Blessy

Guinness World Records lists the longest documentary as Blessy's 100 Years of Chrysostom (2018), a 48-hour, 10-minute film on the Mar Thoma prelate Philipose Mar Chrysostom, narrated by Mohanlal. Born Blessy Ipe Thomas in Thiruvalla, Kerala, on 3 September 1963, the Malayalam director and screenwriter studied at Mar Thoma School, SCS High School and Mar Thoma College in his hometown, and learned filmmaking as an assistant to Padmarajan, Lohithadas and Jayaraj. He wrote and directed his first film, Kaazhcha, in 2004. Mammootty played a small-town film operator whose life changes after he takes in a boy orphaned by the Gujarat earthquake, and the film won three Kerala State Film Awards, including Best Debut Director. Thanmathra (2005), with Mohanlal as a government employee facing Alzheimer's disease, won the National Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam and five Kerala State awards. Palunku, Calcutta News, Bhramaram, Pranayam and Kalimannu came after. In all, his features have brought him one National Film Award, three Filmfare Awards South and nine Kerala State Film Awards. His most recent film, Aadujeevitham – The Goat Life (2024), adapted Benyamin's novel Goat Days with Prithviraj Sukumaran in the lead and music by A. R. Rahman, after more than six years in production.