While director Shrikumar Menon has been facing a severe cyberattack for his latest movie 'Odiyan', many have come out openly supporting him. Writer Lijeesh Kumar slammed the collective online attack against the 'Odiyan' director and the movie in his Facebook post titled ‘Shrikumar Menon’s Randamoozham is what I am waiting for'.
To drive home his point, Lijeesh recalled the fate of noted director Padmarajan who passed away a few days after his film received bad reviews soon after its release in 1991.
“Have you heard about the filmmaker who broke down seeing the empty theatres in Kozhikode and Kannur when he reached there with the artists to promote his movie? Don’t you remember Padmarajan who died of a broken heart at a hotel room in Kozhikode as he was shattered after his movie tanked at the box office. The movie 'Njan Gandharvan' became a success only after he died. This is an industry which killed Padmarajan. Abusing the director on his Facebook page when his films don’t work is a repugnant culture. Please don’t turn Shrikumar Menon into another Padmarajan. He is yet to make many amazing movies. I am in fact eagerly waiting for his ‘Randamoozham’,” Lijeesh said.
Lijeesh also reminded that one bad film needn't decide the destiny of a filmmaker. He cited the case of late filmmaker Thambi Kannanthanam who had to his credit a string of flops before he struck gold with 'Raajavinte Makam, which did wonders to Mohanlal’s career.
“No one had demanded then that director Thampi Kannanthanam should quit the industry. Neither did people turn against Dennis Joseph... for giving his screenplay to an inexperienced director like Thambi Kannanthanam. Thambi Kannanthanam wouldn’t have made movies like 'Raajavinte Makan', 'Bhoomiyile Raajakkanmar', 'Indrajalam' and 'Maanthrikam', had people abused him for his failed movies” observed Lijeesh.
Lijeesh cited Kannanthanam's flop movies like 'Thavalam', 'Passport' and 'Aa Neram Alpa Neram' in which Mohanlal featured.
The young writer has also cited other filmmakers in Malayalam and Tamil who made amazing comebacks after their movies failed to impress. He stressed that no director should be assessed on just his failures.
Lijeesh is of the opinion that 'Odiyan' isn’t a total failure. He wrote that those who expected a masala entertainer after watching the thrilling actions by Peter Hein in the trailer may have been disappointed.
“It is only natural that the audience who expected to see Odiyan’s mesmerising actions on screen got annoyed with the director who, instead, portrayed the protagonist’s emotional life. However, what is happening right now is a collective attack... Even if 'Odiyan' is a failure, I doubt the intentions of those who say that Shrikumar Menon should refrain from making any more movies,” Lijeesh concluded his Facebook post.
