Oru Chalachithrapremiyude Kuripukal...: Salim Kumar Effect!

(a reaction to Salim Kumar's winning of the Best Actor at the National Awards)

The other day, playing with the remote and changing channels, a certain news item interested me. Well, as you have guessed, it was about the National Awards and Salim Kumar mostly. I gave a snigger out of surprise and realized it was no joke. Over the few hours, the Malayalam news channels were full of Salim Kumar and the film ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’. Salim kumar was suddenly trending in twitter and people were updating their facebook status about the fact. Different people said different things about him. And then, more people said different things about him. People still say things about him and his magic.

· Some people say - Once a small time television comedian (read, a slapstick clown), now the finest artist of the country – it’s all a matter of luck. It’s not because he is worthy of it, it’s just that he is supremely lucky to be handpicked as the best actor of the country (of course, for acting in a low budget low profile movie of a debutant director who also used to be into slapstick laughs). Don’t scorn or scream, it’s not me who is saying this but the people, the mob, the audience who is extremely confused on how to honor this personality who they themselves pitied for acting in cheap comedies.

The intelligentsia popping its head out of the television and scribbling big words in their news papers adjudge him as a price. While the people wonder these same people critcised him for his performance in a certain forgettable fare (it was definitely not a movie not even close to it).

· Some others say -The whole thing is fixed. No one has seen Salim Kumar act in that movie because no one has seen that movie. The only thing they have seen is a trailer which is only quarter full of Salim Kumar. He is probably sitting in his three floored bungalow (am not joking) chucking the whiskey and pressing buttons in his expensive cellular phones. Ohhkay, Salim Kumar can do that, sure.

· Another group says - This is the greatest comedy act of Salim Kumar. That’s what they say; no, that is all they say because they are still laughing and cannot believe it. This is how their mind races – Salim Kumar? Best Actor? What now, BHARATH Salim Kumar? BHARATH Salim Kumar! That’s how the laughter started.

Let’s get things into perspective:

They don’t use the term BHARATH anymore. It was kicked out years ago in the 80s.

Assoya enathe ippo oru pazhaya prayogam ayirikunnu athu pole thane kashindi ippol bhayankara fashiona… athukonde aa pazhaya pazhamchollle nammukke onne matti pidikam…

Chettatharathinum Cancerinum Marunnilla….

You cannot cure As*H*les and cancer…

(the truth)

The truth is as simple as breaking a nut. Hard work pays off in the end.

When we reminiscence the characters adorned by Salim Kumar, the first ones that come to our mind may be the ‘bachelor’ Manavalan in Pulival Kalyanam or the ‘lookila pakshe budhiyunde’ Vakeel from Meesa Madhavan or the ‘savala giri giri’ Pyari of KalyanaRaman; not to mention ‘mona odinjupokum’ Pappan from Chocolate and ‘MJ’ Vikram from Chathikatha Chandu. Atleast these will be my favorite Salim Kumar Characters (er…what? no need to judge me here).

But the scar that the father from ‘Achanuragatha veedu’ gives our heart is definitely a solid fact to judge this guy as a serious mature actor. I haven’t seen ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ yet but the impact Salim Kumar has done on me with a single movie is enough to say that he is worthy.

Well, to state the facts, he seldom got any meaty roles after that but he showed that he is versatile and hard working by pulling off a character like Prabhakaran in Achanuragatha Veedu. Not to mention his role as the son in the ‘Bridge’ segment of ‘Kerala Café’.

So, finally who is he, he is not a star, not a super star, he is just another genuine actor, a best actor. He will keep doing those cheesy comic roles making us chuckle and cry but that’s his living. And in between couple of ‘Prabhakaran’s and ‘Abu’s will make his filmography look rich. The common man’s Kamal Hassan?

Shatruvinte avasana vaaku(last words) –

Once, Cochin Haneefa said “Ee kala ennu parayunnathe vellathoru sadanam thaneyane. Ethu thendiyude kayilanu athe olichirikunnathe enne nammukarkum arinjuda.”

(Art is a mysterious thing. Any beggar can pocess it.)

[experts from the movie: Udayananu Tharam]