First Malayalam Film

The First Malayalam Film : Vigathakumaran

The First Malayalam Film with sound : Balan

The history of Malayalam cinema has been explored in articles written by Chelangatt Gopalakrishnan. Until the release of the book The History of Cinema, it was believed that Balan had been the first Malayalam film. But in his book, Chelangatt Gopalakrishnan established that J. C. Daniel was the father of Malayalam cinema and that his film Vigathakumaran was the first Malayalam film.

The first cinema hall in Kerala, with a manually operated film projector, was opened in Trichur by K. W. Joseph in 1907. In 1913, the first electrically operated film projector was established (in Trichur again) by Jose Kattukkaran and was called the "Jose Electrical Bioscope". Soon such cinema halls were established in other major cities of Kerala. In the early days, Tamil, Hindi and English films were exhibited in these theatres.

The first Malayalam film, a silent film titled Vigathakumaran, was released in 1928. It was produced and directed by J. C. Daniel, a businessman with no prior film experience. The second film, Marthanda Varma, based on a novel by C. V. Raman Pillai, was produced in 1933. However, its release was limited due to legal disputes surrounding the use of Pillai's material.

Balan, released in 1938, was the first "talkie" in Malayalam. It was directed by S. Nottani with the screenplay and songs by Muthukulam Raghavan Pillai. It was produced at Chennai (then Madras) in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. Malayalam films continued to be made mainly by Tamil producers till 1947, when the first major film studio, Udaya, was established in Kerala.