The month of August is coming to its conclusion and the number of Malayalam movies presented on various Over the Top (OTT) platforms is not small. However, its significance is something to be talked about. A total of eleven (11) movies were released from which around 90 percent of movies came after their screen shows from theatres and 10 percent were directly released on streaming platforms. Almost all the movies that were released in theatres didn’t get overwhelming responses from the audience. However, movies that attained critical acclaim were eagerly awaited by Streaming channel enthusiasts. The month started with the following movies ‘Ullozhukku’ and ‘Prappeda’ on the 2nd day, ‘Golam’, ‘Turbo’, and ‘Nadanna Sambhavam’ on the 9th day, ‘Marivillin Gopurangal’ on the 11th day, ‘Little Hearts’ on the 13th day, ‘Manorathangal’ and ‘Kallanum Bhagavathiyum’ on the 15th day, ‘Grrr’ on the 20th day and ‘Swakaryam Sambhava Bahulam’ on the 23rd day respectively. Out of the above-listed movies, six of the movies belonged to drama, four of them were thrillers and one was an anthology series from the genre perspective.
None of them were a big success even after its OTT release. The lack of conviction in storytelling and construction and the cliché of attaining a similar narrative with the same repetition might be the general issue among the audience. There was nothing novel in any effort.
Two well-made movies ‘Ullozhukku’ (Eng. The Undercurrent) written and directed by Christo Tomy and ‘Golam’ (Eng. Sphere), directed by Samjad has been streaming on Amazon Prime Video and deserves appreciation for their screenplay and technical labour. The content is relevant and strong which has been executed unabashedly. Family dramas like ‘Marivillin Gopurangal’ (Eng. Acme of the Rainbow) and ‘Little Hearts’ were sort of feel-good entertainers that delved into humour, love, and relationships but both lacked the depth of narrative nature and inability to convince the world-building. Though a flick like ‘Nadanna Sambhavam’ (Eng. Something which has happened) was expected in justifying these elements, it couldn’t give what it was meant to. Also, a marginal performance by the actors was another demerit. A mass-entertainer like ‘Turbo’ (on Sony LIV) even though having an expensive unique selling point like actor Mammooty, the storytelling was not convincing and not able to provide an adrenaline rush. Being in the OTT, was again tiresome and not engaging. ‘Manorathangal’ (on Zee 5) is an anthological film that has been directly released on streaming platforms and received average to mixed reviews and responses. The nine stories by M T Vasudevan Nair were differentiable based on various emotions and most of them were interesting to watch. Performances by the actors were also satisfactory. Other flicks like ‘Grrr’ (on Disney+Hotstar) and ‘Kallanum Bhagavathiyum’ (on Amazon Prime Video) are the least in demand and appreciation among the August watchlist due it’s the consequence of their artificiality, below-average making, and deliverance. ‘Prappeda’ (on Saina Play) is a ‘knight in shining armour’ among all of these films even though it has some loopholes.