Even though Malayalam filmmaker Siddique, who passed away on August 8, is remembered along with his partner Lal for the films they wrote and directed, the two of them had begun by writing stories that others directed. They contributed to one of the most celebrated films in Malayalam, Manichitrathazhu. They were really good with situational humour and made their funniest scenes without the usual stereotyping, at anyone's expense. Later when they split ways, Siddique continued directing comedies and slipped a few into other languages too. A listicle of his films wouldn't be complete without the early films he and Lal wrote for, and without his later stints in Tamil and Hindi.
This is the first film Siddique and Lal scripted but it was directed by Sathyan Anthikad. Though not often quoted among the best comedies, Pappan is an underappreciated work which launched the brand of humour Siddique and Lal would be known for. Here was Pappan, a young man who was mistakenly taken by Yamarajan, the Lord of Death, before his time. Pappan demands to be taken back to earth and Yamarajan has a tough time placing him in the bodies of other newly dead people. Rahman and Thilakan make a wonderful pair as Pappan and Yamarajan. Mohanlal, Nedumudi Venu and Bahadur are hilarious as the serious characters they play, suddenly begin dancing and singing the way Pappan did. And then, in a way typical of Siddique-Lal movies, a mood of melancholy seeps into the picture, making even the Lord of Death shed tears.
Siddique and Lal wrote the story of this evergreen comedy, which then got scripted by Sreenivasan and directed by Sathyan Anthikad. Mohanlal and Sreenivasan play two men who lose their low-paying jobs and try to go to the Gulf but end up in Madras. The many misunderstandings they get mixed up in, create the ground for humour here and some of the lines, especially those including Thilakan as a cowardly underworld don, and Captain Raju, as an overly dressed professional killer are quoted by generations of Malayalis.
This is the first film they direct, launching Sai Kumar as a hero. Sai Kumar, along with Mukesh and Innocent, play three financially strapped men, who in their desperation, get mixed up in a kidnapping crime. The scenes involving the men, who are rivals first and friends later, produce some of the best remembered dialogues in Malayalam. Innocent, playing the exasperated theatre owner lodging the other two men, got one of his best roles as Mathaichan. The film marked the director duo as two sensitive filmmakers who have a certain knack for humour and lightening life worries with it.
Circling four young bachelors, all apparently jobless and idling their time watching women in the neighbourhood, the film is counted as one of the best comedies in Malayalam. Unlike in their usual scripts, the men do not have a sentimental backstory and their parts seemed purely for humour. However a parallel track involving an aged mother waiting for her son's return makes up for the pathos lacking in our idle bachelors' lives. Mukesh, Jagadish, Ashokan and Sidhique (not the director but an actor of the same name) made the four characters unforgettable, their comic timing unbelievably good. Here too, the men accidentally get involved with criminals in their attempt to woo a young woman. Beautiful songs became another trademark of Siddique Lal movies.
Their most successful movie that ran for more than 400 days in theatres, Godfather, with absolutely no connection to its English namesake, is another masterpiece comedy. Two feuding families are at the centre of it, each led by an ageing matriarch and patriarch respectively. The patriarch is the ‘godfather’, bossing around his four sons, who behave like goons and are forbidden to marry. The story happens at the time the youngest son, played by Mukesh, falls in love with a young woman (Kanaka) of the feuding family. Only Siddique and Lal, it would seem, could shape such a storyline laced with humour, nearly every scene a laugh riot. Innocent and Jagadish get some of their most memorable scenes in the film, one playing a brother hiding his marriage, and the other a loyal friend who has a habit of blurting out truths at the most unfortunate moments.
This came after the split of the director duo and Siddique took one of his solo works in Malayalam to Tamil, retaining the name. Nearly two decades after its release, Friends is still considered to be one of the most hilarious Tamil movies. Vadivelu plays the whimsical contractor Nesamani who is a favourite pop culture reference even now. With Vijay, Suriya, Devayani, and Vadivelu in lead roles, the movie explores complicated human relationships and still stands as a testament in the way friendships are portrayed on the silver screen.
Siddique’s first and only Hindi film starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor was a massive hit, garnering around Rs 250 crore in the box office. In the film, professional bodyguard Lovely Singh (Salman Khan) is hired by a business tycoon to protect his daughter Divya Rana (Kareena Kapoor), who is supremely annoyed by his presence. In pursuit of freedom from him, Divya weaves an elaborate plan with her best friend, to pose as a secret admirer (with an untraceable number) on his cellphone and make him fall in love, hoping this would distract him from his utter devotion towards his duty.
The romantic comedy was one of the four remakes (along with Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada) of Siddique’s 2010 Malayalam film of the same name. Incidentally, though Siddique can understand Hindi, he was unable to speak the language, and it was his assistants who used to narrate the dialogues to Salman Khan and other actors. The film, however, went on to become one of the biggest hits Hindi cinema had seen until then — a testament to the filmmaker’s grasp of what makes the audience tick, no matter the industry or language.