20 popular dialogues of the past two decades

Even before trolls and memes became a thing, cinema dialogues were the Malayalees’ way of conveying things with a punch or humour. In fact, some dialogues have become common usage in Kerala’s socio-cultural space. And in the past two decades, the lingo in Malayalam cinema has reflected the change in slang among the new generation. Filmmaker-scriptwriter Midhun Manuel Thomas picks the most popular dialogues of the past two decades, as part of our series on different aspects of Malayalam cinema. The Anjaam Pathiraa director says that picking 20 dialogues from Malayalam cinema’s rich repertoire was quite a task. "I have excluded many slangs that are part of popular culture. What I have noticed is that from long dialogues, like 'Ormayundo e mugham…,' by Renji Panicker, we have shorter ones by 2020, which is also what the newer generation audience appreciates,” he says.