Film Career

Early life (1960-1980)


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 Mudavanmugal in Thiruvananthapuram. He attended the local school in Mudavanmugal and later enrolled into the Model School, Thiruvananthapuram(Trivandrum). An average student at school, he started his association with the world of acting 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 to Mahatma Gandhi College, Thiruvananthapuram for his Bachelor's in Commerce, but failed to complete it. 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.

Early years (1980-1985)
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 1978, 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 Nairand directed by I.V.Sasi 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.


Golden Period (1986-1995)

The period (1986 - 1995) is widely regarded as the golden age of Malayalam cinema with films characterised by detailed screenplays, lucid narration and fresh ideas narrowing the gap between art and commercial films^[3]. As a young talent on the rise, Mohanlal obtained roles that gave him ample scope for displaying a wide range of emotions and started some very fruitful associations with many of the better directors and writers in Malayalam cinema.

1986 was one of his best years. Sathyan Anthikkad's T.P. Balagopalan M.A. got him his first Kerala State award for best actor. His role of an underworld don in Rajavinte Makan saw the emergence of Mohanlal as one of the leading stars of Malayalam cinema. In the same year, he played an asylum outmate in Thalavattam, 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 an unemployed youth forced to become a Goorkha in Gandhi Nagar 2nd street. In the 1987 film Sarvakalasala directed by Venu Nagavalli, Mohanlal played the character Lal. With the success of this film the name Lal became a nickname commonly used by the audience.

His association with the writer-director combination of Sreenivasan and Sathyan Anthikkad, who excelled in making socially hard-hitting satires, resulted in films such as Nadodikkattu, in which he played an unemployed youth and Varavelpu, in which he played a Gulf returnee who is welcomed back home to greedy relatives and a state with a hostile climate for entrepreneurs. Director Priyadarshan's super-hit comedies, notably Chithram and Kilukkam 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 roles in Malayalam cinema like Padmarajan'sThoovanathumbikal 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. Thazhvaram was another notable film of this period. He played Aniyan Thampuran in Bharath Gopi's Ulsavapittennu (1989), co-starring with Sukumaran and Parvathy.

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 earned him a Special Jury Award. Another role of a classical singer who is burdened by the jealousy and final death of his singer brother in Bharatham earned him the Best actor award the following year. In Dasharatham, he played the role of a spoiled brat who finds solace in the presence of a friend's kid and later wants to become a father without any burden of marriage bonding.

The 90s saw him continuing his success with more entertainers like His Highness Abdullah, where he played a Muslim disguised as a Namboodiri to assassinate a royal. 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. Devaasuram, written by Renjith and directed by I. V. Sasi, set in the feudal atmosphere of central Kerala, 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 Spadikam became a cult classic for the revolutionary way in which the stunts were shot. ^[4] Critically acclaimed films were few in number during this period and were mostly semi-entertainers like Manichitrathazhu, which had the female lead Shobhana bagging a National award for best actress.

Later years (1996-Present)

During this period of his career, film makers cashed in on the immense popularity that Mohanlal enjoyed in Kerala by portraying him as an invincible larger-than-life hero in movies. Movies like Aaram Thamburan, Narasimham, Naran used this image of his to great effect and became blockbusters. After their initial novelty, these films faced criticism from many quarters over their lack of realism and for creating movies around Mohanlal^{[citation needed]}. Priyadarshan's Kalapani, an account of India's freedom struggle against the British that focused on the Cellular prisons of Andaman islands and Lohithadas's Kanmadam were some of his notable films during the late 90's. In 1997 Mohanlal's film Guru directed by Rajiv Anchal (which was based on communalism in Kerala) was selected by the Government of India as official entry for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

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 in the neighbouring 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.^[5]

In 2002, Mohanlal acted in his first Bollywood movie, Company, which starred Ajay Devgan, Manisha Koirala and Vivek Oberoi. It was a critical and commercial hit.^[6] In 2005, the film Thanmathra ("Molecule"), won him the Kerala state award for best actor for portraying a person affected by Alzheimer's disease. His second Bollywood movie Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, was the remake of the 1975 blockbuster movie Sholay, in which he played the character of the inspector played by Sanjeev Kumar in the original. Mohanlal won the 2007 Kerala state award for Best Actor for his performance as Valiakathu Moosa in the movie Paradesi. ^[7] Mohanlal completed 30 years in the film industry on 3 September 2008.

In the National award winning role as a kathakali artist in Vaanaprastham Mohanlal did not have any theatre background. He debuted on the stage as Karna in Karnabharam, a Sanskrit play that was premiered in Delhi as part of the National Theatre Festival. The play depicts Karna's mental agony a day before the Kurukshetra war, when he thinks about his past and his faith.^[8]

Kadhayattam, was a presentation enacted by Mohanlal, depicting 10 unforgettable characters and situations selected from Malayalam literature. He has said that it is his offering to his mother tongue. The presentation was a fusion of stage acting, movie expression, sound and lighting techniques and music, conceived by film director T.K. Rajeev Kumar.^[9]

Chayamukhi is Mohanlal's latest play under the banner 'Kalidasa Visual Magic' - a production house promoted jointly by Mohanlal and another well-known Malayalam actor Mukesh.^[10] Mohanlal is also starring in an Indo-japanese movie called Nairsan co-starring Jackie Chan, and he is also teaming up with director Blessy in his latest project Bhramaram, playing a unique and challenging role in this movie