Malayalam cinema has a vibrant tradition of “fanboy films,” high-octane, star-driven spectacles designed to celebrate iconic actors like Mohanlal and Mammootty, delivering larger-than-life characters, massy dialogues, and adrenaline-pumping action for devoted fans. These films often prioritize style, grandeur, and crowd-pleasing moments over nuanced storytelling, aiming to evoke cheers in theaters. However, their success is a tightrope walk—while some, like ‘L2: Empuraan’ (2025), triumph with slick execution and ambitious scale, others, like ‘Aaraattu’ (2022), stumble due to weak narratives or mismatched expectations.
Risk is high
The majority of such films depend on the star value of an actor, and this is one of the main reasons why we mentioned earlier that it’s a tightrope walk. Along with the inclusion of fan service, the director and the scriptwriter have to add good content that will be appealing to the normal audience, too. Over-inclusion of content or even star elements in such movies can affect the movie badly.
The success of ‘Twenty-Twenty’
The multi-starrer film ‘Twenty-Twenty’ is surely a successful fan film that caters to the interests of fans only by providing mediocre, though interesting, content for the audience. Movies like ‘Harikrishnan’s’ have worked well in both serving fans and also providing good content. Looking at such matters, such films are surely a gamble between hit and miss.
I take full responsibility for the movie’s failure—‘Aaraattu’ director B. Unnikrishnan
Even though there are several underwhelming fanboy films, Mohanlal’s ‘Aarattu’ is always the main prey when it comes to a discussion around such topics.
Talking to Vishal Menon, the ‘Aaraattu’ director said that he takes complete responsibility for the failure of the Mohanlal starrer. He also said in another interview that the movie was supposed to be seen as a spoof film that recreated Mohanlal’s iconic dialogues, which, in reality, the audiences couldn’t digest. B. Unnikrishnan said,“Mistakes are part of the journey—we grow through them. I’m not affected by criticism or social media chatter. However, I do believe that criticism should be expressed with a sense of democracy and basic courtesy. Just because I respond to criticism doesn’t make me some kind of hero.”
What makes ‘Lucifer’ different?
Although the recent installment ‘Empuraan’ didn’t work well among the audiences, Prithviraj Sukumaran’s directorial debut ‘Lucifer’ is surely a classic example of how to create a fanboy film. With only limited screen time given to Mohanlal in ‘Lucifer’ and Murali Gopy’s intense and layered script, Prithviraj Sukumaran’s directorial film showed the audience how to add a classy element to such movies, both satisfying the fans and the general audience.
“Nobody becomes a star. You can only aspire to be a good actor.” – Prithviraj
(Picture Courtesy: Facebook)
In an earlier conversation with IANS, the ‘Empuraan’ director gave a good definition of ‘stardom.’ He said, “Nobody becomes a star. You can only aspire to be a good actor or be good at whatever craft within cinema you are handling. Everything else is territory. People give you tags. People think of you as stars. But that exists outside of you.”
Prithviraj Sukumaran’s words highlight one factor: that a star is born through the acceptance from the audience, and that comes when he or she provides good content for them. He further said, “So everything else—the stardom, the clout, the fame—everything exists outside of you. When you are within yourself, when you are with yourself, it’s just you, your craft, and how long and how far you can challenge yourself. That’s it.”
“Representation of a Malayali hero has changed.” – Pooja Mohanraj
In an exclusive chat with ETimes, the ‘Aavesham’ actress said that the Malayali audience has developed a different view towards a hero.
She said, “The representation of a Malayali hero has also changed. All these films have extremely vulnerable men. They are not in a position to act supreme; they are actually losing their control, which is completely different from a toxic hero.”
She further said, “Even in Naslen’s ‘Premalu’ or ‘Bramayugam,’ we see different shades of men. And in ‘Manjummel Boys,’ you see different shades of men with vulnerabilities. These are all characters who are not like an ideal hero who has it all sorted out; they all have their weaknesses. This is a very interesting twist that has happened in Malayalam cinema now.”
Dependence on star value
From Pooja Mohanraj’s words, one thing is sure: the Malayali audiences are viewing cinema on a different level when compared to others. Even though the majority of the audience have their love towards an actor, what they majorly look for is content, and the criticisms for the recently released Mohanlal starrer ‘Empuraan’ are surely an example of this. While Rajinikanth’s ‘Petta,’ Balayya’s ‘Daaku Maharaaj,’ Ajith Kumar’s ‘Good Bad Ugly,’ and many other language movies have put forward a good template on how to create a perfect fanboy film, it should be kept in mind that such films are also a highly risky area, which can either hold well at the box office or even tank.