When one thinks of Mollywood superstars, you just need to look at the current big talents like Fahadh Faasil, Dulquer Salman, Parvathy Thiruvothu or Nivin Pauly or the rising stars like Tovino Thomas, Asif Ali or Roshan Mathew; this is not even counting established megastars like Mohanlal, Mammootty, Urvashi or even Jayaram. But there is one actor who has close to two decades of experience playing side characters or comedy roles in films and has now finally become an established character actor in his own right – Suraj Venjaramoodu.
Much like how Nawazuddin Sidddiqui in Bollywood, Suraj used to portray multiple small/ supporting roles in many films. But unlike Nawazuddin, Suraj started out as an impressionist and mimicry artist and became popular due to his funny roles. The actor eventually became a household name by the late 2000s, thanks to his brilliantly funny Thiruvananthapuram/ Trivandrum accent that never failed to make audience members laugh (until it eventually did).
But eventually, the time caught up with the man’s act and his previous style of comedy was not working anymore, especially with the younger generation – the new wave of Malayalam cinema hit the silver screen and changed the style of Malayalam cinema for good. So the man adapted and started taking up an “every man role” in whichever films he could find. He refined his comedy and became more subtle with it, especially in his serious roles. Even during very serious scenes, this man can bring out his comedy chops on screen during any situation and when he does so, we can’t help but laugh at some of the dramatically absurd situations he portrays on screen.
Films like ‘Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum’, ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’, ‘Vikrithi’ and ‘Driving Licence’ shows Suraj’s versatility as an actor and it can be firmly confirmed that he will be the second Malayali actor (in recent history) who successfully transitioned from a primarily comedy actor/ funny man to a drama focused actor, after the brilliant Salim Kumar. We wish the actor luck and hope that he will be recognised by more Malayalam film lovers as a truly brilliant artist. We can’t wait to see what other projects he will participate in.
Most of the man’s movies are available on multiple streaming platforms like VootSelect, Disney+ Hotstar, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, MX Player and Neestream among other OTTs.