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The 10 Best Malayalam Film Performances Of 2024: Urvashi, Prithviraj Sukumaran, And More
From Prithviraj Sukumaran who contorted himself into displaying such powerlessness in 'Aadujeevitham' to the unforgettable Kani Kusruti in 'All We Imagine As Light,' it was the year in which stardom came second to heartfelt performances
10 years now, how will film history remember the year 2024?
Will it be remembered as the year we got our biggest ever hit with Manjummel Boys, the box-office behemoth that became a cultural phenomenon in Tamil Nadu?
Or will it be remembered for blockbusters like Premalu or Aavesham, both mid-budget films which collected multiple times its budget upon release? How about calling it the year in which a black-and white-horror film, that too featuring just three characters, became a mainstream success—something unheard of in other industries.
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But then, how can one overlook the impact of the Hema Committee report and the way it shook the very foundation of the Malayalam movie industry?
Since the report was released on August 19, several people who worked in various departments of filmmaking, felt heard and voiced their bitter experiences. The impact was immediate—including how it dismantled the leadership of the powerful actors’ association (Association of Malayalam Movie Artists).
In other cases, it brought to light the dangerous ways in which power had been wielded with promises of opportunities. But, 10 years from today, the impact would hopefully be fully felt, making way for a cleaner, safer workplace that deserves respect for the way people behave just as much as the kind of films that get made here.
We will hopefully remember all the above events, from both on-screen and reality, to understand how it changed the movies and the way we look at them. But what remains undebatable is the quality of performances; from the two adorable boys in Pallotty 90’s Kids, to the unforgettable Kani Kusruti who played Prabha in All We Imagine As Light, it was the year in which stardom came second to heartfelt performances of ordinary, everyday people.
Here are examples of 10 such:
Asif Ali (Kishkinda Kandam, Level Cross, Adios Amigo)
Actors today seldom get a year like Asif Ali did in 2024.
Not only did he perform in films across genres and moods, but he also co-created a set of peculiar characters without any traces of an Asif we’ve seen so far. The result is extreme, like Raghu from Level Cross, a character who remains hard to read even at the end of the film. Or Ajayan from Kishkinda Kaandam, a man so defeated by fate that he’s become unrecognisable even to himself. Or how about Prince from Adios Amigo, a stranger you absolutely hate, until you realise you’ve fallen in love with him—even before you could notice.
Parvathy (Ullozhukku)
There’s a lot one can say about Anju, right from the first two shots in Ullozhukku. We first see her modelling a wedding saree as the salesperson at a textile shop, followed by her posing for photographs, almost involuntarily, in a wedding outfit she wears to her wedding—a decision she had no choice in.
But that’s Anju. She has no control over anything going on in her life—a feeling you’re not sure how Parvathy managed to convey. But when she finally tries to take control, she gets pushed further into a whirlpool, trapped in an ocean of pain and guilt: an experience Parvathy made us to feel, without any explosive moments or indulgent close-ups.
Urvashi (Ullozhukku)
There’s something inherently inscrutable about Leelamma from Ullozhukku. On one hand, she appears to be yet another agent of the patriarchy, using the tools of her power to imprison her daughter-in-law Anju as she finds ways to escape her stale marriage. Yet you also find Leelamma to be a victim of the same patriarchy, having sacrificed everything for a family (and its honour) Anju is threatening to dismantle. In a brilliant scene that encompasses Leelamma’s conflict, you find her struggling to look Anju in the eye despite having caught her having an extra-martial affair. Instead of anger, Leelamma conveys a strange helplessness, praying that she was wrong all along. It’s a huge range of emotions that need to be addressed, something Urvashi does with ease in this award-winning performance.
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Prithviraj Sukumaran (Aadujeevitham)
The struggles faced by the crew and lead actor Prithviraj during the 16-year making of Aadujeevitham deserve a movie of their own. From ridiculous diets to psychological isolation, the star went through a journey akin to that of real-life immigrant worker Najeeb to deliver his most heart-rending performance yet. But beyond the off-screen challenges, one wonders how a person of his physical stature and size was able contort himself into displaying such powerlessness. More than a transformation, it was therianthropy — as Prithviraj dehumanised himself to the size, and self-respect, of a goat.
Kani Kusruti (All We Imagine As Light)
The quiet dignity with which Kani plays Prabha makes her an unforgettable character. Although she appears to be just a few years older than roommate Anu (Divya Prabha), you find Prabha enslaved by a mindset that is in contrast to the freer, more liberated Anu. She finds herself having to nurse everyone around her, even outside of work. Her conditioning is such that she perhaps finds it a crime to put her needs before someone else’s. It’s this helpfulness that renders her helpless, even if it is to assert her needs to a distant husband, as present as he is in her thoughts as he’s absent from her life. Kani owns Prabha’s soft dignity without ever letting you feel like her life is only about its suffering. More than the larger moments, it’s the little things, like the manner in which Kani looks at an old greeting card, or just the way in which she holds a rice cooker, that makes Prabha so, so dear to us.
Read more | Kani Kusruti, Preeti Panigrahi And Kesav Binoy Kiron On Their Remarkable ‘Girls Will Be Girls’ Journey
Vijayaraghavan (Kishkindha Kaandam)
Appu Pillai is on its way to becoming the career-defining performance of Vijayaraghvan’s long and illustrious career. On the surface, he appears to be a character we’re meant to dislike. We see him through the eyes of his daughter-in-law Aparna, and we never understand the full weight of the secrets he hides beneath his stone-cold exterior. But when these secrets are unearthed, we feel the guilt of having misjudged someone so giving.
Tovino Thomas (Ajayante Randam Moshanam)
Tovino aced three characters in this year’s superhit Onam release. But the impact of Maniyan, the unscrupulous thief who will do anything for his wife, remains the film’s thematic soul. It is a louder performance by design, yet you can never quite understand what’s going on in Maniyan’s mind, as though he’s already outwitted you. The contrast you feel when you see Ajayan a few scenes later is yet more proof of just how well-defined and indistinguishable they are from each other. As a character, Maniyan truly deserves a standalone film of his own.
Fahadh Faasil (Aavesham)
Our most subtle performer gave us his loudest best as Rangannan, a man-child of a gangster with a heart of gold. The performance is a tightrope walk with FaFa balancing the ferocity of a dreaded don with that of a broken adolescent, struggling to overcome lifelong abandonment issues. In what was otherwise a balls-out comedy, you find yourself tearing up in one second when a mother-figure asks Ranga if he’s happy. To change the entire mood of a movie that quickly, that too without a single word, is no mean feat.
Jyothirmayi (Bougainvillea)
We have seen dozens of characters suffering from memory loss in our movies, but none in the manner in which Jyothirmayi plays Reethu, someone with both retrograde and anterograde amnesia. Reethu doesn’t get the crutches that other characters get to display their struggles. There are no tattoos to remind her of her mission, nor is she allowed to play up her weaknesses. In one moment, she appears blissful, only to realise the infinite loop of sadness she’s stuck in a second later. But even with this, she’s able to give the character a complete arc— a gradual, invisible growth as she comes closer to realising her truth. The film itself turns allegorical as a result, getting you to read it again as a comment on abusive marriages and the gaslighting that goes on in it.
Mammootty (Bramayugam)
Imagine having been a superstar for 40 years, having done hundreds of movies across languages and still being able to bring a shade to a performance that no one has seen before. That’s what Mammotty has managed to do, yet again, with the year’s darkest film, Bramayugam. He played Kodumon Potti, the genre-defining patriarch who has been hiding the spirit of a demon helper within him for centuries. In a film with just three characters, it is our fear of Potti that holds it all together. In theory, it doesn’t seem too difficult for two young men to overpower someone twice their age, yet as a viewer, the reason we feel as trapped and powerless as the other two is because of this hypnotic Mammootty performance.
Special mention: Davinchi Santosh and Neeraj Krishna from Pallotty 90’s Kids.