Anil, together with Babu Narayanan forms the famous director duo – Anil Babu of Malayalam who has delivered numerous hits in the 1990s. Some of the most successful and memorable movies of Anil Babu duo are Pattabhishekam, Injakkadan Mathai & Sons, Sakshal Sreeman Chathunni, Mayilpeelikkavu, Radholsavam, Sthreedhanam etc, and they have tried with different genres of cinema and succeeded as well. After doing a series of hit films in the 1990s, the duo embarked on a separate journey in 2004 following a sequel of failures. Anil was formerly married to iconic comedian Kalpana. Babu Narayanan’s daughter Sravana marked her debut with 2018 comedy film, Thattumpurath Achuthan in a lead role and the film remained successful.
P. Anil and Babu Narayanan – The successful director duo of 1990s
P. Anil was born in Alappuzha in 1963 and Babu hails from Kozhikode. Anil was born into a poor Pisharadi family, who traditionally did works related to the temple. Purushothaman Nair and Lakshimikutty Amma are his parents. His father worked as Kazhakam of Kozhikode Thali temple, and traditionally made garlands for the temple. Born into a poor family, as he didn’t have enough money to buy movie tickets, he used to stand outside a local theatre (made using palm leaves) and listen to film dialogues. He used to assume scenes with these dialogues. It was his first introduction to the world of cinema.
Initially, theatre owner didn’t like this, but slowly he developed pity towards him. Though he didn’t know to ride a bicycle, he agreed to work as poster boy for him as he lured him with free movie tickets. In two days, he learnt to ride a bicycle and embarked on his film journey as a poster boy. Anil marked his debut with 1989 film, Anantha Vruthantham – starring Sai Kumar and Ranjini, followed by Post Box No. 27 – starring Mukesh and Siddique in the lead roles.
He joined hands with Babu Narayanan for his third film in 1992, Manthrikacheppu, thus the director duo Anil Babu was known. The movie starred Jagadish, Siddique, Mala Aravindan, Sunitha and Suchitra. Quite interestingly they never put ‘hyphen’ between their names, and for the same reason their name is often interpreted to be a single person, Anil Babu. The duo went on to do a series of comedy action thrillers with an ensemble cast. They regularly worked with Mukesh, Innocent, Jagatheesh, Siddhique, Jayaram, Sunitha, Suchitra etc in low budget films, but giving hits at regular intervals. Comedian Jagathish became a permanent fixture to almost all of their movies, and they also offered him the first lead role as a serious actor.
Babu Narayanan was born to Narayana Pisharody and Devaki Pisharasiar in Kozhikode, Kerala. He is married to Jyothi. As a film director, he marked his debut with 1989 film, Anagha, followed by Ponnaranjaanam. He collaborated with Anil for the first time in 1992. The duo continued the success streak with 1990s formula with a series of comedy and action thriller movies and family dramas throughout the decade, and received immense success and love from the family audience.
Anil Babu combo give some of the iconic hits of 1990s
Among the hitmakers of Mollywood 1990s, Anil Babu duo has a special space. In fact, 1990s was a time when several hit director duos ruled Malayalam cinema. Though some of their films were not commercially successful at box office, they gained popularity later – Mayilpeelikavu being one such instant. Some of their iconic films include – Injakkadan Mathai & Sons, Ratholsavam, Sakshal Sreeman Chathunni, Sreedhanam and Pattabhishekam. Most of their films belong to masala-action genre, where comedy was also a major element.
Anil Babu – Some interesting and less-known facts
1. The Anil Babu duo did more than 20 films since late 1980s and enjoyed success throughout 1990s with small budget commercial movies, which could easily connect with audience. They had collobration of more than a decade.
2. From comedy to action thriller movies and family dramas, their movies perfectly fit into the formula of Malayalam cinema in the 1990s.
3. Anil babu gave the first lead hero role to the comedian actor Jagadish through 1992 film, Welcome to Kodaikanal and later directed a string of movies with him such as Injakkadan Mathai & Sons, Sakshal Sreeman Chathunni, Sreedhanam etc
4. The duo also directed Ponnaramthottathe Raajaavu, Kudumba Vishesham, Mayilpeelikavu, Harbour, Aramana Veedum Anjoorekkarum, Pakalppooram, Njan Salperu Ramankutty, Mannadiar Penninu Chenkotta Checkan, Valkannadi, Achan Kombathu Amma Varampathu etc which received limited success at box office.
5. The duo split in 2004 following the commercial failure of Parayam.
6. After splitting with Anil, Babu worked as chief associate director of Hariharan for Pazhassiraja, with lagged for nearly four years.
7. Babu Narayanan made a comeback in 2013 with the movie ‘To Noora with Love’ with Mamta Mohandas playing the titular role.
8. Babu Narayanan has been fighting with cancer for four years, and he passed away in 2019.
9. Anil also directed the movie – Street in 1995.
10. The director duo gave break to actress Kavitha Jose through Pakalppooram. But she disappeared from the silver screen to pursue a career in the medical field later.
11. Anil is credited as P. Anil for early movies, which he directed alone, and has directed around 10 movies.
12. Director Anil was formerly married to Malayalam’s popular character artist Kalpana. Thus he was related to Malayalam actors – Kala Ranjini, Urvasi and Manoj. K. Jayan. The couple divorced in 2012 and had one daughter. Theirs was a love marriage, and though there were speculations of a split, the couple denied it for many years till their divorce. Kalpana died in 2016.
13. Anil is teaching a “visual communication” course in various colleges in Kerala.
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