From Mollywood Times to Mohiniyattam, these black comedies from South cinema prove that the darkest humour can also deliver the sharpest entertainment.
Key Points
- Black comedy is a challenging genre that combines dark humour with serious themes, requiring intelligent writing and an audience open to mature engagement.
- South cinema, particularly Tamil and Malayalam, has produced several acclaimed black comedies, including Panchathanthiram, Aaranya Kaandam, Soodhu Kavvum, Super Deluxe.
- These films often feature deeply flawed protagonists and explore themes ranging from crime and social satire to surreal situations, demonstrating the genre’s versatility and depth.
Black comedy is a tricky genre to pull off.
A film operating in this space uses comedy (dark humour) while dealing with grim subjects often connected to crime, and still has to ensure the treatment remains entertaining without offending sentiments in the wrong way.
It is a genre that demands intelligent writing, a daring creative approach and, of course, an audience willing to engage with the material maturely without recoiling from what unfolds on screen. There is also always the possibility that such films, because of audience perception, may fail at the box office.
Just ask Malayalam filmmaker Abhinav Sunder Nayak. His debut film, Mukundan Unni Associates, opened to excellent reviews but struggled theatrically because family audiences were not particularly keen on watching a deeply flawed protagonist win at all costs.
The film, however, found stronger appreciation after its OTT release, with fans now even demanding a sequel.
The underwhelming theatrical response to his first film has not stopped the director from revisiting the genre.
His second feature, Mollywood Times, which recently arrived on JioHotstar after its theatre release, follows a young filmmaker obsessed with making the greatest horror film in Indian cinema. The film continues Nayak’s fascination with deeply flawed protagonists and razor-edged dark humour.
Unlike Mukundan Unni Associates, Mollywood Times arrives with a couple of advantages. For one, it stars Naslen in the lead, an actor currently enjoying immense popularity following the blockbuster success of Premalu (2023).
Secondly, Malayalam cinema recently witnessed the box office triumph of the dark comedy Bharathanatyam 2: Mohiniyattam, proving that audiences are now far more receptive to this brand of humour when executed well. And while dark comedies are still tricky to work in theatres, there are always exceptions like Mohiniyattam.
South cinema, particularly Tamil and Malayalam films, has produced some terrific black comedies over the years. Sreeju Sudhakaran picks 10 of his favourites from the 21st century.
Panchathanthiram (2002)
Language: Tamil
K S Ravikumar’s entertainer begins as a breezy buddy comedy about a group of married friends trying to distract one of their own, who is on the verge of separation.
Things take a morbid turn when the hooker they hired seemingly gets murdered and the gang desperately scrambles to dispose off the body.
Panchathanthiram approaches the subject with far more commercial sensibilities than the Hollywood film that inspired it, Very Bad Things (1998), which was significantly more twisted in tone.
Of course, the cast elevates the comedy enormously with their impeccable timing and chemistry, particularly Kamal Haasan, Jayaram, Ramesh Aravind and Ramesh Khanna, often benefitting from Crazy Mohan’s hilarious one-liners.
The film is packed with amusing twists and turns and, even if it eventually opts for a safer resolution, the sheer hilarity of the proceedings make it easy to forgive.
Aaranya Kaandam (2010)
Language: Tamil
Thiagarajan Kumararaja made a sensational directorial debut with this neo-noir black comedy thriller about gang wars, cockfights and a surprise revenge track.
One of the film’s biggest surprises was Jackie Shroff playing an ageing gangster plagued by ‘bedroom’ troubles that fuel his violent tendencies.
The film juggles multiple plotlines that eventually intersect and influence each other’s destinies.
Aaranya Kaandam is not a laugh-out-loud comedy, but the situations emerging from Kumararaja’s sharp writing are loaded with twisty dark humour, especially in the way each individual character and their tracks are etched out.
The film is intensely violent, both physically and verbally, which may unsettle some viewers. But for those who appreciate A-rated, smartly executed black comedies, Aaranya Kaandam is essential viewing.
Soodhu Kavvum (2013)
Language: Tamil
The rise of Vijay Sethupathi in Tamil cinema gave audiences some remarkably inventive entertainers like Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom, Pizza and Soodhu Kavvum.
In Nalan Kumarasamy’s crime comedy, Sethupathi plays a wannabe kidnapper with an imaginary girlfriend who ropes three unemployed youngsters into helping him with a kidnapping scheme. Naturally, everything spirals hilariously out of control and drags them into a bizarre political circus.
The premise is packed with surprises, the comedy lands almost every single time and the cast is in terrific form, particularly Vijay Sethupathi, Bobby Simha, Karunakaran and Ramesh Thilak. And yes, it also houses the evergreen comical ditty Kaasu Panam Dhuttu Money Money.
A sequel arrived in 2024 without Sethupathi or Kumarasamy returning. The less said about that, the better.
Neram (2013)
Language: Malayalam/Tamil
Alphonse Puthren’s bilingual entertainer unfolds over the course of a single chaotic day, linking seemingly disconnected characters through one chain of events where actions unknowingly alter the lives of strangers.
The catalyst? A series of pickpocketing incidents.
Nivin Pauly plays an unemployed youngster who has borrowed heavily from the dangerous loan shark Vatti Raja, played memorably by Bobby Simha. The deadline to repay the debt arrives on the very day his girlfriend, played by Nazriya Nazim, wants to elope with him.
The film cleverly explores the idea that fate is not entirely in our hands but often shaped by people we have never even met.
Packed with unexpected twists and lively performances from Nivin Pauly, Manoj K Jayan, Bobby Simha and a pre-fame Sharaf U Dheen, Neram remains hugely entertaining even on a repeat watch.
Jigarthanda (2014)
Language: Tamil
Karthik Subbaraj made an impressive debut with Pizza, but his second effort Jigarthanda made an even bigger impact.
Infused with mild autobiographical undertones, the film follows an aspiring filmmaker desperate for his big break by making a movie on a dreaded gangster, only for the gangster himself to insist on starring in the lead role despite being a terrible actor.
This is a film populated by deeply self-serving characters, making the narrative darkly fascinating.
Assault Sethu is a brilliantly-written antagonist, terrifying when in control and unintentionally hilarious in situations not in his control.
Bobby Simha is phenomenal in the role and fully deserving of his National Award (for Best Supporting Actor).
Siddharth is equally good as the sly greenhorn filmmaker hiding tricks up his sleeve. And if you go into the climax without spoilers, chances are it will leave you stunned.
Subbaraj later made a quasi-prequel titled Jigarthanda DoubleX, which was also an excellent film, though darker and more serious in tone than its predecessor.
Unda (2019)
Language: Malayalam
Khalid Rahman’s social satire follows a group of Kerala police officers sent to provide election security in a Naxal-threatened village in Chhattisgarh, despite being woefully under-equipped and lacking proper ammunition.
Inspired by a real-life event, the film explores the fish-out-of-water predicament of these policemen while simultaneously addressing their insecurities involving leadership, caste discrimination, fragile masculinity and the indifferent attitude of higher authorities towards the safety of their subordinates.
It also slyly comments on the cracks within the electoral system itself and of the government’s apathy towards the tribals and the poor.
Mammootty is excellent in a restrained performance as the inexperienced team leader, while the ensemble cast including Shine Tom Chacko, Arjun Ashokan, Lukman Avaran and Rony David, among others, deliver solid support.
Super Deluxe (2019)
Language: Tamil
The second Thiagarajan Kumararaja film on this list, Super Deluxe is far more surreal and cerebral than his debut while continuing the hyperlink storytelling structure.
The film weaves together several plot strands involving a married couple trying to dispose of the corpse of the wife’s lover who dies during sex, a family man returning home as a transgender woman, a group of teenagers attempting to watch a pornographic film, and a mother whose hidden past resurfaces through her furious son.
Like with Aaranya Kaandam, Super Deluxe is not conventionally hilarious like some of the other films here.
Its humour emerges from the absurdity of the situations and the bizarre ways these narratives intersect.
The film can also be deeply disturbing at times, particularly the police station sequence involving Vijay Sethupathi and Bagavathi Perumal, while moments like the alien reveal leave viewers wondering what exactly they just watched.
The cast is exceptional with Vijay Sethupathi (who won a National Award for his performance), Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Fahadh Faasil, Ramya Krishnan and Bagavathi Perumal delivering outstanding performances.
Mukundan Unni Associates (2022)
Language: Malayalam
Abhinav Sunder Nayak’s debut feature is nihilistic in the sense that its protagonist is exactly the sort of person you would never want succeeding in real life.
Mukundan Unni, an insurance lawyer, is willing to go to any lengths, including murder, to climb the ladder of success.
Despite strong reviews, many family audiences rejected the film precisely because of this morally bankrupt central character, contributing to its disappointing theatrical run before it found a second life on OTT.
But if you can accept that the hero is fundamentally a self-serving parasite, made easier by the film’s wickedly amusing tone and Vineeth Sreenivasan’s delightfully irreverent performance, then Mukundan Unni Associates emerges as a sharp critique of capitalist greed thriving within a broken system whose loopholes reward exploitation while crushing everyone else underneath.
Purusha Pretham (2023)
Language: Malayalam
Krishand is another maverick young Malayalam filmmaker who thrives on unconventional storytelling and a healthy dose of dark humour.
Revolving around the police mishandling an unidentified corpse, Purusha Pretham works as a satire on the law-and-order system, though it constantly shifts between genres including investigative thriller, romance, courtroom procedural and noir without losing its eccentric comic voice.
The framing and irreverent humour may require some adjustment from viewers initially, but once the film settles into rhythm, it becomes an immensely whimsical entertainer that only improves with repeat viewings.
Prashanth Alexander shines in his first proper lead role of a sub-inspector whose self-told tall tales of bravery do not match his real persona, while the supporting cast featuring Jagadish, Darshana Rajendran, Devaki Rajendran and Jeo Baby are all excellent.
Bharathanatyam 2: Mohiniyattam (2026)>
Language: Malayalam
One of the best films of the year is also one of its biggest surprises.
The original Bharathanatyam was a feel-good entertainer that failed at the box office.
The sequel, however, begins as a fun family comedy before taking a shockingly dark turn when a murder occurs and the supposedly ‘nice’ family resorts to extreme measures to conceal the crime.
What makes Mohiniyattam so impressive is that, despite this tonal shift, it never stops being funny while also taking satirical potshots at how crooks takes advantage of the unquestioning beliefs of the religious.
In fact, it becomes even more amusing as it progresses, even if a few developments make you wonder how casually these characters commit increasingly outrageous acts.
Easily one of the most entertaining films in recent memory, Mohiniyattam thrives on clever writing, excellent use of its cast and pop culture nods that enhance the humour without overwhelming it.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
