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The Girish A.D. way
How a young Malayalam filmmaker turned ordinary lives, awkward romances, and unknown faces into a reliable box-office formula.
Malayalam cinema has always liked the ordinary man. A medical representative. A son trying to hold a joint family together. A Gulf-returned man with big plans. An earnest schoolteacher. A car mechanic. These characters have recurred for three decades, played by a rotating cast of dependable faces. The director Priyadarshan, known for his slapstick comedies of the 1980s and 90s, gave them comic props. The director duo Siddique-Lal turned their troubles into humour. The screenwriter and director A.K. Lohithadas, known for his realist, character-driven dramas, mixed in sorrow. The director Rajasenan added mischief. The director Sathyan Anthikkad, working with the writer and actor Sreenivasan, turned everyday failure and insecurity into self-aware comedy. But the type held across all these versions: a decent man tested by circumstance, who wins by staying decent.
Girish A.D., directing since 2019, works differently. The ordinariness stays in his films, but his heroes are not being tested for goodness. Nothing insists on redeeming qualities. They are not trying to prove anything to anyone. They are simply going about the ordinary business of growing up, sitting around, working regular jobs, and falling in love. This Onam season offered the clearest proof of how far that approach has carried the director. Up against the actor Prithviraj Sukumaran’s gangster saga Khalifa and the Kannada star Yash’s pan-Indian spectacle Toxic, Girish’s small, unglamorous romance Bethlehem Kudumba Unit did win outright, outselling two of the biggest names in South Indian cinema.
Across eight years and five feature films, Girish has built one of the most consistent track records in the industry, without leaning on a star or a twist. Thanneer Mathan Dinangal (2019), made on a reported budget of Rs.2 crore with an all-new cast, earned roughly Rs.50 crore. Super Sharanya (2022), built around young actors with no bankable names, was a hit. Premalu (2024), made on a reported budget of Rs.3 crore, became one of the year’s biggest successes and crossed into the Tamil and Telugu markets. Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, released last month, has already crossed Rs.250 crore worldwide, with releases in other languages still to come.
No superstar carried any of these films; there were no sequel hooks or cameos for marketing. The film earned audience trust through writing that puts lovable people in everyday lives, speaking the way we actually speak—the same throwaway Malayalam and Tamil movie references that have become part of how we talk to each other.