When someone asks, “Why is Malayalam Cinema so good?”, a slew of awe-inspiring answers might pop up. After all, it has set a benchmark in the movie industry, national and international, to show that possibilities of better films are achievable. In light of the recent roaring of Malayalam movies in the past few years, we saw an upward spiral of movie buffs sharing their love for it on social media. Each, unique on its own. With that in mind, we’ve chronicled a few of our favorite Instagram accounts that celebrate Malayalam cinema. We personally connected with these people to know their stories.
Malayalee Chindhakal (മലയാളി ചിന്തകൾ)
There are many talented personalities in Malayalam cinema who aren’t recognised or hell, forgotten, even though we all have been great fans of their creations. This handle picks out less explored and less discussed gems in the Malayalam movie industry, be it artists, scenes, or even forgotten faces. The page also explores the hidden talents of various artists we bet you didn’t know about.
Jobin Varghese is the founder and admin of Malayalee Chindhakal. He currently resides in Melbourne and works as an Accounting postgraduate in a retail store.
On why he started Malayalee Chindakal, he shared, “Observing certain things (especially from movies) and discussing it with my friends was something I really enjoyed. It’s been more than three years now since I’ve been away from home, my close friends and relatives. Currently, I stay alone and feel comfortable. So you can say that I lead a lonely, independent life. However, I had no one around to discuss what I love the most – Movies! That’s when the idea of starting an Instagram page, where I could share my observations and thoughts, came into being. I wanted my discussions to reach the right kind of people so that I could also learn and understand more from them as well.”
Also Read: Women in Comedy in Malayalam Cinema
Cinematolust
Have you wondered what makes cinema great? It’s a play of our emotions. Cinematolust draws our attention to exactly that. This Instagram handle uncovers the human emotions and beauty of shots in Malayalam cinema that have stayed with us. If you’re a sucker for compilation or multifandom videos, give this page a shot. You won’t regret it.
Ajas Khan, the admin of Cinematolust shared, “I believe that every movie has an emotion. I just tried to put them together in a single video as much as I can. I concentrate more on the content or the emotional aspects rather than technical aspects. Obviously, there are many mistakes as I’m an amateur. But I’ve got a great bunch of friends who help me improve my work with their suggestions.”
This second-year Btech student at Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology, from Aluva, started the page during the lockdown period as an escape from boredom. Ajas shared, “I never thought I would come this far. I love films and I wanted to share my point of view. That’s how I started a movie-related page. At the end of the day, all I wish is to share the essence of cinema through my work.”
While predominantly the Instagram page focuses on Malayalam cinema, it has also started to explore other languages. It’s a page that celebrates cinema and the myriad emotions associated with it.
NewGen Talkies
Here’s an Instagram page that believes that there’s more to Malayalam cinema than meets the eye. Every movie has a story to tell and NewGen Talkies dissects it to spark a discussion. They talk about taboo topics, socio-political issues, and technical aspects of cinema which are usually Greek and Latin to most. This handle will expand your movie knowledge tenfold. There’s no doubt about it.
Adel Ahamed, a second-year medical student from Malappuram, and Neil, who works at Infopark Kochi, are ardent admirers of cinema. They’re the people behind NewGen Talkies. “Storytelling has been a passion, and we were optimistic about converting a thread into a movie someday,” Adel shared.
The idea behind Newgentalkies came to Adel’s mind almost two years ago. He intended to review the latest movies and articulate his honest opinion. He shared, “Initially, I started writing reviews in Malayalam, and that is when I met Neil, who later joined me in handling the page. I had seen his short writings in English that caught my eye. We thought we could reach out to a larger audience by providing quality content in both languages. The formula turned out well. The page started gaining followers who had an open eye to all genres of cinema. At present, we are backed by a handful of other writers who share their thoughts through our page. I’ve also got to say – We have had the privilege to be engaged by some celebrities who have appreciated our content. That’s a motivation to keep striving to create more content.”
Adel Ahamed, founder of NewGen Talkies 
Neil, co-founder of NewGen Talkies
Their greatest strength is the handful of writers in their forum. Because of this diversified group of writers, different perspectives on issues are explored. Issues like mental health, misogyny, linguistic chauvinism, righteousness for men to cry, and mob psychology are a few of the many topics discussed in their forum. They hope to turn Newgen Talkies into a production company in the future. Adel shared, “Not sure if it will happen, but we’ll do our fair share of the work. We look up to forums like The Cue and would love to emulate that kind of work in the future. Even if none of this becomes a reality, all we would love to see is people genuinely relishing the posts and movies suggested. Because at the core, our politics is humanity.”
Also Read: Culinary Innovations in Malayalam Cinema
Filmphiction
Aslam Seju from Kottayam started Filmphiction to share moments in cinema that captivated his attention. This page is a love letter dedicated to cinema, celebrating every moment scene by scene. Expect to fall in love with some of his contributions as he appreciates the beauty of cinema in the way it deserves to be.
He shared, “I started this page after I had dropped out of my college and was hoping to get admitted to another institution. I had around five to six months before I started the new college year. I found myself watching a lot of films at that time in order to understand filmmaking. And numerous Instagram cinema accounts, mostly from outside India, helped me understand a lot about cinema. To my knowledge, there were relatively few Instagram profiles featuring Malayalam films at the time. So that’s when I decided to set up a page dedicated to Malayalam movies. I had no clue how to manage an account when I started the page. One of my friends helped me out in the beginning and the page outpaced our expectations in terms of reach.”
Aslam aims to provide more prominence to the country’s independent cinema community. He wants to connect with more people that have genuine affection and enthusiasm for the medium of cinema. If he’s talking about you, hit him up now.
Retropeedika
The BA LLB graduate, Sachin from Thrissur’s Irinjalakuda, started Retropeedika to showcase his respect for artists and filmmakers who genuinely approach films like it is meant to be. He knows that there exist like-minded people who are aware of the hidden gems in Malayalam cinema. Through his content, he wants to connect with them so that they too have a space to acknowledge it. Retropeedika is a place to rediscover films, moments, and timeless fav you must have forgotten all about. You’ll only get the good stuff here. Plus, the page guarantees to give your IG feed a retro flair.
Sachin shared, “I am an ardent follower of many Instagram pages that showcase Malayalam cinema, but I realised that people were celebrating the celebrated. To be more specific, famous personalities and their well-known works were talked about a lot, like a lot. No one was talking about Malayalam cinema’s lesser-known characters or scenes that were equally brilliant. So, I thought of creating videos and sharing them among my friends without really thinking about the possibility of having an Instagram page dedicated to this.”
Sachin’s third video, which was on Freddy Nicholas from Orkkapurathu went viral on Instagram. That was his ‘light-bulb’ moment. He soon understood that his work had the potential to get people talking. He shared, “When people recognize my work and share the same sentiments I have, it’s a great feeling. The fact that they too love certain movies, scenes or characters brings me immense joy.”
Also Read: MacGuffins In Malayalam Cinema
Aesthetic Kadhakal
What started out as a page for Malayalam song reviews soon turned out to be the go-to platform for everything Mollywood. Filled with amazing perspectives and interesting stories, Aesthetic Kadhakal’s Instagram page will take your Malayalam cinema knowledge to a whole different level.
The founder, Kailas from Trivandrum, started this page during the lockdown period when he was bored out of his wits. Little did he know that he would soon enter a booming space in Kerala that would make his content stand out. “It’s been one and half years now, and every day I make sure I post something really interesting. At the end of the day, it’s all about sharing my love for cinema. It’s fun and a captivating space to be in.”
So, what are you waiting for? Get your finger on that follow button now!
Cinemeau
Childhood friends, Vipin Babu and Niyog Krishna had a passion that connected them early on, cinema. It was during one of their cinema conversations that led to the beginning of Cinemeau, a community platform/ Instagram page dedicated to Malayalam cinema. We particularly love their eye for detail.
Vipin and Niyog were fuelled by the need to create a space that encouraged deep analysis of movies. Cinemeau was born out of it. Vipin shared, “The page started on March 18th 2019. At that time Instagram already had pages but on Hollywood and Bollywood mostly. So I shared the idea of creating a page just for Malayalam movies. Niyog readily loved the idea, and we shaped the layout and format of the content. We wanted to grab the attention of people to films and their content from the frames of movies. The first to join the creative team was Navaneeth. That’s when the second phase happened, and more similar-minded creators joined our creator’s community.”
Niyog, co-founder of Cinemeau 
Vipin, co-founder of Cinemeau
Cinemeau has a bunch of creative writers now. They all bring such diverse topics to the table and write exclusively for them. He shared, “These are people who understand the emotions of a story to its base. We focus on Malayalam movies for posts. Around two years ago, there were hardly any pages that did it this way. We wanted to shout as loud as possible that there’s a regional movie industry producing world-class movies and creators. And it all comes from the love towards the medium that’s cinema.”
The team is looking to collaborate with creators and make it a creator community. There are some other collaborations as well hopefully happening soon. If you passionately follow the art of cinema and wish to be a part of the Cinemeau Creators community, you know what to do.
Aesthetic Kunjamma
Aesthetic Kunjamma brings a vintage, retro, and modern boho vibe to Malayalam cinema. It’s one of those Instagram pages that just makes us fall in love with retro movie posters. Every. Single. Time.
Started by aspiring actor Arun Ajikumar, along with his friend Deepak, this page created an aesthetic worth your attention. The creativity burst of the handle came into fruition due to the combined effort of 10 contributors – Arun, Deepak J, Yedhu Murukan, Ashwin k, Tara Elizabeth, Teena, Albert, Kiran Raj, Amar, Govind Ani and Arjun.
Arun shared, “One of the best parts about this page is its people. We have a bunch of creative minds who are seriously killing it every day. Thanks to them, we’ve also had opportunities to create posters for South Indian movies. Veyil, starring Shane Nigam, was our first poster project. Then came, Addham, Sara’s, Nodidavaru Enantra, Kurup, Chathuram, Stand up Rahul, Puthan Puthu Kalai, Madhuram.”
He further added, “Aesthetic Kunjamma is all about experimentation. We’re all about trying to adapt and trusting the process. I hope to make Aesthetic Kunjamma a go-to place for branding and marketing for movies one day. We see a future there. Till then, we’ll just keep on producing kickass posters and impress you all with our creativity.”
Cinemogasm
This Instagram handle provides everything you need to know about Malayalam cinema. They are hard to miss because their red aesthetics stands out from the rest. Their content is so good that you’re bound to get a Cinemogasm from it. For cinema lovers, this is the place to explore something new about Mollywood and an extension of their love for the art.
Cinemogasm was started by 3 Btech graduates from Kochi. They shared, “The vision of our page is to acknowledge and appreciate obscure films. Cinema does two things – Entertain and educate the mass. But, artistic expressions tend to get under-appreciated so we felt that it should be discussed. We are more into aesthetics and artistic expression through cinema. We don’t try to satisfy any norms. We just speak our hearts out loud.” That’s exactly why we appreciate their content. Do have a look!
We had so much fun speaking to these talented folks about their cinema journey. We know that we’ve missed out on a couple of your favourite Instagram pages. Do let us know in the comments below.
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