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About Mohanlal
Mohanlal was born in Elanthur in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala State (India), to father Vishwanathan Nair, an advocate, and mother Santhakumari and later shifted to Muduvanmukal in the Thiruvananthapuram. He attended the local school in Muduvanmukal and later enrolled into the Model School, Thiruvananthapuram(Trivandrum). An average student at school, he started his association with the world of make-believe very early, when he used to participate in school-plays. In the sixth grade, young Mohanlal was chosen the best actor in school, an award that was usually bagged by tenth graders.
After schooling, he went on to complete his Bachelor's degree in Commerce with Ist Class from Mahatma Gandhi College, Thiruvananthapuram. During this time he continued to act in college productions and won best actor awards. He made friends with a group of fellow-students, who were passionate about theatre and feature films. They were instrumental in getting him his first breakthrough and some of them, notably Priyadarshan and Raju, went on to become popular movie directors and actors.
His introduction to movies was automatic, when his friends combined to establish a movie company, Bharath Cine Group and began shooting a film titled Thiranottam. Mohanlal was given a small comic role. The film ran into trouble with the Censor Board and was never released.
His first breakthrough came in 1980, at the age of 20, when a Malayalam production house Navodaya wanted to make a film with new artistes in leading roles. Mohanlal's friends sent his photographs to Navodya productions. He was auditioned and selected for the role of Narendran, the antagonist, in Manjil Virinja Pookkal.
He had no dearth of opportunities after this and he played roles of gradually increasing importance in a number of movies in the following years. In the year 1983, he is credited in more than 25 feature films. Uyarangalil a story of cheating and deception, written by noted script-writer M.T.Vasudevan Nair was a highlight of this period of his career. He then expanded into comic roles in his director-friend and college mate Priyadarshan's debut Poochakkoru Mookkuthi.
Malayalam cinema was entering it's golden age at this time with films characterised by detailed screenplays, lucid narration and fresh ideas that narrowed the gap between art cinema and commercial cinema. As a young talent on the rise, Mohanlal obtained roles that gave him ample scope to display a wide range of emotions and started some very fruitful associations with some of the best directors and writers in Malayalam cinema.
The year 1986 was one of his best years. Sathyan Anthikad's T.P.Balagopalan M.A, got him the first Kerala State award for best actor. His role of a underworld don in Rajavinte Makan saw the emergence of Mohanlal as one of the two leading stars in Malayalam cinema along with the other popular Malayalam actor, Mammootty. In the same year, he played an asylum inmate in Thalavattom, a harassed house-owner in Sanmanassu Ullavarku Samadhanam, a journalist in M.T.Vasudevan Nair's Panchagni, a farm owner in love in Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal and a Nepali Goorkha in Gandhi Nagar 2nd street.
His association with the writer-director combination of Sreenivasan and Sathyan Anthikad, who excelled in making socially hard-hitting satires, resulted in films such as Varavelpu, in which he played a Gulf returnee who is welcomed back home to greedy relatives and a state with a hostile climate for enterpreneurs. Director Priyadarshan's musical comedies, notably Chitram had him playing the typical Indian romantic hero and increased his popularity among the teenage movie-goers. At his peak, he portrayed some of the best author backed roles in Malayalam cinema in movies written by Padmarajan and M.T. Vasudevan Nair. Thoovanathumbikal in which he portrayed a person torn between his twin love interests, broke many stereotypes in Indian films such as the leading man falling in love with a second woman immediately after he is rejected by the first. Amrithamgamaya was about a man who ends up at the house of a boy whom he had unknowingly killed in college during a ragging session.
The combination of writer Lohithadas and director Sibi Malayil is considered to have produced some of his most haunting roles. His role of Sethu Madhavan, who dreams of becoming a police officer but ends up as a criminal in the film Kireedam became a classic tragedy in Indian cinema. It got him the Special Jury award at the annual National awards. Another role of a classical singer who is burdened by the jealousy and final death of his singer brother in Bharatham helped him bag the Best actor award at the same awards next year.
The 90s saw him continuing his success with more entertainers like His Highness Abdullah, where he played a Muslim disguised as a Nambodiri brahmin to assassinate a king. His other notable commercial movies during this period such as Midhunam, Minnaram, Thenmavin kombath continued the tradition of the 80s with neat well-written scripts and a rich set of characters. Devasuram, written by Ranjith and directed by I.V.Sasi was particularly noted for Mohanlal's portrayal of a proud, rich and brash young man who is slowly humbled by a chain of events. Director Bhadran's Sphadikam became a cult classic for the revolutionary way in which the stunts were picturised. Critically acclaimed films were fewer in number during this time and were mostly semi-entertainers like Manichitrathazhu, which had the female lead Shobhana bagging a National award for best actor.
During the later period of his career, film makers cashed in on the immense popularity that Mohanlal enjoyed in Kerala by portraying him as a invincible larger-than-life hero in movies. Movies like Aaram Thamburan, Ustad, Narasimham, Praja, Naran used his superstar image. After their initial novelty, these films faced criticism from most quarters over their lack of realism and for creating movies around Mohanlal. Priyadarshan's Kalapani, an account of India's freedom struggle against the British that focussed on the Cellular prisons of Andaman islands and Lohithadas's Kanmadam were some of his notable films during the late 90's.
It was at this time that Mohanlal started getting noticed outside the Malayalam speaking world. He acted in his first non-Malayalam movie when popular director Mani Ratnam roped him in for the Tamil film Iruvar. It had Mohanlal playing MGR, a cult figure of the neighbouring Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The Indo-French production, Vaanaprastham, in which he played the role of a Kathakali dance artist with an identity crisis, won him the second National award for Best actor and was the first film that got him international recognition. The film was selected for the competitive section at the Cannes film festival and his performance was critically acclaimed.
In 2002, Mohanlal acted in his first Bollywood movie, Company, which introduced him to the wider Hindi speaking audience in India. In 2006, the critically acclaimed Malayalam movie, Thanmathra (translated as molecule), won him the Kerala state award for best actor for portraying a person affected by the Alzheimer's disease. He is currently acting in his second Bollywood movie Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, which is the remake of the 1975 blockbuster movie Sholay.
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About Mohanlal