2005, November 3 was a day to remember for Mammootty fans and Malayali film lovers. Because on that a film is released named Rajamanikyam which was directed by a newcomer named Anwar Rasheed. It was scripted by TA Shahid who already given a mega success like Balettan with Mohanlal in the lead in 2003. So there was quite a lot of expectation on the film.
But the film had went beyond expectation and from the very first show, it had become a trendsetter in Mollywood. The 100% positive reviews from all corners made the film the second industrial hit of the 21st century in Mollywood. Till now the highest collected film or the industrial hit in Malayalam was Narasimham starring Mohanlal directed by Shaji Kailas. It had collected 22 crore rupees from theaters. After 5 years, in 2005 Rajamanikyam came and surpassed that record by collecting 23 crore rupees as total gross.
The film gave another reason for Mammootty fans to remember as well. Before that film there was a popular belief that Mammootty cannot do comedy roles as the past history of his comedy roles were not at all good. Critically and commercially many of the comedy films he had done was failures and he was reluctant to do comedy roles as well. But Mammootty’s performance as Bellari Raja who speaks in Trivandrum slang was a revelation and it underlined the fact that Mammootty can do comedy very well if he is provided with the right kind of character that suits to his style of acting. Rajamanikyam was a good example of that. Later we saw many comedy successes of him like Thuruppu Gulan, Mayavi, Chattambi Nadu, Pokkiri Raja, Pranchiyettan etc and most of them are based on slang comedies which was suitable for him more than anyone in our industry.
The flick has been also noted for the debut of Anwar Rasheed who later become one of the most prominent director and producer in Mollywood with continuous successes. Even though the record made by Rajamanikyam was surpassed by Lal Jose directorial multi-Star film Classmates the very next year, film Rajamanikyam, the performance of Mammootty as Bellari Raja and each and every moments in the film remained evergreen in Malayali hearts. We can say thatRajamanikyam is the most accepted Mammootty film in the 21st Century.
