Adoor Gopalakrishnan made Elippathayam in 1981. This movie was widely acclaimed and won the British Film Institute award. I.
V. Sasi the path breaker who has directed
more than 131 odd films over a span of 34 years made Kanamarayathu (1984). Padmarajan made his early works in this period including the movie Koodevide (1983).
Most critics and audiences consider
the period from the late 1980s to early 1990s as the golden age of Malayalam
cinema. The Malayalam cinema of this period was characterized by detailed screenplays dealing with everyday life with a lucid narration of plot
intermingling with humor and melancholy. This was aided by brilliant cinematography and lighting. The films are also remembered for their warm
background music by composers
like Johnson,
as in the motion picture Namukku Parkkan
Munthiri Thoppukal (1986) by
Padmarajan. Mohanlal
established himself as the Super star of Malayalam cinema. His movies like Rajavinte
Makan, Spadikam, and
Thoovanathumbikal brought him critical accolades
along with the stardom. Mammootty's
had some of his noted movies making him one of the most successful leading
actors of Malayalam film industry and superstardom like Yathra, Nirakkoottu,
New
Delhi and Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha during this period. This era also uncovered acting talents
like Nedumudi Venu,
Gopi, and Thilakan
in many movies which changed the course of narrative styles hitherto followed
in Malayalam Cinema.
K. G. George
had some of his critically acclaimed and commercially successful movies like Yavanika, Adaminte Vaariyellu
during this decade. This was the period during which acclaimed litterateur and
script writer M. T. Vasudevan Nair started teaming up with director Hariharan
to produce some of the evergreen works like Panchagni, Nakhakshathangal, Aranyakam,
Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha etc.
Many of the movies released during
this time narrowed the gap between art
cinema and commercial cinema in the
Malayalam film industry. John Abraham
continued to tread an unbeaten path of making movies like Amma Ariyaan on
people's issues by raising the finance directly from people. Fazil
was another noted director who had his significant movies in this era. The
decade also saw significant number of movies with female characters becoming
important or even central. This facilitated the discovery of some of the best
female actors of the Malayalam Cinema like Shobhana, Seema, Urvashi,
Suhasini, Geetha
and Revathi.
The period had an abundance of
movies rich in creative humors’ from directors like Priyadarshan, Sathyan
Anthikkad, Kamal
and Siddique-Lal.
The internationally acclaimed Piravi (1989) by Shaji
N. Karun was the first Malayalam film to win
the Caméra d'Or-Mention
at the Cannes Film Festival. Other notable contributions of this period include His Highness Abdullah (1990) directed by Sibi
Malayil, Spadikam (1997) directed by Bhadran, Abhayam (1991) directed by Santosh
Sivan, and the motion picture Daisy
(1988) an expressive depiction of separation and longing set in a boarding
school, directed by Prathap
K. Pothan.
