KOCHI: Twelve years in the Malayalam film industry as a director and only four films released so far, but the name Rajesh Pillai holds a prime position in the list of top Malayalam film-makers. The major reason is the success of his movie ‘Traffic’ (2011), which is regarded as a path-breaking venture that brought in a new generation wave in Malayalam cinema.
The non-linear way of storytelling, though conventional but slick and stylish making, technical perfection, right selection of actors and the emotional knot that it tied to the heart of spectators made ‘Traffic’ an outstanding movie experience.
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Following the success of ‘Traffic’, many makers came up with the so-called new generation movies but most of them were filled with ‘beeps’, ‘booze’ and ‘weeds’. Here Rajesh stands tall as his films ‘Hrudayatahil Sookshikkan’ (2005), ‘Traffic’ (2011), ‘Mili’ (2015) and ‘Vettah’ (2016) were all clean movies. There was neither overdose of violence in his movies nor any sort of offensive languages to irritate families. ‘Traffic’ and ‘Mili’ had its messages to society too.
Rajesh Pillai entered Mollywood as an independent director through ‘Hrudayathil Sookshikkan.’ The Kunchakko Boban and Bhavana starrer, released in 2005, received lukewarm response in the box office. Though he was deeply affected by the poor performance of his maiden venture, Pillai waited patiently for a good script. He was a close friend of Sanjay (of Bobby Sanjay team) and thus decided to work together with the duo. This association paved way for ‘Traffic’ in 2011, which became a grand success in the box office. Then Pillai decided to do the Hindi version of ‘Traffic.’ Though the work is over, the film is yet to hit the screens. He had dedicated nearly two-and-a-half years for the Hindi version of ‘Traffic,’ which forced him to take a break from Malayalam movies. However, Pillai came back to Mollywood with a women centric theme - ‘Mili’ - in 2015 with Amala Paul in the lead role. Scripted by Mahesh Narayan, ‘Mili’ was an average film in the box office, but was well-appreciated by critics. February 2016 was so far a ‘cruel’ month as far as the Malayalam film industry is concerned. It had lost poet ONV, cinematographer Anandakkuttan and music director Rajamani earlier this month. The month had again its toll on Mollywood as the industry has lost one of the young talents. It was on Friday that Rajesh Pillai’s movie ‘Vettah’ was released. The film, which is a thriller, is getting good response in theatres. But unfortunately, Pillai is not any more to see the good response that the film is receiving in theatres. A day prior to the release, he was hospitalised and breathed his last on Saturday.
Two Pending Projects
Rajesh Pillai, who passed away on Saturday, was behind two ambitious projects. The first one is ‘Lucifer,’ which gained public attention soon after the announcement. The movie was planned as a Mohanlal-starrer based on a script by Murali Gopi. The second one is ‘Motorcycle Diaries’ which was Rajesh Pillai’s dream project. As the canvas is big and requires pan India shooting locations, Pillai kept the project aside and decided to do it after finalising all the details. Kunchacko Boban and Nivin Pauly were supposed to play the lead roles in ‘Motorcycle Diaries.’