The jury for the Kerala film awards for 2008, had made it a point that the decline in the quality of Malayalam cinema is clearly visible from the movies that were screened before them for this years state awards. The jury, headed by film-maker Girish Kasaravalli and comprising of Priyanandanan, Sunny Joseph, Roshan Andrews, V.T. Murali, B.M. Suhra, and O.V. Usha couldn't even name a movie for the best in children films, short fiction and documentary sections.

Gireesh Kasaravalli also laments that though there had been a drop in quality, the situation was not bad like this, in the earlier years. Most of the screened films were blindly mimicking the other language films, without any big thoughts on logic and local appeal. Only a few films had the desirable standards which made the selection easy for the jury.