Similarities between Malayalam and Tamil...

They are a lot more closer than I thought; well I just need a better resource...

Example using pronouns:

MALAYALAM - TAMIL
Gnan -                  Nan
Nee -                     Nee
Avan -                   Avan
Aval -                    Aval
Nanngal -              Naangal
Ninngal -               Ningal
Avar -                    Avargal

Malayalam seems to be more like a Sanskritised version of Tamil...

Tamil has 12 vowels and 18 consonants.
In addition it also has "aggu" more like a special character, and additional special characters like "sha", "sa", "ja", "shri" and "ha".

Whereas, Malayalam has all the characters that Tamil has and in addition, It also has the "ga"sound which in Tamil is written with the same letter "ka"...etc., as Malayalam also has aspirated sounds, the list of  Consonants seems to be more.

Interesting thing I note is that Malayalam has the concept of Inherent vowels, just like Telugu and Kannada. Could be from Sanskrit.

Example: SKA -> SA + K, The vowel "A" is inherited from "SA" by "K",
                                            thus "SA" becomes "S" and "K" becomes "KA"!

Other points noted:

Thamarai in Tamil becomes Thamara in Malayalam.

-ai usually changes to -a; It has to be noted that, however, in spoken tamil -ai is pronounced as -a itself. but not an open "A"as in f"A"ther, rather "U"ncle.