One of the most successful director duo that Malayalam cinema has ever seen, the movies made by Siddique–Lal ensured a minimum ‘guarantee’. The audience who purchased tickets for their films was confident that they could enjoy and laugh their hearts out for two hours. Siddique–Lal made mass entertainers that had equal doses of comedy, drama and action too.
However, the duo parted ways, marking the end of a fabulous era, to independently pursue filmmaking. Siddique had bid adieu to this world a year ago, leaving an unfillable void in Malayalam cinema. Meanwhile, the memories of their great friendship are still alive in Lal’s heart.
Lal gets candid to Manorama News about Siddique, his passion for cinema and their friendship too. Siddique made us laugh a lot through his mimicry performances and movies. How was he in real life? Even though he had given us countless hilarious moments, both through his life and movies, Siddique made sure that his jokes never hurt anyone.
However, I am not like that; if I feel like saying a joke, I would say it without thinking too much about it. But, Siddique would think whether his joke might hurt anyone before actually saying it. There is a joke that is still attributed to Siddique, but, was in fact told by me.
Once, lyricist Kaithapram walked in wearing lots of gold jewellery. Seeing this, someone commented ‘his body may be covered in gold, but his songs are full of silver (losing rhythm while singing)’. Soon, this joke spread and .