Mohan Lal

L A L E T T A N

You fall in love with him at the first sight... And cannot move out of his sight when you watch his performance! That's Mohan Lal, the versatile actor. Someone said, while other actors perform a role, Mohan Lal disappears in it. Actor for nearly 400 films in Malayalam, Tamail,Telugu, Hindi and Kannada languages,

he has depicted almost every single human emotion through the different characters Mohan Lal has immersed into. Some of his tops can however be discussed in nutshell.

Iruvar (Mani Ratnam, 1997) meaning The Two.   

Along with Prakash Raj, Revathy and Aishwarya Rai 

The film is loosely based on real leaders like M. G. Ramachandran and K. Karunakaran, former chief ministers of Tamilnadu. Both the leaders were film personalities, one a Hero and the other a Script Writer. Not to forget, both the leaders were emerged out of people's movement. The film caught up indomitable spirit of exhilarating Tamilnadu then. Mohan Lal came up with lively performance playing MGR. He very well presented the different shades of the character, as an upcoming film actor to an able political leader. No doubt, he was well supported by Prakash Raj who played Karunakaran and Revathy who acted as MGR’s first wife. Incidentally, the film is acting debut of Aishwarya Rai, playing Jayalalitha. 

Vanaprastham (1999) directed by Shaji Karun is another feather in Mohan Lal's career. He co-starred with beautiful Suhasini (Mani Ratnam's wife, incidentally). It was a bit complicated case of an artiste's illegitimate child. Mohan Lal got an opportunity for illustrating Kathakali, the most prestigious dance form of his land. With the ethnic drapes and looks, he appeared as a real Kathakali performer. Mohan Lal also produced Vanaprastham to ensure that the film gets well-done.

Personally, I appreciate Mohan Lal most in Company (Ram Gopal Varma, 2002). As the film commentary mentions, he looks like a professor but in fact is the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai. And behind the calm face, one finds an extremely intelligent brain. Ramu presented the character as a Hindi speaking Mallu cop head and Mohan Lal brought out the tone and nuance precisely. Mohan Lal's screen presence along with peculiar dialogue delivery made the character outstanding.  To substantiate my point of view, please watch the footage from 12.00 to 15.40 minutes in the link :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZXXzH4IjJs

Drishyam series (2013 and 2021, both directed by Jeethu Joseph) offered Mohan Lal another opportunity for illustrating a character role, this time a family man. 

The father and husband who could do anything for his family. An ordinary cable operator, his innocence and

intelligence both, were skillfully displayed by Mohan Lal. The sequel was more challenging because, as the script displayed, the police were confident about the crime by the family and yet the family head finds a superb way for escape. 

Last year, Mohan Lal turned Director when he directed Barroz (2024), a fantasy thriller in 3D.

"Lalettan" as he is known among the admirers, Mohan Lal has a very huge fan fare. He writes blog posts regularly about social and cultural aspects in his website entitled “The Complete Actor.” 

Apartment from a suburb Actor, Mohan Lal has been a Producer and Director of some films he has acted in. For such a multi-farious contribution towards Indian Cinema, Mohan Lal has been recently honoured with the coveted Dadasaheb Phalke Award. 

I wish to conclude this blog post by announcing the muhurat for Drishyam 3 happened on 22nd September in hands of Mohan Lal. And it's now the waiting period for another exciting drama