Riding to a career high after the success of his bloody action thriller Marco, Unni Mukundan explains why the film stands out in Malayalam cinema, but he wants it to no longer be an exception.
Last Christmas, actor Unni Mukundan and director Haneef Adeni filled cinema halls with joy by making the bloody and gory action thriller Marco. It was so full of inventive action and non-stop bloodshed that a film called Rifle Club, which was a bloody action film about men armed with guns killing each other, paled in comparison to the bloody scenes shown in Marco.
The film broke the record for an A-rated film in Malayalam and slowly made its mark across India and made Unni Mukundan a great action star. In a recent interview ahead of Marco’s OTT release, Unni spoke about why Marco is different in Malayalam cinema, but he wants it to be no exception.
“Marco has fights that you may have seen before, but not in an Indian film, and definitely not in a Malayalam film,” said Unni, candidly admitting that there is a certain burden when such films come from an industry like Malayalam. “Our cinema has a reputation of ‘good and clean cinema’.
For people like me, it is burdensome. I am not sure if I will be able to achieve the ‘good cinema’ tag with every film. In fact, people should not be put under the responsibility of only making ‘good’ films or benchmark films. I don’t see such pressure for actors in Telugu, Hindi or even Tamil cinema,” the Meppadiyan actor said in an interview with Galatta Plus.
While agreeing that the reputation that Malayalam cinema has earned over the years thanks to its consistently good work is an important thing, Unni Mukundan points out that such exclusive focus also limits expectations from the industry. “This kind of pressure limits us.
Suppose we have a big idea, but if the idea lacks artistic spark, it is dropped. This is one reason why big films are not made from Malayalam,” says Unni, who wants to change this system completely. “I want to make big films. I am expecting a KGF or a Baahubali from Kerala.
Even my good friend Prithvi (Prithviraj Sukumaran) said the same. When you have the best technicians and actors in Malayalam, why are such projects not being made. What is stopping us?” Appreciating Telugu filmmakers for dreaming big and Telugu cinema for executing that vision, Unni said his quest in cinema is to achieve that height by doing such films. “I want to do films that impact a lot of people.
Our cinema is travelling, and Malayalam cinema has a good reputation. Of course, I don’t want to compromise on that, but I want to match the different kinds of films I watch. That was the inspiration behind doing Marco. When people see Marco, and are shocked to know where it came from, and ask… ‘Why?’, all I want to ask is… ‘Why not?'”
Meanwhile, Unni Mukundan will be next seen in director Vinay Govind’s comedy drama Get Set Baby, which also stars Nikhila Vimal, Chemban Vinod Jose and Surabhi Lakshmi in pivotal roles. With music by Sam CS, Get Set Baby, which marks Vinay’s return as a director after Kohinoor (2015), is set to hit the screens on February 21.
