Big B

Shoutout to Vishal Menon from Film Companion for hyping this film up for meand getting me to watch it and even though today it might seem a bit dated, I get why Vishal and fans like Vishal would’ve loved it so much when it came out in 2007. A few minutes into the film: especially because of the lighting and camera angles which I hadn’t seen in Malayalam films atleast from that time period: I saw a strong influence of peak Ram Gopal Varma from the 90s and early 2000s and wondered if there’s any connection and indeed: there is. Before getting into films, Amal Neerad started his career as a cinematographer of documentaries, music videos and ads and his diploma film somehow caught the eyes of RGV who is a man known for constantly hiring fresh talent. Before you know it, Amal shot 3 films for RGV and during that process maybe absorbed a lot of his style which you can see so clearly in Big B. Beyond the story of 2004 film Four Brothers that it’s inspired from… the way this film is shot, how it showed Mammootty in a brand new light is what makes this film so underrated