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Other than giving us one of film industry’s biggest icons, Teji Bachchan – the mom of Big B Amitabh Bachchan - deserves some credit for rescuing Malayalam cinema from becoming an industry that produced low-brow commercial and semi-porn films. Voting against the regional jury who had rejected the film, she, and her fellow committee members at the National Film Award Jury Meet in 1972, awarded Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s first film Swayamvaram, the National Award for best feature film.
That win inspired Adoor to trigger a renaissance of high quality, high content, Malayalam films in the 1970s and ‘80s back home in Kerala that not only warmed audiences to a new format of technically correct storytelling which he had learnt at the Film and Television Institute of India, but also influenced a generation of filmmakers to find their voice and create films that highlighted the truth of those times. These films came to be known as Noon films since most theatres wouldn’t give them show timings in evening prime time but would offer them afternoon slots in mofussil areas instead. Due to the good response of the first few shows, these films were expanded with more screens across other towns and went on to achieve domestic and international acclaim, setting new benchmarks from which Malayalam cinema hasn’t looked back.
Given the greater awareness and acceptance that Malayalam cinema has enjoyed in the recent post-pandemic years with their unique stories and nuanced storytelling, V.K. Cherian’s book Noon Films and Magical Renaissance in Malayalam cinema could nearly pass off as a contemporary story. To his credit, the timing of the book is just right.
I have often wondered how a state with a 35 million population can generate ₹100 crore and more at the box office for a film whereas states like Maharashtra with over 80 million people can’t generate one-twentieth of that in ticket sales. Kerala has also won 14 per cent of the best Director awards at National film festivals between 1969 and 2023.
As the young dysfunctional family drama, Kumbalangi Nights became one of the first Malayalam films that streaming introduced to a lot of Indians, it also laid out the template – great natural locations, normal looking characters, deeply local and different stories, easy engrossing narratives, richly crafted storytelling leaving behind a satisfying feeling of time well spent. Then Minal Murali came along and redefined what a superhero film should be followed by Lijo’s highly discussed 15-minute long single take ending of a fight scene in Angamali Diaries that entrenched the diversity and richness of Malayalam films in audiences outside Kerala.
Cherian’s is an origin story, and he takes us to the ‘70s and ‘80s when Adoor Gopalakrishnan began a film movement called Chitralekha, started a film appreciation course, conducted a touring film festival, began a collective to fund films and set up a fully equipped studio to produce films. The A team as they were called – Adoor, Aravindan and John Abraham between them created cinema that brought Malayali life and culture to the forefront. Even though all three had distinct film making styles, their films,dealing with characters in a feudal society stuck on the cusp of modernity,struck a chord.
Cherian details the key ingredients that he attributes to creating the renaissance - popular writers of novels often adapted them into screenplays themselves, enriching the quality of the story, they stayed away from religious stories and focused instead on the social fabric and the effect of communism on society. Adoor was heavily influenced by Bengali filmmaking stalwarts like Ritwick Ghatak, who was his teacher at the FTII, and Satyajit Ray.
The first two chapters detail the renaissance and the reason for it; the next three delve into the key films of each of the trio - Adoor, Aravindan and John Abraham and there’s one final chapter on MT Vasudevan Nair’s film Nirmalyam.
The book would be half its length but for the many repetitions of the same content. For instance, after each chapter, Cherian reproduces an interview with the director covered in that chapter, who says pretty much the same things that have already been covered in the chapter.
Noon Films, like its title, falls somewhere in between a textbook full of knowledge and analysis of great films, the filmmaking styles of an era and a storybook for those curious enough to bear with its dullness.
Yet, if you ignore the packaging, there’s something here to learn about Adoor Gopalakrishnan and how he single-handedly created a cinematic revolution in Kerala that is enjoying tremendous commercial success in these times.
(The reviewer runs 91 Film Studios that produces, markets and distributes films in Indian regional languages. )
Check out the book on Amazon.
Published on June 26, 2025
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