Anil Babu – Famous Malayalam Director Duo of ‘Pattabhishekam’ fame

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.

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 temple. 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 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, followed by Post Box No. 27. He joined hands with Babu Narayanan for his third film in 1992, Manthrikacheppu, thus the director duo Anil Babu was known. 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 ensemble cast. They regularly worked with Mukesh, Innocent, Jagatheesh, Siddhique, Jayaran, Sunitha, Suchitra etc in low budget films, but giving hits at regular intervals. Comedian Jagatheesh became a permanent fixture to almost all of their movies, and they also offered him the first lead role as a serious actor.

Anil Babu – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. The 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.

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.

4. The duo also directed Ponnaramthottathe Raajaavu, Kudumba Vishesham, 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 is fighting with cancer for the last four years.

9. Anil also directed the movie – Street in 1995.

10. 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 coupl 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.