Earlier it was the synonym for good cinema in the country. It had bagged almost all the awards given to movies and persons associated with it for many years, competitors were far behind. It had given birth to so many world famous writers, actors and renowned film personalities. It got matured when all others in the country were in their infant stage. Thanks to those visionaries, who had fashioned it in such a way so that everybody started analyzing it and began learning lessons from it. I am talking about the Malayalam movie industry. But time had passed. Film making had become a profitable business in these years. The film viewing population showed an upward trend. At the beginning film viewing was in apartheid like communism in the state of kerala but with out much delay films had become a popular media.
But the film industry in kerala is going through difficult situations in these days. India in common and south India in particular had a mania called star worshipping. It’s like a disease in almost all the southern parts of the country. We had seen silver screen stars became chief ministers of Andhra and Tamilnadu, there the star worshipping had reached it’s peak that the fans are ready to give up even their lives for their favorite heroes. Stars exploited the man power behind them and used it for their political gains. Kerala, which was the Mecca of good films in the past was away from this practice of metamorphasizing it’s movie stars into politicians, since the state was politically literate.
If we analyze the mania of star worshipping with a magnifying lens we will be able to notice that education is going to do nothing with this disease. The anthropology of Indians are now associated with movies and cricket.
But is the star worshipping good for movies?. In kerala scenario things are something more sophisticated. Kerala don’t had the practice of star worshipping at the early stage. Now the Malayalam movie stars themselves are purposefully injecting the habit into the movie watchers at their expense. There may be political dreams behind it but the immediate effect they want is stopping others to come to the limelight of the movie industry. There is a star and technicians cocas, which is determining the whereabouts of a movie.
The two big names in the Malayalam movie industry are Mohanlal and  Mammootty. They are leading the dictatorship in the film industry of this film loving state. Some one and half years before there was a crisis in the Malayalam movie industry. This was actually a crisis arised out of lack of good movies. (But the industry somehow managed to overcome the crisis, the industry owes the credit to shakkeela, maria and reshma jodi and their half porn movies.). Then came the real crisis of Malayalam cinema. Raajamanikyam said to be the biggest hit in Mammootty’s career graph. This was made possible because of the high voltage promotion of the movie through fans associations. Mammooty just made a step forward in promoting himself he published a magazine called mammooty times. (He started his blog on the very first day of this year, where he writes articles about so called serious topics, trying to establish himself as a successful blogger from the film arena after Big B Amitabh Bachchan).
Mohanlal on the other hand has earlier proved that he is a specimen for business. He has launched Mohanlal’s taste buds earlier and then started a dubbing studio. Now he is the brand ambassador and promoter of Hedge equities. A broking company formed when the markets touched it’s recent lows. Through the ads of the company he says knowledge is important for successful investment. The sad thing is that once they were prophets of good movies and were part of them but now they are not promoting such kinds of movies. In fact they are ready to do movies with award winning directors!. They even not promoting the newcomers as well. Amma and Macta are the prominent unions of Malayalam movie artists. recently film director Vinayam alleged that Mammootty of removing members of a particular union from sets just because they are members. The caucus is  so strong that they can even remove such a senior artist Thilakan from acting in movies. Now he is acting in sidelined movies. Mammootty and Moahanlal are like trees in a giant forest where they will not allow other trees to grow.

Why kerala is so much interested in movies it is not because some brilliant directors were born here. Apart from that they tried to impart film education among the people not only in the urban area but also in the rural area. In early 70s film society movement started in kerala which had got tremendous support from the people. Then came the films from Adoor Gopalakrishnan (not now a days export quality ones but real classic ones). Aravindan and Padmarajan made cinemas out of passion. John Abraham the realistic director made cinema with the money from people. These efforts altogether promoted good cinemas in the coconut land. In 80s, the period identified as the romantic period of Malayalam movies, many promising personalities came into the lime light. Later they became pillars of the industry. Modernization of the industry happened after the first half of 90s.
The star mania came in the industry only in late 90s and it became powerful after 2000. Devaasuram, a feudal story directed by I.V Sasi starring Mohanlal was the landmark movie which laid the foundation of star dictatorship in the industry. (Devaasuram introduced a new alcohol drinking style also).Then came the same stretch movies by Shaji Kailas, who successfully established Hindu icons in movies and it became popular. On the other hand Mammootty tried to became versatile he danced and sang but all proved to be burden over him. But he somehow managed to maintain the post of superstar along with Mohanlal. Then they began ruling the film industry.
If an aspiring director approaches these stars. They will fix all the technicians and even actors according to their taste. They will rewrite the script and will change the concept of the movie. They even fix the budget and the locations (where they can easily reach in their own vehicle). If the newcomer do not agree with it the project skips. If they have any disagreement they will fire the respective actor out. Finally good films never happen only Superstar show offs will happen. In this situation you cannot see a film like Paruthiveeran or Subrahmanniyapuram from kerala. You will be forced to watch below average films with your expense!. The superstars are spoiling Malayalam films in all sense.