It’s on an instinct that young Faizi walks out on his father, and the comforts of his palatial house one night. He wants to be a chef, a profession his father considers lowly. An exasperated Faizi says his late mother would have approved of his ambition, and his father retorts, “Your mother was a good-for-nothing woman.” Angry and teary-eyed, the young man leaves his dad and lands in his estranged grandfather’s quaint shack on a beach, next to a tiny, but incredibly well-known eatery that he runs. Two days later, Faizi rings up his elder sister and whines about the hard labour that grandfather subjects him to.
Faizi, the protagonist of Ustad Hotel, written by Anjali Menon and directed by Anwar Rasheed, is the most original on-screen millennial in Malayalam cinema – ambitious, impulsive, and torn between a modern world and old-fashioned morals. Faizi is well-educated and has a clear professional goal. Yet, he is confused about life. He is a pampered child with daddy issues. He has a live-in girlfriend in Switzerland where he studies for a year, but as soon as he lands in India, he yields to his relatives’ demands for an arranged marriage.
Would this movie have been possible had there been no Dulquer Salmaan to portray it? Possibly not. It was the actor’s sophisticated demeanour, innate charm and eyes that remind us of a child lost in the wilderness, which made Faizi a character worth rooting for.
Son of superstar Mammootty, Dulquer made a quiet acting debut in 2012 through Sreenath Rajendran’s Second Show. There wasn’t any poster of banner that screamed of his famous father. He just walked into the industry in the company of a set of young newcomers, and the movie became a sleeper hit, thanks to its unconventional appeal. Dulquer plays a young slum-dweller who gets sucked into the world of crimes and easy money in Second Show. He didn’t exhibit particularly good acting in the film, but seemed to share a comfortable relationship with the camera.
His status went from ‘promising actor’ to ‘young star’ with films such as Ustad Hotel and ABCD, where he upped his game by putting to use his photogenic looks and impressive fashion sense. For those who wondered if he had inherited Mammootty’s clumsy dancing skills, Dulquer shook his legs to hip numbers in Ustad Hotel and ABCD and proved that he could very well be the trend-setting youth icon Kerala had been missing after Rahman.
Dulquer never tried to create a mass-hero image. Instead, he worked in films of myriad genres, collaborating with new-age directors such as Rajeev Ravi, Roopesh Peethambaran and Martin Parakkatt alongside veteran filmmakers such as Sathyan Anthikkad and Ranjith. He has films such as Solo, directed by Bejoy Nambiar, Mahanathi, a multilingual biopic of yesteryear actress Savithri, and untitled projects by Sreenath Rajendran and Lal Jose coming up.
His characters, right from Second Show to the recent CIA, touch a chord with the current generation of Malayalees. He represents their fears and anxieties, their boyish love for motorbikes and their aspirations to wander the world like a bird. His characters are not perfect macho men, but immature youngsters who often make mistakes. They, sometimes break down in tears, reminding the boys that it is all right to cry. Dulquer is effortlessly both – an angry young man, and a broken and confused person – with equal effect.
In ABCD, Dulquer plays George, the spoilt son of a rich Indian businessman settled in the US. He is sent to Kochi to learn discipline the hard way, and the youngster rebels. He is irresponsible, and shows no sense of commitment. He regards his father as an unconditional source of money that he splashes on girl friends, gadgets and other luxuries.
In Sathyan Anthikkad’s Jomonte Suvisheshangal, he is the loyal, affectionate son of a bankrupt businessman, played by actor Mukesh. Jomon, the titular character, is a hard-working youngster who is unable to get things right, in spite of sincere efforts. The film was mediocre, but Dulquer’s impressive performance, especially for his combination scenes with Mukesh, earned praise.
In Bangalore Days, he’s Arjun, a rebellious youth who divides his time between odd professions such as graffiti artist, bike mechanic and a motorbike racer. A school drop-out, Arjun possesses a stubborn tendency to go against convention, partly attributed to the dysfunctional family he comes from. Deeply lonely at heart, he puts on a stern face and carries on with life, until he comes across a girl whose ability to live life in the face of odds moves him to tears.
In Neelakasham Pachakkadal Chuvanna Bhoomi, Dulquer is Kasi, the son of a Muslim patriarch. He shares a strained relationship with his parents, and has a friend who loves him unconditionally. He is a rebellious college student, daringly vocal about his left-leaning politics. He has a lover who leaves him, and returns to her village in Assam. Heart-broken, he sets out on a Bullet to meet her. Backpack on his shoulder, he embarks on a life-changing journey through the heart of India’s North East.
He undertakes a similar journey in Amal Neerad’s CIA, where he travels to Mexico and sneaks into the US to meet his estranged lover. In Charlie (2015), his biggest hit till date, he’s the wanderer with quite a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Charlie is an exceptional artist. He wanders the world like a bird, refusing to be caged. Charlie was a glossy film that aped Mohanlal’s far superior 1987 film, Unnikale Oru Kadha Parayam, but the film helped Dulquer’s career immensely, earning him a State award for Best Actor. The film attained cult status among young audiences. Inspired, they backpacked and trekked to Meesappulimala, the Idukki mountain that Charlie mentions in the film. Such was the sudden increase in the number of visitors to the eco-sensitive area that the actor had to write a Facebook post asking his fans to slow down.
In 2015, Dulquer starred in Mani Ratnam’s OK Kanmani!, a new-age romantic tale, co-starring Nithya Menon. The story revolved around a live-in couple who couldn’t decide between career and marriage. The actor was effervescent as Aadi, a young gamer, and won a considerably huge fan base outside of Kerala. The same year, he worked in Sameer Thahir’s Kali as a young man with anger management issues. The film garnered over Rs 2.33 crores on its opening day, setting a record.
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Rajeev Ravi’s Kammattipadam is a dark, gritty film where Dulquer portrays Krishnan, the character that anchors the narrative. The young star took a risk, for the film belonged to his co-actors Vinayakan and Manikantan, whose stellar acting prowess might have made Dulquer seem like a mediocre performer. But Kammattipadam, a critically and commercially acclaimed film, only helped Dulquer’s stardom shine brighter, for he established himself as an actor who was open to serious offbeat dramas, alongside commercial flicks.
While his fan base largely stems out of the megastar that his father is, Dulquer Salmaan, with 25 films in his oeuvre, has carved a space for himself in the Malayalam cinema industry over the last five years. The boy-next-door image comes naturally for the young city-bred star, who, unlike many of his contemporaries and senior stars, has an active presence on social media platforms, and isn’t averse to meeting and mingling with his fans. And, choosing to do movies that move away from what is the accepted norm.