When the late actor Murali contested the Kerala Lok Sabha elections in 1999, a series of newspaper articles argued that film stars would not survive the fierce two-front politics in the state led by the Indian National Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Kerala’s high literacy rate, intellectual enlightenment and deep-rooted political loyalties, the argument went, meant that it would be difficult for its stars to become popular, unlike in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
Though Murali lost that election, the allegation was proved false as parties occasionally picked strong candidates in subsequent elections, among which Innocent, Mukesh and KB Ganesh Kumar won.
But Suresh Gopi’s victory in Thrissur Assembly constituency eclipses them all. He contested as the candidate of a party that has long been a minority in Kerala politics – one he joined about nine years ago. And yet he won.
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One reason for this may be the BJP’s growing vote share in Kerala, but Thrissur was never a party bastion: Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad and Kasaragod district constituencies had stronger BJP bases.
Film scholars argue that the recipe for this political triumph was long in the making in Suresh Gopi’s cinematic career. “Suresh Gopi’s on-screen persona had already forged the figure of a populist vigilante navigating the murky territories of the legal system and delivering poetic justice in a dystopian world of hopeless bureaucracy,” says Dr Sudesh K, PhD candidate on ‘Crime Films in Malayalam Cinema’ from the School of Cultural Studies, EFLU, Hyderabad.
“The natural initiative and fearless khaki spirit he embodies represents the power to right a corrupt system. Apart from his crime-busting crusade against crony capitalism, his desire for a politically strong character who represents the anti-elite, anti-communal sentiments of the common man finds expression in his crime films,” Sudheesh added.
According to M3DB, a crowd-sourced website for Malayalam film fans, Suresh Gopi’s film career began in 1984, with his next film in 1986. His roles in these films were uncredited, and although he later gained some recognition as a villain, these roles did nothing to make him a big-banking star.
He then appeared in the 1992 film Thalasthanam, which told the story of a young man who takes the law into his own hands to avenge a murder.
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His subsequent collaborations with Thalasthanam director Shaji Kailash and screenwriter Renji Panicker followed. Of the 223 Malayalam films he has worked on, 15 were with Shaji Kailash. Though most of the films were formulaic, the trio’s collaborations produced a number of box office hits.
Other filmmakers who made the most of his action hero roles include Joshi and IV Sasi, who made 14 and 10 films with Suresh Gopi respectively. K Madhu (9 films), Jayaraj (8 films) and Sibi Malayil (6 films) also made notable films with him.
Why were these films of the 1990s successful? Film scholar KP Jayakumar says Suresh Gopi’s films of this period were meaningful to many people who were troubled by rapid political upheaval both globally and nationally.
“To those who were disillusioned with democracy, his films offered a solution in the form of good deeds by brave, idealistic men from good families. In fact, these films propagated the demise of social movements and collective social action,” Jayakumar added, adding that it would be a mistake to call his films anti-establishment. “They were anti-establishment.”
Curiously, even though he eventually became a politician, he was hardly seen on screen as a politician – films like Sathyaprathinja (1992), Yuvathurki (1996), Janadhipathyam (1997), Pathaaka (2006) and Rashtram (2006) fall into this category.
In 2006, several of his films, except Chinthamani Kolacase, were box office flops. The lawyer-hero’s method of rescuing criminals from the clutches of the law and then executing them mercilessly won over the masses. This particular delivery of justice, whether vigilante or impromptu, was quintessential Shaji Kailash material.
In his later years, he made fewer notable films, including Nadiya Kollappetta Rathri (2008). Critics say that these films, along with Janakan (2010), proved popular among female audiences, but many of his films faded away in cinemas unnoticed. Hence, in 2015, he took a break from films.
Hiral Ahmed, a research fellow at the Malayalam department of the Government Arts and Science College, Kozhikode, says Suresh Gopi’s comeback in 2020 was passable. “He has been able to adapt to the grammar of so-called new-age films, which is something that a young actor like Dileep is yet to be able to do. ‘Varane Avashyamund’ is one of the films I watch over and over again.”
Hiral says it was the TV game show “Ningalkum Aakam Kodeswaran”, which aired for five seasons from 2012 to 2020, that made him famous. “The show had more impact on his popularity than his films. Local audiences saw a different Suresh Gopi on the show. It might be the first instance in the state of someone giving away large sums of money on television. Contestants who fail or are disappointed in the show suddenly get Rs 25,000 or Rs 50,000 as Suresh Gopi’s ‘ente vaka’.”
Jayakumar agrees: “Some philanthropists may give more, but here millions of people watch a star donate money generously. He later grew his fan base by visiting contestants’ homes. People then started contacting him. All this was unheard of in Kerala.”
“Whether an actor is revered or not is not a yardstick to gauge the progressiveness of a country and the people of Thrissur cannot be said to be regressive because of their choice of actor,” says film critic GP Ramachandran.
“Tamil Nadu’s ‘Pattali Makkal Katchi’ is vehemently against celebrity politics, their social values and aggressive caste pride are problematic. When it comes to Suresh Gopy, what we need to look out for is whether the values he espouses both on and off screen are progressive.”
“These are difficult and turbulent times. People are in despair due to various factors and some of them may have been attracted by the continuing propaganda in favour of Suresh Gopi,” Ramachandran concluded.