That’s the level of perfection,” says screenwriter and actor Ahmed Siddique. We can’t really say, one is better than the other. Be it Paleri Manikyam or Rajamanikyam or Kottayam Kunjachan, it sounds perfect. I have always felt he listens to people attentively and I think that's how he can pick up slangs. By real, I mean, those from the region will be unable to point out the flaws. “Look at all the slangs he has pulled off and you will realise each one is real. It gives the impression of an actor who has heard the actual, un-watered down versions of the accent. He learns the dialect and not just the accent-like a lot of actors make the mistake of doing. He brings musicality, tempo and physicality as well.
The last scene in Amaram, the one where he meets his mom in Rajamanickyam and the scene with the boy in Pranchiyettan-he left us moist-eyed.”īe it Amaram, Pranchiyettan and the Saint or Bavuttiyude Namathil, the actor doesn’t merely switch out one pronunciation for another.
Anyone can do comedy or mouth powerful dialogues in such slangs but only he can bring so much anguish in that dialect. Agrees director Siddique-“I think he has special skills for that. It can also be because, says Raghunath, no actor has tried or succeeded in bringing pathos and melancholy within the confines of such a loud dialect. “I have used the Thiruvananthapuram slang in various films, you feel a novelty here because Mammootty says it,” Jagathy Sreekumar had once quoted. No other actor handles slangs with such perfection like him,” says screenwriter turned actor Renji Panicker. Kuttappayi is a lot like the people I have met in my village. However, he makes it look and sound different. It’s interesting how he brought subtle variations to each of the other Kottayam-flavoured achayans-“One can easily draw parallels between Kunjachan ( Kottayam Kunjachan) and Kuttappayi ( Sangham). It is said that this Mammootty-patented Kottayam slang was used later as a reference point by other actors for similar characters,” says film analyst R Raghunath. He is particularly spot-on in Kottayam Christian characters ( Sangham, Kottayam Kunjachan). He looked the part, and that drawl gave him an alpha male charm. He played a Kanjirappally-based Syrian Christian called Captain Thomas-“That character made me his fan. One of the earliest films he displayed his inimitable flair for dialects was the Padmarajan film, Koodevidey.
It was the Megastar’s idea to add that twist. Director Anwar Rasheed later admitted that the Thiruvananthapuram slang never featured in their wildest dreams. “When I met Mammootty, he handed me the script of the film and told me to “Thiruvananthapuramise” it,” said Suraj in a television interview. Venjaramoodu-based actor Suraj Venjaramoodu reportedly spent as much time as Mammootty on the sets of Rajamanickyam to teach the ‘Thirontharam' slang to the actor. You can even get the areas nearer to it-Kozhikode, Kannur or even Malappuram, but this one rests on minute inflections that only a person belonging to that region can understand or pronounce,” says acting teacher and theatre artist Devendranath.ĭevandranath also adds that in effect, Mammootty introduced the concept of a language consultant, which is rampant in Hollywood, to Malayalam cinema. “It’s one of the most difficult slangs to pull off. Like Mammootty picked the Pattambi-Eranadu slang in Bus Conductor. Listening is active.” It’s also the way to pick dialects, those tiny catches in intonations and that rhythm. Listening is being affected by what you hear. Well-known Broadway casting director Michael Shurtleff once said about a crucial trait every actor should possess-“You have to listen. Mammootty is the only actor who could do Thiruvananthapuram ( Rajamanikyam), Kochi ( Danny, Manglish), Thrissur ( Pranchiyettan.) Kanjirappalli ( Koodevidey, Kottayam Kunjachan) and even South Canara ( Vidheyan).” Thikkurissi, Sathyan, Prem Nazeer and Madhu were prisoners of Thiruvananthapuram slang while Soman and Mohanlal had a mix of central Travancore and Thiruvananthapuram. None of his predecessors or contemporaries could get out of their own native slangs irrespective of the characters they played. Says Asianet News Editor and veteran journalist, MG Radhakrishan “I don’t know about perfection, but he is the first Malayali actor to have done so much experimentation with slangs. In the long drawn debate that is often measured on the yardstick of flexibility (though the implications vary), spontaneity and effortlessness, this is where (among a lot of others) Mammootty wins hands down. It’s also precisely where the actor scores over his legendary rival-Mohanlal.