Midhun Manuel Thomas – Malayalam filmmaker with ‘Aadu’ series and ‘Anjaam Pathiraa’ to his credit

Midhun Manuel Thomas is a budding film director and screenwriter of Mollywood, with a few hit films of his credit. He started his film journey as a screenwriter co-scripting the coming-of-age romantic comedy ‘Ohm Shanthi Oshaana’ in 2014, and marked his screen debut with cult classic comedy starring Jayasurya, Aadu Oru Bheekara Jeeviyaanu, simply called Aadu in 2015. It was followed by Ann Maria Kalippilaanu, Alamara and Aadu 2 – all receiving favourable reviews, Argentina Fans Kaattoorkadavu and 2020 investigation thriller Anjaam Pathiraa, which became a huge box office hit.

Midhun Manuel Thomas was born in 1983 in Paralikkunnu, Kambalakkad in Wayanad. After completing Master of Social Work, he moved to Dubai where he worked for two years. He returned to hometown, and tried his luck in business and lost. He turned to film scripting and wrote the story and co-scripted 2014 super hit film, Ohm Shanthi Oshaana. After the success of the movie, he directed 6 movies and scripted 5 of them. Though he announced the sequel of Kottayam Kunjachan after the success of Aadu 2, he later directed the investigation thriller Anjaam Pathiraa starring Kunchakko Boban as the main lead.

Midhun Manuel Thomas – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. Anjaam Pathiraa was the first investigation thriller in the career of Kunchakko Boban, whose career spans to more than two decades in Mollywood. It was also Midhun’s first movie belonging to this genre.

2. He marked his film debut as a story writer and screenwriter through Ohm Shanthi Oshaana, starring Nazriya Nazim and Nivin Pauly. The movie also marked the directorial debut of Jude Anthany Joseph.

3. His debut comedy flick, Aadu (2015) is one of the rare Malayalam films with a goat playing the central character. The movie earned a cult classic status and also a lot of trolls. Yet the movie was not a commercial hit at box office. Owing to the big popularity of the film, Aadu was re-released in Kerala in 2018.

4. The central character Shaji Paappan played by Jayasurya and his looks in Aadu became immensely popular among Malayalis.

5. Actor Aju Varghese is almost a permanent fixture for all his films except Anjaam Pathiraa. In fact the actor earned his first big break as a comedian through Ohm Shanthi Oshaana, playing Nazriya Nazim’s cousin. The movie was also scripted by Midhun.