Malayalam cinema has always taken
its themes from relevant social issues and has been interwoven with material
from literature, drama,
and politics since its inception. One such film, Jeevitha
Nouka (1951), was a musical drama which
spoke about the problems in a joint family. This movie became very popular and
was probably the first "super hit" of Malayalam cinema. However, this
movie's success was bittersweet. Although its success accelerated Malayalam
movie-making, films that were produced after Jeevitha Nouka closely
mimicked its structure, hoping to find some sort of "success
formula", thus hampering creativity for a long time. Nevertheless, this
time was hailed as "the period of giants" in Malayalam film industry,
due to the work of film stars Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair, Sathyan,
Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair and Prem Nazir.
In 1954, the film Neelakuyil captured national interest by winning the President's
silver medal. Scripted by the well-known Malayalam novelist Uroob, and directed by P.
Bhaskaran and Ramu
Kariat, it is often considered the first
authentic Malayali film. Another notable production was Newspaper Boy
(1955), which contained elements of Italian neorealism.
This film is notable as the product of a group of amateur college filmmakers.
It told the story of a printing press employee and his family being stricken
with extreme poverty. The music took a turn away from the trend of copying
Tamil and Hindi song. The poets Tirunainaarkurichy Madhavan Nair -
Thirunaiyarkurichy, P Bhaskaran, ONV kurup, VR varma, rose up in this period as
film lyricists. Brother Lakshmanan, Dakshinamurty, K Raghavan, Paravoor
devarajan, MS Baburaj, Pukhenthey Velappan Nair etc. started distinct style
Malayalam music. Kamukara Purushotamman, Mehboob, Kozhikode Abdul Kader, AM
Raja, Sreenivas, KP Udayabhanu, Shanta P Nair, Leela, Janaki, Shusheela,
Vasantha, Renuka, Jikki etc. were the Singer from the 50s. The drama artist and
school teacher Muthukulam Ragavhan Pilla lend many of his skills to cinema in
this period.
