT
Venturing more into the spoof category, this meta meditation on the genre defying cliches of commercial Malayalam cinema is a treat for anyone who has been indoctrinated to the beats of this sub culture of films. The film starring Kunchacko Boban and Rima Kallingal, also has Sreenivasan, taking care of the meta textual commentary on Malayalam cinema in general and deconstructing the myth of certain stereotypes and tropes that are beyond regurgitation at this point. The film, like Anderson films, is framed from a story from another media: in this case a scene in the film Azhagiya Ravanan (1996), with the same character from the film used as the narrator here.
This framing device allows the makers to merge the two storylines. There has never been a more eclectic and pointed callback to the many cliches and cinematic tropes that come back to haunt our enjoyment of films, over the years. The film neatly unpacks the over-reliance on certain aspects of storytelling that has rendered some of our films stale and devoid of life. But all this is rendered with a glee and childlike irreverence.