If someone is not screeching on prime time television, are you even watching the news? If you are not skimming through Page 3 with your morning chai, are you even reading the newspaper? While the latter may be difficult to answer in pandemic times, the former more than makes up for it.
News media is unavoidable. But have we received a fair, in-depth, honest depiction of this profession on-screen? Or have we just been served the caricatures we suffer anyway? In this brief review, we look at the depiction of news media in Malayalam cinema...and dare we say the report card looks bad!
In the Renji Panicker scripted Pathram (1999), a political thriller, directed by Joshiy and set in the backdrop of the newspaper industry, Suresh Gopi’s Nandagopal is flown in from Delhi to be the Associate Editor of ‘Kerala Reshmi.’ In what seems to be a nod to one of the largest selling vernacular newspapers in India, the film’s veteran Managing Director and his wife are modelled after its founder (a disciplinarian) and wife (who writes cookery books). In a telling scene, when one of the senior editors tries to push a story of a priest’s coronation, the newly appointed editor puts him in his place, with a fiery speech on the ethics of journalism and insists on a human-interest story to be put on the front page.
Malayalam cinema has always stereotyped journalism as well as the journalist. It has created a standard image of journalists as either principled, fast-talking, chain-smoking, kurta clad vigilantes or as sleazy, drunk and corrupt. Most journalists in cinema can apparently see through the treachery, lies and fight for the common man.
In the 1995 political thriller The King, again written by Renji Panicker and directed by Shaji Kailas, which has a larger-than-life IAS officer headlining the narrative, Azeez is a devious, seedy editor of a tabloid, and lives on the crumbs of a politician’s money. Considering the scriptwriter is a former journalist, this glaringly black and white depiction of his own tribe comes across as ironic.
“Renji Panicker has never tried to keep it realistic. They were always depicted in binaries, cinematic/stylised representation of how a layman perceives the media. Either idealistic, ethical, superhero vigilantes or sleazy paid ones,” observes Krishna Kumar, journalist.
Rarely have we had a film on journalism (like Spotlight, The Front Page, All the President’s Men, Broadcast News, Bombshell) spun around the pursuit of a story, packed with hurdles and the outcomes of the pursuit. What we have had instead are mostly stereotyped journalists crammed in murder mysteries or political thrillers.
In the IV Sasi directed and T Damodaran scripted Vartha, a socio-political thriller, Mammootty plays Madhavan Kutty, a fiery, hot-headed journalist whose grandfather was a popular newspaper editor. He is a young idealist who takes charge by briefing colleagues about ethical journalism, writes powerful editorials against anti-social elements, but eventually ends up a martyr.
Murali, as Shekharan in Pathram, leads an independent vernacular daily called ‘Jagratha’ and carries the torch of idealism with him. He has absolute derision for those who have no scruples and prides himself on being the voice of integrity in a world that has already sold its soul. Joshiy’s New Delhi (1987), written by Dennis Joseph (also inspired by Irwin Wallace’s novella God Almighty) filmed entirely in New Delhi, had a journalist (also a cartoonist) as a hero (Mammootty) who manipulates the power of the fourth estate to get back at his enemies. But the journalist is a stylised cinematic hero, and the newspaper industry is used more as a narrative tool for his revenge than a nuanced account of his profession.
If GK in New Delhi, uses it to further his revenge plans, Balu in Pavithran’s murder mystery, Utharam, uses his journalistic skills to unravel the murder of his friend's wife’s suicide. “While New Delhi might not be an ideal situation, both GK and Balu are intriguing and well-written characters, using their professional skills for their personal reasons,” maintains Geethika Sudip, journalist turned filmmaker. Even in Pathram, the newly appointed editor has a history in the Delhi newspaper industry, and so has all that it takes to turn him into a venerated celluloid journalist.
The female journalists in Pathram (Manju Warrier) and Artham (Saranya Ponvannan) are both righteous, no-nonsense reporters. While Devika is the daughter of a veteran journalist, Manasa seems to be in it for the love and thrill of the profession. If Devika gets her moment when she exchanges angry words with a cop in the middle of a bustling street, Manasa is daring enough to indulge in some deception and aggressively pursue a story. But Devika’s chutzpah is brutally cut short with the intervention of an alpha male, apart from other problematic subtexts in that narrative.
Urvashi in Joshiy’s Nirakkoottu is a fresh recruit at a newspaper. When she witnesses a businessman getting kidnapped by a moving van in the middle of the night, she quickly calls the police, who save the man and reports the story, only to get reprimanded by the editor (Jose Prakash) for doing the saviour act instead of “just focusing on the kidnapping.”
In K Madhu’s Irupatham Nootandu (1987), scripted by SN Swamy, Ambika plays a reporter from Mumbai’s Sunday Mirror, raised on tabloid journalism, who gets assigned to Kerala. She is this upbeat reporter who tries to unearth the enigmatic underworld don Sagar Alias Jackie in the film. Her persistence to get some dope on him ends up with an exasperated Jackie pointing to a stack of magazines with cover stories on underworld dons and putting the onus on journalists for writing glorified pieces about them. Years later when it got a sequel in Amal Neerad’s Sagar Alias Jackie Reloaded, the tabloid journalist got updated to a TV reporter (Bhavana) but remained a caricature.
That most of the writers or directors did little research is obvious in how they gave designations to the journalist characters on screen. Sub-editor, which is considered the junior most position in a newspaper, is earmarked to every journalist on celluloid. Sub-editor, sub-editor reporter, copy editor, chief copy-editor, deputy editor, deputy news editor, news editor, associate news editor, chief editor—very few filmmakers or writers seem to be aware of these designated titles used in a newspaper office. Or the designations allotted to a photojournalist. Or even the various forms of journalism (access journalism, advocacy journalism, investigative, data, tabloid etc.).
Also what about ordinary journalists who aren’t always vigilante reporters or corrupt sleazy ones-- those in the middle, the ones who really do this as a job, don’t merely do breaking stories hourly, have ordinary days, and are often bogged down by the demands of the boss.
“Such depictions are often mistaken as real journalism when nothing is further from the truth. Today for a Malayali, faces of the media are these screeching loud rude anchors who pass their own judgements on issues, but that is not how it should be,” says Kumar.
Some actors were typecast in the role of a newspaper editor, like Jagannatha Varma who flitted in and out as an aloof, aggressive, canny face of a market-driven business house (Praja, Artham, Pathram, Vartha). In most political thrillers (The King, Avanazhi, Commissioner, Ekalavyan), a sleazy, corrupt editor or reporter who challenged the hero was a regular. In Sathyan Anthikad’s Kalikkalam, it was a local newspaper owner who kept threatening the cop (Murali) when he did not fall in line with his greedy plans.
Renji Panicker always portrayed photojournalists with morbid fascination, death hung around them like a Damocles sword. The narrative often opens with them being chased by mobsters and getting gunned down exactly before they make that one crucial phone call from phone booths (before the mobile era) to their editor or family.
“Photographers/cameramen are shown as people leading the reporting of a story, because they are played by male actors, when usually they support the telling of a reporter’s story,” says Asha Menon, journalist with Outlook Business.
The coverage of press conferences in cinema is another instance of lazy writing.
“I have attended umpteen press conferences and nowhere do you see journalists standing up to question the politician/celebrity concerned,” offers R Ayyappan of Malayalam Manorama Online. And journalists at these pressers are always rude, tactless, and manipulative. But in the SN Swamy scripted August 1, directed by Sibi Malayil, they keep it accurate, where Srinath’s scribe (also an interestingly relatable one) raises questions seated.
Malayalam cinema has chiefly focussed on investigative or crime reporting and entertainment journalism (like a Devil Wears Prada) has been overlooked. One got glimpses of it, with exaggerated irreverence in Priyadarshan’s Boeing Boeing. Mohanlal and Mukesh are working in a newspaper, where both are seen photographing female models. Mukesh eventually wins an award for nature photography. But note how Soman’s journalist character is a sub-editor who even gets a cubicle!
“I think Malayalam cinema has largely shown journalists in a positive light. They are usually whistle-blowers, standing on the right side of law. Maybe because we have such a strong ethical journalism background and newspaper reading culture. It’s after the intervention of TV journalism that sensationalism seeped into the journalism narrative,” says Geethika.
Sreenivasan’s Umar Abdullah in Sreebala K Menon’s Love 24X7 is a more realistic version of Murali’s Shekharan. He stands within the system and tries to offer wisdom to the young journalists and is not under any delusions of change. Dileep (who is currently accused of being the mastermind in the abduction and sexual assault of a prominent woman actor) in Swa-le, a film based in the '90s about a struggling vernacular print journalist, tries his best to stick to his brand of morality but ends up getting sucked into the world of sensational TV journalism.
“Swa-le, I would say, is a precursor to the journalism that exists now. It is the closest to a realistic portrayal,” adds Kumar.
Geethika agrees, “In the film, a group of reporters are awaiting the death of a celebrity. It shows that journalism is not exciting all the time, you wait for things to happen, sitting around the story.” Love 24X7 perhaps had the most accurate representation of life inside the television newsrooms. The hero (Dileep) plays a popular news anchor, who is smitten by the newly recruited trainee reporter, Kabani (Nikhila Vimal) who gradually evolves into a confident, ambitious TV journalist. There are interesting nuances in the narrative about the workings of a TV news studio, the daily grind, the ragging, competition, rivalry, and how corporatisation takes over the television news industry.
According to director Sreebala K Menon, it came from the thought that female journalists in Malayalam cinema remained largely unrepresented.
“We have mostly seen an all-powerful male journalist in cinema with no one below or under him, and I felt it was mostly done without any research. Love 24X7 is Kabani’s journey and for that I met a lot of female journalists from television news media and spoke to them in detail. I took many real-life incidents and fictionalised it with research, without distorting the facts. Dileep was given a tape filled with clippings of popular television news anchors and he incorporated some of the mannerisms for his character," she says.
But nothing prepared her for the reactions from the media after watching the film. Though many called her privately to applaud her for presenting broadcast journalism so accurately, none spoke about it publicly. They were reluctant to acknowledge their powerless position in their own organisations.
“So, they simply picked on the beauty of the elderly romance in the film. That is when I realised that media loved their glorified versions that was shown in cinema. This was too much of a reality check for them,” Sreebala says.
Veteran broadcast journalist Priya Raveendran and Krishna helped her during the scripting with the latter always present on the sets.
Prithviraj Sukumaran’s Lucifer (written by Murali Gopy) also showed the corporatisation of broadcast journalism where a media couple are forced to discard their integrity and disseminate fake news to please their funder and save their studio from a massive financial debt. Ranjith’s Passenger and Joshiy’s Run Baby Run also have fascinating accounts about the life of broadcast journalists. While the former has a female reporter uncovering a mining scandal involving a minister, resulting in her husband getting kidnapped, the latter has a news cameraman embroiled in political murder plot.
Calcutta News, written and directed by Blessy, has Dileep playing a television anchor and the producer trying to investigate a sex trafficking racket. In Sukrutham, scripted by MT Vasudevan Nair and directed by Harikumar, Mammootty plays a journalist who falls terminally ill. There is a powerful scene when he rejoins work and finds himself staring at an obituary report of himself, in dismay and shock. But R Ayyappan feels it is a weakly written scene, and Ravishankar’s reaction, considering the nature of his job should have been amusement rather than shock, as pre-drafted obituaries are nothing new in this profession.
In Driving License, they effectively demonstrate the television news channel’s sensational reporting, where a misunderstanding over superstar Hareendran’s (Prithviraj Sukumaran) driving license is blown out of proportion. In Aashiq Abu’s Daddy Cool, there is another hilarious scene where Mammootty’s character begs the TV news anchor to give him some space to answer instead of bombarding him with long questions, which is the norm in most television news debates today.
In Anwar Rasheed's Trance, Soubin Shahir's Mathew Varghese is a television news anchor who tries to unmask Pastor Joshua Carlton (Fahad Faasil) through a sensational tell-all interview but fumbles when the pastor manipulates the show in his favour. Varghese again tries to expose the pastor's deception but eventually gets killed while trying to negotiate with a channel to expose Joshua. But he is only shown as deceitful and greedy rather than someone with integrity.
However, even these exceptions are in a way characteristic of how filmmakers and writers depict most professions—as characters, situations and props simply reproduced from other films. Comprehensive research, a professional journalist to exchange notes with, and some originality are the key factors that will help in going beyond such limited caricatures and binaries.