malayalam Superstar Bharat mohanlal: Life and Career:By prabhu

Submitted by Prasanna Prabhu
Mohanlal( Mohan Lal) is without doubt one of the best actors malayalam movies have ever seen. Let us see the life and career of this great actor and superstar of Malayalam.
Padmashri Mohanlal a versatile actor was born as a second son to to Sri Viswanathan Nair and Smt. Santhakumari on May 21, 1960 in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. He also had an elder brother named Pyare Lal.

Mohanlal's friends and family call him Lalu.He did his schooling from Mudavanmukal School and Model School (Thiruvananthapuram) and completed his BCom from M.G. College (Thiruvananthapuram). Priyadarsan is a childhood friend of Mohan lal who is a very well known director and with whom Mohanlal has worked in the maximum number of films -27.

Mohanlal won the Best Actor Award during his school days when he was in sixth standard, an award which was usually won only by the people from tenth standard. Mohanlal’s genuine interest towards film industry led him and his friends to establish a company named 'Bharath Cine Group'. A team included Suresh Kumar, Unni, Priyadarsan, S Kumar, Ashok Kumar with others began shooting for 'Thiranottam the first debut film for Mohanlal in which he played the role of a mentally challenged servant on September 3, 1978. The location for the film was in and around Mohanlal's house at Mudavanmukal and Suresh's house. The film was made with much of financial problems, but the ill fate of the production coz of which the Censor Board had stopped the film from getting released.

But this setback did nothing to break the determination towards acting. Even when in college, he with his friends went to Chennai, which is one of the biggest centre for South Indian Film Industry-in search of a job as an actor. They stayed at room No 3 of the famous Swamy's lodge. It was then they came across an advertisement in the Malayala Manorama daily newspaper looking for a youngster for a role in a film. Since he was not happy with the photograph which he had, he declined from applying. But his friend Suresh, aware of his natural talent, secretly sent his photograph to the company. Mohanlal was shocked to receive the telegram the next day and was very soon called for an acting test. The interview was comprising of great directors like Fazil, Sibi Malayil and Jijo. They were impressed with Mohanlal’s performance and as a result, he received the role of the villain in Fazil's 'Manyil Virinya Pookal'. The film was a major hit, and Mohanlal followed it up with more roles as a villain, most notably in Uyarangalil.

Mohanlal had then begun his fulltime career as an actor in Malayalam films. There was a time when he used to work for 35-40 releases in a year. In the year 1986 a major break down came with an all time hit of 'Rajavinde Makan'. It is the same year he got married with Suchitra, daughter of a former actor of Tamil films, Balaji.

Mohanlal is known for his friendship and mostly all his school-college mates are with him in the film industry even now. A very good example for his frienship is Mohanlal's personal Assistant and Producer Antony Perumbaavoor who was a taxi driver in Ernakulam and used to take Mohanlal from his hotel to the location of 'Pattanapravesam'.This started a good friendship and by the end of shooting Mohanlal asked Antony if he wants to be his driver. Antony has since been with Mohanlal and now produces films under the banner Aasirvaad Productions. His first movie megahit was Narasimham!

A well-known fact about Mohanlal is that he dosen't seriously rehearse or prepare for his roles, but he just becomes the character when he is playing for the duration of acting. So it is very rare to hear a reply from him like 'I don't know'. When he was asked about how he carries out something like that he says that " If you study it and then act the role, everything will be tough rather good acting just happens. And personally I don't think one needs to work on the character this proves that he can play absolutely any role. Director Priyadarsan calls him the best actor India has had ever produced.

Mohanlal established Pranavam Arts to be able to produce the kind of films he had an intense desire to create like 'Kaalapani', which was released in the year 1995,. Which had won 5 National and 7 State Awards. Another great creation, was 'Vaanaprastham', which was released in 1999 and also had won the National Award for Best Film.

Mohanlal is the youngest actor to get national award he won his first State Award for the film T .P. Balagopal M.A (1986). He has won 4 of them to date. He won his first Filmfare Award for the film Sanmasullavarkku Samadhaanam (1986). He has won 5 Filmfare Awards to date. He won his first National Best Actor Award for the film Kireedam released in 1989. Later he won Best Actor National Awards for Bharatham (1991) and Vaanaprastham (1999). Apart from this, he has won numerous awards over the years for various films. He was also awarded ‘Padmashri’ one of the highest civilian honour this year(2001).

In recent years, he has concentrated on working on one film at a time to devote more to quality. He is more concerned about the script rather than the movie will be a big hit or not. As gentle man and a hallmark for friendship, he would do films for friends regardless of the kind of project and returns. His easy going character with jovial behaviour with all the team members and crew has endeared him to one and all.

Mohanlal also gave some good hit films in tamil film industries including the controversial 'Iruvar' which was thought to be based on the life of Tamil actor and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.G.R. directed by the very famous director Mani Ratnam. It is a well-known fact that he learnt Bharatnatyam for his role in 'Kamaladalam' and learnt 'Kathakali' for his role in 'Vaanaprastham'. Even the genuine Kathakali artistes were amused to see Mohal Lal identifying himself with the complex mudras and bhavas of a Kathakali artiste on screen. True to his humble nature, Mohan Lal dedicated the National Award he won for the second time to those Kahtakali artistes.

Mohanlal is blessed with two children namely Pranavam and Vismaya. Presently he is living with his wife and children at Chennai. Mohanlal's main hobby is collecting antiques and artifacts. He has also a great collection of paintings. Apart from acting and producing films he is also a partner and director of Uni Royal Marian Exports, a major Kozhikode-based seafood export company, and has set up a restaurant in Dubai called 'Lal's Tastebuds'. Also he has started a restaurant at Bangalore named " The Harbour Market". Mohanlal is also , Planning to start an institute for Audio Engineering at Trivandrum and a Reforming Art Centre (Kala Kendhram) in order to preserve Kerala's old art forms.

Many rated Mohanlal in different manners like his long time friend and director Priyadarshan rates him as the best actor in the world. Director Mani Ratnam rates that he is the most natural actor in India. And some critics speak that he is more versatile actor than the great Padmashree Kamal Hasan. No matter whatever the critics says Mohanlal still a reigning superstar or Malayalam cine industry.

» add new comment | 3 reads