Actor in the Guinness Book. Review on Prem Nazir

This man might be the first Indian actor to enter the Guinness book of world records! He played hero in more than 600 ?movies! Can you believe that?

Prem Nazir(1926-1989) can be called as the first mass hero of Malayalam cinema. But unlike other actors of Malayalam, he was never been a good actor! He overacted in all those thirty years of stardom! But towards the end of his life and career he delivered some memorable performances.

Career Glimpses:

Prem Nazir was an amateur drama artist. He entered the tinsel world through the film ?Marumakal? in 1952.

Filmmakers believed that his face was best fit to the romantic heroes of the Malayalam literature .(In the 50s and 60s , Malayalam cinema depended a lot on plays, short stories and novels written by the noted writers of Kerala.)

Prem Nazir was accepted by the masses also. Although his contemporary starSatyan was the better actor (Satyan delivered natural acting in an era of overaction), Prem Nazir enjoyed more popularity. Other than the very selective Satyan , there was no star available and Nazir became the backbone of the industry very soon .

In 1972, after the demise of Satyan, Prem Nazir was left to do all those major projects although he was never been a substitute for Satyan in quality. During this period he played some memorable roles in the films written by the Gyanpith winning writer and filmmaker M T Vasudevan Nair. Those include Murappenn, Iruttinte Atmav and Asuravith. Towards the end of the 1970s, a group of new actors came into the scene but many of them were merely trying to imitate Nazir. (Like Raghavan, Vincent etc.) But Prem Nazir?s throne was challenged soon by a new actor Jayan.

Jayan attracted the masses though his action hero image and loads of punchy dialogues. The well built ex-army man was a craze among the youth. But it didn?t last longer. Jayan was killed in a helicopter crash in 1979 . In the early 1980s, on the rise of new actors like Sukumaran, Soman, Ratish, Mammootty and Mohan Lal,?Prem Nazir wanted an image-change and he started playing character roles. That was really a great relief to him and the film goers. He started to control his overaction and tried to act naturally.

Better Films:

It is very easy to pick the good from the whopping 650 films that he played!!!

1. Anubhavangal Palichakal (Experiences and Failures)(1971) ? The story of communists who suffered to build the modern Kerala. Nazir played one of the heroes. (The other one was Satyan).

   
   




2. Iruttinte Atmav (The Soul of Darkness)(1966) - Nazir played the mentally challenged Bhrantan Velayudhan in this film based on the classic novel by MTVN.

   
   




3. Padayottam (The campaign)(1982): This is the best film of Prem Nazir . Its story was inspired by Alexandre Dumas? classic novel ?The Count Of Monte-Cristo? and the treatment of the film was inspired by that of ?Ben-Hur?. Prem Nazir?s performance was superb.

   
   




4. Vida Parayum Munpe (Before saying Good Bye)(1981): Nazir bagged a special jury award for this film in the 1981? Kerala State Film Awards.

   
   




5. Ayalvasi Oru Daridravasi (Neighbour The Pauper!)(1986): A laugh riot by Priyadarshan. Nazir?s middle aged father role was very enjoyable.

   
   

6.Dhwani ( The Sound)(1988) : This was his last completed film. His performance was good. The film was a hit due to several factors like the excellent performances by Jayaram, Shobhana, Prem Nazir and Tilakan, the everlasting music by maestro Naushad etc.

Funny Facts:

Although his contemporaries in other language film industries became successful in politics (like MG Ramachandran Of Tamil and NT Ramarao of Telugu), Nazir was a failure.

Once he tried to cash in from his star image in the general election. But Malayalis really knew that there were so many genuine actors in the political parties who can do better than this superstar from cinema. They did not want to import ?the super star cut-out politics? from the neighboring states.

The result??..Nazir did poor in the election. He was an influencing presence in the Malayalam film industry..but he got only one or two awards in the long career of 38 years. Once he got a special award from the state award jury(1981) and he received the national civilian honour ?Padma Bhushan? from The President Of India.

Remembrance:

He entered into the Guinness Book by the whopping 600-plus lead roles, by acting opposite85 leading actresses and by playing hero in 39 films in a single year(1979)!!!!!!!!!! He died on 01/16/1989.