Beauty is only screen deep!

Looks does matter! Beauty is only screen deep when it comes to our favourite heroes on silver screen! We love to see them handsome and stylish, flaunting new looks every time they appear in a new avatar. They are our fashion statements, trend-setting icons, and sometimes ambassadors of our localized individuality to the external world that’s digital and global today.

Presentation that is futuristic and engrossingly entertaining is the rule of Showbiz, and movie-makers are challenged to give their male protagonists the best on-screen looks like never before. Looks that kill, that can draw an exclamatory “WOW!” from the viewer, can give a dream start for movies.

Let’s embark on a brief journey to recognize the top ten heroic looks that mattered in the Malayalam film industry, during the release years 2013 and the first half of 2014.

Fahadh Faasil in Annayum Rasoolum

"Beauty is only skin deep", we know. It sometimes takes the likes of Rajeev Ravi to remind us that nothing looks so pleasing and charming as originality. Here’s Fahadh Faasil, left to the best make-up man in the world, called “Nature”, for a few weeks, requiring only a bit of ‘trimming’ at the end. Malayali men have always looked their best with facial hair, a tint of baldness, and that unassuming smile!

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Annayum Rasoolum

Dulquar Salman in ABCD (American Born Confused Desi)

New generation looks never appeared so flamboyant, and never blended so well with the orthodox Malayali mindset before! With the unkempt and spiked hair, the western attires that looked stylish yet natural, the easy-going and cool attitude, Dulquar Salman rocked Mallu audience in ABCD. “American Born COOL Desi”, they yelled in delight!

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ABCD

Mohanlal in Mr Fraud

It was after a very long time that Malayali audience saw their favourite actor so handsome and mesmeric! The salt n’ pepper look so very well complemented the phenomenally gifted artist and star that Mohanlal has always been. It was the classy look and the magnificent persona of its hero that presented the ordinary movie the ‘watchable’ tag.

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Mr. Fraud

Prithviraj in 7th Day

Looks can be deceiving. When the very-handsome Prithvi donned the appearance of a middle-aged man with streaks of grey hair, also sober and subdued, characterizing the protagonist who’s a suspended senior Police Officer, no one sensed foul play. 7th Day is one of the rare breed of movies that successfully exploited the cinematic opportunities of underplaying the killer looks of its hero.

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7th Day

Mammootty in Gangster

When the age-defying masculine beauty of megastar Mammootty puts on a tiring and withered on-screen look, with an inscrutable countenance, there must be compelling cinematic reasons. The director of the movie must not fail to convey those reasons to the audience through his frames and shots and scenes, and if he does, disasters like Gangster occur! As a shattered man both inside and outside, inhaling agonising pain, and exhaling cold-blooded vengeance each passing moment, the looks very well suited the protagonist of the movie. But the same emotion could not be communicated across to the common spectator, causing both the looks and the movie to fail.

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Gangster

Mohanlal in Koothara

Like how there’s a devil even in the most divine man, every face has an angle, or a corner, or a fold that when highlighted to the extreme, would appear gruesome or at least repulsive! Such an exercise must not be done with your hero’s face, unless you have an exceptionally valuable tale to tell! Mohanlal is a great artist who would go to any extreme for the gratification of his artistic instincts, which sometimes lands him in lampooning nothingness. Well, that's the price you pay for creative enlightenment.

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Koothara

Dileep in Ringmaster

As the man of the masses whose vision and mission is to entertain them, the doggy looks that Dileep wore for the doggy movie Ringmaster, was indeed necessary or apt. The silly movie targeted kids in their summer vacation time, and they had helluva fun time with those dogs and their Dileep uncle! There has never been a star who knows his business and talents inside out as Dileep, and such wild looks can be carried off only by such a great artist.

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Ring Master

Kunchacko Boban in Pullipulikallum Aattinkuttiyum

The goatee and the new-gen look was to befit the protagonist who is a tourist guide, in order to appear modern and sophisticated before his foreign clients. It was an opportunity for Kunchacko Boban to try something different with his boy-next-door looks, and he played it goatishly well with lots of baa’s and maa’s! The looks and the movie fared reasonably well.

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Pullipulikalum Aattinkuttiyum

Mammooty in Daivathinte Swantham Cleetus

The megastar had to take God’s own looks, demanded the script. He devotedly conformed, and we got Cleetus. Mammootty does not take unwanted risks with his looks, which he knows is his strongest asset. Cleetus was not crucified by the Mallu audience, but they never bothered to pay any homage to him as well.

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Daivathinte Swantham Cletus

Prithviraj in London Bridge

You cannot look unfashionable in London, right? Colored and spiked hair, affluent dressing in formal and casual styles, a collection of posh four-wheeled beauties, sexy women – the hero of London Bridge had all the embellishments to match the backdrop of the beautiful London, but the bridge of a good story leading to success was clearly missing. Not many cared to see London and the stylized hero.

The conclusion of the story is that while looks does matter, it alone cannot produce good results. In other words, the adage “Beauty is only skin deep” holds good even for the silver screen!

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London Bridge