Siddique, a prolific malayalam comedy writer, and director, passed away on Tuesday, august 8 in Kochi. At a hospital in Kochi, where he had been hospitalized since July 10 because of respiratory problems, he had a heart attack on Saturday. In his 60s, he was.

Siddique, a native of Kochi, started out at the mimicry troupe established by Kalabhavan, a renowned arts institution in Kerala, like many other artists of his time. In the latter part of the 1980s, he entered the malayalam film industry with his buddy and coworker at Kalabhavan, Lal, composing comedies with a fresh taste and a touch of sadness. Prior to them, comedy was typically created as a side plot in movies, but in siddique and Lal's works, they were integrated into the main plot, making you grin even during the most intense parts.

The pair initially came up with the story for the sathyan Anthikad-directed classic Pappan Priyapetta Pappan in 1986. In it, a young man (Rahman) is mistakenly abducted before his time by Yamarajan, the Lord of Death. Additionally, Sathyan's classic movie Nadodikattu, depicting the comical misadventures of two jobless guys, was inspired by their tale. In films like Nokkatha Doorathu Kannumnattu (where both appear as guys sneezing on the road in a humorous sequence) and Manichithrathazhu, Siddique, and Lal both collaborated behind the scenes with director Fazil, adding to the lighthearted scenes in both.

In 1989, the two of them started working together as co-directors, and their debut film, Ramji Rao Speaking, was an incredibly successful comedy about three sad guys who pose as kidnappers. Their following two productions, In Harihar nagar and Godfather, were both huge hits and are considered among the finest comedic films to come out of Malayalam. The film In Harihar nagar, which was about four lazy bachelors, eventually spawned sequels, but the first one is still the most cherished. Their biggest success to date, Godfather, which tells the story of a young couple from two rival families falling in love, played in cinemas for a record-breaking 417 days in 1991–1992. Actors like the late Innocent, Mukesh, and jagadish gave some of their funniest performances in Siddique-Lal films.

But the two directors made the decision to part ways in 1996. Lal demonstrated his talent as an actor while siddique continued to write and direct films. The first independent film siddique produced was Hitler, starring mammootty as the controlling brother to five sisters. It was a hit, but it did not hold up as well as his earlier works with Lal. siddique proceeded to produce dramas like Chronic Bachelor and comedies like Friends (which were dubbed in tamil and Hindi). With a few exceptions, like Sreenivasan's fits of unrestrained laughter in Friends, these films did not have the same fan base as the early Siddique-Lal films.

Siddique occasionally dabbled with foreign tongues. In tamil with Vijay and in hindi with salman khan, his film bodyguard was recreated. arvind swamy and mammootty have translated bhaskar the Rascal into Tamil. He also produced the telugu movie Maaro. The most recent film that siddique produced with mohanlal and mammootty was Big Brother, which came out three years ago.
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08/08/2023 09:51 PM