Fascinating Internet Relics of Yesteryears: Malayalam Movies and their Tryst with the Internet

Lately, I have been digging into Internet Mysteries, a lot and thought that it would be cool to document Malayalam Cinema's journey since the dawn of the Internet

There's something fascinating about rediscovering relics of old. In the early noughties, Internet domains were just sidelined for marketing purposes. However, it's a wonder to see how these are still storied and leave a legacy, over decades later.

Note: This is a list that I will keep updating, with new discoveries. For now, I have a very slim list to go through

Mayilpeelikavu

The KuBo horror thriller from 1998 has the distinction of being the first movie ever to embrace Internet marketing for pre-release engagement in Malayalam.

URL - http://www.kerala.com/mayilpeelikkavu

Source: YouTube

Malayalam Movie Now

However, scouring through the Internet Archive did not provide me with any traces of the film's promotional material existing from older archives.

This was really a blow, as it would have been interesting to see the tone of promotion being conducted from back then. Mind you, that the year was 1998 and we were just getting started with something pretty unheard of in Malayalam.

Source : Internet Archive

I have created a Lost Media Wiki Page, to seek any help in recovering the movie's promotional media here - https://lostmediawiki.com/Mayilpeelikavu:_Lost_Internet_Webpage_for_Movie_Promotion_(Mayilpeelikavu:_Lost_Internet_Webpage_for_Movie_Promotion,_1998)

Any help to recover the lost media, would be appreciated!

Oru Naal Varum (2010) - Orunaalvarumthemovie.com

Scripted by Sreenivasan and directed by T.K Rajeev Kumar, this social drama flick relied on Internet marketing during pre-release to boost up engagement. The domain was created in 2010 and was powered by Ruffle.

Movie Synopsis

Source : Internet Archive

Unfortunately none of the photos from the key events of the film, such as the Pooja Ceremony, Making, Location Stills, Events or Posters exist from the archived pages. It makes it more concerning for us to look into such intricate details, in order to preserve them for our legacy

Though an argument can be made that the missing content can be found on off-shoot movie websites, the absence of the media is a bit unsettling.

Comments on the website

Source : Internet Archive

Linked to the website were the movie's Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Orkut handles.

The website was ultimately taken over by Japanese content, ultimately being dropped from the web directory altogether in 2015.

Post 2011 Films

Lailaa O Lailaa - www.lailaaolailaa.com

Website Walkthrough

Source : Internet Archive

Facebook Pages

Salt 'n Pepper (2011)

Papaya Media, the media / publicity team handled the Facebook Page to share stills from location sets and updates about the movie

Source: Facebook

22 Female Kottayam (2012)

22 FK's publicity work was again handled by Papaya Media, with a Facebook Page, promo videos being shot to spread awareness, along with highlighting stories of wonder women from our society.

Source: Facebook

Da Thadiya (2012)

The announcement below stole the cake for me!

Source: Facebook
Bangalore Days (2014)

Whatsapp marketing was embraced to interact with the audience, along with quizzes

Source: Facebook

YouTube Channels

Through The Lens - This Youtube Channel helped document the making of the Pramod-Pappan directorial "Abraham and Lincoln" (2007). It's videos were uploaded in that same year